In a corner of West Berkeley, amidst industrial rubble and smoke, two young minds are hard at work resurrecting what has long been a no man’s land. 

An offshoot of Tinker’s Workshop, Waterside Workshops was started by Helder Parreira and Amber Rich at Berkeley’s historic Aquatic Park in July to bring two new programs to the community. 

Berkeley Boathouse, a community boat-building workshop, and Street Level Cycles, a community bike shop, are housed in the old boathouse, tucked between the Aquatic Park lagoon and a bike trail right across the water from the Berkeley Pedestrian Bridge. 

“Aquatic Park has long been a forgotten frontier on the far west side of Berkeley, and this is exactly what we are working to change,” said Waterside Workshops executive director Amber Rich, who was formerly with Tinker’s Workshop. 

“When people look across from the highway or the pedestrian bridge, we want them to see a thriving community representative of what Berkeley has to offer, not a series of neglected, dilapidated buildings.” 

Both Parreira and Rich have worked wonders with the park, clearing off junk and storage space to make room for a bike repair studio and a workshop. Their success coincides with the Berkeley Parks centennial celebrations this month. 

“This place has come a long way,” said Parreira, looking around the boathouse where he teaches kids how to build boats from scratch.  

“In the 1930s the community used this place for a lot of boat-related activities. But at one point people stopped coming here and it became known as a shady place. The maritime heritage of Aquatic Park has almost entirely dwindled away in the last decade. The waters have become polluted, and the buildings have fallen into a state of disrepair. It’s going to take a lot of work for us to get it back to what it was.” 

With help from the Community Development Block Grant, Parreira and Rich leased a piece of land from the city that no one wanted and brought it back to life. 

“Until recently, there was little evidence of the waterside community that once prospered on Berkeley’s waterfront,” said Rich, daughter of traditional craftsmen. 

“This is what Waterside Workshops is hoping to change. Since we came to this location earlier this year, we have watched a community develop, and more and more people are coming back to the park.” 

On Wednesday, kids from all over the Bay Area thronged to the park to salvage bike parts and learn how to scrape and varnish a sailing rig.  

Under Parreira’s watchful eyes, they learned to preserve the dying art of boat building.  

Parreira, a native of the Azores Islands in Portugal, holds a degree in archaeology from UC Berkeley. His passion for traditional wooden boat building was evident from the intricately carved frames that adorn the walls of his studio. 

Next door, Street Level Cycles program director Chris Thompson was busy showing teenagers how to assemble a bike. 

An off-shoot of the bike repair program that was a part of Tinker’s Workshop, Street Level Cycles has been revamped to meet the needs of young people. 

“When I first came, I only knew how to patch a bike and put in tires,” said Berkeley High student Miguel Hernandez, 16. “Now I can put everything in.” 

Telly, Tu’ua and Brian, siblings who had biked down from Sixth Street, were busy rummaging for free bike parts and frames.  

Although open to the entire community, the workshop’s focus group is economically challenged Berkeley youth. 

Parreira told the Planet that the Pedestrian Bridge played an important role in the revitalization of Aquatic Park.  

“Where else in the world can you see such a beautiful pedestrian bridge?” he asked. “It’s designed to face Grizzly Peak one way and the Golden Gate Bridge another way. It’s a part of the Waterside Workshops logo.” 

Parreira added that the city had a long-term plan of linking up Fourth Street with Aquatic Park as part of the North Aquatic Park Plaza Project. 

“We are really excited about it,” said Rich. “There’s going to be a big signage which will help guide people to the park. It’s sort of a commitment the city has given to the park. Eventually we would like to rent out the handcrafted boats to people at a minimal cost. Sailing is not something most people ask for, but when they see it, they gravitate toward it. Part of the reason why people live in the Bay Area is because they want to be close to water. Because sailing is an expensive hobby, we want to use our non-profit status to make it available to people who might not be able to rent out boats at $50 per hour.” 

Despite its initial success, Waterside Workshops faces lofty challenges in the form of funding. 

“We have eight paid staff here and the rest are all volunteers,” said Rich, who is herself volunteering until grants are approved for her salary. 

“We need to do more outreach for donations from the community. Right now we are taking in bikes, tools and parts which would have otherwise ended up in landfills. The sky is the limit for what we want to do, and believe me, there is a lot.” 

For more information on the  

Waterside Workshop’s programs,  

visit www.watersideworkshops.org. 

Lost in the recent flap over the landmarking of Iceland is the future of the rest of the block on which it’s located—currently the home of McKevitt Volvo. 

Bounded by Shattuck Avenue and Milvia Street on the east and west and Derby and Ward streets on the north and south, the entire block has been slated by developer Ali Kashani to be the site of new projects. 

Formerly the property of the Weston Havens Foundation, the building site at 2700 Shattuck is listed as a project in progress on the website of Kashani’s Memar Properties (wwww.memarpromperities.com), the current owner. 

While the developer’s web site shows a conceptual drawing depicting a block-long structure curving at either end down the side streets, and lists the project as “In progress 2007,” a city staffer said the description is “somewhat optimistic.” 

“Realistically, it will be quite a while before we see something new,” said Dave Fogarty of Berkeley’s Economic Development Department. 

Not depicted on the website is the structure on the west end of the same block with the Volvo dealership: Iceland, on Milvia, which Kashani wanted to essentially demolish and rebuild as a townhouse development. 

A successful move to landmark the skating rink, upheld by a divided City Council, has stalled those plans—though landmarking doesn’t prohibit either demolition or developments which preserve the facade while adding height and interior changes. 

Kashani is out of town this week, and according to a message left on his office phone, will be unavailable for contact until Monday. 

Dealership buildings sold 

The Havens Foundation originally owned two of the Shattuck Avenue car dealership properties now being eyed by the city for redevelopment as sites for high density housing-over-retail projects—the McKevitt property and the eastern half of the 2598-2600 block of Shattuck, which is now occupied by Berkeley Honda. 

The property housing the Honda lot was bought by a partnership formed by unnamed local investors, according to Fogarty. 

The McKevitt property is situated at the divide of Shattuck Avenue and Adeline Street—and Adeline has also been targeted by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates as the proposed focus of a new development-oriented plan. 

Both car dealerships figure prominently in the effort by city staff, spearheaded by Bates, to re-zone two areas of West Berkeley for car sales. 

The futures of both dealerships remain uncertain, said Fogarty, though McKevitt has a longer term lease on Shattuck than the Honda dealership, formerly Doten Honda, which was sold on June 1, 2005, resulting in a protracted labor dispute. 

Car manufacturers want dealerships concentrated along freeways, said Fogarty. “They like them together because buyers like to comparison shop,” he said. 

Most cities create dealership concentrations by using redevelopment statutes, often favored by land sellers as well as by dealers, said Fogarty, because of tax advantages. 

“It also represents a more efficient form of land use because dealers can combine some facilities,” he said. 

Berkeley has precluded redevelopment measures and eminent domain, Fogarty said, even though tax increment funding allowed under redevelopment law can help with creation of roadways, street lighting improvements and freeway interchanges. 

Proposals currently before the Planning Commission call for rezoning two sections of West Berkeley for car dealerships, one south of Ashby Avenue and west of San Pablo Avenue, and the other along the freeway on either site of Gilman Street. 

Concerns about the Ashby-adjacent segment were heavily criticized by the owners of the two largest business owners in the area, Ashby Lumber and Urban Ore, when the commission held its first hearing on the proposals last month. 

The Planning Commission will take up the proposals again following its August recess. 

Bates and the city’s economic development staff said the rezoning would help keep the dealers in Berkeley, along with their sales tax revenues. 

But even if the required zoning and West Berkeley plan changes are made, Fogarty said they offer no guarantee the dealers would remain in the city.  

“Even if the dealerships get the right to move to West Berkeley, they still have to secure the land at a price they can afford, and that is much more problematic, he said.  

Havens Foundation 

According its 2005 federal income tax return, the Weston Havens Foundation received $256,811 in rent against $166,146 in expenses on their 2700 Shattuck Ave. property. Comparable figures for 2598-2600 Shattuck were $220,351 in rent against expenses of $39,245. 

The foundation, which was also formed in 2005, reported incomes from properties at 2201-2017 and 2257-2267 Shattuck Ave., and reported receiving $19.88 million in real estate during the year which was formerly held by the Weston Havens Living Trust. 

The nonprofit was created from the estate of John Weston Havens. Jr., who died Oct. 7, 2001 at age 97. 

Havens was Berkeley’s own version of “old money,” a descendant of Francis Kittredge Shattuck, who stamped both his names and his architectural imprint on the face of the city. A cousin, Jeffrey Shattuck Leiter, succeeded Loni Hancock (Bates’ wife) as mayor of Berkeley when she resigned to take a federal job, and he is the former owner of other commercial properties on Shattuck Avenue.  

The foundation created by Havens’s will is based in San Francisco and is charged with funding medical and scientific research. According to its tax statement, it was funded with $28.5 million in net assets, including the Berkeley real estate.

The general manager for the Alameda Contra Costa Transit District says that a trade-in of 16 existing North American Bus Industries (NABI) buses five years early for new Van Hools is still in the economic interest of the district, even though the $1.35 million federal interest in the NABIs cannot be transferred to another debt, as the district earlier anticipated. 

In a memo to AC Transit board members requesting that the district go forward with the trade even without the federal interest transfer, General Manager Rick Fernandez said that “the district would ultimately save money by pursuing this arrangement.” 

But figures documenting exactly how AC Transit would save that money continue to be missing from district public documents on the proposed trade, and AC Transit Board Vice President Rebecca Kaplan, who abstained on the NABI-Van Hool transfer when it first came before the board earlier this summer but voted for it last month, said she will no longer support such transactions unless they include detailed financial information on how they will actually affect the district’s budget. 

“I want to know where the figures come from that justify these transfers, and what is the overall plan for the district’s bus fleet,” at-large Boardmember Kaplan said in an interview late last week. “I’ve told staff that this information needs to be included when these transactions come before the board again.” 

Board members authorized the continuation of the 16 bus sale-and-buy on a 6-0-1 vote, with board member Elsa Ortiz continuing to abstain, as she did when the issue previously came before the board. Board President Greg Harper, who cast the sole nay vote when the transfer originally came before the board, supported the transaction this time around. 

Kaplan said that she had switched her vote from abstaining to approval this time “only because FEMA is waiting for the buses in New Orleans for the Katrina victims, and they are really needed down there.” 

It is not clear how AC Transit’s NABI buses will be used to support Katrina victims in New Orleans. 

The NABI-Van Hool transfer originally came before the board in March, when Fernandez told board members that the district had received an offer from the ABC Company, the U.S. distributor of Van Hool buses, to purchase 10 AC Transit NABI buses for use by the Homeland Security Agency for Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans. That number was increased to 20 in early April. ABC offered a purchase price of $85,000 each for the buses. 

In its March 21 resolution authorizing the original transfer, the board gave permission to Fernandez “to transfer all of the remaining federal interest in the [NABI] buses to another federally funded asset yet to be determined.” 

The federal interest comes from the subsidy provided to AC Transit when the NABI buses were originally purchased by the district in 2000. That subsidy is contingent on the district keeping the buses for the federally recommended operation life of public transit buses—12 years. The federal government requires a pro-rated reimbursement for that subsidy whenever local transit districts retire or sell such buses earlier before 12 years. In this case, AC Transit was proposing getting rid of the NABI buses five years early. 

In his July 2 memo recommending continuation of the NABI-Van Hool transfer, Fernandez wrote that “staff was working with the FTA [Federal Transportation Authority] to approve a transfer of the federal interest in these buses to a future capital project. However, staff has recently been informed by FTA that it will not approve the transfer of the federal interest; the alternative is to reimburse the federal interest (based on straight-line depreciation). Staff has evaluated this alternative and determined that it still would be in the district’s best interest to proceed with the proposal.” 

In both March with the original 10 bus transfer and again in April with the 6 bus addition, Fernandez wrote board members that the “fiscal impact [of the bus transfer] will be determined by the proceeds of the sale, estimated at $850,000, the cost of the original procurement of the new buses, and the net reduction in maintenance costs required for keeping the older buses in good operating condition.” But Fernandez also noted in his original March 21 memo that “the proposed early bus replacement will result in a $1.2 million savings to the region.” 

In neither one of those first two memos did Fernandez estimate the maintenance savings. In the July memo which revealed the dropping out of the federal interest transfer, however, Fernandez wrote that “it is estimated that the district would save $1.488 million in maintenance costs.” Fernandez estimated that the saved maintenance costs of the 16 NABI buses would be $93,000 a bus. 

But where that $93,000 maintenance figure comes from is not included in the director’s memo. 

AC Transit Public Information Officer Clarence Johnson said that the figure comes from the anticipated cost of replacing transmissions and seats, repainting, and “putting in a new engine” for the existing NABIs if they were to remain in district hands. “After seven years, virtually everything has to be redone on these buses,” Johnson said by telephone. 

The East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) is undergoing a makeover, not only becaused it has moved, but also because it has a new executive director. Last month, the center promoted a minority rights advocate, Tirien Steinbach, to be its new executive director. Steinbach replaced Interim Executive Director Deborah Moss-West. 

“I grew up five blocks from here,” said Steinbach. “I knew when I went into a legal career that I wanted to serve low-income people and people of color. I wanted to see an increase of people of color in law and justice work. Also, I wanted to encourage our student population to reflect our clientele. It’s the perfect synergy of these issues that motivated me to get involved in law.” 

Steinbach grew up in Berkeley, attended Berkeley High School, and graduated in 1999 from the Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley. She began work at the EBCLC in 2001. Before she became the executive director, she was the director of clinical programs, where she supported and guided attorneys, taught seminars at Boalt Hall, and started an outreach program for young attorneys. 

Three years ago, EBCLC realized that they had outgrown their offices and began a campaign to find a new location. Two years later, they bought a new property at 2921 Adeline St. and three months ago finally moved there from their offices on 3130 Shattuck Ave. 

“It’s wonderful,” said Steinbach. “It’s equally convenient for clients. What’s wonderful to hear is that they feel the excellent services we provide are not only reflected by the staff but also by the buildings as well. It’s very gratifying to hear that from clients.” 

The EBCLC provides free legal services for people in Berkeley, specializing in issues of housing, welfare, health, community economic justice, and “clean slate” (restoration of the civil rights of ex-offenders). It has been providing these services since its founding in September of 1988 by a group of Boalt Hall students. Steinbach said that all next year the center will be celebrating its twentieth anniversary. 

“We are the largest legal service in Alameda County,” she said. “We serve thousands of clients every year. When they need someone to listen to them, we help them with that. Sometimes we are able to advocate for them. I hope that we will be around for years to come.” 

Come fall—or maybe winter, as far as the Kandy Mann can guess—there may be one less African American-owned business in Berkeley, four fewer full-time jobs and one less place to get a car hand-washed any day of the week.  

That’s because Kandy Alford could lose the site at the corner of Ashby Avenue and Sacramento Street where he’s operated a car-washing business since 2000.  

Business at Kandy Mann’s Detail car wash is steady, but won’t make the owner or his employees rich. Alford can afford the $2,000 monthly rent—though he got temporarily behind during a recent hospitalization—but he cannot pay the $4,000 a month he says the competition for the site offered Craig Hertz, owner of the former gas station, a red-painted brick building with a pagoda-style tile roof.  

Biofuel Oasis is a women-owned cooperative that operates a biodiesel filling station on Fourth Street at Dwight Way and sells fuel made from recycled vegetable oil. Hertz has apparently agreed to rent the site to them. To convert the use from a car wash to a fueling station, Biofuel still needs to obtain a use permit from the city and is slated to go before the Zoning Adjustments Board in October. 

Biofuel has also asked the city to defer payment for $5,410.25 in permit fees due to financial hardship.  

May 10, Jennifer Radtke, a member of the collective, wrote to Dan Marks, director of planning: “In order to make the project feasible, we need the fees deferred, so we can use the money instead on all the improvements to the property to make it into a viable station. We believe the project offers many benefits to the city of Berkeley that justify a fee deferral.” 

Among those benefits, the letter cites an “easy, local source of biodiesel,” and notes the operation will be powered by solar energy “with lush green plants.” Further, they promised to “provide lots of positive publicity for the city.”  

A worker who answered the phone at Biofuel Oasis on Friday said she could not comment on the move because there may be something new in the works. She said she was unable to share that with the media until the issue could be discussed with a member of the collective who was out of town. 

Alford does not know exactly what’s happening with the property. At first, he said he was told it was being sold to Biofuel Oasis and later told it was to be rented. Then, he was informed the deal would take place “immediately,” but has since learned it is to be in several months. 

Property owner Craig Hertz, president of Lafayette, Calif.-based AEI Consultants, did not respond to the Daily Planet’s requests for an interview by deadline Monday. 

Alford said he just found out that Biofuel won’t have a use-permit hearing at the zoning board until October. 

“I’m here month to month. I’m in limbo,” Alford said, adding, “I don’t need all this stress.” 

Pamela Isaacs has been letting the business owners in the neighborhood know about what may be happening to the car wash and says they support him. And she’s been helping Alford learn about his options and his rights.  

“This man is a 1935 Super Station,” she said of Alford. “To us, he’s a historic landmark.” 

Dave Fogarty, the city’s economic development project coordinator, told the Planet Friday that if Alford comes to them, they would try to help him to find another place of business. However, there are few options in Berkeley.  

Former gas stations like the one Alford occupies currently are being redeveloped, Fogarty said. 

Kandy’s has been able to benefit from the fact that the site is difficult to build on. According to Fogarty, it has a toxic plume beneath it, not from the former gas station, but from a dry cleaning business that was once across the street. That means that projects which require excavation might also require expensive environmental remediation of the soil. 

Given that the development planned at the former Tune-Up Masters at 1640 University Ave. has fallen through, that site might be a temporary option for Kandy’s, Fogarty said. 

Photograph by Judith Scherr 

Kandy Mann’s Detail Center at Ashby and Sacramento may have to move. 

Oakland Police officials are saying that a 19-year-old employee of Oakland’s Your Black Muslim Bakery has confessed to the shotgun murder of Oakland Post editor and veteran journalist Chauncey Bailey. But Oakland Deputy Chief Howard Jordan said at a Monday morning press conference that OPD investigators do not believe the assertion of San Francisco native Devaughdre Broussard that he acted alone in Bailey’s shooting, and are pursuing leads about possible accomplices. 

The 57-year-old Bailey was shot and killed by a lone gunman on the corner of 14th Street and Alice in downtown Oakland early Thursday morning as Bailey was walking to work. 

In the pre-dawn hours on Friday, Oakland police raided the Your Black Muslim Bakery headquarters on San Pablo Avenue near the Emeryville border on warrants concerning murder and kidnapping charges unrelated to the Bailey murder. Police officials said that seven of the nine persons named in the warrants were arrested, and that “firearm-related evidence linked to the Bailey murder” was recovered. 

Shortly after the police raid, inspectors with the Alameda County Health Department closed down the bakery because of reported health code violations. 

Your Black Muslim Bakery was founded by the late Dr. Yusuf Bey, who had once been a member of the Nation of Islam, now headed by Minister Louis Farrakhan. In their press conference announcing the raid and arrests, Oakland police officials pointedly noted that Your Black Muslim Bakery is not affiliated with the Nation of Islam, or with the local NOI mosque headed by Minister Keith Muhammad.  

At the time of his death in 2003, Bey was under state indictment for allegations that he had molested several underage women. 

On Friday, a spokesperson for Your Black Muslim Bakery told reporters that the recent arrests and allegations do not represent the purpose of the organization. “This is not a reflection of Dr. Yusuf Bey,” the Associated Press reported Shamir Yusuf Bey as saying. “We are all sons of Dr. Yusuf Bey. He has taught us morals, he has taught us how to be advocates in our community.” Many of Yusuf Bey’s followers adopted his last name, and it was not clear whether the spokesperson was an actual blood relative of the organization’s late founder. 

Bailey had reportedly recently completed a story about Your Black Muslim Bakery for the Oakland Post. In an interview with KTVU Channel 2 news, Oakland Post publisher Paul Cobb said that he had decided not to publish a Bailey story two weeks ago because of a possible controversy, but Cobb would not say whether the story involved Your Black Muslim Bakery. 

It is not certain what type of story Bailey may have written about the bakery, or if he was working on a follow-up investigation at the time of his death. 

Memorial services for Bailey have been scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 8, 11 a.m., at St. Benedict’s Church, 2245 82nd Ave., in Oakland. Bailey’s friends and associates are planning to set up a memorial fund in his name, but details about the fund have not yet been released. 

Contributed photo  

Oakland Police Department Deputy Chief Howard A. Jordan and Public Information Officer Roland Holmgren announce arrests in the murder of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, citing “firearm-related evidence” that links the crime to West Berkeley’s Your Black Muslim Bakery.

Berkeley police are seeking a suspect in two Southside rapes, one on July 6 and the other Aug. 2. 

In both instances, the attacker managed to enter the secured lobby of an apartment building, where he targeted and raped an Asian American woman. 

“This is very unusual,” said Berkeley Police Lt. Wesley Hester Jr. “Both of these happened in the daytime, and both involved strangers.”  

Most rapists are known to their victims, and most occur at night—and not in apartment house lobbies. 

“We think the same person was involved in both,” he said. “We are interviewing witness and we are getting some leads.” 

The first attack occurred at about 3 p.m., in the lobby of an apartment building in the 2500 block of Hillegass Avenue, and the second attack happened about 6 p.m. in a lobby in the 2100 block of Haste Street. 

The suspect is described as a thin, well-dressed, dark-skinned African American in his late 20s, who wears his hair in shoulder-length dreadlocks or twists. 

Hester urged anyone with any information about the attacks to call BPD’s Sex Crimes Detail at 981-5735. 

Residents should be aware of their surroundings and avoid speaking on cell phones or listening to recorded music while walking in areas where attackers could be lurking, including alleys, doorways, parking lots and stairwells, the department urged in a bulletin on the attacks. 

The department also urges potential victims not to walk or jog alone whenever feasible. 

Thursday, the community will have a chance to see the Bay Area premiere of War Made Easy, a film narrated by Sean Penn and based on Norman Solomon’s book by the same name. The film exposes the role of the media as cheerleader for the war in Iraq and shows, using archival footage, how the media played an almost identical role during the War in Vietnam and earlier wars. 

One of the tried-and-true media techniques Solomon points to in the film is comparing the demonized leader in question to Hitler. Another practice is to repeat over and over again that the U.S. loves peace, does not like to fight, but is compelled to, in order to save the poor innocents of the country in question. The media also sell the war by focusing on interesting aspects of advanced warfare technology. 

And it shows how dissident journalists are marginalized. 

War Made Easy will be shown Thursday, 7 p.m. at the Grand Lake Theatre, 3200 Grand Lake Ave., Oakland. Solomon and filmmaker Loretta Alper will be on hand after the movie to answer questions. Tickets are $12 to benefit the National Radio Project’s Making Contact. 

Barbara Lee speaks 

Rep. Barbara Lee has been exceptionally busy of late in her efforts to turn the nation toward peace.  

On Aug. 1, the House passed Lee’s bill barring funds from being used to establish permanent bases in Iraq or to exercise control over Iraqi oil.  

On July 30 the House passed Lee’s Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act, which strengthens states’ rights to divest from companies whose business is supporting the genocide in Darfur and bars such companies from receiving federal contracts.  

The previous week, Lee led a bipartisan group of 70 representatives in writing to President George Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi advising them that they will vote for money for Iraq only if it fully funds the withdrawal of U.S. troops.  

In part, the July 19 letter said: “More than 3,600 of our brave soldiers have died in Iraq. More than 26,000 have been seriously wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or injured in the hostilities and more than 4 million have been displaced from their homes. Furthermore, this conflict has degenerated into a sectarian civil war [for which] U.S. taxpayers have paid more than $500 billion…. 

“We agree with a clear and growing majority of the American people who are opposed to continued, open-ended U.S. military operations in Iraq, and believe it is unwise and unacceptable for you to continue to unilaterally impose these staggering costs and the soaring debt on Americans currently and for generations to come.” 

Lee will discuss recent legislative activity today, Aug. 7, 6 p.m. at the Piedmont Community Center, 711 Highland Ave. 

Events marking Hiroshima 

With thoughts on today’s war in Iraq, the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was memorialized Sunday evening in a lantern ceremony at Aquatic Park, sponsored by the Berkeley City Council and numerous peace organizations; on Monday, children memorialized the event by making orgami peace cranes at the Berkeley Public Library; others gathered Monday to protest ongoing weapons research at Lawrence Livermore Labs. 

Next week: ‘Shut Up’ 

Aug. 17, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall 

1924 Cedar St., singer-songwriter Hali Hammer will perform live music to introduce Shut Up and Sing, a documentary about the Dixie Chicks, who spoke out against Bush administration war-mongering and in response got hit with a firestorm of right-wing attacks. 

Photograph by Marco Sanchez 

A Japanese Lantern Ceremony for world peace was held in Aquatic Park Sunday.

Forgotten range triggers blaze 

Don’t leave your stove burner glowing when you jump into the shower. 

That’s the lesson one Berkeley resident learned Friday evening, when a return to the kitchen yielded a vision of flames spouting from the stovetop. 

Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth said no serious damage resulted to the home in the 1000 block of Delaware Street. 

“The occupant was taking a shower and the kids were down for a nap when some grease caught fire,” he said. 

The flames were quickly knocked down by arriving firefighters, he said.

The Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) did not declare the 19th-century dwelling at 3100 Shattuck Ave. a structure of merit or a city landmark Thursday. 

While co-owners Maggie Robbins and Brian Hill can now take the proposed development to the Design Review Commission on Aug. 16, they are worried that the building might come back to LPC for landmarking in the future. 

A group of neighbors turned up at the LPC meeting to oppose the proposed three-story mixed-use building project, which would demolish the current single-story structure on Shattuck. 

They contend that the demolition would cause significant historic and cultural loss for the neighborhood. But project proponents said that the building was dilapidated and would have to be pulled down. 

A Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) report states that the building is located in the Ashby Station area, which could be potentially eligible for nomination to the National Registrar of Historic Places as a historic district. 

The Ashby Station neighborhood, now an eclectic modern-day transportation hub serving the East Bay with the BART Richmond line and AC Transit, is an example of a 20th-century American streetcar suburb. 

According to the BAHA report, the removal of several blocks of the historic Ashby Station district in the 1960s for the construction of BART did not impede the presence of a “distinct historic context within the ‘Area of Potential Effect’ surrounding the Ed Roberts Campus project site.” 

The building’s owners voiced their difference. 

“There is no recognizable survey recognizing the district as historic,” said Robbins. 

“The city has not recognized the district as historic. The BAHA document is not official either,” she said. “But the issue of historical resource can mean that people can keep raising this issue. If they want to go ahead and landmark it, it’s fine. But they can’t point to it having any architectural or cultural significance so far.” 

Robbins and Hill bought 3100 Shattuck Ave. from the estate of an ailing woman in 2006 for approximately $474,400, with a plan of demolishing the house to build three compact units over a small commercial space. 

“It’s the kind of place we would like to live in,” Robbins said. “Small, energetic and with the promise of transit-oriented development which would help us reduce our carbon footprint. We envisioned a community-oriented business on the ground floor, not a Wal-Mart. As a result we started putting together the paperwork for the landmarks commission and that’s when the neighbors started raising the issue of historic significance.” 

Robbins and Hill held community meetings in February and May to address the neighbors’ concerns but were unable to convince them that the building was historically unimportant. 

One of the principal opponents of the project is Robert Lauriston, who lives at 1918 Woolsey St. 

In a letter to the LPC, Lauriston states that the staff report misinterprets BAHA’s survey map of the neighborhood, which graphically displays the evolution of the streetcar suburb from its origin in the 19th century to its decline in the mid-20th century. 

Lauriston said that the map included 3100 Shattuck in the list of contributing structures in the National Register of Historic Places historic district application form, which neighbors plan to submit to the California Office of Historic Preservation next year. 

Another neighbor said that the building had African migration cultural and historical significance.  

“People are just throwing out these claims,” said Robbins. “We are hoping to hear something specific but we aren’t really hearing anything.” 

Shattuck resident Zoe Smith spoke in favor of the project. 

“Every house in a neighborhood has a story to tell and a significance but it doesn’t mean that it has to be there forever,” she said. “What that corner needs is a high-density structure and a commercial space.” 

Currently, Shattuck Avenue is peppered with a cross section of architectural styles which include Neo-classical row houses, Victorians and the modern concrete-block structure which was formerly a liquor store and most recently the Octopus’s Garden aquarium store, but is now for rent again. The streetcars are long gone.  

Although the original construction date of 3100 Shattuck remains unknown, city and county records estimate it to have been built during 1904 or 1906. 

Berkeley planning director Dan Marks told the LPC that in his opinion the building possessed no special cultural, educational or architectural value and was not eligible for landmark status. 

Describing the wood frame building as unremarkable, Robbins told the LPC that the building was in very bad condition. 

“The exterior is rather plain,” she told the Planet. “It’s not the classically decorated Victorian people think of. There’s a lot of rot and the foundation is shoddy. The plumbing and wiring are both old. The people who sold it slapped a coat of paint inside and outside but that doesn’t solve anything,”  

Landmarks Commissioner and Daily Planet Calendar Editor Anne Wagley made a motion to initiate a study of the structure, which failed to get enough votes to carry. 

“I would like to see an investigation of whether the building is a historic resource because I care about the neighborhood,” Wagley told the Planet. “A building is not historically significant only when it is built by a famous architect. Even though it has a Shattuck Avenue address, it has frontage on a street where people are trying to restore their homes.” 

Ray Chamberlin took the Battle of Marin Avenue to a venerable venue last week when he faced lawyers representing the governments of two cities in a San Francisco courtroom. 

Facing three justices from the California Court of Appeal First District, he pled his case against attorneys representing Berkeley and Albany. 

Chamberlin had challenged the controversial reconfiguration of the roadway by the two city governments, which transformed the thoroughfare from four automobile lanes to two, with the goal of slowing traffic on the heavily used street. 

Two bike lanes were added, along with a center lane for making left turns. 

Proponents of the reconfiguration argued that the changes would make the street safer by slowing down cars that used the avenue for commuting to homes in the hills. 

East Bay bicycling advocates lobbied hard for the change, and both city councils endorsed the project, following adoption of separate environmental reviews. 

Chamberlin, a retired electrical engineer who lives in the Berkeley hills, challenged the project on behalf of the thousands of motorists who rely on Marin as a main route from their homes in the hills to the flatlands and freeway below. 

He said he doesn’t expect the court to order the roadway returned to the way it was—but he does hope for a written decision that will set a new precedent about the way environmental laws apply to similar joint projects by two governments in the future. 

What bothers Chamberlin is the way two cities handled what he said amounts to one project. 

“It’s really one project, and I don’t think the way they did it fits what the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) says, or what the case law says,” said Chamberlin. 

The retired engineer found himself in the state Court of Appeal in San Francisco last Wednesday, facing Berkeley Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan and Robert J. Zweben, representing the City of Albany. 

“I started out looking for an attorney, and I consulted one early on. There was a group here who was interested, but there wasn’t enough money,” he said. ”Environmental attorneys are really expensive, and there was no way I could afford one.” 

So Chamberlin went “pro per,” legalese for representing himself. 

“The cities took me seriously,” he said. 

Delving into CEQA, Chamberlin said he grew concerned that the project had been handled in opposition to the spirit of the law, which generally holds that all aspects of major cases should be handled in one environmental review, rather than being split. 

“The geography of the avenue is continuous and it has always been named the same” in both cities, he said.  

The lay litigator said he was especially concerned because “Albany basically told Berkeley to shut up about it until they were done, and then Berkeley did it. These were real tactics going on, and I don’t think what they did fits what CEQA requires.” 

Berkeley Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan said the court has to issue a ruling within 90 days of the hearing, though a recent ruling came down in just two weeks. 

“I would hope to hear something within the next 30 days,” he said. 

While Chamberlin said he doesn’t expect that the street would be restored to its prior condition should the court rule in his favor, Cowan said “he can’t have it both ways.” 

Asked if a victory for Chamberlin would mean that the roadways would have to be restored to its earlier four-lane incarnation, Cowan said the implication is that it would be, though the ultimate decision “would be up to the Superior Court on remand.” 

In his original court filing on Feb. 28, 2005, Chamberlin sought a court order mandating a single Environmental Impact Report that covered the entire project from San Pablo Avenue in Albany to The Alameda in Berkeley—with the alternative being abandonment of the project. 

But the reconfiguration went on as the case continued, and in her Jan. 13, 2006, ruling, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Bonnie Sabraw found that Chamberlin had filed his action too late to encompass the larger, Albany segment of the project. 

Approximately one mile of the affected roadway falls within Albany city limits, while only four blocks are inside the City of Berkeley. Because his action was filed more than 30 days after the Albany City Council approved the project, that aspect of the case was moot, the judge ruled. 

Sabraw’s decision gave Chamberlin a victory in Berkeley only, and after additional hearings in the county court, Chamberlin filed a writ of appeal on March 27, 2006. 

Following a blizzard of notices and documentation, the case finally climaxed in last week’s hearing before a three-judge panel

The Blood House is back on the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) agenda Thursday after the board failed to take action almost two years ago on its proposed removal from 2526 Durant Ave. to make room for mixed-use development . 

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.  

Berkeley developers Ruegg and Ellsworth will ask the Zoning Board for a permit to construct a 34,158-square-foot, five-story building with 44 apartments, 18 parking spaces and retail space after moving the historic structure to a different lot. 

Designed by architect Robert Gray Frise, the Blood House was built in 1891 for Mrs. Ellen Blood, who first came to Berkeley in 1889. This stately Victorian near Telegraph Avenue is flanked by two more landmarks—the Albra and the Brasfield—on each side. 

The Blood House was declared a structure of merit by the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission in September 1999. 

Ruegg and Ellsworth’s appeal of the designation failed at the City Council a month later. 

The zoning board was previously unable to make the findings necessary to approve the demolition of the historically designated structure and had wanted the developers to explore other alternatives which would help preserve it. 

Ruegg and Ellsworth presented the idea of relocating the Blood House to an empty lot owned by developer John Gordon at Regent Street and Dwight Way at a May 27, 2004 ZAB meeting. 

Plans to move the landmarked John Woolley House at 2509 Haste St. to the same empty lot to allow Berkeley developer Ken Sarachan an opportunity to build on the site, which is adjacent to another site he owns at the corner of Haste and Telegraph, are also being explored. 

The John Woolley House is currently owned by UC Berkeley. 

At a Dec. 8, 2005 ZAB meeting, staff was directed to prepare an addendum to the certified environmental impact report (EIR) for the Blood House in order to come up with the required findings. According to staff, the addendum to the EIR, which will be presented to the ZAB Thursday, meets CEQA requirements. Under CEQA, moving a structure designated as a historic resource is equivalent to demolishing it. 

After reviewing the addendum, the board will direct the staff about whether or not they should go ahead with the building proposal. 

2323 Shattuck Ave. 

The ZAB will once again hear the request of Berkeley architect Jim Novosel to convert the Fidelity Bank Building at 2323 Shattuck Ave. into a mixed-use development. 

At the July 31 meeting, the board agreed that while they were in favor of the proposed preservation and reuse of this historic structure, they wanted the city manager to look into instituting a fee to offset the project’s elimination of eight parking spots. The fee would be applied toward creating more downtown parking. 

Currently, the city does not have any such fund or even a list of projects for which this fee might be collected. 

The property is currently owned by members of the Lakireddy family who own a significant amount of property in downtown Berkeley. The proposed project would take the existing 4,000-square-foot structure and convert the two-story bank space into a restaurant and a dwelling unit.  

The project also includes a new five-story building, to be built in place of the existing three-story building adjacent to the Fidelity Building, which would have 2,609 square feet of commercial floor area and 15 dwelling units.  

According to staff reports, the city attorney has advised that an in-lieu fee would not be enough to make a variance for the finding which would allow development to occur without any on-site parking. 

Staff recommends that ZAB deny the variance and recommend that the Planning Commission and the City Council conduct a nexus study which would help decide on the range of fees and the list of projects for which such fees could be used. 

Photograph by Daniella Thompson 

The Blood House, 2526 Durant Ave.

As noted in a previous article, globe artichokes are perennial plants that need a permanent spot outside the vegetable area designated for a four-year rotation plan. These are not the only plants needing their own separate place: rhubarb and horseradish are others. 

Plant horseradish among the vegetables and plan on spending the next two years trying to get rid of it since it spreads like wildfire. The smallest piece of root left behind is likely to regenerate. Planting it in a tall cylinder with a diameter of 12 inches is recommended by some experts as a way to confine it. This was no deterrent to mine, it simply tunneled beneath and popped up all over the place.  

Since horseradish does not need the lush loam of a well-tended vegetable garden, it will do quite well with leaner fare in some out-of-the-way corner. Like globe artichokes, it will die down and return bigger and better than ever, slowly expanding over time. Harvesting the outside roots helps to curb its spread. Like rhubarb, it thrives on winter chill.  

Horseradish makes an underused yet addictive condiment. Roast beef without horseradish is unimaginable. It goes well with smoked fish and makes a sharp contrast to sweet beets. In medieval England it accompanied oysters. There were oyster beds in the coastal village where I grew up, said to date from Roman times. Since gardeners there still dig up Roman trinkets, this seems plausible. Alas, some contaminant destroyed them, although the large square beds are still visible at low tide. Given the pungency of the navy blue mud that is revealed then, intimately familiar to sailors who have miscalculated the tide, one cannot imagine any mollusc therein fit to eat.  

Scrape and grate the roots after digging and washing. A potato peeler is helpful in carving across, around and into the twists and channels of the root. Add a touch of vinegar and salt to the gratings and stir them into thick cream. This is horseradish sauce as it should be and rarely is. If space is at a premium in your garden and the craving for it hits, hurry to Brennan’s, our beloved (though slated for demolition) Irish eatery on Fourth Street just south of University Avenue, whose creamy horseradish, until I started to grow my own, used to leave me gasping, helping to expand my jaws to accommodate their massive sandwiches. 

Horseradish is a crucifer, Armoracia rusticana, and has been in cultivation for hundreds of years. It grows wild here now, introduced by early settlers. It is one of the bitter herbs of Judaism, eaten during Passover. It is the main component of the Japanese wasabi, tinted green. Creamy white is its true color, unless it has oxydized, when it turns brown. (Quickly adding just a little of the vinegar as soon as it is grated prevents this.) The radish part of its common name derives from the Latin for root, radix. The horse part seems to have been corrupted, from an obscurely related word, by the English, as is their wont. Anything with horse in it tends to mean coarse, as in the horse bean and horse gram, both used for fodder. One can imagine some raised equine eyebrows if A. rusticana is added to the morning mash. 

Like horseradish, rhubarb in full growth bears huge, lush leaves that add a decorative touch to the flower garden. Tucked into the herbacious border, when the leaves have died back to a shriveled unsightly heap the plant will be hidden by the Michaelmas daisies, the lupines, the asters, and the oriental poppies. Since, as noted, it needs winter chill to thrive, it is not always successfully grown in Berkeley’s horticultural zone. But it will love the side dressings of compost and mulches usually given to flower beds. 

If rhubarb seems to be doing well in early spring, growth can be hastened by up-ending a bushel basket over the entire plant, forcing the edible stems upwards to seek the light, and making them tender. Flowering stems should be removed, to prevent diversion of the plant’s energy from its stalks. Since nature’s goal is always to set seed, the rhubarb-lover must intervene if edible stalks are desired. 

The origins of rhubarb, Rheum rhaponticum, are uncertain. One ancestor (it is thought to be a hybrid) might have been a wild Siberian. It is in the polygonaceae family, where buckwheat belongs, so definitely has a touch of the Russian in it. Furthermore, the specific epithet is believed by some to derive from Rha, the ancient name for the river Volga, on whose banks it used to grow wild. No wonder it enjoys frosty winters. 

Some purists call rhubarb a vegetable because we eat the stalks, not the fruits. Do they call the globe artichoke a fruit, since we eat its flower buds? As T.S. Eliot pointed out in another context, the naming of things is a serious matter. As he then goes on to demonstrate, it has its absurdities. Names are map-like, enormously helpful and interesting, yet not fundamentally essential. 

Like so many plants under cultivation for centuries, both horseradish and rhubarb reputedly cure many ailments. It seems likely that both might have purgative properties if eaten in excess. There seems to have been some contest between beets and horseradish as to which, in the opinion of the Delphic oracle, was worth its weight in gold. Since horseradish certainly clears the sinuses and contains some vitamin C, and so might help to alleviate the symptoms of the common cold, it is surely worthy of some prize.  

Rhubarb at one time was used to replace tobacco, only discernible as bogus when scrutinized under a microscope. It still, as far as I know, has one endearing usage: when a group voice is required on stage or screen, to be heard at a distance, the actors traditionally murmur “rhubarb rhubarb.”  

Rhubarb is made into wine in English villages, providing a Miss Marples touch if improperly made, since an incorporation, accidental or not, of a leaf or two would make a lethal digestive. The high amount of oxalic acid in the leaves is what has been known to kill. I’d rather take my rhubarb safe and solid, digging into a dish of the pink tart stalks stewed with plenty of sugar and strewn with ripe strawberries, perhaps tucked under a pie crust and baked until golden and oozing rosy juice.

When I was younger, and TV was in its relative infancy, and the big radio in my mother’s and my grandmother’s kitchens was a kind of second hearth to gather round and literally rub shoulders over while listening to distant yet homey messages beam in, I became very taken with my mother’s radio idol, lay nutritionist Carleton Fredericks, and my mother’s TV idol, feats of wonder strongman, Godfather of Fitness Jack LaLanne.  

Carleton Fredericks used to say that if you were stranded on a desert island (shades of my son’s former favorite youth survivalist book Hatchet) all you needed to live would be bananas, oranges, and eggs. Mom would say that the lecithin in eggs emulsified the cholesterol. Although Mr. Fredericks has been somewhat debunked as a vitamin pusher (I don’t remember that part at all), at least his radio show was called: “Living Should Be Fun.” In any case, I drew several lessons from that pithy gem: Fruit is good; potassium is great; protein rocks; love that Vitamin C; stay mostly or all vegetarian. 

Jack LaLanne, who still in my imagination at least, pulls multi-ton ships from a rope and tether anchored by his own choppers during his pre-dawn two-hour swim, always espoused one message that has stayed with me my whole life: “Avoid processed foods.”  

What a godsend, as that three-word directive has kept me away from fast food joints, the inner aisles of grocery stores, Velveeta and margarine, leading me gracefully and swiftly to Berkeley, Alice Waters, the once-nascent Gourmet Ghetto, and the notion that indeed our bodies are our temples.  

“If Jack can do it, I can do it: Exercise and eat right,” I used to think. And so began a lifetime of passion for performing ballet, swimming, martial arts, as well as growing, preparing, and sharing fresh organic fruits, vegetables and whole grains.  

My dad ate a heavy meat diet; he would even say, “Pass the fat,” and eat the skin off our chicken, and the trimmings off the steak and roast beef that my mother and my brothers had been trained to regard as cholesterol-laden and therefore unhealthy.  

He ate cured meats and enjoyed big pastrami deli sandwiches as well as making bacon (and eggs) for us on weekends. I looked forward to hearing him say outside the door of my “Paint It Black” tiny lair, a.k.a. bedroom: “Wendy, breakfast is ready,” and have loved chefs ever since. 

At the ripe young (now) age of 40, my dad also decided that climbing stairs and playing sports could lead to a heart attack in someone so old, so he hung up his tennis racket and sneakers and spent more time in his armchair as my brothers became old enough to mow the lawn and do the gardening. Dad got prostate cancer at 60 and was dead of bone cancer by 66. 

Mom, an absolutely frenetic person and vigorous race walker, primarily vegetarian eater of fresh foods and whole grains, eschewer of refined sugar, white flour, candy, and animal fat, is still going strong at 86, with her nearly 92-year-old former union leader/boxer long-term companion, who eats nitrates, hot dogs, cheap lox and anything he damn well pleases, as he keeps himself occupied by making sarcastic comments about the whole world except his blood family. 

Go figure. No one knows for sure how big a role genetics and environment (and plain old feistiness and love of life) play in longevity, but I know one thing: A strong sense of community, however one defines that term, is crucial in feeling swaddled and coddled as one advances through the years, running the streets and parks and tracks, seeing old friends and famous personages at the downtown Berkeley YMCA, shopping the farmers’ markets, and sharing tidbits of nutritional and physical culture knowledge as we local residents come back from our myriad travels, either in the physical or virtual world. 

My passion to prevent and reverse childhood obesity as chairman of the nonprofit Gardens on Wheels Association is driven by my love of exercise and lifelong healthier eating choices (except for the early teenage mania for chocolate that was part of rebelling against the strict injunction against candy consumption). 

We never had soda in my house (waste of money AND unhealthy), and soda is now implicated, in all of its 47 ounces for 69 cents giganticized evil glory, as the leading cause of childhood weight gain and early onset, preventable Type II diabetes.  

For me, the love of life and quest for fitness and meaningful longevity all started with my family, Carleton Fredericks, and Jack LaLanne. “Exercise and avoid processed food.” There is more to it, but that is a good beginning. 

Some 50 people, including four Berkeley city councilmembers, rallied Tuesday at the Maudelle Shirek Building, demanding that federal drug enforcement agents and the Los Angeles Police Department stay out of Berkeley and that the city become a sanctuary for medical marijuana distribution. 

On July 30, the Los Angeles Police Department ordered the Bank of America to freeze the account of the Berkeley Patients Group, BPG Community Liaison Becky DeKeuster told the Daily Planet on Thursday. “And on Aug. 1, the U.S. Marshall seized the assets” as indicated by cashier’s checks, DeKeuster said. 

And on Thursday when BPG administrators looked at the bank account on line, they saw a debit issued at $9.9 million. “We’re not sure what that’s about,” DeKeuster said, assuming that it means that any funds deposited would immediately be seized. 

The $4,500 funds that were in the bank were to pay for the group’s hospice and other programs for BPG patients, DeKeuster said. 

Seizing the BPG funds comes on the heels of a DEA /LAPD raid July 25 on 10 medical marijuana distributors in Los Angeles, in which agents entered the medical marijuana dispensaries and seized medicine and equipment. Among the L.A. dispensaries targeted was the California Patients Group that has ties to the BPG. 

Wednesday, a DEA spokesperson in Los Angeles said she could not confirm or deny whether the DEA had a hand in freezing the account, although an LAPD spokesperson later confirmed what DeKeuster said Thursday—that both agencies were involved. 

“From what I hear, [the BPG] is associated with the dispensary down here,” Sarah Pullen, DEA-Los Angeles spokesperson told the Daily Planet. The federal search warrant is under seal, she said. 

On Thursday, BPG attorney William Panzer told the Daily Planet he is waiting to see the warrant through which the funds were seized. The only reason a warrant can be under seal is if it would reveal the name of an informant, he told the Daily Planet. And even then, the DEA can blank out the name of informants before they turn over the records, he added. 

“I hope we can adopt a resolution calling for Berkeley to be a sanctuary city where patients can be safe from disruption from the Nazi tactics of the federal government,” said Councilmember Darryl Moore, speaking to the Daily Planet before the Tuesday rally. 

Moore and Councilmembers Kriss Worthington, Max Anderson and Linda Maio all spoke at the rally, condemning the DEA action. 

The four councilmembers plan to pre-sent an ordinance when the council reconvenes in September calling on the city and county law enforcement officials “not to assist in the harassment, arrest or prosecution of physicians, medical cannabis dispensaries, individual patients, or their primary caregivers,” complying with Proposition 215, which permits the distribution of cannabis for medical purposes. 

DeKeuster said she hopes the city will provide the dispensary with a safe city-owned space to provide services. 

“The federal government should stop messing with sick people here and in the state,” Moore said. 

Mira Ingram, who suffers from neuropathy, arthritis and a paralyzed digestive tract, was at the Tuesday rally. She has a doctor’s recommendation for medical marijuana. 

“I can’t tolerate regular painkillers,” she told the Daily Planet. 

“Nothing else can relieve neuropathic pain,” added her partner Naomi Finkelstein. 

Both Finkelstein and Ingram use motorized wheelchairs to get around. 

“How dare the DEA come to Berkeley, the seat of the disabled rights movement,” Finkelstein said. “We want our City Council to protect the disabled in Berkeley.” 

Bringing beauty to Berkeley’s ugly Ashby Avenue gateway, cleaning sidewalks, adding security, removing graffiti, creating an improved local transportation system emulating the popular Emery Go Round are just a few of the reasons South West Berkeley’s commercial property owners want to create an assessment district, says Marco Li Mandri, president of New City America and consultant on the South West Berkeley Community Benefits District (CBD) project. 

The CBD, being planned by members of the West Berkeley Business Alliance with Li Mandri’s help, would be funded by taxing every property owner in the district and would benefit each owner in proportion to the tax levied, with the larger property owners taxed more heavily. Following a complex formula, the larger the property, the more weight the owner will have in deciding if the district is to be established. 

Some homeowners and others within the proposed district boundaries, however, are beginning to organize against the proposal, arguing that the city already provides adequate services, for which they pay high taxes. 

District skeptics say the commercial property owners have not asked homeowners to participate in writing the plan and contend that giving a greater say in establishing the district to bigger property owners is undemocratic.  

Skeptics also argue that in return for fees they do not want to pay in the first place, that—even though it is not immediately proposed—eventually the CBD managers will likely try to push through zoning changes that will encourage runaway development, turning the city’s southwest corner into a mirror image of neighboring Emeryville. 

The proposed CBD originated with the West Berkeley Business Alliance (WBBA), a group of individuals who own commercial property in the area. They’ve teamed up with Li Mandri, whose New City America has given birth to more than 40 assessment districts. The city kicked in $10,000 and the WBBA loaned another $50,000 to hire Li Mandri to create the district. WBBA funding is to be paid back from the CBD. 

The CBD is a unique form of a Property Business Improvement District (PBID), a concept regulated by California law that generally includes only owners of commercial properties. Under the state statute, property owners within a PBID pay into it according to their size.  

Similarly, the creation of a West Berkeley CBD will depend on a majority vote by property owners in the district, with votes weighted by the size of their parcels. 

The uniqueness of a CBD is that it takes the concept of a Property Business Improvement District and adds in the people who live there, Li Mandri said. “If we’re going to create a district to have multiple uses, we have to have something that encompasses multiple needs,” he told the Daily Planet, pointing to the common desire for cleanliness, security and transportation. 

The city’s Acting Economic Development Manager Michael Caplan told the Daily Planet that the state law is designed to prevent individuals from opting out and taking a “free ride,” benefiting from district services while paying nothing.  

The proposed district 

The precise weight-per-property-owner and differing tax zones within the district are being developed by the WBBA steering committee and Li Mandri. Preliminary data shows 81 homeowners within the district to be assessed at a rate of $180 per parcel. That means they would have a 2 percent (collective—though they vote separately) vote when deciding whether the district should be established. 

“The bigger the property of the person, the more their vote counts. It doesn’t seem democratic to me,” photographer Judy Dater told the Daily Planet on Monday. Dater and her husband own a small home near Allston Way and Fifth Street and a nearby studio where Dater works.  

Dater said she and her neighbors are circulating petitions to oppose the district, hoping that the mayor and council will listen to them. 

Eighth Street resident Sara Klise also opposes the district. “If Bayer and Wareham want [the district] they’ll get it. My vote counts for nothing,” she told the Daily Planet.  

Wareham Development of San Rafael owns at least eight properties in the proposed district and would have, according to its size, about 8 percent of the decision-making power over whether the district is to be created.  

Bayer, whose parent company is based in Leverkusen, Germany, would comprise a separate division within the district—calculated differently because of the different benefits it would accrue from the district, given that it is gated and already has its own security personnel, Caplan said. The gated portion would be weighted at 9 percent and assessed $51,620.  

The city, which owns Aquatic Park, would also constitute a unique zone. It would be taxed at $29,997 and weighted at 5 percent. It is not clear yet where city funds would come from or who would be responsible for casting the city vote for or against the district. 

Unlike property taxes, “Nobody is exempt,” Li Mandri said. Churches, nonprofits, the city and the state, including UC Berkeley-owned property, would be taxed.  

“You pay according to the benefit you receive,” Caplan said.  

The proposed CBD includes properties roughly from University Avenue south to Emeryville and from Aquatic Park and the bay east to San Pablo Avenue south of Grayson Street, east to Tenth Street between Dwight Way and Grayson and east to the west side of Sixth Street from Dwight Way to University.  

Who benefits 

Michael Goldin, who chairs the steering committee putting together the CBD, lives in the proposed district and owns and has developed a number of properties there. He says the services provided by the new district will be good for both residents and businesses.  

With a $160,000 budget for security—within a proposed $600,000 budget—Goldin says the area will be made safe for everyone.  

“I live here,” he said. “I don’t let my kids go out at night. In the hills people walk down the street at night.” 

Security personnel hired by the CBD will not be armed, but will become new eyes and ears on the street. They will also escort anyone in the district to or from their cars in the evening, he said. 

Responding to those who say the district formation vote is undemocratic, Goldin pointed to the law. Weighted voting “is mandated by the state of California” under the property-based BID law, he said, further noting: “If we do it by weight, it will be by the amount of interest people have in the area.”  

The preliminary budget shows the expenditure of $80,000 annually for weekend clean-up and graffiti removal, something Goldin said will benefit everyone who lives and works there. 

But Dater contended: “If businesses want to clean up the streets, they should put their money together to do it. Some people don’t have a spare cent to their name.” 

Golden points out, however, that the homeowners are getting a break. The WBBA steering committee capped homeowner contributions at $180 per parcel so they would not be overburdened. “Technically [according to property size] they could pay double the fee,” Goldin said. Further, people with financial hardships will pay less or be exempted. 

“We realize that some people in the district may not be able to afford it,” he said. 

Grayson Street resident Rick Auerbach says residents were never asked to help develop the concept. “They never consulted us,” he said “Planning has been completely under the radar.” 

But Goldin points to a letter accompanying survey results sent to every property owner in the district in June. 

A paragraph at the bottom of the second page states: “We welcome any affected property owner in the study area to be involved in this CBD formation process” and gives the consultant’s phone number for information. 

Caplan underscored that what is currently on the table is simply a proposal. “There will be a series of meetings,” he said, explaining that is Li Mandri’s job to call them. “That’s one of the reasons we hired a BID consultant,” he said, adding that the City of Berkeley’s economic development division will assist at the meetings. 

Another concern the CBD proposes to address is the campsites of homeless people near the railroad tracks and people who live in RVs in the district. The budget proposes $35,000 for this issue, to be matched with $35,000 of services from the city to “deal with encampments on public and private property” the draft budget document says. 

The funds will be spent providing hotel rooms, detox, mental health and other services for the homeless who live in the area, Caplan said. 

Li Mandri points to an enhanced local transportation system as an example of a service that could benefit everyone working and living in the CBD. The proposed CBD budget includes $165,000 to expand an employee shuttle that now serves mostly Bayer employees.  

“It takes the Emery Go Round model and expands it,” Li Mandri said.  

Re-zoning off the table? 

Dater said she is concerned the CBD might push the city to change zoning laws that would allow tall buildings to sprout where now they are prohibited.  

The Daily Planet put the question to Goldin who responded: “That’s not part of this (plan).” The budget proposal confirms there are no funds set aside for rezoning efforts. 

But Dater said she fears that could emerge in subsequent years and points to a survey sent by the WBBA to all property owners in the district in February. (It appears that fewer than half the recipients responded.)  

The survey, according to Caplan, spelled out issues of concern to the WBBA steering committee including security, parking, transportation, “people demonstrating aggressive and disturbing street behavior,” cleanliness and graffiti. 

The question that caught Dater’s attention was: “Would you support property owner funded planning and economic development services to give input to proposed zoning issues that would impact West Berkeley commercial and industrial properties?”  

To Dater, than means the CBD will eventually address zoning issues. 

“If they got control over what’s built here, it could be detrimental to the neighborhood,” she said, noting that under current laws people build and the community changes, but the current pace of change is slow. “There are rules and controls (now),” she said. 

New zoning could mean “people who own property will want to build five-story buildings next to tiny houses.” 

Next steps 

A number of steps remain before the district is established. A non-profit corporation must be formed to manage the district. Its creation is in progress, Goldin said.  

The steering committee needs to poll property owners and get a 30 percent positive response rate—in a weighted vote—to go forward in the initial phase. 

The City Council must approve a new “enabling ordinance.” There is already city law for other kinds of business improvement districts, but not for one that includes residences. 

Finally, the city needs to hold a public hearing on the new district and show that more than 50 percent of the weighted vote favors the district. Creation of the district will ultimately depend on City Council approval. Li Mandri says the district will be established by the end of the year. 

Woodworker John Curl rents workspace in the proposed district. Renters, who have no voice, will be facing higher rents, passed through by landlords, he said. 

Curl told the Daily Planet he thinks the district is not about cleaning streets “which we pay for anyway. What it’s about is giving funding to an organization through public methods, getting the entire community to pay for the organization to lobby for zoning changes to the advantage of developers.” 

Interests of the community and developers compete, Curl said: “Big property owners invest in property and are looking for profit. Neighborhood people care about the community—they are there for different purposes.”  

For CBD information and steering committee meeting dates, call New City America at (619) 233-5009 or (619) 239-7140 after Aug. 6.. 

To contact those opposing the district, email: wbconcernedneighbors@gmail.com. 

Photograph by Judith Scherr. South West Berkeley is characterized by single family residences tucked in among commercial properties.

As the date for the courtroom showdown over UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium gym draws closer, a paperwork blizzard has begun to blow. 

Along with a slew of filings in advance of the Sept. 19-20 hearing scheduled by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara J. Miller, the university has spawned a little storm of its own. 

UC Berkeley planner Jennifer McDougall stole a march on the City of Berkeley with a July 19 Freedom of Information Act and California Public Records Act request that produced letters from the U.S. and California geological surveys to Berkeley City Manager Phil Kamlarz. 

Those documents, based on reviews of reports by a university-hired geological consultant, bolster the school’s claim that the site of the Student Athlete High Performance Center may lie outside a crucial earthquake hazard zone. 

The Alquist-Priolo Act bars new construction within designated fault zones, which typically encompass 50 feet on either side of a seismic fissure that has been active within the last 11,000 years. 

The gym site lies immediately adjacent to the western wall of Memorial Stadium, an aging landmark that is literally divided end-to-end by the Hayward Fault—the fissure dubbed by federal geologists as the most likely source of the Bay Area’s next major shaker. 

Questions of seismic safety rank foremost among the concerns raised by Harriet Steiner, the attorney hired by the city to represent its interest in the multi-party action in Judge Miller’s court, and figure prominently in the arguments of the other attorneys challenging the university. 

CEQA concerns 

All the litigation is focused on alleged violations of the California Equality Act (CEQA), and the alleged inadequacies of the environmental impact report (EIR) the university prepared—using Berkeley land use activist David C. Early’s DCE consulting firm. 

The lawsuits, filed by the city, residents of Panoramic Hill and a coalition of environmental and preservation groups and individuals including City Councilmember Dona Spring, all seek an order overturning the Dec. 5 vote of the UC Regents Committee on Grounds and Buildings to approve the EIR for the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects, or SCIP. 

While the vote encompassed a series of projects, the university is moving forward with the one that figures prominently in the contract of Cal Bears football coach Jeff Tedford. 

While the contract spells out a base salary of $1 million a year, plus a $1 million signing bonus and a variety of escalators depending on numbers of games won and titles captured, another bonus gives him $250,000 if he’s still coaching the Bears when the four-story, high-tech gym is finished—plus another bonus of the same size if he’s still here when the western half of the stadium has been remodeled. 

Leaving before completion of the gym would cost him $150,000 a year for the remaining years on his contract, and $300,000 a year if the gym has been finished and occupied. 

Once the gym is complete, he can’t sign on with any other Pac-10 team till the contract term expires. 

If all goes according to the contract, the coach would get a maximum payout by the fifth year of his contract of $4,285,000—all paid by grateful alums. 

Stewart’s latest filing noted that on Jan. 7, 2004, then-Chancellor Robert Berdahl said that stadium improvements were critical to keeping the coach, who has transformed the Cal team from losers to bruisers. 

All of the SCIP projects will be bankrolled by private donors, and Vice Chancellor Ed Denton, the university’s construction czar, told regents last December that keeping the team at the existing stadium was critical to maintaining the fond memories of alums, and, presumably, the pliability of their wallets. 

But the city and their co-litigants contend that in the rush to build, the university has failed to give adequate consideration to the hazards of building on the fault. 

Construction of the gym means cutting down about 100 trees, including many Coastal Live Oaks, a key point with the environmentalists, who maintain that the stand represents a unique resource. 

Attorney Stephan Volker charged that that EIR “never address the biological significance of this impact. The reader is left to wonder whether this loss would harm wildlife or eliminate important genetic legacies.” 

All of the litigants charge that the university failed to seriously consider other alternative sites for the gym, and for the stadium itself. They also claim that stadium retrofit and expansion plans exceed the maximum 50 percent value of improvements allowed by the Alquist-Priolo Act. 

One major concern of the neighbors, cited in the papers submitted by attorney Michael Lozeau, is the impact of permanent stadium lighting—long a bone of contention between Panoramic Hill residents and the university—as well as the planned doubling of events at the stadium. 

The university had planned to start construction of the gym in January, but was stopped when Judge Miller issued an injunction that effectively blocked construction for a year. Vice Chancellor Denton estimated the year’s delay would cost between $8 million and $10 million. 

Other projects in the SCIP include a nearby underground parking garage, a new “connector building” bridging offices and functions of the university’s law and business schools, renovations to other buildings and changes to the landmarked Piedmont Avenue/Gayley Road streetscape. 

Only the gym has been approved for imminent construction. 

Geology reports  

The university scored a minor coup of its own, when McDougall obtained letters from the two geological surveys written to Berkeley’s city manager July 2—then released them to the press. 

Both the U.S. Geological Survey and the California Geological Survey had questioned the adequacy of an earlier report by the university’s consultants, which lead to a second survey that included taking core samples near the northeastern end of the gym site. 

State geologist William A. Bryant, manager of the Alquist-Priolo program, wrote Kamlarz that the new data indicated a “very small” chance of a potential tilt at the stadium site, and found no evidence for surface faulting within 25 to 30 feet of the gym. 

The language used by federal geologists David Schwartz and Tom Brocher expressed the same conclusions in virtually identical language. 

Volker said Thursday that he hadn’t seen the letters, and couldn’t comment on their specifics before his own geologist had reviewed them. 

“But they are too little, too late,” he said, “because the university was obliged to provide a full seismic review before the public comment period started for the EIR rather than attempting to sidestep review” by providing the needed research after the regents had already acted.

In a 4-0-1 vote Wednesday evening, former Chamber of Commerce Chair Carolyn Henry Golphin was recommended by the Library Board of Trustees as the new trustee.  

Outgoing Trustee Laura Anderson, the sole dissenting voice, had recommended NAACP activist Elaine Green, who is among those spearheading the move to keep the South Branch library at its present location. 

Ignoring Chair Susan Kupfer’s request for unanimity on the vote, Anderson abstained. 

The City Council still must confirm the appointment, which is for a four-year term. Trustees are limited to two terms. 

Golphin, a 12-year Berkeley resident and marketing director at Skates on the Bay, beat out six other candidates in a process that some say was flawed. 

She was among four candidates interviewed by the board July 18. Three other candidates were interviewed Wednesday evening, shortly before the vote.  

The city clerk had received applications from two of the three candidates interviewed Wednesday after the advertised July 1 deadline: Ann Chandlers’ was stamped “received July 3” and Abigail Franklin’s was stamped “July 23.”  

The board voted at its July 18 meeting to accept both late applications. (It seems that they had anticipated Franklin’s application, since she had called in advance, asking if she could submit it late.) 

Berkeleyans Organizing for Library Defense (SuperBOLD) respresentatives, speaking during the public comment period, said the extension for two candidates was unfair and that the application process should be reopened with new deadlines. 

After hearing from the three candidates—Mary Lukanuski, a former librarian and software designer whose application was in by deadline, former Councilmember Chandler and retired bond expert Franklin—Trustee Darryl Moore tried to make a motion to delay the decision.  

“We have not had time to check all the references,” he said. “It behooves this body to put off the decision-making process.” 

Trustee Ying Lee tried to second the motion, which Kupfer said was out of order, given that the decision was scheduled for later in the evening.  

Toward the end of the meeting—around 9:30 p.m.—just before the vote to name the new trustee was to come up, Kupfer called for a break. During the break, some remaining members of the audience noticed that the trustees used their time for conferencing.  

Kupfer spoke to Trustee Terry Powell separately and she spoke to Trustees Anderson and Lee together. 

SuperBOLD member Gene Bernardi pointed out to Kupfer that it appeared as if she were engaged in an improper discussion with a majority of members. 

After a few minutes into the break Trustee Moore left the room and Powell left after him, going out into the hallway and around a corner. 

Both told the Daily Planet there was no impropriety—Powell said they were talking about Library Foundation members. (It would have been a violation of the state’s open meeting laws had Powell spoken to Kupfer about the selection process and then spoken to Moore about it.) 

Bernardi said on Thursday that the trustees’ behavior “looked like something fishy was going on.” 

When the meeting reconvened after the 10-minute break, Kupfer asked her colleagues if there was discussion about going forward with the vote. 

Moore, who had called for discussion earlier, was silent.  

Lee commented that she hoped the decision would be delayed, giving the board more time to check references. It would give the board time to find out more about the candidates, needed because the method of questioning was faulty. 

Kupfer had imposed a civil service-like routine in which all candidates were posed exactly the same questions. 

Lee said there should have been questions about personnel and union issues, given that the trustees have the power to hire and fire all library personnel, although they generally delegate the function to the library director.  

“I ought to know how a potential trustee feels about personnel issues,” she said. 

But Trustee Powell disagreed. “There’s no need to be concerned about one issue [the personnel issue],” she said. “I think we have enough information.” 

She encouraged the board not to delay the decision, given that the City Council would have to confirm the vote before Oct. 1.  

Moore also addressed the question format, saying it was “very limited, like selecting the Pope. We should have been allowed to ask many types of questions. This is not civil service.”  

Kupfer defended the format, saying the questions were exactly the same ones used to select the last two trustees. 

Moore did not repeat his earlier request to delay the vote. Instead, he said voting that night would “give enough time for the council to deliberate.” 

The council, which generally rubber stamps the trustees’ choice, is scheduled to meet twice in September: Sept. 11 and Sept. 18. 

Lee did not get a second on her motion to delay the vote. 

Golphin was the first choice for all the trustees except Anderson. In addition to her experience as Chamber of Commerce president, she is active with at least 10 other boards, including St. Paul AME Church, the Berkeley Food and Housing Project, and the [UC Berkeley] Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund. 

Moving the South Berkeley Branch 

In other library business, the trustees heard a report from architects Noll & Tam about a possible move of the South Berkeley Branch Library to the proposed Ed Roberts Campus on the east Ashby BART parking lot. 

A number of members of the public had come to oppose the move. SuperBOLD member Jane Welford presented the board with 575 signatures of South Berkeley library patrons who said the library should stay at its Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and Russell Street site. 

Three spaces are available at the proposed Ed Roberts campus, which continues to lack adequate funds to break ground. The campus is to house non profit corporations that serve disabled people. The larger two available spaces at Ed Roberts allow for significant expansion of book collections, but the smallest does not, the architects said. 

The smallest site would cost the library about $4 million. The largest would cost $6 million to purchase as condominiums and build the interior of the facility. 

The architects also talked about the possibility of setting up kiosks at the Ashby BART station or other sites in Berkeley, where people could make selections from about 500 books with the use of their library card.  

The library director was asked to write a Request for Proposals that would address remodeling the other branches, beginning with the current South Branch Library.

The fissure dividing Berkeley’s citizen downtown planners trembled anew Tuesday night, but when it was over, the “Big One” still lay ahead. 

The fundamental fault line dividing members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) remains the always thorny issue of preservation versus development. 

At stake is nothing less than the future face of the city center. 

Tuesday night’s meeting of a joint subcommittee of DAPAC and the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) focused on the draft ”Historic Preservation & Urban Design” chapter of the new downtown plan. 

Even the title itself is in question, with a revised version prepared by Principal Planner Matt Taecker from the subcommittee’s earlier draft and proposed revisions submitted by five DAPAC members entitled “Historic Preservation & New Construction.” LPC Chair Steven Winkel dubbed the DAPAC five’s submissions “the minority report.” 

The difference between the titles embodies the question of whether or not the subcommittee’s reach should include the downtown streetscape as well as its buildings. 

Sitting in the audience during Tuesday night’s meeting were three of the five DAPAC members who wrote the dissident critique Taecker had embodied in his revised draft: DAPAC Chair Will Travis, Planning Commission Chair James Samuels and retired UC Berkeley planning executive Dorothy Walker—who proposed the new title used by Taecker. 

Mim Hawley and Jenny Wenk, who also contributed to the dissident draft, were not at the meeting. 

The meeting began with public comments, with retired planner and preservationist John English setting off the first temblor, charging the revisions with “weakening the balance against preservation. I urge you to resist this.” 

Deborah Badhia, executive director of the Downtown Berkeley Association, told committee members that while her group supports the call for balanced preservation voiced by the subcommittee, she believed the streetscape should be separated from preservation. 

Merilee Mitchell, who challenged Linda Maio for her City Council seat last November, suggested Berkeley follow the example of Pittsburg, which had designated its downtown a historic district. 

Winkel, the only one of the four LPC commissioners on the subcommittee present, chaired Tuesday’s meeting—the subcommittee’s 12th. All four of DAPAC’s representatives attended—Jesse Arreguin, Patti Dacey, Wendy Alfsen and Jim Novosel. 

Members made it clear that they felt they had careful balanced conflicting interests of strict preservationists and development advocates. 

But Travis said, “When you talk about this balanced document, you were balancing it in this room.” Travis said that “while we need to protect our historic resources, we need to understand that history is part of a continuum that takes place outside this room.”  

While she said she was willing to consider changes in the language of their proposed chapter, Dacey said, “I certainly don’t agree with changing any of the policies.” 

“A lot of suggestions” from the minority report ”go against what we feel should be adopted,” said Arreguin. Alfsen agreed.  

“There is no question in my mind,” said Novosel. “The document we should work with is the one DAPAC voted on 17-2 ... I don’t think you can change the whole wording of much of the chapter to include so much of the views of the two who voted against it.” 

That vote, which came at the larger committee’s June 20 meeting, followed the 8-10-1 failure of a motion by Walker to support the subcommittee’s chapter “in principle” but leaving it up to DAPAC to deal with the specifics. 

Juliet Lamont followed with a motion to support—without formally adopting—the chapter’s strategies and goals, leaving it to the subcommittee to draft the final version. Only Samuels and Walker voted against the motion. 

Samuels told the subcommittee that some who had voted switched sides on the assurance that they would be able to discuss their reservations at future meetings.  

One change the minority report sought was accepted by the subcommittee, at least in part. Members agreed to drop the word “precincts” as applied to parts of the downtown with historic buildings that might call for special design standards for new constructions. “Subareas” became the new term of art. 

The term “subarea” occurs in the 21-page settlement of the lawsuit filed by the city to challenge the university’s plans for expansion into the downtown. That document, signed by city and university officials, specifies that the final plan will develop design guidelines “by area or subarea.” 

Kerry O’Banion, UC Berkeley’s planner for downtown projects, offered both suggestions and a warning. 

The university, which has no formal vote at DAPAC itself, has the right to reject the plan, mandated in the resolution of a city suit against UCB’s Long Range Development Plan 2020, with its call to develop 800,000 square feet of new construction in the city center. 

DAPAC isn’t mentioned in the settlement, which states that the plan will be prepared by a “staff level DAP joint preparation committee that includes UC Berkeley planners.” 

One potentially thorny issue has already been raised by subcommittee members, who said they intend to move on to the plan’s actual implementation language during their remaining meetings—a move discouraged by planning staff. 

But Dacey and Arreguin said they want to develop implementation language that will give force to the subcommittee’s vision. 

“The university has already negotiated some very precise language,” said O’Banion, who is Taecker’s campus counterpart. “It is a hot button for UC if you stray from that specific language, because of constitutional issues.” 

The university ”shall use it as a guideline,” he said, “which is different from saying that it ‘shall abide’ by it.” 

By the time the meeting ended, the big rupture had been filled in with palliatives, with subcommittee members and the minority report authors making conciliatory sounds toward each other. But the key issues hadn’t been resolved. 

DAPAC has a deadline of Nov. 30 to finish their role in the plan, after which it’s up to Taecker and O’Banion to come up with the plan and accompanying zoning ordinances for implementation. Then both the city council and the university must agree on the final document. 

If a final plan isn’t adopted by May 25, 2009, the university will deduct $15,000 a month from the $1.2 million in annual payments to the city mandated in the settlement, to compensate for the institution’s financial impacts on the surrounding community. 

The DAPAC subcommittee has two more meetings currently scheduled, Aug. 13 and Aug. 27.

Tributes to slain Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey poured in today from prominent politicians as well as from his colleagues in the news business. 

Oakland police say Bailey, 58, who was a reporter for the Oakland Tribune for more than 10 years and recently served as editor of the Oakland Post, was shot multiple times on the 250 block of 14th St. shortly before 7:30 a.m. Thursday in what appears to have been a targeted shooting. 

The Oakland Post’s office is several blocks away from the scene of the shooting at 405 14th St. 

Oakland police spokesman Roland Holmgren said witnesses told police that a lone suspect dressed in black clothing and black headgear approached Bailey, shot him multiple times and then fled on foot. 

Holmgren said he has no initial explanation for the motive of the shooting and no knowledge of any threats that had been made against Bailey. 

Holmgren said he knew Bailey because Bailey covered Oakland City Hall as well as police matters and described Bailey as “a very assertive person who spoke his mind and addressed controversial topics.” 

Bailey worked for The Oakland Tribune for more than 10 years before leaving the newspaper in 2003, according to Tribune employees. 

He later joined the Oakland Post, which is oriented toward serving the area’s black community. 

Gwendolyn Carter, the paper’s advertising manager, who came to the shooting scene, said Bailey was just promoted to be editor in the last month or two. 

Carter said, “Chauncey was a great man and he called me his little sister.” 

Derrick Nesbitt praised Bailey for helping him get into the news business when Bailey hosted a television program called “Soul Beat.” 

Nesbitt said, “Chauncey was very controversial and could bring anger out in people.” 

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, said, “I was shocked and saddened to learn of Chauncey Bailey’s death this morning. Chauncey contributed so much to the fabric of our community, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.” 

Lee said, “It is my hope that the perpetrators of this horrible crime are brought to justice swiftly, and that Chauncey’s untimely death will bring our community together and strengthen our collective hand in rooting out this type of violence.” 

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums said Bailey’s death “is a huge loss for all of Oakland.” 

Dellums said, “It is a tragedy when any person loses his or her life by an act of violence. The crime and violence on Oakland streets presents me with the most painful and difficult challenge I’ve ever faced.” 

Dellums said, “We should all be able to move through our lives on the streets of Oakland in peace and safety. We are all diminished by the loss of any one of us.” 

Dellums added, “Chauncey will be missed. He was at every media event and he always asked the first question. His questions were thoughtful and you knew that he sought to truly inform the public.” 

Oakland Tribune managing editor Martin Reynolds said, “Chauncey Bailey was a friend, a valued colleague and a loving father. His death has left all of us at the Oakland Tribune shocked and deeply saddened.” 

Reynolds said, “Chauncey’s coverage of Oakland’s African American community was a tremendous asset to the Tribune.” 

Reynolds recalled that, “I just saw him last week walking through Frank Ogawa Plaza (next to Oakland’s City Hall). He was in his trademark business suit and tie. We chatted as we always did when we saw each other, and I congratulated him again on being named editor of the Post.” 

Reynolds said, “We will miss Chauncey and send our sincerest condolences to his friends and family. We now look to the authorities to bring his killer to justice.” 

Bob Butler, a reporter for KCBS Radio who is president of the Bay Area Black Journalists’ Association, said the association “is saddened” to learn of Bailey’s death. 

Butler said, “I first met Chauncey when he was a general assignment reporter at the Oakland Tribune. Over the years our paths crossed many times, sometimes sitting on workshop panels together at conferences.” 

He said, “I last saw him on July 11th when were both honored as ‘101 African American Men Making A Difference’ in Oakland. Chauncey was excited because he had recently been named the editor of the Oakland Post and had also been involved with buying a cable access franchise in Oakland.” 

“The Bay Area Black Journalists Association offers its condolences to Bailey’s family, friends and colleagues. African Americans have lost a champion and the world has lost an outstanding journalist,” Butler said.

With a new treasurer, hi-tech computer software and a lesson in banking skills, Berkeley Councilmember Dona Spring pledged to do a better job of following campaign finance laws. 

Spring, who won her fifth term last year, is under investigation by the Berkeley Fair Campaign Practices Commission (FCPC) for possible violations by the Dona Spring for City Council Committee. 

“Ms. Spring had filed ten campaign statements over the last four years containing campaign cash balance information that she knew to be incorrect at the time she filed the statements,” said Assistant City Attorney Kristy Van Herick. “This is very serious.” 

In the recent past campaign violations have been committed by former Berkeley mayor Shirley Dean, mayoral candidate Don Jelinek and Rent Board commissioner Chris Kavanagh, Van Herick said. She added that it was possible that Spring’s violations could be resolved with a settlement if the FCPC agreed to it. 

“I would be happy to negotiate with the city attorney to resolve the matter to their satisfaction,” said Spring, who is working on an amendment to her 2006 campaign report, which had first caught the attention of the commission staff in February. 

“After Ms. Spring filed a timely post-election campaign statement on Jan. 31, 2007, we found a large deficit account balance of $6,144,” said Van Herick. “We also found some additional discrepancies going back a few years. Since then she has been to the commission three times and has been very cooperative.” 

At least 28 separate contributions of or exceeding $50 and a campaign loan were omitted from Spring’s campaign filings from the 2006 election season. 

Spring, who until last week was her own treasurer, explained that some of the contributors were omitted in part due to her work with the office services business Creative Office Solutions and a lack of updated computer software. 

“In the flurry of activities, some of the copies of the checks did not get to their office,” she said. “As a result some of the contributors did not make it into Form 460, the form used to file campaign finances. There were four reporting periods and they missed between seven to six contributors per reporting period. Only on looking at the summary later, I saw massive discrepancies between the expenditure and the contributions. I knew immediately that some amendments would have to be made.” 

Spring added that only 3 percent of the 2006 campaign report was left to be amended. 

“That’s less than $200,” she said. “It will be submitted by next week.”  

The FCPC ruled at their July 26 staff meeting that there was “probable cause” to think that Spring had committed violations. 

Commissioner Pat O’Donnell said that a hearing would be held on Sept. 19 to determine whether a violation had taken place. 

The only monetary fine that could be imposed on Spring would be for the failure to file a late contribution report. “If you receive $100 or more during the last 12 days of the elections, you are required to file a notice of the contribution with the city clerk,” said Van Herick. “Ms. Spring did not file one.” 

Late contributions totaling $450, from Norman La Force, an attorney for the Sierra Club and from SEIU Local 535, were not reported on Form 460. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that Berkeley was more strict about campaign contributions than other cities. 

“Most places require you to report contributions of $100 or above,” he said. “But for Berkeley it’s $50.” 

Worthington added that going through the campaign paperwork was very time consuming. 

“If someone hasn’t cashed a check it’s very hard to balance your bank statements with your campaign finance reports,” he said. “I am sure it was hard for Dona in particular since it takes a reasonable amount of time for her to get out of her bed every morning and get into her wheelchair. She’s an absolute tiger, the way she works hard to fix problems for her constituents.” 

Spring’s new treasurer is Zoning Adjustments Board member Sara Shumer. 

“Sara is just a terrific lady,” said Spring. “She will be getting help from planning commissioner Gene Poschman. Also, it really helps if you have the right software. From now on I will be using Adobe Professional and Quicken to fill up all the campaign forms. I will also correlate the expenditures on my form with my bank statements. Most importantly, I will never be my own treasurer again.”

Affordable Housing Associates (AHA) announced this week that they would give tenants at Allston House on 2121 7th St. the option to be temporarily relocated during the renovation of their toilets beginning Aug. 20. 

In recent months, there has been controversy over whether AHA has followed their renovation and relocation plans correctly during recent renovations.  

The Berkeley Housing Advisory Commission (HAC) gave AHA $1.2 million from the Berkeley Housing Trust Fund, housing money that is supplied by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, for the renovation of the affordable units in West Berkeley. 

In initial plans, AHA planned to use an additional $150,000 for the relocation of tenants during construction from various grants. But some residents said they were never offered the option of moving while their apartments were being renovated. 

According to AHA’s Temporary Relocation Plan, tenants must be presented with three options during renovations: To be relocated to another apartment in the complex, to be relocated to another apartment off-site, or to live with family or friends and receive a housing allowance. 

AHA Executive Director Susan Friedland said that no one was offered a relocation option because she said tenants had requested that they would rather stay in their homes during renovation work. “We modified our plans for relocation, because people at the building told us, ‘We’d really like to stay in our homes during the renovation.’ So we tried to accommodate that,” she said. 

April Green, working on behalf of some residents, disagreed and accused AHA of violating procedure to the detriment of residents. “They violated the contract,” Green said. “Susan Friedland didn’t offer anybody to live in another unit. The money for doing that is there. It was very clear and accounted for.” 

A few tenants who agreed to speak with the Planet said that they did not want to live at the property during construction. 

“They didn’t do it like they said they would,” said one resident who didn’t want to be identified. “I would have rather moved into a hotel or another apartment like they told us. Most people wanted to move out.” 

“Money was supposed to go towards relocating families,” said Green. “Instead, we are living in our apartments while renovation is taking place. They are not using the relocation money the way they need to be. I think that they are pocketing the money.” 

However, Friedland said that all AHA funds and expenses are reviewed by the government. “At the end of the project, the IRS audits us,” she said. “We did not pocket any money.” 

Many tenants also said they have been frustrated with AHA because they haven’t been given adequate notice of when construction would be taking place in their units.  

“Yesterday, people came by to change the windows without any notice at all,” said another source who did not want to be identified. “For the first job they did in my home, they gave us 10 days notice. When they changed the bathrooms, they gave us three days of notice. It’s annoying. I wish that they would tell us what’s going on.” 

Green said the important thing is the people are now being offered a chance to move into hotels. 

“After the recent news, people are celebrating,” said Green. “We just wanted people to get into hotels.” 

Robin Gorton was a favorite teacher in the Berkeley Unified School District. With her quick smile, storyteller’s magic, and seemingly unlimited number of puppets, Mrs. Gorton performed hundreds of puppet shows for kindergarten students enrolled in the Cragmont and Oxford schools. 

Over the years she collected thousands of puppets of every description. Brilliantly colored birds, scary spiders, cats, dogs, fish and sea creatures, prides of lions, zebras and exotic animals of all kinds filled her shelves. Every Friday she set up her puppets in the front of the classroom, and would made them perform for students from a story book as part of the readiness for reading program—“reading along” as she acted out the story. 

Mrs. Gorton started her 28-year-long career as a preschool teacher in the Berkeley Grove Parent Nursery. She got kids excited about learning through craftmaking and cooking. She co-authored a successful cookbook for children called Crunchy Bananas that introduced countless children to cooking. After Grove Parent Nursery closed she moved to Malcolm X and Oxford schools where she taught the fourth and second grades.  

After retiring in 1996 she became a regular volunteer at the Cragmont School and focused on puppeteering. She was eagerly greeted by students when she came in for her weekly puppet show every week.  

Mrs. Gorton came from a family of teachers. Her mother, Thelma Kestin, taught preschool and her daughter, Laura West, teaches kindergarten in the Berkeley Unified School District and played host to the weekly puppet shows.  

Mrs. Gorton was a supporter of the arts throughout her life. Born and raised in Berkeley, she attended Berkeley High and participated in the school plays and variety shows. She started folkdancing as a teenager, and majored in it at Springfield College in Springfield, Mass., graduating in 1961. She was a regular supporter of the California Repertory , the Berkeley Repertory, the Aurora and the Shotgun Players theaters. 

Mrs. Gorton died suddenly of natural causes on July 3. She is survived by her children Laura West and David Gorton, her father Irv Kestin, her brother Peter Rich, daughter-in-law Janet Weiss, son-in-law Neale Miller and innumerable friends. 

On Sunday, Aug. 5, those who wish to say their goodbyes to Mrs. Gorton—fellow teachers, parents and the children she taught—are invited to join her family and family of friends at the Albany Public Library, 1246 Marin St., Albany, for a memorial, to be held from 2:30– 4:30 p.m.

People concerned about impacts of two planned Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) buildings—one housing the controversial BP-funded Energy Bioscience Institute (EBI)—can raise their questions during a special meeting Wednesday night. 

The two-hour Aug. 8 meeting is a scoping session to gather comments which much be addressed an the environmental impact report (EIR) prepared for each of the structures. 

The larger of the two structures, the Helios Energy Research Facility, will house the labs and offices of the EBI, a $500 million research program into synthetic fuels funded by the company once known as British Petroleum. 

According to the university prospectus which captured the grant, most of the research will focus on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), in the form of crops designed to yield fuels (so-called feedstocks) and altered microbes designed to convert the plants into refinable fuels. 

The EBI project resulted in small but vocal student protests, heated dissent among faculty and a vote by the university’s Academic Senate, which resulted in endorsement of the grant. 

EBI documents specify 90,000 square feet of space for the institute, leaving the remainder for other energy-related projects. Cost of that structure is estimated at $160 million. 

The second project under review is the Computational Research and Theory (CRT) building, a $90.4 million, 140,000-square-foot, 300-office state-of-the art computing research center. 

The buildings are located at opposite ends of the LBNL campus, with the Helios building on the slope above Strawberry Creek at the eastern end of the complex and the CRT building near Blackberry Gate at the western end. 

Lab expansion plans have drawn the fire of neighbors, who fear the impacts of congestion and additional construction on narrow roadways in an area subject to the hazards of fire, earthquake and mudslides, and environmentalists concerned about destruction of delicate habitat and the dangers of building in an area with a long history of soil and groundwater contamination. 

Congestion fears have been compounded by UC Berkeley plans to add a 452,000 square feet of new campus construction immediately below the lab—a proposal which has triggered suits by the city, neighbors and environmentalists. 

Pamela Shivola, spokesperson for the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste, argues that new construction at the lab should be delayed pending a detailed investigation of seismic and toxic hazards at the lab. 

The committee contracted a detailed report on known hazards by geomorphologist Laurel Collins; that document and others are posted on the committee’s website at www.cmtwberkeley.org. 

The lab’s own environmental documents can be found at www.lbl.gov/Community/Helios/ and www.lbl.gov/Community/CRT/. 

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. Wed., Aug. 8, in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

“...you wrote in your hit piece on me that you do sort your socks. That’s strange: Disorder is OK outdoors but not in? Sounds like symptoms of a closet conservative to me.....Let me digress by immodestly pointing out that, unlike for you, the challenges of broadcast programs like this one are not theoretical for me. I literally wrote the book on this subject....Unlike your newspaper which has only one point of view, my radio show serves the entire community and all points of view.....Consider this an invitation to join me one day soon on my radio show. You’ll find an environment shockingly different from the pages of your paper: a place where all points of view are truly welcome.”  

—Peter Laufer, July 26 e-mail 

“I still can hardly fathom that he meant that essay to be taken seriously. I mean, you could teach half a semester on rhetoric from that one document alone, and a good portion of a psychology class, too.” 

—from a friend, July 28 (?) e-mail. 

Well, first a confession. I didn’t tell the whole truth: Laufer caught me with my socks down, as it were. What I like about radio, as compared to television, reading or even web-surfing, is that it offers busy women like me the chance to multitask, which most of us need to do most of the time, even at 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning. But—and here’s the honest truth—when I listened to Laufer’s program on KPFA I was actually lounging around on my bed considering sorting socks. Yes, I do sometimes have to sort my socks, though not nearly as often as I should. The publisher buys socks in gross lots, all black and all the same, so he doesn’t have to sort his, but while most of my socks are black, I confess to having a few red ones and even a couple of purple ones too. I’m not exactly a fashion plate, but you do lose street cred if you show up wearing one black sock and one purple one. Now, it’s possible just to grab socks from the unsorted drawer, but in theory (though this is not theoretical for me) if you pre-sort your socks you can get out the door faster in the morning.  

But enough about socks—Jon Carroll wrote the definitive piece on socks a few weeks ago, and there’s not much I can add to the master’s work. I do have a few more words on the subject of domestic disorder, however. Suffice it to say that the accusation that I’m a closet neat freak provided my friends and family, especially my mother, with hours of hilarity. I didn’t write the book on creative untidiness, but I could, easily. 

And I have a bit more to say on the serious charges in Laufer’s opus. Regular readers of this paper, especially its opinion pages, know that saying the Planet prints only one point of view is just about as laughable as accusing me personally of excessive sock sorting. It’s so silly that belaboring it is a waste of valuable newsprint. 

What readers might not know is that my familiarity with “the challenges of broadcast programs” is not completely theoretical. When I first moved to Berkeley in 1973 and was looking for interesting work, I took part in a collective program on KPFA which I think was called “Women’s News,” though it might have been something else, but which had a distinctive feminist flavor. There I learned practical-then though now-obsolete skills like tape-splicing. One of our goals was to train women for radio to remedy the gender imbalance which existed in broadcasting at that time.  

A couple of years later, when I was working at Pacific News Service, I was one of the regular panelists on a KPFA show called “Holes in the News,” a weekly review of the print media organized by the legendary Elsa Knight Thompson, the American who became the first woman news broadcaster on the BBC during World War II. My fellow panelists were Sandy Close, who’s since founded New America Media, and (I think, among others) Larry Bensky. Among my colleagues at PNS, which had a radio service in those days, were Renee Montagne, now anchor of National Public Radio’s morning show, and Frank Browning, who now broadcasts from Paris for NPR. As far as more recent talk radio is concerned, I’ve been a guest on KQED’s Forum a couple of times and done an op-ed or two for them, I’ve been on KPFA once in a while, and most recently I was on KGO on the Ron Owens show. Though I haven’t done all that much in the medium myself lately, I’ve seen enough good radio being made that my opinions should be taken seriously.  

But the few paragraphs in my recent editorial criticizing Laufer’s show with Mayor Tom Bates didn’t rise to the level of a hit piece, though they may have stung. Believe me, if I actually did a hit piece, you’d know the difference. In my immoderate youth as a political activist, before I took up journalism, I wrote a few genuine hit pieces which almost got me run out of town. This editorial was intended as constructive criticism, nothing more, as the listeners who wrote to the paper about it seem to have understood. 

Laufer seems to be getting the point too: 

“Please consider this a formal invitation to join me on the air on my KPFA current affairs show Sunday, August 12, at a few minutes past 9 in the morning. We can take advantage of the opportunity to discuss the challenges facing Berkeley and world, along with the role we in the media play in the public debate. ..” 

—Peter Laufer, July 31 e-mail. 

Now that’s more like it. In my 50 or so years of participating in the public debate, I’ve at various times made news, reported on news, and consumed news. This has given me plenty of opportunity to reflect on what role the media can and should play, so I look forward to the discussion on Sunday. 

On a more somber note, all of us at the Planet have been saddened by the death of our colleague, Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey, a brave man who told the truth as he saw it wherever he was. It appears that his murder is part and parcel of the continuing tragedy of urban America, where any 19-year-old fool can get ahold of a gun and re-enact the bloody dramas he’s undoubtedly seen in the media since he was a baby. One topic I’d like to discuss somewhere, sometime, perhaps even on Laufer’s show on Sunday, is what role the media play in glorifying violence in the eyes of young people. It’s not the only cause of the epidemic of killing which has polluted our cities, but it’s one of the causes, and we need to address it. 

If we don’t watch out, pretty soon there’ll no Beserkely left in Berkeley—nothing quirky, funky, artsy or even anything useful. Stories coming out of West Berkeley in the last few weeks strongly suggest that there’s a determined campaign underway to turn Berkeley’s last non-suburban bastion into a poor imitation of a cross between Emeryville and Walnut Creek, with the worst aspects of both. Case in point: the proposed re-zoning, supposedly just to create freeway-centric automobile dealerships a la Walnut Creek, but which threatens properties now home to unique and valued West Berkeley businesses like Ashby Lumber, MacBeath Hardwood, Urban Ore and the place that sells the outrageous sculpture and furniture made from salvaged redwoods.  

And what about the nascent international district, whose diverse and colorful food and clothing merchants depend on reasonable rents? One restaurant owner says his rent has just been doubled, and others are threatened.  

Also, there’s the clash of cultures experienced by older residents who moved to West Berkeley to take advantage of the freewheeling atmosphere and the low prices, but who are now being squeezed by gentrifying newcomers working the city’s code enforcement policies. A couple of weeks ago the Planet got a letter from a West Berkeley resident who complained that “my family and I have suffered several weeks of a nightmarish assault from the City of Berkeley.” The writer said that he and his wife, both in their eighties, had been in their home for thirty years, but a few weeks ago they had received a letter from the city threatening them with a fine of $139 an hour, all because a rat had been spotted on their property. I called him up to find out more, and he said that his property was completely cemented over, so he didn’t see where a rat could be living. He hadn’t, for whatever reason, been able to reach any resolution with the city’s vector control people who signed the letter. He was so afraid of retribution that he wouldn’t agree to let the paper print his name or even his address for a news story, so I went to his block to take a look myself, and it’s obvious what’s going on.  

His house is part of a four-home group of turn-of-the-last-century frame houses on tiny lots with no yards. His front area, such as it is, is surrounded by a high fence, which is completely covered with bumper stickers, political slogans and eclectic artworks of various descriptions in what used to be typical old-school Berkeley style, once prevalent too in the south campus area but now vanished almost everywhere in town  

There are rats everywhere in Berkeley, of course, especially in the high-priced ivy-covered hills neighborhoods, but his particular lot didn’t offer even a blade of grass which might have been harboring rodents--it was tight as a drum. Clearly, rats weren’t really the problem.  

A quick check of the Planet’s remarkable new web feature, the interactive Map of Current Zoning Applications, showed a whole forest of the tell-tale red dots indicating project applications in his neighborhood. Clicking on some of them showed they were for currently chi-chi condos-over-retail developments a la Emeryville, and in fact when I visited his block I’d noticed a multi-story building going up right across the street.  

If I were a betting woman, I’d bet that some investor or broker with a connection to a new building under construction figured that having funky old houses with odd decor as neighbors wouldn’t enhance the marketability of their property. City inspectors with time on their hands are complaint-driven, and someone must have thought that eccentric old folks would be easy to scare into selling out cheaply. These particular people don’t happen to give up easily, but it was certainly worth a try. Some of the big-bucks property owners are now trying to get the power to enact a mandatory extra tax on everyone in their West Berkeley area to pay for even more security guards and other police services than the city already provides. 

And then there’s San Pablo Avenue, the wide boulevard beloved of smart-growthers because it happens to be a straight shot for busses between downtown Oakland and Richmond. On an aerial map it’s easy to miss the value in an upholstery shop or an auto repair garage or an architectural salvage yard, but all of these are the greenest of green businesses, because they’re concerned with ensuring the re-use of what already exists. Replacing them with spiffy new condos for young yuppies to live in before they buy houses in Pleasanton to raise families is not the green alternative it’s touted to be. San Pablo’s lower rents have allowed interesting semi-bohemian establishments like Caffe Trieste to get a toehold in West Berkeley, but if prices go up it will be Starbucks end to end before long. And of course working artists are fleeing in droves, as reported here.  

Is it possible to zone to keep a little urban grittiness and flash in some part of our increasingly suburban pseudo-city? I can’t think of any place that I’ve seen that done successfully, partly because planners on the whole are a dull lot, seldom creative, often prescriptive. Oakland’s suffering from a similar assault, as is the Mission in San Francisco. There’s an interesting new book, The Suburbanization of New York, which deplores the replacement by faceless clean chains of what made that city unique. Uniform new buildings inhabited by uniform new people do not a lively city make, but what can? Berkeley could have a chance to figure that out, if we hurry.  

CHRIS KAVANAGH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For years Rent Board Member Chris Kavanagh has avoided discussion of the injustices of rent control by invoking a simply defense; “the public voted for it.” Kavanagh wanted us to believe he held the democratic process in high esteem. Apparently not.  

Kavanagh has been a particularly self-righteous proponent of rent control, demeaning the concerns of those who have been injured by it. Such ideological “certainty” is self-delusional and facilitates an “end justifies the means” mentality.  

Whether Kavanagh lied to the public because he thought his leadership and insight was invaluable or simply because he could not achieve success without deception and fraud, is immaterial. What matters is his apparent violation of the most fundamental and sacred aspect of democracy, fair and honest elections. He must be held accountable.  

If it is proven that Kavanagh lied about his residency he must relinquish his elected post and reimburse the public for the money and benefits he has stolen. As a rent board member he has received $25,000 to $35,000 in stipends. He has had access to the city’s generous health and dental care plans. He has enjoyed a 75 percent reduction in his YMCA annual membership fees (worth about $4,000).  

One can’t help but wonder if his friends and fellow ideologues on the Rent Board were really unaware of this deception? Is there a “wink and a nod” policy that accepts fraud and perjury in service of what they believe to be “the greater good”? How is it that they spend $3.5 million dollars a year keeping track of who lives where but they can’t figure out where their own members live? 

I am not surprised by Kavanagh’s apparent indifference to basic fairness, such indifference is a prerequisite to blind support of Berkeley rent control. 

John Koenigshofer 

• 

RENT BOARD FIASCO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For the past several days, I have had numerous conversations with people from all political persuasions who are appalled by the actions of Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner Chris Kavanagh and the seemingly corrupt behavior of his legal counsel and former Rent Board associate Marc Janowitz. 

The facts are abundantly clear: Mr. Janowitz has had first-hand knowledge that Kavanagh has been living outside of Berkeley during Kavanagh’s tenure as a Berkeley elected official. Janowitz played a role in the election of Kavanagh and his law firm obtained lucrative contracts and benefited tremendously from Kavanagh’s position as an elected official. It will be very interesting to hear Janowitz arguing in court in defense of Kavanaugh, as he recently stated that Kavanagh lives “primarily in Berkeley.” Interesting, indeed, since Janowitz is defending Kavanaugh’s eviction from his Oakland residence. 

As this scandal continues to unfold, its breadth and depth are deeply disturbing and suggest criminal conduct well beyond the scope of a county prosecutor. What we are looking at here is rampant, sophisticated racketeering, and in order for justice to prevail, a federal investigation is warranted. Here’s hoping that our progressive community resolves this issue with the help of federal prosecutors, in much the same manner as the Reddy case several years ago, when a major federal investigation was clearly needed. 

Leon Mayeri 

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The opinion pieces by Doug Buckwald and Mary Oram distort what happened at the Transportation Commission workshop on Bus Rapid Transit. In reality, about three people (including Mr. Buckwald but not Ms. Oram) tried to disrupt the meeting and to change its agenda. Chair Sarah Syed did a very good job, in difficult circumstances, of keeping the meeting focused on its agenda, which was to have people state issues to the entire group, and then break up into smaller groups for discussion. 

Mr. Buckwald’s claim that Ms. Syed let BRT supporters speak and stopped BRT opponents is totally untrue and defamatory. She let Steve Finacom go on at great length raising objections to BRT, explaining to one of the disruptors that he was raising issues. But she stopped me from speaking in support of BRT after two or three sentences, explaining that I was arguing rather than raising issues. 

Mr. Buckwald and the other disruptors apparently haven’t heard that we live in a democracy. Majorities of Berkeley voters elect councilmembers. Councilmembers appoint commissioners. Commissioners set the agendas for their meetings. It is the job of the chair to make sure that commission meetings follow their agendas. Noisy minorities do not have the right to disrupt these meetings or to change their agendas. 

The people who are now leading the battle to stop BRT are the same people who work against all environmentally sound planning in Berkeley, and they resort to disrupting meetings because they cannot win elections. They tried to stop the Brower Center, and they could not even get the issue on the ballot. They put Measure P on the ballot to stop smart growth, and it lost by a larger margin than any ballot measure in Berkeley history, with 80 percent voting against. Now, the same narrow-minded NIMBYs are working against BRT, and one of them is even calling it “Bus Rapid Development.” 

I have watched NIMBYs losing elections and disrupting meetings since the 1980s. I am sure I will continue to watch them losing elections, because they do not represent the majority of people in Berkeley. They are a distinct minority, but we hear so much from them because they are empty barrels who make a lot of noise. 

Charles Siegel 

• 

ELMWOOD TRAFFIC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you, R. J. Schwendinger, for your continued concern about Berkeley’s ignored traffic congestion in our Elmwood area. I join you in asking for a current environmental report on the area’s traffic-related pollution. Your statistics about several studies of the effects of such pollution are vital, noting frightening increases in such illnesses as childhood asthma, and adult cardiopulmonary disease. 

However, there is another cause of the “crippling poisonous exhausts” in the area, as well as our volume and attraction of new and old commerce. Our ignored “traffic diverters” funnel much of the area’s vehicles onto College Avenue, which daily becomes a polluted parking lot. These diverters were installed in the 1960s, apparently to prevent dangerous through-traffic on residential streets. Instead, we have created a dangerous thoroughfare which is at least 75 percent residential! 

There have been complaints over the years, even petitions from residents, apparently to no avail. I found that a July, 1984 request for “removal or modification of diverters” was turned down by the City Council. This request includes the words, “local prohibitions of entry-to or exit-from streets by means of design features must be consistent with the responsibility of local governments to provide for public health and safety.” The diverters are not only undemocratic and irrational, it is probably unconstitutional to expose certain residents to the dangers of daily toxic pollution while neighbors are protected on closed streets. 

The removal of these barriers can probably result in an almost immediate and fair dispersal of this traffic congestion, as it’s done in other cities! The comparison of traffic on Berkeley’s College Avenue and the same street in Oakland’s busy Rockridge district cannot be ignored. Our traffic-engineers obviously know there are preferable traffic controls. It is baffling that our city has been ignoring this crime, which affects not only Elmwood residents but all of us who treasure and traverse the area. It is also baffling that apparently most affected or damaged College Ave. residents have not insisted on fair solutions.  

Gerta Farber 

P.S.: Cynthia Papermaster has incorrectly quoted me in her letter, (“Fear of Impeachment,” Aug. 3). Perhaps she didn’t realize that leaving out the last half of my sentence would greatly and unfairly change it’s meaning? My July 31 letter stated that Representatives Conyers and Kucinich “fear impeachment proceedings will involve congress far too long”—not that these gentlemen “fear impeachment,” as she wrote! 

Perhaps Papermaster felt my true words would cause people to also reconsider the timing of the action to impeach. Our goals are the same: to immediately end this immoral war. Let’s at least use honesty in our discussions. 

* 

MORE ON ELMWOOD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

R.J. Schwedinger paints an accurate picture of traffic and air quality in the Elmwood area. Even decades ago, when I lived on College Avenue, the flow of traffic was endless. Seeing the soot on my windows made me wonder what the soot buildup looked like in my lungs. However, in my opinion, he or she points to the wrong causes. The occasional Cal game days contribute little to the overall problem. In addition, arguing that a long-established commercial district should not adapt in order to continue to thrive seems like a side issue. 

First, Elmwood residents are not just victims. We also contribute to the problem. Who is filling most of those limited on-street parking spaces, anyway? How many Elmwood residents are either without a car or, for that matter, without a second or third car per household? Second, and perhaps most importantly, we have created the traffic mess on College by constructing our beloved traffic barricades. There is nothing wrong with the way Berkeley’s streets were designed. In most places, they form a logical grid that would allow for traffic to percolate throughout the city. We just don’t let that grid do its job. Instead, those who can have diverted traffic off of their own streets and dumped it on other’s. That means that the first thing Elmwood residents do when they leave their homes by car is to drive onto Ashby or College or (for those further south) Claremont. We have created and are contributing to our own traffic problem. And it is the jammed-up nature of traffic in the area that causes the high levels of soot and other air contaminants.  

What we seem to ignore, or forget, is that every street in Berkeley is a residential street. Those of us who are well-organized find ways to fight for our own little traffic turf (Remember the signs on stop sign-choked Piedmont/Gayley telling people to use Telegraph?). Our traffic policies create winners and losers. The problem with deciding that Ashby and College should function like suburban arterials is that the hideous thoroughfares upon which they are modeled are usually four or six lanes across, not the two lanes on the roads through Elmwood.  

So here is my solution: let Wright’s Garage convert to whatever commercial use the owners can sell, and simply barricade the intersection of College and Ashby. I am not sure where all of the traffic will go after that, but at least it will be someone else’s problem.  

Steve Weissman  

• 

WHO’S AFRAID OF THE  

BIG BAD WOLF? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Like several recent letter writers I think that getting Bush-Cheney out of office before the 2008 election is of great importance. However, I’d like folks to consider the lack of strong evidence that the reason Pelosi, Reid and others are hedging on impeachment is fear of losing political ground in the 2008 elections. We might ponder the possibility that the Democrats, as a whole—though not stalwarts like Barbara Lee—may be afraid of the expectations they will arouse if they actually use their power to stop the war and to impeach. If they gain the presidency based instead upon elections after terrifying statements like Obama saying that we could invade Pakistan if Musharref doesn’t go after the Talliban, then the public will already be prepared again for the “lesser of two evils” and will know that the Democrats may temper, but will not reverse the war on terrorism, the decimation of Constitutional Rights, the aggressive policy in harmony with Israeli interests in the Middle East, and aggression against Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti. Just looking back at the Clinton presidency provides evidence that—with all that money flowing into their pockets—the Democrats are unable to deliver on health care and other aspects of the social service net unless forced by public unrest to do so—let alone resurrect the Bill of Rights and abandon policies of aggression and economic depredation. Of course Hillary, Obama or Edwards wouldn’t be as criminal, obtuse or self-defeating as Bush. But acting in the public’s clear interest with an impeachment procedure could well unleash a dragon of popular democratic discontent, terrifying to the Democratic leadership for different reasons than people think. All the more reason to push them harder now.  

Marc Sapir  

• 

IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Is the Daily Planet a medium for responsible journalism, or a “rag,” a place where all manner of opinion can stand as “fact”? Unfortunately, it is increasingly the latter. The form of nearly any article by Richard Brenneman regarding the University of California, Berkeley starts with a paragraph that seems intended to startle the reader. The adjective “massive” invariably shows up in this inaugural paragraph, as in: “The university plans to build a “massive (fill in the blank)” that will likely cause “(fill in the blank) problems.” The next few paragraphs bolster the alarm created in the first, by quoting various neighborhood groups and/or city officials. There may be a paragraph of fact inserted somewhere toward the end of the piece, and the obligatory quote from a university spokesperson—but by that time the rhetorical trick has caste its spell. 

No where is this journalistic irresponsibility more evident than in your coverage of the ongoing controversy over the renovation/retrofit of Memorial Stadium. The first phase of this project is the building of a Student-Athlete High Performance Center adjacent to the western wall of the stadium. This building will allow the 450 or so people who work in the stadium offices each day to move into a safe, state-of-the-art facility. Numerous teams, including Cal’s women’s softball team that currently has no lockers or showers, will now have the basic facilities they deserve. The football team, which currently has the least amount of training and locker room space in the Pac-10, will finally have the facilities they deserve. There will be meeting rooms, locker rooms, medical/training rooms and an imaging center. The building itself is astutely designed, much of it is underground, and it follows the contours of the surrounding landscape seemingly effortlessly. 

The Student-Athlete High Performance Center is not in any meaningful sense a “gym.” If you want to do a responsible piece on this issue, you should show the drawings of the building. You should describe the cramped quarters, or the absence of them, that several Cal teams now have. You should describe why moving the SAHPC elsewhere is not viable without causing huge inconveniences (bus rides, shuttles, etc.) for many of the teams that would use the facility. And you should describe the concerns neighbors have regarding parking, the on-going debate over seismic safety, and the issue of the oak trees. This is if you have any interest in responsible journalism. 

Mitchell Wilson 

• 

RAPID BUS NOT AN OPTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Just for the heck of it, I rode a 1R “Rapid Bus” all the way from Telegraph and Ashby in Berkeley to the end of the line at Bayfair BART. This was between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Thursday. The trip covers the longest version of the proposed BRT corridor. Rapid Bus is called the “no build” option for BRT. Based on my recent experience, I think this is a bad option. The 1R did have some bursts of speed between some of its widely-separated stops, but it wasn’t very rapid when it had to contend with the heavy car traffic. I saw 1R buses pass each other and get bunched up. I watched delays as people slowly paid their fares, standing in line at the front door. I watched the driver have to get up and operate the mid-bus wheelchair ramp. I think “no build” is a not a useful alternative for BRT. We really need the unique BRT features—all-door boarding with POP, rolling wheelchairs on at the stations and we especially need the dedicated bus lanes. No bus can possibly be rapid unless it gets some advantage over all those cars. A “compromise” giving up any of the BRT features is really a sell-out and a waste of public money. Worse yet, such a deliberate “design for failure” will give political ammunition to those who wish to destroy public transit in general. 

Parking loss can be mitigated by nearby replacement parking. Dedicated bus lanes won’t increase congestion or cause more cut-thru traffic if a substantial number of people remove their cars from the congestion and become BRT riders enjoying the benefits of the bus lanes. Cyndi Johnson asks what, pray tell, would encourage drivers to switch to public transit. If the answer really is “nothing will,” then we may as well forget the whole BRT project, and continue to slog along with local buses. Dropping BRT would be such a terrible missed opportunity, not to mention show hypocrisy about Measure G. If we’re really serious about reducing GHG in the East Bay, we have to reduce our car driving—which means a lot more of us will want to ride public transit. 

If we want to travel quickly on transit, we have to have BRT, not Rapid Bus. We need to make up our minds: do we continue clinging to cars or do we get serious about GHG, pollution, congestion, renewable resources and our quality of life? 

Steve Geller 

• 

PATIENTS GROUP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s interesting to see the Berkeley Patients Group, a so-called medical marijuana dispensary, putting disabled people in wheelchairs out front when they run afoul of the law. For years now I have been approached by people with disabilities that have been thrown out of their “club.” Club is the right term because they run these places like velvet rope nightclubs for the pretty set. Ever since they found medical people that would sign off anyone without any regard to medical history, the treatment of those with medical problems has been disgraceful. When I went to talk to whoever it is that is supposed to run the “club” about one incident I was insulted about being in a wheelchair and told that I was lucky to be “in that wheelchair or you’d be getting your ass kicked.” 

The truth is that our own medical advocates have been driven out by a very aggressive group that controls all three of our clubs and others throughout the state. The few true medical patients that still use Berkeley clubs seem to be kept around and “tolerated” for the photo op. 

As someone who worked to get Prop. 215 passed and put together shows with Country Joe for the cause of those that needed legality in their fight for life. I feel duped by these folks. I have never been told by anyone at Longs or Elephant Pharmacy to “Wait until I see you out on the streets.” What kind of thugs have we allowed to take over in Berkeley?  

Dan McMullan 

Disabled People Outside Project 

• 

SOUTH BERKELEY LIBRARY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A couple of years ago, unable, as usual, to find an empty seat among the half dozen chairs at two tiny tables jammed between shelves, computers, and the check-out counter, I asked a staff person why they didn’t open up the meeting room at the back, add some shelves on the walls, and use it as a reading room during library hours. No, I was told, that would mean hiring someone to supervise the back room, financially impossible. 

Now we are hearing various plans for remodeling South Branch, possibly moving it to the future Ed Roberts Campus. We hear figures like $4 million or $6 million, in so-far non-existent funds. It sounds as if relief for cramped South Branch readers could be delayed for another decade. 

Compared to the non-existent millions proposed, using the meeting room as a reading room—just a reading room, no computers, no electronic stuff, just salary for one staff person and maybe a desk—seems a cost-effective way of making some slight improvement in the disgracefully inadequate South Berkeley Library. 

Dorothy Bryant 

• 

LAWSUIT SHOULD BE DROPPED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Kudos to JoAnn Richert Lorber (Aug. 3), who shared many of the benefits of living in Berkeley, many related to the very presence of the university who is currently being sued by the city. Not only will the lawsuit against the university due to the stadium construction delay the much needed safety enhancements to the stadium, it is also costing the city $250,000.  

With this lawsuit, the city seems to disregard the benefit the games bring to the city, in tax revenues and good will. As a West Berkeley resident, I was heartened to read in a restaurant blog that recommendations for pre- and post-game eating venues mentioned restaurants throughout the city, including multiple locations in West Berkeley. The first game this season is already sold out, with many Tennessee fans coming to town specifically for the event. They will be staying in Berkeley hotels, eating in Berkeley restaurants and generating tax revenue for the city!  

As Ms. Lorber suggested, I would encourage all of those who are outraged by this waste of resources by the city to let your council members know. The lawsuit should be dropped. Instead, spend the resources (time and money) on activities that generate more positive benefit, like capitalizing on all the visitors and UC fans who come to Berkeley for the many events at UC.  

Karin Cooke 

• 

GOP VALUES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Oh, this president and his Republican backers! They spent hundreds of billion (with a “b”) dollars destroying the infrastructure in Iraq, and it’s our bridges falling down because money wasn’t spent to maintain our infrastructure. Now we hear them complain that a few million dollars to provide medical insurance for our poor children is “too expensive.” This Republican administration. Sheesh! 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

• 

GUNS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Calling someone “dishonest” because you disagree with them is an ad hominem attack. I happen to believe that my views on U.S. self-defense are in accord with the facts. Most civilians do not own tasers and you can be in serious trouble if you injure someone with a spray. Suppose they become immobilized on your property? Better to just scare them away with a gun. I do think that people should take lessons in gun safety and be psychologically prepared to use a gun in self-defense. Otherwise, just having a gun locked away is useless.  

Robert Clear is impressed with official stats. Having lived almost half my life in D.C. and the other half here in Oakland I am convinced that there are many unreported crimes. Clear’s statement that people without guns are more able to walk away from bad situations is laughable on its face. A criminal is much more likely to attack someone he believes is disarmed than take a chance with a gun owner. As far as guns not saving lives there are many people who are living proof that they do. Clear doesn’t elaborate on the “social factors” that allegedly cause crime so there was nothing there for me to respond to. I suspect that is just another left liberal excuse to rationalize crime. I never claimed that half the population owns guns.  

I believe it is closer to one third, 100 million people out of 300 million-plus Americans. The main point I was making is that in most cases where guns are used in self-defense are non-lethal. The potential criminal is scared off. And there are no victims, hence no police stats. That is definitely the most desirable outcome. 

Michael P. Hardesty 

Oakland 

• 

JOHN EDWARDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Presidential candidate John Edwards is receiving intense interest in Iowa and in the Bay Area. He is racking up donations—large and tiny—often ahead of the pack. His $15 a head appearance in San Francisco Aug. 1 packed the house. His following in the South increased dramatically after his poverty tour. 

You’d never guess this success from the coverage the media are giving him. It’s all Hillary and Obama as though no one else was in the race. MSNBC, CNN, the print press: all display a blanket code of silence. “Meet the Press” on Sunday was a gross example of what is going on. Tim Russert invited two authors who each had written books on the candidates, one on Hillary and one on Obama. The discussion focused on those two and then went on to the Republican candidates. 

Edwards has pledged to challenge the rigged system that has created the two Americas he describes. He promises not to take money from lobbyists, to work for campaign finance reform, increase taxes on the rich to help finance programs for health care and education. All this must not sit well with the owners of the swollen media empires, now clutched in a few powerful hands. The press is not free, so we are not free. 

Nina King Luce 

• 

KPFA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a long-time media activist and KPFA-watcher, and currently a termed-out community representative on KPFA’s Program Council, I’d like to weigh in on the recent editorials and responses. I support what Becky O’Malley said: I think she’s correct and I would add that the first hour of the Sunday Salon program that featured Mayor Bates also struck me as an unfocused discussion—one that attempted to link a recent study of soaring U.S. obesity rates with the “gourmet foodie” culture of Berkeley, instead of food supply issues that cause obesity rates to skyrocket, most noticeably in lower-income populations. 

That said, I think the lesson to be learned here is that a progressive community radio station benefits from collaborative decision-making on programming and a wide circle of opinions and voices, and suffers when it retreats into hierarchy, secretiveness and buy-in to mainstream media myths about objectivity and professionalism. We can have a mayoral love-fest on KGO any day of the week. 

I understand that running KPFA is a difficult task and the level of criticism can be hard to take, so maybe it’s no surprise that the conversation has been heated. But the issue here is the Sunday morning program needs to forge tighter connections with Bay Area progressives, activists and community organizations so it can provide acute, sharp and uncompromising coverage of local issues—and KPFA internally needs to honor the richness and diversity of its volunteers and surrounding city and region by making sure programming decisions don’t occur in bolted conference rooms but in larger committee structures that include a dozen plus people drawn from different places and experiences. It doesn’t do the station any good to box out its own programming council with volunteer, community and board input. It just makes for less rewarding programming. 

Tracy Rosenberg 

Media Alliance 

Former community representative 

KPFA Program Council

The OneCareNow universal health insurance campaign in 365 cities in 365 days is dedicated to ensuring quality, affordable universal healthcare gets passed in California. To get involved, go to www.onecarenow.org. 

Gov. Schwarzenegger denied Californians their right to quality, affordable healthcare by vetoing Senator Kuehl’s Universal Healthcare legislation. The sell-out governor’s veto is immoral. 

Gov. Schwarzenegger’s veto of SB 840 (Kuehl) shows a profound ignorance of Senator Kuehl’s carefully considered and thoroughly researched bill that would provide comprehensive health insurance to all California residents and save money. 

SB 840 provides for a single health insurance agency, not a government-run healthcare system. Doctors, hospitals and other providers would continue to operate as private firms as they do now. 

SB 840 is NOT socialized medicine. It is sound public policy, just like the national guard, the police, and the fire service. We all face unpredictable risks, so we share the cost of public services to protect us from them. It’s the same with health care, as every other nation in the developed world has long since discovered. 

There is already a vast and ineffective bureaucracy that has mishandled our health insurance dollars for decades causing tremendous waste and human suffering. The private insurance bureaucracy is literally killing people and deserves to be eliminated. A new, coherent, responsive and carefully administered public health insurance agency could eliminate this waste and unnecessary suffering. 

Senator Kuehl’s plan would actually save money for the families and businesses that currently purchase health insurance. Private health insurance firms waste 30 percent of our premium dollars on what they call “administrative costs” that include marketing expenses, profits and outrageous salaries for executives. Even more telling, they refer to the money that they pay to doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers as “medical losses.” 

Under SB 840, the government would NOT be providing medical care. It is a health insurance system. It would be less intrusive than the current system of “pre-approvals,” “exclusions” and “pre-existing conditions” that leave millions without care. Each of us could choose our own personal physician who would manage our care. Our doctor, not an insurance clerk, would decide what prescriptions and procedures would be best for us. 

SB 840 is a new health insurance paradigm. It improves affordability with built-in checks and balances that control costs. It emphasizes shared responsibility with a risk pool that includes all Californians. And it promotes healthy living with community-based education programs and an emphasis on preventive care. 

Unfortunately, none of the facts about SB 840 is going to change the governor’s mind. Not because they are untrue, but because he is beholden to the insurance companies who are making billions of dollars at the expense of ordinary people who are terrified by the prospect of a sudden illness or accident. 

It is a matter of record that the governor has accepted millions of dollars in campaign donations from the health insurance industry. This makes him part of the problem. He’s a puppet of the vested interests who are happily exploiting the suffering of millions of ordinary citizens. 

It’s a shame that the governor cannot do what’s right. A shame that he has to grovel for cash from these soulless tycoons who could care less about people like you and me. A shame that he doesn’t truly feel the anxiety and pain of six million of his constituents who have no health insurance. 

Jessica Rosen is a Berkeley resident.

Ever wonder why nothing ever gets done in Washington? One of the reasons is that some of our elected officials, once they get an idea into their heads, they fixate on it until the end of time, no matter how dumb it is. The latest dumb, old idea is being trumpeted by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT). The fact that they’re touting it as a “tri-partisan solution” ought to tell that it’s more hype than substance. There’s a Democrat, a Republican, and a Leiberman. What, is Leiberman a party of one? Well, I guess that makes it easier for him to get seated in a busy restaurant. 

So much for the hype, now let’s take a look at their dumb, old idea: a plan for rotating regional presidential primaries. The idea dates back to the early 1970s, when Oregon Republican Bob Packwood introduced a bill for such a plan in the U.S. Senate. The bill had only two co-sponsors and it died in committee. Thirty-two similar bills have been floated in Congress over the past 30 years, and they have met the same fate. “Jumpin’ Joe” Leiberman himself has tried this twice before, in 1996 and 1999, and all he ever had was one co-sponsor. Quite simply, this is a plan that can’t survive outside the committee room. 

Neither of the political parties likes this idea, although they are interested in other reform proposals. A Republican commission passed on it in 2000, and even though a 2005 Democratic commission invited a presentation on the rotating regional plan, the commission’s report didn’t even mention the plan. In fact, in the Democratic commission’s deliberations, the rotating regional plan ranked second from the bottom, just above doing nothing. 

It’s pretty clear why: one-quarter of the nation would vote on the same day, the second block of voters would have to wait until a month later, the third block yet another month.... Now, who in his or her right mind thinks that any but the first block of votes will have any meaning? When the Howard Dean campaign collapsed in late February 2004, less than a quarter of the delegates had been chosen, and at that point John Kerry was the de facto Democratic nominee. The other way of looking at it is that more than three-quarters of the nation’s Democrats had absolutely no say in the nomination of John Kerry. 

The rotating regional plan would permanently disenfranchise three-quarters of the electorate in both parties. Because the winner of the first regional primary would look like “The Winner” and the others would come off looking like also-rans, every candidate would spend all of his or her time, energy and money in those first states in a do-or-die effort. The rest of the country would be completely ignored. 

Since no resources would remain for any real campaigning after this electoral Armageddon, the states in the remaining three regional primaries would get on the bandwagon with The Winner of the first primary. Win one, get three free. Any politician can do that math. The lucky first 25 percent would rotate from one four-year cycle to the next. Your particular region would get to cast a meaningful vote once every four cycles, or once every 16 years. You would be privileged to choose your party’s nominee three or four times during your life. That’s enough voting privilege for one lifetime, right? 

According to H.L. Mencken, “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong.” This is one of them. There are much better alternatives out there, but politicians are ignoring them so they can continue riding their tired old hobbyhorses, rather than study new solutions based on solid political science. The American people deserve better than this empty-headed grandstanding. 

Thomas Gangale is the executive director at OPS-Alaska, a think tank based in Petaluma, where he manages projects in political science and international relations. He is the author of From the Primaries to the Polls: How to Repair America’s Broken Presidential Nomination Process, to be published by Praeger in December 2007.

I am a 56-year-old woman who has enjoyed riding my bike all over Berkeley for over 25 years. I bike to work daily; I do most of my errands by bike; and I ride to reduce my carbon footprint and for fitness—I’m proud to say I ride up Spruce Street regularly for aerobic exercise. I am a very safe, conservative bicyclist. I stop at all stop lights and proceed cautiously at stop signs, slowing or stopping and taking my proper turn when entering intersections. I avoid main streets and appreciate the “Bicycle Boulevards,” which I use whenever possible. 

Much to my dismay and torment, in recent months I have twice been pulled over by police officers in patrol cars while riding my bike and admonished and/or threatened with a citation, when I was proceeding with caution and alertness and the road courtesy I always employ. In the first case, I was scolded by an officer for not dismounting from my bike at a stop sign while proceeding east on Blake Street at Milvia Street—an intersection whose south side is blocked by a traffic barrier that prevents the entry of any through traffic from the side where I was crossing the intersection. In the most recent instance (just today), as I was traveling north on California Street at Addison Street, I was threatened with a moving-violation citation (whose fine, the officer said, would be $275) for not coming to a full stop, although I had slowed my bike from a modest pace to a very slow pace as I approached the stop sign and proceeded through the intersection. A car traveling east on Addison Street arrived at the intersection (which is controlled by a four-way stop) at the same time as I did, and the car stopped at the stop sign. I felt it was very safe for me to proceed and that my doing so did not impede the movement of the car or violate its right to proceed. 

I do not understand why the police seem so concerned with such a relatively minor infraction. Do bicyclists really need to get off or completely stop their bikes on quiet residential streets where there is little traffic and their proceeding does not put anyone at risk for an accident? I am confused and upset. What has always been a pleasant activity for me is now fraught with worry that I will be pulled over again by the police if I don’t get off my bike at every stop sign. 

I know that some bicyclists ride dangerously, and I strongly disapprove of reckless driving, whether by bikes or cars. But really, if a bicyclist comes to a four-way stop and no other vehicles are anywhere nearby, must the bicyclist stop and get off her/his bike or risk getting a ticket? And what constitutes stopping? How many seconds do you have to be stationary on the bike to prove you stopped? Also, is the bicyclist required merely to stop, or is s/he also required to get off the bike? The officer who confronted me today said, “It’s my opinion that you just have to stop.” The other officer was of the opinion that the law required bicyclists to step off their bikes at stop signs. Do we bicyclists have to guess what police officers’ opinions of the law’s requirements are? 

I admit that I did not come to a full stop in either of the instances mentioned above. But is it reasonable to expect bicyclists to do that in a situation where common sense determines there is no risk to anyone created by a bicyclist’s slowing down, checking traffic in all directions, and then proceeding without stopping? I have never seen any other bicyclist actually get off her or his bike at stop signs if conditions were clear for proceeding. (If we did do that, it would take all day just to get across town!) 

I appreciate the difficult, vital work that Berkeley police officers do every day, but I don’t understand the way in which they seem to be enforcing traffic laws with respect to bicyclists. What is accomplished by harassing conscientious bicyclists who are not endangering themselves or others and who, after all, are contributing to the city’s livability by reducing car emissions, noise, and traffic congestion? I would appreciate hearing an explanation on this from the Berkeley Police Department in your pages. 

Michelle Lerager is a Berkeley resident.

running KPFA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a long-time media activist and KPFA-watcher, and currently a termed-out community representative on KPFA’s Program Council, I’d like to weigh in on the recent editorials and responses. I support what Becky O’Malley said: I think she’s correct and I would add that the first hour of the Sunday Salon program that featured Mayor Bates also struck me as an unfocused discussion—one that attempted to link a recent study of soaring US obesity rates with the “gourmet foodie” culture of Berkeley, instead of food supply issues that cause obesity rates to skyrocket, most noticeably in lower-income populations. 

That said, I think the lesson to be learned here is that a progressive community radio station benefits from collaborative decision-making on programming and a wide circle of opinions and voices, and suffers when it retreats into hierarchy, secretiveness and buy-in to mainstream media myths about objectivity and professionalism. We can have a mayoral love-fest on KGO any day of the week. 

I understand that running KPFA is a difficult task and the level of criticism can be hard to take, so maybe it’s no surprise that the conversation has been heated. But the issue here is the Sunday morning program needs to forge tighter connections with Bay Area progressives, activists and community organizations so it can provide acute, sharp and uncompromising coverage of local issues—and KPFA internally needs to honor the richness and diversity of its volunteers and surrounding city and region by making sure programming decisions don’t occur in bolted conference rooms but in larger committee structures that include a dozen plus people drawn from different places and experiences. It doesn’t do the station any good to box out its own programming council with volunteer, community and board input. It just makes for less rewarding programming. 

Tracy Rosenberg 

Media Alliance 

Former community representative 

KPFA Program Council 

• 

What’s not to like? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a Berkeley resident, doesn’t it fill you with pride to hear that Stephen Hawking is coming to lecture, Yo-Yo Ma is coming to play or that Cal’s rugby and men’s water polo teams are the NCAA Champions? We live in a world-class city because it houses a world-class university whose excellence reaches all corners of science, music, politics, the arts ... and yes, athletics. We are able to be fans at hundreds of sporting events of both men’s and women’s teams whose outstanding national rankings have earned Berkeley ninth place in the most recent NCAA Directors’ Cup.  

However, to continue to recruit the best student athletes, train them in the safest and most modern facilities, and provide the best in sports medicine for them, the university desperately needs to move ahead on its master plan for the Memorial Stadium site. 

Sadly, the media has distorted this endeavor as a football project, when in fact some 13 teams—seven women’s and six men’s teams would be housed in this state-of-the-art facility. Teams who now lack even locker rooms to change in would be served. What a boon this will be for the recruiting of the finest men and women to represent us in the tradition of excellence that we have come to expect from all areas of the Berkeley campus. 

To add to the media spin and the circus created by the “treesitters,” the Berkeley City Council has voted unanimously to spend $250,000 of our taxpayer dollars to stop this project. Their concerns centered on the Hayward fault, but those worries have been dispelled by the Geomatrix Report, the US Geological Survey and the California Geological Survey. There are no reasonable grounds to continue to oppose the project. 

If anyone else is angry about the prospect of more tax dollars being wasted to continue this lawsuit, I would encourage them to contact their councilmembers and share their views. Need to learn more about the facts or see the project drawings? Visit stadiumcampaign.berkeley.edu. 

JoAnn Richert Lorber 

• 

dear mr. conyers 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Below is a letter I sent to Congressman John Conyers. I hope other Democrats will resign this gutless party and send similar letters to Conyers, as well as to Nancy Pelosi and their state representatives. 

Dear Mr. Conyers, 

Enclosed please find the bumper sticker you sent me last year in thanks for my contribution to your congressional compaign. Find also a copy of my registration form, switching me from the Democratic party to no party. 

I contributed to your campaign because I considered your work, investigating the Bush administration’s many crimes against America, to be vitally important, and I wanted it to continue by insuring your re-election. I fully expected your investigation to lead to impeachment charges, should Democrats take the house this year. 

How wrong I was. But equally disappointing, I was apparently wrong about your commitment to hearing the voice of the people, as was demonstrated earlier this month when you had Cindy Sheehan and other activists in your office arrested. 

Shame on you, Mr. Conyers! Shame on the Democratic leadership as a whole, who are arrogantly disregarding those who elected them with their refusal to uphold our constitution by getting this mafia out of office. 

We, in response, will now work to get you out of office. 

Judy Shelton 

• 

CLINGING TO CARS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

One of the claims of neighbors against BRT is that “It will encourage very few automobile drivers to switch to public transit.” I ask in all sincerity, “What, pray tell, will?” It is obvious for anyone with intelligence and vision that cars are not working and that the longer we cling to them, the more painful will be the transition. Public transit offers freedom, health and a much more enjoyable society. So if it is not BRT, then what will encourage you to figure out how to live your lives without your car? 

Cyndi Johnson 

• 

ED ROBERTS CAMPUS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

In the Friday Weekend Edition, July 27-30, of the Planet, Judith Scherr’s article (Meeting Draws South Branch Supporters) mistakenly suggests that I am opposed to moving the South Branch Library to the proposed Ed Roberts Campus. Quite the contrary. I believe that relocating the majority of the services and book collection to the Ed Roberts site may offer a unique and perhaps one-time opportunity to expand library services at a spacious modern location while at the same time continuing to provide services to youth, a community meeting space and expand the much valued Tool Lending Library at the existing site. The new location can also offer an opportunity to greatly expand the book collection, services, number of computers available, and disability access at a reasonable cost to the city and the community. Let’s move forward! I think the relocation is a win, win situation. 

Winston Burton 

Member, Berkeley Public Library  

Foundation Board of Directors 

• 

WASTE MANAGEMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Although your columnist sees “Dellums Credited with Resolution of Garbage Dispute” (Berkeley Daily Planet, July 31), the fact remains that Dellums has enormous powers in the contract between the City of Oakland and Waste Management. He refused to threaten these measures, let alone invoke them, for three weeks of public stench. See ORPN.org for details. 

But moving on (as the evasive phrase has it), what about punitive damages for causing a public nuisance and the threat of a public health disaster? Specifically, the City should demand that WM cancel the entire July-August-September bill for all customers. Triple damages are needed; otherwise, WM learns that it can repeat such a disastrous lockout at minimal cost. Let’s see how Mayor Dellums handles this one. 

Charles Pine 

Oakland Residents for  

Peaceful Neighborhoods 

• 

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As we enjoy the many “secret” pathways and landscapes in our gorgeous city this summer, it is clear that many bikers and auto drivers are not heeding the laws of the road. How many run-away bicyclists have you seen blasting through a stop sign around town, obviously suicidal, and smiling without fear? 

How many cars have just missed your kids at our “protected” crosswalks? I’m thinking of the Solano Ave. slide and the complete horror show daily at College and Bancroft avenues. 

I spoke with City of Berkeley Police Sergant Thomas Curtain about this and he urges the public to call in all law breakers at the non-emergency number: 510-981-5900. The police want to give folks a good scolding first and then issue fines. 

Please stop at the stop signs and heed the yellow lights, people. Or we’re dead! 

Willi Paul 

Berkeley 

• 

FEAR OF IMPEACHMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Greta Farber wrote “impeachment was a no-brainer route” to end the war, but now thinks it will “prolong the chaos” because “persons whom I honor and respect, like Representatives Conyers and Kucinich, question this path ... and fear impeachment”. 

Wrong! 

First, rather than “prolonging chaos”, impeachment could end the war. It could also prevent war with Iran and enable the Democrats’ legislative agenda to pass, without vetoes and signing statements. 

Second, Kucinich is clearly for impeachment. He introduced House Resolution 333, the articles of impeachment against Cheney. Our Representative Barbara Lee is a cosponsor.  

Third, Conyers sponsored articles of impeachment and published a book arguing for impeachment last year. His wife is on the Detroit City Council, which recently voted for impeachment through her efforts. 

Why is Conyers blocking impeachment now? Did Pelosi threaten him and other Democrats with the loss of committee assignments? Is politics trumping patriotism here? Obviously, impeachment is not a partisan issue. Conservatives are calling for impeachment too. Pelosi is playing politics, but she’s making a huge tactical error. Impeachment can’t hurt the Democrats in 2008 since 75 percent of Democrats polled want impeachment! She is shamefully and willfully ignoring her SF constituents—both SF voters and the Board of Supervisors have voted for impeachment. 

The patriots who visited Conyers represent the majority of Americans wanting impeachment. As Chair of the House Judiciary Committee Conyers can start the proceedings. We respect him, but we expect him to put politics aside and do what he knows is the right thing. This has nothing to do with race. Seven of the 14 co-sponsors of H. Res. 333 are black. 

Hundreds of thousands of lives have been sacrificed because of Cheney and Bush’s lies, our Constitution is in tatters, our administration is headed by war criminals, and we are less safe. Time and cost considerations are irrelevant under these circumstances. Cheney and Bush must be investigated. Once that investigation begins to establish their guilt, the votes will come, and perhaps their resignations. If the Democratic leadership in the House won’t do their duty, they are as guilty as the Bush Administration in ignoring the Constitution, the rule of law, and the will of the people. 

Impeachment is neither a diversion nor something to be feared. It is vital that we take action now to protect our country. Call Conyers and Pelosi and tell them to impeach: 202-224-3121. 

Cynthia Papermaster 

• 

CONFUSED POLITICOS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As usual, the confused Oakland politicos, who never met a class struggle they could comprehend, have conflated more opposing—I’d say 180-degree opposing but it’d necessitate numerous circles to encompass the many—opposing ideas as though they make sense, rather than contradicting each other. 

Sheehan actually has enumerated reasons why Bush, leader of the U.S. government needs to be impeached, same as any rapist on the street. If like Nixon, he’s let go, the dictatorship will just tighten like that noose around us.  

So Conyers made a mistake. These writers are saying people should ignore that because after all he’s done so many good things—the universal health care proposal, the reparations proposal, and he is Black, excusing any unacceptable thing he might do—we don’t think so. 

The writers did allow a bit of room for error on their part saying ‘to the best of our knowledge’ re whether the activists had done what these writers require in order for the writers to accept the activists’ behavior. Martin was a leader of all of us; another startling difference the writers want to take up, as though he were predominantly or only a Black leader.  

Fortunately there are numerous Black people who differ widely with these writers. Just talk with people at the grocery check-out counters, clerks and customers alike, Black and brown and white, for starters. When arguments like this keep coming forward I have to admire this publications’ encouragement for participation by the whole community regardless of how confused the writers are. 

Norma J F Harrison 

MARK TWAIN AWARD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If Charles Siegel wants to win my proposed “Mark Twain Award” for being the Funniest Commentator in the Planet, he’s going to have to do a lot better than his recent letter in the July 27 edition. Addressing the issue of building heights in walkable neighborhoods, Mr. Siegel wrote that I had “claimed that the Urban Land Institute generally opposes development over 35 feet in walkable neighborhoods.” I said no such thing, nor do I believe it. However, instead of continuing a battle of wits (or facts) with an unarmed opponent, let me state what I actually think about walkable—or more importantly, livable—neighborhoods. 

The good news is that I believe that livable neighborhoods can be created with sensitive buildings of almost any size. However, unless a city starts with a “blank canvas,” it cannot maintain or increase its overall livability without respecting the livability of the neighborhoods that are already there. And although it is not nearly as much fun as diddling the built environment, we must pay much more attention to the social and psychological aspects of livability. Since people spend the vast majority of their lives in their homes, what is going on inside the buildings—old or new—is generally more important than the superficial sizes, shapes, and designs of the buildings. Rabbit warrens do not lead to healthy communities for humans. 

The bad news is that, unless we have a change in the current mayor, council majority, and high-level planning staff, I don’t believe that Berkeley can create livable neighborhoods with buildings of any size—small, medium, or large. This is because Berkeley has no commitment to creating livable neighborhoods, and won’t have until we change things dramatically at City Hall. Until we create the political will to make sure our new buildings improve our city, citizens have to look at how to best avoid doing damage to the urban environment we already have. Generally speaking, smaller buildings do less damage than larger ones. 

I like nice new buildings, and I wish I lived in a city where I would look forward to new buildings of any size. But unlike some “smart growth” simplicists—or in some cases, simpletons—I don’t confuse reality with wishing. 

Sharon Hudson 

• 

FLAWED COMPUTERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a computer scientist (former chair of the Compter Science Department at New York University), I have been deeply worried about these flawed machines for some time. They should be decertified immediately. 

Dr. Martin Davis 

• 

FLUORIDE IN THE WATER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There’s now a proposal being floated to “ban” bottled water sales in Berkeley. Eliminating a mountain of plastic bottles is welcome by everyone. However, the debate over bottled versus tap water has glossed over an important issue. California state law mandates that all tap water in California contain a toxic chemical: fluoride. Fluoride is a halogen, which causes DNA damage, injures the liver, causes uptake of aluminum which can contribute to Alzheimer symptoms, and loss of bone density. The list of toxic effects goes on. Flouridated toothpaste contains a warning against using fluoridated tooth paste with young children because young children tend to swallow everything in their mouths. While topical applications may prevent cavities, eating fluoride poisons us. Thirty years ago countries such as Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands and Japan stopped fluoridating their drinking water, and they have not experienced an increase in cavities. Let’s keep all those plastic bottles out of the landfill by giving everyone safe, clean, chemically free water. Our elected officials should stop requiring water districts to poison its customers. Until we get rid of the fluoride in tap water, I’m happy to drink bottled. 

Yolanda Huang 

• 

HANDGUNS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Hardesty ( 7/10-7/12) claims that his estimate that gun owners use their guns for self-defense several million times per year is reasonable because people don’t report a crime that has been deterred. If this claim is true, either gun owners are far more at risk of being assaulted than non gun owners, or non gun owners are defending themselves against millions of violent crimes without the use of guns. Several web sources (see for example www.cbsnews. com/stories/2002/09/09/national/main521212.shtml) agree that for most crimes the actual crime rate is about 50 percent of the reported rate (murders are almost all reported). This leads to a current estimate of about one million violent crimes per year. If Hardesty is correct, gun carriers are exposed to over two million violent crime attempts per year. According to Hardesty half the adult population owns a gun, but probably only half of that number have their gun when they are being accosted. If people with or without gun access during a crime have equal risk this leads to an estimate that the non-gun people are exposed to 6 to 7 million violent crime attempts per year. If a significant number (25 to 30 percent) of the successful violent crimes happened to the gun carriers then the probability of defending or avoiding an actual assault is no better for people with guns than for people without. Alternatively, people with guns could be more at risk. People in unsafe areas possibly are more likely to own guns and thus skew the risk ratio, however it is equally plausible that people without guns are more likely to avoid unsafe areas and situations. In addition, people without guns are more likely to walk away from a situation that is becoming dangerous, instead of sticking around until they have to attempt to rescue themselves with a gun. Even if Hardesty’s self-defense estimate is true, which I doubt, these arguments show that it is insufficient by itself to prove that guns make people safer. 

Hardesty doesn’t think 800 accidental deaths per year from guns is significant, but it is 10 percent of the homicides by guns. He completely ignored my demonstration of why comparing crime statistics without evaluating social factors is useless, and even more importantly ignored the point that there are non-lethal alternatives to guns (sprays and tazers). It is intellectually dishonest to ignore points that are inconsistent with a desired conclusion. 

A correction and one final point: I reside in Berkeley not Oakland, and I did not make an ad hominem attack on Mr. Hardesty. An “ad hominem”, attack is when one asserts that the person is dishonest or incompetent, and therefore their arguments are invalid. It is not an hominem attack to state that it is dishonest to state an opinion as a fact. 

Robert Clear 

• 

PRIVATIZATION OF  

DEMOCRACY 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Remember Diebold’s CEO saying that he would help elect George Bush president? How safe is our electronic ballot? 

Companies involved in Califoria’s recent voting machine review say that the tests on touch screen machines were unrealistic. All machines failed miserably. How realistic is it that America’s public elections are now in the hands of private corporations? Democracy has been privatized. 

How difficult would it have been for malevolent forces intent on stealing elections to compromise prior contests in 2000, ’02 and ’04? All that was required was to have the source codes, operating manuals and access to software—easy for insiders or anyone to get. 

Given its track record is anything beneath this administration? 

Ron Lowe  

Grass Valley, CA 

• 

WE THE PEOPLE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The question of what to do about Iraq is attracting tsunami waves of responses from Congress, Bush, cabinet officers, military top brass and numerous “expert” advisors. Conflicting, contradictory and overlapping answers spread into every available media space and, irrespective of political or professional source, most voices begin with the first person plural pronoun, “we”:  

We must stay, we must win, we must withdraw, we must not give up, we must accept, we must force/help their government, we must allow more time, we must change course, we this …we that. 

By definition “we” functions as a place holder, in this case for an unspecified group and yet none of the many voices take the time to identify the referent when they use it to answer the question. Why? 

“We” often refers to an assembly of family, friends, professional associates, political colleagues and such, but not in this instance because the question concerns national interest and the speakers are governmental leaders and policy makers.  

Given the context of the question, “we” can only stands for “We, the people of the United States.” That’s what Republicans, Democrats, Bush and his top advisors want us to believe. But they’re wrong.  

“We,” meaning our legislative and executive representatives, invaded Iraq on false claims, followed inept planning that has left our mighty military stuck like br’er fox to the Iraq tar-baby.  

“We,” meaning an estimated seven citizens out of ten want to detach our soldiers. We, the people recognize the folly and mendacity of our leaders. We, the people can foresee more carnage in the trap the wily al Qaeda rabbit has sprung.  

We, the people want the troops home. The sooner, the better. 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

WEAPONS DEAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Bush administration wants our federal government to allow a 20 billion dollar weapons deal with Saudi Arabia and other non-democracies. Saudi Arabia is a dictatorship. Their royal family is against democracy, equality, human rights, and civil liberties. They don’t support freedoms of speech, press, and religion. Women only have what liitle rights their men will allow them to have. The Bible is illegal, and any citizen who converts to Christianity can be executed. Don’t forget that Osama bin Laden and most of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. Some ‘’experts’’ say that this advanced weapons deal will be a good counter to Iran. I wonder if these are the same experts who said that supporting Saddam Hussein would be a good counter to Iran. Look how that turned out. Our country should support secular democracies, not theocratic dictatorships.  

Chuck Mann 

Greensboro, NC 

• 

INACCURACY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Riya Bhattacharjee inaccurately describes our position on HRAs in an otherwise well-written article about the recent Pacific Steel Health Risk Assessment (”Pacific Steel Releases Health Assessment, Citizens Say Process Flawed,” July 31). In response to the repeated delays in the process, I did say that the release of the HRA was long overdue. However, Communities for a Better Environment does not support the use of HRAs in general, or for this facility in particular, for several reasons. As CBE has stated publicly, HRAs tend to underestimate chemical exposure, ignore a facility’s cumulative impacts, and concentrate on risk management rather than the proper focus: preventing pollution. 

The pollution prevention approach is also called Toxics Use Reduction (TUR). As Ms. Bhattacharjee correctly reported, CBE joins public health experts and community advocates in endorsing a toxic use reduction program as “a more comprehensive and health-protective method than the HRA.” It would require a facility to examine and improve its practices, and develop strategies to reduce its use of toxic chemicals in the first place. In fact, Dr. Wilson proposed this approach to the City of Berkeley almost two years ago. 

The state legislature is currently considering a Toxics Use Reduction Act that would require industrial facilities to report and reduce their toxic chemicals, with the aim of reducing statewide use of toxics by 50%. This bill, which has passed the State Assembly, would move us away from mere risk analysis toward actual toxics reduction. The writing is on the wall for Pacific Steel and any other industrial facility: protect community health through real pollution reduction. 

Philip Huang 

Communities for a Better Environment 

Oakland 

• 

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On July 31, 2007 Robert A. Sunshine, Assistant Director for Budget Analysis at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) testified that Bush’s “war on terrorism” could cost an additional “$1,010 billion over the 2008-2017 period.” Since the CBO only deals with budget matters, Mr. Sunshine did not shed any light on how many more hundreds of thousands of deaths, if not millions, would result as a result of the war. For those who are math challenged, the CBO estimate is over a trillion dollars for the next ten years. This is on top of the $602 billion already budgeted according to the CBO. 

According to the testimony provided to the Committee on the Budget of the House of Representatives, the “CBO projected the costs through 2017 of all activities associated with operations in Iraq, Afghan-istan, and the war on terrorism…” They used two scenarios, one where the military force levels on the ground in the “war on terrorism” would be reduced to 30,000 in 2010 and remain at that level through 2017. In that “rosy” scenario, the war would cost up to $603 billion over the 10 year period. In the second scenario, troop levels would only go down to 75,000 by 2013. That is the one trillion plus scenario. The CBO testimony also made clear that they were not counting naval personnel deployed aboard ships to fight the “war on terrorism” so these are low-ball estimates of the actual possible costs. 

These are only estimates by the CBO and they do not take into account possible expansion of the “war on terrorism.” Both scenarios are based on a reduction of troop levels on the ground in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places. But what if the U.S. attacks Iran or other countries? How many more will die and how much will it cost to kill them? 

Clearly any scenario that continues the so-called “war on terrorism” is unacceptable and will just be a continuation of the Bush regime’s crimes against humanity. The cost in lives and in dollars is far too high to allow this regime to exist more than one more day. 

To see how you can rid the world of the scourge of the Bush regime, please see worldcantwait.org. 

Kenneth J. Theisen 

Oakland

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) meeting sponsored by the Transportation Commission on July 24 was even worse than I imagined it would be. The meeting was facilitated by the Chair of the Transportation Commission, Sarah Syed. She treated the people in the room as if they were a group of schoolchildren—rather than concerned Berkeley citizens who had volunteered their time on a weekday evening to weigh in on an important city issue. She was unfriendly and impatient right from the very start. She snapped orders at people and threatened to throw people out of the meeting. What were members of the audience doing that was so unacceptable? Just trying to express concerns about BRT, nothing more. She just would not allow it! 

During the meeting, Ms. Syed treated speakers in the audience in a blatantly inconsistent manner. She showed absolute deference to some people (who were allowed to speak at great length without any interruption), but quickly interrupted and cut off others. People who expressed views most at odds with her views were the ones who were censored. 

In Friday’s issue of the Daily Planet (July 27), Sarah Syed is quoted as saying, “The whole workshop has been designed to allow public participation. We want to hear from the people.” George Orwell, meet your new poster child. Sure, they wanted to hear from the people—the ones who agreed with their BRT plan and wanted to discuss how to implement it, but not from anybody who had questions or criticisms of BRT. That was strictly off-limits. And the picture on the cover of the Planet illustrated another mechanism of social engineering. It all looks good: Ms. Syed is listening attentively, poised to write down the thoughts of a public citizen on her clipboard. This occurred after the meeting had been broken down into small discussion groups—a technique that a speaker at the recent ABAG conference in Berkeley had recommended as an effective way to control citizen activists. They are more manageable if you can limit the number of people who hear their thoughts, and you can control them with discussion group facilitators who have strong agendas. But Ms. Syed will undoubtedly claim that it was to make it easier for audience members to get an opportunity to speak. Don’t be fooled. It’s all about social control. The will of the people is best expressed only after it has been carefully eviscerated and then re-engineered.  

All in all, Sarah Syed did an excellent job—of demonstrating to the public the way the Transportation Commission really functions now. It is a Commission unto itself, without the need for any input from pesky Berkeley citizens. It has a vision of the true and right way that transportation will occur in this town, and everybody else’s needs and values can be ignored. This is their particular method of “consensus-building”: anybody who disagrees with them should just leave town. 

It should be noted that Sarah Syed is Mayor Tom Bates’ appointee to the Transportation Commission. That makes sense. She seems to share his contempt for public involvement in decision-making in our city. How very sad. 

Doug Buckwald is a civic activist.

Tuesday night, July 23rd, I witnessed an exercise in mind control in the disguise of a meeting of a transit subcommittee of the Transportation Commis-sion. The subject of the meeting was to discuss the proposed BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) as it affects the South Side area. The meeting was run by the Chair of the Transportation Commission. Most of the attendees have attended more than one meeting about BRT so that the Chair knew many of the attendees by name and their position on this issue.  

From the outset it was clear that the vast majority of the attendees—mostly Tele-graph area business owners and residents of the neighborhoods on either side of Telegraph Avenue—were opposed to the major component of the BRT plan—converting two lanes on Telegraph into high speed bus-only lanes. But the Chair controlled the agenda, which she said was to see what we could do working together to improve BRT implementation. 

When attendees were recognized and made comments questioning the feasibility of this portion of BRT plan, the Chair badgered and cut the speakers off and at two points threatened to have the speakers removed from the meeting. The business owners and neighbors raised concerns on such issues as how many parking spaces will be removed from Telegraph, where the replacement spaces will be located, how the two lanes of Telegraph will be turned over to AC Transit, who will maintain these lanes once the BRT starts, what entity will be responsible for policing violations in the exclusive bus lanes, how cross traffic on Telegraph will be handled, how BRT will be evaluated if it is implemented, and if it does not generate the volume of ridership that AC Transit predicts if it can be scaled back or undone, etc. None of these questions were answered.  

After the brief public session, the Chair counted off the attendees and assigned each by number to one of six groups, each headed by a City of Berkeley staff member. The small groups were directed to review specific BRT route alternatives and make a list of issues that BRT needs to address to facilitate its implementation.  

The group I joined had six people. A straw poll at the start showed that five of the six—business owners and neighbors—were in favor of the Rapid Bus plan that was implemented but opposed to the BRT. The sixth person, a member of Friends of BRT who lives near the North Berkeley Senior Center, far away from the BRT project, was in favor of it. But we are all well-socialized people and we did what we were told to do. We set to work pouring over the maps of the BRT route south of campus and considered which streets BRT should follow. Should Telegraph between Dwight and Bancroft be two-way for buses only? Should the intersection of Bancroft and Telegraph be closed to all non-bus traffic? Should Bancroft be one way or two way? It was classic divide and conquer.  

The leader of each small group reported to the whole the issues that had been identified. What had started as a mostly cohesive anti-BRT audience had dissolved into tame individuals. After the presentations, one of the attendees asked if the transit subcommittee was going to schedule another meeting where people could express their concerns to the BRT proposal. The Chair said, no, that this meeting had covered that subject. At the end I don’t think that anyone had changed their position, and we certainly hadn’t chosen a route for BRT through the south side. 

You can listen to the audio of the meeting at www.berkeleypublictransit.blogspot. com. 

Is this how they do it in totalitarian countries? Here in Berkeley we expect our elected officials and their representatives to take the views of the people into account when making decisions that will affect life in our city. On the contrary, what I see at virtually every meeting to consider BRT is a closed loop between AC Transit and its consultants and the Berkeley Trans-portation Department and Commission. Neighbors and business owners are becoming increasingly frustrated that their views and concerns are not being considered. Massive change needs to be developed from the bottom up, not imposed from the top down.  

There are so many bad things happening right now—BRT and the Wright’s Garage situation come to mind. What can we citizens do to get our city back on track? 

Mary Oram is an Elmwood resident.

The rapid pace of proposed development for this town reminds me of post-war development, not only as in post-WW2, but as in post-Civil War. Buildings were decimated; towns pillaged; landscapes burned. People’s lives destroyed.  

OK. Southerners may have deserved it. I can say that because I was born a southerner, raised a southerner, and will always be one, I suppose. 

But here we are in Berkeley, and we did not ask for this. Our ideals are being manipulated and used against us. To save the planet and reduce urban sprawl, we are supposed to accept the destruction of buildings and landscapes that make a town a home, give a town definition, make a place special and less common.  

People can become attached to buildings and places when they harmonize and complement families and communities. And this, it would seem, is a good thing that is one small antidote to the potential alienation of modern American life in the 21st century.  

Artists are under siege in West Berkeley. This is the human landscape, being decimated, writ large. Affordable housing and live-work space are lost so that affordable housing and live-work space can be built. 

The downtown will somehow magically be transformed by the addition of out-of-scale buildings as if tall buildings did any good in previous iterations. 

And, the sleeper issue is the imminent loss of wild open space in walking distance of the downtown—Strawberry Canyon. Because this is “the university’s land,” we have incorrectly abandoned our sense of stewardship. 

Next week there are several opportunities to learn more about Strawberry Canyon. The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) is sponsoring two events. One is a lecture by Charles Birnbaum, a nationally renowned expert on cultural landscapes, who will speak Thursday, August 9, 7:30 p.m. at the Town and Gown Club. The next night there will be a choice of four rambles around the canyon and a barbecue will follow at the Haas Club House in Strawberry Canyon. They promise to be most enjoyable evenings. Please check out the BAHA website for more detail. http://berkeley heritage.com/weblog/2007/07/cultural-landscapes.html The events stand on their own; you can attend any or all.  

Equally stimulating will be a public scoping session on the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s proposed construction of two buildings in Strawberry Canyon. On Wednesday, August 8, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, the Lab will receive public comment on the scope of the draft environmental impact report for the proposed development of 310,000 gsf of new construction including the controversial Helios Energy Research Facility (HERF). Among other problems with the HERF, it would be built on undeveloped land in the interior of Strawberry Canyon. Additional information can be found at www.lbl.gov/ Community/Helios/ 

As we become an increasingly dense community, we need open space, and wild, undeveloped places, more than ever. This might be “university land,” but our stewardship transcends the university’s “ownership.”  

Strawberry Canyon needs us, too. The time is now. 

Janice Thomas is a Panoramic Hill resident.

I was shocked to read in the San Francisco Chronicle in the Matier and Ross column that our Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner Chris Kavanagh is defending an eviction proceeding from his home in Oakland. If these allegations are true, that Mr. Kavangh perjured himself when he signed election papers to seek the position of Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner, then he must be prosecuted for that perjury by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. If he is not prosecuted, then our election laws, which are sacred, become meaningless and subject to fraud and manipulation by unscrupulous individuals.  

If Mr. Kavanaugh is defending an eviction proceeding from a cottage that he claims is his home in Oakland, he has again perjured himself. He can’t legally reside in two locations. Either he lives and votes in Berkeley, or he lives and votes in Oakland. If he illegally registered and voted in Berkeley, that would be another crime. This case warrants thorough investigation. As an elected official he is held to a high standard of fairness and trust. How could one ever appear in front of the rent board and assume they will receive due process and the fair hearings and decisions they are entitled to by law when individuals like this sit in judgment. If these allegations are true, I wonder if any of the matters he voted on are legal and binding. If these allegations are true and I were a claimant, I would seek a new hearing on any matter he was involved in. His attorney Marc Janowitz, a former rent board commissioner, should not be allowed to make appearances in front of the board or represent claimants in matters before the board, as he would likely have a conflict of interest. 

I don’t know if people are aware that rent board commissioners receive $500 a month for serving on the rent board and also receive health insurance coverage, both at taxpayer expense. At Mr. Kavanaugh’s age, the health insurance coverage benefit is probably worth between $400 to $700 per month. If Mr. Kavanaugh was truly not a Berkeley resident, he has been receiving these funds and benefits through fraud. After investigation to get to the facts, I believe it is incumbent on the Berkeley City Attorney, if the investigation so warrants, to file a civil suit against Mr. Kavanaugh for reimbursement of all funds and benefits he has received at our, the taxpayer’s expense. Such a suit should include a claim for punitive damages as Mr. Kavanaugh has engaged in an intentional act which, if it is true, amounts to fraud against a public entity. The City of Berkeley should be able to recover a tidy sum. I calculate five plus years of benefits amounting to at least $1,000 per month to be worth $60,000 not including puntive damage claims. If the allegations in the Matier and Ross column are accurate, the public needs to know that public fraud will be punished both criminally and civily. 

Why do rent board commissioners need to be paid and receive health coverage benefits when no other Berkeley commissioners are paid or receive healthcare benefits? With vacany decontrol now the law in California, there is very little the rent board commissioners actually do. I believe they may meet for a total of 2-3 hours per month and do basically almost meaningless committee work. Other commission involve far more work. Have you ever watched a rent board meeting. Most of the time, the commissioners engage in longwinded philosophical discourses and rarely discuss anything meaningful. They appear to be pressed to fill the time of the meetings with anything of substance and often laugh and joke around. I guess I would laugh and joke around if I were on the public dole. It is a good gig if you can get it.  

Paul M. Schwartz is a Berkeley resident.

In the “Ten Questions for Council-member Dona Spring” (07-20-07), “high rents,” which soak up much of the residents’ income and prevents people from being able to afford to live in Berkeley, was at the top of the pressing issues. 

To solve this problem, we need to understand the economics of land. The civic services of Berkeley, along with the other levels of government, make Berkeley a better place to live and work in, which increases the demand for real estate here. The rentals and prices of real estate therefore increase. This is really an increase in land values, as the value of buildings and other improvements are based on their costs of production minus depreciation. 

If landowners paid for civic services such as streets, transit, parks, schools, security, fire protection, and public health, their land values would go back down, since they would be paying for value received. But in our tax system, little of the cost of public services are borne by landowners. Most of public revenue comes from taxes on wages, including sales taxes that are paid from wages. The burden of taxes on business is mostly passed on to consumers as higher prices and to workers as lower wages or less employment, since if an enterprise does not make at least a normal profit, it eventually ceases to exist. 

So taxes push wages down while pumping up rents and real estate prices. The big gap between high rents and high cost of living, and low wages for many workers, is caused by tax policy, not by the market as such. To remedy this, we must reform taxation to decrease taxes on wages and increase taxes on land rent or land value. This can be done by repealing Proposition 13 and replacing it with a property tax based on the current market price of land. The value of buildings and other improvements would be not be taxed. Going further, a high tax on land value can also replace California’s regressive sales tax. Even further, the state income tax can be replaced with taxes on pollution from factories, power plants, buildings, and cars. 

Such a radical change will require a big social-justice movement, but it gives us the direction for reform to raise wages and reduce the cost of living. Despite Proposition 13, local governments have enacted property taxes, such as Berkeley’s parcel taxes for city landscaping, lighting, library services, schools, AC Transit, and services for the disabled. Berkeley also has real estate transfer taxes, hotel taxes, and assessments for special districts. Berkeley also has utility taxes that increase the cost of living, and a permits that add costs to enterprise. These taxes could be shifted into parcel taxes on land instead of on improvements, transfers, enterprise, and utility usage.  

If the residents of Berkeley are serious about greenhouse emissions, they should also get the city to levy a tax on all pollution taking place within the city. That plus a shift to land-based taxes would reduce pollution while raising wages, increasing employment, and reducing the cost of housing. Businesses would gain from paying less tax and paying less rent. 

Proposition 13 prevents Berkeley from levying a tax explicitly on land value, but Berkeley can get around this with parcel taxes on land with rates that vary among districts as well as revenues authorized by “Mello-Roos” legislation and from assessments on land. Taxes on land are borne by the landowners rather than by tenants, if the landlord was already charging what the market can bear. 

Most Berkeley homeowners will get a net benefit, since they already pay taxes, and for most, this would be a neutral or beneficial shift. Owners of commercial land would generally pay more, but they have been getting a huge subsidy from city services paid for by others, and they have no legitimate complaint about no longer being subsidized. Special consideration could be provided for real estate owners who would have a burden, such as retired folks with low income and high property values, who would be able to postpone their civic dues. 

Berkeley has attempted to treat the symptoms of the artificial wage-tax disparity with rent control, living wage laws, and low-cost housing, but as Dona Spring rightly points out, the problem has persisted and gotten worse. It will take state and federal reforms to bring wages up and housing prices down to their natural levels, but Berkeley can enact its own reforms, and we can’t really complain about the state and federal governments if we do not start the ball rolling in Berkeley.  

The basic problem is that current taxes push wages down, while government spending pumps house prices up. The residents of Berkeley pay twice for city services: once with higher rent and again with taxes. The remedy is to have a single payment, from rent. Untax wages and goods, and shift public revenue to land. Nothing else will cure the problem of low wages and high rent.  

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

The Planet is to be congratulated. While Matier and Ross broke the story of Chris Kavanagh’s floating domicile, Judith Scherr’s astute reporting adds an awful lot to the picture. Despite filing numerous statements (under penalty of perjury) stating he was a Berkeley tenant, Rent Board Commissioner Chris has apparently lived in Oakland since at least 2001. He has never lived at either 22 Tunnel Road or 2709 Dwight Way, where he has registered to vote. Indeed, he cares so much about his Oakland pad that he is now in court fighting the owner’s effort to move him out. In the meantime, his “residence” is the Elmwood post office.  

Some cynical Berkeleyans will dismiss Chris’s fibs as typical behavior from elected officials. Others will blame political enemies for Kavanagh’s current embarrassment, as if an elected official’s “progressive” views somehow excuse voter fraud. And some will say they just don’t care, because what could be less important than the political backwater that is the Berkeley Rent Board?  

Why does all this matter? Won’t the politicians say a few pious words, sprinkle some holy water, and let the sinner go free, just as they did in 2002 when the problem first came to light?  

I hope not. Voters have a right to expect office-holders to tell the truth. We expect them to obey the law, including the requirement that they reside in Berkeley. Telling the truth and obeying the law is especially important when the elected official serves as a judge. This is the primary function of the Rent Board on which Chris serves: it sits in judgment on hundreds of landlord-tenant disputes, and can award thousands of dollars in fines and damages. Its rulings are given deference by the Superior Court. Its budget of $3.3 million, and its staff of 20, are impervious to review by the City Council or anyone else. This is real power, and (as the saying goes) power corrupts.  

The city must go beyond the simple issue of where Chris Kavanagh lays his weary head. Let us take the situation of Marc Janowitz, who was Vice Chair of the Rent Board prior to 2002. Janowitz left the Board, and sponsored Chris Kavanagh as a successor. He then migrated to private practice with the East Bay Community Law Center. EBCLC solicits tax-deductible contributions, supposedly to provide legal services to poverty-stricken tenants. Indeed, once on the Rent Board, Kavanagh joined in voting for contracts that have brought more than $500,000 in legal fees (funded by taxes on landlords) to Janowitz and EBCLC. Now, Janowitz and the EBCLC represent Kavanagh personally in a matter that seems to show beyond question that Kavanagh has for years been ineligible to serve on the Rent Board.  

This is what they call a conflict of interest, and may be something worse.  

Add the Section 8 scandal (where Kavanagh was the strongest defender of the status quo), and the near bankruptcy of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (which Kavanagh administered for some years as a Housing Advisory Commis-sioner), and you get the idea. Berkeley housing policy consists of (1) a federal Section 8 program, which has been found to be riddled with incompetence and outright corruption; (2) a rent control program that protects very few tenants, but provides millions in salaries, benefits and third party payments to a “progressive” slate and its friends; and (3) “smart growth” policies that have alienated the neighborhoods and emptied the Trust Fund.  

These policies have been sold to us by an inbred group of elected officials and staffers who support each other tenaciously. I don’t expect the Rent Board to do anything about their fellow member, perhaps because they themselves have known the truth for a long time. Nor will the Council majority do much: a lot of them are Kavanagh’s political allies who have no more desire to probe Rent Board operations than they had to investigate the Section 8 mess when it first came to light in 2002.  

But once more for the record: even folks who come to power with good intentions are subject to temptation. Those who come to power with no scruples at all will be corrupted. That is what has happened here, and what must be investigated if we are to maintain any pretense of open and democratic government.  

David Wilson has been Berkeley resident for 45 years. Though sympatheitc to some of its goals, he is not a part of BPOA.

I have found that the challenge of healthy living is this: to adapt the body that my ancestors carefully evolved to live a particular way of life to the demands of life in twenty-first century Berkeley. What an undertaking! 

My hunter/gatherer ancestors walked all day, every day just to amass food, water, and fire fuel enough for survival. They did not read printed text, but they were well aware of the messages the various flora and fauna communicated through scent, sound, and color. They had to learn to read the signs of the winds and the clouds to avoid being stuck in the wrong places during rough weather. They weren’t smarter than I am, they just developed other ways of learning about a very different world than the one I experience. 

So, what did they do? They gave me a body that, if it does not get lots of exercise every day, will develop all kinds of cardiovascular problems. They gave me eyes that see colors well, but are poor at distinguishing detail. The gave me a legendary sense of smell, which is highly undervalued in a culture that believes that only pine, floral, and lemon are acceptable scents. Those hunter/gatherers definitely did not prepare me for life in my current habitat. 

Although they did provide me with a remarkable immunity to the various viruses and bacteria that share my habitat, they could never have foreseen the dangers that beset me each day as I walk streets infested with powerful motor vehicles which, though they are not so much hostile to the pedestrian as they are indifferent, are nonetheless deadly. For that, I must use the instincts they probably honed while on the alert for wild animals lurking in thick vegetation. Even so, I doubt if they provided me with any protection against the toxic fumes the modern hazardous beasts spew. 

There is evidence that at least some of my ancestors became herders and farmers. They also walked all day behind the flocks or the plow, but they had a pattern of eating well in the warm months and very lean in the winter. Since I have access to the same amounts of food all year long, I have a tendency to gain weight in the winter, no matter how much I try to avoid it. Luckily, the winter weight seems to melt off with the lengthening days without too much effort, but creatures raised in captivity, be they animal or vegetable; predator or prey; develop different characteristics than those whose lives are spent in the wild, and every year the doctors and scientists tell me that something else that I enjoy eating is bad for me. Since truly wild food is all but unavailable in Berkeley, I eat what I can and try not to lose sleep over the consequences. 

Foraging in Berkeley presents me with possibilities that would surely have overwhelmed those distant ancestors. Nearly every tribe on the planet has brought its cuisine within my reach. Like most of the people I know, I find the greatest challenge is to pace myself. Few meals, small meals, and no all-day or late-night snacking seem to work best for me. 

For low-emission transportation, nothing beats a good long walk, especially after a healthy meal. Walking allows me to connect with my fellow creatures, human, animal, and plant, and to stay informed about what is going on in the neighborhood. Over the years I have come to recognize many Berkeley faces; merchants and mendicants; children and the adults they become; longtime residents and new arrivals. I especially enjoy watching the fruit trees go through their annual cycle, and greeting the roses (the girls, I call them) that bloom at the end of my block. Sometimes I chuckle as I pass a gym and see people who pay a fee to walk on a treadmill to nowhere, while I walk from my home to my destination for free, with lots of entertainment along the way. To each his own. 

The main thing that seems to keep me sane is to remind myself that, since nature never intended that humans should live to be more that about 40-years-old, I have long since exceeded my allotted time. Everything from here on is overtime (which is worth at least time and a half, right?)  

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.

On July 24, Rudy Giuliani, the leading Republican presidential candidate, gave a campaign speech in San Francisco. It’s illuminating to study the former New York City mayor’s remarks because they reveal a lot about him and the prevailing philosophy of the GOP. He asserted that Democrats “do not understand a capitalist economy…they think it’s bad to make money. They think it’s bad to be rich… I think it’s great to be rich.” 

Giuliani’s personal story indicates why he boasts of his affluence. When he left office, early in 2002, he capitalized on his fame as “America’s Mayor.” Rudy formed a consulting firm, Giuliani partners, and began a lucrative lobbying career that has earned him tens of millions of dollars. He supplemented this with six-figure speaking engagements throughout the world. 

In his speech, Giuliani argued that Dems do not understand the nature of the American economy. He claimed that the principal Democratic candidates for president—Clinton, Edwards, and Obama—“want to raise your taxes 20 to 30 percent, and it could be more.” Giuliani defended the tax cuts instituted by President Bush: “Tax reductions stimulate an essentially private economy. Why Democrats don’t get this, I don’t understand… They attack President Bush for lowering taxes twice and for taking us to war… It’s pretty smart if you’re going to run a war to lower taxes… [To] stimulate the private sector.” Giuliani wrapped up by claiming, “the country is really going in the right direction.” 

It’s tempting to focus on the many factual errors in Giuliani’s remarks: for example, he claims that Clinton, Edwards, and Obama want to increase taxes “20 to 30 percent” across the board, while they have said nothing remotely like that. But it’s more illuminating to look at his philosophy because it’s a remarkably candid presentation of mainstream Republican attitudes about capitalism and limits. 

Republicans give capitalism a higher priority than they do democracy, as they believe capitalism inevitably produces democracy. This formulation is both simplistic and incredibly destructive. It’s based upon the notion that greed is good. Giuliani reflected this in his remark, “it’s great to be rich.” “Greed is good” has been the operating philosophy of the Bush administration, which has pandered to the ultra-rich, “the haves and have mores.” While there is nothing wrong with being rich, per se, there is something wrong with being greedy, being consumed by “rapacious desire.” Greed elevates the personal interest above the public interest and reduces the ultimate moral test to “what’s in it for me.” A look at the careers of Bush and Giuliani indicates that what binds them, ideologically, is the primacy of personal over public interest. 

Republicans believe that the public holdings of the United States are a free resource that can be used to satisfy individual greed. The environment—public lands and resources, air, and water—can be used in the pursuit of personal wealth. The Bush administration has assiduously catered to special interests. They’ve fed out of the public trough. 

Behind both of these destructive attitudes lurks the carnal belief that there should be no limits on the pursuit of personal wealth. Republicans don’t like the federal government because it sets limits, either directly through the federal government’s oversight and regulation function, or indirectly through taxation. The Bush administration has restricted the federal bureaucracy and reduced taxes, promoted policies that benefit the ultra-rich. 

Despite Giuliani’s assurance to the contrary, Americans don’t believe the United States is going in the right direction. Many Americans have very concrete reasons for their dissatisfaction: poor healthcare, employment insecurity, or dissatisfaction with the educational system. But the common concern that underlies our discontent is the belief that the government is not operating for the benefit of all the people, but instead to enhance the fortune of the privileged few. According to Rudy Giuliani that’s the way it should be: government should get out of the way and stop setting limits on Republicans’ rapacious desire for more wealth. 

Stripped to the barest ideological elements, that’s the difference between Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals. Republicans believe that with no government and no limits, the rich will flourish and magically this will help everybody else—wealth will “trickle down” throughout American society. Liberal Democrats believe in limits. They know the “trickle down” theory is a fantasy and argue that sanctioning unrestricted greed doesn’t help Americans, in general. It permits the ultra-rich to make exorbitant salaries and buy private jets. 

When Rudy Giuliani argues that Democrats don’t understand a capitalist economy, he’s really saying that they don’t support the Republican economic theory of unrestricted greed. He’s acknowledging an elemental difference between Dems and the conservatives that run the GOP. Liberal Democrats believe in the common good and Republicans don’t. Dems believe that the public interest comes before the private interest. They believe that democracy has a higher priority than capitalism; that there must be an economy that works for everyone in order to have a functioning democracy. Liberal Democrats believe that requires placing limits on capitalism, not letting greed run rampant. 

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

Sometimes when you’re walking through Briones Park, through the oak-laurel forest on the trail that leads to the archery range and that old-homestead meadow where they line up the Boy Scouts to salute things, your gaze and the sun shining through the canopy and the remnants of the day’s fogbank will intersect at just the right moment. I swear you can see the various leaves getting all excited about photosynthesis, that quotidian necessary miracle, and open themselves cell by cell to the light.  

The dark forest turns into individuals dancing slow as wood and fast as wind, and even the rustle of the leaves seems to change its tone. At that moment the madrones show themselves, shine out, glow like bright coals banked in the green around them. They make their own spotlights. Their light seems to come from within as much as from the sun, because that ruddy incandescence isn’t from their sun-grasping surfaces, as autumn-stoked trees’ are, but from their bark, the skin of their trunks and branches underneath the bright green leaves.  

We really do have some extraordinary trees here, and madrone, madrona, madroño, Arbutus menzieseii is high on that list. It’s not its size—a 60-foot-high specimen is a mighty madrona indeed, in a land where we still have remnant redwoods that easily top 350 feet—nor is a red-skinned tree exactly unique in a state where some of our 80-odd manzanita species grow to tree size.  

But madronas have a different sort of presence. Their skin—it barely qualifies as bark, it’s so thin—has its own shades of red, scarlet or sunburned gold where manzanitas’ are shades of burgundy. They grow as twistedly as manzanitas do sometimes, but on a bigger and more open scale. Sometimes you might not notice you’re standing under a big madrone except that the light has turned a little warmer, and you might just think the sun’s come out or gone halfway in or 10 degrees down toward sunset.  

But if you look up, you’ll see the amber and scarlet mid-trunk, the ruddy branches, the big leathery green leaves, long ovals in their whorls around their twigs making an opportunistic pattern to catch the sun. Sometimes you’ll look straight up but more often, especially in our bioneighborhood, you’ll follow the trunk off on some improbable angle or around a giddy twist. That pattern might have been set in response to the madrone’s long-gone neighbors as it elbowed its way up to the canopy in its thirst for light. But I’ve seen expert observers call it “inexplicable,” so who knows? 

Madrone is tough but likes its sunshine, so it tends to show up on the edges of forests of bigger trees like redwood and Douglas-fir. Companioning with trees like liveoaks and bigleaf maple, it keeps a more integrated distribution and shows up as a surprise—or punctuation.  

The farther north you go, the bigger the madrones. It’s startling for someone who’s used to the picturesque, curving smaller specimens we see here to come round a bend in a dirt road on the Lost Coast and be hailed by a scattered line of militarily upright 60-footers on a sunlit slope. Sometimes you just have to stop in the middle of the road (because the middle is all there is to the road) and get out to see their tops, to take in a whole tree in one eyeful.  

It’s no surprise to anyone who’s seen one growing from an unlikely bare rock and leaning confidently cantilevered out over the surf a hundred feet below that madrone has a serious root system and is good at erosion control. Its berries, red or yellow, feed many bird species including our native band-tailed pigeon. Sometimes you’ll see a flock of those gathering around a tree that’s having a particularly productive year. As the birds are half again the size of city pigeons, this makes an impressive conclave. 

The berries are edible for humans too, though their flavor is supposed to be dull. Come to think of it, I’ve never tried one. They’re coming into ripeness; I’ll have to remedy that as soon as I can do so legally.  

The wood is dense and hard, but the size and unpredictable form of the tree, as well as the wood’s tendency to check and crumble if it’s not specially treated, means it’s not much used for lumber. It’s smooth and close-grained and (no surprise) handsomely ruddy if it’s heartwood, golden to yellow if it’s sapwood. You can buy small quantities for small projects and I’d call it pretty pricey: Woodworker’s Source sells 20 board feet of Arbutus menzieseii at a statutory inch thick (meaning less than that after finishing) for over $200.  

There’s a bench on the Packrat Trail to Jewel Lake in Tilden that straddles a usually-dry streambed and has a bit of view over the slope. A companionable madrone leans near it. It’s a good spot to enjoy its company, as well as the birds and critters that travel through. 

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

Photograph by Ron Sullivan. 

A shrubby little madrone at Lake Lagunitas. This protean species also grows as 60-foot forest trees.

Some years ago, while I was working for an African-American newspaper in South Carolina called the Charleston Chronicle, a local Black attorney tried to get me to ride down with him to a country community near the Georgia border to talk with some people he was representing. George Payton was a self-promoter who had run for public office several times and would probably be running again, and an incessant talker as well, and the idea of spending a day with him—including four hours alone in a car—just so he could get his name in the paper didn’t appeal to me, so I begged off. 

I should have gone. 

The people George Payton was representing were African-American rural landowners, farmers, and the community they lived in was on an island named Hilton Head. Their families had come into possession of the land in the middle of the Civil War, through Union General William Sherman’s famous Special Field Order No. 15 written at the conclusion of his March to the Sea, the origin of the 40 acres and a mule promise, which declared that “the islands from Charleston, south, the abandoned rice-fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. Johns River, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of the Negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States.” 

Those lands had been kept in Black hands on Hilton Head Island until developers had come in during the early 1970s with a remarkable idea, to turn these steaming, swampy seaside cotton lands into an exclusive resort, one that would include a world-class (and in this case, the term is not obligatory) golf course. These developers put enormous pressure on the Black families to turn over their land, some of that pressure less than scrupulous, and George Payton had inside information from the families themselves, and wanted our paper to do a story on it. 

I never got the chance to do the story. Not long after I turned down the Hilton Head trip, someone walked into George Payton’s law office in the middle of a busy Black Charleston business district, in mid-morning, put a gun to his head and shot him dead, and then walked out again, past the receptionist. The killer was never caught, and though the receptionist saw him clearly both going in and out of George Payton’s office, he was never identified. 

Speculation raced for weeks throughout Charleston as to the motive and reason for George Payton’s brazen, daylight assassination. Much of it centered on the Hilton Head connection, and the belief that the financial stakes were high, enormously high, and Mr. Payton was bringing things to public light that the speculators dearly wanted kept under wraps. But George Payton had other involvements, personal and professional, that might have also led someone to take his life, and so no one, ever, could be sure. 

What caused his death remains a mystery, to this day. 

As of the time of the writing of this column, barely a half a day has passed since the daylight murder of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey in downtown Oakland, and the mystery surrounding that murder is just as deep as that of George Payton some 30 years ago, and a continent away. Because of the circumstances of the shooting, early reports from the Oakland Police Department express the belief that Mr. Bailey was specifically targeted. 

And so, just like in the case of George Payton, speculation centers on whether the murder of Chauncey Bailey was motivated by personal concerns, or whether it was something he had written, or was intending to write, that caused him to be a target. 

But that brings us to a dilemma, at least as far as this column, or any published story, is concerned. 

It is normal—and proper—for individuals in Oakland, or with ties to Oakland—to try to come to terms with the death of Chauncey Bailey by trying to figure out its source. But what is proper to speculate upon in conversations all over Oakland and the East Bay—and probably in many parts of the country—is both improper and irresponsible when you talk about putting something into print or online, or broadcasting it on the air. 

And so, I will simply said that it is credible and possible that Chauncey Bailey’s murder was an assassination, and that he was killed to prevent him from publishing a story, or stories, that he was working on. On the other hand, given the available public evidence—which is sparse, at this moment—it is also credible and possible that Chauncey Bailey was killed for entirely personal reasons, by someone with some personal beef. 

And though the difference between the two, unfortunately, has absolutely no bearing on his death itself, and cannot change it, they do have vastly different implications for the city of Oakland, and for those of us who live or work here. 

It immediately raises two questions. Is this a case of someone being silenced for trying to disseminate information? Or is this the beginning of another period of assassination of public figures, one feeding on the other, with no immediate end in sight? For those of us who lived in the last period—beginning with the assassination of President John Kennedy, and including the shooting death of Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Marcus Foster on an Oakland street—it is a ghastly, awful thought. 

That being said, the first and most immediate burden is now on the initial investigative agency, the Oakland Police Department. There will be enormous pressure on OPD investigators, in the next couple of weeks, to identify the killer. If not, the speculation on who killed Chauncey Bailey, and why, will immediately devolve into speculation that the police department is participating in a cover-up, and that there are people in high places who do not want Mr. Bailey’s killer found. 

That is what happened after police in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, respectively, failed to identify the killers of rap stars Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. 

There is problem in such speculation as well, however. 

It would be naïve, indeed, to believe that there are some cases that police do not investigate vigorously, for whatever reason, and that killers go free because police did not do a good job of trying to find them. 

The problem is, the fact that a killer is not identified and caught is not evidence that the police are not trying. It is only evidence that a killer has not been identified and caught. Police can be trying their asses off—they can be working double overtime, they can be following every lead, they can be shaking every bush—and still not be able to solve the case. 

One can only hope, then, that in the investigation of the murder of Chauncey Bailey, the Oakland Police try. One can forgive a failure. But if the police do not try, or if they fail to follow key and important areas of inquiry, and if that ever comes to public light, it will be a stain upon Oakland that a hundred years will not erase, a memory that will last far beyond the recent “bad publicity” that we think we’ve been having. 

Meanwhile, our thoughts return to Chauncey Bailey. 

Since we were fellow journalists, I saw him on many occasions over the past few years, press conferences and meetings and the like. The last time I saw him was at the City Hall press conference that announced the end of the Waste Management lockout at which Mr. Bailey, as always, was the first to ask a question, even before Mayor Ron Dellums could finish asking if reporters had any. But we never socialized, and I never saw him outside of a working setting, but once. One late afternoon, last winter or early spring, I saw him while I was walking down 14th Street on my way to a Peralta Community College District Board meeting. I have no idea where he was coming from or going to, but he gave the impression that he had reached the end of a busy day, and was going somewhere to relax. He was talking about plans to travel to Vietnam to do a series of stories. I thought it unusual, since he had not been to Vietnam during the war—he was a war resistor, he told me—and without that type of relationship, Vietnam is not the usual place where an African American might make a connection. I never found out why he thought it so important, but he was enormously excited about the project, and talked about it most of the way. 

He stopped on a corner to turn to his destination, wherever that was, and I continued on towards the lake. He was standing there as I turned and waved to him, and he was smiling and thinking about his Vietnam project, I presumed, on the corner of 14th and Alice streets, where someone pulled out a gun this morning, and shot him dead.s, where someone pulled out a gun this morning, and shot him dead. 

This is a tale about politics, influence, money and murder. It began more than 40 years ago with a bloodletting so massive no one quite knows how many people died. Half a million? A million? Through four decades the story has left a trail of misery and terror. Last month it claimed four peasants, one of them a 27-year old mother. 

It is the history of the relationship between the United States and the Indonesian military, and unless Congress puts the brakes on the Bush Administration’s plans to increase aid and training for that army, it is likely to claim innumerable victims in the future. 

Speaking alongside Indonesia’s Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsone in Singapore last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the White House intends “to deepen the strategic partnership between Indonesia and the USA.” 

Given what that partnership has led to over the past four decades, it a profoundly disturbing statement.  

The Washington-Jakarta narrative begins in 1965 with the Tentara Nasional Indonesia’s (TNI)—the Indonesian Army— massacre of Indonesian leftists, a bloodletting in which the U.S. was a partner. How many died is unclear, certainly 500,000, and maybe up to a million or more. According to the U.S. National Security Archives published by George Washington University, the U.S. not only encouraged the annihilation of Indonesia’s left, it actually fingered individuals to the military death squads. 

When Suharto, the dictator who took over after the 1965 massacres, decided to invade the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in 1975, the Ford Administration gave him a green light. Out of a population of 600,000 to 700,000, the invasion killed between 83,000 and 182,000, according to the Commission of Reception, Truth and Reconciliation. 

“As a permanent member of the Security Council and superpower,” the Commission found, “the U.S… consented to the invasion and allowed Indonesia to use its military equipment in the knowledge that this violated U.S. law and would be used to suppress the right of self-determination.” 

The U.S. was not alone in abetting the invasion. Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam “encouraged” the invasion, according to the Jakarta Post, and Japan, Indonesia’s leading source of aid and trade, stayed on the sidelines. France and Britain increased trade and aid in the invasion’s aftermath, and in an effort to protect Indonesia’s Catholics, the Vatican remained silent. 

It was not the first time the U.S. and its allies had rolled for Jakarta. When the Suharto dictatorship short-circuited a 1969 United Nations plebiscite on the future of West Papua, no one raised a protest. 

Through six presidents—Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush and Clinton—the TNI had carte blanche to brutally suppress autonomy movements in Aech, Papua, and East Timor, murder human rights activists, and—according to the U.S. Department of Defense, the Justice Department and the State Department—engage in violence and oppression against women, threats to civil liberties, child exploitation, religious persecution, and judicial and prison abuse. 

After more than 30 years of either encouraging or turning a blind eye to the savagery of the TNI, the Clinton Administration and the UN finally intervened to stop the rampage unleashed on the Timorese when they had the effrontery to vote for independence in 1999. However, before the force of mostly Australian troops could land, TNI-sponsored and led militias killed some 1500 people, destroyed 70 percent of East Timor’s infrastructure, and deported 250,000 Timorese to Indonesian West Timor. 

Indonesia has refused to hand over any of the TNI officers currently charged for crimes against humanity for leading the 1999 pogrom or taking part in the brutal suppression of East Timor from 1975 to 1999. Indeed, many have been reassigned to places like West Papua, where Indonesia is attempting to crush a low-level independence insurgency. 

Col. Burhanuddin Siagian, indicted for crimes against humanity for his actions in East Timor, was recently appointed a sub-regional military commander in Papua. 

“It is shocking that a government supposedly committed to military reform and fighting impunity would appoint an indicted officer to a sensitive senior post in Papua,” Paula Makabory, spokesperson for the Institute for Human Rights Study & Advocacy—West Papua told the Australian Broadcasting Company. A coaltion of human rights organizations is demanding that Indonesian President Susilo Yudhoyono withdraw the appointment and suspend Siagian from duty. 

Several other commanders, all under indictment for human rights crimes, have also been appointed to military posts in Papua and the province of Aech.  

And how does the TNI continue to get away with this? 

Starting in 2001, Indonesia began a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign— abetted by the White House—to lift the ban on military aid to Indonesia. A leading force in that campaign is Paul Wolfowitz, disgraced former head of the World Bank and ambassador to Indonesia from 1986 to 1989. 

The lobbying worked and sanctions were gradually relaxed. Military aid more than doubled from 2001 to 2004. In 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, “A reformed and effective Indonesian military is in the interest of everyone in the region,” and lifted the last restrictions on military aid. 

Part of the “reforms” Rice referred to require the TNI to divest itself of its vast economic network, which, according to the International Relations Center, accounts for 70 to 75 percent of the military’s funding. The TNI runs corporations, mining operations, and cooperatives.  

A 2004 law requires the TNI to divest itself of its holdings by 2009, but a loophole allows the military to keep “foundations” and “cooperatives.” According to Defense Minister Sudarsone, 1494 out of the TNI’s 1500 businesses are “foundations’ or “cooperatives.” 

“The core problem for addressing impunity [of TNI commanders] is that civilian government has no control over the military while they do not control their finances,” Human Rights Watch Chair Charmin Mohamed told Radio Australia, “and on this key issue Yudhoyono has clearly failed.” 

While the military continues to resist efforts to reform, there is growing anger at the TNI’s penchant for violence. 

In late May, Indonesian Marines opened fire on East Java demonstrators protesting the TNI’s claim to land the protestors say was taken illegally. Four people were killed and several others wounded, including a four-year old child whose mother was among the dead. 

The shootings have angered some important political figures. Djoko Suslio, who sits on the powerful Defense Committee, accused the military of using “weapons, brought with money from the state budget to kill their own brothers,” and the important Islamic Crescent Star Party denounced the killings. Abdurraham Wahid, a former president and the leader of the National Awakening Party, says his organization intends to file civil suits against the Navy. The Missing Person and Victims of Violence organization is petitioning the government to move the case from military to civilian courts. 

The TNI’s track record has also angered some in the U.S. Congress. Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Chris Smith (R-NJ) are currently leading a campaign to cut the Bush Administration’s proposed aid package because of Jakarta’s failure to prosecute human rights violations. Arrayed against that is the Bush Administration’s campaign to surround China with U.S. allies and more than 40 years of cooperation or acquiescence to the brutality of the Indonesian military. 

For further information, go to the East Timor and Indonesian Action Network (ETAN.org) 

The Kitchen 

Go to a kitchen showroom or a home improvement store, or open up a shelter magazine, and you will see the contemporary kitchen accoutrements that we have been convinced to lust after: restaurant stoves, built-in stainless steel refrigerators with internet access, granite counters, and so forth. But if your house is historic, which covers everything from Victorian to World War II, you will be doing your home a serious disservice if you give into that lust and install the latest “state-of-the-art “ kitchen.  

The first “modern” kitchens, in the sense that they had stoves, refrigeration, electricity, and plumbing, came about in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Though a kitchen of that era might look primitive now, it was miles ahead of earlier kitchens, where cooking was done in fireplaces, refrigeration was non-existent, and water had to be carried in. By the turn of the twentieth century, the basic kitchen elements we still use were in place: ranges, refrigerators, plumbing, electric lighting, cabinets for storage, and even concepts about efficiency, such as continuous countertops and the work triangle. Though there have been technological advances since then (under-counter dishwashers, microwaves, garbage disposals), these basic elements have remained much the same. 

Nonetheless, the kitchen was, and is, the most complex room in the house. The demands placed on it in earlier times are nothing compared to the demands placed on it now. Then it was a utilitarian space, for the servants or the woman of the house. But now, the kitchen has supplanted the living room as the central place in most homes. Is it possible to have a period kitchen that still meets modern expectations? It depends on your expectations. An exacting reproduction of a 1915 kitchen may not be for everyone- how do you feel about doing the dishes by hand? But with a dishwasher, it could still look like 1915, but you might be a lot happier.  

The elements that make up a historic kitchen are fairly standard, and by picking a combination of appropriate elements, it’s possible to have a kitchen that incorporates modern technology yet still looks right in an older home.  

Cabinets 

The right cabinets are the most important element in making a kitchen look period-appropriate. Historically, cabinets were face-framed (as opposed to frameless European-style cabinets), with flush inset frame-and-panel doors (now called “Shaker” doors—square stiles and rails around a flat panel). Overlay doors (still frame and panel) began to appear in the 1920s, influenced by the doors on Hoosier cabinets. (Flat “slab” overlay doors, made of plywood, began to appear in the 1940s.) Panels in the doors could also be glass, either plain or with muntins.  

Drawers were either inset or three-eights inch overlay, with wooden glides. Old cabinets lacked the toe kicks of modern cabinets—the face frame extended down to the floor. (Toe kicks appeared in the 1910s.) The lower cabinets were shallower than the standard 24 inches used today, ranging from 15 to 22 inches deep, though upper cabinets were 12 inches deep and still are. Upper cabinets often hung lower than modern cabinets, 12 to 14 inches above the countertop, rather than the 18 inches now standard. Unlike many modern cabinets, the upper cabinets went all the way to the ceiling, rather than leaving the tops exposed to collect dust and grease, or by filling the gap with a soffit. Custom storage abounded, with tilt-out bins for 50 pound bags of flour and sugar (used now for pet food or recycling), corner cabinet lazy susans, sliding shelves, and so forth. There were also specialty cabinets, including California coolers- a ventilated cabinet with wire or slatted shelves, which used the chimney effect to draw cool air up from the basement or crawlspace, which was used to store foods like potatoes, onions, garlic, even wine. Another specialty cabinet was the built-in ironing board, though many of these have been turned into spice racks. And of course, the hoosier cabinet (now a generic term, Hoosier was one of many manufacturers) was prevalent in many households. There weren’t any kitchen islands as we know them, only worktables, though many work tables had built-in storage. 

Most historic kitchen cabinets locally were made of vertical grain Douglas fir, inexpensive at the time, now more expensive than oak or cherry. Cabinets were either varnished or painted with enamel in shades of off-white to beige, as white was considered “sanitary”, and they were really obsessed with sanitation back then. 

Cabinet hardware was also standardized with ball-tipped mortise hinges, surface-mount butterfly hinges, or offset hinges for overlay doors. Doors latched with spring-loaded cupboard catches, hexagonal glass knobs, or simple wood or brass knobs. Drawers utilized metal bin pulls, glass bridge handles, hexagonal glass knobs, or wood or brass knobs. In the Victorian period, metal hardware often had elaborate patterns formed by lost-wax casting, but after 1900 hardware was much plainer. Metal hardware was usually brass or nickel, until chrome became popular in the mid-1930s.  

Appropriate cabinets are offered by national companies or can be custom-built by local cabinetmakers. Suitable hardware can be found locally or on the web. 

Countertops 

Countertops are the most difficult element, since there is no perfect countertop. In the past, the most prevalent countertop was varnished wood. This is fine in some areas, but problematic around the sink or near the stove. The second most common countertop is ceramic tile. White hexagonal porcelain tiles or other small mosaics were common, although sizes up to 4” by 4” were used. Backsplashes were often subway (3” by 6”) tiles laid like bricks, though 4”by 4” tiles were also employed. Tile was white from the late nineteenth century through the Teens, maybe with a colored border or liner. In the Twenties and beyond, wild color combinations like jadite green and black, burgundy and yellow, lavender and peach, and even three and four color combinations began to be used, although white continued throughout. The third most popular countertop, surprisingly, was linoleum- it held up well on the floor so why not on the counter? I am referring to real linoleum, which was invented in 1863 and consists of linseed oil, cork, ground limestone, and pigments on a burlap backing. It is a green alternative to highly toxic vinyl.  

Stone countertops were rare—there might be a marble pastry slab in an upper middle class kitchen, and occasionally soapstone or slate would be installed, but granite is very wrong for a historic kitchen. And contrary to the hype, stone is actually porous and requires sealing. 

I detest Corian, but some of the newer composite materials aren’t too bad. Products like Fireslate, Silestone, Richlite and even concrete have an appropriate look. Even some patterns of laminate, with a matte finish and a wooden edge molding, look decent. It is legitimate to use different countertop materials in different areas of the kitchen- tile or stone near the sink and stove, wood or linoleum elsewhere.  

Floors 

Kitchen floors used one-inch by four-inch tongue-and-groove boards of the same old growth Douglas fir as the cabinets, either varnished, painted, or covered with linoleum. Occasionally hardwood flooring (oak or maple) was installed. Fancier houses sometimes had ceramic tile floors, either hexagonal tiles or quarry tiles. 

Sinks and Faucets 

Sinks were almost always white porcelain over cast-iron. There were two kinds- sinks with built-in drainboards and backsplashes, which were wall-hung, but often had decorative legs, or occasionally sat on top of cabinets, and undermount or tile-in sinks, which were set into tiled countertops. Undermount sinks are still widely available. Farmhouse-style sinks were primarily used in the 19th century. Butler’s pantries utilized small copper or nickel silver sinks, these softer metals thought less likely to chip the fine china which was washed in the butler’s pantry rather than the kitchen. The nickel-plated faucets were wall-mounted, rather than deck-mounted as most are today. In the 19th century, the faucet would have had separate hot and cold taps, but by the 20th century, mixing faucets with cross or lever handles were the norm. 

Appliances 

Vintage stoves are currently popular, and you could pay up to $30,000 for a restored double oven Magic Chef. You could also pick up a perfectly good 1940s Wedgewood on Craigslist for $500 or less, or a restored stove for somewhere between $1200 and $3000. If you want more of the modern stuff like electronic ignition and sealed burners, Elmira and Heartland make vintage-looking stoves with modern components. A simple (and thus inexpensive) modern stove also can be unobtrusive in a historic kitchen. Nowadays, people who don’t cook at all insist on having restaurant-style stoves—I guess they’re for the caterers. 

Refrigerators are difficult to deal with, being large and hard to disguise. Only a few people want vintage refrigerators, which have to be manually defrosted. A “fully-integrated” fridge that can be completely covered with wood panels is an option, as are refrigerator drawers made by various companies. Replicas of wooden iceboxes with modern refrigeration components inside are also available, as well as retro 1950s-style fridges. 

Dishwashers also come “fully integrated” with controls on the top edge so the front can be completely covered with wood. I would refrain from putting a wood panel on a regular dishwasher- it draws more attention to the dishwasher than leaving it as is. Dishwasher drawers are also an option. A dishwasher can also be recessed into an extra deep cabinet with a regular cabinet door to disguise it. Compact dishwashers are only slightly larger than a microwave and can fit into small spaces or under old counters that aren’t deep enough for the usual 24” deep unit. 

Obviously they were no microwaves until recently, but it’s easy enough to hide one in a cabinet. 

Lighting 

Electricity was available locally by the late 19th century, so kitchens would have had electric lights and plugs, just not as many as we are used to (or required by code). A ceiling fixture in the middle of the room, a light over or next to the sink, and maybe another over the range would have been usual. These were plain nickel-plated fixtures with simple shades, or even just a bare lightbulb on a cord or chain and are readily available as reproductions. You can have as many visible fixtures as you like, since we are used to higher light levels. If you want to add well-disguised under-cabinet lighting, go ahead. 

Ventilation 

Historically, ventilation was passive- a plaster or painted metal hood over the range connected to a vent in the roof, using the chimney effect of rising heat to draw out smoke and steam. Electric fans mounted on an outside wall were also employed. It is possible to buy just the guts of a stove hood- fan and light- to retrofit old hoods or use in new custom hoods. If there are cabinets over the range, there are also retracting hoods, which virtually disappear when not in use. 

Things to Avoid 

There are some things that will make your kitchen scream “twenty-first century”. Recessed can lights, although your architect or designer will tell you they are unobtrusive, aren’t. Stainless steel anything (appliances, sinks, countertops) will be the avocado green of the twenty first century. Granite is totally overdone, as are glass tiles (which replaced with ubiquitous tumbled marble of the 1990s). And fancy art tiles and a copper hood belong on a fireplace, not in a kitchen. 

Although much useful technology came about in the twentieth century, we seem too enamored of bells and whistles we don’t actually use. Many historic kitchens, some of them perfectly functional, have been ripped out and replaced with some decade’s “state of the art” kitchen. Perhaps you’ve had one: plywood cabinets and gold flecked laminate from the Sixties? An avocado and harvest gold nightmare from the Seventies? Or perhaps beige tile, half-inch brown grout and oak cabinets from the Eighties? These once trendy kitchens soon look dated, whereas a period kitchen appears timeless, like it belongs there. Today it is possible to have a kitchen that meets twenty-first century expectations and yet still feels right in an historic house. 

Jane Powell is a restoration consultant and the author of Bungalow Kitchens. Contact her at janepowell@sbcglobal.net. 

Contributed photo.  

A fully-integrated refrigerator disguises modern technology behind coordinating wood panels that help it look like part of the cabinetry. 

Change is inevitable; it’s always reassuring when a change in a good business is in the spirit of the original, an enhancement rather than a trip to the oubliette—for example, when an owner retired and sells the place to people who are familiar with it and like its style already. A breath of fresh air is much better than a tornado where there’s something worth preserving. Oh, Toto! 

I’d visited Mt. Diablo Nursery and Garden just a few times since writing it up for The Garden Lover’s Guide: San Francisco Bay Area around 1997. It was engagingly eccentric, homey, with the oddities that come with long independent ownership. It sat in the shadow of a big fat pretentious hotel of some sort—still does, though the stucco coat on the architectural iceberg is a slightly different shade now—and made a quiet, ornery statement about what East of the Hills used to be like when it was the outback, before it got all pretentious.  

You know, I know people who live over on the hot side of the hills and they’re not pretentious themselves, even the most genteel ones. Maybe nobody there is pretentious, and it was all just the developers’ fault. Could we spare a day to take weedwhackers to all the gratuitous “The”s and “at”s that are popping up in such unfortunate places? Thanks; it would mean so much to me. 

So Mt. Diablo Nursery has just changed hands. Garth and Marcia Jacober bought Harry’s Nursery from its former owner (that would be Jiro Mishimoto, who’d taken over from his friend the eponymous Harry some 30 years back) and changed its name. They’re sprucing it up now. Redoing the gift shop, restocking the stock, gearing up for a Grand Opening day in the near future.  

I’ll announce that here as soon as I hear when it’s happening.  

Marcia said they intend to include work from local artists in the gift shop, and they’re considering throwing some classes too. Garth has taught gardening classes at Heather farms and at Magic Gardens.  

When he was a student, Garth worked with the eponymous Harry and the post-eponymous Jiro at the nursery, so he does know and like what he and Marcia have acquired. The lot is funny, shaped right for a spaghetti farm and rising in little terraces up a steep hill. ’Round the other side of that hill is Lafayette Cemetery, which looks rather like the “cemmies” in my Coal Region hometown where we used to say are so steep that the dead must be buried standing up, ready for Judgment Day.  

The Jacobers like camellias and have a lot of them waiting for blooming season to be on display at the nursery. They have, even in the current under-renovation space, some unusual plants such as native vine maples, Rhus typhina ‘Tiger Eye’—a golden cut-leafed staghorn sumac I don’t think I’ve seen before—and a rose named ‘Golden Winds’ whose scent has a note of cinnamon.  

There’s a nifty mural in progress along the bordering wall too. Go on out and have a look; it’s worth braving the heat.  

Mt. Diablo Nursery & Garden 

3295 Mt. Diablo Boulevard, Lafayette 

(925) 283-3830 

info@mtdiablonursery.com 

http://mtdiablonursery.com (Site is under construction too, clearly.) 

8:30 a.m.—5 p.m. daily 

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

Ouch! That Quake Hurts!  

How do most people get hurt in a big quake? Is it from the ceiling falling on them? The house collapsing all around them? No, historically there hasn’t been much “pan caking,” or houses falling apart around the occupants. Your major worry about your house is that it’s going to fall off its foundation, or possibly have a gas explosion if you’re not home to turn off the gas if an appliance supply line ruptures.  

The fact is that most people are injured in a quake by either trying to run to another room or outside, and the shaking knocks them down violently, or they get hit by falling objects like heavy furniture, wall hangings, or light fixtures.  

Securing your furniture is easy and pretty cheap. More on this later, but think about doing this NOW!  

Here’s to making your home secure and your family safe. 

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. 

We’re at war with Germany again, and this time they’re winning. No, it’s not a shooting war but since shooting wars always start with economic pretexts, it’s not a far stretch to talk about shooting wars in conjunction with this war and since it involves energy, it’s easy to point to our differing approaches to the war in Iraq as one example of how they’re winning, both morally and physically. 

First of all, they’re not in Iraq. This means that they’re winning the approval of their people (who think, like most peoples outside the U.S. that our leadership in energy and diplomacy is retarded). They’re also winning morally, in my opinion, since they’re working hard to create alternatives to oil in the form of, primarily, solar power. 

The battleground in this war is taking place at the hardware store (now that’s MY idea of the right place to fight a war). It’s being fought with cost incentives, pilot projects and legislation and let me tell you brother, it’s not going well for us. 

Here are some of the daily death tolls. In 2005 German families bought 632,000 kilowatts in solar grid-tie systems. We bought 70,000. Germany is a county of less than one-third our population at 82 million (we just passed 300 million).  

So let’s do the math and let’s be extra fair to the enemy. If we include all other forms of PV (photovoltaic), you can take the U.S. up to 103 million and Germany up to 635,000 (nearly all of their PV systems are grid-tie), so this means that a country of less than a third our size, bought, in 2005, more than 6 times the number of watts in solar installations than we did. If we multiply this times the population difference, they beat us by a factor of more than 22. Things are not going well for us in this war. Back to the coal mines, I guess. I didn’t need my lungs anyway (or clean water, glaciers, bees, plant-life...). 

By the way, just for fun, guess who our other major opponent is in this war is (and they’re also wiping the floor with us, although not quite so comically). Yes, friends, it’s Japan (they’re numbers are about half of Germany’s and their population is less than half of ours). See, the Marshall plan worked. Keeping Japan and Germany from developing military power after WWII was the best thing we could have done for them. They had to get busy with things like, say, education, infrastructure, medicine and technology. Maybe we should whoop the Marshall plan on our selves. “Now, young man, go to your room for 50 years and I don’t want to hear anything from you but non-military development.” Imagine what we could accomplish! 

It’s also interesting that, while the U.S. has more off-grid (won’t share) power generation than Germany, they still have over three times our total developed capacity. Their systems are designed to share extra electricity with the nearest neighbor. Ours is designed for me, me, me. I guess those damned socialists think that by collectivizing, they can sneak up on us and wipe us out (by the way, it’s working). It might be time for us to do a little of that socialist collectivizing, when it comes to energy (the single biggest business in the U.S., Ca-Ching).  

It may be just this attitude and the fears of our corporate fathers (and mothers. Sorry, women can also rob from the poor and give to the rich) that has prevented the U.S. from doing what is almost certainly the basis of Germany’s success story, which is the incentivizing of their system. You see, Germans are getting paid back TWICE the rate they pay for power for every watt they give to the grid.  

(By the way, this grid-tie system I keep mentioning is one in which the solar panels feed electricity directly to your main electrical panel and can be used immediately by the house or flow out through the meter, turning it backward, and to the neighborhood for others to use.) 

Now, you and I, in the U.S. don’t get paid back double for the watts we contribute. We don’t even get paid back once for each watt. We only get to reduce our bill to zero and then we get SQUAT. Now, why would you buy a nice big solar array when all you get after you’ve paid your bill down to zero is the comfort of knowing that PG&E stockholders will be showered in the extra cash you just gave them. I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t buy a solar array. Just that, sadly, the smallest system that meets your needs is the logical financial approach, at least for the present. 

Most PV systems have inverters (the part that turns PV power into house power) that can accommodate a range of array sizes and if a day arrives when you can get paid to generate power, you can then add more panels (in the worst case, you’d need a new inverter). 

Steve, a client of mine, the other day was buying a house that had a nice big fat solar array. It was well installed and already had close to 10 years of road time on it. Steve knew enough to ask about the problem of throwing away excess electrons and wanted to know if there were ways to use the extra electricity in the house. I told him that I hoped that in the next few years, driven by shame, the U.S. could well catch up with Germany and he could then sell the excess back to the grid. If true, it might be best to consider these issues in the selection of electrical equipment. 

Switching to electrical water heating is one thing that Steve could do with his free watts. I’m not generally a fan of electric water heating, space heating or cooking due to it’s environmental costs. This is because electricity is usually generated at some distant location by burning something and the loss of power by the time we arrive at your house is generally 2/3 of what we had to begin with. Of course, if power is generated with solar, wind or waves, I don’t care too much, although I still think, from a political perspective, that it’s better to decentralize and (don’t hurt me now) give power back to the people. BUT, given the current alternatives, I’m willing to take a ride with centralized eco-friendly electric power. 

We considered three kinds of electric water heating. Tanked (which is the cheapest), on-demand central or on-demand local (tiny units put in baths, kitchen, or laundry). Given the tangible possibility that he might soon sell back the extra watts, I suggested the tanked model. While not my usual first choice, it was the cheapest approach and, therefore, the least painful to dump after just a few years. Also, it could be turned off, replaced by a gas on-demand unit and remain as a flow-through seismic water storage unit. 

I similarly suggested a set of baseboard electric heaters to replace the now condemnable gravity gas heater in the basement. They’re cheap and could also be tossed in favor of something better when things change. 

My friend J.P. Ross, who works on solar legislation, also points out that some folks are selling or giving away car chargings to their friends before their billing year is over as a way of deflating their losses. Apparently, annual billing cycles are different for everyone and you can find a different person each month to charge up the electric hybrid if you’re well connected (so to speak). 

While all these strategies are helpful in the face of a bad system, the ultimate solution is to demand fair pay for fair watts. J.P. says that the solar initiative folks currently have an understanding with P.G.&E. NOT to try to push for cash repayment while they focus on more winnable fights. 

While I respect the fine work these people are doing, I feel like we’re all getting taken for a ride that hurts the development of solar power, the sale of PV systems and, ultimately, the earth. I urge everyone to write their governator or their congress-woman . and ask them to take a look at the difference between the German system and the U.S. system. 

Hopefully, we won’t have to lose a war to learn THIS lesson. 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor, in care of East Bay Real Estate, at mgcantor@pacbell.net.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 7 

CHILDREN 

Crosspulse Rhythm Duo at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

P&T Puppet Theater, “The Adventures of Spider and Fly” at 10:30 a.m. at Berkeley Public Library, West Branch. 981-6270. 

FILM 

Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker “Rugs, Roads and Palaces” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Zilpha Keatley Snyder reads from her children’s book “The Egypt Game” at the Middle School Mystery Book Group at 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. All ages welcome. 981-6223. 

Anita Thompson describes the legacy of her late husband in “The Gonzo Way: A Celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

CZ & The Bon Vivants 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 

Barbara Linn & John Schott, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8 

CHILDREN 

Gary Lapow “Get A Clue @ Your Library” for ages 3-8 at 3:30 p.m. at the Claremont Branch of the Berkeley Public LIbrary. 981-6280. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“A New Home, A New Life” Photographs by Refugee Youth in Oakland. Exhibition closing reception at 5:30 p.m. at Oakland Art Gallery, 199 Kahn’s Alley, Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland. Exhibit co-sponsored by the International Rescue Committee who helped to resettle the youth in Oakland. www.oaklandartgallery.org 

Scott Kildall and Victoria Scott artist talk at 7 p.m. at Kala Art Gallery. www.kala.org 

FILM 

Eco-Amok: An Inconvenient Film Fest “The Mutations” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Cara Black and Peter Gessner discuss their latest mysteries at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Café Poetry at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

A Night of Rumi, Persian Sufi music and poetry at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

La Verdad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

J-Soul at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Mikie Lee and Amber at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Big Blue Whale at 9:30 p.m. at the Stork Club Oakland, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 444-6174. 

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

Vusi Mahlasela, South African singer-songwriter, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 9 

THEATER 

Women’s Will “Romeo and Juliet” Thurs. and Fri. at 8 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes. 420-0813. www.womenswill.org 

FILM 

“War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $12. www.warmadeeasythemovie.org 

Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker “First Graders” at 7 p.m. and “Fellow Citizen” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

William Gibson reads from his new novel “Spook Country” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Louann Brizendine describes “The Female Brain” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sara & Swingtime at noon at the downtown Berkeley BART station. info@downtownberkeley.org 

John Jorgenson Quintet at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Houston Jones & Jacques at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave 548-5198.  

Squaretape, The Fourfits, The Corner Laughers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Julia Lau at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Maldroid, Royalty at 9:30 p.m. at the Stork Club Oakland, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 444-6174. 

Marco Benevento at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sat. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $8-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 10 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “All in the Timing” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through Aug. 11. Tickets are $12. 525-1620. www.aeofberkeley.org  

Altarena Playhouse “Oh My Godmother” Fri and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through Aug. 11. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

California Shakespeare Theater “The Triumph of Love” at the Bruns Ampitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, through Sept. 2. Tickets are $15-$60. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Woodminster Summer Musicals “The Wizard of Oz” Fri.-Sun. at Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland, through Aug. 19. Tickets at $23-$36. 531-9597. www.woodminster.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

Mark Axelrod “Sticks and Stones Not Only Break Bones” oil paintings, and Linda Braz “Explorations” mixed media installations and sketches, opens at The Gallery Of Urban Art, 1746 13th St. Oakland. 706-1697. 

“Art in Wood” works by Ervin Somogyi on display at the City of Berkeley Building, 1947 Center St. Lobby Gallery, through Nov. 9. 981-7546. 

FILM 

From the Tsars to the Stars: A Journey through Russian Fantastik Cinema “Planet of Storms” at 7 p.m. and “The Amphibian Man” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

H.D. Moe and Mel C. Thompson read at 7 p.m. at Nefeli Caffe, 1854 Euclid Ave. 841-6374. 

“Prosody Castle 2” Performance poetry at 7 p.m. at The Gallery of Urban Art, 1746 13th St. at Wood, Oakland. Donations accepted. www.thegalleryofurbanart.com 

Diane LeBow, Katherina Audly and others read from “Greece: A Love Story” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Steve Gannon and Cruise Tones at 5:30 p.m. at Park Place at Washington Ave., Point Richmond. Free. www.pointrichmond.com/prmusic/ 

University Summer Symphony perfoms Beethoven, Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $5-$10. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

The Dunes, part of The Arab Cultural Initiative, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Walter Savage Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Abyssinians, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

“Maniko” with Kit Walker on keyboards, Teerth Gonzalez on percussion at 7:30 p.m. at Sacred Space at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way, at 6th. Cost is $20. 486-8700. 

Bluegrass Buffet with the Mighty Crows, Belle Monroe & Her Brewglass Boys, and Bluegrass Revolution at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50-$16.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Seconds on End, rock, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Scott Amendola, Wil Blades, Jeff Parker at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Brook Schoenfield at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. w 

Stormcrow, Limb from Limb, Sixteens at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

2ME at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

The Memphis Murder Men at 9:30 p.m. at the Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 444-6174. 

Mushroom at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Marco Benevento at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sat. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $8-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11 

CHILDREN  

The Panchatantra: Animal Lessons from India Sat. and Sun. at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave. 452-2259. 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players “The Three Musketeers” Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. at John Hinkle Park, Southampton Ave., off The Arlington, through Sept. 9. Free. 841-6500. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Around the Globe” Works by various artists opens with a reception at 6 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. 644-4930. 

“New Visions” Group show of work by Bay Area artists. Artists’ talk at 1 p.m. at Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. 763-9425. 

FILM 

The Overdub Club “Year of the Caves” film and music experiments at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St., at Broadway, Oakland. 444-7263. 

Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker “Taste of Cherry” at 6:30 p.m. and “And Life Goes On” at 8:35 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jules Lobel discusses “Less Safe, Less Free: The Failure of Preemption in the War on Terror” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

“Jewish Literature: Identity and Imagination” with Dr. Naomi Seidman at 2 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bay Area Rockin’ Solidarity Labor Chorus and the Vukani Mawethu Chorus, in a benefit for The Highlander Center at 8 p.m. at Kehila Synagogue, 1300 Grand Ave., Piedmont. Tickets are $7-$12.50. 415-648-3457. 

University Summer Symphony perfoms Beethoven, Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $5-$10. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

“Gateswingers Jazz Band” at 8 p.m. at Central Perk: 10086 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 558-7375.  

Gary Wade & Friends, guitar and vocals, at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

Orquesta La Moderna Tradición, classic and modern Cuban dance music, at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Lloyd Gregory and Friends at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Three Mile Grade, bluegrass, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Ruben Quinones and Rick Hardin at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Gearóid Ó Hallmhuráin & Barbara Magone at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Andy Tisdall, The Fancy Dan Band at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Royal Hawaiian Serenaders at 9 p.m. at Temple Bar Tiki Bar & Grill, 984 University Ave. 548-9888. 

Something New at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

“Cari Lee & the Saddle-ites” at 9 p.m. at Downtown Restaurant & Bar, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Blind Duck, Irish music, at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Misner & Smith at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Broun Fellinis at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

WarKrime, Rabies, Second Opinion at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 12 

EXHIBITIONS 

Exhibition of Remastered Black Panther Posters and book signing by Emory Douglas at 3 p.m. at Guerilla Cafe, 1620 Shattuck Ave.  

FILM 

From the Tsars to the Stars: A Journey through Russian Fantastik Cinema “Aelita, Queen of Mars” at 4:45 p.m. and “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Architecture Tour of the Oakland Museum and Gardens at 1 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak at 10th St. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Sheila Kohler reads from her new novel “Bluebird, or The Invention of Happiness” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Invocation to the Sun God Narayana” by the Jyoti Kala Mandir College of Indian Classical Arts at 6 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $12-15. 86-9851. mail@jyotikalamandir.org 

Bill Evans String Summit at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Aleph Null at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Americana Unplugged: Big B and his Snake Oil Saviours at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Pappa Gianni & North Beach Band at 2 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

María Volanté “Intima” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Cafe Bellie at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Randy Marshall at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Bayonettes 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. 

Sunny Hawkins at 7 and 9 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200.  

MONDAY, AUGUST 13 

CHILDREN 

“The Case of the Missing Mutt” with Tony Borders and his puppets at 10:30 a.m. at the South Branch, Berkeley Public Library. 981-6260.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Wood Bodies” Photo mosaic portraits of home and place by Marty Kent and Ted Harris. Reception for the artists at 7 p.m. at Café Strada, 2300 College Ave. 848-1985.  

THEATER 

Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre, comedy, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jane Booth describes “Transformed by Triathlon: The Making of An Improbable Athlete” at 7:30 p.m. at Laurel Bookstore, 4100 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. 531-2073. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

City Concert Opera Orchestra performs Haydn’s “L’Isola Disabitata” Opera in two acts with period instruments at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10-$20. www.cityconcertopera.com  

Nada Lewis, Eastern European songs, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100. www.lebateauivre.net 

Parlor Tango at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Edgardo y Candela, salsa, at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200.

You have compromised the honor of a lady!” “And you’ve bastardized an English poet!” With repartee and ripostes, fast dialogue and swordplay, Shotgun Players’ The Three Musketeers, an adaptation by Joanie McBrien (who also directed) with Dave Garrett of the rich Alexandre Dumas epic of the wars of religion in 17th-century France under the sway of Cardinal Richelieu, is in full swing weekend afternoons in John Hinkel Park, for free—and it’s quite a crowd-pleaser.  

The tale of young Gascon (read “Southern country boy”) D’Artagnan, come to the big city to make it as a king’s musketeer, and the incredible web of adventures he’s enwrapped in from his first day in Paris, still makes for a great page-turner—or scene-changer. And the scenes furiously revolve as the stalwart (if wet-behind-the-ears) lad finds himself lined up for three consecutive duels against guess who, only to take sides with them against a kind of ambush by the cardinal’s guards, earning him the eternal comradeship of a troika of off-beat masters of the blade, his surrogate older brothers, and (unwittingly) his key into the intrigues of court and red cap. 

The Players toss off the juicy melodramatic lines with slight tongue-in-cheek somewhat different from Dumas’ stagey irony. The audience takes up where the Players leave off, laughing sarcastically at manners and mores, theatrical turns and turns-of-speech that are more 19th-century Romantic (as interpreted by the adaptors) than 17th-century classicist (or lusty or whatever one conceives the French of that century to be) and displaying an easy skepticism about religion, royalty, chivalry and whatever else seems creaky or preposterous to contemporary enlightenment. It would be curious to see if future generations take our self-serious enlightenment in much the same dismissive way. Even on the page, Dumas’ theatricality was as double-edged as his heroes’ swords. 

The Shotgun cast reels it out with a great deal of exuberance. This is one of the things the company does best, expressing their own enjoyment at making a spectacle.  

There’s a kind of cinematicization of the material; it plays well outdoors, but (like a mini-series) isn’t expansive. It doesn’t burst out of itself only to gather itself back in and burst out again, as the original story and all great episodic and serial fiction do. Still, the swashbuckling is bracing, with whole ensembles erupting at any moment, fencing their way across the sward at the base of the amphitheater, with the able guidance of musketeer and fight director Dave Maier (Athos) and fight captain and choreographer-ensemble member Andrea Weber. 

And the director is to be congratulated for omitting the almost-obligatory dose of fake Gallic kitsch American productions always seem to foster on the French. 

Much of the cast is familiar of face to those who follow Shotgun: the musketeers themselves—Dave Maier as brooding, misogynist Athos, Eric Burns as Porthos the Dandy and Gabe Weiss as Aramis—are longtime Shotgun troupers. Fontana Butterfield, a very familiar company member, almost steals the show as Lady deWinter, with a dose of noirish femme fatale and sleek stage movement. Dan Bruno is fine as that English rake Buckingham, who to be near his secret love, Anne, Queen of France (well-played by Marissa Keltie), would expend the lives of countless Protestant martyrs—“and what of that!”  

Others are return collaborators—notably Meghan Doyle, in a nice turn as D’Artagnan’s damsel-in-distress love interest Constance, and Carla Pantoja, a turncoat lady-in-waiting, charmingly called Kitty, who nonetheless retains a very soft spot for the dashing D’Artagnan. 

D’Artagnan, played with elan by Ryan Montgomery, is very much the ingenu (male version of ingenue), counterpointed by Constance, herself more worldly-wise, who arranges for him to be the courier for the Queen’s diamond necklace, unaware that Milady deWinter is after the self-same stones. Opposite in the spectrum is the totally cynical Cardinal Richelieu, played by Dennis McIntyre like a clerical Ming the Magnificent, evil chortle and all. Carson Creecy IV represents the foppish king, drawing laughter every time he exits with his prissy carriage. 

The show runs seamlessly until the end—and this might be true only for readers of the book, or the Classics Comic book at least—when the truly tear-jerking and spectacular demises, respectively, of Constance and Lady deWinter have been trivialized somewhat into a continuous action-movie stab-and-slash. But the adaptors deserve praise for the clear exposition of the plot, which literally is a plot with many sub-conspiracies and counter-plots. It was amusing to read a review of the show in one of the city papers that praised it for dwelling on lesser-known subtleties of the story. But those “subtleties” are all part of Dumas’ grand design for what’s been accorded the status of a boy’s book. His original story is so jam-packed with incident and detail that there’s no time in a two hour-plus stage adaptation for anything but the resume’ of that grand design itself. 

Ryan Montgomery and Dave Maier in The Three Musketeers. 

Sometimes when you’re walking through Briones Park, through the oak-laurel forest on the trail that leads to the archery range and that old-homestead meadow where they line up the Boy Scouts to salute things, your gaze and the sun shining through the canopy and the remnants of the day’s fogbank will intersect at just the right moment. I swear you can see the various leaves getting all excited about photosynthesis, that quotidian necessary miracle, and open themselves cell by cell to the light.  

The dark forest turns into individuals dancing slow as wood and fast as wind, and even the rustle of the leaves seems to change its tone. At that moment the madrones show themselves, shine out, glow like bright coals banked in the green around them. They make their own spotlights. Their light seems to come from within as much as from the sun, because that ruddy incandescence isn’t from their sun-grasping surfaces, as autumn-stoked trees’ are, but from their bark, the skin of their trunks and branches underneath the bright green leaves.  

We really do have some extraordinary trees here, and madrone, madrona, madroño, Arbutus menzieseii is high on that list. It’s not its size—a 60-foot-high specimen is a mighty madrona indeed, in a land where we still have remnant redwoods that easily top 350 feet—nor is a red-skinned tree exactly unique in a state where some of our 80-odd manzanita species grow to tree size.  

But madronas have a different sort of presence. Their skin—it barely qualifies as bark, it’s so thin—has its own shades of red, scarlet or sunburned gold where manzanitas’ are shades of burgundy. They grow as twistedly as manzanitas do sometimes, but on a bigger and more open scale. Sometimes you might not notice you’re standing under a big madrone except that the light has turned a little warmer, and you might just think the sun’s come out or gone halfway in or 10 degrees down toward sunset.  

But if you look up, you’ll see the amber and scarlet mid-trunk, the ruddy branches, the big leathery green leaves, long ovals in their whorls around their twigs making an opportunistic pattern to catch the sun. Sometimes you’ll look straight up but more often, especially in our bioneighborhood, you’ll follow the trunk off on some improbable angle or around a giddy twist. That pattern might have been set in response to the madrone’s long-gone neighbors as it elbowed its way up to the canopy in its thirst for light. But I’ve seen expert observers call it “inexplicable,” so who knows? 

Madrone is tough but likes its sunshine, so it tends to show up on the edges of forests of bigger trees like redwood and Douglas-fir. Companioning with trees like liveoaks and bigleaf maple, it keeps a more integrated distribution and shows up as a surprise—or punctuation.  

The farther north you go, the bigger the madrones. It’s startling for someone who’s used to the picturesque, curving smaller specimens we see here to come round a bend in a dirt road on the Lost Coast and be hailed by a scattered line of militarily upright 60-footers on a sunlit slope. Sometimes you just have to stop in the middle of the road (because the middle is all there is to the road) and get out to see their tops, to take in a whole tree in one eyeful.  

It’s no surprise to anyone who’s seen one growing from an unlikely bare rock and leaning confidently cantilevered out over the surf a hundred feet below that madrone has a serious root system and is good at erosion control. Its berries, red or yellow, feed many bird species including our native band-tailed pigeon. Sometimes you’ll see a flock of those gathering around a tree that’s having a particularly productive year. As the birds are half again the size of city pigeons, this makes an impressive conclave. 

The berries are edible for humans too, though their flavor is supposed to be dull. Come to think of it, I’ve never tried one. They’re coming into ripeness; I’ll have to remedy that as soon as I can do so legally.  

The wood is dense and hard, but the size and unpredictable form of the tree, as well as the wood’s tendency to check and crumble if it’s not specially treated, means it’s not much used for lumber. It’s smooth and close-grained and (no surprise) handsomely ruddy if it’s heartwood, golden to yellow if it’s sapwood. You can buy small quantities for small projects and I’d call it pretty pricey: Woodworker’s Source sells 20 board feet of Arbutus menzieseii at a statutory inch thick (meaning less than that after finishing) for over $200.  

There’s a bench on the Packrat Trail to Jewel Lake in Tilden that straddles a usually-dry streambed and has a bit of view over the slope. A companionable madrone leans near it. It’s a good spot to enjoy its company, as well as the birds and critters that travel through. 

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

Photograph by Ron Sullivan. 

A shrubby little madrone at Lake Lagunitas. This protean species also grows as 60-foot forest trees.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 7 

Rally to Support the Woodfin Workers at 4:30 p.m. at Woodfin Inn and Suites, Shellmound Ave. and Shellmound Way, Emeryville. 

Monitor Native Oysters in the Bay Help monitor oyster populations and set up equipment for our Native Oyster Monitoring Study at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley Marina, 201 University Ave. 452-9261, ext. 119. www.savesfbay.org/oysters  

“Youth Prison Reform: Does the Governor Have It Right?” with Pat Kuhi. Brown Bag lunch at noon at the Albany Library, Marin and Masonic Ave. Sponsored by League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville. 843-8824. http://lwvbae.org 

Opening of the Southside Community Park, serving the Santa Fe nighborhood of Richmond, at 3:30 p.m. at the end of Virgina Ave. off Harbour Way St., Richmond. 307-8150. 

WIllard Neighborhood Ice Cream Social Part of National Night Out, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Willard Park, corner of Derby St. and Hillegass Ave.  

Lawyers in the Library Free legal information and referral presented in conjunction with the Alameda County Bar Association. Sign-ups at 5 p.m. for appointments between 6 and 8 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

Dance Dance Revolution Interactive Game at 5:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library Community Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

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.  

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122.  

Tuesday Documentaries at 7 p.m. at the Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston Way. Donation of $5 benefits the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. 665-0305. 

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, AUGUST 8 

LBNL Building Plans Learn about the plans for the 160,000 sq-ft Helios building and the 150,000 sq-ft Computational Research Facility at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. See www.lbl.gov/Community/Helios and www.lbl.gov/Community/CRT 

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Pax Nomada Bike Ride Meet at 6 p.m. at Nomad Cafe for a 15-25 mile ride up through the Berkeley hills. All levels of cyclists welcome. 595-5344. 

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 8:45 to noon at the Latina Center, 3919 Roosevelt Ave., Richmond. 981-5332. 

Poetry Writing Workshop with Alison Seevak at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

“Coming Out to Your Children” a workshop for LGBT parents at 6:30 p.m. at Women of Color Resource Center, 1611 Telegragh Ave., #303, Oakland. 415-981-1960. stephanice@ourfamily.org 

Farsi Club at 1:15 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, AUGUST 9 

The Cultural Landscape of Strawberry Canyon with Charles Birnbaum at 7:30 p.m. at the Town & Gown Club, UC Campus. Cost is $20, reservtions required. 842-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

Introduction to Urban Permaculture Hear and see local permaculture designers from the Ecological Division of Merritt College’s Landscape Horticulture Department discuss what’s possible in a city, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

“War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” A new documentary film based on thebook by Norman Solomon at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater 3200 Grand Ave , Oakland. Tickets $12. www. 

warmadeeasythemovie.org 

“Can a New Virus Explain Diabetes?” a discussion forum at the East Bay Science Cafe at 7 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. 558-0881.  

East Bay Macintosh Users Group reviews the iPhone at 7 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shelmound, Emeryville. http://ebmug.org  

Screening to Reduce Risk of Stroke at Bayview El Cerrito Fraternal Order of Eagles at 3223 Carlson Blvd., El Cerrito. Cost is $139. To schedule an appointment call 1-877-237-1287. 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 10 

A Ramble into, through, and above Strawberry Canyon, with guides, at 5:30 p.m. followed by a Farmers’ Market Barbeque at 7 p.m. at the Haas Club House, UC Campus. For details call Berkeley Architectural Heritage 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

Peace Meditation & Origami class for all ages with Hiroshima survivor Takashi Tanemori at 7 p.m. at Unity of Berkeley, 2075 Eunice St. Suggested donation $10-$20, no one turned away. 528-8844. 

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. 

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, AUGUST 11 

Art Deco Walking Tour of Downtown Berkeley Meet at 11 a.m. in front of United Artists Theater, 2274 Shattuck. www.artdecosociety.org 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Temescal Meet at 10 a.m. in front of Genova Delicatessen, 5095 Telegraph Ave. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

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. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

The Great War Society meets to discuss “What the Doughboy Wore” by Norm Miller at 10:30 a.m. at 640 Arlington Ave. 527-7118. 

“Amazed” A family maze and labyrinth making event from 1 to 4 p.m. at The Museum of Children’s Art, 528 9th St., Oakland. Cost is $5. 465-8770. 

Introduction to Permaculture Learn the principles of using permaculture, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cost is $10-$15, no one turned away. Call to pre-register and for location. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Re-Dedication of Brookdale Park with entertainment, food, spoken word and community booths at 11 a.m. at 2535 High St., Oakland. 533-2366. 

Re-Leaf the San Pablo Creekside Help push out the invasive plants and bring back native vegetation from 9:30 a.m. to noon at 4191 Appian Way, El Sobrante. For information call 665-3538. www.thewatershedproject.org 

“Less Safe, Less Free: The Failure of Preemption in the War on Terror” with Jules Lobel at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Hopalong Animal Rescue Come meet your furry new best friend. Cats and kittens available for adoption from noon to 3 p.m. at Your Basic Bird, 2940 College Ave. 267-1915, ext. 500. 

CoHousing Potluck at 2 p.m. at 2220 Sacramento St. 849-2063. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Fast Pitch Softball for Adults at noon on Saturdays in Oakland. For information call 204-9500. 

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. www.nativeplants.org 

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 12 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Laurel Neighborhood Meet at 10 a.m. at the Albertson’s parking lot, 4055 MacArthur Blvd. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Mumia Abu Jamal on the Road to Freedom? with Mumia’s lead counsel, Robert R. Bryan on developments in Mumia’s case at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Universalists, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Suggested donation $5-$10. 526-4402. 

The Red Oak Victory Ship Pancake Breakfast from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 1337 Canal Blvd in Richmond harbor. Exit Canal Blvd off Hwy 580. Cost is $6, children under 5 free. 237-2933. 

Free Sailboat Rides from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club, Berkeley Marina. Wear warm, waterproof clothing and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. www.cal-sailing.org 

Middle East Peace Petition Release Party from 3 to 6 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby. 548-9840. 

Community Meditation and Potluck at 7 p.m. at 1940 Virginia St. Sponsored by The East Bay Open Circle. 495-7511. www.eastbayopencircle.org  

MONDAY, AUGUST 13 

Peace Child Summer Arts Camp for Children ages 8-12 with singing, dancing, acting, music-making, shadow puppetry, and art-making about peace runs to Aug 17, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Cost is $100. 526-9146. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. 548-0425. 

Dragonboating Year round classes at the Berkeley Marina, Dock M. Meets Mon, Wed., Thurs. at 6 p.m. Sat. at 10:30 a.m. www.dragonmax.org 

Drop in Knitting Class at the Albany Library Work on your own project or make pet blankets and children’s hats to be donated to charity organizations, at 3:30 p.m. at 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17.. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Aug. 8, at 7 p.m., at 997 Cedar St. 981-5502.  

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., Aug. 8, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. 981-6740.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Aug. 9, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. 981-7410.  

Regarding a report in the Aug. 3 article “Spring Agrees to Negotiate Campaign Violation,” a July 26 FCPC staff update clarifies that Berkeley City Councilmember Dona Spring did not incur any late filing obligation for the SEIU Local 535 PAC $250 contribution because it was hand-delivered a week after the date on the check.

The Planet incorrectly stated in a story Friday on the proposed South West Berkeley Benefits District that in the draft budget there are no funds allocated to address zoning issues. The draft budget, however, allocates $60,000 for the first year for “overall district management,” which will include funding a district administrator responsible for “oversight of contracted services.” Those services are to include: “Hiring professionals (to) advise on land use issues, transportation planning, [and] input on [the] West Berkeley Plan.” South West Berkeley zoning is spelled out in the West Berkeley Plan adopted by the city.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “All in the Timing” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through Aug. 11. Tickets are $12. 525-1620. www.aeofberkeley.org  

Altarena Playhouse “Oh My Godmother” Fri and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through Aug. 11. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Meet Me in St. Louis” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. in July at 951 Pomona Ave., at Moeser, El Cerrito, through Aug. 4. 524-9132. 

Stage Door Conservatory “Urinetown” A Teens On Stage Production, Fri. at 7 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$20. 521-6250. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Colors of the American West” Pein-air paintings by Deborah Diamond. OPening reception at 7 p.m. at The Gallery, 5751 Horton St., Emeryville. 428-2384. 

“Glimpses in Time” Photography exhibition in honor of Gordon Parks. Opening reception at 4 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., Oakland. 465-8928. 

“Inscibere” A group show of works related to the act of writing. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, 25 Grand Ave., upper level. www.chandracerrito.com 

“The Locals” Group show of artists using photography, metal, lichen and sound. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Rhythmix Cultural Works, K Gallery, 2513 Blanding Ave., Alameda. 845-5060. www.rhythmix.org 

FILM 

The Great Wall of Oakland screenings of two new experimental films by Bill Domonkos and Naomie Kremer at 8:30 p.m. on the wall on Grand Ave., just west of Broadway, downtown Oakland. 

Max Ophuls: Motion and Emotion “Happy Heirs” at 7 p.m. and “Lola Montes” at 8:35 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Gumby Dharma” the story of Art Clokey and his cartoon legend at 8:45 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak at 10th St. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Art Shapiro and Tim Manolis discuss their new book “Butterflies of the SF Bay Region” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way, just below Telegraph. The authors will lead a nature walk in Claremont Canyon before their talk, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. For informration and reservations for the walk call 841-8447 or email wmcclung@rcn.com  

William Poy Lee reads from his new book “The Eighth Promise” at 7:30 p.m. at Oakland Musuem of California, 1000 Oak at 10th St. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ross Hammond’s “No Do” at 8 p.m. at Free-Jazz Fridays at the Jazz House, 1510 8th St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$15. 415-846-9432. 

Saed Muhssin, part of The Arab Cultural Initiative, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$12. 849-2568.  

The Brama Sukarma Ensemble at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Judy Wexler & Anton Schwartz Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ.  

Bayonics, 40 Watt Hype at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

YBSC, jazz fusion, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

The Hobbyists, indie folk duo, at 9 p.m. at Downtown Restaurant & Bar 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Midnite, roots reggae from St. Croix, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $25-$30. 548-1159.  

Bryan Harrison and Abel Mouton at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

The Blind, Everest at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Born/Dead. A.N.S., Cross Examination, Resist the Right at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

215 Freshest Kidz at 9:30 p.m. at the Stork Club Oakland, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 444-6174. 

The Wayward Sway at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Midnite, roots reggae, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $25-$30. 548-1159.  

Swoop Unit at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 4 

CHILDREN 

Pinocchio: The Hip-Hopera, Sat. and Sun. at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave. 452-2259. 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players “The Three Musketeers” Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. at John Hinkle Park, Southampton Ave., off The Arlington, through Sept. 9. Free. 841-6500. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Berkeley’s “Other” Revolution: Celebrating 35 Years of Independent Living, Disability Access, and Disability Rights. Photographs by Ken Stein on display in the windows of Rasputin Music, 2401 Telegraph Ave., between Channing Way and Haste. 525-2325. 

“Interiors/Exteriors” Works by Tracy Wes, Vivian Prinsloo and Scott Courtenay-Smith. Artist reception at 6 p.m. at Esteban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St., Oakland. 444-7411. 

FILM 

Jewish Film Festival from 12:30 to 9:15 p.m. at The Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. For information on tickets call 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org 

Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker “And Life Goes On” at 6:30 p.m. and “Through the Olive Trees” at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“At the Med ... Were You There?” Thirty years of sketches from Telegraph Ave.’s Mediterranean Coffee House by Doyl Haley. Lecture on Doyl Hayley’s work by John McNamara at 2 p.m.at the Berkeley Public Library, in the 3rd flr Community Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

Bay Area Poets Coalition open reading from 3 to 5 p.m. at Strawberry Creek Lodge, 1320 Addison St. Park on the street. 527-9905.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Erik Friedlander at 8 p.m. at the Jazz House, 1510 8th St., Oakland. Cost is $15. 415-846-9432. 

Roy Zimmerman “Faulty Intellegence” songs about ignorance, war and greed at 8 p.m., reception at 6:30 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Tickets are $10-$30. www.brownpapertickets.com 

Saul Kaye “A Taste of Paradise” in a benefit for missing woman Lynn Ruth Connes, at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568.  

Mal Sharpe and Big Money in Gumbo at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ.  

Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. 

Sotaque Baiano, Brazilian, at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Shana Morrison at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

The Cannery and Nomi at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Patrick Fahey & Friends at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

“The Q is Silent” with Dan Marschak and Friends at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Le Jazz Hot at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

5 Dollar Suit, The Mission Players, San Pablo Project at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Ceremony, Blacklisted, Shipwreck Said Radio at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Will Bernard Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Pete Escovedo at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 5 

THEATER 

“Nature vs Merger” a Sci-Fi fairy tale for all ages at 3 p.m. at 1631 Bonita Ave. Rehearsal and set building on Sat. at 2 p.m. Call to claim a role. 266-2069. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Paintings by Yoni G. Opening reception at 4 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

FILM 

Max Ophuls: Motion and Emotion “La signora di tutti” at 5 p.m. and “The Exile” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Museum Dialogs” A panel discussion on culturally-specific museums in the Bay Area at 2 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $10-$12. 549-6950.  

Douglas Rothschild and Scott Bentley, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trumpet and Organ Concert with James Tindsly, trumpet and Ron McKean, organ, at 3 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway, Oakland. Suggested donation $10. 444-3555. 

Oakland Municipal Band Concert with jazz, big band, marches and showtunes from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Edoff Memorial Bandstand, Lakeside Park and Lake Merritt, Oakland.  

Americana Unplugged: Homespun Rowdy at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Dred Scott Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Trick Kernan Combo at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe. 595-5344.  

Julian Pollack Three-O at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

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

Lion of Judah, Ability at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, AUGUST 6 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Actors Reading Writers“Forces of Nature,” stories by Alice Munro and Wallace Stegner, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 932-0214.  

“Landscapes for Politics” A panel discussion with Jake Kosek, author of “Understories,” Marina Sitrin, author of “Storming the Gates of Paradise,” and moderated by Ed Yuen, editor of Confronting Capitalism, at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Jessica Bruder describes “Burning Book: A Visual History of Burning Man” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Danubius, Hungarian Gypsy music, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100. www.lebateauivre.net 

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Rumbaché at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 7 

CHILDREN 

Crosspulse Rhythm Duo at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

P&T Puppet Theater, “The Adventures of Spider and Fly” at 10:30 a.m. at Berkeley Public Library, West Branch. 981-6270. 

FILM 

Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker “Rugs, Roads and Palaces” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Zilpha Keatley Snyder reads from her children’s book “The Egypt Game” at the Middle School Mystery Book Group at 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. All ages welcome. 981-6223. 

Anita Thompson describes the legacy of her late husband in “The Gonzo Way: A Celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

CZ & The Bon Vivants 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.  

Barbara Linn & John Schott, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8 

CHILDREN 

Gary Lapow “Get A Clue @ Your Library” for ages 3-8 at 3:30 p.m. at the Claremont Branch of the Berkeley Public LIbrary. 981-6280. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“A New Home, A New Life” Photographs by Refugee Youth in Oakland. Exhibition closing reception at 5:30 p.m. at Oakland Art Gallery, 199 Kahn’s Alley, Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland. Exhibit co-sponsored by the International Rescue Committee who helped to resettle the youth in Oakland. www.oaklandartgallery.org 

FILM 

Eco-Amok: An Inconvenient Film Fest “The Mutations” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Cara Black and Peter Gessner discuss their latest mysteries at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Café Poetry at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ben Adams Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ.  

A Night of Rumi, Persian Sufi music and poetry at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

La Verdad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

J-Soul at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Mikie Lee and Amber at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Big Blue Whale at 9:30 p.m. at the Stork Club Oakland, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 444-6174. 

Rod MacDonald at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Vusi Mahlasela, South African singer-songwriter, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 9 

THEATER 

Women’s Will “Romeo and Juliet” Sat. and Sun. at 8 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes. 420-0813. www.womenswill.org 

FILM 

“War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $12. www.warmadeeasythemovie.org 

Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker “First Graders” at 7 p.m. and “Fellow Citizen” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

William Gibson reads from his new novel “Spook Country” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Louann Brizendine describes “The Female Brain” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sara & Swingtime at noon at the downtown Berkeley BART station. info@downtownberkeley.org 

John Jorgenson Quintet at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

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

Houston Jones & Jacques at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave 548-5198.  

Squaretape, The Fourfits, The Corner Laughers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

Julia Lau at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Maldroid, Royalty at 9:30 p.m. at the Stork Club Oakland, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 444-6174. 

Marco Benevento at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sat. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $8-$18. 238-9200.

‘A NEW LIFE, A NEW HOME’ 

An exhibit at the Oakland Art Gallery features photos by 16 children recently resettled in Oakland as refugees from places like Liberia, Turkey, Somalia and the Congo. These refugee youth were forcibly displaced as the result of war, conflict or persecution and now live in Oakland with their families. In April, they were given donated disposable cameras and asked to capture what they see. Some of these youth had been here only several months. The gallery is at  

199 Kahn's Alley. The show closes Aug.8 with a reception 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. 

For details, call 637-0395 or see www.oaklandartgallery.org 

Guitarist Ross Hammond, doubling on banjo and lap steel guitar, will lead a quartet dubbed “No DQ,” featuring Philip Greenlief (saxophone), Gino Robair (percussion) and J.P. Carter (trumpet) for tonight’s Free Jazz Friday, The Jazz House’s biweekly event, 8 p. m. at the Performance Space at 1510 8th St. (a block from West Oakland BART). Admission is $5-15, sliding scale.  

“No DQ means anything goes, all bets are off,” said Ross Hammond of the quartet’s monniker. Of their music, Hammond said, “Everyone’s pretty hip into musical textures, and you could expect lots of dynamics, highs and lows. It may not be swinging jazz—but it may go in that direction, too!” 

Hammond commented on the other players: “everybody’s got an electronic element, which should contribute to spacey textures. Philip Greenlief has a great sense of free improvisation and of different sounds; there aren’t that many players really doing that in the Bay Area. He gets some very cool sounds in his solo work. He and Gino Robair, both, have been forging their own direction in the local scene. They’re Bay Area trailblazers. Every timbre should be represented on this gig!” 

The next Free Jazz Friday, Aug. 17, will feature saxophonist Ike Levin, just back from NewYork, with Randy Hunt on contrabass and Tim Orr, drums and percussion.  

Of Levin, Jazz House founder Rob Woodworth said, “Ike’s one of the really rare players around, a free jazz pioneer. He hasn’t had a lot of press, so I want to single him out, give him some credit for all he’s done.” 

The Jazz House, originally on Adeline in Berkeley, was founded by Woodworth as a venue for musicians to play improvised music with fewer restrictions--and as an educational vehicle for that music and its players. After losing the lease on Adeline, The Jazz House has been homeless, but Woodworth continued to produce projects at other venues around the Bay—including The Zipper Festival, sponsored by the Berkeley Arts Festival, a weekend-long event downtown this spring. Woodworth continues to search for a regular venue, hopefully in Berkeley, and funding to get such an undertaking off the ground. 

Of Woodworth and The Jazz House, Ross Hammond commented, “The music always needs new players, but also needs enthusiasts like Rob just as much, those who do the groundwork. It’s often athankless job, promoting shows just for the love of it. It’s all work, with the cards pretty much dealt in advance. People should be thankful he’s around. He’sa champ. 

“That’s something Rob, Philip and Gino have in common--doing the best they can for improvised music. They’ll all be there under one roof, occupying three of the few seats in the place! I’m just glad to be involved in the scene in the small way I am.”  

Well before nuclear physics, Nobel Prizes, Free Speech, championship athletics, or alternative fuels research, the University of California was known for academic work in fields such as agriculture, mining … and astronomy. 

Less than a decade after its founding, the University received what remains one of the most lavish and striking gifts in its history, $700,000 from Santa Clara valley pioneer, farmer, and investor James Lick to build a “telescope, superior to and more powerful than any yet made … and also a suitable observatory connected therewith.” 

The result was Lick Observatory on the peak of Mount Hamilton east of San Jose, completed in 1888. 

The public can visit Lick throughout the year. It’s still a working observatory, now managed through the UC Santa Cruz campus. Lick, along with the Keck telescopes in Hawaii, helps keep UC a leader in Earth-based astronomy. 

Conceiving and building Lick was a project of superlatives. It contained the then-largest telescope in the world and was the first permanently occupied observatory built on a mountaintop. Much of modern astronomy follows from research undertaken at Lick, and from the work of men and women who trained there. 

The project was a painstaking process, taking years. Telescope lenses of unprecedented size were manufactured in France, and a road carved to the summit. 

The visitor follows the same road today through classic Northern California coastal countryside, with distant glimpses of the gleaming, white-painted, multi-domed, observatory. As you head up the last stretch, the landscape shifts from grassland and oaks to pine forest, and the domes rear vertiginously from the heights above. 

If our current civilization were to catastrophically come to an end these structures would presumably still stand for centuries and what would rustic herdsman, nomad or traveler think, seeing them far off on the mountaintop? 

That they were some temple or remote monastery, perhaps, where earlier humans sought closer communication with the heavens? In a way they would be right. 

The 36-inch refractor telescope that has been in use since 1888 is housed in a Pantheon-like domed brick drum, finished on the inside with wooden bead board walls. A polished wooden floor, spiraling and curving metal staircases, and a narrow balcony surround the enormous silvery instrument, 57 feet long, which aims out a slit in the open dome like a colossal cannon. 

This is a working survivor from the industrial age of scientific gigantisms, when better research often met bigger mechanical instruments. It’s also a science research space that’s elegant in a way most modern facilities can’t match. 

You almost expect Jules Verne to step out of the shadows or, perhaps, Flash Gordon. 

The observatory lies about 13 miles east, and some four thousand feet above, San Jose. Visitors from the west take Alum Rock Road, which crosses both Highways 680 and 110. From Alum Rock, you follow nearly 20 miles of two-lane roadway, climbing up and down rural ridges, with a final ascent up Mount Hamilton itself. 

The road is in good condition, but it’s no trip through Tilden Park. It winds back and forth, up and around, with hairy hairpins, narrow stretches, many blind curves, few guardrails or safe places to pull over, and steep drops off the shoulder. 

Make sure your excursion has a good driver, good tires, good brakes, and enough gas. And remember you may be coming down after dark, or late in the day with the sun in your eyes. 

On a July trip we didn’t meet deer on the road but did pass a coyote standing on the shoulder after dark, and nearly became an off-road vehicle when two turkeys decided to fly across the road, windshield high. 

It takes a solid two hours to travel to and from Berkeley. Allow an hour at least for those last 20 miles of two-lane road, and more if you want to stop along the way to admire the views. 

Spare a thought for early visitors, including astronomers from Berkeley who periodically commuted to the Observatory. They took trains to San Jose then horse-drawn stages to the Observatory, a five-hour drive that was often punctuated with an overnight stop at a roadhouse near the base of the mountain. 

Today, on public observing nights (see sidebar), you can step up to the eyepiece of the Great Lick Refractor yourself and for a few minutes be Percival Lowell puzzling out the possibilities of canals on Mars, or perhaps astronomer E.E. Barnard at this very same telescope, discovering the fifth satellite of Jupiter on September 9, 1892 

Or even just a shivering pre-Space Age graduate student looking to complete a thesis or dissertation with observational data on comets, double stars, asteroids or cosmic nebula. 

The vast wooden floor of the main dome rises and falls hydraulically to keep the viewer positioned properly at the eyepiece as the telescope tracks across the heavens. Below the floor there’s the solid and simple brick base of the telescope pier marked “Here lies the body of James Lick.” It looks a bit forlorn, but a vase of flowers stands in front. 

On the night we went, the telescope focused on bright Jupiter. Four moons, identified by Galileo in 1610, were all clearly visible. 

Outdoors, enthusiastic volunteers offered supplementary looks at the night sky through portable telescopes. One pointed out a satellite moving down the southern sky. 

The elegant entrance lobby of the main building displays a bust of the donor and the monumental inscription, “Lick Astronomical Department of the University of California.” 

Straight ahead is a courtyard with a fountain and a bust honoring the mountain’s namesake, The Reverend Laurentine Hamilton who climbed the peak in 1861 with his friend, William Brewer, of the California State Geological Survey. 

Although the original building has been substantially remodeled in parts, it still has a late Victorian feel, including high ceilings, spacious hallways, marble floors, and beautiful wooden casework around the transomed doorways. 

There’s an exhibit room with historical materials and photographs and a gift-shop which, for my taste, had a few too many T-shirts and toys and too few books. The rest of the mountain-top is punctuated with other research and operational buildings, including a large dome housing the newer, 120 inch, Shane Reflector, which daytime visitors can see. 

Aside from the buildings, there’s also the elevating experience of being on a 4,200-plus foot mountaintop (about as far above sea level as Yosemite Valley) that’s near, but still removed from, urban civilization. Tree-dappled hills and canyons surround the mountain and it’s amazingly quiet. 

The mountain top weather can get chilly and severe, including winter snow, but a summer visit can also be calm and balmy. After dark, the Santa Clara Valley sprawls a vast latifundia of light beyond the hills to the west.  

Most visitors come to Lick come during the day, when there isn’t telescope observing of course, but we visited for a periodic summer night event called “Music of the Spheres.” 

For $30 (more, if you want special tours and seats and a buffet dinner), you enjoy a live concert by visiting musicians, a lecture, the opportunity to walk around in the main dome and building, and viewing through the telescope after dark. Courteous staff and volunteers are on hand to explain the Observatory’s history and operations. 

Attendees receive, in the order they arrive, numbered passes for viewing access; concert seating is first-come, first served. We got there 15 minutes before the concert started and found ourselves near the end of the viewing queue. Our turn at the telescope eyepiece finally arrived close to midnight, making it a long night, including the travel time back to Berkeley. 

There’s also a much cheaper Summer Visitors Program, sans concert, that provides the same viewing opportunities on several Friday and Saturday nights, plus talks on the history of the Observatory and astronomers speaking on their current research. Tickets for all these events go on sale in the spring, and typically sell out. Check the Lick website for details. 

At the event we attended we heard an engaging lecture by Berkeley Professor Alex Filippenko, who cogently theorized about the existence of multiple “and perhaps even infinite” universes. 

“We may be just one island in a bunch of universes, of which most are less interesting than ours,” he concluded. 

Just so, I thought. That’s what many people think about living in Berkeley. Go down to Lick for a look at the greater things beyond. 

The Lick Observatory website, www.ucolick.org/public/ has plenty of information on visiting. 

Free daytime public visiting hours are Monday-Friday, 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 10-5 p.m. on Saturdays. Open every day except Thanksgiving and December 24 / 25. 

There is no drop-in, nighttime, viewing. Special nighttime Summer Visitors Program and summer “Music of the Spheres” events are advertised in the spring. At press time, the Lick website indicated some tickets still available for August and September music nights. 

From Berkeley/Oakland take Highway 880 (then 101) or 580 some 50 miles south to eastern San Jose and Alum Rock Boulevard. There is no gas available for the next 20 miles, coming and going.  

Photograph by Steven Finacom. 

The main facade of the original observatory building glows in the early evening sun.  

The Kitchen 

Go to a kitchen showroom or a home improvement store, or open up a shelter magazine, and you will see the contemporary kitchen accoutrements that we have been convinced to lust after: restaurant stoves, built-in stainless steel refrigerators with internet access, granite counters, and so forth. But if your house is historic, which covers everything from Victorian to World War II, you will be doing your home a serious disservice if you give into that lust and install the latest “state-of-the-art “ kitchen.  

The first “modern” kitchens, in the sense that they had stoves, refrigeration, electricity, and plumbing, came about in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Though a kitchen of that era might look primitive now, it was miles ahead of earlier kitchens, where cooking was done in fireplaces, refrigeration was non-existent, and water had to be carried in. By the turn of the twentieth century, the basic kitchen elements we still use were in place: ranges, refrigerators, plumbing, electric lighting, cabinets for storage, and even concepts about efficiency, such as continuous countertops and the work triangle. Though there have been technological advances since then (under-counter dishwashers, microwaves, garbage disposals), these basic elements have remained much the same. 

Nonetheless, the kitchen was, and is, the most complex room in the house. The demands placed on it in earlier times are nothing compared to the demands placed on it now. Then it was a utilitarian space, for the servants or the woman of the house. But now, the kitchen has supplanted the living room as the central place in most homes. Is it possible to have a period kitchen that still meets modern expectations? It depends on your expectations. An exacting reproduction of a 1915 kitchen may not be for everyone- how do you feel about doing the dishes by hand? But with a dishwasher, it could still look like 1915, but you might be a lot happier.  

The elements that make up a historic kitchen are fairly standard, and by picking a combination of appropriate elements, it’s possible to have a kitchen that incorporates modern technology yet still looks right in an older home.  

Cabinets 

The right cabinets are the most important element in making a kitchen look period-appropriate. Historically, cabinets were face-framed (as opposed to frameless European-style cabinets), with flush inset frame-and-panel doors (now called “Shaker” doors—square stiles and rails around a flat panel). Overlay doors (still frame and panel) began to appear in the 1920s, influenced by the doors on Hoosier cabinets. (Flat “slab” overlay doors, made of plywood, began to appear in the 1940s.) Panels in the doors could also be glass, either plain or with muntins.  

Drawers were either inset or three-eights inch overlay, with wooden glides. Old cabinets lacked the toe kicks of modern cabinets—the face frame extended down to the floor. (Toe kicks appeared in the 1910s.) The lower cabinets were shallower than the standard 24 inches used today, ranging from 15 to 22 inches deep, though upper cabinets were 12 inches deep and still are. Upper cabinets often hung lower than modern cabinets, 12 to 14 inches above the countertop, rather than the 18 inches now standard. Unlike many modern cabinets, the upper cabinets went all the way to the ceiling, rather than leaving the tops exposed to collect dust and grease, or by filling the gap with a soffit. Custom storage abounded, with tilt-out bins for 50 pound bags of flour and sugar (used now for pet food or recycling), corner cabinet lazy susans, sliding shelves, and so forth. There were also specialty cabinets, including California coolers- a ventilated cabinet with wire or slatted shelves, which used the chimney effect to draw cool air up from the basement or crawlspace, which was used to store foods like potatoes, onions, garlic, even wine. Another specialty cabinet was the built-in ironing board, though many of these have been turned into spice racks. And of course, the hoosier cabinet (now a generic term, Hoosier was one of many manufacturers) was prevalent in many households. There weren’t any kitchen islands as we know them, only worktables, though many work tables had built-in storage. 

Most historic kitchen cabinets locally were made of vertical grain Douglas fir, inexpensive at the time, now more expensive than oak or cherry. Cabinets were either varnished or painted with enamel in shades of off-white to beige, as white was considered “sanitary”, and they were really obsessed with sanitation back then. 

Cabinet hardware was also standardized with ball-tipped mortise hinges, surface-mount butterfly hinges, or offset hinges for overlay doors. Doors latched with spring-loaded cupboard catches, hexagonal glass knobs, or simple wood or brass knobs. Drawers utilized metal bin pulls, glass bridge handles, hexagonal glass knobs, or wood or brass knobs. In the Victorian period, metal hardware often had elaborate patterns formed by lost-wax casting, but after 1900 hardware was much plainer. Metal hardware was usually brass or nickel, until chrome became popular in the mid-1930s.  

Appropriate cabinets are offered by national companies or can be custom-built by local cabinetmakers. Suitable hardware can be found locally or on the web. 

Countertops 

Countertops are the most difficult element, since there is no perfect countertop. In the past, the most prevalent countertop was varnished wood. This is fine in some areas, but problematic around the sink or near the stove. The second most common countertop is ceramic tile. White hexagonal porcelain tiles or other small mosaics were common, although sizes up to 4” by 4” were used. Backsplashes were often subway (3” by 6”) tiles laid like bricks, though 4”by 4” tiles were also employed. Tile was white from the late nineteenth century through the Teens, maybe with a colored border or liner. In the Twenties and beyond, wild color combinations like jadite green and black, burgundy and yellow, lavender and peach, and even three and four color combinations began to be used, although white continued throughout. The third most popular countertop, surprisingly, was linoleum- it held up well on the floor so why not on the counter? I am referring to real linoleum, which was invented in 1863 and consists of linseed oil, cork, ground limestone, and pigments on a burlap backing. It is a green alternative to highly toxic vinyl.  

Stone countertops were rare—there might be a marble pastry slab in an upper middle class kitchen, and occasionally soapstone or slate would be installed, but granite is very wrong for a historic kitchen. And contrary to the hype, stone is actually porous and requires sealing. 

I detest Corian, but some of the newer composite materials aren’t too bad. Products like Fireslate, Silestone, Richlite and even concrete have an appropriate look. Even some patterns of laminate, with a matte finish and a wooden edge molding, look decent. It is legitimate to use different countertop materials in different areas of the kitchen- tile or stone near the sink and stove, wood or linoleum elsewhere.  

Floors 

Kitchen floors used one-inch by four-inch tongue-and-groove boards of the same old growth Douglas fir as the cabinets, either varnished, painted, or covered with linoleum. Occasionally hardwood flooring (oak or maple) was installed. Fancier houses sometimes had ceramic tile floors, either hexagonal tiles or quarry tiles. 

Sinks and Faucets 

Sinks were almost always white porcelain over cast-iron. There were two kinds- sinks with built-in drainboards and backsplashes, which were wall-hung, but often had decorative legs, or occasionally sat on top of cabinets, and undermount or tile-in sinks, which were set into tiled countertops. Undermount sinks are still widely available. Farmhouse-style sinks were primarily used in the 19th century. Butler’s pantries utilized small copper or nickel silver sinks, these softer metals thought less likely to chip the fine china which was washed in the butler’s pantry rather than the kitchen. The nickel-plated faucets were wall-mounted, rather than deck-mounted as most are today. In the 19th century, the faucet would have had separate hot and cold taps, but by the 20th century, mixing faucets with cross or lever handles were the norm. 

Appliances 

Vintage stoves are currently popular, and you could pay up to $30,000 for a restored double oven Magic Chef. You could also pick up a perfectly good 1940s Wedgewood on Craigslist for $500 or less, or a restored stove for somewhere between $1200 and $3000. If you want more of the modern stuff like electronic ignition and sealed burners, Elmira and Heartland make vintage-looking stoves with modern components. A simple (and thus inexpensive) modern stove also can be unobtrusive in a historic kitchen. Nowadays, people who don’t cook at all insist on having restaurant-style stoves—I guess they’re for the caterers. 

Refrigerators are difficult to deal with, being large and hard to disguise. Only a few people want vintage refrigerators, which have to be manually defrosted. A “fully-integrated” fridge that can be completely covered with wood panels is an option, as are refrigerator drawers made by various companies. Replicas of wooden iceboxes with modern refrigeration components inside are also available, as well as retro 1950s-style fridges. 

Dishwashers also come “fully integrated” with controls on the top edge so the front can be completely covered with wood. I would refrain from putting a wood panel on a regular dishwasher- it draws more attention to the dishwasher than leaving it as is. Dishwasher drawers are also an option. A dishwasher can also be recessed into an extra deep cabinet with a regular cabinet door to disguise it. Compact dishwashers are only slightly larger than a microwave and can fit into small spaces or under old counters that aren’t deep enough for the usual 24” deep unit. 

Obviously they were no microwaves until recently, but it’s easy enough to hide one in a cabinet. 

Lighting 

Electricity was available locally by the late 19th century, so kitchens would have had electric lights and plugs, just not as many as we are used to (or required by code). A ceiling fixture in the middle of the room, a light over or next to the sink, and maybe another over the range would have been usual. These were plain nickel-plated fixtures with simple shades, or even just a bare lightbulb on a cord or chain and are readily available as reproductions. You can have as many visible fixtures as you like, since we are used to higher light levels. If you want to add well-disguised under-cabinet lighting, go ahead. 

Ventilation 

Historically, ventilation was passive- a plaster or painted metal hood over the range connected to a vent in the roof, using the chimney effect of rising heat to draw out smoke and steam. Electric fans mounted on an outside wall were also employed. It is possible to buy just the guts of a stove hood- fan and light- to retrofit old hoods or use in new custom hoods. If there are cabinets over the range, there are also retracting hoods, which virtually disappear when not in use. 

Things to Avoid 

There are some things that will make your kitchen scream “twenty-first century”. Recessed can lights, although your architect or designer will tell you they are unobtrusive, aren’t. Stainless steel anything (appliances, sinks, countertops) will be the avocado green of the twenty first century. Granite is totally overdone, as are glass tiles (which replaced with ubiquitous tumbled marble of the 1990s). And fancy art tiles and a copper hood belong on a fireplace, not in a kitchen. 

Although much useful technology came about in the twentieth century, we seem too enamored of bells and whistles we don’t actually use. Many historic kitchens, some of them perfectly functional, have been ripped out and replaced with some decade’s “state of the art” kitchen. Perhaps you’ve had one: plywood cabinets and gold flecked laminate from the Sixties? An avocado and harvest gold nightmare from the Seventies? Or perhaps beige tile, half-inch brown grout and oak cabinets from the Eighties? These once trendy kitchens soon look dated, whereas a period kitchen appears timeless, like it belongs there. Today it is possible to have a kitchen that meets twenty-first century expectations and yet still feels right in an historic house. 

Jane Powell is a restoration consultant and the author of Bungalow Kitchens. Contact her at janepowell@sbcglobal.net. 

Contributed photo.  

A fully-integrated refrigerator disguises modern technology behind coordinating wood panels that help it look like part of the cabinetry. 

Change is inevitable; it’s always reassuring when a change in a good business is in the spirit of the original, an enhancement rather than a trip to the oubliette—for example, when an owner retired and sells the place to people who are familiar with it and like its style already. A breath of fresh air is much better than a tornado where there’s something worth preserving. Oh, Toto! 

I’d visited Mt. Diablo Nursery and Garden just a few times since writing it up for The Garden Lover’s Guide: San Francisco Bay Area around 1997. It was engagingly eccentric, homey, with the oddities that come with long independent ownership. It sat in the shadow of a big fat pretentious hotel of some sort—still does, though the stucco coat on the architectural iceberg is a slightly different shade now—and made a quiet, ornery statement about what East of the Hills used to be like when it was the outback, before it got all pretentious.  

You know, I know people who live over on the hot side of the hills and they’re not pretentious themselves, even the most genteel ones. Maybe nobody there is pretentious, and it was all just the developers’ fault. Could we spare a day to take weedwhackers to all the gratuitous “The”s and “at”s that are popping up in such unfortunate places? Thanks; it would mean so much to me. 

So Mt. Diablo Nursery has just changed hands. Garth and Marcia Jacober bought Harry’s Nursery from its former owner (that would be Jiro Mishimoto, who’d taken over from his friend the eponymous Harry some 30 years back) and changed its name. They’re sprucing it up now. Redoing the gift shop, restocking the stock, gearing up for a Grand Opening day in the near future.  

I’ll announce that here as soon as I hear when it’s happening.  

Marcia said they intend to include work from local artists in the gift shop, and they’re considering throwing some classes too. Garth has taught gardening classes at Heather farms and at Magic Gardens.  

When he was a student, Garth worked with the eponymous Harry and the post-eponymous Jiro at the nursery, so he does know and like what he and Marcia have acquired. The lot is funny, shaped right for a spaghetti farm and rising in little terraces up a steep hill. ’Round the other side of that hill is Lafayette Cemetery, which looks rather like the “cemmies” in my Coal Region hometown where we used to say are so steep that the dead must be buried standing up, ready for Judgment Day.  

The Jacobers like camellias and have a lot of them waiting for blooming season to be on display at the nursery. They have, even in the current under-renovation space, some unusual plants such as native vine maples, Rhus typhina ‘Tiger Eye’—a golden cut-leafed staghorn sumac I don’t think I’ve seen before—and a rose named ‘Golden Winds’ whose scent has a note of cinnamon.  

There’s a nifty mural in progress along the bordering wall too. Go on out and have a look; it’s worth braving the heat.  

Mt. Diablo Nursery & Garden 

3295 Mt. Diablo Boulevard, Lafayette 

(925) 283-3830 

info@mtdiablonursery.com 

http://mtdiablonursery.com (Site is under construction too, clearly.) 

8:30 a.m.—5 p.m. daily 

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

Ouch! That Quake Hurts!  

How do most people get hurt in a big quake? Is it from the ceiling falling on them? The house collapsing all around them? No, historically there hasn’t been much “pan caking,” or houses falling apart around the occupants. Your major worry about your house is that it’s going to fall off its foundation, or possibly have a gas explosion if you’re not home to turn off the gas if an appliance supply line ruptures.  

The fact is that most people are injured in a quake by either trying to run to another room or outside, and the shaking knocks them down violently, or they get hit by falling objects like heavy furniture, wall hangings, or light fixtures.  

Securing your furniture is easy and pretty cheap. More on this later, but think about doing this NOW!  

Here’s to making your home secure and your family safe. 

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. 

We’re at war with Germany again, and this time they’re winning. No, it’s not a shooting war but since shooting wars always start with economic pretexts, it’s not a far stretch to talk about shooting wars in conjunction with this war and since it involves energy, it’s easy to point to our differing approaches to the war in Iraq as one example of how they’re winning, both morally and physically. 

First of all, they’re not in Iraq. This means that they’re winning the approval of their people (who think, like most peoples outside the U.S. that our leadership in energy and diplomacy is retarded). They’re also winning morally, in my opinion, since they’re working hard to create alternatives to oil in the form of, primarily, solar power. 

The battleground in this war is taking place at the hardware store (now that’s MY idea of the right place to fight a war). It’s being fought with cost incentives, pilot projects and legislation and let me tell you brother, it’s not going well for us. 

Here are some of the daily death tolls. In 2005 German families bought 632,000 kilowatts in solar grid-tie systems. We bought 70,000. Germany is a county of less than one-third our population at 82 million (we just passed 300 million).  

So let’s do the math and let’s be extra fair to the enemy. If we include all other forms of PV (photovoltaic), you can take the U.S. up to 103 million and Germany up to 635,000 (nearly all of their PV systems are grid-tie), so this means that a country of less than a third our size, bought, in 2005, more than 6 times the number of watts in solar installations than we did. If we multiply this times the population difference, they beat us by a factor of more than 22. Things are not going well for us in this war. Back to the coal mines, I guess. I didn’t need my lungs anyway (or clean water, glaciers, bees, plant-life...). 

By the way, just for fun, guess who our other major opponent is in this war is (and they’re also wiping the floor with us, although not quite so comically). Yes, friends, it’s Japan (they’re numbers are about half of Germany’s and their population is less than half of ours). See, the Marshall plan worked. Keeping Japan and Germany from developing military power after WWII was the best thing we could have done for them. They had to get busy with things like, say, education, infrastructure, medicine and technology. Maybe we should whoop the Marshall plan on our selves. “Now, young man, go to your room for 50 years and I don’t want to hear anything from you but non-military development.” Imagine what we could accomplish! 

It’s also interesting that, while the U.S. has more off-grid (won’t share) power generation than Germany, they still have over three times our total developed capacity. Their systems are designed to share extra electricity with the nearest neighbor. Ours is designed for me, me, me. I guess those damned socialists think that by collectivizing, they can sneak up on us and wipe us out (by the way, it’s working). It might be time for us to do a little of that socialist collectivizing, when it comes to energy (the single biggest business in the U.S., Ca-Ching).  

It may be just this attitude and the fears of our corporate fathers (and mothers. Sorry, women can also rob from the poor and give to the rich) that has prevented the U.S. from doing what is almost certainly the basis of Germany’s success story, which is the incentivizing of their system. You see, Germans are getting paid back TWICE the rate they pay for power for every watt they give to the grid.  

(By the way, this grid-tie system I keep mentioning is one in which the solar panels feed electricity directly to your main electrical panel and can be used immediately by the house or flow out through the meter, turning it backward, and to the neighborhood for others to use.) 

Now, you and I, in the U.S. don’t get paid back double for the watts we contribute. We don’t even get paid back once for each watt. We only get to reduce our bill to zero and then we get SQUAT. Now, why would you buy a nice big solar array when all you get after you’ve paid your bill down to zero is the comfort of knowing that PG&E stockholders will be showered in the extra cash you just gave them. I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t buy a solar array. Just that, sadly, the smallest system that meets your needs is the logical financial approach, at least for the present. 

Most PV systems have inverters (the part that turns PV power into house power) that can accommodate a range of array sizes and if a day arrives when you can get paid to generate power, you can then add more panels (in the worst case, you’d need a new inverter). 

Steve, a client of mine, the other day was buying a house that had a nice big fat solar array. It was well installed and already had close to 10 years of road time on it. Steve knew enough to ask about the problem of throwing away excess electrons and wanted to know if there were ways to use the extra electricity in the house. I told him that I hoped that in the next few years, driven by shame, the U.S. could well catch up with Germany and he could then sell the excess back to the grid. If true, it might be best to consider these issues in the selection of electrical equipment. 

Switching to electrical water heating is one thing that Steve could do with his free watts. I’m not generally a fan of electric water heating, space heating or cooking due to it’s environmental costs. This is because electricity is usually generated at some distant location by burning something and the loss of power by the time we arrive at your house is generally 2/3 of what we had to begin with. Of course, if power is generated with solar, wind or waves, I don’t care too much, although I still think, from a political perspective, that it’s better to decentralize and (don’t hurt me now) give power back to the people. BUT, given the current alternatives, I’m willing to take a ride with centralized eco-friendly electric power. 

We considered three kinds of electric water heating. Tanked (which is the cheapest), on-demand central or on-demand local (tiny units put in baths, kitchen, or laundry). Given the tangible possibility that he might soon sell back the extra watts, I suggested the tanked model. While not my usual first choice, it was the cheapest approach and, therefore, the least painful to dump after just a few years. Also, it could be turned off, replaced by a gas on-demand unit and remain as a flow-through seismic water storage unit. 

I similarly suggested a set of baseboard electric heaters to replace the now condemnable gravity gas heater in the basement. They’re cheap and could also be tossed in favor of something better when things change. 

My friend J.P. Ross, who works on solar legislation, also points out that some folks are selling or giving away car chargings to their friends before their billing year is over as a way of deflating their losses. Apparently, annual billing cycles are different for everyone and you can find a different person each month to charge up the electric hybrid if you’re well connected (so to speak). 

While all these strategies are helpful in the face of a bad system, the ultimate solution is to demand fair pay for fair watts. J.P. says that the solar initiative folks currently have an understanding with P.G.&E. NOT to try to push for cash repayment while they focus on more winnable fights. 

While I respect the fine work these people are doing, I feel like we’re all getting taken for a ride that hurts the development of solar power, the sale of PV systems and, ultimately, the earth. I urge everyone to write their governator or their congress-woman . and ask them to take a look at the difference between the German system and the U.S. system. 

Hopefully, we won’t have to lose a war to learn THIS lesson. 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor, in care of East Bay Real Estate, at mgcantor@pacbell.net.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3 

East Bay Vivarium vists the South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library at 2 p.m. to show off reptiles and amphibians. 981-6260. 

“Butterflies of the SF Bay Region” with Art Shapiro and Tim Manolis discussing their new field guide at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way, just below Telegraph. The authors will lead a nature walk in Claremont Canyon before their talk, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. For information and reservations for the walk call 841-8447 or email wmcclung@rcn.com  

“Yosemite” with scientific illustrator Andie Thrams on Yosemite flora, Ranger Yenyen Chan on Chinese labor in the construction of park roads, and a screening of “Discover Hetch Hetchy” from 6 to 8 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak at 10th St. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Daily Realities of Living under Occupation” with Hisham Ahmad Ph.D, formerly of Bir Zeit University in the West Bank at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free. 499-0537. 

Foreclosures in the Changing Real Estate Market: How does it Affect the Albany/Berkeley Area? at 5:30 p.m. at 1302 Solano Ave., Albany. Cost is $3-$5. Sponsored by the Albany Chamber of Commerce. RSVP to 525-1771. 

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. 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 4 

“Container Gardening for Renters or Those with Limited Space” with strategies on growing in various vessels with information on compost, soils, compost teas, seasonal planting, and more. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cost is $10-$15, no one turned away. Please call to register. 548-2220, ext.233. 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour Preservation Park to Pardee Mansion Meet at 10 a.m. at 13th St. and Preservation Park Way for a walk through Oakland’s 19th Century. Bring a picnic lunch for the end of the tour. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Birding Bike Trip at Quarry Lakes An easy 24-mile trip to see birds in riparian, marsh and bayside habitats. Meet at 8:20 a.m. on the east side of the Fremont BART station. Bring helment, bike lock, lunch and liquids. For information email Kathy_Jarrett@yahoo.com 

Walking Tour of Jack London Waterfront Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Rally in Support of Universal Health Care (SB 840) at 1:30 p.m. at Oakland City Hall Plaza. Speakers include Sandre Swanson, Richard Quint, MD, Sara Rogers and many others. 832-8683. 

Hopalong Animal Rescue Come meet your furry new best friend. Dogs and puppies available for adoption from noon to 3 p.m. at Pet Food Express Rockridge, 5101 Broadway, and cats and kittens at 3974 Peidmont Ave., Oakland. 267-1915, ext. 500. 

Fun With Bubbles for ages 3 and up at 2 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave, Kensington. 524-3043. 

Fast Pitch Softball for Adults at noon on Saturdays in Oakland. 204-9500. 

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. www.nativeplants.org 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

SUNDAY, AUGUST 5 

Peace Lantern Ceremony from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the north end of Aquatic Park. Decorate a lantern shade then wach it float across the lagoon in commemoration of teh atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. www.progressiveportal.org/lanterns/ 

Green Home Expo from noon to 5 p.m. at the Berkeley Marina, with electronics and old medicine disposal, and information on reducing your global carbon footprint. 981-5435. 

Walking-Pole Workshop in celebration of the opening of the new Glendale Path at 9:45 a.m. Registration required. Email info@berkeleypaths.org  

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the fountain of Pacific Renaissance Plaza, Ninth St., between Webster and Frainklin. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Home Graywater Systems A workshop on safely irrigating with shower, bathroom sink, and laundry waste water from 10 a.m. to noon at EcoHouse, 1305 Hopkins St. Cost is $15 sliding scale. Registration required. 548-2220 ext. 242. 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to keep your bike in excellent working condition through safety inspections, from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

MONDAY, AUGUST 6 

Peace Day Crane Folding with the film “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” followed by a crane folding program, from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Children’s Story Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6223. 

“Landscapes for Politics” A panel discussion with Jake Kosek, author of “Understories,” Marina Sitrin, author of “Storming the Gates of Paradise,” and moderated by Ed Yuen, editor of Confronting Capitalism, at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Help Plan the Peoples Park Paace Rally in Sept., at an organizational meeting at 7 p.m. at Cafe Med, Telegraph Ave. 658-1451. 

“Hormone Disrupting Chemicals in the Environment” with Jennifer Jackson of EBMUD and Rebecca Sutton of Environmental Working Group at 7 p.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin, at Masonic. Sponsored by Friends of Five Creeks. www.fivecreeks.org 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at West Pauley Ballroom MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com  

Family Sing-Along at 6:45 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6223. 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 7 

Monitor Native Oysters in the Bay Help monitor oyster populations and set up equipment for our Native Oyster Monitoring Study at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley Marina, 201 University Ave. 452-9261, ext. 119. www.savesfbay.org/oysters  

“Youth Prison Reform: Does the Governor Have It Right?” with Pat Kuhi. Brown Bag lunch at noon at the Albany Library, Marin and Masonic Ave. Sponsored by League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville. 843-8824. http://lwvbae.org 

WIllard Neighborhood Ice Cream Social Part of National Night Out, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Willard Park, corner of Derby St. and Hillegass Ave.  

Lawyers in the Library Free legal information and referral presented in conjunction with the Alameda County Bar Association. Sign-ups at 5 p.m. for appointments between 6 and 8 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

Dance Dance Revolution Interactive Game at 5:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library Community Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

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. www.ecologycenter.org 

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122.  

Tuesday Documentaries at 7 p.m. at the Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston Way. Donation of $5 benefits the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. 665-0305. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8 

LBNL Building Plans Learn about the plans for the 160,000 sq-ft Helios building and the 150,000 sq-ft Computational Research Facility at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. See www.lbl.gov/Community/Helios and www.lbl.gov/Community/CRT 

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Pax Nomada Bike Ride Meet at 6 p.m. at Nomad Cafe for a 15-25 mile ride up to through the Berkeley hills. All levels of cyclists welcome. 595-5344. 

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 8:45 to noon at the Latina Center, 3919 Roosevelt Ave., Richmond. 981-5332. 

Poetry Writing Workshop with Alison Seevak at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

“Coming Out to Your Children” a workshop for LGBT parents at 6:30 p.m. at Women of Color Resource Center, 1611 Telegragh Ave., #303, Oakland. 415-981-1960. stephanice@ourfamily.org 

Farsi Club at 1:15 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, AUGUST 9 

The Cultural Landscape of Strawberry Canyon with Charles Birnbaum at 7:30 p.m. at the Town & Gown Club, UC Campus. Cost is $20, reservtions required. 842-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

Introduction to Urban Permaculture Hear and see local permaculture designers from the Ecological Division of Merritt College’s Landscape Horticulture Department discuss what's possible in a city, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

“War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” A new documentary film based on thebook by Norman Solomon at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater 3200 Grand Ave , Oakland. Tickets $12. www. 

warmadeeasythemovie.org 

East Bay Macintosh Users Group reviews the iPhone at 7 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shelmound, Emeryville. http://ebmug.org  

Screening to Reduce Risk of Stroke at Bayview El Cerrito Fraternal Order of Eagles at 3223 Carlson Blvd., El Cerrito. Cost is $139. To schedule an appointment call 1-877-237-1287. 

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 

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Aug. 8, at 7 p.m., at 997 Cedar St. 981-5502.  

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., Aug. 8, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. 981-6740.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Aug. 9, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. 981-7410.