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Ramzy Ayyad, his mother Faiza and brother Amir, 5, prepare for Sunday’s festival in their family-run store, Halal Foods. Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.
Ramzy Ayyad, his mother Faiza and brother Amir, 5, prepare for Sunday’s festival in their family-run store, Halal Foods. Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.
 

News

Food Festival Spotlights West Berkeley’s Cultures

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday June 22, 2007

Sunday’s second Berkeley International Food Festival Sunday will celebrate the story of how a West Berkeley neighborhood overcame ethnic, racial and economic boundaries through food. 

Faiza Ayyad, Shahid Salimi, Luis Arango and Jesus Mendes all came to West Berkeley in the 1980s and set up food shops there in search of a better life. Theirs is a story of survival; one of pride, but not prejudice. And it will be shared with festival goers on Sunday. 

“West Berkeley is an undiscovered and underappreciated gem,” said Sally Douglas Arce, event coordinator. “It has been called the International Marketplace District and has banners touting this designation. Yet, many of us drive through to other Berkeley destinations, seldom, if ever, stopping to appreciate the wonderful specialty stores and restaurants.” 

“It would definitely help if we got more foot traffic,” said Faiza’s son, Ramzy, who manages Halal Foods on San Pablo Ave. with his mother and two brothers, Sammy and Amir. “Some more housing would also bring in a diverse crowd. If you look around, it’s really just businesses down here.” 

Long known for its smokestack industries, West Berkeley has gradually transformed into a gateway for new immigrants as more and more foreigners have begun to settle here. 

Faiza, who is half Palestinian and half Moroccan, came to Berkeley from Palestine to join her husband 27 years ago. “I was 18 when I came here,” she said. “I didn’t like the idea of selling beer and wine. So we set up a halal meat shop.” 

Today Halal Foods claims to sell the best lamb sausages in town. Spices, perfumes and dates from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria and Palestine neatly line its shelves.  

During the festival Faiza will be handing out homemade falafel and setting up a barbecue pit outside the door. She also promises Middle Eastern music. 

It was the late Esther Bernal, former boardmember of the West Berkeley Development Corporation (WBNDC), who came up with the idea of an international food festival. 

“Esther grew up in Mexico, where there were a lot of open mercados or markets,” said Bruce Williams, chair of WBNDC. “That’s where we got the concept of an open-air market. The festival strives to spread the word about the uniqueness of this West Berkeley neighborhood with many of its stores being family owned and operated.” 

Next door to Halal, Shahid Salimi of Indus Foods is busy inspecting the range-free certified meat that his store is so famous for. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Salimi took over his dad’s business. 

“When we came down from Pakistan, in 1984, it was hard to get goat meat,” he said. “This prompted my dad to set up a small butcher store at the bottom of the UC Hotel at University Ave. I grew up taking the fat off the halal chicken, goat and lamb meat.” 

Salimi said that business in the West Berkeley neighborhood has improved since 1985. 

“Lots of prostitution and drug dealing. It was a no-good area,” he said. “Now the biggest problem is parking. Eighty percent of our clients come from outside Berkeley and they can’t find a place to park. The city also needs to give a tax break to people who are working hard to bring in profit to the city. They need to stop haggling with you for permits.” 

Lynn Berling-Manuel, president of the West Berkeley Foundation, the sponsor of the festival, said that parking was an challenge in every community. 

“The festival will give us an opportunity to spotlight the different needs of this neighborhood. We want to encourage people to shop there,” she said. 

The West Berkeley Foundation, which works with at-risk youth and women in the neighborhood, has so far given out $1.3 million in grants to nonprofit organizations that serve West Berkeley children, seniors and disabled families. 

Michael Caplan, Berkeley’s economic development director, said, “The city came up with a San Pablo Public Improvement Plan that envisions better crosswalks and lights in the district. The MTC and AC Transit are also working to upgrade the Rapid Bus Transit system on San Pablo Ave. There is a budget and funds for it. I just don’t know why it’s taking so long to implement.” 

Luis Arango, owner of the brand new Shaan’s Deli at San Pablo, wants better lights and better crosswalks. He also wants the city to take care of the paper and the garbage bags flying around.  

Arango, who came to California from Calexico 16 years ago, is busy practicing his grilling skills for Sunday. “I want to clear the misconception people have about Mexican food. We don’t even have burritos in Mexico. It’s an American thing.” 

Chef Mike C will be on the Kitchens of Fire cooking stage Sunday to clear up confusion about different cuisines. Samosas from India top his list. 

“This festival is absolutely necessary for the area,” he said while picking up organic cheese and peppers from Mi Tierra Foods on Wednesday. “California is full of people like Jesus, who worked hard to establish Mi Tierra. They bring so much cultural diversity to a place. I will be using a lot of ingredients from this store, simply because the nicer specialty chains don’t carry even half of them.” 

 

 

 

Event 

Berkeley International Food Festival 

June 24 from noon to 5 p.m. 

Venue  

Several blocks in each direction from the intersection of University and San Pablo Avenues 

Highlights 

• The Kitchen on Fire cooking stage 

• Mi Tierra Foods' Kiosko (San Pablo and Addison) with Aztec dancers, Ballet Folklorico and live music (salsa and cumbia) 

• Karma Korner (Ninth and University) with Indian food, belly dancing, Indian films, cardamom ice cream 

• The Spanish Table (San Pablo between Hearst and Delaware) with paella demonstrations and samples all day


Mystery Surrounds Tilden Murder/Suicide

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday July 06, 2010 - 06:54:00 PM

A popular Albany physician and her two daughters were shot to death by her distraught husband in a secluded Tilden Park parking lot Monday night. He then turned the gun on himself. 

Kevin Morrissey, who told acquaintances he had been a Central Intelligence Agency officer, used a recently purchased .357 magnum pistol to kill 40-year-old Dr. Mamiko Kawai and their two daughters, Nikki and Kim, ages 8 and 6, before turning the gun on himself. 

In the days since the shootings, questions have surfaced about Morrissey’s past, including possible CIA ties and connections with a little-known doctors aid group, headed by a physician who was found dead of unknown causes in his Oakland home earlier this year. 

East Bay Regional Park Police were called to the Mineral Springs parking lot near Inspira-tion Point about 7 p.m. Monday by a park visitor who reported hearing the sounds of possible fireworks in the area. 

The bodies of the two children were found in the back seat of the family car, and the bodies of their parents were on the ground nearby. Police found a suicide note written by Morrissey at the scene. 

The family lived in a modest frame home in the 1300 block of Northside Ave. in northern Berkeley. 

A 1992 graduate of Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadel-phia, Kawai received her California medical license the following year. 

For many years a family practitioner, at the time of her death Kawai practiced dermatology out of Aura Laser Skin Care Center, located in a suite at 500 San Pablo Ave. in Albany. 

Morrissey served as office manager and bookkeeper. 

Albany resident James Carter said he had known the couple since Kawai became the physician for his family soon after she began practicing medicine. 

“We were supposed to get together for a barbecue in two weeks,” said Carter. “We’d been talking about it for a couple of years.” 

Carter said he saw the couple a week ago, where they made plans. 

“Kevin looked out of it,” he said, “like he’d had too many cups of coffee. The last couple of times I saw him he looked very stressed out.” 

While Morrissey’s suicide note listed financial problems as the motive for his action, Carter said he doesn’t believe that was the real cause. 

The couple had recently refinanced their Berkeley home and taken out an additional loan. 

 

An enigma? 

Morrissey told Carter he had been an officer for the CIA and had been stationed in the Middle East. According to his resume, Morrissey had served as a foreign service office for the U.S. diplomatic corps from 1983 to 1991, conducting an analysis for “the Department of State and related agencies.” 

“He told me some intricate stories about what he’d done,” said Carter. “He said he was very frustrated with the CIA, and he complained about the bureaucracy. He told me he spoke three different Middle Eastern languages,” including Arabic and Farsi. 

Morrissey’s resume also states that he served as a member of an army Special Forces “A Team” from 1974 to 1976, followed by a year at the United States Military Preparatory School, Ft. Monmouth, N.J. 

Though most graduates of the prep school typically go on to West Point and careers as army officers, Morrissey attended the University of Texas in Austin, where, according to his resume, he graduated with an honors degree in Middle Eastern Studies in 1982. 

“He was a real smart guy in many ways,” Carter said, “but he was always very hyper.” 

After graduation, he worked for a year as a systems developer for IBM. A five-year gap in his resume follows, then his stint as a diplomat—or spook—followed by a variety of jobs, including a year as an information system specialist at Childrens’ Hospital of Oakland, 2000-1, after which he listed his occupation as a health care information technology consultant. 

Morrissey also served as chief information officer and administrator of Medicine International, a physician’s group which sent doctors to war zones around the world and which, according to its website, trained mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan in emergency medical care and which also provided surgery for injured Sandinistas during the Nicaraguan civil war, as well as treating firefighters in New York after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. 

Mark Edward Stinson, who served as executive director of Medicine International, was found dead in his Oakland home on March 3. According to the Albany County Coroner’s office, an autopsy was unable to determine the cause of death because the body was discovered “in an advanced state of decomposition.” 

At the time of his death, the 49-year-old Stinson was a highly popular physician with the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center, where he had served for more than two decades, most recently in the emergency department. 

Like Morrissey, he had attended the University of Texas in Austin for his undergraduate years, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1983, one year after Morrissey. 

According to the record of listings with the California Secretary of State, Medicine International is not incorporated in California nor did it file papers as a corporation doing business in the state, nor is it listed among the charities compiled by GuideStar, which compiles information on 1.5 million American non-profits. 

According to Bay City News, Morrissey bought the murder weapon on April 19 at the Old West Gun Room in El Cerrito, a Carlson Boulevard shop not far from Kawai’s office. 

He picked up the weapon May 1, after the mandatory waiting period imposed by state law. 

Compassionate doctor 

Carter said Kawai was an affectionate, caring physician. “You’d see her in the supermarket, and she come up and give you a hug,” he said. “When the kids were sick and you called because the medicines didn’t seem to be working, she’d call you back even it was during the night. 

“When you came into the office, she didn’t rush you, and she didn’t act like she knew everything. She was attentive, and you knew she really cared about you.” 

Kawai had given up her family practice and opened the laser skin-care practice because of problems in dealing with her previous group practice with Summit Alta Bates Medical Center, said a family friend. 

During her years as a family physician, Kawai won praise from patients who posted their recommendations on the Berkeley Parents Network website. One patient described her as “AMAZING! Super smart, kind, caring, thoughtful, scientific.” 

“I feel I am getting much personal attention,” wrote another. While two patients depicted her as somewhat aloof—“not a touchy-feely type,” wrote one; “not incredibly warm” wrote another—most patients described an engaging and open personality, as did the patient who described her as “energetic and extremely personable.” 

Carter said he found her an excellent physician, sensitive and caring. 

 

Photograph by Richard Brenneman  

A police officer closes off the crime scene early Tuesday morning.


First Person: Tragedy in Tilden Park

By Jill Posener
Friday June 22, 2007

If anything, the week got worse. On Tuesday, I wrote a blog about the internet abuse of children, our disassociation from what happens right in front of our faces. I didn't know when I wrote it that I had witnessed the scene of an unimaginable horror the evening before. 

On Monday evening, my friend Tory and I loaded my pack of dogs in my car and headed off to walk along a trail in Tilden Park. 

Tilden is one of a series of gorgeous open-space parks running the length of the East Bay. There are magnificent vistas, lakes, streams, forests, nature trails. It is one of my special places to be—alone or with friends and my dogs, my beloved, precious dogs. We headed to the eastern part of the hill, hoping to rise above the fog, sweeping in blankets across the bay and brushing past us in wisps, as we headed upwards, towards a place called Inspiration Point.  

I looked to the left towards one of the trailheads.  

A car sat, in the mists, lonely and seeming somehow out of place, in the small dirt parking lot by the beginning of the trail. On a clear day, this is a beautiful spot, and one which leads steeply and quickly down to Lake Anza, along a trail known as Mineral Springs. It was sometime before 7 p.m. There was a cool foggy breeze swirling and a lone police car sat nearby, lights blazing. The scene seemed wrong. But I didn't see anything. Tory and I decided to drive just a few feet further to Quarry Trail, and we could see patches of blue searching for a way to punch a hole in the fog. Our walk was beautiful. Tilden is a place of peace and wild beauty. 

On the walk I heard a commotion from a short distance—I now know this was the arrival of emergency vehicles. And I also know that Kevin Morrissey, aged 51, had just minutes before our arrival shot his two beautiful girls and his wife to death before killing himself. Many who knew the Berkeley family said the man was a loving devoted dad.  

I can only think of one thing. That he drove his family to a beautiful place on a cold evening, and pulled out a .357 magnum and shot one girl and then the other in front of their mother. Perhaps he had practised this action for weeks in his garage, or at the firing range, so that the kids’ suffering would be brief, so that the daughter shot after the other would barely know before the bullet entered her head. And their mom. How does anyone look in the eyes of those he loves, and destroy them? 

He wasn’t angry with them. He loved them. 

There is already an industry to examine and debate how a man like Morrissey reaches this point. Radio talk shows are inundated with armchair detectives and angry, outraged people who still cannot imagine a tragedy like this emerging from their root ball. The man himself left a note blaming financial woes. I don’t really care why. I care that a man could reach this point. I care that Kevin Morrissey was a man who legally owned a weapon, and that he kept it in his home in Berkeley. I care that he was a military veteran, and I do wonder whether the skill to murder in sanctioned killing zones can ever fully be unlearned. I care that he had reached the conclusion that his problems were so great that his family, not just he himself, but his sweet young kids also, could not survive them. I care that he felt, even in his undoubted distress, that as the head of this family he had the power and the right to snuff out laughter, tears and futures. I also care that the police car we saw contained an officer who was the first to see this slaughter. How does he cope with what he had to see? 

I will walk down the trail at Mineral Springs with Roxy, Frank, Roo, Calvin and Oscar, to the lake, so near to Inspiration Point, and remind myself that life is beautiful.


Council Hears Budget Pleas, Approves Development

By Judith Scherr
Friday June 22, 2007

A packed council budget hearing at the Tuesday evening City Council meeting brought out people with requests ranging from homeless services to arts to emergency road access. 

“I’m really amazed that you want to cut funds that support me and my sister,” said 9-year-old Xavier Wilson, one of a dozen or so children and adults who called on the council to restore cuts for services to families and individuals at Harrison House in West Berkeley. 

On the council agenda was a public hearing on the city budget and continued discussion of commercial development at Ashby and College avenues. The council approved designation of transit corridors as “planned development areas” and a pilot project designating one side of the street as residential parking in the south-of-campus area. 

 

Council considers budget 

While there are about $230,000 in proposed social-service cuts, the mayor pointed out that some programs are being funded at a higher level than in previous years.  

In a memo released Friday, Bates proposed his own $1.4 million supplementary budget, which was, with some minor changes, an addition to the city manager’s budget released in May. Most of that $350 million budget is already committed to personnel and projects. 

After the hearing and council comments on Tuesday, Bates said he would take funding requests into consideration as he rewrites his budget proposal for June 26, when the council is slated to vote on the budget. 

While horse-trading between the mayor and council is likely to take place during the week, Bates’ Chief of Staff Cisco DeVries said Bates would not violate public meeting laws by speaking about the budget with more than three of the councilmembers. 

“We are wandering out of the budgetary wilderness,” said Coucilmember Max Anderson at the Tuesday meeting. “The social safety net that we took so much pride in has become quite tattered. We need to begin to repair it.” 

“Isn’t it possible to make none of these homeless service cuts?” Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who had prepared a request asking for restoration of all social service cuts, asked his colleagues. The budget reduction for social services “doesn’t make sense.” 

With the city manager’s help, Bates identified about $1.4 million that had not been expended in the manager’s budget or that was new money.  

The additional revenue includes $700,000 in funds the city manager had set aside to leverage new funds; $200,000 from correcting misidentified business license tax categories; $60,000 from the school district payments to the general fund for city services; $300,000 from the city manager’s budget, set aside for street repairs from windfall transfer taxes; $190,000 realized from beginning street sweeping in mid 2008, while it was budgeted for the entire year, and $200,000 from the public works budget. 

Bates’ memo proposes spending the funds in a number of ways. He would hire a number of consultants, who would: study West Berkeley zoning, plan transportation, study gaps in services provided by agencies for youth employment; study gaps in health and development services to children 0 to 3; fund a second year for the already-funded greenhouse gas emission reduction consultant, and fund a consultant to write the laws for Bates’ Public Commons for Everyone initiative.  

The council did not discuss any of these proposals, some of which were before the body for the first time. 

The mayor is also recommending expenditures to plan/engineer a Center Street plaza, University Avenue lighting, streetscape on San Pablo Avenue and Piedmont Avenue landscape rehabilitation.  

The mayor also includes direct services to people in need in his proposals: youth jobs, drug and alcohol recovery and various food and shelter programs for homeless people. 

After hearing from dozens of people explaining their needs or the needs of their clients or neighborhoods, councilmembers addressed their funding priorities. They had, over the last few months, created a list of projects that grew to an $8 million price tag. (Many of Bates’ proposals are in addition to that package.) 

Councilmembers chose from their lengthy wish lists to highlight some of their choices. 

Anderson called for funding for the Berkeley Drop-in Center, a peer counseling and respite center for individuals with mental health needs, and a youth arts program, YaYa California. 

Councilmember Dona Spring called for funding for a program for disabled youth in west Berkeley and restoration of funds for a detox acupuncture clinic. 

In addition to calling for funds for nonprofit housing developer Resources for Community Development and the drop-in center, Councilmember Linda Maio asked for UN Run For Peace funding. 

Councilmember Betty Olds spoke out for Piedmont Avenue landscape rehabilitation, something also on the mayor’s list and, along with other councilmembers and the mayor, called for funding for Options for Recovery. Councilmember Laurie Capitalli said he wants to see beat police on Adeline Street and Shattuck and Telegraph avenues. 

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak called for matching money (the university may fund half) to plan an emergency road in the Panoramic Hills neighborhood, where there is currently only one way in and out; he also asked for a Berkeley Booster intern. 

The council will vote on the budget June 26. 

 

Priority Development Areas designated 

The Priority Development Areas approved by council 6-0-2 on Tuesday are not truly designated for development, planning staff told the council. Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring abstained and Councilmember Darryl Moore was absent. 

Approving specific projects will come later. 

The purpose of the designation is simply to make the areas—Telegraph, University, South Shattuck avenues and Adeline Street and downtown—eligible for bond funding, which may or may not become available, Planning Director Dan Marks said.  

A quick designation is critical so that the city can submit an application for the funds by June 26, Marks noted. 

Opponents commenting from the public argued that the designation lacks specifics and the streets cited have not gone through a public process regarding future development. State legislation implementing the designation and its funding has not been passed and the city doesn’t know precisely what the law will say, if it is passed.  

“I wanted to be sure we’re not committing ourselves,” said Councilmember Maio, adding she understood “we’re not committing ourselves to anything.” 

“It makes perfect sense for me,” Anderson said. “It creates options.” 

But Worthington said the legislation could require, for example, less affordable housing than Berkeley requires.  

In a letter distributed to the City Council, the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) called on the council to commit to a public process on the issue. 

“It is premature to apply for funds, which may force Berkeley to comply with conditions that we, as citizenry, do not accept or agree to,” said the letter, signed by BAHA President Carrie Olson. 

But Maio argued, “We have an opportunity. We don’t know exactly what it is.” 

 

City attorney in China 

Sitting in the city attorney’s chair during the council meeting was Betsy Strauss, introduced by City Manager Phil Kamlarz as “a very experienced” city attorney who would be taking the place of the vacationing City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque.  

Documents obtained from the city manager’s office show Strauss is paid $200 per hour. The council meeting took four hours. Preparation time would likely have cost the city several more hours. 

Citing the heavy end-of-the-council-year workload and the transition in governance in the housing authority, the Daily Planet asked City Manager Phil Kamlarz on Thursday why the city would have approved this particular time for a vacation. 

But Kamlarz said the city encourages staff to use their vacation time and that “this is not a critical time in the city attorney’s office.” 

Asked about the expense to the city, Kamlarz sidestepped the question, saying the city encourages staff to take vacation leave. There are seven attorneys in the City Attorney’s office in addition to Albuquerque. 

An email from Human Resources Director David Hodgkins notes: “The maximum accrual [for vacation hours] is 320 hours and all top management employees must be at or below that level by the end of the second payroll period in February in each calendar year. Vacation leave is a vested right and is liquidated to cash when any employee leaves the city.” 

In a memo to the council, Albuquerque—under heavy criticism from some quarters (no staff has agreed to speak on the record) for her apparent role precipitating the forced resignation of former Housing Director Steve Barton—wrote:  

“I will be out of the office from June 15 through June 26, on a trip with officers of the National League of Cities and League of California Cities to visit China and confer with its officials. (I will be going at my own expense and accompanying my husband who some of you know is the Executive Director of the League of California Cities but will be included in all discussions because of the fact that I am also a local official.)” 

Strauss, who has an open-ended contract (up to $20,000) with the city, is, according to the Albuquerque memo, “a very experienced city attorney who is special counsel to the League of California Cities and an expert in municipal finance and has been city attorney of several different cities.”


Wright’s Garage Project Opponents Call Again for Public Hearing

By Judith Scherr
Friday June 22, 2007

When Mayor Tom Bates saw the crowd that had assembled at Tuesday’s Berkeley City Council meeting to address the question of development at the former site of Wright’s Garage—a commercial complex proposed by realtor John Gordon near the intersection of College and Ashby avenues and approved March 8 by the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB)—he asked why it was on the agenda at all. 

Last week, the City Council had turned down an appeal of the project by the Elmwood Neighborhood and Elmwood Merchants associations that argue that the project will attract too much traffic to the already heavily-trafficked area with inadequate parking. 

But the item stays on the agenda, according to past council practice, until the council either changes its vote—calling for a public hearing on the project, affirming the ZAB decision, or sending it back to the zoning board—or lets the 30 days expire, at which time the project gains formal approval. 

The vote last week was 4-3 in favor of the appeal, with Councilmembers Linda Maio, Kriss Worthington, Dona Spring and Max Anderson voting in favor of the public hearing. Councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Gordon Wozniak recused themselves, Capitelli because he owns an interest in a business within 500 feet of the proposed project and Wozniak because he supported the project publicly several months ago. The vote needs a council majority of five to take an action, not a majority of those present and voting. 

Bates, who had allowed the two sides of the issue five minutes each the previous week, allowed time this week for everyone to speak who wished to do so. 

Mary Oram, of the Elmwood Merchants’ Association, called on the council to remand the project to the zoning board. A restaurant-bar has been sketched out as part of the project, but since the developer has no tenant for the restaurant, “we don’t know what has been approved,” she said, “Send this back to ZAB so we know what they’re talking about.” 

Elmwood merchant Claudia Maudry of Your Basic Bird said ZAB never should have never allowed the project to go over the quotas that limit the number of restaurants. “That should be only when the neighbors and merchants support a project,” she said. 

Bates reminded the some three dozen supporters of the appeal in the audience that they had lost the vote the previous week and that nothing would change when the council voted again. “In essence, you’ve had the public hearing—a one-sided hearing,” he said, noting that 14 people had spoken. No one representing the developer was present to speak. 

Maio reiterated her support for the appeal, noting “the restaurant will definitely compete in the Elmwood for the small number of parking spaces.”  

But Councilmember Betty Olds said she supports the developer. “I think John Gordon does an excellent job,” she said, adding that no permits will be issued unless the parking problem is addressed. 

Councilmembers asked Planning Director Dan Marks for clarification on the ZAB ruling about parking. “The parking issue must be addressed,” before final approvals, he said. 

Councilmembers pointed out that addressing the issue is not the same as resolving it. 

“Failure to address the [parking] issue will be the worst anti-small-business decision the council has made,” Worthington said. 

With Councilmember Darryl Moore absent due to a family illness, the vote on holding the public hearing was 4-2, with Olds and Bates opposing. Because they need a fifth vote, supporters said they hope Moore will change his position at the next meeting, where the item, once again, will be on the agenda.


Council Meeting’s Early Close Leaves Speakers Speechless

By Judith Scherr
Friday June 22, 2007

City Commissioners Jesse Arreguin and Steve Wollmer had been sent to address the Tuesday City Council meeting by the Rent Board and Housing Advisory Commission. 

The duo stuck around the council chambers waiting for what they thought would be the last matter of council business—addressing city officials on matters not on the agenda. Both speakers represented boards asking the council to initiate an independent investigation into the forced resignation of former Housing Director Stephen Barton, a matter not addressed on the agenda. 

But Mayor Tom Bates ended the meeting abruptly at 11 p.m., leaving at bay those waiting to address the council on non-agenda items. 

Bates has been experimenting since last year with varying the council rules to allow the public to comment on every item on the agenda and also on non-agenda items, something attorneys for SuperBOLD (Berkeleyans Organizing for Library Defense) said was missing. SuperBOLD had threatened to sue the city over the restrictions on public comment. 

Assistant City Clerk Deanna Despain told the Daily Planet that the clerk’s office tries to update the rules and make them available to the public but “if [the mayor] changes something, it’s up to him,” she said. 

Unaware that there had been people in the audience ready to speak on non-agenda items, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, in a phone interview Wednesday, supported shutting down the meeting on time. “It’s not good to make decisions after 11 [p.m.],” he said, adding however, “We could manage our time better. Four hours should be enough.” 

While the last public speakers were not given voice at the meeting, the first half hour or so of the meeting, which began at 7 p.m., was devoted to “ceremonial items,” during which time the mayor and council usually honor various citizens. Councilmembers speak, and the honorees’ responses are not on the clock. Mayor Tom Bates at Tuesday’s meeting even encouraged people accompanying honorees to add their voices to the mix. 

“Tom Bates has stated emphatically that we’re going to end our meetings at 11,” Councilmember Kriss Worthington said on Wednesday. “In theory it’s a good idea, but there were several people in the audience who waited to speak on non-agenda items—they waited for four hours.”  

On the agenda was a resolution from Worthington, not addressed by the council on Tuesday, codifying rules for public comment. 

Councilmember Linda Maio, also interviewed Wednesday, said, “Anyone could have made a motion to extend [the meeting]. We were honoring Tom’s determination to end at 11.” 

“If the clock hits 11, the meeting just ends,” Bates’ Chief of Staff Cisco DeVries told the Planet. 

One set of rules, noted on a city clerk’s handout dated June 6, says, “Note: meetings will adjourn at 11 p.m. Any items outstanding at 11 p.m. will be carried over to a date certain.” The same memo relegates public comment on non-agenda items to the last item of business. 

“Tom’s been experimenting with different forms [of the agenda],” Maio said. “He agreed to try different approaches.”  

The mayor currently allows people to speak before every item on the agenda, which SuperBOLD attorneys from the First Amendment Project said was appropriate.  

In earlier iterations of the mayor’s rules, speakers on non-agenda items weighed in early in the meeting. 

Speaking to the Planet on Wednesday, Jane Welford of SuperBOLD acknowledged that the mayor has made progress in allowing public comment, but said that the public does not know what the rules are.  

“Getting the rules in writing would allow the public to know what the rules are ahead of time,” she said. 

Similarly Maio said: “They should be written clearly so that everyone knows what to expect.”  

“A lot of it is experimental. We have to settle it at some point,” said Councilmember Max Anderson. 

That’s what Councilmember Kriss Worthington had hoped to do with his resolution on Public Comment. The resolution, however, came up just minutes before 11 p.m. After speakers addressed the issue hurriedly, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak moved to table the item, but councilmembers declined to vote, saying the meeting had automatically expired at 11. 

Worthington’s draft rules for public comment will appear again on next week’s council agenda. 

And the public speakers on non-agenda items will possibly try their luck again. 

“This highlights a serious problem of putting public comment [on non agenda items] at the end of the agenda,” Arreguin said.


Dellums Administration Answers Critics

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday June 22, 2007

In response to criticism that his administration has been relatively inactive in its first days, the office of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has released a report outlining its accomplishments and activities since the January inauguration. 

The document, a June 20 memo from Dellums to “the Citizens of Oakland” entitled “Six-Month Recap of Activities In The Mayor’s Office,” outlines initiatives in the areas of public safety, health, and economic development. It is posted on Dellums’ website at www.mayorrondellums.org/ home/. 

Most of the information in the report had been released earlier in announcements at the District 6 Town hall meeting in late April and the Marriott economic summit in May. 

In the area of public safety, for example, the report notes that 55 new officers have been added to the police force (including 15 recently transferred from Oakland Airport work in a trade with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department), and hiring has begun for latent fingerprint examiner positions at the Oakland crime lab after criticism over the closing of fingerprint processing in Oakland under former Mayor Jerry Brown. The report also notes the agreement with the Alameda County District Attorney to deputize “several” Oakland city attorneys for the purpose of prosecuting misdemeanor “quality of life” crimes in the criminal courts. 

The report also details a partnership with the Oakland Unified School District to provide school-based health centers in city schools. 

In economic development, the report notes the creation of the Oakland Partnership, “a public-private collaborative effort to shape a workplan for creating a vibrant economy” in Oakland, the PG&E $3 million “Green Initiative” partnership with the City of Oakland to bring jobs and job training to Oakland, and the Mayor’s Summer Jobs Program committed to identifying 200 public, 500 nonprofit, and 300 private-sector jobs for Oakland youth over the summer. The report also mentions the administration’s ongoing work to clean up the city’s zoning ordinance, which had been suspended during the Jerry Brown years. 

In the area of appointments to boards and commissions, the report notes that “when [the Dellums Administration] took office in January, the Board and Commissions’ process was in total disarray. It was difficult to determine who was appointed and what their terms were. … Within three months we had the beginnings of a clean set of records and were able to commence making appointments,” including new board members to the Citizen Police Review Board, the Civil Service Board, the Public Ethics Commission and the Planning Commission. 

Meanwhile, the Dellums Administration has begun posting reports of the 41 mayoral task forces convened between September and December of last year. Two of those reports, in the areas of Economic Development and Health Care, have already been posted online, with seven others—City Government, Education & Community Learning, Housing, Public Safety, City’s Diversity, Neighborhood Organizing & Civic Participation, and Transportation—expected to be completed and posted by the end of the month. 

Allegations of a lack of activity by the Dellums Administration began surfacing in early April, when the mayor refused to answer questions raised in reporters’ stories about his accomplishments in his first 100 days of office. 

“He’s not committing himself to an arbitrary timeline,” Dellums spokesperson Karen Stevenson was quoted as saying in the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Following that article, the Chronicle published a blog that included comments from a number of Oakland citizens rating Dellums’ early performance, starting out with Nachele Jackson who wrote “Who? I haven't seen hide nor hair of the man. Jerry Brown was more visible than Mr. Dellums,” and Leslie Pahl, who added “Dellums seems to be keeping a low profile, with little or no presence to speak of. He was a very effective representative back in the day, and I voted for him every time, but he doesn’t seem to have found any traction with his new role. But maybe I just live in the wrong neighborhood.” 

The mayor’s office has remained relatively quiet in the face of the criticism. But after the Montclarion published an article by Oakland resident Amanda Acheson earlier this month that began “So, Mayor Ron Dellums, you’ve been mayor for quite a few months and I have seen NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING that you have done or proposed or even discussed that benefits Oakland,” Dellums decided to respond. In a letter entitled “Oakland Is Moving Forward” and published in the Montclarion on June 15, the mayor answered specific concerns addressed in Acheson’s letter about his salary raise, his proposed staff increase, and problems of crime in the Rockridge community where Acheson lives. 

“That was the genesis of the six-month report,” Dellums spokesperson Stevenson said. “We had wanted to do something shortly after the 100 days were completed, but we haven’t had the time. We wanted something that could be reported to Oakland citizens, as well as to be placed on the mayor’s website so that potential visitors, investors and developers could get an idea of what is happening in the city. So we expanded and rearranged the Acheson reply so that it didn’t focus so much on Rockridge, and it didn’t emphasize Oakland’s problems so much as what we are doing to try to solve them.” 

 


Celebrating the Life of Writer, Activist Chiori Santiago

By Gary Carr
Friday June 22, 2007

Chiori Santiago passed away on April 14, 2007 from kidney cancer. She will be missed dearly by her family and extended community of friends and colleagues. Chiori’s life was about sharing her great joy, love and wisdom of the many cultures, people and plants that make up our world.  

As a writer Chiori Santiago covered visual art, performance and music in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1986. Her articles and essays appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, Smithsonian, Latina, Parenting, World Art, American Craft, Pulse and many other fine publications. She worked as associate editor of the Oakland Museum of California’s publication; and was editor of Nikkei Heritage, the magazine of the National Japanese American Historical Society. 

In 1998, Chiori published a children’s book, Home to Medicine Mountain, with artist Judith Lowry. The book earned an American Book Award and recognition from Stepping Stones magazine and the American Library Association.  

Chiori won the “Maggie” Award for Best Column from the Western States Publishers Association for her writing in Diablo magazine, among numerous other awards. Chiori was a contributor to the book The Spirit of Oakland: An Anthology, and editor of the book Voices Of Latin Rock: Music From The Streets, an oral history of San Francisco’s Latin rock scene. 

Chiori appeared as an arts commentator on KQED-TV’s This Week in Northern California, a news-in-review program hosted by Belva Davis. She also served as co-host of The Greenroom, a live radio program on the arts produced at KPFA. 

In addition to journalism, Chiori Santiago was recognized for her work with the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Mexican Museum, the National Japanese American Historical Society, the University of California, Berkeley, the Puente Project, the City of Berkeley, the Oakland Museum of California’s Asian Pacific Advisory Council, and Sustainable Agriculture Education. She also participated in creating the San Francisco Japantown History Walk, and a series of interpretive markers along the Bay Trail for Richmond’s Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park.  

Chiori’s photograph and self-description was included in Kip Fulbeck’s book Part Asian, 100 Percent Happa (2006), which has been turned into a traveling exhibition.  

After attending horticulture classes at Merritt College, she began a landscape gardening business and worked in many gardens in the Bay Area the last five years of her life.  

Chiori is survived by her sons Roberto Santiago and Ignacio Palmieri, sister Reiko Roberts, brother Terri Tajiki, her mother Yoshiko Tajiki, and many uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews.  

Please join family and friends for a memorial to celebrate Chiori’s life on July 14, 3-8 p.m. in the garden of the Oakland Museum of California, Oak Street at 10th Street. (One block from the Lake Merritt BART station.) Please bring food and drink to share, as well as any pictures or objects you would like to contribute to the making of an altar.


AC Transit Changes Not Reported in All Areas

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday June 22, 2007

Only days before major changes in its lines and schedules are scheduled to take place, the AC Transit District has failed to put information signs on its bus stops up along stretches of one of the major streets being affected by the change. 

The neglected street is International Boulevard, where the heavily-used 82 and 82L lines are scheduled to be replaced by the new 1 and 1R lines on June 24. 

An AC Transit spokesperson blamed the problem on a “delay in printing,” but that does not appear to be the case. 

In Oakland and Berkeley alone, changes are scheduled to affect some 23 existing or new lines, with some line routes being altered, some lines being discontinued altogether, and some new lines being created. 

Sometime in early May, AC Transit began putting white, printed information bags over bus stops advertising the changes along Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley and Oakland, where the 43 line is being discontinued and a new 18 line is taking its place. 

The information bags originally contained the June 3 changeover date, but when that date was put back to June 24, AC Transit workers came back and pasted stickers on the bags with the new date. Similar bags were observed in May on other lines throughout the two cities. 

But informational bags were absent on International Boulevard, at least between High Street and 98th Avenue, until last Tuesday. On that date, informational bags announcing the changes from 82 and 82L to 1 and 1R were placed on bus stops in the 80s. At least as late as Wednesday, however, informational bags were not observed between 73rd Avenue and 82nd Avenue. 

AC Transit Media Affairs Manager Clarence Johnson blamed the problem on printing and the fact that the district had some 8,000 bus stops to cover. 

“The plan was to get them all up at once, but obviously we didn’t do that,” Johnson said by telephone. Johnson said that “there was some conversation at headquarters about how soon you should get the bags up before the changes go into effect. Some staff members felt that if you put them up too soon, they would lose their effectiveness. We feel like a week is enough time.” 

But Johnson’s explanation did not explain why the district made a difference between announcements along Shattuck Avenue, two months in advance of the change, and on International Boulevard, where announcements are still absent from some bus stops three days before the change is scheduled to go through. 

The explanation that there was a delay in the printing of the bags did not explain the discrepancy in the timeline of announcements for individual lines, either, because the informational bags did not have individual line numbers printed on them. 

Instead, the bags were printed with generic notations of “Current Lines At This Stop,” the effective date of the transfer, and spaces for lines that “Will Begin Stopping Here” and lines that “Will Not Stop Here.” Beside each notation, the bags have printed lines on which district staff members hand-wrote the individual line numbers after the bags were printed.


Robbery Chase Ends in Tub

By Richard Brenneman
Friday June 22, 2007

Pursuit of a pair of Oakland robbery suspects ended Wednesday in a Berkeley neighborhood with a bullet-punctuated car and foot chase of one man and the arrest of his woman companion, clad only in her birthday suit. 

Berkeley police spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said the incident began with the robbery of an Oakland woman Tuesday. 

“She was astute enough to write down the license plate, and Oakland police entered it into their computer system as ‘wanted in connection with an armed robbery’,” said Sgt. Kusmiss. 

Shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday, Oakland officers spotted the car near the intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and Market Street. 

When the officers attempted to pull the car over, the driver hit the gas and the chase was on. The car, a silver Toyota, headed north toward Berkeley. 

“Oakland and Berkeley use different radios,” said Sgt. Kusmiss, but the Berkeley department has installed Oakland equipment on some of its units assigned to the border area. One of those officers picked up the radio traffic and notified the Berkeley dispatchers, who put the feed out to all Berkeley units. 

“They came into Berkeley on San Pablo Avenue,” said the sergeant, where Berkeley officers joined in the pursuit. 

The vehicular part of the chase ended in the 1600 block of Oregon Street when the Toyota pulled into a private driveway and the two occupants, a man and a woman, headed off in different directions. 

An Oakland officer chased the man, “and he fired at least one round, which did not hit the suspect,” said Sgt. Kusmiss. The runner surrendered moments later. 

The woman headed in a different direction, and managed to make her way into a house in the 2700 block of McGee Ave., where she dashed into the bathroom and took off her clothes, pretending to bathe. 

The alarmed occupant of the house, noting the flurry of police activity through his window, went outside and told police that an intruder occupied his bathroom. 

Police took the woman into custody, clad only in a hastily wrapped towel. 

Under California law, shootings by a police officer are investigated by the jurisdiction in which the shots were fired, so Berkeley investigators were charged with investigating the Oakland officer who fired at the fleeing suspect. 

“Berkeley detectives finished their investigation,” Sgt. Kusmiss said, while Oakland officers took the pair into custody. “It is believed they are responsible for a series of robberies in Oakland.” 

“It was quite something,” said one neighbor. “I was taking out my laundry when I was shooed back into the house by an Oakland officer. There was a helicopter and an Oakland canine unit—just another day in South Berkeley.”


Cal Rugby Flanker Charged in Assault

By Richard Brenneman
Friday June 22, 2007

Alameda County prosecutors have charged a member of UC Berkeley’s national championship 2007 rugby team for a May 5 beating that left another student with a broken jaw and brain injuries. 

James Sehr, a six-foot, 190-pound flanker, is charged with assault with great bodily injury for his alleged attack on San Francisco State student Charles Rochon outside the Berkeley co-op where Rochon was living. 

Berkeley Police were called to the Andres Castro Arms at 2310 Prospect St. at 9:48 p.m., where they found Rochon. 

Residents of the cooperative residence told police the incident began after someone threw an object through a Prospect Street window of the residence. 

Rochon went outside to investigate, where he told police he found several members of the rugby team. A confrontation ensued, and Sehr reportedly attacked Rochon after he tried to use his cell phone to call police, said Berkeley Police Lt. Wes Hester. 

When police arrived, Rochon declined their offer of medical attention. 

“He said he wanted no medical attention. We thought it was not anything major,” said then-Berkeley Police spokes-person Officer Ed Galvan. 

But the next day, Rochon spoke to a housemate’s father, a UC Irvine surgeon who insisted he received treatment. At the hospital, doctors discovered he had a broken jaw and a skull fracture. Two surgeries followed in the next five days. 

The attack occurred just hours after Cal rugby players cinched their 16th consecutive national title in a 37-7 victory over Brigham Young University at Steuber Rugby Stadium on the Stanford University campus.


City Offers Children Free Summer Lunch Program at Schools and Centers

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday June 22, 2007

In addition to the free Universal Breakfasts that Berkeley Unified will be serving children in the city all summer, the city will be treating them to free lunches. 

The city will be providing one free meal a day to kids in South and West Berkeley at three public schools and community centers. Rosa Parks Elementary School, Washington Elementary School and Longfellow Middle School will be providing lunch along with the Francis Albrier Recreation Center, the Black Repertory Theater and Berkeley Youth Alternatives at Strawberry Creek. 

Berkeley Technology Academy (B-Tech) and Berkeley High School students will go to Washington for lunch. 

“Like the Universal Breakfast that feeds Berkeley students during the school year, all children are served, and families do not have to qualify for the Free and Reduced program,” said BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan. 

“No child has to be enrolled in our program or our schools to participate.” 

The three schools that will be serving breakfast are: Thousand Oaks Elementary School, Cragmont Elementary School and Willard Middle School. King Middle School canceled its breakfast program because they will not have a summer school this year. 

The city program is already serving lunch every day Monday through Friday (except holidays) until August 10 when their summer program ends.  

The BUSD breakfast program will be held throughout summer school, June 20 to July 18.  

Contact person for the city for information or to volunteer for their summer program: Ginsi Bryant (981-5147).


BUSD Approves, with Regret, Reversal of Military Recruiter Policy

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday June 22, 2007

Using language that expressed reluctance, the Berkeley Board of Education unanimously approved a policy reversal to release student information to the military for recruitment to be eligible for federal education grants. 

The third paragraph of the new policy reads: “Unfortunately, according to Federal law, military recruiters shall have access to a student’s name, address, and telephone number, unless the eleventh or twelfth grade student or parent/guardian has specified that the information not be released in accordance with law and administrative regulation.” 

“This is not a policy anyone is jumping up and down for,” said board president Joaquin Rivera. “We fought as hard as we could and in the end we were threatened to do it.” 

“Maybe we should put ‘unfortunately’ in front of the sentence,” said district superintendent Michele Lawrence, to which board members unanimously agreed. 

Berkeley High informed its juniors and seniors in May about a change in policy which requires them to sign an “opt out” form if they don’t want their information released to the U.S. military.  

Until now, students who wished to be contacted by military recruiters had to sign an “opt-in” form. 

According to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, school districts must provide the military with the names and addresses of all juniors and seniors for recruiting purposes unless there is a signed letter from the parents or the student indicating that they are opting out and do not want information released. 

Berkeley High School was the last school in the country to adopt the “opt-out” policy after being threatened with losing millions of dollars in federal funds. 

“We were essentially blackmailed into doing this by saying that if you don’t release student information you will not have access to funds,” said board member Karen Hemphill. “It’s all right when students voluntarily join the army, but in this case we are being forced to make available information of students.” 

 

Solar project approved 

After debating the solar project at Washington Elementary School at the last three meetings, the school board voted unanimously to allow the district to enter into a legal agreement with Kyoto USA to carry out the design work for the proposed project. 

Estimated to cost $1.25 million, the HELiOS project—which proposes to put photovoltaic cells on the roof of Washington—is expected to cover 100 percent of the main building’s electricity needs. 

If the proposed plan works, Washington will become the first school in the district to turn solar. The board had asked Kyoto USA for a more comprehensive report on the financial aspects of the proposed project in its earlier meetings. 

Tom Kelly, director, Kyoto USA, said the organization had secured a 10-year financial municipal lease in the amount of $232,000 from Saulsbury Hill Financial to avoid bond funds. 

The Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) and PG&E are slated to contribute $750,000 and $305,000 for the project, respectively. 

Kelly told board members that additional funds could be requested from the city since it is now designated as a “Solar American City.” 

Berkeley won the U.S. Energy Department’s “Solar America City” competition this week which comes with a reward of $200,000 to help residences and other commercial properties turn solar. 

“If there’s an opportunity to get dollars from a source other than the Office of Public School Construction, then we should definitely jump on it,” said Lawrence. 

 

 

 

 

 


LeConte Extended Day Care Parents Protest Move

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday June 22, 2007

Parents of children at LeConte’s Extended Day Care (EDC) came to the school board meeting Wednesday to protest the program’s move from a bungalow outside the school to a basement inside the building at 2241 Russell St. 

Six parents spoke at the meeting, citing concerns including safety, health and overall development of their children. 

“We believe that the basement is really unsafe,” said Betty Hayes, whose granddaughter Deja attends the school. “There is only one way out and one way in. What’s going to happen to these 60 children when there’s an earthquake?” 

Hayes said she was proud of the program and wanted it supported by the district. 

“It teaches kids important things such as the anatomy of the human structure,” she said. “These are kids from low-income families of color. We want to return to the bungalow. That building might not look good to anybody else but that building has a lot of love.” 

District spokesperson Mark Coplan said the old bungalow was dilapidated. 

“There is no reason for concern for being moved into the basement,” he said. “We are always running out of space and the basement is completely safe.” 

LeConte’s EDC, which provides before- and after-school child care, is one of seven such programs in Berkeley. The program is open year-round for K-3 grade students, including winter and summer vacation. Children receive homework assistance, nutrition and computer education, and other forms of instruction. 

The program was housed in the basement once before, in 1994 for three years, after which it was moved to the bungalow. 

“I thank you for being concerned about the health and safety of your students by moving them into the basement,” said Rose Luckett, another parent. 

“Who will pay for our children when they fall sick from the damp environment? What will happen when the basement floods? I am disappointed that parents were not involved in the process.” 

Parents were first told about the proposed move in April. They started class in the basement Monday. 

“There are 60 students and only one restroom,” said Nahid Vafadari, an EDC parent. “The other building had two restrooms. There are also no fire sprinklers. When school opens after summer, the children will have to share the playground with the (older) school kids.” 

Shaliya Fields, 10, who attends LeConte EDC, told the Planet Wednesday that there was no room to play in the basement. 

“It’s cold, it’s dusty and there is no place to rest,” said Deja Walker, a second-grader. “What if there’s a flood? Sometimes it’s so hot it feels we are under the earth.” 

Ms. Demissie, parent of Marisol and Roteal, urged the board to go and visit the site. 

“I have three children who will be going into that basement everyday,” she said. “I want to know how long the bungalow has been unsafe. If it was unsafe, why weren’t we notified about it? Why weren’t we notified about the decision to move? Have you guys gone and inspected the place? There’s high voltage electricity down there. There are no fire detectors. There is only one exit. Do you want to send your children to the basement?” 

District superintendent Michele Lawrence told the group that she has not been into the basement yet but plans to visit it soon. She added that the bungalow was in a deplorable condition and would have to be knocked down. 

“But I don’t want that program to be hurt,” she said. “I am mostly surprised to hear from parents today that they were not informed about the move. The decision was made six months ago.” 

 

 

 

 

 


BHS Class of 2007 Says Goodbye

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday June 19, 2007

A swarm of yellow descended upon the Greek Theater Friday when 700 Berkeley High School (BHS) graduates walked into its pit amidst a ceremony fit for kings. 

Seven thousand cheered them, and as strains of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5 echoed through the bowels of the amphitheater, students realized that it was childhood’s end. 

“I am nervous because it’s over,” said Jenipher Washington, who will be starting school at Howard University this fall. “I am so used to going to school and meeting my friends everyday, I can’t believe that it’s going to end.” 

“It really hasn’t sunk in yet,” said 2007 graduate Mike Hunt, five minutes before he walked up to the stage. “It’s definitely a weight off my shoulders, but the fact that I am no longer in high school has yet to hit me.” 

For the Class of 2007, Friday meant goodbye to all things juvenile. It meant goodbye to senior streak, goodbye to junior prom and goodbye to setting off stink bombs in class. It also meant responsibility, the dawn of a new chapter. Hunt, like Washington, will be off to Howard University in Washington, D.C. in the fall. 

Others, such as Mateo Aceves—who represented students at the school board in his senior year—will be talking a year off before starting college. 

“I’ll be in Jerusalem and then it’s off to Brandeis University in 2008,” said Aceves. “I will miss school. I will miss being sober on Rally Day and our wonderful Barbecue Club. I urge my juniors to take advantage of every minute at Berkeley High because they will never get any of it back.” 

English teacher Susannah Bell told the Planet that every graduation was different. 

“It’s not just the entertainment that’s different every year,” she said. “Every class is different.” 

Bell and 23 other teachers were each responsible for lining up 36 of the graduates. 

“It’s very hot today, but there’s nothing we can do about it,” she said. 

“It’s right to the left,” teachers instructed graduates as they fiddled with their tassels minutes before the ceremony. Last minute make-up was applied, stray locks pinned up and the graduates were ready for their big day. 

“It’s a wonderful, wonderful school and a wonderful, wonderful student body,” said Joan Marie Lucera who had come out from Virginia to see her grand-daughter Camilia Padilla graduate. “I looked into the yearbook and there’s such a wonderful representation of people. Look around! I went to a private girls’ school in Canada, it wasn’t anything like this. This is typically American. This is exuberant. Such a demonstration of joy.” 

Berkeley Unified spokesperson Mark Coplan pointed out that Berkeley High was one of the few schools in the country which did not have valedictorians. 

“We have an unwritten rule which says that we don’t pick one student over the other,” he said. 

The school was recently ranked 284 out of 1,300 top U.S. schools by Newsweek magazine. “Last year we were 378, so it’s a huge improvement,” Coplan said. 

Earlier this month, BHS Vice Principal Pasquale Scuderi announced that the school had not met the benchmarks to receive an Annual Performance Index (API) score, prompting principal Jim Slemp to remark that the tests were not an accurate reflection of the school. 

“Students in my class performed really well in school this year,” said Academic Choice English teacher Alan Miller during the ceremony. “We have got students getting into the finest programs at some of the finest schools in the country. We are sending out students who care about the world. It shows the uniqueness of our school.” 

Academic Choice, one of the schools within BHS, offers students more choice for advanced placement classes. 

Friday’s commencement did not come without surprises. One student tried to lift Slemp up; another cut off his own hair. 

“I had wanted to make up my speech with some jokes ... but then I realized that this school meant more to us than a couple of one liners,” said Rowan Spencer, who snipped off a lock of his hair. “It has given us things such as brotherhood and friendship, and other things, such as strength, generosity, compassion and love. But let’s not forget the things Berkeley High has taken away from us, such as fear, hate, ignorance and intolerance.” 

Students of the English Learning Program described Berkeley High as a boon which had helped them survive in a foreign land. 

“We come from different countries but we become friends here,” said Sara Nazeer. Nazeer and her friends will be scattered all over the world after graduation. Some will go back to Pakistan, some to Africa and some will begin college right here in Berkeley. 

When the graduates took their final steps together as the class of 2007, student speaker Zoe Siegel reflected on the past year. 

“Some of us fought hard for our grades and others didn’t have to work as hard. Some worked hard to balance both work and fun,” she said. “But in the end we are all winners.” 

As Slemp shook the hand of the last graduate, African American Studies Chair Robert McKnight gave a parting word of advice. 

“I see you are anxious to move forward, to move onward to a greater quality of life,” he told the graduates. “But in order for your life to be better, you need to change. There cannot be a difference without change. You are yellow jackets and may you swarm all over the Planet buzzing, envisioning a better world.”.”


Council Gets Down To Budget Business

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday June 19, 2007

Berkeley councilmembers’ multi-million dollar wish list of city services and physical improvements is likely to remain just that—a list of projects on paper. 

The council will hold a public hearing on the budget tonight (Tuesday) at which they will likely examine new budget proposals by Mayor Tom Bates, a list of social services that have been defunded whose funding Councilmember Kriss Worthington would like to see restored, and the lengthy councilmember wish list. 

The public hearing will be at the 7 p.m. meeting. The final budget vote is scheduled for June 26. 

In May, the city manager spelled out how he wants to spend the $9 million or so in limited funding available outside fixed personnel and ongoing project costs, and Friday evening the mayor added his priorities to the mix. 

Councilmembers over the last several months have been referring items to the city manager they want to see funded.  

Bates’ priorities include a number of consultants and studies to get specific work done: hiring a full-time consultant (rather than half-time, already funded) to plan rezoning for West Berkeley at $85,000; hiring a transportation planner for 18 months at $255,000; spending $50,000 to study what agencies are already doing in the area of youth employment; putting $50,000 toward studying the gaps in services for at-risk children ages 0-to-3; and spending $100,000 (augmenting the $100,000 already allocated) to fund a second year for the city’s greenhouse gas reduction position.  

Bates is also recommending $50,000 for a consultant to write ordinances for his Public Commons for Everyone Initiative. That will be a series of ordinances to rewrite some city laws to make them more enforceable, such as prohibitions against lying on the sidewalk and defecating in public, and modifying other laws, such as banning smoking in commercial areas. 

The mayor is recommending an expenditure of $376,800 to fund planning, referred to as engineering, for a number of projects: a Center Street plaza study; enhanced lighting on University Avenue between Sixth Street and San Pablo Avenue; San Pablo Avenue streetscape; Piedmont Avenue landscape rehabilitation and a planning exercise called a charrette for the Adeline corridor.  

Having this work done will facilitate the city getting state grant funding and getting developer fees for projects, according to Bates’ Chief of Staff Cisco DeVries. 

The mayor also wants to fund direct services: chronic disease/hypertension prevention at $100,000, a youth jobs program, beginning summer 2008 at $100,000 (in addition to the city manager’s allocation of $136,000 for 50 jobs for this year), two programs aimed at “ending chronic homelessness:” Options for Recovery—drug and alcohol treatment—at $100,000 and $59,000 to restore a number of cuts made by the city manager to various food and shelter programs for homeless people. 

(The mayor’s priorities are not part of the council agenda packet, but are available on his website at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/mayor/thebatesupdate.htm.) 

Worthington listed his budget priorities in a memo to the council contained in the June 19 council agenda packet. Most of the recommendations focus on funding direct services to homeless or disabled people. 

While Worthington said he has no specific disagreement with the mayor’s funding choices, he said he was disappointed that Bates did not prioritize restoring programs for the homeless that had been cut in the city manager’s budget. 

“It’s ironic that he’s cutting homeless services at all, when he’s saying they are an increasing priority,” Worthington said, noting the mayor’s budget was limited to just a few of the many programs whose budgets had been cut. 

Some of the programs Worthington identified for restoration of funding cuts that the mayor has not included in his budget are programs for the homeless: BOSS’ family shelter and transitional housing ($6,000); Lifelong Medical Care’s acupuncture detox clinic ($12,000); New Bridge Foundation’s drug rehabilitation program ($5,000); expanding Affordable Housing Associates’ housing acquisition and family-housing renovation ($15,000); and the Russell Street Supportive Housing for formerly homeless mentally ill persons ($32,500). 

Councilmember Linda Maio told the Daily Planet that she would look carefully at the program cuts. “I want to understand the impact of the cuts,” she said. 

Given the great influx in traffic along Rose, Cedar and Hopkins streets, one of Maio’s chief concerns is getting funding for traffic calming measures in that area. She had asked for $200,000 for the effort. Bates is proposing $200,000 for traffic calming, but Maio said the area targeted is not clear in the Bates memo. 

Councilmember Dona Spring said she is especially happy about the $25,000 the mayor is proposing to reduce city fees as an incentive to install solar panels. “That’s something real and concrete that we can do about greenhouse gases,” Spring said. 

She said she was happy the mayor’s budget “puts a priority on youth” with $100,000 proposed to fund youth jobs beginning in summer 2008.  

However, she noted, “I’m not so keen on a consultant [to study existing programs]; our city staff can do that.” 

She also questioned the proposed augmented expenditures on the greenhouse gas consultant. “I wonder why our regular staff can’t do that,” she said. She agreed that a transportation planner was needed, but said that allocating $225,000 for 18 months was excessive.  

Spring questioned the mayor’s proposal to spend more than $300,000 to fund the various planning/engineering projects in his proposal. “That money would go a long way toward restoring cuts in social services,” she said, noting that the projects listed had not come to the City Council. “Where did they come from?” she asked.  

Spring also pointed out that the Options drug and alcohol treatment program had asked for $200,000 rather than $100,000 to restore a counseling program that had suffered from the loss of a grant. 

Among the other unfunded referrals from the City Council are: 

• Seven thermal-imaging cameras for the fire department at $77,000 (from Councilmember Gordon Wozniak). 

• Crisis intervention training for police at $85,000 (from the Mental Health Commission). 

• Housing and services for disabled children in West Berkeley at $15,000 (from Spring and Councilmember Darryl Moore). 

• Malcolm X Neighborhood Arts Collaborative at $10,000 (from Councilmember Max Anderson). 

• Sweatshop-free ordinance implementation at $35,000 (from Worthington). 

• Girls’ Twilight Basketball at $45,000 (from Moore). 

• BOSS’ Ursula Sherman Village project at $280,000 (from Worthington). 


Hancock, Chan Vie for Seat Now Held By Don Perata

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday June 19, 2007

A full year away from the primary elections and with two of the East Bay’s most recognized women politicians interested in running, figuring out the odds on who will succeed termed-out state Sen. Don Perata in the District 9 Senate seat would be difficult under normal circumstances. 

Current District 14 Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) and former District 16 Assembly-member and Assembly Majority Leader Wilma Chan (D-Oakland) have both announced their intentions to run in the Berkeley-Oakland district.  

More than anything, it is California’s legislative term limits law, currently limiting assemblymembers to three two-year terms, which is causing this potential clash of the political titans. Chan came to the end of her three terms in 2006 and Hancock will do so in 2008. 

In addition, the Oakland Tribune reported late last year that another former Assemblymember, Democrat Johan Klehs, is considering moving from San Leandro to Castro Valley to run for the District 9 Senate seat as well. 

The problem is, none of them might run. 

Instead, Perata, who is limited to two terms in the state Senate by California’s term-limit law (and got an additional term after winning a favorable state attorney general’s opinion four years ago), would be eligible for another run if a term-limit extension measure is approved by California voters next February. 

Hans Hemann, Hancock’s chief of staff, said flatly that if Perata becomes eligible and runs for the District 9 seat next June, Hancock will not. Chan was not available for comment for this story. But four years ago, she faced a similar situation when it looked like Perata was being termed out in 2008. Chan announced that she was running for the District 9 seat, but then, after the attorney general interpreted the term limits law to say that Perata was eligible for another term, Chan quietly withdrew. 

District 9 is one of California’s most liberal-progressive districts. It runs in a long East Bay corridor west of the foothills from Richmond in the north through Oakland, taking in the city of Alameda as well, and then turns east through the hills, picking up a portion of Castro Valley and all of Livermore. Only two-thirds of the city of Richmond is included, and more than 90 percent of the district is in Alameda County. The district is divided, with African Americans making up 25 percent of the registered voters, Latinos 19 percent, and Asian Americans 17 percent. Democrats make up 61 percent of the registered voters in the district, making whoever wins the Democratic primary next June virtually certain to be the next District 9 senator. Four years ago, Perata overwhelmed the field in the November General Election, getting 77 percent of the vote to 16 percent for Republican public relations executive Patricia Deutsche and 5 percent for Peace and Freedom Party writer Tom Condit. 

Meanwhile, the potential candidates for the District 9 Senate seat are not the only ones left in limbo by the upcoming vote on extending the term limits law. With Hancock currently termed out in 2008, several candidates have been making noises to run for her District 14 Assembly seat. 

Earlier this month, the Contra Costa Times reported that no less than seven candidates have expressed interest in Hancock’s job. Richmond City Councilmember Tony Thurmond and East Bay Municipal Utilities District Director Lesa McIntosh, also of Richmond, have already announced their candidacy. The Times also reported that five other potential candidates are looking at the seat: Berkeley City Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Daryl Moore, East Bay Regional Park Director and former Berkeley City Councilmember Nancy Skinner, and from Richmond Councilmember Jim Rogers and West Contra Costa School District Trustee Charles Ramsey. 

But if the term-limits extension initiative passes, Hancock will be eligible for three more terms in the state legislature. She has not indicated if she would run for the Assembly again in that event, but if she did, several of the potential candidates for Assembly District 14 would almost certainly not run. 

For their part, in order to prepare for a potential June 2008 primary, both Hancock and Chan must act as if the District 9 Senate race is on between them. 

Earlier this month, Hanock supporters sent out fund-raising letters to potential supporters, writing that “we need to raise at least $175,000 before June 30th to show that Loni is viable and can raise enough to defeat an opponent, who has been raising money for this race since before she ‘termed out’ in 2006.” 

Chan has already set up a Wilma Chan Democrat For CA State Senate campaign website [www.wilmachan.org], with a list of endorsements ranging from Congressmember Mike Honda to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez to Senate President Don Perata (who would presumably exercise the right withdraw his endorsement if he is able to run himself). Four of the endorsers are from Hancock’s backyard, Berkeley City Councilmembers Betty Olds, Kriss Worthington, and Dona Spring, and former Berkeley City Councilmember Maudelle Shirek. 

Presuming the Chan-Hancock race does materialize, it is difficult to tell at this stage who would be the favorite. 

The bulk of District 9’s registered voters are in the city of Oakland (44 percent), with Berkeley, at 17 percent, the city with the second highest registration percentage, but that doesn’t necessarily give the Oakland-based Chan an insurmountable advantage over the Berkeley-based Hancock. When Perata first won the District 9 seat, he was living in the City of Alameda, which only constitutes 9 percent of the district’s registered voters. 

For Chan, overcoming the loss of visibility after leaving the legislature will be her greatest difficulty. In 2005 and 2006, her last two years in Sacramento, when she served as Assembly Majority leader, Chan’s name was in the news on a weekly basis as she participated in, or commented on, events surrounding the state legislature. Since leaving Sacramento, she has virtually disappeared from public view, however. 

Chan sees identification with her old Assembly position as crucial to the Senate race, however, even without the accompanying power and publicity that goes with actually holding the office. The voicemail at her state Senate campaign headquarters identifies her as “Assemblywoman” Wilma Chan, going on to refer anyone with Assembly District 16 business to “the current District 16 Assemblymember, Sandré Swanson.” 

Meanwhile, Hancock has become more visible in recent months, sponsoring several pieces of legislation and hosting local high-profile conferences, including a March health care forum at Oakland City Hall and, the following month, a Global Warming forum at Berkeley City Council. 


Downtown Committee Meets Public In Sometimes Heated Session

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday June 19, 2007

Berkeley held its second public workshop on the downtown plan Saturday, a gathering as notable for heated tempers as for innovative visions.  

The session was the 38th gathering of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC), the citizen panel charged with drawing up the rudiments of a new plan for the city center. 

DAPAC members aren’t drafting the final plan—that will be the work of city staff, the Planning Commission and the City Council—but they are drafting the policy statements city officials say will constitute the basis of the plan. 

With their mandate set to expire Nov. 30, DAPAC members are pushing hard to finish the work they started with their first meeting on Nov. 21, 2005. 

Gathered in the Berkeley High School Library, committee members, city planning staff and members of the public gathered around themed tables, each devoted to a central element of the plan. 

City Planning and Develop-ment Director Dan Marks opened the meeting, citing the committee’s “sprint to the finish line” as their two-year mandate nears its end. 

While the committee will focus on policy, rather than specifics or the city zoning ordinance amendments needed to implement any changes mandated by the final draft, their efforts will still be enough to initiate the launch of an Environmental Impact Report, which will be drafted while planning commissioners, staff and the City Council hammer out the final plan, Marks said. 

Councilmembers must adopt the final plan by May 2009, or the city risks losing some of the funds U.C. Berkeley promised to pay for its creation after the public outcry over the settlement of the city of Berkeley’s suit against the university, which mandated a new plan. 

UC Berkeley campus planner Emily Mathinsen, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Physical and Environmental Planning, praised the committee’s effort, declaring that the results so far showed more agreement than disagreement with the university’s plans to add 800,000 square feet of new off-campus construction and 1,000 parking places in the heart of the city’s central business district. 

Then committee members rose one at a time to report on specific areas of the plan’s focus, starting with Juliet Lamont’s report on the environmental components, Patti Dacey on historic buildings, Jenny Wenk and Linda Schacht on economic development, Victoria Eisen on transportation issues, Jesse Arreguin and Winston Burton on housing and social services and Dorothy Walker on city interests in university developments on specific sites. 

Matt Taecker, the planner hired by the city with university funds to help draft the plan, discussed land use policies and streets and open spaces. 

After the initial presentation, audience member Ena Aguirre challenged the format: “The agenda should have been set up differently so that we didn’t have to sit here for an hour and a half listening to you guys. We should have been given a chance to participate.” 

Committee members, planning staffers and members of the public then gathered around their choice of a paired rank of tables, each titled with one of the themes addressed in the earlier presentations, for a short discussion period followed by a report on issues raised by the staff members assigned to each table. 

Then came the public comments. 

 

Heated tempers 

Berkeley folks who turned up for Saturday’s downtown planning workshop had lots to say but little time to say it. 

And what they said, at least in the 60 seconds they were allowed in the public comments session, was sometimes testy—so much so that DAPAC Chair Will Travis lost his cool, yelling at one speaker and offering a “thank you for that lousy vote of confidence” to another. 

Travis, whose day job is as executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, has occasionally aimed sharply barbed comments at DAPAC members, but it was Doug Buckwald who finally managed to evoke a shouted “Doug, sit down!” 

Buckwald’s critique of AC Transit’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and its proposed route through downtown—a centerpiece of DAPAC’s transportation planning—extended beyond the allotted 60 seconds and a more polite Travis request to end his remarks. 

At that point a visibly reddened Travis yelled, immediately drawing a rebuke from a man in the audience who called out, “Sir, this is inappropriate.” 

Buckwald spoke again, thanks to Gianna Ranuzzi’s surrender of her 60 seconds. When Buckwald contended that his remarks to earlier DAPAC meetings were cut short, as were “other members of the public not connected to developers,” Travis called him a “fifth-grader,” earning yet another rebuke, this one from Buckwald. 

“I apologize,” said Travis. “I was trying to compliment you because I find fifth-graders are usually quite bright.” 

“I think the committee needs to show respect for the public,” said Anita Thompson moments later, drawing applause from many in the audience and a few of the committee members. “I’d be very careful of what you say.” 

Moments later and after praising committee members and staff for their work, DAPAC member Dacey said she agreed that the committee should be hearing more from the public, and urged anyone with questions to submit them by email to Taecker and others (his email address is MTaecker@ci.berkeley.ca.us). 

“That shows there’s at least one person on DAPAC who isn’t rude,” Travis said. “Actually, there are quite a few.” 

While some of the comments dealt with BRT and density, two ongoing sources of contention, others, like those of Daniel Caraco, focused on fresh issues. 

After noting that state law requires all hospitals to meet strict seismic safety standards by 2014, Caraco said neither of Berkeley’s two major medical facilities—Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and the affiliated Herrick Hospital—conform to the requirements. 

“Herrick will probably close in five years,” he said. “What is being done to make sure the city has an acute care facility for the next 20 years?” Faulting the city for allowing Summit Alta Bates to locate in a residential neighborhood, Caraco said a hospital downtown would better suit the city’s needs. 

Elyce Judith added a more upbeat note, reporting that EcoCity Builders had just received the $150,000 in donations needed to retain internationally acclaimed landscape architect Walter Hood to prepare a plan for Strawberry Creek Plaza, the proposed pedestrian-friendly space that would be created by closing the block of Center Street between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue. 

While the plan wouldn’t be an official city document—planning staff referred to it as an “advocacy plan” during the last Planning Commission meeting—the addition of a famous name could help pave the way for a plaza with either a daylighted Strawberry Creek or another “water feature” as has been advocated by environmental groups and members of the city’s own UC Hotel Task Force. 

For DAPAC members, it’s back to work, starting with their next meeting Wednesday night, a joint session with the Landmarks Preservation Commission.


Council to Discuss Public Comment Rules, Priority Development Areas

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday June 19, 2007

Back in the darker ages of Berkeley City Council history—before Berkeleyans Organizing for Library Defense (SuperBOLD) threatened a lawsuit last year—citizens hoping to speak to their elected officials at the public comment period would fill out a card a clerk would throw into a contraption with cards from all the other hopeful speakers. The city clerk would spin the device and choose 10 cards.  

Only these 10 people would be permitted to speak. 

Prodded by the threatened litigation, Mayor Tom Bates abandoned the lottery system and began experimenting with various formats in order to let every person speak to the council who wishes to, as is required by the Ralph M. Brown Act, according to SuperBOLD attorneys from the First Amendment Project. 

Now Councilmember Kriss Worthington is calling for the experimenting to stop—the rules for public comment vary slightly at various council meetings—and to put the new rules into law. 

Other topics on tonight’s council agenda include the city budget, designating Berkeley’s transit corridors as “priority development areas” and adopting a pilot residential parking plan for the south-of-campus area. Before the regular meeting, the council will hold a 5:30 p.m. workshop on the city’s sustainability efforts. 

 

Codifying public comment 

If adopted, the new rules would: 

• Allow the mayor to adjust the time speakers would have to address the council: when there are five or fewer speakers, each can talk for two minutes each; when there are six to nine speakers, the mayor can ask each to speak for 1.5 minutes, and when there are ten or more speakers, the time would be reduced to a minute. 

• Allow public comment on items not on the agenda immediately after action on the consent calendar. 

• Mandate that all people be allowed to attend the public meetings; if the venue is too small, the meeting should be adjourned to a larger venue.  

“I think the public has a right to know ahead of time what the rules are,” Worthington said. “Having rules that keep changing and evolving is confusing. I don’t think any one person should be able to change the rules.” 

A few weeks ago, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque told the Daily Planet she was concerned that the large number of public speakers caused the council meetings to go too late. (She said she didn’t think adding more meetings to the council schedule would help.) 

But Worthington said public comment should be a priority. “Listening to the public is one of the most important things a councilperson does,” he said. 

 

Adopting Priority Development Areas 

Mayor Tom Bates is also urging the council to adopt “priority development areas,” designating locations along traffic corridors as appropriate for future development. 

In adopting the policy, “the council is not committed to requesting funding for or approving any project,” the mayor wrote in his report to the council. 

The urgency for the council to adopt the PDA quickly, Bates says, is so that, if the senate and assembly pass pending legislation, the city would be able to submit applications to the Association of Bay Area Governments/Metropolitan Transit Commission by the June 29 deadline. 

The areas targeted would be along Telegraph, University, San Pablo, South Shattuck avenues and Adeline Street as well as downtown. The Planning Commission approved a similar recommendation last week. 

 

Pilot parking for Southside 

Councilmembers Gordon Wozniak and Kriss Worthington are proposing a pilot parking policy whereby one side of the street in the Telegraph Avenue area would be parking for residents only and the other side would allow two-hour parking for transients and long-term parking for residents who have a sticker indicating they are residents. 

The area that would be designated is Dwight Way on the north, College Avenue on the east, Derby Street on the south and Telegraph Avenue on the west. 

 

Sustainability workshop 

The city runs some 80 programs with a combined $27 million budget that supports environmental sustainability, including greenhouse gas reduction, zero waste goals, environmentally preferable purchasing policies, watershed protection and more.  

“Sustainable development focuses on improving the quality of life for all of the Earth’s citizens without increasing the use of natural resources beyond the capacity of the environment to supply them indefinitely,” wrote former Housing Director Stephen Barton in a report that will be before the council tonight. 

“This will be first in a series of workshops on sustainability,” Energy Officer Neal De Snoo told the Daily Planet on Monday. 


Use Permit Approved for Fred’s on Telegraph

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday June 19, 2007

Telegraph Avenue residents will soon be able to shop for groceries at a new Fred’s Market opening up at the former site of Owl Rexall Drugs. 

The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) voted unanimously Thursday to approve a use permit requested by Fred Ayyad, owner of Fred’s Market at 1929 University Ave., which would allow carry-out food service (no seating) in a new retail food market at 2312 Telegraph Ave. 

The site—located half a block south of the UC Berkeley campus—is surrounded by food services such as Mrs. Field’s Cookies, Noah’s Bagels and Yogurt Park, as well as by other retail and multi-unit residential uses. 

The property, which houses a two-story commercial building previously occupied by Rexall, is in the process of being demolished to make room for the food market. 

“This should be a no brainer,” project applicant Rina Rickles told ZAB Thursday. 

“Both local and UC Berkeley police support Mr. Ayyad. I have been reading in the newspaper that businesses on Telegraph are declining. This store will bring students and Berkeley residents to the neighborhood who will not only use Fred’s but also patronize other businesses. It will serve the community and bring visitors back to Telegraph Avenue.” 

Representatives of Johnson’s Market, also located on Telegraph, told the board that they had collected 21 signatures opposing the proposed project. 

They also alleged that Fred’s Market at University Avenue had violated alcohol laws on several occasions in the past, although the Alcoholic Beverage Control Department later dropped these charges. The current permit does not include an alcohol license. 

A group of Berkeley residents turned up at the meeting to support the proposed development. 

“I live right around the corner from Fred’s on University,” said Reagan Richardson. “The owners care about the community and about complying with the law. The fact that they are moving up to Telegraph is great.” 

Berkeley resident Steve Wollmer described Fred’s as a very positive role model to the community. 

Rickles told the board that visitors to the store would be able to buy pre-cooked items such as barbecue chicken, roast beef and falafel at the deli counter, while salads, hot and cold sandwiches, hamburgers and Middle Eastern plates could be ordered for off-site consumption. 

“The market would stay open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Mondays through Sundays,” she said. “It would help meet an underserved need for retail food and groceries in the district. It would also incorporate green building elements such as energy-efficient lighting and kitchen equipment.” 

Board member Jesse Arreguin spoke in favor of the project. 

“One of the things that is sorely missing on Telegraph is a grocery store,” he said. “There is no place to buy fresh produce, groceries or meat for students who live in the dorms or apartments. I am very excited about the prospect. ... This is definitely the kind of business we want on Telegraph Avenue.” 

 

Other Items 

• The board set the appeal of a permit to construct a residential addition at 921 Ensenada Ave. for public hearing. 

The applicants had requested a use permit to expand the footprint of the building by 450 square feet, and by constructing a 1,084-square-foot partial second story, setback approximately 15 feet from the front of the house, with an average height of 24 feet. 

• The board continued the appeal of a permit for a residential addition to 2008 Virginia St. to June 28. 

Lorin Hill of Oakland, the project architect and applicant, had requested the permit to construct a 1,434-square-foot addition, raising the house approximately six feet to create habitable space on the ground level and expanding the building to create a two-story west wing. 

A group of neighbors had appealed the permit, voicing concerns that the additional height would block air and light. Staff informed the board that an agreement had been reached with neighbors which would be discussed at the next meeting. 

 

 


Court Dates Set For Oak Grove Lawsuits

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday June 19, 2007

The lawsuits aimed at saving the grove at California Memorial Stadium are consuming a few trees of their own as the blizzard of paperwork continues in the leadup to an eventual courtroom showdown. 

Meanwhile, the plaintiffs in another suit triggered by university expansion plans are generating some more paperwork of their own, filing an appeal of their lawsuit against the City of Berkeley challenging the City Council’s settlement of a lawsuit suit that had challenged the university master plan for projects through 2020. 

The pulp friction that’s headed for the first courtroom showdown centers on the university’s grandiose building plans embodied in the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects, an architectural extravaganza that will result in three new buildings and expansion of the stadium, with a total new build-out equivalent to a third of the size of the Empire State Building. 

The immediate issue is the Student Athlete High Performance Center, a four-story high-tech gymnasium and office planned along the western wall of the venerable stadium. 

During a court conference, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara J. Miller confirmed the Sept. 19-20 courtroom date for hearing the case, and set dates for depositions and submissions of paperwork in the case. 

The California Oaks Foundation, Panoramic Hill Association and the City of Berkeley are all challenging the university’s plans for a series of massive development projects at and around California Memorial Stadium, a city landmark and an entry on the rolls of the National Register of Historic Places. 

Approval by the UC Regents of the environmental impact report on the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects (SCIP) last December was followed a month later by the lawsuits, each challenging the regents’ action on similar grounds—though reflecting the somewhat differing interests of tree advocates, neighbors living near the project and a cash-strapped city. 

The gym is the first of the projects slated for construction, and the lawsuits forced at least a year’s delay, which UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor Ed Denton has said will cost the school at least $8 million to $10 million. 

Construction had been planned to commence with the demolition of the grove of Coastal Live Oaks along the stadium’s western wall, which triggered both the lawsuits and an ongoing tree-sit that continues into its seventh month. 

The logging operation would have been followed by excavations for the four-story gym and office complex. Both were halted by the lawsuits and a subsequent injunction granted by the judge.  

A since-completed university-funded seismic study contends there are no active earthquake faults under the gym site, so the university argues that construction should commence. Attorneys for the plaintiffs say they are challenging the study’s adequacy and also say the presence or lack of a fault immediately under the gym site is only one of several key legal issues. 

 

Appeal revealed 

Meanwhile, Stephan C. Volker, the attorney who is representing the California Oaks Foundation in the SCIP lawsuit, has filed a notice of appeal in an earlier action against the city of Berkeley and the university of California because of their settlement of the city’s suit under the California Environmental Quality Act, which led to the ongoing city-university effort to create a new downtown plan. 

In that lawsuit, a coalition of plaintiffs, including Daily Planet Arts and Calendar Editor Anne Wagley, had sued both the City Council and the university to challenge the adoption of the university’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) 2020, which includes the SCIP projects. 

The plaintiffs lost that lawsuit in the trial court, but they are now appealing. 

Volker’s notice of appeal, filed with the court June 7, challenges the ruling of Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jo-Lynne Lee, who filed her final judgment on the case May 1. 


King Principal Takes Her Leave

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday June 19, 2007

It’s not easy getting ahold of King Middle School Principal Kit Pappenheimer, especially in the days before her school closes for the summer. 

There have been finals to supervise, meetings to hold, and, most important, a graduation to celebrate. Pappenheimer still has lots of odds and ends to finish before June 29, her last day at the school.  

“It’s going to be busy,” she said while investigating the source behind a fire alarm at the school early Monday. “Right now, I am just packing up all my stuff and getting things ready for Jason.” 

Pappenheimer will be leaving King to work at Del Mar Middle School in Tiburon. When students get back to school this fall, Jason Lustig, former principal at Cragmont Elementary School, will be taking over her position. 

“There’s one thing I really want to see get smaller at King, and that’s the achievement gap,” she said. “And I know from the work Jason has done at his previous schools, he will strive toward that.” 

The achievement gap between students of different races at King reflects the gap that exists in schools nationally, Pappenheimer said. 

“There’s a huge gap between our white kids and our African American and Hispanic kids,” she said. “The difference between whites and African Americans is especially glaring.” 

Pappenheimer said that she was leaving King to be closer to her family in Marin: “My kids are getting older and I need to spend more time with them. I need to downsize.” 

In her five years at King, Pappenheimer has seen the school change. She spent her first year as principal in portables on Rose Street, moving to a new building in the new school year. 

“Working with the Chez Panisse Foundation, the School Lunch Initiative and the Dining Commons has been interesting,” she said. “The school will have a beautiful new dining commons in fall of 2008 where the kids will be able to sit and enjoy their lunch. Right now they have to eat outside.” 

King also boasts the Edible Schoolyard—a project which has received national media attention and visits from celebrities, such as Prince Charles and Lady Camilla. 

“Although the Edible Schoolyard started a decade before I started at King, it has been exciting to share Alice Waters’ vision,” Pappenheimer said. “It has been exciting to work in Berkeley. There has never been a dull moment. I just hope that something can be done to make the size of the school less daunting. It needs to have a small community feel to it.” 

District officials credit Pappenheimer for starting Saturday School in lieu of the Summer School at King. Aimed at serving kids who were falling short of credits, the Saturday School has helped many students graduate on time every year. 

As 312 King eighth-graders were lauded by Berkeley councilmember Darryl Moore during the school’s commencement Friday, Pappenheimer stood in the background, letting her students bask in the glory. 

And yet, when the time came, she stepped forward to talk to her students, pat them on the back and impart words of motherly advice for their next big step—high school. 

“I was happy to have her as my principal for the last three years,” said eighth-grader Yessina Baeza, while posing with Pappenheimer for pictures. “She has always been there for us and I will miss her. I remember her as a person who has always helped the community.” 

Yessina’s friend Angelica Gonzales is quick to add that Pappenheimer is not strict. “She lets us get off easy,” she said grinning. 

King students might not have the same opinion of their new principal Lustig. At Cragmont, he banned candy, soda and chips and governed with a strict eye. 

“We have one of the strictest food policies at Cragmont,” Lustig said. “If we see a student with any of that stuff, we take it away immediately. It’s really funny, but one of the first things a student at King asked when he heard I was going to be the new principal was if I was going to ban chips at his school.” 

Lustig said he would wait on such food measures, but has plans to make his mark on the school immediately felt. He said he wants to initiate an active learning program and increase arts education at King. 

“I believe in small groups and hands-on work,” he said. “King does a good job with that, but I still think a lot more work needs to be done. We need to offer more different types of classes and recruit more students.” 

A product of the Berkeley public schools, Lustig graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in politics and teaching. 

At Cragmont, he was instrumental in organizing a system for disciplining students. 

“Any inappropriate physical contact, curse words, and vandalism were documented and handled appropriately,” he said. “We have very high standards for education in California, and it’s necessary to have rules in order to keep up with them.” 

He also knew all his 405 students by name. 

“I plan to do the same at King,” he said. “It’s important getting to know your students as people. I plan to know their academic progress as well.” 

King, with its 930 children and 100 staff members spread across the school’s sprawling 17-and-a-half acres, will be a change from Cragmont for Lustig. 

“I think I am ready for this change,” he said. “Cragmont has gotten better and better in the last three years. It’s a good time for me to move onto a bigger school. I want to stay in Berkeley and I love a good challenge, so I am excited about King.” 

 

Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee 

King principal Kit Pappenheimer talks to eighth-graders Yessina Baeza and Angelica Gonzales after the school’s graduation ceremony at the Berkeley Community Theater Thursday. Pappenheimer will be leaving King on June 29.


Legislative Briefs

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday June 19, 2007

SB67 Vehicle Speed Contests and Reckless Driving (Sideshow 30-Day Car Confiscation) – Sen. Don Perata (D-Oakland) 

This is a renewal of the original 2002 legislation, aimed specifically at Oakland’s sideshows, which allowed cars to be towed and held for 30 days solely on a police officer’s word that the car was being used in “vehicle speed contests” (the legal definition of spinning donuts and other auto activity related to sideshows). 

Oakland police officials have said that the original law was an important tool in sideshow enforcement, but Oakland officials allowed the law to lapse in January of this year without providing required information on how it has been enforced. The information still has not been provided, but the bill has passed the state Senate, and is scheduled for a hearing in the Assembly Transportation Committee at 1:30 p.m. June 25 in Hearing Room 4202 in the State Capitol (Committee Chair Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara). 

There are only two Bay Area lawmakers on the Assembly Transportation Committee: Mark Desaulnier (D-Martinez) and Ira Ruskin (D-Los Altos). 

 

AB45 Oakland Unified School District Local Governance—Assemblymember Sandré Swanson (D-Oakland) 

Streamlines the procedure for a return to local control of the Oakland Unified School District, taking out the discretion by the State Superintendent and putting the decision solely in the hands of the semi-private, legislatively created Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team. 

The legislation has passed the state Assembly and was assigned to the Senate Education Committee last Friday. The committee holds hearings this Wednesday, but SB45 has not yet been included on the hearing roster. Committee members include Chair Jack Scott (D-Pasadena), Vice Chair Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad), Elaine Alquist (D-San Jose), Jeff Denham (R-Modesto), Abel Maldonado (R-Monterey), Alex Padilla (D-San Fernando Valley), Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), and Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch). 

Senate President Don Perata (D-Oakland), who wrote the original Oakland school takeover legislation, agreed to sponsor AB45 in the Senate after amendments to the original bill. 

 

SB1019 Peace Officer Records; Confidentiality—Senator Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), Co-Author Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) 

This bill would reopen civilian review board hearings to the public in cities across the state (including Oakland and Berkeley) that were closed following a recent ruling by the California State Supreme Court in Copley Press, Inc. v. The Superior Court of San Diego County. The bill originally provided wider public access to police disciplinary files, but those provisions were later taken out in amendments by the bill’s author. 

It passed the state Senate and was assigned to the Assembly Public Safety Committee on June 11. The committee meets today, Tuesday, June 19, but SB1019 has not yet been placed on the agenda. 

Assembly Public Safety Committee members include Chair Jose Solario (D-Anaheim), Vice Chair Greg Aghazarian (R-Stockton), Joel Anderson (R-El Cajon), Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate), Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco), and Anthony Portantino (D-Pasadena). 


KyotoUSA Optimistic About Solar Project

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday June 19, 2007

Proponents of the proposed solar project at Washington Elementary School are getting ready to celebrate victory after the 7:30 p.m. Berkeley Board of Education meeting Wednesday at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

“We are so optimistic that the board will approve the project that we are going to throw a celebratory bash on Sunday,” said Tom Kelly, director of KyotoUSA—the organization behind the proposal—in an e-mail to supporters and the community. 

The project, estimated to cost $1.25 million, was first discussed by the school board in April. It proposes to cover 100 percent of the main building’s electricity needs. 

The board had refrained from approving the project in the last three meetings as they had wanted KyotoUSA to work out a more comprehensive report on the financial aspects of the proposed project. 

Kelly said KyotoUSA secured a 10-year financial municipal lease in the amount of $232,000 from Saulsbury Hill Financial to avoid bond funds. 

The Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) and PG&E will be providing $750,000 and $305,000 for the project, respectively. 

 

Mutual waiver 

The school board will also vote on whether to approve the proposed City of Berkeley Mutual Release and Waiver Agreement for payment of municipal charges. 

The city provides various services to the school district for which the district owes the city money. The agreement would settle a city and district dispute over what funds are due from each party to the other. 

 

Dining commons 

The board will vote on whether to approve a bid to install kitchen equipment and perform minor remodeling in the King Middle School dining commons. 

The project is currently stalled because of a delay in construction. It is scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2008. 

 

2007-08 preliminary budget 

The board will review the preliminary budget for the next school year before it comes up for approval at the June 27 meeting. 

 

 


Arrest Made in 2005 Triple Fatal Collision

By Bay City News
Tuesday June 19, 2007

Police made an arrest Friday in connection with a fiery big-rig collision that killed three UC Berkeley students in 2005, the California Highway Patrol announced.  

San Francisco resident Eric Barnes, 26, was taken into custody on suspicion of three counts of vehicular manslaughter in connection with the crash, which occurred in the early morning hours of July 16, 2005, according to CHP spokesman Trent Cross. Berkeley students Benjamin Boussert, 27, Jason Choy, 29, and Giulia Adesso, 26, were all killed in the collision, which occurred when racing vehicles on westbound Interstate Highway 580 near Ashby Avenue caused a big-rig to catch fire and cross into the eastbound lanes early that morning, Cross said.  

Several eastbound vehicles were unable to avoid a collision with the burning big-rig, including the Toyota Camry carrying the three students.  

A special task force that included officials from the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and the Oakland office of the California Highway Patrol was formed to investigate the collision, Cross said.  

Nearly two years after the fatal incident investigators were able to obtain an arrest warrant for Barnes, as well as at least one other suspect whose arrest is pending, according to Cross.  

Barnes is currently being held in North County jail on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter.


Historic Buildings, New Projects Top Land Use Agendas

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday June 19, 2007

Landmarks commissioners and citizen planners will meet Wednesday night to decide—for the moment—the role of historic buildings in the new downtown Berkeley plan. 

A second land use group, the Design Review Committee, will meet Thursday night to review three projects. 

Wednesday’s meeting brings together members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) and the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) to consider a proposed chapter for the new city center plan. 

The new plan was begun after the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging UC Berkeley’s development agenda through 2020, and the committee was appointed by the mayor and City Council to prepare basic policy documents for a plan to replace the city’s current 1990 downtown plan. 

While city staff and the mayor had proposed significant increases in downtown population density and DAPAC members have voted their agreement, a key issue remains the fate of downtown’s historic buildings, including both officially recognized landmarks and non-designated structures. 

The proposed language drafted by the subcommittee calls for concentrating development at sites without historic buildings, while allowing additions to historic structures if well planned and complementary in character. 

The proposal calls for preserving the character of “one of the few basically intact examples of an early-20th-century downtown of its size in California,” while recognizing the downtown as “an incomplete cityscape” with many “under-used and nondescript properties” and a need for more public amenities. 

Following the joint meeting, DAPAC members will consider their own Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Subcommittee’s recommendations for comments on the Environmental Impact Report for the new service planned by AC Transit. 

Members will also decide whether to transform the BRT panel into a transportation subcommittee with a broader role, and discuss the formation of additional subcommittees to review draft plan chapters prepared by the other subcommittees. 

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

 

Design review 

While recent attention focused on plans to build a new “green” condo complex at 2747 San Pablo Ave., members of Berkeley’s Design Review Committee will examine plans for another project catercorner from the site. 

Two weeks ago, LPC members rejected a proposal to designate the “Googie” style former car dealership at 2748 San Pablo, paving the way for David Mayeri’s condo project. 

Thursday night, Design Review will take up the project planned for 2748 San Pablo, located at the northeast corner of the intersection of San Pablo Avenue and Grayson Street. 

The four-story project would feature 18 residential units over a 2,624-square-foot ground floor commercial space. 

The project is currently slated to go before the Zoning Adjustments Board Aug. 9 for approval of its permits. 

City policy targets the whole of San Pablo Avenue for increased population density, and the City Council is scheduled to act on a proposal tonight (Tuesday) to name the thoroughfare as one of the city’s Priority Development Areas (PDAs). 

Planning Department staff and the mayor say the designations will help the city win state bond funds for affordable housing and urban amenities.  

Other proposed PDAs are downtown Berkeley, Shattuck Avenue south of the downtown, Telegraph and University avenues and Adeline Street. 

The project site is currently occupied by Clay of the Land Pottery. 

The committee will also look at plans to transform the former gas station at 1441 Ashby Ave.—currently used as an auto detailing shop—into a biodiesel fueling station. 

The station, built of brick with distinctive pagoda-style tile roofs over both the station and the pump islands, will be run by a cooperative. 

The final set of plans for review are those for a two-story office building designed for the rear of the property at 3237 Ellis St. The front section of the lot will be used for seven parking spaces. 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave.


Hal Carlstad, 1925-2007

By Eleanor Piez
Tuesday June 19, 2007

Hal Carlstad, known throughout Berkeley and neighboring communities as a leader in a wide range of progressive social and environmental causes, died Tuesday, June 12 after a long illness. He was 82.  

Hal was devoted to many issues, a few of which are saving old-growth forests, ending the death penalty, protesting nuclear weapons, stopping the war in Iraq, and solidarity with the peoples of Haiti, Cuba, Palestine, Central America, People’s Park and all who suffered from injustice. In embracing so many works, he moved in many different circles and touched thousands of lives. 

“He was full of a million ideas,” remembers one colleague. “He loved street theater and was always thinking of how to make a dramatic impact and get the media there.”  

Hal was a leader by example, who, as another colleague recalls, “never hesitated to go to the heart of the matter. He was always asking: how can we make a difference right now, with the people who are here? He truly believed that each one of us could make difference, today, and if we do, that’s how we create big changes.”  

Not usually inclined to seek a formal leadership role, his style was to think of a creative yet feasible action, get others on board, then help carry it out. He frequently ended demonstrations in jail for civil disobedience, wearing a sign proclaiming “This is my patriotic duty for today.”  

Hal Carlstad was born April 11, 1925 in Alkabo, North Dakota, where his parents were homesteaders. He volunteered for military service during World War II but was turned down for health reasons and worked on the railroad. Soon after the war, he left North Dakota for California by train. His family remembers him telling that he made the trip in January and when he arrived in Los Angeles, “I put my winter coat in a locker and never went back.” 

He completed a bachelor’s degree in natural science and social studies at UC Berkeley in 1954 and later a teaching credential at San Francisco State University. He was married, became the father of two children, and in 1956 became a seventh-grade science teacher at Martin Luther King Middle School (then Garfield Junior High). Fondly remembered by many students, he was known for getting the class’s attention on the first day of school by saying: “There might be a tarantula loose in the classroom. It got out of its cage, and I’m not sure where it is.” 

Hal is also remembered as a multi-talented hobbyist and naturalist. He was an avid and prolific potter, photographer, wine maker, beekeeper, hiker, gardener, and dahlia cultivator. He enjoyed games, especially playing cards, and was an accomplished pool player, frequenting the Richmond Senior Center in his later years. 

In the late 1970s, Hal became a member of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, which formed the home base for much of the peace and justice work that blossomed after he retired from teaching. While its Social Justice Committee was a main focus, he also served on its board and worked hard to maintain its facilities. With his children and later his grandchildren, he was a 40-year attender and supporter of Co-op Camp Sierra, an annual family camp that he especially valued after he was divorced and bringing up a son and daughter on his own. 

Hal Carlstad is survived by his companion of 12 years, Cynthia Johnson; son Chris and his wife, Eleanor Piez; daughter Amy and her partner, Steve Macari; and grandchildren Matthew Macari, Abby Carlstad, and Melanie Carlstad. 

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, July 15, at 2:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley, with a reception beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists. Memorial contributions may be made to the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, KPFA, the International Solidarity Network, or the Bay Area Coalition for the Headwaters. Stories of Carlstad should be sent to cyn1234@sbcglobal.net for the memorial.


Peralta Vice Chancellor Margaret Haig Dies

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday June 19, 2007

Peralta Community College District Educational Services Vice Chancellor Margaret Haig passed away this week after a brief illness. 

The district reported she had been diagnosed with colon cancer. 

Haig was hired by the district in 2005 during controversy over Peralta’s International Education department, eventually issuing a report on the department that ended charges of mismanagement. Immediately afterwards Peralta Chancellor Elihu Harris put Haig in the middle of another heated situation, assigning her to represent the district in mitigating the problems to student parents caused by the closure of a portion of the Laney College Children’s Center. 

Most recently, Haig was the district’s point-person on the development of its Educational Master Plan, which Associate Vice Chancellor for Education Gary Yee, who worked under her, says “we will now have to finish without her.” 

Yee called the uncompleted master plan Haig’s “most important contribution and legacy. She really understood that the education goals must drive all aspects of the district, including the facilities. She was always reminding us of that.” 

Yee said that Haig’s sudden passing “came as a real shock and surprise to us. She was always the picture of health and vitality. I’ll always remember her riding her bicycle several times a week between her home in Montclair and the district headquarters.” 

Memorial services for Haig will be held at the Peralta Administrative Building, 333 East Eighth St., Oakland, at 4 p.m. on Friday, June 22, with a reception immediately following the remembrance. The Peralta Foundation has set up a scholarship fund in Haig’s name. 


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Celebrating Berkeley’s Neighborhood Commerce

By Becky O'Malley
Friday June 22, 2007

Just a bit of weeping and gnashing of teeth accompanied the interrupted consummation of the apparent deal between local politicians and the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce last week. Mayor Bates and some council allies made a vigorous show of enacting new laws aimed at getting untidy people out of shopping districts, seemingly in return for the Chamber Political Action Commitee’s cash contributions to their re-election campaigns, but in the end nothing was enacted except concept statements, and everyone knows the devil’s in the details.  

At least one locally-owned business (this one) decided that renewing Chamber membership for another year to the tune of a few hundred bucks was a waste of money, though not because poor and even disreputable beggars are still amongst us as we shop. Shopping time has become a bit of a luxury for us, given the demands of small businesses, but in the last week or so we’ve found a few moments in which to sample the current offerings of two neighborhood-serving commercial areas within easy walking distance of home. We can report enthusiastically that there’s a lot of good stuff going on here in Berkeley. As we’ve said before and will say again, we have trouble understanding why certain representatives of business organizations and business improvement districts devote so much time to knocking their product, when there are so many good things to say about Berkeley businesses. 

On Thursday night, looking for a quick and healthy meal after closing the Friday issue, preferably outdoors to enjoy the end of a long summer twilight, we stopped by Bongo Burgers on Dwight, right next to (quel horreur!) People’s Park. We’ve had a soft spot in our hearts for the place since we were in business on Telegraph 25 years ago. The proprietors at that time (and perhaps still) were expatriate Iranian intellectuals, fed up with all of the governments they’d seen back home. At the merchants’ meeting in those days, it was the guys from Bongo Burger who regularly spoke up for tolerance and humanity when dealing with the street population. Yes, folks, this discussion has been going on for a long time—it never really changes. 

We ordered the Persian Plate, well-seasoned ground lamb with sides of pungent tabouli and Persian rice, delicious and only $6.50. We sat outside at a sidewalk table, catching the last few rays.  

Were we affronted by unruly street behavior? Well, one man did stop by our table and ask what we were eating, but he looked like an ordinary middle-aged middle-class kind of guy, and was very polite. He said our dinner looked good, so he’d order the same thing next time he went to the restaurant.  

Saturday was Bloomsday, June 16, the day celebrated in Ulysses for Leopold Bloom’s travels around Dublin. Keeping up an old Berkeley tradition (the old free-wheeling KPFA gave it 24 hours on the air) Moe’s Bookstore on Telegraph hosted a public participatory reading of Joyce’s huge novel, complete with complimentary Gorgonzola, though not whiskey. There were so many enthusiasts present that we didn’t get a chance to read in the hour we spent there, but listening to the splendid words wash over us was satisfying enough. Moe’s is still one of the world’s great bookstores. 

Then we walked down to the annual garden party hosted by an intellectual friend in a quintessential south campus backyard cottage on Blake Street, noting as we went the number of amazing Edwardian frame houses still standing in the neighborhood. With regret, we passed the Blake street site of the lovely house where we first lived in Berkeley, demolished in the sixties to build a soft-story “cash-register multiple” now looking dreadfully seedy amidst the remaining attractive survivors saved by the Neighborhood Preservation Initiative of the seventies. Whether they will survive the current building frenzy and a city government dominated by developers is problematic—it might take another initiative to save them.  

On Monday another after-work dinner, this time at Le Bateau Ivre on Telegraph, where the owners, who have been there for 35 years, are now inviting musicians to perform for the customers on Monday nights. I asked the propietor if street behavior was a problem on their charming streetside patio. He seemed puzzled by the question, but did mention his major worry: the Bus Rapid Transit scheme currently being pitched by AC Transit for his block. He thinks that if he loses his street parking it will sink his business, and he could be right. Doris Moskowitz at Moe’s is worried about it too. 

There’s an arrogance in the way people who are young and/or fit expect everybody to go everywhere by bus or bicycle as they are able to do themselves. One correspondent said “I’m healthy because I ride my bicycle,” a classic example of the “post hoc, ergo propter hoc” logical fallacy. What he really meant is “I ride my bicycle because I’m healthy,” and he doesn’t appreciate how lucky he is to be able-bodied enough to do so! We took my parents to the Bateau for my father’s 90th birthday, and despite excellent genes and years of healthy living there was no way they could have ridden bikes or taken buses for that outing. Lots of people are now, or will eventually be, physically unable to go very far without automobiles, and businesses will have trouble surviving without their patronage. 

On the other hand, neighborhood-serving businesses also need a measure of protection from exclusively auto-oriented interlopers from distant places for their survival. On Wednesday I did my Elmwood errands on foot, and talked to merchants there as I did so. Tad at Elmwood Hardware expressed his concern about the huge development rumored to be going into the former Wright’s Garage site, especially the rumor that the developer would be allowed to take over the Elmwood’s small now-metered parking lot to provide valet parking for out-of-town patrons for a big bar/restaurant. “Rumored” is the operative word, because the Zoning Board has essentially written the developer a blank check, and the council is in the process of rubber-stamping it, so no one really knows what to expect, but everyone’s worried.  

I was asked why the Planet hadn’t come out four-square against the proposed project. We’ve been reluctant to do so (“we” in this space usually means the publisher and I) because we appreciate the several fine building restorations that John Gordon, the developer, has accomplished. But he now runs the risk of blowing all the goodwill he’s accumulated from his previous projects by over-reaching on this one. When most of the immediate neighbors and the merchants’ association are against what you’re proposing, it’s time to sit down at the table and work things out, to preserve your credibility and options for future projects. The way the city mothers and fathers have punted on this one is disgraceful, but there’s still time for private compromise. Perhaps the Chamber of Commerce would like to help?  

And now I’ve left myself no room to talk about how pleasant it is to walk around the Elmwood on a summer’s day doing errands. I just want to report that both Tad and the nice people at Bill’s Trading Post made a great effort to fix an old but beloved piece of costume jewelry for me without charging a cent, and Bill’s succeeding in fixing the bent clasp on another one. That’s the kind of personal service you couldn’t get at Wal-mart, and we should celebrate it every day by shopping in our neighborhoods, on foot if we’re lucky enough to be able to do so. 

 


Editorial: A Confused Council Should Demand a Second Opinion

By Becky O’Malley
Tuesday June 19, 2007

It’s possible that democratic government as we’ve known it is on its way to becoming an endangered species in the United States of America, a richly endowed country that’s only managed to sustain itself for less than a quarter of a millennium so far. In Washington scoundrels of all descriptions, with Albert Gonzales the most prominent but by no means the only example, frolic with impunity in what used to be known as the federal government. While Gonzales has been busy dismantling the Justice Department, his allies have severely damaged the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, to name just two victim agencies. What’s remarkable is that no so-called expose by the press or even by congressional committees of the massive mischief of the Bush administration has made much difference. In a May 14 New Yorker piece that became an instant classic, George Packer asked: “Why has it become impossible to admit a mistake in Washington and accept the consequences?”  

Even in Berkeley, mistakes no longer seem to have consequences. A succession of city councils from both or all of the putative factions which have vied for control of City Hall, aided and abetted by a string of city managers with very different public personas, have managed to ignore the ongoing shenanigans in the Berkeley Housing Authority, unchecked by a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development which has seen plenty of its own scandals in the last forty years or so. The one person who’s been on the scene the whole time, City-Attorney-for-Life Manuela Albuquerque, has issued a memo blaming everyone else in sight for everything that’s gone wrong, and all because her legal advice has always been ignored by those in power. She’s been on the job for more than 25 years, and one would think that she would have resigned after being dissed by management for 15 years or so, but evidently it’s finally getting to her. Unless, of course, the major problems finally surfacing started because her advice has usually been taken, and it’s usually poor. But in Berkeley, as in Washington, don’t look for anyone to admit their mistakes. 

Meanwhile, at its meeting last week the Berkeley City Council was its usual dysfunctional self. There were three major topics which the council should really have discussed in depth, but they all got short shrift in the rush to judgment. The mayor, like some of his colleagues now an affluent retiree, seemed eager to start his two-month summer vacation, usually devoted to world touring.  

The keys to the Housing Authority were turned over to a new set of hands without much ceremony except for a ritual sacrifice of guilty and innocent employees alike. Then a few minutes were devoted to a pro forma allocation of $50,000, presumably chump change in the city budget these days, to pay for an employee to draft a largely data-free implementation of the mayor’s pet program, the one designed to get the ugly poor folks out of the shopping districts.  

The poor folks and their friends protested, the shopping districts and their friends applauded, and it was all over in a hot minute. Councilmember Maio (the most reliable fourth vote on council) shed a few tears, perhaps crocodile, but that was all. If the city attorney has misadvised the council on the constitutional implications of this measure, as she did on an earlier version several years ago, we’ll just have to find out about it in court, to the tune of many hundreds of thousands of dollars more, as we did the last time. 

The smoke-screen over the council action was so successful, nevertheless, that the city’s new press officer felt obliged to issue a lengthy disclaimer later in the week regarding “the inaccuracies that have been reported in the last several days...While no new laws [emphasis sic] were passed Tuesday, the council’s action showed a clear determination to have a comprehensive approach to providing care to people who need it and a safe and comfortable street scene for everyone.” Unh-hunh.  

This was presumably aimed at correcting a triumphal communication earlier the same day from Kitchen Democracy, which claimed in an e-mail to its members that “On June 12, the Berkeley City Council voted to pass the mayor’s ‘Public Commons for Everyone Initiative.’” KD members, all users of high-speed Internet connections and none of them homeless, had endorsed the mayor’s plan, 251-30, and that’s what counts, legalities to the contrary not withstanding.  

The KD endorsement also figured prominently in another council non-action. In a bit of byplay that even experienced council observers found hard to follow, the majority of voting councilmembers asked to have a public hearing on a sizable project now planned for the city’s commercial gateway at Ashby and College, but they lost out because Wozniak, the councilmember for the affected district, had been lobbying for the project from its earliest days on the KD website. On the advice of the city attorney (she’s popping up everywhere these days) he managed to duck the vote (thus possibly avoiding offending his constituents among a number of nearby Elmwood residents who oppose the plan.) Capitelli also ducked on her advice, because he has Elmwood real estate interests. Without the numeric possibility of five votes from the nine-member council the hearing was automatically defeated, even though it got a majority of the votes of those allowed to vote.  

Did you follow that? Probably not. 

The sad circumstance here is that the Elmwood commercial district had pioneered an ordinance, the Neighborhood Commercial Preservation Ordinance, aimed at preserving neighborhood-serving shopping districts, but the variances granted by the Zoning Adjustments Board for this project simply ignored it. The pros and cons of this particular building or of the bar proposed for it are not terrifically important to the city as a whole, but the policy implication of the Zoning Adjustments Board’s decision for the future of sustainable retail within walking distance of homes deserves a full airing at the council level.  

Once again specious advice from the city attorney has been allowed to choke off necessary public debate in Berkeley. The Planet got an irate e-mail from an experienced local attorney because we inadvertently said that the city attorney had “ruled” on the question. Of course he’s completely right: Despite popular misuse of the term, city attorneys don’t “rule” on anything, they just issue opinions, and they’re often wrong.  

But 25 years of what might be called misrule by the current Berkeley city attorney have conditioned councilmembers to take her word as law. Our correspondent’s view of what happens: 

“Manuela’s legal opinions, although mostly unwritten, are like an addiction. She hooks city councilmembers, who don’t even know they are being manipulated by only listening to her views. This includes incorrect, even absurd legal views, plus intrusions into the realm of policy.” He gave as one example the mumbo-jumbo surrounding the city’s secret settlement of the lawsuit over the university’s long-term development plans, which has produced another lawsuit against the city. He suggests that all of the city attorney’s opinions (not her “rulings”) should be in writing, and that councilmembers should be authorized to get a second opinion at city expense if they want one. An easier course might be to find a new city attorney who knows the difference between legal advice and management decisions, which the current incumbent in the office appears to have forgotten.  

 


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Friday June 22, 2007

IMMIGRATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A recent letter in the Daily Planet claimed that those of us who oppose legalization of undocumented immigrants engage in “self-serving intransigence.” Another letter asserted that we are “a fringe minority of law and order types...who barely disguise their discrimination and contempt for Mexicans and Latinos.” But there might be other motives and reasons. I certainly did not legally adopt my immigrant Hispanic son because I had a contempt for Latinos. My reason for opposing illegal immigration is primarily the burden that overpopulation puts on regional infrastructure such as transportation, housing, water resources, medical services, air quality, educational systems, and so forth. According to a study by David Hayes-Bautista, professor of medicine at UCLA, almost 50 per cent of the children now born in California are Latino. Unfortunately, we North Americans have exploited the cheap labor of our hard-working southern neighbors for our short-term benefit without considering the long-term cost. We should stop the exploitation. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was a failure, in part, because it did not require the payment of a fair living wage, nor did it apply strong employer sanctions. Equally important in the long-term will be capital investment and ecologically-sensitive economic development in Latin America.  

Robert Gable 

 

• 

JAZZSCHOOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s amusing to read the discussion about the Jazzschool and its place in music education/race relations. Anyone who has met and spoken with the director of the school must realize that she is not a racist, an elitist, a sexist, or anything else other than a great musician who had a vision that was designed to keep alive the tradition of jazz. To blame her, or Yoshi’s, or any other institution for the lack of equal representation seems to be a rather narrow perspective. 

The Jazzschool is a business. You pay the money and you can take the classes. Without the student tuitions to help pay the overhead, there would be no school. Having been an instructor there for nine years, my observation was that the largest percentage of students, at least in the vocal department, were adults—with jobs. People with money get to do the fun stuff, no matter what color they are. Is that a revelation? The color of money is green.  

One of the realities inherent in this pay-to-learn environment is that if you pay, you’re in, regardless of whether or not you have any musical talent, motivation, discipline, or even a love of jazz. I met many wonderful and talented singers in my classes there, but an amazing number of them regard their experience at the school as yet another thing that money can buy. The motivation is primarily recreational: pay the dough and take the “jazz singer” ride. If the theme park experience doesn’t live up to the fantasy, then it’s the teacher’s fault, or the fault of the school. Currently there now exists a sizable population of vocalists who have taken the short cut route to the stage, many of whom have little or no curiosity about the study of music as long as there is a spotlight nearby. There is nothing wrong with that choice if it’s seen with some perspective, but this is not music education. 

Musicians of any race, age, or gender, if they have anything interesting to say, are musicians in their hearts and souls. Without the Jazzschool they would be no less inspired or accomplished. It doesn’t matter what color you are, you still have to practice to become skilled. You can practice your butt off and still suck. The singers and instrumentalists who were there at the inception of this musical tradition were not taking classes at the Jazzschool. They were inventing this music and participating in its evolution by listening, playing, practicing, and following the inner voice that moved them forward in the expression of their art. There was no pedagogy, no Jamey Aebersold, no singers’ open mic. There was a fervor that ignited the motivation to work hard and learn to really play. A musician’s success or failure in the world of performance is a result of the talent, desire, and hard work they bring to the music. 

Stephanie Bruce 

 

• 

TIDAL ENERGY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have been researching tidal energy mechanisms that can be used universally, are of very low cost, and can be created in a short time period. A small amount of money could cover the necessary research, development, and implementation of this new mechanism. My own research or that of our able scientists at UC Berkeley should make it possible to achieve our clean energy goals very quickly. 

All along the coasts of the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea we can establish stations to generate electricity. One tide could lift a vessel, ocean liner, or any floating weight. One tide could turn hundreds of generators.  

This is an opportunity for Berkeley to lead the way to clean energy—even before San Francisco—by investing in a simple, low-cost solution. 

Yahya R. Mayeri 

 

• 

STEVE BARTON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was profoundly disappointed to learn that Housing Department Director Steve Barton summarily resigned with out notice recently after eight years leading one of the city’s most important departments. 

As one of the most respected and skilled affordable housing proponents in the nation, and the financial architect for scores of affordable, mixed-use housing developments across Berkeley, Mr. Barton’s housing record is unprecedented in city’s history. 

Under Mr. Barton’s tenure, hundreds of affordable housing units were built in the city along with hundreds of rehabilitated/reconstructed units also. No other city in the country comparable to Berkeley’s size can match this record of achievement. Mr. Barton deserves commendation and a debt of gratitude for his service to the city. 

Mr. Barton’s call for an independent investigation of the Berkeley Housing Authority and the role of the City of Berkeley should be acted upon by the City Council as soon as possible. Such an investigation must be allowed to follow whatever course it may lead to. 

Briefly, to respond to John Parman’s June 18 letter to the editor (“Reform Housing Policy”): Mr. Parman claims that the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Agency’s activities and services have been “diminish[ing].” In fact, the agency receives over 10,000 inquiries/contacts each year in addition to providing a formal mediating process to resolve renter/landlord disagreements.  

At another point, Mr. Parman states that there are “about 40,000” rental units city-wide. Actually, there are roughly 24,000 units total of which nearly 19,000 are regulated under the city’s voter-approved Rent Stabilization Ordinance. The non-regulated units include UC or student-operated housing and other forms of institutional or non-traditional housing.  

Also, unlike Oakland or San Francisco, Berkeley’s rent control program monitors and documents the rent level for each of the city’s 19,000 regulated units, In other words, rather than an “honor system”—as exists in Oakland and San Francisco—both Berkeley renters and property owners know exactly what the rent level is for each regulated unit. The agency’s computerized data system prevents confusion, misunderstandings, misrepresentations, etc. between renters and owners. 

Chris Kavanagh 

 

• 

RACISM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m responding to David Schroeder’s outstanding analysis of racism and how it continues to affect the lives of black Americans here in Berkeley and elsewhere. This is the first time I’ve read an article by a white male who has a depth of understanding of racism. I commend you Mr. Schroeder and wish your thinking could be cloned. 

All black people have stories to share about racism and the cumulative rage and pain it has caused them. I’m just going to describe a couple of my experiences ranging from high school to graduate school. Although I received an A on my four-year French Regents in New York City, everyone in my accelerated French class received honors at graduation, except “moi.” I was only 17. Then, as an adult in graduate school I was part of a group team of five submitting a group paper. I stayed up all night putting the final touches on my section of the paper along with a team member who wound up spending the night. Well, once again what I term “educational racism” reared its ugly head. All others on my team received an A, and guess what? I got the B+ (“black plus”).  

Racism is rampant, and yes, it is right here in Berkeley covertly hidden beneath a fortress of liberalism. I frankly don’t have the time or energy to deal with “BERacism” in this letter. It hurts too much.  

I highly recommend the following reading: Black Robes, White Justice; Gordon Allport’s The Nature of Prejudice (especially the section on “competition”); and Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Children Who Get Cheated” in Redbook Magazine (1970.) 

Thanks again Mr. Schroeder. Your letter gave me hope and inspiration. I know there’s got to be other like-minded people somewhere out there in space. In the meantime, here’s to the hope for a peaceful, anti-racist future Planet. 

Carole Ann Brown 

 

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Being in favor of the bus rapid transit (BRT), I was dismayed to see those letters opposing BRT. I hope those people don’t think the BRT is being built for bus riders like me. I don’t want to be blamed for taking away their car lanes. I think the BRT is a great idea, but I personally don’t need it. I can get around just fine on the 40L/1R and the other buses which serve Berkeley. 

Personally, I don’t need the bus-only lanes—and I don’t need the guilt trip. No, the BRT was never proposed for people like me who already ride the bus. It’s for the car drivers. The whole purpose of the BRT is to liberate people from cars, by providing drivers with an alternative which is fast, safe, convenient and comfortable. I like these things too, but the 51, 40L, 72R already provide me with good enough service. 

A lot of BRT opposition seems to come from people who won’t consider any other transportation option than a car. The pollution, asthma, carbon dioxide, oil consumption, traffic congestion, anger, frustration and cost associated with owning and operating a car are evidently well worth it to these drivers. Not to me. I’d rather ride the bus and not be part of those pollution problems. 

But don’t build the BRT for me. Build it for the car drivers who want to be liberated. 

Steve Geller 

 

• 

DISASTER MEASURES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The City Council recently approved three low-cost but possibly life-saving measures which our commission, the Disaster and Fire Safety Commission, has been pushing—and we are very thankful that they were able to do this. Those were the Seismic Retrofit Measure written in large part by Councilmember Capitelli and myself, an updated survey of a second road from Panoramic Hill to Dwight Way, and the final approval to buy the Mobile Disaster Fire Protection System (the portable water pump system which will run from the bay up to the hills). The latter is paid for from pre-existing bonds (I think Measure G?), while the two other items only cost about $15,000 each. Only the first item was mentioned in our annual commission report, which was delivered to the City Council at the May 8 meeting. 

Now the real decisions have to be made to protect ourselves and our families. Our report outlined six items which, if funded, will exponentially increase our community’s preparedness. The report, along with the city manager’s cover letter, has been referred to the budget process.  

Please strongly consider funding all of the following items which have fiscal impacts as identified by the city manager. They’re all priorities in our eyes but we’re not sure which ones have secured funding or not. I’ve marked them as “one-time” or “recurring.” 

1. Add two FTEs to Office of Emergency Services. This is the major one. Current budgeting is penny-wise and pound-foolish with just 1.7 FTE in OES. Even adding just one FTE would mean a large expansion of planning/preparation! ($260,000 for two FTE, $130,000 for one FTE, recurring)  

These next two are unfunded parts of the city’s official Disaster Plan curated by David Wee/Health and Human Services: 

2. Stock city shelter supplies (I believe it’s in the HHS budget request). ($53,000, one-time.) 

3. Map critical structure systems in existing city shelters. ($50,000, one-time.) 

4. Study rearranging bottleneck at southeast corner of Memorial Stadium, work towards a city/UC joint project to complete work in future. Regardless of whether or not the stadium’s used for football in the future, the choke point endangers emergency access to the surrounding neighborhoods and wilderness. ($15,000 one-time.) 

5. Provide emergency caches to more neighborhoods in exchange for those neighborhoods taking CERT classes. This is an incredibly effective tool to train us laypeople to take care of ourselves post-earthquake/pandemic. ($27,000 recurring.) 

Jesse Townley 

Chair, Disaster and Fire Safety Commission 

 

• 

DOWNTOWN PLANNING  

ARTICLES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have two minor quibbles with Richard Brenneman’s otherwise illuminating pair of articles in the June 19 Daily Planet on last Saturday’s downtown planning workshop and the lawsuits concerning UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium oak grove. In the first piece Mr. Brenneman writes: “DAPAC members aren’t drafting the final plan—that will be the work of city staff, the Planning Commission and the City Council—but they are drafting the policy statements city officials say will constitute the basis of the plan.” Actually, as per Section II of the infamous Settlement Agreement of May 25, 2005, between the City of Berkeley and the UC Regents, the Downtown Area Plan (DAP) is a joint plan to be prepared by “at least one FTE dedicated city planner and one FTE dedicated UC Berkeley planner.” Further, “...because the DAP is a joint plan, there shall be no release of draft or final DAP or EIR without concurrence of both parties.” Moreover, “UC Berkeley reserves the right to determine if the DAP or EIR meets the Regents’ needs.” In the second piece Mr. Brenneman refers to the coalition of plaintiffs who had challenged “the adoption of the of the university’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) 2020, which includes the SCIP projects.” Actually, the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects were omitted from the LRDP settlement—partly why there are now four lawsuits pending over SCIP. My thanks to Mr. Brenneman and Planet staff for their continuing reportage on legacies (unsavory and otherwise) stemming from the Berkeley City Council’s “clandestine capitulation” in May 2005.  

Jim Sharp 

 

• 

GUNS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Old West Gun Shop, just around the block from where I have lived for seven years, is unarguably complicit in the killings of Kevin Morrissey, his wife and two daughters. The shop is especially implicated in the deaths of the two completely innocent young girls. How can there be any other logical conclusion!!?? The shop should be sued out of existence in the courts. 

What tragic idiocy that a depressed man can buy a gun so easily, and legally! It’s all so familiar, and so unintelligent, that in the U.S.A. lethal weapons are so easily available! 

Old West Gun Shop should be permanently closed and removed from our community. Where are the civic and social leaders who will step forward to state and organize what every sensible citizen can see—that legally selling guns into the community in the 21st century is dangerous and anti-social and should be stopped immediately? 

Andrew Ritchie 

El Cerrito 

 


Commentary: Oakland Loses a Landmark Redwood

By James Sayre
Friday June 22, 2007

A giant backyard redwood tree is felled on the summer solstice. Former California Gov. Ronald Reagan once was quoted as saying, “If you’ve seen one redwood tree, you’ve seen them all.” This was back in the 1960s, I believe, when there was a strong environmental movement to save many of the remaining pristine groves of the Coast redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens) in Northern California from impending cutting. Thousands of acres of prime native habitat dominated by these towering giant trees were eventually saved. Several weeks ago one of my neighbors told me that a landowner several properties down the street had applied for a permit to cut down our local landmark redwood tree, which dominates our block. It is probably over one hundred feet high and is possibly one hundred years old. I called the telephone contact number on the public notice that was posted on the telephone pole and after leaving a couple of messages and waiting a couple of days (this is in Oakland, the city that seemingly has much trouble doing much of anything right and/or in a timely fashion…), and was told that, yes, the owner had applied for a tree-cutting permit because its roots were beginning to affect his duplex’s foundation. 

After doing a quick read on redwood tree ecology and having a short list of birds that either nest in them or use them for nighttime roosts, I called back to the City of Oakland and gave my little ecology song-and-dance. I even suggested that severing the intrusive roots on the duplex side of the tree and inserting metal places into the ground would be a very inexpensive solution to the problem. 

Yesterday, I saw a long row of orange traffic cones that blocked off several parking places in the street near the property that held the redwood tree, and I knew that this magnificent specimen was doomed. This morning several workers armed with ropes and chain saws showed up and in a few short hours all the branches and greenery of this tree had been removed and fed into a noisy chipping machine. It is truly frightening the power that modern man has over other living things, especially trees. This ancient redwood had two main trunks that separated about 20 feet above the ground, in the manner of the El Palo Alto, the originally twin-branched redwood tree that grows along the San Francisquito Creek and the railroad tracks at the northern boundary of Palo Alto. The City of Palo Alto was originally named for this redwood tree; the Spanish name loosely translates to “tall tree.” Of course, this particular redwood tree, being the living symbol of a wealthy town, receives the best of care and protection. 

In the early evening, I walked down the street and took a picture of the still intact massive base of the tree. I gathered up a couple of small leftover redwood branches and put them in water, so now my kitchen has a slight Christmasy smell. Tonight in the dimming sunshine of dusk, I took a couple of final pictures of what was left of this magnificent redwood. Several small birds, possibly House Finches, fluttered up to perches on the rough bark, and then gave up in disgust and flew off to a large chestnut tree in the next yard over as their new night roosting spot. The cut-down log sections of this redwood tree were not saved to be turned into fine lumber, they were merely cut into large chunks that the workers could carry to the waiting truck. I suppose that these chunks of wood will be added to some local landfill. This tall tree shaded part of my garden for a couple of hours each day in the wintertime, but I will miss its stately presence as a neighborhood landmark. In the fog-free evenings that we had actual sunsets, this redwood used to glow radiantly in the fading sunset. 

 

James K. Sayre is an Oakland resident.


Commentary: The Cost of Doing Nothing

By Dian J. Harrison
Friday June 22, 2007

In this, the “Year of Health Care Reform” in California, it’s ironic that the governor in his May Revise would fail to fund a reimbursement rate increase for providers of some of the most cost-effective preventive health care in the state. The cost of such an increase—$24 million—is just a speck of the overall $104 billion state budget—especially compared to the cost of doing nothing. 

Planned Parenthood clinics throughout California are in crisis. We are turning away more than 10,000 patients per month statewide because the reimbursement rates currently paid for services to our Medi-Cal patients have not increased in 20 years while our costs have skyrocketed 300 percent! Twenty years ago we could hire a clinician for $12 an hour. Today, the market rate for a clinician in the Bay Area is $50 an hour—add that to significant increases in prescription drugs, tests, medical supplies and clinic necessities like rent and utilities. 

Of course, we haven’t been sitting idly by. We’ve redoubled our efforts at private fundraising, pursued public and private grants, tried to use more volunteers and cut costs everywhere. But these efforts alone cannot close the gap between revenue and expenditures and the result leaves clinician positions vacant, forces reductions in services and cuts to prevention programs, and leaves our patients with no where else to turn. The safety net is tearing and it’s time for the state to step up to the plate and put a Medi-Cal reimbursement rate increase for family planning visits in the budget this year.  

Without an increase more patients will be turned away, years of advances in pregnancy and STI prevention will be rolled back, and the toll on taxpayers and the most underserved members of our community will be hefty. At Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, we have six clinics in Alameda, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Sonoma counties and serve 55,000 women, men, and teens each year. Since the last real rate increase back in the 1980’s, we have had to close multiple clinics, discontinue our pre-natal care services, and eliminate programs because we can no longer sustain them with current rates. We’re turning away more than 400 patients every month in our Oakland clinics alone which is particularly alarming considering the growing epidemic of chlamydia and ghonnorea rates in the city, particularly among young women 15-34, Planned Parenthood’s patient population. When we have to turn away thousands of patients who need access to time sensitive services like STI detection and treatment, family planning, breast and cervical cancer screening, that’s not just a reproductive health care crisis: it’s a public health crisis. 

Not only is a rate increase good public health policy, it’s sound fiscal policy as well. Family planning is one of the most cost-effective services in the state. For every $1 California spends on family planning, the federal government matches it with $9 in federal funds. And studies show that for every dollar the state spends on family planning and prevention, taxpayers save an additional $5.33 in future medical and social service costs. 

When the “Year of Health Care Reform” began, the Governor, Legislature and the State Department of Public Health all agreed that Medi-Cal reimbursement rates must be part of any final health care fix. But safety net providers like Planned Parenthood can’t wait. We need a reimbursement rate increase now.  

Thousands of women are counting on their legislators to put money in the State Budget for a rate increase and for the governor to sign that budget. As we told our lawmakers during Capitol Day this month, they can jump-start health care reform today by putting prevention first and granting safety-net providers like Planned Parenthood increases in Medi-Cal reimbursement rates.  

To take action on this issue, Berkeley residents can contact Senate Pro Tem Don Perata at (510) 286-1333 to urge him to take the lead and invest in family planning with a Medi-Cal reimbursement rate increase this year. It’s the right thing to do … and it makes a lot of cent$.  

 

Dian J. Harrison is president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate.  

 


Commentary: Mayor, Council Fail to Protect Neighborhood Interests

By R.J. Schwendinger
Friday June 22, 2007

Although I sent an e-mail to all the Berkeley City Council members and the mayor, opposing the planned bar/restaurant at Ashby and College, it took your June 19 editorial dated to alert me to the stealth disregard of the Neighborhood Commercial Preservation Ordinance that citizens of the Elmwood worked tirelessly to get passed. The variance granted by the Zoning Adjustments Board, specifically so a watering hole can dispense hard liquor in a neighborhood that clearly opposes it, is more of the same that we are getting from the mayor and those who support his vision of asphalting all open spaces and denying the needs for parks and playgrounds in districts that need them.  

I feel that the Kitchen Democracy (KD) survey I filled out some time ago, initiated by Councilmember Wozniak, did not give my approval for the project at Wright’s Garage. I, for one, feel misrepresented by our councilmember’s proclamation that 80 percent of his constituents support that project. I believe that other district residents, who filled out the same survey, have also been misrepresented. The survey did not specify exactly what was in the developer’s proposal and for our District 8 councilmember to surmise/assume that we support it is way out of line. I could not imagine the approval of a bar/restaurant that will depend on 50 percent of its sales on liquor, opening in our neighborhood. My car was broken into the night before last, on Prince Street, and I learned that crime has increased in our area, including strong arm assaults. The proposal will not only attract a fair percentage of drinkers whose sole purpose will be to get drunk, it would conceivably also attract gangs inside and outside our area. Crime will multiply: break-ins of cars, houses and apartments, and for anyone who has lived in an apartment house with a bar on the ground floor, as I have, drunken sops usually get very loud and belligerent, terrorizing neighbors living in the vicinity.  

I and my next door neighbor have lived here since 1971 and are very upset at the direction our reps are taking us in. The matter of parking is a very serious one. Currently, people from outside the district park on my street, especially in the evenings and all day, each day over the weekends. They park because my street, between College and Claremont, is only one short block to the Elmwood stores and restaurants. It is becoming a real problem for us who live on the street and depend on parking. The project for Wright’s garage will only increase the drivers looking for parking spots very near College and Ashby, and since my street does not have a barrier at the Claremont entrance (while there is one on Webster, the next street over toward Ashby), the parking situation will become impossible. This project will be a monumental disservice to our rights as Berkeley residents. We will be prisoners once it is instituted. 

Increasingly, the traffic on Ashby and College is a major headache for all of us who live in the district. This project would increase the traffic. I challenge any one to stand the corner of Ashby and College during the day and early evening. He will find that the pollution from the endless stream of cars is a violence on the senses. Why, in God’s name, would men and women who represent us in city government assault us further with increased carcinogens?  

These actions, raping an ordinance that maintains an even balance of shopping needs for the citizens of the Elmwood, and attempting to impose an inappropriate project that will make our lives increasingly difficult, informs us that democracy in our city is slowly but surely dying. It is puzzling that the city attorney picked the figure “five” as a pre-requisite for opening the project to public debate, when under bizarre circumstances it was clear that five could not be had. I also question the mayor’s adamant position that a public debate by the citizens is a waste of time. I almost smell the proverbial rat and wonder what those who are opposed to public comment have to hide. Clearly, the Zoning Adjustments Board appears to have acted illegally, without a sign from the city attorney. Difficult to believe that a Berkeley mayor and members of the City Council would oppose public debate. Would they be satisfied if we all walked around with tape over our mouths? What has happened to the democratic forum in our city of cities? 

 

R.J. Schwendinger is a Berkeley resident.


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday June 19, 2007

JAZZ IS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The argument over whether or not there are “qualified” black jazz artists in the Bay Area overlooks the fact that many a technically qualified black musician decided years ago to desert the jazz scene when its ambiance changed from one of boisterous joy to the quite reserve found at a string quartet recital. But the musicians did not desert jazz. They injected their beloved be-bop into pop, soul and funk songs. Among innumerable examples is “Dance to the Music” by Sly and the Family Stone. The group sings, “Dance to the Music” followed immediately by a sax riff worthy of Charlie Parker. 

In the 1960s and 1970s the moves to pop and funk by seasoned jazz artists were roundly criticized by the official pundits of “jazz.” The emphasis by the pundits upon reproduction of the classic formats intellectualized the product. Whereas jazz emerged a century ago as a music to get your booty shaking and the audience shouting and clapping, we now have Anna DeLeon’s jazz club where the audience is given written instructions to be silent during the performance. 

Ted Vincent 

Author, Keep Cool: The Black Activists Who Built the Jazz Age 

 

• 

BERKELEY/ROCKRIDGE SOLAR PROJECT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A city-wide large-scale solar project is under consideration for Berkeley and Rockridge. We met last week at Willard Middle School and the next informational meeting is 10 a.m. Saturday, July 21 at the Live Oak Park Rec Center in North Berkeley. Now is your chance to find out if your home or business is a good candidate for solar power. Joining with your neighbors can result is substantial savings. For more information about the Berkeley/Rockridge program, go to www.solarcity.com/Default.aspx?tabid=219. You can register for the meeting and request a free assessment of your home or business at that site. Hope to see as many people as possible at the next meeting. 

Linda Schacht 

P.S.: Since when is there an Elmwood Neighborhood Association? (Council Passes on Wright’s Garage, June 14) Elmwood has always been part of CENA, the Claremont - Elmwood Neighborhood Association. Now we hear there is a separate Elmwood group that opposes John Gordon’s plans to reuse the Wright’s Garage site. I believe this is an ad hoc group, with few members, attempting to represent themselves as THE Elmwood Neighborhood Association. There is no such thing. 

 

• 

MILLION-DOLLAR SYSTEM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On June 20, the School Board will vote on whether to pursue a million-dollar solar photovoltaic system for the rooftop of Washington School. In prior discussions of this proposal, board members have rightly asked why this project, which has not gone through normal procedural channels, should leap ahead of a long list of prioritized needs that exist throughout the district, including those at Washington. The compelling response is that we must address the global warming crisis that is upon us, even if we have to sacrifice limited education dollars.  

But that response implies a false choice—that our only option is to invest in the “Cadillac” of greenhouse-gas reducing measures. If the Board chooses to vote no, it will be properly representing the interests of both the school district and the planet IF it also commits itself to invest in the enormous untapped opportunities that the district has for reducing energy waste. These investments will reduce far more greenhouse gases for each dollar spent than would the proposed solar system, returning dollars far more quickly to our constrained school budget. 

The Washington School PTA adopted a resolution at its May meeting that supports the implementation of a solar system conditionally, “as the culmination of a multifaceted plan to make Washington School an example of energy efficiency and long-term cost saving … [and] one of many steps in a comprehensive program for reducing greenhouse gas emissions district-wide.” We are a long way from there.  

Were the board to begin its greenhouse gas reduction strategy with the proposed solar project, it would be akin to a family spending its limited income on a Cadillac for transportation, leaving no money for health insurance. The responsible thing, of course, would be to buy the health insurance and a Toyota. Likewise, the School Board can—and should—direct the administration to invest in better insulation, replacement of antiquated ventilation systems, installation of smart lighting controls and the like, which can dramatically reduce environmental impact while bolstering our school budget through reduced PG&E bills. 

Once the district is on the road to plugging all of its energy drains, it can revisit the “Cadillac” of greenhouse-gas reducing measures. But to expend limited public education dollars before plugging those drains would be inappropriate. 

Nancy Rader 

Dick Norgaard 

Jamie Greenblatt 

Washington School parents 

 

• 

‘HELPLESS VICTIMS’ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The people at the UK’s trade union, behind the boycotting of Israeli academics, must feel rather stupid now—or at least embarrassed. They were concerned about the “moral implications” of how Israel treats Palestinians. This week, as Hamas took over Gaza, British academics saw, again, the immoral implications of how Palestinians treat Palestinians.  

Media reports show the “brave, heroic” Hamas fighters (with their faces hidden) posing with the feet on Mahmoud Abbas’s vacated chair, looting and stealing, using laptops with names of rival Fatah members, (more than 100 were killed last week), and executing anyone who disagrees with them. And all in the name of Allah. 

The union of British journalists also have mud on their faces. Three months ago their fellow journalist was kidnapped by Palestinians, who haven’t bothered even to say whether he’s alive or dead. Instead of demanding that the Palestinians release Johnston, a pro-Palestinian reporter, his British colleagues decided to boycott Israeli fruits and vegetables. That should make Johnston feel good. 

Several years ago, Israel left every inch of Gaza, including infrastructure to help the Palestinians to begin launching and governing their own state. They turned their potential state to Hamas, who was more interested in rockets that kill Israelis than in helping Palestinians achieve a two-state solution. Now Hamas occupies Gaza and is creating an Islamic, terrorist state. 

One wonders why Gaza is still an “impoverished area with an imminent humanitarian crisis.” One wonders why rich Arab countries—instead of American taxpayers—don’t pick up the tab for their Palestinians brothers. Or why Iran, who bankrolls Hamas, deliberately keeps Palestinians as “helpless victims.” 

June Brott 

Oakland 

 

• 

RACIST DIATRIBE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I attended the Berkeley Landmark Commission meeting on June 7 and was appalled and insulted by the racist diatribe of Commissioner Gary Parsons in his attempt to validate his no vote regarding landmark status for the BHS gym building.  

As a former 33-year resident of Berkeley, a BHS graduate, and an African-American, I take great offense to his racist remarks; however, I guess the elephant in the room, racism at BHS, is finally standing up, raising its trunk and bellowing loud and clear. 

When I attended BHS, we where required to swim. We also had access to playing tennis, taking art, pottery, and etc. classes. We were also proud to be attending an accredited high school that really seemed to care about our academic achievements in spite of the color of our skin. Now all the School Board seems to care about is their jazz ensemble and a lot of sports fields, which obviously, in their estimation, is all that African-Americans can excel at. How many sports fields does one high school need? And why aren’t students swimming in the new pool on campus? 

The statement by Commissioner Parsons that when he took a tour of the BHS gym “all but one of the kids using the building were students of color”…I think that the ghetto-ization of this part of the student population….” While not only stupid and racist begs the question what the heck does that have to do with the BHS gym structure itself and its qualifications for landmark status? Where is the correlation? 

His making an issue of race in a landmark process is pathetic and says a lot about his character, qualifications, and the integrity of his even being on the Landmark Commission which is supposed to consider architectural issues which be also seemed to twist and misrepresent. For shame!  

Juanita Kirby 

Former BHS Student 

Oakland 

 

• 

BATES HOTEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Bates Hotel and Condo Complex is coming to Center and Shattuck? 

Horrors! This is scarier than Hitchcock. 

I am tired of hearing this project—which was first “a necessary part of a university conference center” and now must be 50 percent condos to “pencil out”—presented as though it were a fait accompli, or simply not discussed.  

The project is simply out of scale with downtown Berkeley and would be bad. It would seriously impinge on the views from the Berkeley campus and the Campanile, and the lower portions of the North Berkeley Hills. It would loom over most of downtown, and particularly Center Street, which we (our elected officials, the Planning Commission, DAPAC, and many local activists) are considering making a pedestrian-friendly mall or walk street. 

I would like to announce my strong and vocal opposition, and I would encourage those of you who are similarly inclined to make your opinions known publicly, and to the city Planning Commission and City Council (including the mayor). It may be appropriate and necessary for us to take initiative and electoral action to reduce this project to a scale that fits in downtown Berkeley, rather than one that takes us closer to “the sky’s the limit.” 

As I understand from reading the city’s maps of current zoning, the sky is not the limit—five stories is. 

Bob Sarnoff 

 

• 

UNIVERSITY AS NATURAL ALLY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Recently there have been various articles about the success of university and community partnerships in cities such as Philadelphia (“University City gets rave review: A report touts job and retail growth. And the area feels safer and cleaner.” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 18).  

The formula is always the same: a community that is willing to trust the university to do the right thing, a university interested in improving its surroundings because it benefits the quality of life of faculty, staff and students, and politicians that want the partnership to work because it helps their community and voters. 

Berkeley fails in all of these requirements. We have a group of so called “progressives” that remember a university from the ’60s that they refuse to ever trust and therefore constantly see as an antagonist, not a natural partner. A university that feels backed into a corner and tries to protect itself from attacks by not being as open as it could or should be. And, finally, a representative to City Council who uses the university as a threat to justify his opposition to any changes in the community even if it means keeping the area poor, dirty and unsafe. These intimidation tactics such as a refusal to allow higher density housing near the university which we as students, faculty and employees desperately need, a refusal to allow “chain stores” to open (such as a Borders to replace Cody’s), a refusal to allow the university to clean up people’s park have made Telegraph Avenue a failed community. I know, I live on Telegraph. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia an area that was almost as bad as Telegraph is now revitalized and well on the way to success. Do we want to learn from them or just continue in our status quo of failure? 

Marlon Maus 

 

• 

POPULATION AND  

ENVIRONMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Many people fail to recognize the important connection between population and the environment, but that connection is there, it is real, and it needs to be acknowledged. 

Through everyday activities human beings not only contribute to global warming by releasing carbon emissions into the air, we change the actual surface of the earth, and with that, affect everything that depends on that surface for life. As of 2000 humans have altered two-thirds of Earth’s inhabitable surface; loss of wildlife and open space result from human’s need to take up more space. Overdraw and run-off from human related activities has considerably degraded/depleted the world’s fresh water supply. Humans depend on these things not only for sustaining life, but for creating a quality of living that makes lives better. Population growth ensures continued alteration, thus a continued depletion of availability for enhanced quality of life for all.  

I want to encourage readers to first off recognize the extent that population growth affects the environment and secondly push for stabilizing this population growth as a part of the struggle to maintain a happy, healthy quality of life.  

Your actions matter. By simply keeping the population connection in mind while voting on family planning issues, you can make a difference. You can make an even bigger difference by educating others, be it your friend, spouse, child, or parent. Imagine if you can affect the future of the world, how much all of you could do.  

Georgia Gann 

 

• 

REFORM HOUSING POLICY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ex-housing czar Steve Barton and BASTA’s Marie Bowman had a rare moment of convergence last week when they both called for Alameda County to take over the Berkeley Housing Authority. I agree that it’s time to say “Basta!” to BHA. If this had happened in 1999, when BHA’s corruption and incompetence first surfaced, Berkeley taxpayers (that’s us) would have saved the $2 million that BHA went on to squander.  

Seize the moment for reform. 

The meltdown of Berkeley’s Housing Department raises a host of questions about who knew what when. BHA may be the tip of iceberg, so these questions need answers. But there’s a parallel opportunity that Berkeley should not overlook. Our housing policy can and should be revamped to reflect the city’s current realities. Along with folding BHA into the Alameda County Housing Authority, two other reforms should be considered: 

Encourage Grassroots Projects and Ownership: Berkeley’s housing policy is locked into a mindset that was cast in stone with the publication of The City’s Wealth, a blueprint for red ink, in the 1970s. The Brower Center/Oxford St. project, a budgetary slashed artery ($6 million and climbing), exemplifies the follies of the City’s desire to play developer. Berkeley’s housing policy needs to encourage the grassroots creation of in-law units, modest additions, and reasonably scaled new projects where infill sites allow. It needs to encourage standing tenants and owners of TIC units to convert to condos by waiving the onerous fees that stand between them and owner-occupied housing. This is the fastest and least costly way to provide affordable housing options in Berkeley for the younger households that are the real future of our community as vibrant place and economy.  

Make Rent Control Part of Housing: Despite the constant diminishment of its activities, Berkeley’s Rent Board commands a $3 million budget for the routine handling of some 19,000 rental units (out of about 40,000 in total). The Board charges $170 per unit per year, up from $156 last year, of which only $1.00 per month can be reimbursed (through an onerous process). There is no evidence that the added service or protections offered justify the cost. Making the Rent Board part of Housing and paring staff to reflect the Board’s real activities would bring its fees in line with fair and reasonable benchmarks elsewhere in the region—$20 in San Francisco (half reimbursable) and $24 in Oakland. 

Like the 1989 earthquake, the current crisis can still get us to a better place. Existing housing policy is our Embarcadero Freeway—it’s time to tear it down and start anew. Consolidating the City’s housing roles, bringing its housing budgets and activities in line with reality, and encouraging the broad-based creation of affordable housing will honor Berkeley’s liberal, family-friendly tradition—without corruption or budgetary red ink.  

John Parman  

 

• 

STEVE BARTON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Why care whether Stephen Barton is more of an idealist or an ideologue (see Planet, June 8)? It’s amusing to observe how Berkeley’s “Dead Tenants” escapade parallels Gogol’s “Dead Souls” in Tsarist Russia, cca 1842. But of more immediate concern to us is that fellow El Cerritan Barton, may soon spend not just nights and weekends, but also his days in our town. 

A year ago, Stephen Barton was the lone voice of El Cerrito City Hall support. I forget whether it was in favor of in of a massive housing project at The Plaza (to generate some $500,000/year for Redevelopment while ignoring the worsening Plaza traffic circulation mess), or in favor of increasing the City’s tax take. Maybe both. 

This is what I wrote in the “Plazaneighbors” Yahoo listserver, April 20, 2006: 

Barton said: “I came down to thank the Council for the hours you put in and the grief you take, for no pay (??????). I bought at the top of the market and am willing to be taxed six to ten times as much as my neighbors. The Council is doing the best it can with a very unfair system. The anti- people have it all tied up, and I’m willing to have them look up my name and address, and all of that.” 

So I did. A minute of Googling revealed that Stephen is a City of Berkeley Manager, its “Director of Housing,” now living way uphill, in El Cerrito. 

He is surely capable of looking out for his own interests if he chose to buy in El Cerrito “at the top if the market.” Before that, did he sell in Berkeley or Albany at the top of the market? It seems he started out there years before, as senior planner. Now, I’m told, he’s beginning to cut back and may wish to retire. Why suddenly come out of “nowhere” to be the sole City-Hall promoting flag-waver? I’d bet that what he’s angling for is consulting work, to advise us on how to spend the millions of dollars accumulating in El Cerrito’s redevelopment fund. 

Now, a year later, we’ll see if Barton will turn the Berkeley Housing mess to his advantage and seek pre-retirement sinecure refuge in “tranquil” El Cerrito. Proving that nowadays, city planners mainly plan their own careers. Consummate bureaucrats can sing with the “progressive angels” (?), howl with the “conservative wolves” (?), but always make sure they land on their feet while public money goes to waste.  

It’s not about ideals and ideology, it’s all about self-serving self-righteousness. 

Peter Loubal 

El Cerrito


Commentary: Bus Rapid Transit Won’t Be Rapid, But It Will Be a Bus...t

By Gale Garcia
Tuesday June 19, 2007

“Bus Rapid Transit” (BRT) is AC Transit’s plan to take over two lanes of Telegraph Avenue and eliminate up to 315 Berkeley parking spaces for humongous buses traveling from downtown San Leandro to downtown Berkeley. The draft environmental impact report (EIR) for this project, available at the library or from AC Transit, is a real eye-opener and an amusing read. 

BART, the only truly rapid local transportation, runs underground or on elevated tracks, and encounters no cross traffic. Its trains can therefore go up to 80 miles per hour, without endangering lives. Telegraph Avenue has a speed limit of 25 miles per hour in Berkeley. People live on this avenue, unlike the BART tunnel where no humans reside.  

I think I finally understand why traffic lights appeared on Telegraph Avenue at Russell and Stuart streets about a year ago, against the wishes of neighbors. Intersections with no traffic lights would be a problem for BRT’s monster buses. Pesky pedestrians think they have the right to cross the street in crosswalks. But traffic lights will be magically programmed to turn green, or stay green longer, when a bus approaches. 

Known as “transit signal priority,” this manipulation of stoplights is already in effect on San Pablo Avenue, reportedly with great success. However, the buses seem to be going about 40 miles per hour. Cars travel at similar speeds whenever a bus is nearby. Have police been told to ignore speeding vehicles on San Pablo Avenue to make this program seem like a good idea? 

If BRT buses are required to obey traffic safety laws on Telegraph, I doubt they will be much faster than the existing buses—and with way fewer stops than current service provides, they are most unlikely to attract drivers into buses. 

Riding AC Transit is costly. Lowering the prices, or providing eco-passes would do much more to persuade people to ride than a top-down “build it and they will come” (unless of course they don’t) source of unintended consequences. 

And who are the teaming hoards who wish to commute from downtown San Leandro to Berkeley? If they existed, why wouldn’t they just take BART, and travel rapidly on trains that are way more comfortable than the huge and hated VanHool buses? 

When I first heard about the plan to close two lanes of Telegraph Avenue (and parts of Shattuck), it sounded so loony that I thought this plan couldn’t really be in the works. During the 1970s and 1980s when traffic diverters were placed on residential streets, Telegraph and Shattuck Avenues were designated as arteries to keep cross-town traffic out of neighborhoods. Closing any portion of either street makes no sense at all. 

The plans for BRT have been chugging along behind the scenes for quite a while. Over the last year, strange alterations to Telegraph Avenue have appeared that were inexplicable until I read the EIR for this project.  

The EIR makes it very clear what BRT is all about. Here is a sample from page S-18, “Project would support intensified corridor development that is consistent with regional Smart Growth and transit-oriented development policies….” and from page 2-49, “Moreover, Telegraph Avenue has more opportunities for redevelopment that would meet the project need as described in Chapter 1.” There are scores of other similar statements in the EIR. 

In fact, the words “development” or “redevelopment” are used at least 179 times in the EIR, all in the context that increasing density along this route is a laudable goal. This project is a ruse, using transit “improvements” to encourage and enable yet more of the massive development so loved by our Mayor (and the money behind him), and so hated by an increasingly large segment of the Berkeley population. 

If BRT sounds like a bad idea to you, call, write or e-mail our City Council members and let them know how you feel. If you want more information, sign up to the “BRT E-mail Alert list” at: BerkeleyBRTalert@mail.org. Believe it or not, BRT is not a done deal (although it certainly would be a dumb deal). 

 

Gale Garcia is a long-term Berkeley  

resident who travels to work by bicycle. 


Commentary: BRT Would Have A Negative Impact On Our Neighborhoods

By Mary Oram
Tuesday June 19, 2007

Over the past year and a half I have learned about the proposal from AC Transit to install a “Bus Rapid Transit” (BRT) program to connect San Leandro to Oakland to Berkeley. We are now near the end of the review period for the environmental impact statement/report (EIS/R) on the project. (You can read the EIS/R at www.actransit.org/news/articledetail.wu?articleid=42622c20.)  

On June 15 there were three opinion pieces in the Daily Planet, all in support of the project. None of these articles gave a description of the project. I doubt that most Berkeley residents who will be affected by this proposal are aware of it. At the meetings I have attended, most of the positive comments have come from people who belong to specific advocacy groups and live at a distance to the project. Most of the people with concerns come from the neighborhoods that will be directly affected by it. The comment period on the EIS/R expires at the beginning of July, so if you want to have any input, you need to do it now. 

First, everyone needs to understand the current plan for BRT. The first stage will be to inaugurate the “Rapid Bus” system on Telegraph Avenue and on into downtown. These Rapid Buses will make limited stops and will have the ability to change a traffic signal from red to green as they approach an intersection with a light to ease their way down the road. There is already a “Rapid Bus” route along San Pablo that has been very well received. 

Once the rest of the money is raised (estimated at $330 to $400 million), AC Transit plans to modify Telegraph Avenue by taking the two middle lanes for an exclusive bus lane in each direction, separated from the other lanes by a curb, add stations every third of a mile, remove street parking as needed at each station location, and shift all other traffic into the remaining one lane each way—all cars, trucks, “Rapid Bus,” local bus service and emergency vehicles. The BRT will run from near the downtown Berkeley BART station on Shattuck, run through the Southside neighborhood and on to Telegraph Avenue (exact route to be determined), and proceed down Telegraph to Broadway in downtown Oakland, turn east on 14th Street, and continue to one of two alternative BART stops in San Leandro.  

If you look at the EIS/R without first putting on rose-colored glasses, you will notice some marked deficiencies in the analysis. The EIS/R looks at every conceivable impact of the project except for the impact of this system on the residential neighborhoods adjacent to the proposed BRT route. At this time Telegraph Avenue carries approximately twice the amount of traffic that is carried by College Avenue Removing one traffic lane in each direction will be like having Telegraph Avenue volume traffic drive on a street the size of College Avenue In addition, since the BRT buses will speed down the middle two lanes of the road, left turns will be curtailed at most intersections. When the traffic on Telegraph Avenue backs up, many drivers will be sorely tempted to make a right turn at the next intersection and cut through the neighborhood on the first street they encounter. AC Transit says they can mitigate all the impacts of this project, but so far I have not heard how they intend to solve this problem. Their report shows all sorts of lovely before and after pictures of what the streets along the route will look like after BRT is built. The problem is that these pictures show only two or three cars, which is not representative of realistic traffic volume. The solution in the EIS/R to the removal of approximately 150 parking spaces along Telegraph Avenue at the station locations is to move this parking to the adjacent side streets by installing parking meters, presumably in front of homes. 

The BRT system is being sold as a way to get many more people to ride the bus. The ride will be shorter, and the increased congestion will encourage car drivers to abandon their vehicles and take the bus. What AC Transit has failed to acknowledge is that the Berkeley to Oakland to San Leandro corridor is already served by many bus lines and BART and will soon get the Rapid Bus. The vast majority of riders on the BRT will be people who switch from BART or another bus line, not from people who are driving. If you are going where the BRT goes, you can already get there by public transportation. Speakers at the meeting last night suggested that a better way to get more people to ride would be to lower fares and/or stop buying any more Van Hool buses. 

The first meeting I attended about BRT a few years ago praised this system as being a low cost substitute for a rail system. BRT supporters point out how successful BRT systems have been in other cities in the United States and abroad. But they fail to acknowledge that we already have a rail system (BART) that works well and we don’t need a substitute. I think that AC Transit would serve the community better if it would design its service to compliment the BART system what we already have rather than build a system that will compete with it.  

We can have almost all of the advantages of the BRT system without spending the estimated $400 million it would cost by just implementing the “Rapid Bus” system. AC Transit lays this comparison out well by listing the advantages of “Rapid Bus”, called “No-Build alternative” on page 4-62 of the EIS/R and the disadvantages of the BRT “Build” alternative on pages 4-63 to 64.  

As long as I have lived here, the goal for transportation planning in Berkeley has been to get traffic out of the neighborhoods and concentrate it on the major roads. The BRT plan for Telegraph Avenue does just the opposite. It allows buses to take over most of Telegraph Avenue, the main north-south transportation corridor between Berkeley and Oakland, and drive the rest of the traffic onto the streets in the adjacent neighborhoods. 

Finally, the argument is made that we need to build the BRT because if we don’t, we will lose this money. What ever the local communities and AC Transit decide to build today will shape the way this part of the East Bay looks like in 2025 and on. This is an extremely important decision. I think that using this money to build this inflexible, neighborhood destroying limited transit corridor will be a terrible waste of taxpayer money. From the analysis contained in the EIS/R, we would reap almost all the benefits predicted just by using the “Rapid Bus” stage alone. I would much rather not spend the money for the fully implemented BRT system than to spend it with the damage I foresee it causing. I hope that the decision between the “Build” and “No Build” alternatives will be made for the benefit of all the community and not just for the benefit of AC Transit. 

 

Mary Oram is resident of Berkeley’s Willard neighborhood. 


Commentary: Speeding Up Buses Without Screwing Up Telegraph

By Michael Katz
Tuesday June 19, 2007

Ignore all the diesel smoke and rumbling around AC Transit’s misnamed “Bus Rapid Transit” (BRT) proposal to take over two lanes of Telegraph Avenue, and two striking facts stand clear. 

First, as we’ll see from AC Transit’s own recent environmental study, BRT threatens real damage to Berkeley neighborhoods and businesses, yet promises almost no tangible benefits to the public. 

The only clear beneficiary is AC Transit itself, which would get a new stream of subsidies. While we all want stable transit funding, there are less-destructive ways to deliver $400 million in pork barrel. 

Second, and even more strikingly: A slightly modified plan—based on best practices elsewhere—could deliver broad benefits, with no detriments to anyone. It would also save most of that $400 million for worthier rapid-transit projects, which would do some real good for global warming and the environment. Think of that as Berkeley’s buying itself a big “carbon credit.” 

This alternative, which I’ll describe below, might be called “Rapid Bus with low-tech Proof of Payment.” But since that’s a mouthful, I’ll abbreviate it as “Rap with PoP.” 

If Berkeley’s decisionmakers are working for us—not in the service of a perennially broken bus agency, nor of some outmoded car-hating dogma—they’ll reject AC Transit’s proposed land grab, and demand a pragmatic alternative like Rap with PoP. 

What’s not right with BRT on Telegraph? AC Transit answered that question last month in its draft environmental statement (www.actransit.org/news/articledetail.wu?articleid=42622c20) 

That study shows BRT delivering only “negligible” changes in overall energy usage (page 4-152). It also shows only negligible reductions in air pollutants: just three one-hundredths of one percent, by 2025 (page 4-131). 

How would BRT affect greenhouse-gas emissions? By extrapolation, hardly at all. 

For transit riders, this BRT proposal offers only minimal benefits. It would run just one to six blocks beside the existing BART line, for its entire length. AC Transit’s preferred spacing for Berkeley BRT “stations” (a half-mile) would be almost as wide as BART’s (a mile). 

This “rapid” route isn’t even very rapid: From Berkeley’s to Oakland’s downtown, AC Transit estimates only five to seven minutes’ savings. From Berkeley down to Bayfair BART, AC Transit estimates a trip length of up to 72 minutes with BRT, versus 78 minutes without it. But on the adjacent BART line, you can already get there in just 30 minutes. BART will always beat this bus. 

So the slim upside of this Emperor’s New Bus stands revealed: It won’t save the planet, and will hardly save transit riders any time. 

What are the downsides? AC Transit’s study makes it clear that these all stem from seizing those two bus-only lanes. By shoving all the other traffic into half as many lanes, this would create artificial congestion. 

Other vehicles would idle more, pollute more, and travel less efficiently—negating all the benefits of any additional bus boardings. Every congested intersection means more wasted gasoline, more CO2, and more traffic cutting across South Berkeley neighborhoods. 

For businesses and their patrons, AC Transit threatens to kill off some 945 to 1,300 parking spaces along its whole route. If you don’t like that impact, you’ll hate its proposed “mitigation”: converting another 187 to 318 spaces into yellow-curb delivery zones or metered parking. 

BRT’s worst impacts could fall on Southside’s struggling commercial district. AC Transit’s proposals include a daytime ban on all private cars on Telegraph, north of Dwight Way. They also include blocking Bancroft Way traffic at Telegraph. 

These are not new or innovative ideas. Lots of cities in the 1970s tried such “pedestrian/transit malls” on major commercial streets. Virtually all were disasters for business, and had to be undone—sometimes at staggering cost. 

Why does AC Transit’s BRT proposal so dramatically fail the cost/benefit test? One reason is the absurdly redundant route it has chosen.  

A rational transit agency might propose BRT somewhere like Oakland’s MacArthur/I-580 corridor—an area plagued by poor BART access and very slow bus service. These are places where bus-only lanes could really convert a lot of car trips to transit trips. 

The other reason, though, is what AC Transit is doing right: the “Rapid Bus” service that AC Transit will bring to Telegraph on June 24. 

“Rapid Bus” will add express buses that make limited stops, and will allow buses to keep stoplights green until they clear intersections. These enhancements will capture most of the speed benefits realistically available to buses in this BART corridor. 

AC Transit’s Jim Cunradi told a recent audience that BRT would further speed buses by instituting “proof of payment” (PoP). Indeed, much of the world already uses PoP, which speeds boarding because riders buy tickets before they board. 

Bus drivers open all doors for entry at every stop, and waste no time processing fares, passes, or transfers. Periodically, an inspector boards to ask riders for proof that they’ve paid. 

But PoP doesn’t require the bus-only lanes, bus “stations,” or high-tech ticket-vending machines in AC Transit’s BRT proposal. Those are arbitrary components copied from particular cities. 

Across Italy, Romania, and other European countries, I’ve seen a low-tech, low-cost approach to PoP that works just fine: Riders buy transit tickets from any corner store. They board their bus or streetcar, and punch their tickets on a hole punch located near the door. That time-stamped punch is their proof of payment. 

AC Transit could readily adopt this basic approach to PoP not just on Telegraph, but across its entire fleet—speeding up the whole system, and attracting new riders. Add basic PoP to Telegraph’s forthcoming Rapid Bus enhancements, and you get “Rap with PoP.” That especially sweet combination would speed up buses without worsening congestion, aggravating parking shortages, or diverting traffic into neighborhoods. 

If Berkeley officials are looking out for the public’s good, they will accept nothing more disruptive. But if they knuckle under to AC Transit’s wasteful proposal, take that as a sign that they’re stuck back in the 1970s—a decade when it was fashionable to inconvenience motorists, even if the nagging didn’t get them out of their cars. 

With today’s global-warming threat, and tight government budgets, we can’t afford to waste $400 million on outmoded notions that offer no net environmental benefits. Every dollar wasted on a boondoggle like this is just as harmful as a gallon of gas wasted driving an oversized SUV to the store. 

Let’s reserve our taxes for where they will really improve transit options and the environment. 

 

Michael Katz is a Berkeley resident. 


Readers Sound Off On Bus Rapid Transit Plan

Tuesday June 19, 2007

BUS RAPID TRANSIT  

ONLY MAKES SENSE  

WHEN SEEN THROUGH  

ROSE-COLORED GLASSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I attended the AC Transit public hearing on Thursday, June 14, on their plans for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) along Telegraph, and made comments during the meeting. I am writing to share those comments with your readers, and to expand upon them a bit. My primary concern is the traffic analysis and projections in the recent draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). They seem to have been written while wearing rose-colored lenses. 

For example, the DEIS reports that College Avenue at Ashby experiences traffic-related delays of 33.8 seconds currently (as of 2003) during the afternoon peak times. They grade this as a LOS (Level Of Service) C. However, as anyone familiar with College Avenue would know, it is fairly common for southbound traffic to be backed up over two blocks in the evening commute. I timed it once at six minutes 48 seconds. I would call this LOS F. 

Of course, the bus line is planned for Telegraph, not College, so why is this relevant? 

It is relevant because AC Transit’s plans for the bus line would take away two traffic lanes for essentially the entire length of Telegraph Avenue, reducing its traffic capacity to that of College. Yet, by my own traffic measurements, Telegraph carries 990 vehicles per hour southbound during the evening commute, but College carries only 480. This is over twice the traffic. 

No doubt AC Transit’s answer to this is that traffic on Telegraph will decrease, and their Table 3.2-3a projects that there will be 871 fewer vehicles (total for both directions) during the hour of highest afternoon traffic. If you combine their figures with mine (which may be a bit dicey), Telegraph would still be carrying 16 percent more traffic than College carries now. In addition, they anticipate that some traffic will shift over to College (and Shattuck, Adeline, etc.), leading to a 17 percent increase for traffic on College (again combining their figures with mine). It’s hard to imagine a 16-1 percent increase of the traffic on College. The problem with decreasing the capacity of Telegraph and expecting other parallel arteries to make up for it is that there are no such arteries to the east of Telegraph that are not already overburdened. So people like myself who live near College Avenue, and take Telegraph to avoid the tie-ups on College, will have to go even further, to Adeline, to avoid the mess. 

An earlier speaker said, “Telegraph will still work.” I disagree. If BRT comes to pass, Telegraph Avenue will become like the Warring-Derby-Belrose corridor. And so will College. 

Paul Vojta 

 

• 

PRESERVING TELEGRAPH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I walked up Parker Street and then turned left to the amazing little Chilton Way where a woman and her husband were working in their garden, and I stopped to ask her about it. “How did it happen that you “It’s like a botanical garden.” “Yes,” she said, “It is beautiful, isn’t it?” “Did you all get together and plan it?” I said. “Not really,” she said, “but much of it is the work of the gardener who lives in that house over there with the big cactus. He was also the one who planted all these plants by the curb.” “I’ve been walking up to Telegraph for many years now,” I said, “and I always make a special point of passing through this little paradise on my way to Moe’s. It used to be to Cody’s too, but now there’s only Moe’s. I’m afraid Moe’s will be gone too one of these days.” "Why?” she said, and I told her about Mrs. Moskowitz’s letter to the Planet and the proposed traffic ban.” “If Moe’s goes,” I said, “that’s it for Telegraph, at least for people like me.” “For everyone,” she said. “Moe’s is Telegraph,” she said. “Without Moe’s there would be no Telegraph.” “Yes,” I said. “It would be the final blow.” 

Pete Najarian 

 

• 

A FEW COMMENTS AND  

QUESTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In reply to the advocates of BRT featured in the June 15 edition, I’ve got some comments and questions.  

I live on Telegraph near Alcatraz Avenue, and work at UC. I walk to work every day, rain or shine. It’s good exercise, it’s free, and I avoid having to haul myself up into the seats of the new buses, smell irritating scented products, and frequently listen to loud monologues by disturbed people and/or those on cell phones. 

I do, however, own a car. It’s old, and I only use it for heavy-carrying errands and distances. Parking in my neighborhood is already difficult. If BRT takes away a lane, and, as has been suggested, metered parking is added on the side streets, I will have nowhere to park. Sure, I could join one of the car share companies—but that’s an expensive proposition (you pay a fee even if you don’t use a car very much), and I’d have to walk to Ashby BART to get a car. Also, despite what proponents of BRT say, traffic will be congested if Telegraph is reduced to one lane each way. It’s naive and utopian to imagine that people will immediately see the light and jump on the bus. Rush hour is already quite an experience if you live on Telegraph—reducing the street to one lane plus a loud fast bus would make it much worse. People who rent do live on Telegraph—we’re a neighborhood too. 

Another issue is ridership on the new rapid buses. Have any studies been done of point of origin for the many drivers who now use Telegraph? The bus line along Telegraph through to San Leandro goes down major commercial corridors. To get to the bus, people who live at a tangent to the line have to take another (non-rapid) bus. I’d guess that they take BART instead, because they can park. Has anyone surveyed UC Berkeley employees who drive into Berkeley, since they are seen as a major source of traffic? 

Where do they live? Will it be convenient for them to get to the rapid bus? It would be pretty depressing to have an expensive, disruptive new rapid bus and still have the same old ridership, with very few new riders. If this does get built, I hope I’m wrong, and that everyone gets on the bus and that it’s worth it. I also hope I’ve moved away from Telegraph before it all happens. 

Aija Kanbergs 

Oakland 

 

• 

APPLES AND ORANGES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Comparing the Orange bus line in the San Fernando Valley and the proposed BRT line is the East Bay is like comparing apples and oranges. Other than buses they don’t have much in common. 

Please remember that the Orange line was constructed along an old unused train right-of-way and that no automobile lanes or public parking was taken away by the constuction. The orange bus runs on it’s own private transitway. 

The proposed BRT will reduce by 50 percent the automobile capacity of Telegraph Ave and eliminate hundreds of public parking spaces. 

That makes for one hell of a diffeerence between the two projects. 

Frank K. Greenspan


Columns

Column: Dispatches From The Edge: The Tangled Webs of Northern Iraq

By Conn Hallinan
Friday June 22, 2007

There are few areas in the world more entangled in historical deceit and betrayal than northern Iraq, where the British, the Ottomans, and the Americans have played a deadly game of political chess at the expense of the local Kurds. And now, because of a volatile brew of internal Iraqi and Turkish politics, coupled with the Bush administration’s clandestine war to destabilize and overthrow the Iranian government, the region threatens to explode into a full-scale regional war. 

A series of bombings and attacks over the past year in Turkey touched off the current crisis. The Turks attribute the violence to the Iraq-based Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) The PKK fought a bitter war against the Turks from 1984 through the 1990s. Ankara’s campaign to repress its Kurdish population during that period ended up killing some 35,000 people, destroying 3,000 villages, and forcibly relocating between 500,000 and 2 million Kurds. 

The Kurds make up about 20 percent of Turkey and Iraq and have a significant presence in Syria and Iran. There are between 25 to 30 million of them, and they represent one of the world’s largest ethnic groups without a country, a status that has long aggrieved them. 

The current crisis began late last month when the Turks declared martial law in three provinces that border Iraq, massing troops, armor, and artillery, and threatening to invade if the United States and the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki did not suppress the PKK.  

But things are never quite what they appear in northern Iraq: 

• While the Turks are indeed concerned about the activities of the PKK, Ankara’s real agenda is to block any possibility of an independent Kurdish nation on their border. The Turkish Army is also whipping up nationalism in an effort to influence the outcome of the July 22 Turkish elections.  

• The United States considers the PKK a terrorist organization, but the Bush Administration is also using the organization to launch attacks into Iran and stir up ethnic animosities among Iranians.  

• The Islamicist Maliki government, with its ties to extremist Shiite militias and Iran, is no friend of the secular and socialist-minded PKK. But Maliki needs Kurdish support in his battle with former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, whose coalition of former Baathists, Sunnis, secular Shiites, and disgruntled Kurds has designs on bringing down Maliki’s government. 

• And while the current Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)—a coalition of the formerly warring Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party—has no great love for the PKK, the organization is tough and battle-hardened and has become an invaluable ally against a rising tide of Islamicism in the Kurdish region.  

Turkey is deeply worried that an upcoming plebiscite in Kirkuk could make the oil-rich city the Kurds claim as their capital a part of Kurdistan. The Turks charge that the Kurds are trying to influence the outcome of the vote by driving 200,000 Turkomen and Arabs out of the city, and moving in 600,000 Kurds, reversing the 1980s population shift when Saddam Hussein forced many Kurds out of Kirkuk, moving in Arab families to take their place.  

In order to keep the KRG as an ally, the Maliki government is backing the plebiscite and supporting a plan to remove 12,000 Arab families from Kirkuk and send them back to their original homes in central and southern Iraq.  

The Turks fear that if Kirkuk joins Kurdistan it will give the Kurds the economic base they need to build a Kurdish state, which will in turn stir up Turkey’s restive Kurds to demand independence or autonomy. Ankara blames the United States for ignoring the issue of Kirkuk and turning a blind eye to the PKK.  

“It is widely acknowledged,” says Syrian historian and journalist Sami Moubayed, “that the PKK cannot operate out of northern Iraq without the full blessing of Maliki, [Iraqi] President Jalal Talabani (a Kurd) and the United States.”  

Rather than suppressing the PKK, the United States is using its offshoot, the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK), to attack Iran. According to a Financial Times investigation last year, U.S. Marines are working with Iranian minorities to see if “Iran would be prone to violent fragmentation along the same kind of fault lines that are splitting Iraq.” (Financial Times, 2/24/06) 

Farsi speakers dominate Iran, but they only make up a slim majority of the country. The rest of the population consists of Kurds, Arabs, Azeris and Baluchs. The United States is also supporting a violent Baluch group, the Jundallah, which killed 11 Revolutionary Guard this past February in southern Iran. (ABC News, 3/3/07) 

“I think everybody in the region knows that there is a proxy war already afoot, with the United States supporting anti-Iranian elements in the region as well as opposition groups in Iran,” says Vali Nasr of the Council on Foreign Relations. (ABC News, 5/22/07) 

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh says that PRJAK is also receiving help from Israel. 

From Ankara’s point of view, Turkey is paying the price for both the White House’s crusade against Iran and the weakness of the current Maliki government. 

Maliki is beset by a Sunni insurgency and growing American impatience with his failure to rein in sectarian violence and to pass proposed hydrocarbon legislation that would open Iraq to western oil companies.  

But Maliki is allied with the Shiite militias who are waging that sectarian war, including Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army. And Maliki’s Kurdish allies are opposed to the proposed oil legislation because it would block the Kurds from cutting their own deals with oil companies. The law is also deeply unpopular with the average Iraqi. Oil workers recently struck in an effort to derail it. 

The U.S. is hoping the KRG will rein in the PKK. One anonymous Iraqi official told The Sun, “The Americans want the Kurds to make their life easier. They need the Kurdish government to show they are willing to tackle terrorism in the north… maybe alert Turkey of a threat, act on intelligence, arrest some people, make an effort.” 

However, the KRG has a problem with a growing wave of Islamicism in Kurdistan. The PKK is strongly secular—it was formerly the Kurdish Communist Party—and, in a fight with Islamic extremists it would be an invaluable ally. On top of which, the PKK is widely respected for its long struggle against the Turks, and if the KRG were to turn against the PKK it might not go down well with the average Kurd. 

Even if the KRG reins in the PKK, it might not be enough for Ankara, because Turkey wants to roll back any movement that would create an independent Kurdistan.  

But that genie is already out of the lamp. The well-ordered and relatively peaceful Kurdish region has a working parliament, several universities, and Kurdish language radio and television. It has essentially been a functioning country since 1992 when the Americans and British established a “no fly” zone over the area following the end of Gulf War I. Whatever the Turks want, Kurdistan is already a reality. 

Part of the current crisis is a reflection of Turkey’s internal politics. Beating the anti-Kurdish drum is part of the Turkish Army’s strategy to whip up nationalism in order to weaken the religious government of Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan before the July elections. 

The major danger is that the tension between Turks and Kurds could quickly get out of hand. For the past few weeks the Turkish Army has been shelling Kurdish villages in Iraq and sending small units across the border. A miscalculation by either side could quickly escalate, which is exactly what the United States fears.  

“Fighting between Turks and Kurds in Iraq could spread to Turkey itself,” says Henri J. Barkey, chair of International Relations at Lehigh University and widely considered to be the top U.S.-Turkish scholar. This, he said, could lead to “a severe rupture in U.S.-Turkish relations,” and “deal a fatal blow” to U.S. efforts in Iraq. 

Northern Iraq has always been a complicated place, but the U.S. war has sharpened the tensions which have plagued it for over a century. Now those tensions have pushed the region to the brink of chaos. 


Column: Undercurrents: Preserving a First Language While Learning a Second

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday June 22, 2007

My grandfather, Ellis Allen, Sr. I am told, spoke with a musical French accent, as did his sister, Aunt Isobel, who migrated with other Allen family members to Oakland at the end of the 19th century. I barely remember my grandfather and his accent, not at all, but that information does not now surprise me. My father’s people were from the Louisiana bayou country, St. James Parish, near New Orleans, where French was the predominant settler language for years until “the Americans came” and supplanted it with English. 

Betty Reid Soskin, my first cousin, who is a generation ahead of me, remembers our mutual great-grandmother, Leontine Breaux Allen, who spoke French as her first language, as well as Creole, which in Louisiana is a jazz-blend language combining French and African words and grammar. Betty remembers from her childhood aunts who used to throw out nicknames and phrases which were just family words to her, then, but which she now knows to have been French or Creole. 

Betty does not speak French. Neither did my father, who was her contemporary, nor, to my knowledge, did any of the other family members of their generation. That continued down into my generation, as well. The only one in my immediate family who speaks French is my brother, who learned it not at home, but at school. 

French (and, sadly, Creole as well) died out in my family a generation before I came on this earth. What worlds, I wonder, would have opened up for me if they had not, and I had learned the two languages easily, naturally, at the breakfast table, as I did English. I will never know, because that door is forever closed. 

And that is what worries me about the recent, well-publicized suggestion to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, that in order to quicker learn English, Latinos should "turn off the Spanish television set”—in effect, should abandon Spanish. 

This is not knee-jerk Arnold-bashing from the left. Mr. Schwarzenegger has his faults, but he should not be quickly dismissed when it comes to discussion about the best and quickest way to pick up the native language in a new country. Obviously, he knows what he is talking about, from experience. 

“When I came to this country, I did not, or very rarely, spoke German to anyone,” the governor told the journalists. “Not that I didn’t like Austria, my heart was always in Austria, but I wanted to as quickly as possible learn the English language. And I felt that through immersion, and just really sitting in front of the television set—and I remember I watched all the comedies and the news programs. I couldn’t understand a word they were saying, but nevertheless I watched it, and eventually I got with it, and I learned. And I remember that the teachers at Santa Monica College also told me the same thing. They said, ‘Read the L.A. Times, even though you don’t understand it. Look at your dictionary and learn, and look at books that are English, look at comic books that are English, watch television, listen to radio that is English.’ And it really helped me, that within a year and a half or two years, I really got my act together so I could read the paper and I could understand the news and really get with it also in school.”  

That seems to be excellent advice, if your goal is only to convert to a new language. But what if you want to preserve the old language, by picking up the new? 

Historically, America has not had much success with that. 

Given our history, we ought to be one of the most linguistically-diverse nations on earth. While the Jamestown, Virginia colonists spoke English, themselves, they and their fellow British settlers were immediately exposed to a vast polyglot of Native American languages and language groups: Wampanoag, Lenape, Susquehannock, Catawba, Muskogee, Mohican, Powhatan…and that was on the east coast alone. It is estimated that at the time of the original English settlement in North America, there were some 250 Native American languages spoken in the territory now covered by the United States. 

Just as there was no “one” Native American language, there was no “one” African language, either. European slave catchers ranged up and down the west and east coasts of Africa, and the captives brought across the Atlantic in the 18th and 19th centuries to work on North American plantations reflected that rich linguistic diversity. Linguist Lorenzo D. Turner’s 1949 “Africanisms In The Gullah Dialect,” still the defining work on African language in America, lists some 32 separate African languages represented in the personal names of African-Americans he found as late as the 1940’s in the coastal areas of South Carolina, Georgia, and north Florida: Yoruba, Twi, Wolof, Kongo, Mende, Fon, Umbundu. And unlike the middle-Georgia drawl you hear by Black actors in such slavery-era movies as “Gone With The Wind,” the Slave Quarters were actually a rich brew of multiple blended languages and accents, so diverse it is hard to imagine, today, how it must have sounded. 

African spoken language in America directly descended from the slaverytime days has all but disappeared—there is only a pale, plaintive echo in the Gullah dialect spoken on the South Carolina and Georgia sea islands, along with a multitude of African words hidden, like Orishas amongst the Catholic saints, in modern American speech. Jazz (probably from the Bantu word jaja), dig (as in “I can dig that” from deg, the Wolof word for understanding) goober (a popular nickname among white Southerners that is from the Kimbundu word guba for peanut), and yam (Mende for, of course, sweet potato).  

In a similar way, Native American language lies largely unacknowledged among many American place names: Hiyaleyah (Seminole), Mississippi (Algonquin), Michigan (Ottawa), Malibu (Ventureño), Manhattan (Delaware). Unlike African language, a significant number of Native American language speakers remain in this country, though until such movies as “Dances With Wolves” and the Daniel Day-Lewis version of “The Last Of The Mohicans,” most Americans never had any exposure to them. 

So it is with the European languages that came to America. Successive waves of European immigrants have come to this country: French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, German, Polish, Greek, Dutch, Lithuanian… Many established newspapers in their native languages, and for a generation, their communities hummed with a foreign tongue. But most of those languages have since all but disappeared from our shores, as the first generation of American born children provided a bridge between the two languages (think of Michael Corleone conversing in Italian with the “Turk” in “The Godfather”), but the second generation felt little need to speak anything but English. The Bay Area, for example, once had large Italian- and Portuguese-speaking communities, but those two languages have now all but disappeared from our streets and shops. 

I freely confess my ignorance as to the trends that are happening in the communities of non-European immigrants. In the Chinatown commercial sections of San Francisco and Oakland, you can often hear conversations in Mandarin or Cantonese, and nothing else. So it is with the Southeast Asian immigrant communities—Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Thai—and in the shops and stores run by various Arab entrepreneurs. But as an outsider not familiar with those communities, it is impossible to tell whether folks there are holding onto their native language in a way that was different from earlier groups, or if the old languages are holding on because those communities are still in the midst of immigrating. Perhaps it is a little of both. 

But outside of the smaller Chinese and South Vietnamese and Arab or East Indian pockets—where the trend may not yet have been established—and outside of the larger, and spreading, Latino community—which sits on the border of a Spanish-speaking country and whose Spanish is being constantly enriched and strengthened by continuing new waves of incoming Spanish speakers—the clear trend in America has been to drop the old languages in our wake. 

I struggle to understand why that is a good thing. 

With the rise of American world power following the Second World War into what is almost always described today as “the world’s only superpower”—“superpower” being a largely undefined phenomenon—Americans have used a sort of sledgehammer approach to linguistic dominance, using our considerable economic and military power to force the world to do its business in our tongue, and our tongue only. That is great for the national ego, perhaps, but in that direction, much is lost. To speak more than one language is like having both a car and a boat in your garage. It allows you to travel on two different mediums, in two different ways, in two different directions. Why would anyone voluntarily give that up? 

And that is why, in the end, I believe Mr. Schwarzenegger’s advice to the Latino journalists and their followers to be ill-advised. Those among us who come to this country speaking Spanish only ought to do as much as they can to learn English. It will be both to their benefit and ours, and we ought to figure out ways to help and advance that process any way we can. 

But at the same time, I cannot see why they should ever put away their Spanish. Or Mandarin. Or Vietnamese. Or Arabic. Or Tagalog. Or Hindi. Or Afrikaans. Or Italian. Or German. Or anything else. 

Instead, we ought to figure out a way that they can teach their languages to the rest of us. The American Experience ought not to run on a one-way street. And it ought to be an expanding one. Not contracting. That seems such a waste of such a valuable, valuable national resource. 


Maybeck Connections on View at Gifford McGrew Open House

By Steven Finacom
Friday June 22, 2007

One of Berkeley’s most important and historic brown shingle homes—with Maybeck connections, too—is currently for sale at 2601 Derby Street. An Open House is scheduled from 2-4:30 p.m. this Sunday, June 24.  

The residence—the five-bedroom, three-story Gifford McGrew House—embodies both a remarkable design history and character, and more than a century of Berkeley history. Prominently situated on the corner of Derby and Hillegass, across from Willard Park, it is on the market for $1,595,000.  

The house was “designed by Maybeck and the owner with ideas contributed by their common friend, Charles Keeler” Maybeck’s biographer, Kenneth Cardwell, writes in Bernard Maybeck: Artisan, Architect, Artist.  

And Leslie Freudenheim in Building with Nature characterizes the house as “designed by Bernard Maybeck, possibly executed by Charles Keeler, with advice from McGrew’s friend (Reverend) Joseph Worcester.”  

There you have connections to three of the most important apostles of the architectural and cultural movement that brought Berkeley a distinctive brown shingle aesthetic.  

The contractor is said to have been A.H. Broad, who was one of Berkeley’s first elected town trustees, an artist, and a busy builder who left distinctive homes and early school buildings all over town, some of them now City Landmarks.  

Cardwell writes that “The McGrew house and its predecessors became the examples of a ‘movement towards a simpler, a truer, a more vital art expression’ when, a few years later, Charles Keeler assumed the spokesman’s role for the modest house and ‘the simple life.’ ”  

In 1895 Maybeck had designed the Keeler family home on Highland Place in a steep-roofed style very similar to the McGrew House. Keeler would publish his influential treatise The Simple Home in 1904, thus placing the McGrew house midway in time between Maybeck’s first brown shingle commissions in Berkeley and the popularization of his design philosophy in Keeler’s book.  

The house was built for Gifford McGrew but he wasn’t, as the real estate listing implies, “University Librarian.” A 1978 obituary for McGrew’s daughter, Mary Edith McGrew, refers to her father as becoming “assistant librarian” at UC when the family arrived from Massachusetts in 1899.  

Joseph C. Rowell reigned then as University Librarian, and would not retire until 1916. The McGrews were Unitarians, so their social lives intersected at Berkeley’s First Unitarian Church—itself a Craftsman masterpiece still standing at Dana and Bancroft—with a number of other local families, including the Keelers, involved in the “building with nature” movement.  

Mary Edith attended Cal and, upon graduation in 1903, won the University Medal, awarded to the most distinguished graduate of the year. For 36 years she was principal of Berkeley’s then-prominent private, college prep, A-to-Zed School. She died at 96.  

There have been several owners and some remodeling and structural upgrades at the house since then. The house was last on the market in 2004 with an asking price of $1.3 million. The front door is off Derby, midway on the side of the long ground floor and indented beneath a substantial overhang. The spacious entry hall, frames a wonderful, gleaming, staircase that ascends to a landing, then doubles back and up to the second floor. To the left is the long, rectangular, living room. 

Turn in the other direction and there’s an ample dining room with a brick fireplace and built in cabinetry. The kitchen, at the rear of the ground floor beyond the stairwell, is the one major disappointment in the house. The floor is covered with big, square, terra cotta pavers more suitable to a suburban hacienda, and the cabinets and counters have a Home Depotish air completely at odds with the rest of the house. Anyone with $1.6 million to buy the house will presumably have something left over to remodel the kitchen, and one hopes a new kitchen is closer to the original character of the home. Off the kitchen in one direction there’s a narrow room for laundry. 

On the other side a little, generously-windowed, breakfast nook opens to the garden, and a passage leads to what the realtor describes as a cottage, but is more of a single, rustic, room connected to the house and adjoined by a full bath. French doors open from the “cottage” to a secluded patio. 

The eastern yard is not that large, but a little more extensive than it seems from the street. Fence, trees, and a clambering red trumpet vine wall the garden off from the Derby Street sidewalk. The west yard used to be the front garden extending out to the Hillegass sidewalk. Years ago the house was complimented by a gem-like, perfectly tended, lawn on this side. Later, however, the space was fenced in along Hillegass. There’s a gate for cars and the garden is part graveled parking area. 

Back inside, the main stairs pause at a wide, windowed, landing where a side door conceals a tiny, handsome, half bath. A short side stair leads up to the only full bath on the second floor, which also communicates with one of the four bedrooms on that level. The staircase debouches into an ample second floor hall, surrounded by bedrooms: one big but narrow; two spacious; one—at the west end—extremely large with a corner fireplace and a door that opens onto a wide west facing deck with massive ornamental railing and balusters, all of it supported on the extended end of the living room below. From the second floor hall a smaller staircase ascends to the attic which is almost a full residence in itself.  

The steep roofs allow for high, vaulted, ceilings, the structure of two roof gables perpendicular to each other subdivides the space into separate volumes, and an interesting, partially open, bathroom is tucked away in one corner. Skylights, a freestanding stove on a brick hearth, and a huge west-facing window and small balcony complete this impressive level.  

The segmented window was added in the 1980s if I remember correctly and is, from the outside, the most visible change to the house. Although it altered a primary façade it was done quite contextually and helps create a wonderful space inside. From top to bottom—in most areas save the kitchen and laundry room—the house is a treasury of unpainted and original woodwork—polished floors, and old growth redwood paneling, exposed beams, and trim. Wide, vertical, boards with narrow battens cover most of the interior walls, the structure of the ceiling is creatively exposed, and there are several clever built-ins at various levels. 

It’s possible to honestly mourn the ancient trees felled over a century ago to supply this much clear-heart redwood while still admiring the house as a wonderful human artifact. Most of the windows are finely crafted, there are three intentionally simple red brick fireplaces, and period light fixtures—or at least good facsimiles—in most key locations. This is a magnificent, complex, beautiful house and a Berkeley treasure. 

It also, sadly, has no landmark protection. Some modifications will probably be made. For instance, it’s hard to imagine a new owner paying $1.6 million and not wanting more than one bathroom on the second floor. But a new owner insensitive to character and history could also drastically alter this house, as was recently done to another corner brown shingle a few blocks away on Regent Street. That would be a national architectural loss and a severe visual and cultural tragedy for Berkeley. Some dedicated volunteer should come forward—and soon—to research and write a city landmark application for this remarkable piece of local heritage. 

Meanwhile, take advantage of the rare opportunity this Sunday to see the interior of the house. The listing agent for 2601 Derby is Tricia Swift, Broker Associate at The Grubb Company. Office telephone (510) 339-0400/333, e-mail tswift@grubbco.com, website at Grubbco.com or 2601Derby.com An interesting sampling of older interior and exterior photos of the house, taken years ago by Kenneth Cardwell, can be found by searching for “McGrew House” at www.mip.berkeley.edu/spiro. 

 

Photograph by Steven Finacom. 

The shingled exterior of the McGrew House with its distinctive steep-roofed gable. 


Garden Variety: Reading Palms from I-580 in Richmond

By Ron Sullivan
Friday June 22, 2007

We’ve driven past the place dozens of times on the way to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and it’s become a private landmark rather like San Quentin. But last week was the first time we’ve ever managed to get off I-580 and get our feet on the ground at Golden Gate Palms in Richmond. 

My goodness. The place is vast, and it has more than just palms. 

“Just palms” on the other hand includes such an assortment that it kept my attention quite well, while Joe wandered off among the succulents. Gary Gragg, the owner, says he sells some palm species and varieties never before on sale in California, or even the world.  

I’m not equipped to say Aye or Nay to that proposition, but I do know there was stuff there I’d had no idea even existed. Yet another blue palm, for example, a European variety. Trachycarpus wagnerianus, cousin to the familiar T. fortunei “windmill” palm—the one with the brown fiber netting growing in rags around the trunk—but with a sort of silvered underside on each leaf.  

There was one huge specimen in the ground that looked like a Jubaea chilensis, Chilean date palm, but it wasn’t labeled. Sure enough, though it is what it looks like, and over a century old.  

It, like some others in Golden Gate’s inventory, was a rescue from a site where it no longer fit, or where something was going to be built. Gragg specializes in such rescues; he’s not alone, as palms are more easily transplanted with a smaller rootball than other trees. That’s why you see them with their foliage done up in topknots along new boulevards or shopping centers.  

Gragg does seem to take on the big jobs even in that area, though: that wine palm, and what he says is the biggest Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariensis) ever moved, and some of the tallest fan palms I’ve ever laid eyes on, a couple of matched pairs sporting his banners.  

Aside from all that, Gragg has succulents in a dazzling (even for succulents) variety of shapes, and tropical oddities and stalwarts like cannas and gunneras (“dinosaur chow”). He’s got ocotillos! They’re under a huge palm, more or less in the ground, on a big shale mound.  

The open site is windy and can be dusty, so bring a jacket and your shades. You’ll thrill to the crash of industry and harbor noises. Or maybe you’ll just wince and jump occasionally, as I did. Impressive place to be raising so many supposedly tricky plants.  

Gragg told us he’s making a series for HGTV, to be aired starting this fall or winter; the working title so far is “Full Throttle Gardening” and evidently it will include some examples of Gragg’s own design-build work in the Bay Area. He did seem to be having a good time charging around on a front-end loader, and there was a serious crane along with his various trucks and machinery on the site.  

Go see the place. Great fun! 

 

Golden Gare Palms & Exotics 

420 South Third Street, Point Richmond 

Just off I-580; Look west for the palms and banner. 

Monday-Friday: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. 

Saturday: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Sunday: Closed 

(925) 325-PALM 

www.goldengatepalms.com


About the House: Reverse Engineering for the Builder

By Matt Cantor
Friday June 22, 2007

Ihate code books. Not code as in dot-dash-dot or SLWBT means I love you. I mean the building codes.  

I’ve never had a good relationship with that sort of thinking. Yes, I’m very much aware of the need for codes but the frustrating contradictions that one faces when the code is invoked makes me want to pull my hair out. Clearly, I’m not the only one. Codes have load of exceptions and don’t address each case with real clarity. They vary by year, by city ( as well as county, state and region), by building department and ultimately by the site inspector that enforced or ignores the edict. That said, I’m slowly getting used to them. 

Given this relationship, how, many have asked me, did I learn about buildings? How did I learn how wiring was supposed to be done, how joists were selected, how many nails were needed in a particular connection. Well, the answer to this is also complex and, like many others and those who came before, I’ve learned from other builders and specialists, from city inspectors and really good lumber clerks. I’ve learned from how-to book, books on architecture and trade manuals. I’ve actually learned a lot from installation manuals for furnaces, vent fans and disposers. By the time you’ve seen enough of this stuff and cross references it all in your head, you have a fair idea of what’s in the code book (Well, not really).  

However, there IS one very important source of data at the source my own personal education that is not codified, published or preached by those on the city dole and that is the knowledge I’ve gained from dead contractors. 

In the years in which I did remodeling, I feel as though I had a series of relationships with a host of dead (or at least long absent) builders. Every time I looked under a building or inside an attic or took apart a wall, there they were, showing me how they nailed things together.  

I feel as though I have a strong sense of the men (sadly, these were all men) who soldered knob and tube wiring connections together. Each wire was bent just so, torched white hot, drenched in molten metal and then taped ever-so carefully to make sure that the little girl who lived in the house two generations beyond would be able to sleep safely at night within these plastered walls. 

The carpenter called out to the man on the handsaw to cut the next one five-foot-six and five-sixteenths, just a hair fat and angle one end just a smidge. You can see the way the hidden roof supports fit just right and, by no accident, compensated for a slope here or a knot there. The longer you look, the more you can see the great expertise in a simple thing like a roof framing. 

Some would sheath a wall with one-inch thick lumber on a 45 degree angle, just to make things a little stronger. Today, it turns out that this has tremendous “shear value” and may substantially decrease the need for additional “shear-wall sheathing.” 

The shimming of a window was also a real art. Quick, to-the-point, strong and virtually permanent. But you’d never get this one from a book. You have to open a wall and look. Now, you may not be able to use this same method today and that often the case. You cannot solder knob and tube any longer, but knowing how this was done helps enormously in working with the stuff and making upgrades. It also helps in evaluating the safety of the existing work. 

While I may have had books to reference, there’s never been any better teacher for me than the well nailed floor framing that I had to kill myself pulling apart. These men who drove 20d (we say 20 penny) nails though framing members with but a few blows clearly learned over a course of many years just where to place the nail and how to drive it. An amateur might easily split the same stud, bend the nail or fail to make a firm connection. 

The plumber clearly took enormous pains to support the pipes at the best possible incline and installed those deadly liquid lead joints with the intention of making the system run smoothly for as long as the material might survive.  

Taking apart those lead joints (which I have done), carving through the lath and plaster (yes that too) and drilling through the concrete has shown me precisely how these workman did what they did. Now, if you look at 30 or 40 of a particular detail, you’ll see something interesting. You’ll see aberrations for better and for worse. You’ll be able to tell how most careful workers did things (surmising the common protocol).  

You’ll then be able to discern, through a simple comparison of each case and by thinking through the advantages and disadvantages of each maneuver how certain builders would do things a little better and how some had failed to learn from their peers. 

So, doing this for a while, it’s not too hard to see how and why each thing was done. If you cross-check with old code books or old how-to books you can take it a bit further. 

The same is true of living builders. Everyone has a technique and if you look at enough electrical panels you can see how the really clever (and magnificently obsessive-compulsive) electrician wires a panel. Some mistakes may not be apparent without a trip to the code or instruction book but as a general rule, I would say that, given the way my mind works, I’ll learn more from looking at the work.  

I also learn from the idiot who leaves me scratching my head at the stupid or lazy thing. This gives me the chance to run the worst-case scenario ending in a death by fire or collapse. Even the worst builder makes a contribution, I guess, when you look at it this way. 

I was describing this way of looking at houses to my friend Gillian and she what I was doing was a sort of Reverse Engineered Inspecting. Hmmm. I like that. 


Quake Tip of the Week: Is Your Major Asset In Jeopardy?

By Larry Guillot
Friday June 22, 2007

One thing history has taught us about major earthquakes: houses that are correctly retrofitted survive intact. 

Houses that are not retrofitted correctly fall off their foundations. It’s very expensive to repair these homes and to get them back on their foundations.  

If you want to know more about retrofits and how they work, there is a free Earthquake Retrofit Seminar Saturday morning, June 23, from 10 a.m.-noon at the El Cerrito Senior Center, 6500 Stockton St.  

This seminar, sponsored by the Association of Bay Area Governments, describes a good retrofit, tells how to evaluate an existing retrofit (the majority, sadly, are inadequate), and describes retrofitting hillside homes. 

It will cover the basics and make you knowledgeable about choosing a retrofit contractor.  

 

 

Larry Guillot is the owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing and kit supply service. Contact him at 558-3299 or see www.quakeprepare.com to receive semi-monthly e-mails and safety reports.  


Green Neighbors: Be Sure to Use Those Exotic Species Responsibly

By Rn Sullivan
Tuesday June 19, 2007

It must have been just about a year ago that a reader wrote to me via The Planet, asking about a row of trees on a street near Ashby and San Pablo. They were blooming—as they are now—and he’d been enjoying them for a long time and wondered what they were. 

A reasonable question, but as always, my good intentions were sabotaged by my very bad organizational skills. The letter vanished, and it turned up again only recently when I was cleaning out the office to make way for a new printer. My apologies to the gentleman for the lateness of the reply. 

I did, however, have the question floating around my consciousness and so I drove over to what I thought was the street in question. The trees are flaxleaf paperbarks, Melaleuca linariifolia. They’re covered in a froth of tiny creamy-white flowers, which on their rounded canopy evoke cumulus clouds or fluffy snowdrifts. Some folks call the species “snow-in-summer tree.”  

You can see others of its kind on Jefferson Street north of Dwight, and on the Albany border along the BART tracks. 

It’s an import, as so many of our street trees are, and from Australia, ditto. It’s kin to the infamous Melaleuca quinquenervia, which has invaded wildlands in Florida to the extent that it’s threatening what’s left of the Everglades. Like so many exotics, it’s less useful to the ecosystem it has invaded than the native plants it’s crowding out. That’s especially poignant in the Everglades, such a unique place that fosters unique life. 

On city streets both species are less of a problem. I like M. linariifolia better, personally, just because of that dizzy dazzling form it assumes in bloom; there’s nothing like it to make a passerby smile. My correspondent mentioned nicknaming the ones he encountered “Fluffula Truffula trees.” (Now, of course, that’s the way I think of them too. Thanks, I think.) 

Most of the time it’s just a tree on the street, giving shade and shelter and not much else to the city’s birds and other wildlife. Its foliage is a nice dark shade of green and its trunk is handsomely contrasting, white to buff-colored. 

Getting closer rewards the pedestrian. The bark is not only papery, it’s spongy; press it with your thumb and isn’t that the oddest sensation? Bouncy! It’s soft and smooth, too, between the fluffed-out seams. If you’re going to hug a tree I guess this would be the tree to hug.  

Sometimes I think the right to use exotic plants is rather like the right to keep and bear arms: It wouldn’t need so much frenzied defending if there were more information, consensus, and will to do it right. I know gun owners who are just fine, thank you, and I boast of a 100-percent accurate target record myself. (It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out how I got that one.)  

But half the foofaraw would be nonexistent if everybody took the care my friends have to keep the guns locked up, learn gun etiquette and safety (which are pretty much synonymous), and know they’re not video games or penis-enlargement devices.  

Problem exotics are a similar matter of Things in the Wrong Hands. The wrong hands in this case are those of folks who haven’t bothered to educate themselves about the place that’s keeping them alive, that supplies the ground they stand on, the water they drink, the very air they breathe, to understand what’s being overrun.  

Unfortunately that includes many landscapers.  

It’s not that hard, really. Anything that thrives as well under tough conditions in cities should be considered dangerous as guns and motor vehicles and explosives are. Keep them in their place, and there’s less chance of disaster. Keep them well away from wildlands-—parks, preserves, and just plain “un-owned” spaces—and you can take pleasure in using them.  

Native plants aren’t appropriate everywhere. Yes, you read that right. Oleanders are just fine on freeway medians, because you wouldn’t want to attract wildlife there anyway, and because you know they won’t mess with the local gene pool of plants we don’t quite understand yet.  

In cities, though, I’d love to see more native trees, and I rejoice in any research I hear of into their use. (Street trees lead hard lives and must co-exist peacefully with paving, traffic, and humans with other things on their minds.) 

But there’s no reason we can’t be responsible and use imports too. When I look out the BART train window at that cluster of trees from Mexico, Australia, and elsewhere clustered on the plaza on MLK near Children’s Hospital, I think of a bunch of old guys from all over hanging out and socializing on benches in the town square. I like thinking of that. Gives me hope.  

 

 

Photograph by Ron Sullivan. 

“Fluffula Truffula” trees line a street in south Berkeley. Like fireworks, exotic plants are so much fun we shouldn’t screw the situation up with irresponsible use.


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Friday June 22, 2007

FRIDAY, JUNE 22 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Bosoms and Neglect” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., SUn. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through July 22. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “Oliver Twist” at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. through June 24. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org  

Berkeley Rep “Great Men of Genius” with Mike Daisey in four different monologues at 2025 Addison St. through June 30. Tickets are $30-$75. 647-2949. 

California Shakespeare Theater “Richard III” at the Bruns Ampitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, through June 24. Tickets are $15-$60. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Impact Theatre “Impact Briefs 8: Sinfully Delicious” Thurs.-Sat. through July 21 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “Ring Round the Moon” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through July 14. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

“Tea N' Crisp” with Quentin Crisp in tribute to national gay pride week at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave.Tickets are $25, reservations advised. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Virago Theatre Comapny “The Death of Ayn Rand” and “A Bed of My Own” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave., Alameda to July 7. Tickets are $10-$17. 865-6237. www.ViragoTheatre.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Summer Solos” Works by Yvette Molina, Chelsea Pegram and Amanda Williams. Artist reception at 6 p.m. at Pro Arts, 550 Second St., Oakland. 763-9425. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Country Joe McDonald “Tribute to Woody Guthrie” in a fundraiser for Save the Oaks at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St.Donation $10-$50. 841-3493. 

Edmund Wells and The Bass Clarinet Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-1350. 

Company of Prophets, Kiwi & DJ Patrick, Abyssinian Creole at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Miss Faye Carol & her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Vicki Virk & Dholrhythms, Fabio Moura and other world dancers at 8 and 10 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Free. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jill Knight, singer/songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Iris Dement at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Cost is $26.50-$27.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

David Gans, Joe Rut and Mario DeSio at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Stiff Dead Cat, Joe Rut con Queso, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Attack Disarm Takeover, Worhouse, Arise at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6-$10. 525-9926. 

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

Chroma, electro-groove jazz, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Jonny Manak & The Depressives, New Earth Creeps, The Sore Thumbs at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Helepolis, Belair Academy at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Marcus Miller at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JUNE 23 

CHILDREN  

Arts and Crafts Weekend with MOCHA and puppet shows from 12:30 p.m. on at Children’s Fairyland, at 699 Bellvue Ave., Oakland. 452-2259. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Animals, Sea Creatures and Animation” Paintings, sculpture, digital and fiber art and more, in a benefit for Hopalong Animal Rescue. Narrated art galley tour from noon to 5 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2053 Ashby Ave. 644-4930.  

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “A Dream Play” Sat. and Sun. at 3 p.m. on the lawn in front of Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. at Berryman, through July 1. 841-5580. www.aeofberkeley.org  

Central Works “Bird in the Hand” Thurs-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through July 29. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Regan McMahon reads from “Revolution in the Bleachers: How Parents Can Take Back Family in a World Gone Crazy Over Youth Sports” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Open Mic at the Marina at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Marina. Sponsored by Cal Adventures. 642-4000. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Company C Contemporary Ballet at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. www.companycballet.org 

Music of Paul Bowles with Frank Johnson, piano; Elisabeth Commanday, soprano; author Michael Paller, commentary, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

How To Live! II Summer Solstice Benefit Concert for Liza Matlack, world fusion rhythm, from noon to midnight at Tim Witter’s “Compound,” 1561 8th St. West Oakland. Suggested donation $20-$100. 415-939-0145. 

Art Peterson on the Accordion at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

Venezuela: Tambores de San Juan at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568.  

Dan Hicks and His Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Baba Ken & West African Highlife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054.  

Naomi Adiv and Adrienne Shamszad at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

The Mad Maggies at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Zindu at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

The Wailin’ Jennys at 5 and 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Love X Nowhere, Bye Bye Blackbirds, The Trenchermen, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Eskapo. A.N.F.O., La Grita at 7:30 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Hoods, Life Long Tragedy in a benefit for the Ernie Cortez Family at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Amel Larrieux at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, JUNE 24 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Moshi Moshi! Bridging Cultures through Art” Japanese and American art inspired by cross cultural influences opens at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond, and runs through Aug. 10. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

THEATER 

“Nature v. Merger” a Sci Fi fairy tale by the Berkeley Pickup Troupe at 2 p.m. at 1631 Bonita Ave. 266-2069. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Courtney Martin describes “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Conversations on Art: Evolution of a Live/Work Environment, in conjunction with the exhibition “Studio Man Ray” at 2 p.m. at the Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $10-$12. 549-6950. 

“Something that Matters” edited by Elizabeth Fishel and Terri Hinte at 3 p.m. at Diesel Book Store, 5433 College Ave. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley International Folk Festival with Nerissa & Katryna Nields, the Aux Cajunals, Cascada de Flores, Austin Willacy, Hali Hammer and others, from 1 to 10 p.m. with p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Free. 548-1761.  

San Francisco Choral Artists “Something Borrowed, Something Blue” at 4 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., at Bay Place, Oakland. Tickets are $18-$25. 415-979-5779. www.sfca.org 

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

Tom Huber at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Americana Unplugged: Jimbo Trout & The Fishpeople at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 

Flamenco Open Stage at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Rover City High, Upside, Stop the Malarchy at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. 

Fleshies, Hey Girl, Bobbie Joe ebola & The Children McNuggets at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, JUNE 25 

FILM 

“Jazz on a Monday Afternoon” Films and discussion on Latin Jazz and Jazz as Internatinal Music at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., 3rd flr. 981-6100.at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Helen Oyeyemi reads from “The Opposite House” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

Poetry Express Open mic theme night on “Weddings and Funerals” at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pickpocket Ensemble at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100.  

Musica ha Disconnesso, piano and mandolins, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

Geno Delafose at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, JUNE 26 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Moshi Moshi! Bridging Cultures through Art” Japanese and American art inspired by cross cultural influences at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond, though Aug. 10. 620-6772. www.therac.org 

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.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Erica Rische-Baird reads from “This Is For A World Gone Mad” at 7:30 p.m. at Spectator Books, 4163 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 653-7300. www.spectatorbooks.com  

Ales Debeljak and Rusty Morrison, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Katherine Taylor reads from “Rules for Saying Goodbye” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Adam Miller, folksinger and storyteller, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 

Tee Fee Swamp Boogie 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 

David Bromberg & the Angel Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $34.50-$35.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Randy Craig Trio at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Bob City Pacific, hip hop, fink, at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $12-$15. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

John Calloway at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $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, JUNE 27 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Suddenly Summer” A group show by East Bay women artists opens at Royal Ground Gallery, 2058 Mountain Blvd., Montclair, Oakland.  

FILM 

International Latino Film Festival “Un Franco, 14 Pestas” at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$6. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Oh My God! It’s Harrod Blank!” A film on the art-car artist at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donation $5.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Writing Teachers Write” monthly student and teacher reading series, at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

David Bromberg & the Angel Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $34.50-$35.50. 548-1761.  

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

Fishtank Ensemble at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Eastern European dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mazacote 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.  

Dave Stein Bubhub at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Poncho Sanchez at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square., through Sun. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, JUNE 28 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Subcutaneous Portraiture” Works by Amber Stucke and Brian Sweet. Reception at 6:30 p.m. at Transmissions Gallery, 1177 San Pablo Ave. Exhibit runs to July 28. 558-4084. www.trasmissions-gallery.com 

FILM 

“The Mind is a Liar and a Whore” by Antero Alli at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St., Oakland. Tickets are $6-$10. 444-7263. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Camille T. Dungy and Sandra Lim at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. 525-5476. www.poetryflash.org 

Julia Flynn Siler describes “The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Josie Iselin shows her portraits of “Seashells” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Delta Love, Band of Brotherz at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dave Alvin at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $25.50-$26.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Latitude Zero at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

San Pablo Project, Ross Hammond’s Teakayo, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

 

 

 


Compositions of Space and Light

By Peter Selz, Special to the Planet
Friday June 22, 2007

Michael S. Moore’s acrylic paintings at the Graduate Theological Union are images of landscapes as symbolic order. They are pictures of vast desert landscapes, of large empty spaces along the Nevada-Oregon border as well as of the Colorado plains. It would seem that the canvases are based on watercolors which are shown in display cases below the paintings. 

Many of the watercolors done with vigorous exuberance, showing mountains and swift clouds, were made in Snake Creek Desert and Fox Run in Northwest Nevada near Pyramid Lake. The large horizontal paintings are silent images of vast, almost empty areas, wide expanses with only an edge separating earth from sky. 

The colors are muted, the earth is bleached by the sun and there is no motion in the limit-less, time-less land and sky. No life is visible. These paintings recall the nuanced abstracted landscapes which Gottardo Piazzoni painted a hundred years ago. But they have surely been informed by geometric abstraction. 

In a beautiful polyptych, “Spring into Summer” (2005), the hills of spring on the left are painted in grays, browns and ochres. As the view moves to the rights, as Spring becomes Summer, the sky blends from blue to white and we can feel the great heat of the desert sum. 

The “Guano Valley Triptych (2006), done in the high spacious desert of southern Oregon shows brown cliffs in front of low-sweeping gray mountains. These pictures could not have been done en plein air, but must have been painted by the artist meditating, brush in hand, on his experience of the desert to frame his perception of space and light. 

 

Freddy Chandra, exhibiting currently at Kala Art Institute, came to the United States from Jakarta, Indonesia in 1995 to study architecture and the art at Berkeley. He too deals with space and light in his art. But, belonging to another generation (he was born in 1979, six years after Michael Moore had his first solo exhibition) he uses very different tools for his art. 

“Three Minutes from Now” (2007) is a time-based installation with nine-channel digital projections built in a wall which the artist created as part of the structure. It is, he wrote in his statement, “An abstract rhythmic composition that evokes experience taking place on the periphery of our consciousness: spatial, visual and aural.” 

Nine DVDs of different size project light into nine separate tinted blocks. As the light is projected it changes intensity and color, barely suggesting gray, blue, green, pink and yellow tints. The viewer, especially after having seen Moore’s desert landscapes, may associate the light images with remembrances of sky and ocean, but this narrative element is not what Chandra had in mind. What we witness is a time-based architecturally integrated composition, which can indeed recapture experiences in a way not so different from music. But, as in Moore’s paintings, it is a visual response to light and space as well as time. 

 

“Absence Presence,” paintings by Michael S. Moore, at the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd., through Sept. 5. 649-2500. 

 

Works by Freddy Chandra as part of “Residency Projects, Part I” at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., through June 30. 549-2977. 

 

Image: Freddy Chandra’s “Three Minutes from Now” (2007), is a nine-channel digital projections built in a wall which the artist created as part of the structure.


The Theater: ‘A Dream Play’ in Live Oak Park

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday June 22, 2007

“Father! Father! I hopped off on a cloud ...”—and the figure in a sari (Sarah Meyerhoff), standing on the lawn at the Berkeley Art Center, seems to be sinking, as the voice of her Father, the god Indra (Thomas West), echoes up from the creek below, reassuring her as she descends to earth, in the first scene of Strindberg’s masterpiece, A Dream Play. 

The play was adapted and directed by David Stein for Actors Ensemble, Berkeley’s oldest theater company (50 this year), played all around and inside the Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays for the next two weekends. Admission is free. 

It’s a site-specific play, with the audience following the players around to various locations for scenes—and the scenes follow a dream logic, as the title indicates, with plenty of margin for satire of earthly life, and an acerbic humor special to the author. 

“It’s beautiful!” Agnes, Indra’s daughter, exclaims on seeing the planet. “But still more beautiful long ago,” intones her father’s voice. Then she hears the sounds of humanity: “It sounds joyless!”  

“I know,” responds the god, with a long pause, provoking quiet laughter, “All that spinning sets people dizzy!” 

Agnes will say in a minute, when she hears more of earth’s denizens, “You judge them too harshly, Father!” And the heavenly voice replies, “Really! Go and judge for yourself.” 

The dizziness is explored as Agnes, losing touch with her father’s voice, goes deeper and deeper into human existence, first led (with the audience in tow) into a “growing castle,” where she meets a young man who is prisoner within (Jose Garcia). Asked if he wants to be freed, he says he’s not sure. People pass, and recognize Agnes: “They say she’s the daughter of Indra! Act normal ...” 

These quick, often contradictory vignettes build up into an extraordinary parody—deadpan, but often impish, or almost demonic—of earthly existence, as sped up and stylized in dream language. A stage door Johnny (Garcia, again) waits years for his beloved actress or dancer to appear. Her voice is heard above, but she never shows.  

The doorkeeper (Maureen Coyne), busy quilting with patches of woe, reassures him she’s still there: “she never goes out!” Agnes recognizes the young man of the castle, who swore to love his would-be rescuer—but he’s forgotten her in his starstruck intoxication. 

A fantastic array of characters pass by through the scenes, spread all around and inside the Center: A Lawyer (Thomas West again), whom Agnes marries; a Medical Inspector (John Anthony Nolan); a Poet (Steven Morales) coming from the mud baths (”True love conquers everything—including sulphur and carbolic acid!”); a Bride (Kat Kniesel) and Groom (Anthony Croson) who are so happy they make a pact to die happy; a Maid (Meira Perelstein) who pastes up the holes thewind blows through in the castle, cheerfully; an Officer (Andrew Nolan); the Dean of the Law School (Michael Kelly) as well as his fellow deans, trying to open a locked door that may open onto the universal secret ... 

The scenes string the theme along, but not always in a forward motion. Like Baroque art, it’s literally play, and at times seems to be in a hall of mirrors—carny mirrors, even. 

It’s a perfect match for Actors Ensemble, with the range of stage experience in the cast, from fresh amateurs to old hands at community theater. Like a pageant, it provokes exuberant play-acting, and some poignant moments.  

And it’s a treat for the audience, who leave their seats and the darkness of the auditorium to follow the action around the lovely environs of the art center on a sunny summer day and witness the sprawling scenes of an original masterwork of early modern theater. 


Moving Pictures: Stumbling After ‘The Third Man’

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday June 22, 2007

Everyone talks about Harry Lime. He’s one of the most charismatic and cynical of movie villains, a cad who plays the people and police for suckers while justifying his crimes with glib insouciance.  

By the time the racketeer finally makes his appearance in The Third Man, everyone in the film has been talking about him for nearly an hour. And audiences and critics have been talking about him ever since. 

The film has been released on DVD in a new two-disc edition from the Criterion Collection that is rich in supplemental features that illuminate much of the on- and off-screen intrigue of Carol Reed’s 1949 film noir masterpiece. 

Over the years there has been no shortage of commentary on Reed’s brilliant direction and pacing; on Graham Greene’s finely crafted original screenplay; on Robert Krasker’s stunning black and white photography that presents a wet, murky portrait of post-war Vienna; on Anton Karas’ zither score and its effortless transitions from the jauntiness of Lime’s theme to suspense to romance to its wistful conclusion; on Orson Welles’ brief but riveting performance as Lime; on the famous scenes in the Vienna sewers, atop the Prater’s Ferris wheel, and in the shadowy nighttime streets; and on the strong performances of Trevor Howard and Alida Valli, as well as a number of supporting actors in sharply etched character parts. 

But what often gets overlooked in discussions of The Third Man is its leading man, Joseph Cotten.  

Cotten’s portrayal of the naive and blundering Holly Martins isn’t the flashiest role in the film, but it is the most crucial, for it is through his eyes that we see the labyrinthine plot unfold. He plays both the hero and the fool, stumbling about blindly through a foreign city and its web of blackmarket intrigue. He’s a heel, a well-meaning dweeb, a “dumb decoy duck,” as he describes himself in the end, and what a deft delineation of character Cotten achieves. 

Martins is a writer of cheap western novels who sees the world in the simplistic black-and-white, good-vs.-evil terms of his fiction. Martins arrives in Vienna to find that his friend Harry Lime is dead, and when a cop (Trevor Howard’s Major Calloway) speaks ill of Lime over drinks, Martins bristles, attempts to punch the major, and then seizes the opportunity to play the hero by investigating the circumstances surrounding Lime’s death in order to clear his friend’s name and expose the corruption of Calloway.  

Though he sees himself as a swaggering tough in search of justice, Martins is hardly noble, and he knows it. He moons after his best friend’s girl, aimlessly wanders through the rubble-strewn city, and even becomes responsible for the deaths of two innocent men along the way. 

All the while director Reed keeps us just as bewildered as Martins, with off-kilter images, foreign-language dialogue left untranslated, and a breathless pace that keeps us moving from scene to scene before all the implications have set in.  

Writer Graham Greene seems to have taken great pleasure in presenting Martins as the Ugly American—not to mention clumsy, naive and potentially dangerous. Greene himself may have been settling a score with this characterization. In an essay in the disc’s liner notes, Philip Kerr posits that Greene based the character on Robert Buckner, a producer and screenwriter responsible for a botched film adaptation of Greene’s novel The Confidential Agent. Buckner was also a writer of cheap western novels, thus Kerr explains the incessant mockery of Martins’ taste, talent and intellect.  

Whatever the source, Greene and Reed gleefully point up the folly of Holly at every turn. In the opening scenes, Martins cluelessly walks under a ladder, setting up a string of bad luck that will run throughout the picture; other characters damn his novels with faint praise or are completely unaware of them; and Calloway finally chastises Martins with the blistering put-down, “This isn’t Santa Fe, I’m not a sheriff and you’re not a cowboy.” Even in the final sequence amid the sewer, in a shootout situation that would have presumably been one of the staples of his fiction, Martins is oblivious to the danger of the situation, wandering out into the middle of a tunnel where he could easily be caught in the crossfire. He’s a liability and his naiveté eventually proves costly.  

It is in the sewer that Martins finally gets his chance to carry out his delusional fantasy. But when he takes gun in hand and tracks wounded Lime through the damp tunnels, he again botches his chance at heroism by playing not the cowboy but the loyal patsy, short-circuiting the pursuit of justice by taking down his friend in a mercy killing.  

His silly adventure culminates in the elegiac sigh of the film’s closing shot, as the disillusioned Martins, having lost his best friend and his self-respect, finally and with finality loses the girl. The somber fadeout leaves us with a pathetic solitary figure on an empty road, showing up the inadequacy of the cowboy’s simplistic mindset when confronted with foreign cultures and a determined criminal underworld—an all-to-relevant theme in these times.  

 

The new Criterion edition contains all the features from the company’s previous edition, including footage of the Vienna sewers, an introduction by Peter Bogdanovich, a radio adaptation of the film starring Cotten, and an episode of “The Adventures of Harry Lime,” a weekly British radio series from 1952 starring Orson Welles as Lime, this time recast as a cosmopolitan confidence man and hero. The set also features several new documentaries on the film and its creation and two commentaries: One, by film scholar Dana Polan, is excellent, examining the inherent polarities in the film (noir vs. romance, comedy vs. drama, etc.) with an emphasis on the thematic and structural tensions in the film; the other, by director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Tony Gilroy, is less informative, as many of Soderbergh’s facts are contradicted by materials elsewhere in the collection, and the casual, off-the-cuff nature of the discussion comes across as amateurish and ill-prepared. 

 

THE THIRD MAN (1949) 

Directed by Carol Reed. Written by Graham Greene. Photographed by Robert Krasker. Starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard and Orson Welles. 104 minutes. $39.95. www.criterion.com. 

 

Image; Joseph Cotten plays both the hero and the fool in Carol Reed’s The Third Man.


Music Set to Fill Laurel District for Weekend Solstice Celebration

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday June 22, 2007

The Laurel Summer Solistice Music Festival, inspired by the Fete de la Musique, a solistice celebration initiated in France 25 years ago to bring people into the streets to hear and make music and now a worldwide phenomenon, celebrates its second anniversary this Saturday, 9 a.m.-10 p.m., in Oakland’s Laurel Village district. 

The festival features an extraordinary array of performers of all types in local venues and on the streets. Among the more than 65 musicians performing are legendary jazz saxophonist Hal Stein, Korean folk singer Miena Yoo, and jazz-pop-funk-fusion duo Gemini Soul. The festival will include an exhibit which will feature artists, photographers, and craftspeople from across the Bay Area. 

The original festival was initiated in France by the Ministry of Culture under Jack Lang. “The response was spontaneous and huge,” said French native Stella Lamb, now an Oakland resident. “It’s now celebrated in 220 countries. It became a wave effect, reaching one place after another. It’s inspired by the old midsummer celebrations and bonfires of St. John’s Day—and before that, pagan festivities—but it’s not a religious celebration, more like a dance party. It must be out in public—and it must be free. Singers and musicians of all levels of skill are encouraged. We have jazz, zydeco, hip-hop ... well-known groups and amateurs—everyone who has the desire to sing or play in that moment.” 

The festival was initiated and is carried out by local volunteers. “We’re enthusiasts,” said Lamb of the volunteer group that puts on the Laurel Village fest. “None of us were experienced in putting on this sort of thing.” Different locations in the neighborhood, “inside and out,” including streets, parking lots, some businesses and the Laurel Elementary School become music venues for the day.  

Mark Baldwin of the Laurel Village Association recalled last year, after the festival, “someone came up to me and said, ‘I’ve lived here for over 25 years, and this is the best thing that’s ever happened to the neighborhood.’ That made us all feel good!”  

Well-known Bay Area jazz figure Hal Stein, who performed last year (with his daughter on vocals) and is up for an all-instrumental gig this year, agrees. 

“Greg Glenn, the owner of the Laurel Lounge, got a special barstool for me and personally made a video documentary,” he said. “Since then, playing there, I can see a difference in turnout. It all comes from a lot of cooperation.” 

The entry point to the festival is a welcoming station alongside the Laurel Lounge at the intersection of 38th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland.


Maybeck Connections on View at Gifford McGrew Open House

By Steven Finacom
Friday June 22, 2007

One of Berkeley’s most important and historic brown shingle homes—with Maybeck connections, too—is currently for sale at 2601 Derby Street. An Open House is scheduled from 2-4:30 p.m. this Sunday, June 24.  

The residence—the five-bedroom, three-story Gifford McGrew House—embodies both a remarkable design history and character, and more than a century of Berkeley history. Prominently situated on the corner of Derby and Hillegass, across from Willard Park, it is on the market for $1,595,000.  

The house was “designed by Maybeck and the owner with ideas contributed by their common friend, Charles Keeler” Maybeck’s biographer, Kenneth Cardwell, writes in Bernard Maybeck: Artisan, Architect, Artist.  

And Leslie Freudenheim in Building with Nature characterizes the house as “designed by Bernard Maybeck, possibly executed by Charles Keeler, with advice from McGrew’s friend (Reverend) Joseph Worcester.”  

There you have connections to three of the most important apostles of the architectural and cultural movement that brought Berkeley a distinctive brown shingle aesthetic.  

The contractor is said to have been A.H. Broad, who was one of Berkeley’s first elected town trustees, an artist, and a busy builder who left distinctive homes and early school buildings all over town, some of them now City Landmarks.  

Cardwell writes that “The McGrew house and its predecessors became the examples of a ‘movement towards a simpler, a truer, a more vital art expression’ when, a few years later, Charles Keeler assumed the spokesman’s role for the modest house and ‘the simple life.’ ”  

In 1895 Maybeck had designed the Keeler family home on Highland Place in a steep-roofed style very similar to the McGrew House. Keeler would publish his influential treatise The Simple Home in 1904, thus placing the McGrew house midway in time between Maybeck’s first brown shingle commissions in Berkeley and the popularization of his design philosophy in Keeler’s book.  

The house was built for Gifford McGrew but he wasn’t, as the real estate listing implies, “University Librarian.” A 1978 obituary for McGrew’s daughter, Mary Edith McGrew, refers to her father as becoming “assistant librarian” at UC when the family arrived from Massachusetts in 1899.  

Joseph C. Rowell reigned then as University Librarian, and would not retire until 1916. The McGrews were Unitarians, so their social lives intersected at Berkeley’s First Unitarian Church—itself a Craftsman masterpiece still standing at Dana and Bancroft—with a number of other local families, including the Keelers, involved in the “building with nature” movement.  

Mary Edith attended Cal and, upon graduation in 1903, won the University Medal, awarded to the most distinguished graduate of the year. For 36 years she was principal of Berkeley’s then-prominent private, college prep, A-to-Zed School. She died at 96.  

There have been several owners and some remodeling and structural upgrades at the house since then. The house was last on the market in 2004 with an asking price of $1.3 million. The front door is off Derby, midway on the side of the long ground floor and indented beneath a substantial overhang. The spacious entry hall, frames a wonderful, gleaming, staircase that ascends to a landing, then doubles back and up to the second floor. To the left is the long, rectangular, living room. 

Turn in the other direction and there’s an ample dining room with a brick fireplace and built in cabinetry. The kitchen, at the rear of the ground floor beyond the stairwell, is the one major disappointment in the house. The floor is covered with big, square, terra cotta pavers more suitable to a suburban hacienda, and the cabinets and counters have a Home Depotish air completely at odds with the rest of the house. Anyone with $1.6 million to buy the house will presumably have something left over to remodel the kitchen, and one hopes a new kitchen is closer to the original character of the home. Off the kitchen in one direction there’s a narrow room for laundry. 

On the other side a little, generously-windowed, breakfast nook opens to the garden, and a passage leads to what the realtor describes as a cottage, but is more of a single, rustic, room connected to the house and adjoined by a full bath. French doors open from the “cottage” to a secluded patio. 

The eastern yard is not that large, but a little more extensive than it seems from the street. Fence, trees, and a clambering red trumpet vine wall the garden off from the Derby Street sidewalk. The west yard used to be the front garden extending out to the Hillegass sidewalk. Years ago the house was complimented by a gem-like, perfectly tended, lawn on this side. Later, however, the space was fenced in along Hillegass. There’s a gate for cars and the garden is part graveled parking area. 

Back inside, the main stairs pause at a wide, windowed, landing where a side door conceals a tiny, handsome, half bath. A short side stair leads up to the only full bath on the second floor, which also communicates with one of the four bedrooms on that level. The staircase debouches into an ample second floor hall, surrounded by bedrooms: one big but narrow; two spacious; one—at the west end—extremely large with a corner fireplace and a door that opens onto a wide west facing deck with massive ornamental railing and balusters, all of it supported on the extended end of the living room below. From the second floor hall a smaller staircase ascends to the attic which is almost a full residence in itself.  

The steep roofs allow for high, vaulted, ceilings, the structure of two roof gables perpendicular to each other subdivides the space into separate volumes, and an interesting, partially open, bathroom is tucked away in one corner. Skylights, a freestanding stove on a brick hearth, and a huge west-facing window and small balcony complete this impressive level.  

The segmented window was added in the 1980s if I remember correctly and is, from the outside, the most visible change to the house. Although it altered a primary façade it was done quite contextually and helps create a wonderful space inside. From top to bottom—in most areas save the kitchen and laundry room—the house is a treasury of unpainted and original woodwork—polished floors, and old growth redwood paneling, exposed beams, and trim. Wide, vertical, boards with narrow battens cover most of the interior walls, the structure of the ceiling is creatively exposed, and there are several clever built-ins at various levels. 

It’s possible to honestly mourn the ancient trees felled over a century ago to supply this much clear-heart redwood while still admiring the house as a wonderful human artifact. Most of the windows are finely crafted, there are three intentionally simple red brick fireplaces, and period light fixtures—or at least good facsimiles—in most key locations. This is a magnificent, complex, beautiful house and a Berkeley treasure. 

It also, sadly, has no landmark protection. Some modifications will probably be made. For instance, it’s hard to imagine a new owner paying $1.6 million and not wanting more than one bathroom on the second floor. But a new owner insensitive to character and history could also drastically alter this house, as was recently done to another corner brown shingle a few blocks away on Regent Street. That would be a national architectural loss and a severe visual and cultural tragedy for Berkeley. Some dedicated volunteer should come forward—and soon—to research and write a city landmark application for this remarkable piece of local heritage. 

Meanwhile, take advantage of the rare opportunity this Sunday to see the interior of the house. The listing agent for 2601 Derby is Tricia Swift, Broker Associate at The Grubb Company. Office telephone (510) 339-0400/333, e-mail tswift@grubbco.com, website at Grubbco.com or 2601Derby.com An interesting sampling of older interior and exterior photos of the house, taken years ago by Kenneth Cardwell, can be found by searching for “McGrew House” at www.mip.berkeley.edu/spiro. 

 

Photograph by Steven Finacom. 

The shingled exterior of the McGrew House with its distinctive steep-roofed gable. 


Garden Variety: Reading Palms from I-580 in Richmond

By Ron Sullivan
Friday June 22, 2007

We’ve driven past the place dozens of times on the way to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and it’s become a private landmark rather like San Quentin. But last week was the first time we’ve ever managed to get off I-580 and get our feet on the ground at Golden Gate Palms in Richmond. 

My goodness. The place is vast, and it has more than just palms. 

“Just palms” on the other hand includes such an assortment that it kept my attention quite well, while Joe wandered off among the succulents. Gary Gragg, the owner, says he sells some palm species and varieties never before on sale in California, or even the world.  

I’m not equipped to say Aye or Nay to that proposition, but I do know there was stuff there I’d had no idea even existed. Yet another blue palm, for example, a European variety. Trachycarpus wagnerianus, cousin to the familiar T. fortunei “windmill” palm—the one with the brown fiber netting growing in rags around the trunk—but with a sort of silvered underside on each leaf.  

There was one huge specimen in the ground that looked like a Jubaea chilensis, Chilean date palm, but it wasn’t labeled. Sure enough, though it is what it looks like, and over a century old.  

It, like some others in Golden Gate’s inventory, was a rescue from a site where it no longer fit, or where something was going to be built. Gragg specializes in such rescues; he’s not alone, as palms are more easily transplanted with a smaller rootball than other trees. That’s why you see them with their foliage done up in topknots along new boulevards or shopping centers.  

Gragg does seem to take on the big jobs even in that area, though: that wine palm, and what he says is the biggest Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariensis) ever moved, and some of the tallest fan palms I’ve ever laid eyes on, a couple of matched pairs sporting his banners.  

Aside from all that, Gragg has succulents in a dazzling (even for succulents) variety of shapes, and tropical oddities and stalwarts like cannas and gunneras (“dinosaur chow”). He’s got ocotillos! They’re under a huge palm, more or less in the ground, on a big shale mound.  

The open site is windy and can be dusty, so bring a jacket and your shades. You’ll thrill to the crash of industry and harbor noises. Or maybe you’ll just wince and jump occasionally, as I did. Impressive place to be raising so many supposedly tricky plants.  

Gragg told us he’s making a series for HGTV, to be aired starting this fall or winter; the working title so far is “Full Throttle Gardening” and evidently it will include some examples of Gragg’s own design-build work in the Bay Area. He did seem to be having a good time charging around on a front-end loader, and there was a serious crane along with his various trucks and machinery on the site.  

Go see the place. Great fun! 

 

Golden Gare Palms & Exotics 

420 South Third Street, Point Richmond 

Just off I-580; Look west for the palms and banner. 

Monday-Friday: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. 

Saturday: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Sunday: Closed 

(925) 325-PALM 

www.goldengatepalms.com


About the House: Reverse Engineering for the Builder

By Matt Cantor
Friday June 22, 2007

Ihate code books. Not code as in dot-dash-dot or SLWBT means I love you. I mean the building codes.  

I’ve never had a good relationship with that sort of thinking. Yes, I’m very much aware of the need for codes but the frustrating contradictions that one faces when the code is invoked makes me want to pull my hair out. Clearly, I’m not the only one. Codes have load of exceptions and don’t address each case with real clarity. They vary by year, by city ( as well as county, state and region), by building department and ultimately by the site inspector that enforced or ignores the edict. That said, I’m slowly getting used to them. 

Given this relationship, how, many have asked me, did I learn about buildings? How did I learn how wiring was supposed to be done, how joists were selected, how many nails were needed in a particular connection. Well, the answer to this is also complex and, like many others and those who came before, I’ve learned from other builders and specialists, from city inspectors and really good lumber clerks. I’ve learned from how-to book, books on architecture and trade manuals. I’ve actually learned a lot from installation manuals for furnaces, vent fans and disposers. By the time you’ve seen enough of this stuff and cross references it all in your head, you have a fair idea of what’s in the code book (Well, not really).  

However, there IS one very important source of data at the source my own personal education that is not codified, published or preached by those on the city dole and that is the knowledge I’ve gained from dead contractors. 

In the years in which I did remodeling, I feel as though I had a series of relationships with a host of dead (or at least long absent) builders. Every time I looked under a building or inside an attic or took apart a wall, there they were, showing me how they nailed things together.  

I feel as though I have a strong sense of the men (sadly, these were all men) who soldered knob and tube wiring connections together. Each wire was bent just so, torched white hot, drenched in molten metal and then taped ever-so carefully to make sure that the little girl who lived in the house two generations beyond would be able to sleep safely at night within these plastered walls. 

The carpenter called out to the man on the handsaw to cut the next one five-foot-six and five-sixteenths, just a hair fat and angle one end just a smidge. You can see the way the hidden roof supports fit just right and, by no accident, compensated for a slope here or a knot there. The longer you look, the more you can see the great expertise in a simple thing like a roof framing. 

Some would sheath a wall with one-inch thick lumber on a 45 degree angle, just to make things a little stronger. Today, it turns out that this has tremendous “shear value” and may substantially decrease the need for additional “shear-wall sheathing.” 

The shimming of a window was also a real art. Quick, to-the-point, strong and virtually permanent. But you’d never get this one from a book. You have to open a wall and look. Now, you may not be able to use this same method today and that often the case. You cannot solder knob and tube any longer, but knowing how this was done helps enormously in working with the stuff and making upgrades. It also helps in evaluating the safety of the existing work. 

While I may have had books to reference, there’s never been any better teacher for me than the well nailed floor framing that I had to kill myself pulling apart. These men who drove 20d (we say 20 penny) nails though framing members with but a few blows clearly learned over a course of many years just where to place the nail and how to drive it. An amateur might easily split the same stud, bend the nail or fail to make a firm connection. 

The plumber clearly took enormous pains to support the pipes at the best possible incline and installed those deadly liquid lead joints with the intention of making the system run smoothly for as long as the material might survive.  

Taking apart those lead joints (which I have done), carving through the lath and plaster (yes that too) and drilling through the concrete has shown me precisely how these workman did what they did. Now, if you look at 30 or 40 of a particular detail, you’ll see something interesting. You’ll see aberrations for better and for worse. You’ll be able to tell how most careful workers did things (surmising the common protocol).  

You’ll then be able to discern, through a simple comparison of each case and by thinking through the advantages and disadvantages of each maneuver how certain builders would do things a little better and how some had failed to learn from their peers. 

So, doing this for a while, it’s not too hard to see how and why each thing was done. If you cross-check with old code books or old how-to books you can take it a bit further. 

The same is true of living builders. Everyone has a technique and if you look at enough electrical panels you can see how the really clever (and magnificently obsessive-compulsive) electrician wires a panel. Some mistakes may not be apparent without a trip to the code or instruction book but as a general rule, I would say that, given the way my mind works, I’ll learn more from looking at the work.  

I also learn from the idiot who leaves me scratching my head at the stupid or lazy thing. This gives me the chance to run the worst-case scenario ending in a death by fire or collapse. Even the worst builder makes a contribution, I guess, when you look at it this way. 

I was describing this way of looking at houses to my friend Gillian and she what I was doing was a sort of Reverse Engineered Inspecting. Hmmm. I like that. 


Quake Tip of the Week: Is Your Major Asset In Jeopardy?

By Larry Guillot
Friday June 22, 2007

One thing history has taught us about major earthquakes: houses that are correctly retrofitted survive intact. 

Houses that are not retrofitted correctly fall off their foundations. It’s very expensive to repair these homes and to get them back on their foundations.  

If you want to know more about retrofits and how they work, there is a free Earthquake Retrofit Seminar Saturday morning, June 23, from 10 a.m.-noon at the El Cerrito Senior Center, 6500 Stockton St.  

This seminar, sponsored by the Association of Bay Area Governments, describes a good retrofit, tells how to evaluate an existing retrofit (the majority, sadly, are inadequate), and describes retrofitting hillside homes. 

It will cover the basics and make you knowledgeable about choosing a retrofit contractor.  

 

 

Larry Guillot is the owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing and kit supply service. Contact him at 558-3299 or see www.quakeprepare.com to receive semi-monthly e-mails and safety reports.  


Berkeley This Week

Friday June 22, 2007

FRIDAY, JUNE 22 

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 Wallenstein on “EBMUD Water Conservation Projects” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. Forreservations call 526-2925.  

“Tribute to Woody Guthrie” with Country Joe McDonald in a fundraiser to save the Memorial Oak Grove at UC Berkeley, at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Donation $10-$50. 841-3493. www.saveoaks.com  

“When the Levees Broke” Parts 1 and 2, will be screened at 2 p.m. at the YWCA Berkeley. 2600 Bancroft Way. Free. 848-6370. 

Tilden Sunset Hike A scenic 8 mile loop through southern Tilden Park with panoramic evening views from the Seaview trail. Meet at 6 p.m. at Inspiration Point on Wildcat Canyon Rd. Bring warm layered clothing, flashlight, optional snack to share. 601-1211. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 9 to 11 a.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. at Ashby. 981-5332. 

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at East Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. www.BeADonor.com (Code: UCB) 

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

“The Mission” the British film at 7:30 p.m. at The Center of Light, 2944 76th St., Oakland. 635-4286. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253.  

SATURDAY, JUNE 23 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Celebrates Piedmont Centennial with a 1.8 mile hilly walk with staircases. Meet at 10 am. at the monument at the edge of Piedmont Park, near the intersection of Highland and Magnolia, Piedmont. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Oak Grove Tree-Sit Summer Festival with music, food and art, from 2 to 8 p.m. at the Oak Grove on Piedmont Ave., just north of Bancroft Ave. and International House. 938-2109. www.saveoaks.com 

Pet Parade and Art Gallery Tour of “Animals, Sea Creatures and Animation” Paintings, sculpture, digital and fiber art and more, in a benefit for Hopalong Animal Rescue. Narrated art gallery tour from noon to 5 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2053 Ashby Ave. 644-4930.  

Dynamite History Walk Explore the explosive and peaceful past of the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline with former Atlas Powder Company employee Norman Monk from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For meeting place call 525-2233. 

Native Plant Gardening for the East Bay Learn how to use native plants that are naturally adapted to our local climate and that require very little water to thrive, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sponsored by the Alameda County Cleanwater Program. Cost is $10-$15. Pre-registration required. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Common Agenda Regional Network meeting on reordering federal priorities from the military to human and environmental needs at 2 p.m. at the Peace Action West office, 2800 Adeline/Stuart, 4 blocks no. of Ashby BART. 527-9584. 

Know Your Rights Berkeley Copwatch presents a training in your rights with the police and how to be an effective police observer, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. www.berkeleycopwatch.org 

Art and Craft Courtyard Sale with origami, beadwork, knitting, and musical entertainment from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1901 Hearst St. Benefits Berkeley’s Nikkei seniors. 

Berkeley Pickup Troupe rehearsal for “Nature v. Merger” a Sci Fi fairy tale at 3 p.m. at 1631 Bonita Ave. Performance on Sun. Call to claim a role. 266-2069. 

Great American Backyard Campout from 3 p.m. until Sun. at 10 a.m. at the Jaoquin Miller Park. Fee is $25 per family and includes parking, dinner, continental breakfast, snacks and activities. Register online at www.oakland.net.com/parks.registration or call 238-7275. 

Cork Boat Regatta and Bubble Extravaganza from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Museum of Children’s Art, 528 9th St., Oakland. Admission is $5, plus $5 for workshops. 465-8770. 

Free Seismic Retrofit Seminar from 10 a.m. to noon at Open House Senior Center, 6500 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. 418-1676. bayarearetrofit@aol.com  

Live Reptiles from the East Bay Vivarium and kick-off of the Summer Reading Program at 2 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. For ages 3 and up. 524-3043. 

Preschool Storytime for 3 to 5-year-olds at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext. 17. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland uptown to the Lake to discover Art Deco landmarks. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Paramount Theater at 2025 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. For reservations call 238-3234. 

Origami Earring Workshop with Nga Trinhat 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Free. 981-6100. 

East Bay Baby Fair from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. 540-7210. 

Hopalong Animal Rescue Come meet your furry new best cat friend from noon to 3 p.m. at 2940 College Ave. 267-1915, ext. 500. www.hopalong.org  

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 24 

Berkeley International Food Festival from noon to 5 p.m. for several blocks on either side of the San Pablo/University Intersection. 845-4106. www.berkeleyinternationalfoodfestival.com 

“Let’s Get Healthy” An educational presentation, diabetes and hypertension screening, resources and other information for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 540-7085. 

Health Care Forum from 2 to 4 p.m. at 1924 Cedar St. For information call 526-8419. 

Chickens and Ducks in Your Garden with chicken rancher Linnea Due who will help you decide which breeds are best for your situation, how to deal with predators, whether your chickens can free-range, and more, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at EcoHouse, 1305 Hopkins St., entrance on Peralta. Cost is $15 sliding scale, no one turned away. 548-2220 ext. 242. cohouse@ecologycenter.org  

Trails Challenge in Briones Regional Park Meet at 10 a.m. on the north side, Old Briones Rd. entrance for a 6.5 mile hike. Bring lunch, liquids, and sturdy walking shoes. 525-2233. 

“US Military Bases in Ecuador? Oil Companies in the Amazon?” A report back from Global Exchange at 6:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$20. 849-2568.  

50 plus Berkeley Playreading Group reads “Flirtations” by Arthur Schnitzler at 2 p.m. at 1471 Addison St., entrance in rear of 1473 building, off Sacramento. RSVP to 655-7962.  

Berkeley City Club Tour of the “Lilttle Castle” designed by Julia Morgan at 1:15, 2:15 and 3:15 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. 883-9710. 

Social Action Forum with Larry Bensky, formerly of KPFA, on the role of the media at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Betty Cook on “The Stupa: Symbol of Enlightenment” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JUNE 25  

Pools for Berkeley meets at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst at MLK. Minutes of prior meetings and presentations available at www.poolsforberkeley.org 

Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning Workshop covering legal end-of-life decisions, elder abuse, revocable living trusts, runs for five mondays at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Adult School, 1701 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $40, pre-registration encouraged. 644-6130. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 26 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit the Eastshore State Park. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll look for insects from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 1247 Marin Ave. 524-9122.  

Family Storytime for preschoolers and up at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Tuesday Documentaries at 7 p.m. at the Gaia Arts Center, 2140 Dwight Way. Donation of $5 benefits the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. 665-0305. 

Berkeley PC Users Group meets at 7 p.m. at 25 Dartmouth Dr . near Claremont Hotel. Call for directions. 841-4411. 2rhs07@comcast.net 

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. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27 

The Unveiling of A Mural In Tribute to Maudelle Shirek from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Maudelle Shirek Building, Outside City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Way. 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll look for insects from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

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. 

Green Chamber of Commerce Mixer at 5:30 p.m. at Sam’s Log Cabin, 945 San Pablo Ave., Albany. Cost is $5, members free. 219-7211. www.greenchamberofcommerce.net 

“Increasing Energy Efficiency and Renewables in our Homes and Businesses” from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Sponsored by the Energy Commission. 981-7081. 

“The Threat to Civil Rights and Habeas Corpus” with Ann Fagan Ginger at the Berkeley Gray Panthers meeting at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 548-9696. 

“The Global Gardener” With Bill Mollison on his film on sustainable agriculture around the world at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Telegraph and Broadway, Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Berkeley-Ukraine Partnership for the Environment” A roundtable discussion on ways to address the globe’s most pressing environmental challenges at 7 p.m. at Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

”Punishment Park” A pseudo-documentary about controlling mass protests set during the Vietnam War at 8 p.m. at Long Haul Infoship, 3124 Shattuck Ave. www.thelonghaul.org 

Project BUILD Kickoff Berkeley United in Literacy Development summer reading program at 11 a.m. at James Kenney Recreation Center, 1718 8th St. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/recreation/jameskenney.html 

East Bay Traveling Travel Writers Salon at 6:30 p.m. at 515 Pomona Ave, Albany. 524-2459. 

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 

THURSDAY, JUNE 28 

Community Workshop on East Touchdown Plaza at Aquatic Park, including bicycle and pedestrian access improvements, seating, signage and landscaping, at 7 p.m. at the North berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-6715. 

Walkin’ Pride An LGBT nature walk for the whole family at 6:30 p.m. at Tilden’s Inspiration Point. Bring layered clothing and water. For information call 525-2233. 

Easy Does It Board of Directors’ Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. 845-5513. edi@easyland.org  

“Postcards from Italia: Food, Land and Culture” and the parallels and inspiration for California farms and gardens at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Quit Smoking Class from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., with optional accupuncture, at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. For more information call 981-5330. 

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

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Oakland State Building, Training Room 1, 1515 Clay St., Oakland. To schedule an appointment call 622-3200. 

Free Skin Cancer Screening at Alta Bates Summit, Oakland. Appointments required. 869-8833, ext. 2. 

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 

CITY MEETINGS 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., June 26, at 6 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 981-6900.  

City Council meets Tues., June 26, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., June 27, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7533.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., June 27, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5434.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., June 27 at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484.  

Police Review Commission meets Wed., June 27, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.  

Mental Health Commission meets Wed., June 28, at 5 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. 981-5213.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., June 28, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410.


Open Call for First-Person Essays

Friday June 22, 2007

Healthy Living 

As part of an ongoing effort to print stories by East Bay residents, The Daily Planet invites readers to write about their experiences and perspectives on living healthy. Please email your essays, no more than 800 words, to firstperson@berkeleydailyplanet.com. We will publish the best essays in upcoming issues. 

 

East Bay Guide 

The Daily Planet invites readers to contribute to a guide for newcomers to the area. Please email your essays, no more than 800 words, describing a favorite or little known aspect of East Bay life, to firstperson@berkeleydailyplanet.com. We will publish the best essays in upcoming issues.


Arts Calendar

Tuesday June 19, 2007

TUESDAY, JUNE 19 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

Barry Gifford reads from “Memories from a Sinking Ship” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

CZ and the Bon Vivants at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Singers’ Open Mic with Kelly Park at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Kaspar/Sherman Jazz Quartet at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Waco, The Altarboys, United Defiance at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7. 451-8100.  

New Monsoon at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20 

EXHIBITIONS 

“First Exposures: Bay Area Youth Photography” opens at the Mills College Art Museum, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., and runs to Aug. 5. www.sfcamerawork.org 

THEATER 

Queer Cabaret featuring Big City Improv, Jessica Fisher, and Shaunna Bella & Claire Elizabeth, at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $15-$20. All proceeds will go to Shotgun Players Solar Campaign. 841-6500. 

FILM 

International Latino Film Festival “Un Franco, 14 Pesetas” at 7 p.m. at Richmond Public Library, 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. 620-6555. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Anne Fadiman reads from “At Large and at Small: Familiar Essays” at noon at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

David Rains Wallace describes “Neptune’s Ark: From Ichthyosaurs to Orcas” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Dina Rasor describes “Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. 559-9500. 

Cafe Poetry with Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $22-$24. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Denise Fraga & Kristan Lynch at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Balkan Folkdance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 7 p.m. Cost is $7. 525-5054.  

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

Le Jazz Hot at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

Frankye Kelly at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 238-9200.  

Mikie Lee and Amber at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

THURSDAY, JUNE 21 

THEATER 

“Tea N' Crisp” with Quentin Crisp in tribute to national gay pride week at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave.Tickets are $25, reservations advised. 841-6500.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Works by Robert Bilensky” Reception at 7 p.m. at Artbeat Salon and Gallery, 1887 Solano Ave. Exhibition runs to Sept. 6. 527-3100. 

“A Photographic Celebration of Culture in the Heart of Oakland” Evening viewing with photographers at 5 p.m. at the Craft & Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Bldg. Atrium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland. 622-8190. 

“Constructions” Works by Jenny Honnert Abell, Marya Krogstad and Thomas Morphis at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park, through July 1. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Bridal Fantasies: The Fashion of Dreams” at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St., through August 4. Open Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. 843-7178.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Art of Sierra Biodiversity” with author and illustrator Jack Miur Laws at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of Califonia, 1000 Oak St. and 10th, Oakland. 238-2200.  

Rebecca Camhi Fromer reads from her new book of poems “Out of Silence into Being” at 6:30 p.m. at the Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. 549-6950. 

Poetry Flash with Lyn Hejinian and Cathy Park Hong at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. 525-5476. www.poetryflash.org 

John Perkins describes “The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jacklas, and the Truth About Global Corruption” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble with Merita Halili and Raif Hyseni at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. 444-0323.  

Solstice Celebration with Caroline Casey and Amikayla Gaston at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $25. 525-5054.  

Solstice Concert with Terry Riley, Paul Dresher, Ellen Fullman, Todd Renolds and others at 5 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. www.gardenofmemory.com 

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

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

Pickpocket Ensemble, international cafe music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Fancy Dan, Nick Marcott, Nick Z at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082  

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

Marcus Miller at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24-$26. 238-9200.  

The Dying Californian, Winfred E. Eye, Odessa Chen at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7. 451-8100.  

FRIDAY, JUNE 22 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Bosoms and Neglect” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., SUn. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through July 22. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “Oliver Twist” at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. through June 24. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org  

Berkeley Rep “Great Men of Genius” with Mike Daisey in four different monologues at 2025 Addison St. through June 30. Tickets are $30-$75. 647-2949. 

California Shakespeare Theater “Richard III” at the Bruns Ampitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, through June 24. Tickets are $15-$60. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Impact Theatre “Impact Briefs 8: Sinfully Delicious” Thurs.-Sat. through July 21 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “Ring Round the Moon” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through July 14. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

“Tea N' Crisp” with Quentin Crisp in tribute to national gay pride week at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave.Tickets are $25, reservations advised. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Virago Theatre Comapny “The Death of Ayn Rand” and “A Bed of My Own” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave., Alameda to July 7. Tickets are $10-$17. 865-6237. www.ViragoTheatre.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Summer Solos” Works by Yvette Molina, Chelsea Pegram and Amanda Williams. Artist reception at 6 p.m. at Pro Arts, 550 Second St., Oakland. 763-9425. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Country Joe McDonald “Tribute to Woody Guthrie” in a fundraiser for Save the Oaks at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St.Donation $10-$50. 841-3493. 

Edmund Wells and The Bass Clarinet Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-1350. 

Company of Prophets, Kiwi & DJ PAtrick, Abyssinian Creole at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Miss Faye Carol & her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Vicki Virk & Dholrhythms, Fabio Moura and other world dancers at 8 and 10 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Free. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jill Knight, singer/songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Iris Dement at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Cost is $26.50-$27.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

David Gans, Joe Rut and Mario DeSio at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Stiff Dead Cat, Joe Rut con Queso, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Attack Disarm Takeover, Worhouse, Arise at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6-$10. 525-9926. 

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

Chroma, electro-groove jazz, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Jonny Manak & The Depressives, New Earth Creeps, The Sore Thumbs at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Helepolis, Belair Academy at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Marcus Miller at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JUNE 23 

CHILDREN  

Arts and Crafts Weekend with MOCHA and puppet shows from 12:30 p.m. on at Children’s Fairyland, at 699 Bellvue Ave., Oakland. 452-2259. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Animals, Sea Creatures and Animation” Paintings, sculpture, digital and fiber art and more, in a benefit for Hopalong Animal Rescue. Narrated art galley tour from noon to 5 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2053 Ashby Ave. 644-4930.  

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “A Dream Play” Sat. and Sun. at 3 p.m. on the lawn in front of Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Wlnut St. at Berryman, through July 1. 841-5580. www.aeofberkeley.org  

Central Works “Bird in the Hand” Thurs-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through July 29. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Regan McMahon reads from “Revolution in the Bleachers: How Parents Can Take Back Family in a World Gone Crazy Over Youth Sports” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Open Mic at the Marina at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Marina. Sponsored by Cal Adventures. 642-4000. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Company C Contemporary Ballet at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. www.companycballet.org 

Music of Paul Bowles with Frank Johnson, piano; Elisabeth Commanday, soprano; author Michael Paller, commentary, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Art Peterson on the Accordion at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

Venezuela: Tambores de San Juan at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568.  

Dan Hicks and His Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Baba Ken & West African Highlife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054.  

Naomi Adiv and Adrienne Shamszad at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Zindu at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

The Wailin’ Jennys at 5 and 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Love X Nowhere, Bye Bye Blackbirds, The Trenchermen, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Eskapo. A.N.F.O., La Grita at 7:30 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Hoods, Life Long Tragedy in a benefit for the Ernie Cortez Family at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Amel Larrieux at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, JUNE 24 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Moshi Moshi! Bridging Cultures through Art” Japanese and American art inspired by cross cultural influences opens at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond, and runs through Aug. 10. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

THEATER 

“Nature v. Merger” a Sci Fi fairy tale by the Berkeley Pickup Troupe at 2 p.m. at 1631 Bonita Ave. 266-2069. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Courtney Martin describes “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Conversations on Art: Evolution of a Live/Work Environment, in conjunction with the exhibition “Studio Man Ray” at 2 p.m. at the Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $10-$12. 549-6950. 

“Something that Matters” edited by Elizabeth Fishel and Terri Hinte at 3 p.m. at Diesel Book Store, 5433 College Ave. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley International Folk Festival with Nerissa & Katryna Nields, the Aux Cajunals, Cascada de Flores, Austin Willacy, Hali Hammer and others, from 1 to 10 p.m. with p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Free. 548-1761.  

San Francisco Choral Artists “Someting Borrowed, Something Blue” at 4 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., at Bay Place, Oakland. Tickets are $18-$25. 415-979-5779. www.sfca.org 

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

Tom Huber at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Americana Unplugged: Jimbo Trout & The Fishpeople at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 

Flamenco Open Stage at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Rover City High, Upside, Stop the Malarchy at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. 

Fleshies, Hey Girl, Bobbie Joe ebola & The Children McNuggets at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, JUNE 25 

FILM 

“Jazz on a Monday Afternoon” Films and discussion on Latin Jazz and Jazz as Internatinal Music at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., 3rd flr. 981-6100.at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Helen Oyeyemi reads from “The Opposite House” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

Poetry Express Open mic theme night on “Weddings and Funerals” at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pickpocket Ensemble at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100.  

Musica ha Disconnesso, paino and mandolins, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

Geno Delafose at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

 

 


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Tuesday June 19, 2007

FIRST EXPOSURES 

 

First Exposures, an exhibition of photographs by local at-risk youth, opens at Mills College Art Museum on Wednesday. The exhibtion is named after the long-running mentoring program created in 1993 by a group of concerned photographers who wanted to use their artistic skills to help their community. Pairing homeless, foster and at-risk youth with qualified adult mentors who teach them photography, First Exposures has grown to become one of the nation’s most respected art mentoring programs. Mills College Art Museum. 5000 MacArthur Blvd. June 20-Aug. 5. www.sfcamerawork.org. 

 

TEA ’N’ CRISP 

 

The precocious Quentin Crisp lived a life without shame, reservation or compromise. Shotgun Company member Richard Louis James pays tribute to this international gay icon by bringing him back to life in an original solo piece. Tea ‘n’ Crisp is based on Crisp’s writing and public appearances and will be performed during national gay pride week in celebration of flamboyant autonomy. Tea ‘N Crisp also pays tribute 

to the Shotgun Solar Campaign, to which all proceeds will be dedicated. Let the sun shine in! Thursday, June 21, Friday, June 22 and Saturday, June 23, 8 p.m. The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. $25. Reservations strongly advised. 510-841-6500.  

www.shotgunplayers.org.


The Theater: Cal Shakes Stages Richard III in Orinda

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday June 19, 2007

In black battle dress, a figure hobbles onstage to the unlikely strains of Patsy Cline belting out “Wheel of Fortune” over a big band. As he performs an exhausted striptease—one suited for a locker room—the battle-weary wraith launches into “Now is the winter of our discontent” and finally dons topcoat over white T-shirt: Gloucester, who will one day soon be Richard III. 

As played by Reg Rogers, Richard’s a twisted, evil brute, but of an almost whimsical humor in California Shakespeare Theater’s Richard III, playing in the Orinda outdoor Bruns Amphitheater through Sunday. 

His humped back and splayed foot become the trimmings of a kind of vaudeville eccentric—he skips and hops on and off, and such galumphing rhythms provide off-kilter rimshots to his slurred, strident, scathing punchlines. His woebegone demeanor, a kind of cartoonish, Wile E. Coyote goggle-eyed slouch, belies his mastery of hypocrisy and seduction—seduction even of Lady Anne over her husband’s coffin as she curses Gloucester, who killed him. (Susannah Livingstone and Rogers give this famous, fantastic scene a few good twists in their display of it.)  

Opposite Gloucester is his brother, Edward IV, “every inch a king,” though criticized for dalliance with courtesans. James Carpenter, in his delivery of Edward’s soliloquy eulogizing their brother Clarence (Max Gordon Moore), when Richard’s scheming brings about his death while imprisoned (the sleight of hand of warrants and interpreting royal wishes doesn’t quite come off here), brings off a coup of grand theater, as Edward is laid low with grief and remorse, a semidivine creature made mortal. 

The cast is generally pretty well spoken in a very talky play (though some, like Catherine Castellanos as Margaret, widow to Henry IV and general Cassandra, just declaim), but Carpenter’s high tone and manner rise above the rush of “Shakespeare Festivalese” the others sometimes slip into.  

With all the talk, the groupings are usually well enough choreographed by director Mark Rucker, as is the fight on Bosworth Field that brings Richard III, both the character and the play, and the War of the Roses itself to a close—despite a little unnecessary dry ice smoke, and a lot more cloying use of Patsy Cline to underscore the precarious state of the crown and the lives of those near to it. (At one point, Richard sings along while swinging a bloody plastic sack with the head of the latest he’s dispatched.) 

The more serious intricacies of public and private demeanor, and the personal ambition, fear and remorse that play behind the courtier’s face are best shown by Dan Hiatt’s performance as Buckingham.  

The gruesome is therefore combined with the whimsically insouciant to realize a breezy, black-edged humor for much of the show. At times this seems to underline, at others undermine, the point made: how Gloucester’s unscrupulous climb to the top—made by cutting a bloody swathe across Britain—opens up the floodgates to general dog-eat-dog mayhem. 

The plot is pretty well delineated by the way the action is represented, the lines delivered. The production attempts “that savage, old English humor” T. S. Eliot spoke of, which amplified and distorted the Tragic. But sometimes the reverberations of poetry and meaning are muffled by repetitive “sight gags” and riffs, or by the lack of will to go beyond making a scene or a turn and turn the corner into the lonely byways of the strange, hybrid form of Tragedy which bears The Bard’s name. 

 

RICHARD III 

Presented by California Shakespeare Theater through Sunday at Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda. 

$15-$60. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org.


The Theater: Virago Presents Two Plays by Local Playwrights

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday June 19, 2007

The Virago Theatre company, resident in Alameda, is currently staging the premieres of two short plays by Bay Area playwrights, The Death of Ayn Rand, by John Byrd (directed by Robert Lundy-Paine) and A Bed of My Own, by well-known Oakland actor and director Robert Hamm (directed by Laura Lundy-Paine) at Rhythmix Cultural Works in Alameda. 

The Death of Ayn Rand is “an absurd comedy about the final hours of Ayn Rand,” said Laura Lundy-Paine. “She has bizarre hallucinations; her views on life seemed so concrete to her that these disorient her—clowns, characters in movies appear, as well as a strange, lewd nurse. It starts out somber, then gets stranger and stranger. Her assistant keeps trying to tell her he loves her, but gets brushed aside. 

“It’s based on some facts from the circumstances of her death, but takes it much further. It was in our playreading series last summer, and we chose it for full production.” 

Robert Hamm, well known to East Bay theatergoers for his appearances in recent years with Aurora and Wilde Irish, among others, besides his directorial work (and past artistic direction of Altarena Playhouse in Alameda), has been writing since youth, taking up playwriting in the 1990s, but A Bed of My Own is his first play to be produced. “I’ve never submitted a play, nor have I been asked!” Hamm said. “But Laura [Lundy-Paine} had heard it some time ago in Will Dunne’s play-writing workshop showcases.”  

Hamm described the play and its hook: “It’s a three-person love-hate triangle. Rose invites her unassuming ex-husband Reager over for dinner, where he finds the real reason he’s there is to get rid of Stan, her live-in lover, who’s been in bed for eight months.” 

Hamm mentioned the background for this skewed, almost primal scene: “I was a substance abuse counselor in the Midwest; Rosie’s partly modeled on the leading prostitute and heroin addict in Rockford, Illinois. Also, I remembered a Life magazine story about Brian Wilson [of the Beach Boys], who was clinically depressed and stayed in bed two years. I’d say Stan’s making an extreme expression of power. He feels, because of some information he has, that he has power over Rosie. And Reager (I don’t know where that name came from; it just rang in my ear) is like a child trapped in the middle, feeling he should make it all right.”  

Both Hamm (who acted in Virago’s fine production of Lyle Kessler’s Orphans a couple of months ago) and Laura Lundy-Paine discussed what it was like to work together on a play by an actor-director. “We worked together first on a proper working arrangement,” said Hamm. “I spent more time away from rehearsal than I would have expected. It was the flip side of the coin for me. Actors and directors try to interpret a work, though in both roles I’m trying less to leave a personal stamp than to find the author’s truth, a more classical position.” 

Lundy-Paine commented on how she and Hamm talked through every page of the script and cast the play together. “It looks at different ways people can be utterly cruel to each other,” she said. “How they serve their own ends relentlessly, and somebody gets caught in the middle, as they fight, make up, and fight again.” 

Why the two plays together? “Well, for one thing, the bed’s centrally located in both plays, with a character who can’t or won’t get out,” said Lundy-Paine. 

Virago, committed to producing a musical and the premiere of a new play each year, emphasizes they accept new scripts for their staged play-reading series. The next musical hasn’t been chosen; Leonard Bernstein’s Candide is being considered. In the fall, a live sit-com by Dan Brodnitz will be filmed. 

 

THE DEATH OF AYN RAND and 

A BED OF MY OWN 

8 p. m. Fridays and Saturdays through July 7 at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave. in Alameda (not far from the Park Street Bridge). $17 ($10, students and seniors). 865-6237. ViragoTheatre.org.


Green Neighbors: Be Sure to Use Those Exotic Species Responsibly

By Rn Sullivan
Tuesday June 19, 2007

It must have been just about a year ago that a reader wrote to me via The Planet, asking about a row of trees on a street near Ashby and San Pablo. They were blooming—as they are now—and he’d been enjoying them for a long time and wondered what they were. 

A reasonable question, but as always, my good intentions were sabotaged by my very bad organizational skills. The letter vanished, and it turned up again only recently when I was cleaning out the office to make way for a new printer. My apologies to the gentleman for the lateness of the reply. 

I did, however, have the question floating around my consciousness and so I drove over to what I thought was the street in question. The trees are flaxleaf paperbarks, Melaleuca linariifolia. They’re covered in a froth of tiny creamy-white flowers, which on their rounded canopy evoke cumulus clouds or fluffy snowdrifts. Some folks call the species “snow-in-summer tree.”  

You can see others of its kind on Jefferson Street north of Dwight, and on the Albany border along the BART tracks. 

It’s an import, as so many of our street trees are, and from Australia, ditto. It’s kin to the infamous Melaleuca quinquenervia, which has invaded wildlands in Florida to the extent that it’s threatening what’s left of the Everglades. Like so many exotics, it’s less useful to the ecosystem it has invaded than the native plants it’s crowding out. That’s especially poignant in the Everglades, such a unique place that fosters unique life. 

On city streets both species are less of a problem. I like M. linariifolia better, personally, just because of that dizzy dazzling form it assumes in bloom; there’s nothing like it to make a passerby smile. My correspondent mentioned nicknaming the ones he encountered “Fluffula Truffula trees.” (Now, of course, that’s the way I think of them too. Thanks, I think.) 

Most of the time it’s just a tree on the street, giving shade and shelter and not much else to the city’s birds and other wildlife. Its foliage is a nice dark shade of green and its trunk is handsomely contrasting, white to buff-colored. 

Getting closer rewards the pedestrian. The bark is not only papery, it’s spongy; press it with your thumb and isn’t that the oddest sensation? Bouncy! It’s soft and smooth, too, between the fluffed-out seams. If you’re going to hug a tree I guess this would be the tree to hug.  

Sometimes I think the right to use exotic plants is rather like the right to keep and bear arms: It wouldn’t need so much frenzied defending if there were more information, consensus, and will to do it right. I know gun owners who are just fine, thank you, and I boast of a 100-percent accurate target record myself. (It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out how I got that one.)  

But half the foofaraw would be nonexistent if everybody took the care my friends have to keep the guns locked up, learn gun etiquette and safety (which are pretty much synonymous), and know they’re not video games or penis-enlargement devices.  

Problem exotics are a similar matter of Things in the Wrong Hands. The wrong hands in this case are those of folks who haven’t bothered to educate themselves about the place that’s keeping them alive, that supplies the ground they stand on, the water they drink, the very air they breathe, to understand what’s being overrun.  

Unfortunately that includes many landscapers.  

It’s not that hard, really. Anything that thrives as well under tough conditions in cities should be considered dangerous as guns and motor vehicles and explosives are. Keep them in their place, and there’s less chance of disaster. Keep them well away from wildlands-—parks, preserves, and just plain “un-owned” spaces—and you can take pleasure in using them.  

Native plants aren’t appropriate everywhere. Yes, you read that right. Oleanders are just fine on freeway medians, because you wouldn’t want to attract wildlife there anyway, and because you know they won’t mess with the local gene pool of plants we don’t quite understand yet.  

In cities, though, I’d love to see more native trees, and I rejoice in any research I hear of into their use. (Street trees lead hard lives and must co-exist peacefully with paving, traffic, and humans with other things on their minds.) 

But there’s no reason we can’t be responsible and use imports too. When I look out the BART train window at that cluster of trees from Mexico, Australia, and elsewhere clustered on the plaza on MLK near Children’s Hospital, I think of a bunch of old guys from all over hanging out and socializing on benches in the town square. I like thinking of that. Gives me hope.  

 

 

Photograph by Ron Sullivan. 

“Fluffula Truffula” trees line a street in south Berkeley. Like fireworks, exotic plants are so much fun we shouldn’t screw the situation up with irresponsible use.


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday June 19, 2007

TUESDAY, JUNE 19 

Gay Day with entertainment by Gwen Avery, Happy Hyder, Land-a-Lakes and her Queens, and The Cheerleaders, food and door prizes from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

Information for Senior Homeowners, including loan document review at 10 a.m. at the West Oakland Multipurpose Senior Center, 1724 Adeline St. Sponsored by AARP and Acorn Housing. RSVP required. 271-8843. 

Berkeley Library Board of Trustees Information Night for prospective trustees at 6:30 p.m. at the West Branch, 1125 University Ave. For more information call 981-6195. 

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 Point Pinole. For information and to register call 525-2233.  

“Low Carbon Diet” Ideas from the Green Team Project on how to live sustainably at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo Ave. 558-0821. susans@acterra.org 

“Religion and Environment” with Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr at 8 p.m. at 433 Madison St., Oakland. Sponsored by The Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California. Cost is $5-$10. iccnc.org. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Downtown Oakland Senior Center, 200 Grand Ave. 981-5332. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 6 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registraion required. 594-5165. 

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 1247 Marin Ave. 524-9122.  

Family Storytime for preschoolers and up at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

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. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

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

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Presbyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www. 

oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War” with investigative journalist Dian Rasor, at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. 559-9500. 

Reading in Common Berkeley Public Library’s community summer reading program will distribute copies of “The Kite Runner” at Senior Centers at 11:30 a.m. and at Library branches at 1 p.m. Related programs throughout the summer. 981-6257. 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Volunteer Orientation Night at 7 p.m. at 2530 San Pablo Ave., Suite G. 843-2222. 

“Ecological Design: Inventing the Future” A documentary on the emergence of ecological design, beginning with Buckminster Fuller, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Telegraph and Broadway, Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Ernesto Che Guevara, The Bolivian Diary” a documentary at 7 p.m. at the Gray Panther Office, 1403 Addison, in the parking lot behind the university Ave. Andronico’s. 548-9696. 

International Latino Film Festival “Un Franco, 14 Pesetas” at 7 p.m. at Richmond Public Library, 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. 620-6555. 

New to DVD Screening and Discussion at 7 p.m. at JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Discussion follows. 848-0237. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 9 a.m. to noon at Healthy Oakland, 2580 San Pablo Ave. 981-5332. 

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. 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  

THURSDAY, JUNE 21 

“Chasing Freedom” Talk and movie screening on the refugees seeking asylum in the US. with guest Arlette Kitenge, survivor of the Rwandan genocide, at 7:30 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St., between 8th and 9th. www.studiorasa.org 

“The Art of Sierra Biodiversity” with author and illustrator Jack Miur Laws at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of Califonia, 1000 Oak St. and 10th, Oakland. 238-2200.  

“Ripe for Change” A documentary film by Emiko Omori and Jed Riffe on the intersection of food and politics in California over the past 30 years at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar at Arch. Filmmakers will be present for discussion. Cost is $5. 843-8724. 

Summer Solstice Gathering at 7:45 p.m. at the Interim Solar Calendar, Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley Marina. www.solarcalendar.org 

LeConte Neighborhood Association meets at 7:30 p.m. in the LeConte School cafeteria, entrance on Russell St. karlreeh@aol.com 

Urban Luau for Entrepreneurs at 6 p.m. at Everett and Jones, 126 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $35, $60 for a couple. 655-1304. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. namaste@ 

avatar.freetoasthost.info  

FRIDAY, JUNE 22 

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 Wallenstein on “EBMUD Water Conservation Projects” 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.  

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

“Tribute to Woody Guthrie” with Country Joe McDonald in a fundraiser to save the Memorial Oak Grove at UC Berkeley, at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Donation $10-$50. 841-3493. www.saveoaks.com  

“When the Levees Broke” Parts 1 and 2, will be screened at 2 p.m. at the YWCA Berkeley. 2600 Bancroft Way. Free. 848-6370. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 9 to 11 a.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. at Ashby. 981-5332. 

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at East Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. www.BeADonor.com (Code: UCB) 

“The Mission” the British film at 7:30 p.m. at The Center of Light, 2944 76th St., Oakland. 635-4286. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253.  

SATURDAY, JUNE 23 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Celebrates Piedmont Centennial with a 1.8 mile hilly walk with staircases. Meet at 10 am. at the monument at the edge of Piedmont Park, near the intersection of Highland and Magnolia, Piedmont. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Pet Parade and Art Gallery Tour of “Animals, Sea Creatures and Animation” Paintings, sculpture, digital and fiber art and more, in a benefit for Hopalong Animal Rescue. Narrated art galley tour from noon to 5 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2053 Ashby Ave. 644-4930.  

Dynamite History Walk Explore the explosive and peaceful past of the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline with former Atlas Powder Company employee Norman Monk from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For meeting place call 525-2233. 

Native Plant Gardening for the East Bay Learn how to use native plants that are naturally adapted to our local climate and that require very little water to thrive, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sponsored by the Alameda County Cleanwater Program. Cost is $10-$15. Pre-registration required. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Oak Grove Tree-Sit Summer Festival with music, food and art, from 2 to 8 p.m. at the Oak Grove on Piedmont Ave., just north of Bancroft Ave. and International House. 938-2109. www.saveoaks.com 

Common Agenda Regional Network meeting on reordering federal priorities from the military to human and environmental needs at 2 p.m. at the Peace Action West office, 2800 Adeline/Stuart, 4 blocks no. of Ashby BART. 527-9584. 

Know Your Rights Berkeley Copwatch presents a training in your rights with the police and how to be an effective police observer, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. www.berkeleycopwatch.org 

Art and Craft Courtyard Sale with origami, beadwork, knitting, and musical entertainment from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1901 Heast St. Benefits Berkeley’s Nikkei seniors. 

Berkeley Pickup Troupe rehearsal for “Nature v. Merger” a Sci Fi fairy tale at 3 p.m. at 1631 Bonita Ave. Performance on Sun. Call to claim a role. 266-2069. 

Great American Backyard Campout from 3 p.m. until Sun. at 10 a.m. at the Jaoquin Miller Park. Fee is $25 per family and includes parking, dinner, continental breakfast, snacks and activities. Register online at www.oakland.net.com/parks.registration or call 238-7275. 

Cork Boat Regatta and Bubble Extravaganza from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Museum of Children’s Art, 528 9th St., Oakland. Admission is $5, plus $5 for workshops. 465-8770. 

Free Seismic Retrofit Seminar from 10 a.m. to noon at Open House Senior Center, 6500 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. 418-1676. bayarearetrofit@aol.com  

Live Reptiles from the East Bay Vivarium and kick-off of the Summer Reading Program at 2 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. For ages 3 and up. 524-3043. 

Preschool Storytime for 3 to 5-year-olds at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext. 17. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland uptown to the Lake to discover Art Deco landmarks. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Paramount Theater at 2025 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. For reservations call 238-3234. 

Origami Earring Workshop with Nga Trinhat 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Free. 981-6100. 

East Bay Baby Fair from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. 540-7210. 

Hopalong Animal Rescue Come meet your furry new best cat friend from noon to 3 p.m. at 2940 College Ave. 267-1915, ext. 500. www.hopalong.org  

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 24 

“Let’s Get Healthy” An educationa presentation, diabetes and hypertension screening, resources and other information for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 540-7085. 

Health Care Forum from 2 to 4 p.m. at 1924 Cedar St. For information call 526-8419. 

Chickens and Ducks in Your Garden with chicken rancher Linnea Due who will help you decide which breeds are best for your situation, how to deal with predators, whether your chickens can free-range, and more, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at EcoHouse, 1305 Hopkins St., entrance on Peralta. Cost is $15 sliding scale, no one turned away. 548-2220 ext. 242. cohouse@ecologycenter.org  

Trails Challenge in Briones Regional Park Meet at 10 a.m. on the north side, Old Briones Rd. entrance for a 6.5 mile hike. Bring lunch, liquids, and sturdy walking shoes. 525-2233. 

“US Military Bases in Ecuador? Oil Companies in the Amazon?” A report back from Global Exchange at 6:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$20. 849-2568.  

50 plus Berkeley Playreading Group reads “Flirtations” by Arthur Schnitzler at 2 p.m. at 1471 Addison St., entrance in rear of 1473 building, off Sacramento. RSVP to 655-7962.  

Berkeley City Club Tour of the “Lilttle Castle” designed by Julia Morgan at 1:15, 2:15 and 3:15 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. 883-9710. 

Social Action Forum with Larry Bensky, formerly of KPFA, on the role of the media at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Univresalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

“The Edukators” a film about the reactions to global capitalism at 8 p.m. at Long Haul Infoship, 3124 Shattuck Ave. www.thelonghaul.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with Betty Cook on “The Stupa: Symbol of Enlightenment” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JUNE 25  

Pools for Berkeley meets at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst at MLK. Minutes of prior meetings and presentations available at www.poolsforberkeley.org 

Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning Workshop covering legal end-of-life decisions, elder abuse, revocable living trusts, runs for five mondays at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Adult School, 1701 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $40, pre-registration encouraged. 644-6130. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., June 19, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., June 20, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5344.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed., June 20, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., June 20, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5427.  

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., June 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7415.  

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., June 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6950.  

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., June 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7010.  

 


Correction and Clarification

Tuesday June 19, 2007

CORRECTION 

The June 12 story “Landmarks Commission Deadlocks on BHS Gym” incorrectly reported the vote on landmarking the gym. Chair Robert Johnson voted in favor of landmarking, while vice-chair Steven Winkel abstained. Their votes were reversed in the original story. 

 

CLARIFICATION 

A recommendation by Berkeleyans Against Soaring Taxes (BASTA) on how best to administer the Berkeley Housing Authority as reported in the June 15 Daily Planet needs clarification: BASTA supports the Housing Authority of Alameda County establishing an office in Berkeley and overseeing the authority. This effort would keep Berkeley’s Section 8 tenants in Berkeley. 


Open Call for Essays

Tuesday June 19, 2007

OPEN CALL FOR ESSAYS 

 

Healthy Living 

As part of an ongoing effort to print stories by East Bay residents, the Daily Planet invites readers to write about their experiences and perspectives on living healthy. Please e-mail your essays, no more than 800 words, to firstperson@berkeleydailyplanet.com. We will publish the best essays in upcoming issues. 

 

East Bay Guide 

The Daily Planet invites readers to contribute to a guide for newcomers to the area. Please e-mail your essays, no more than 800 words, describing a favorite or little-known aspect of East Bay life, to firstperson@berkeleydailyplanet.com. We will publish the best essays in upcoming issues.