The city will pursue its lawsuit against the University of California.  

The 7-1-1 vote came in a closed-door session Tuesday night with Councilmember Gordon Wozniak voting in opposition; Councilmember Kriss Worthington abstained.  

The decision came after a heavy day of lobbying, with the newly formed organization Stand up For Berkeley holding a 1:30 p.m. press conference-rally with about 60 people—including former mayor Shirley Dean and singer-activist Country Joe McDonald—at City Hall in favor of continuing to fight university plans to build an athletic training facility adjacent to its football stadium. The active Hayward fault passes beneath Memorial Stadium.  

A two-hour public comment period before the closed-door vote drew an overflow crowd to the Council Chambers, with some 65 people speaking, more than 70 percent in favor of continuing the lawsuit.  

An Alameda County Superior Court judge will hear the lawsuit Sept. 19, with the Panoramic Hill neighborhood and the Save the Oaks Foundation arguing with the city that the university's environmental study of the project was inadequate.  

A closed-door Berkeley City Council session set for 5 p.m. today (Tuesday) could freeze the public out of the process and result in a deficient compromise settlement of the December 2006 City of Berkeley v. University of California lawsuit, Councilmembers Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington say. 

Or the settlement could bring about a positive compromise, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak told the Planet. 

The suit challenges university plans to build an athletic training facility that would be connected to Memorial Stadium, the university’s football arena. 

A formal announcement of the closed session, coming from City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque’s office (despite the fact that the city attorney has no legal right to call a closed session, according to Worthington) says simply that the council will discuss the litigation. It says nothing of addressing a settlement agreement.  

UC spokesperson Dan Mogulof, however, told the Planet Friday that a university-proposed compromise settlement was in the works and that the council would have it soon. “They’re still working on the final details,” he said. 

Councilmember Dona Spring said that from experience, the university settlement would be lacking. “I assume there’s some piddley little offer [that will be on the table] at the meeting,” she told the Planet Friday.  

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said he didn’t know whether the proposal would be good or bad, but the critical error in discussing the question in closed session Tuesday would be that the public is left out of the loop. This is what happened in May 2005 when Berkeley settled a lawsuit over the university’s Long Range Development Project before the public had a chance to see the proposal and weigh in on it, he said. 

“How can the public advocate for or against the proposal?” Worthington asked. “The public is effectively prohibited from making comments.” 

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak welcomed the closed-door opportunity to discuss a possible settlement agreement. “There’s no great conspiracy,” he told the Daily Planet Friday.  

Wozniak said he wasn’t sure if the UC proposal would be made public before the meeting, but assured the Planet that “the terms [of the agreement] will have to be made public.” 

Wozniak underscored that it is better for the city to settle with the university than to go to trial. 

Worthington said that if the university wanted to settle the lawsuit, the appropriate place would have been in court, at a pre-trial conference. (The trial is on the Alameda County Superior Court calendar for mid-September.) 

UC’s Mogulof said there had been some proposals made in court earlier in the year. But, more recently, new facts have come to light, particularly that the proposed Student Athlete High Performance Center likely lies outside a critical earthquake hazard zone. The city had argued earlier that the athletic training facility plans fall within the earthquake zone. 

In a letter written to attorney Charles Olson, the attorney working on behalf of the university, and faxed to the council and the media Friday afternoon, Worthington urged the university or city to e-mail the council in advance of the meeting with the proposed settlement conditions.  

“To wait and distribute at the special council session would make it difficult for City Councilmembers to have the time to analyze the pluses and minuses of such proposals,” Worthington wrote. 

The city lawsuit challenges more than university approval of the Student Athlete High Performance Center. The litigation faults the university for preparing what it says is an inadequate environmental review of the project and for proposing the destruction of 100 trees, many of them Coastal Live Oaks, in the building process. 

Further, the city—and its neighborhood partners—contend that egress from the Panoramic Hill neighborhood adjacent to the proposed facility would be cut off during a disaster and that enhanced football lighting would be detrimental to the neighborhood. 

The meeting will be held at the council chambers in the Maudelle Shirek Building, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Public comment on the litigation will be heard in open session. 

It was a decidedly mixed message for Oakland and Berkeley schools in the heavily anticipated Academic Performance Index scores released by the California Department of Education at mid-day Friday, with BUSD schools dropping 5 points overall (752 to 747) from 2006 to 2007, and OUSD schools gaining 7 points (651 to 658). 

There were also mixed results from the two Oakland public charter schools established by California Attorney General Jerry Brown while he served as mayor of Oakland. 

Brown’s Oakland School for the Arts, currently awaiting its permanent home in the soon-to-be-refurbished Fox Theater, had the highest score (742) of any high school in Oakland, jumping 37 points from its 2006 score of 705. 

At the same time, Brown’s Oakland Military Institute dropped 39 API points from last year to this, 676 to 637. 

There was also a mixed message from the scores of East Oakland Community High School, which the OUSD state administrator disbanded at the end of the last school year. EOCH had the highest API gains of any Oakland high school at 60 points, but with a 513 API score, the now-defunct school tied with Paul Robeson College Prep for the second lowest score among high schools in the city. 

API scores, which range from a low of 200 to a high of 1,000, are the state’s method of judging academic performance in its schools. The scores are calculated from the state’s Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program and the California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE). All schools in the state are expected to eventually reach a base score of 800. 

In Berkeley, Malcolm X, Emerson, and Whittier had the highest API increases over the past year among elementary schools. Malcolm X rose 33 points (785 to 818), and Emerson (785 to 801) and Whittier (781 to 797) both rose 16 points. Washington, with a 37 point drop (757 to 720) and LeConte, with a 24 point drop (730 to 706), had the greatest API losses among Berkeley elementary schools. 

Jefferson and Oxford had the highest API scores among BUSD elementary schools overall at 834, while Leconte, at 706, had the lowest. 

All of BUSD’s middle schools increased their API scores from 2006 to 2007. Willard rose 52 points (669 to 721), Longfellow rose 25 (719 to 744), and King rose 7 (771 to 778). 

Berkeley Alternative lost 109 points, dropping from 537 to 428. API data were not available for Berkeley High School. 

In Oakland, Golden Gate (with an 87-point jump from 643 to 730) and Monarch Academy (85-point increase from 710 to 795) had the highest jumps among elementary schools, with four schools (Hillcrest at 961, Thornhill at 938, Montclair at 932, and Chabot at 905) all breaking the 900 barrier. 

Dolores Huerta Learning Academy (losing 81 points from 675 to 594) and Sobrante Park (losing 60 points from 731 to 671) had the largest drops among Oakland elementary schools, while Sankofa Academy (535) and Webster Academy (536) scored the lowest among Oakland elementaries overall. 

Among Oakland middle schools, Aspire/UCB (77 point rise from 648 to 725) and Madison (53 point rise from 551 to 604) had the highest API increases, while the American Indian Public Charter (950) and Oakland Charter Academy (896) had the highest API scores. 

Among Oakland high schools, Media College Preparatory had the second highest API gain (52 points, up from 498 to 550), while Lionel Wilson College Preparatory Academy (667) and Skyline (652) had the largest overall API scores next to Brown’s Oakland School For The Arts. 

Leadership Public Schools Oakland (down 85 points from 620 to 585) and Business and Information Technology High (down 41 from 526 to 485), had the largest losses among Oakland high schools. Business and Information Technology also had the lowest score (485) of any high school in Oakland. 

The Department of Education’s full API report on all California schools is available online at www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ar/index.asp. 

Six new out-of-district students will be able to transfer to the Berkeley public schools this school year since the Alameda County Board of Education overturned the Berkeley Unified School District’s (BUSD) decision to deny them the transfers. 

Berkeley Unified only accepted inter-district transfers for students continuing their last year at the Berkeley public schools and denied all new applications this year. 

Seventeen of those who were denied new transfers appealed to the Alameda County Board of Education.  

After a five-hour-long hearing, the board approved six cases and denied the rest.  

“The board listened to everyone carefully but only approved the six who had siblings in the Berkeley elementary schools,” Alameda County Superintendent Sheila Jordon told the Planet. “There was a strong attempt to be consistent. It was not my decision. The board made the decision. It was extremely difficult but they had a set of criteria. This was a particularly tight year.” 

Francesco Martinez, manager of admissions and attendance for Berkeley Unified, said that the district had denied all new inter-district applications because of a space crunch. 

“I denied them because there is no more room in our schools,” he said. “Parents presented their case, we rebutted. They want to send their kids to our schools because it’s a somewhat successful district sandwiched between two failing districts, Oakland and Contra Costa.” 

The lack of space has forced Berkeley High students to attend some classes in portable classrooms at Washington Elementary School. Some students at Rosa Parks Elementary School are being taught on the auditorium stage because there are no more available classrooms left. 

District policy states that no transfers will be allowed into Berkeley High School. 

Last school year, the district approved 415 inter-district continuing students and 34 new inter-district permits. 

This school year saw 430 inter-district permits approved for continuing students in the Berkeley schools. 

“If students met the criteria for satisfactory grades, attendance and behavior, they are approved,” Martinez said. “The good news is that the vast majority of them were approved.” 

The school board’s policy dictates that any out-of-district student failing to meet these three criteria will not be re-admitted for the coming year. 

Jacki Fox Ruby, who represents Berkeley, Alameda, Piedmont, Emeryville and north Oakland on the county education board, said that the board based their approval on ten different criteria. 

“The most important ones are childcare and hardship,” she said. “If one of the children is going to Berkeley and the parent works in Berkeley then there are childcare issues involved for the other child. You know you are affecting families. You know you are affecting lives. We don’t want to break up a family.” 

The controversy over inter-district transfers continues. There has been a lot of concern among residents and district administrators about students who are illegally registering as Berkeley residents to get into Berkeley schools. 

According to school officials, policies on inter-district transfers have often been enforced unevenly over the years, and undetected “illegal transfers” add to the total number of transfer students. 

“Berkeley schools are considered an oasis between two large urban school districts,” Jordon said. “Berkeley residents are paying more taxes for smaller classes and there are more inter-district denials happening every year. Parents often take to illegal means to send their students to Berkeley, but it is hard to get into the district with a false address.” 

Fox Ruby, who has taught in the Berkeley schools for almost 30 years, said that teachers had always been aware of students who were there illegally from another district. 

“If the district would do its job of weeding out those students whose parents have illegally admitted them, then there will be room for more children who have gone through the correct process,” she said. 

In a report prepared by the Berkeley Public Education Foundation for the Measure A Campaign, Ken Hall, former deputy director of the state Department of Finance, said that transfer students in lower grades brought in money to the district. 

“As long as you have the facilities, the per-student average daily attendance income that comes with inter-district transfers is more than the additional cost per student.” 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence told the Berkeley education board earlier this year that while the school district did not want to act like the U.S. immigration system, it was important to maintain a balanced check on students. 

School board president Joaquin Rivera has repeatedly stated at board meetings that the main problem was whether there was any kind of overdue strain on the system as a result of the illegal students. 

The district has recently stepped up efforts to verify proof of Berkeley residency. Students who want to enroll in Berkeley schools have to show three proofs of residence. 

When a student lives with someone other than a parent, a district-hired investigator does a home visit in order to confirm residency. 

Martinez said that half of the transfer students are children of Berkeley teachers, as is required in their contract. Others are children of people employed within the city limits by the City of Berkeley or UC Berkeley. 

The school board is working on a proposal to re-enroll students in grades six and nine to help enforce the residency requirement in the public schools..

Berkeley Rent Board Member Chris Kavanagh should “step down immediately” if he is not a legal resident of Berkeley, said a statement issued Friday by the Berkeley Green Party. 

Kavanagh’s residency has been in question since it became known in July that he was fighting an eviction from a cottage in Oakland. Kavanagh told his rent board colleagues and his attorney that he lives in Berkeley, where he is registered to vote and where he receives mail. 

“Chris has worked tirelessly for the Green Party over the years,” Jesse Townley of the Berkeley Green Party Steering Committee told the Daily Planet Friday, adding, however, “The Green Party takes good government seriously.”  

Kavanagh was invited to the Berkeley Green Party’s meeting Thursday evening, but did not appear, Townley said. “A party of good government cannot look the other way. It’s all about good government, not just about getting by,” he said. 

Rent Board Chair Jesse Arreguin told the Daily Planet Friday that Kavanagh had missed a meeting in August and had sent a note to the board secretary that he would be out of town on vacation. Arreguin said that at the board’s Sept. 17 meeting, he plans to offer Kavanagh time under the rubric of “personal privilege” to update his colleagues on the situation. 

The rent board cannot make a determination about Kavanagh’s residency. The city attorney turned the matter over to the district attorney last month.  

Arreguin said he had was interviewed by the DA’s office last week and told the interviewer what Kavanagh had told him last summer—that he lived in Berkeley but had a girlfriend in Oakland. Arreguin said he thinks the DA would make a decision in mid-September on whether to bring charges.  

The Green Party statement calls on the rent board to name a replacement if Kavanagh does not meet residency requirements. 

For nearly six years after he got out of prison in 2000, 40-year-old Ernie Johnson kept coming up empty whenever he applied for a job. Even as he checked the “yes” box on job application forms that asked whether he had ever been convicted of a felony, he knew his chance of landing a job was slim to none. 

About a year ago, he got the break he was looking for when Oakland-based AB Trucking hired him as a driver to haul cargo in and out of the port of Oakland. 

“Man, it was tough, having that felony conviction on my record,” said Johnson, the father of three teenagers. “Having this job means no more worry. It means security. It means relief,” even though the commute from his home in Stockton takes him more than an hour each day. 

But Johnson and scores of ex-offenders like him—as well as undocumented workers who work at the nation’s ports—could be forced to quit their jobs when the federal government this fall begins enforcing a program approved by Congress in 2002 to make U.S. ports safer. 

The Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program will require the more than 750,000 port employees, truckers, mariners, longshoremen and others who require unescorted access to secure areas of ports to have background checks before being issued cards with their biometric data. 

Workers must pass a Transportation Security Administration (TSA)-administered threat assessment in order to receive an ID card, which will contain the worker’s fingerprint, digital photograph and biographical information. The card, which will be good for five years, will include technology that can be read remotely by port employees and security. 

Although Congress ordered TSA to develop the identification card in 2002, the Bush administration has been delaying its implementation because it wanted to make sure the infrastructure was in place so as not to interrupt “the flee flow of commerce,” said a TSA spokesperson. The mandatory enrollment in the program is expected to take 18 months to complete. 

A provision in the TWIC program will make undocumented workers ineligible for the card. That could mean the 30 to 40 percent of undocumented truck drivers working the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles could likely lose their jobs, according to environmental activist Jesse Marquez. The same goes for those working the 325 or so other official ports of entry in the United States. 

“It’s going to be ‘aloha’ for those who are undocumented,” said Ray King, general manager of marine operations and marketing for the Port of Oakland. 

Marquez worries about the consequences of this. “It’s going to bring the fleet to a stop,” he warned, “because they won’t have enough truck drivers.” 

Another provision will allow convicted felons to be designated as a “terrorism security risk” if they’ve been incarcerated within the last five years, or convicted of a felony within seven years of enrolling for the program. 

TWIC’s website describes the act as a “comprehensive national system of transportation security enhancements to protect our maritime community against the threat of terrorism, requiring federal agencies, ports and vessel owners to take numerous steps to upgrade security.” 

“(TWIC) ignores rehabilitation,” pointed out Chuck Mack, national port director in New York for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “I don’t think it makes a lot of sense.” 

Bishara Costandi places ex-offenders in trucking jobs through his organization Outside Lane, Inc. 

“How can we paint with a broad brush everyone who comes out of prison as a threat to security?” asked Costandi, founder and project director of the four-month-old Oakland-based Outside Lane, Inc., a non-profit that finds trucking jobs for the “formerly incarcerated.” Costandi blasted the new program as “just another form of control” by Homeland Security. 

Costandi has placed truck drivers with such trucking companies as AB Trucking, where nine of the 12 truck drivers currently on its payroll are ex-offenders. 

“The drivers I hire are mostly parolees, and mostly black,” said AB Trucking owner Bill Aboudi. “I want to give them a chance. If you give them a chance, they’ll produce for you.” 

John Casselberry, 50, convicted of drug possession a few years ago, was a parolee when Aboudi hired him as a truck driver in 2005. Within months, he was promoted to recruiter and trainer. Casselberry vehemently opposes the TWIC program. 

“I wouldn’t want to have a biometric card,” he asserted, shaking his dreadlocks. “Why does the government need to know so much about me for me to drive a truck? I think it’s invasive. What next? Do I have to wear a chip, or have a barcode?” 

Johnson feels likewise. Visibly upset when he learned about the TWIC program last week, he wondered how Congress even approved such a program in the first place. “Man, everybody should get a second chance,” he said, barely able to hide the fear in his voice. “I know a lot of former felons working the port. I mean, what’s going to happen to all of us?” 

Volunteer extraordinaire John Stansfield passed away on Aug. 18 at the age of 79 from complications of pneumonia. He was the man to whom visitors and reporters alike would turn for answers at the Berkeley History Center. His enthusiasm about Berkeley’s history was absolutely contagious.  

He had a sharp sense of humor and he enjoyed being around all kinds of people. He was one of the kindest men we ever met. We will miss his twinkling eyes, his helpfulness, and all the knowledge he shared at the History Center.  

When I was the Berkeley Historical Society president, he told me that he would volunteer only on the condition that he be allowed to work three days a week. Since we were open just three days a week, I told him that could be arranged! He was a tireless docent, who participated at the center every week for years. He much preferred to work with the public than to stay at home. Even when his lung disease forced him to stay home, he continued to work on special projects. 

Sue Austin wrote an article about John Stansfield called “Man With a Mission” in the Spring 2005 BHS newsletter:  

John began his volunteer work by taking two courses on Bay Area history from local historian Charles Wollenberg. In addition, he had the benefit of having taken a college course on California history years ago. And, of course, his post-graduate work in modern European history at Cal is what grounded him in history. John had a life-long love of history, largely due to the influence of a Garfield Junior High School teacher.  

“She started it,” he recalled. “But also, as a young boy my parents took me to the missions as well as other significant historical locations throughout California. Even though I knew a lot about history, running a museum was out of my realm. But, if Carl Wilson, with his background in forestry could do it, so could I.” John has another unique advantage that adds to his value as a BHS volunteer. He was born and raised in Berkeley. 

“I remember things,” he said. “I remember growing up in this city and roaming around. I used to walk from one end of Codornices Creek to Live Oak Park through backyards and through long tunnels under the streets. These tunnels went through major intersections and along the creek. I would go through yards, even though I was told not to. Luckily I never got caught. However, my wet shoes and socks and the mud and dirt on my pants usually tipped off my mother. But, as a result of my wanderings and my growing up here, I can look at the old photos and make pretty good guesstimates on location.  

John likes to attribute the staying power of his BHS involvement to the people with whom he has worked. … “I like teaching, and I like hearing visitors share their fabulous stories.”  

John appreciated a well-written book on California or contemporary American history and books on politics. He was a dedicated collector of stamps, particularly from Hungary, having won several awards for his displays.  

He was also an avid postcard collector. I remember calling him with only moments to spare on an E-Bay postcard bid. He was able to identify what we had and didn’t have in our collection based on a verbal description of the camera angle and objects in the scene. He told me to go for the Key System Terminal card, which I did. He loved to collect and trade old books to build the History Center collection. He knew all the films and videotapes and maps at the center. He was also skilled at reading and explaining the intricacies of the Sanborn maps and the old block books. The question, “"How do I find where my grandfather lived?” was a fun challenge for him. Former volunteer Tanya March says, “We were like two kids given the keys to the candy store with the maps, books, postcards.” 

Millie Stansfield adds, “John retired from the California School for the Deaf after 25 years of work with children as a dorm counselor. He was especially great with the young kids and often took them to Codornices Creek. He spent another ten years at the Hearing Impaired Program of Catholic Charities. Then he came to the Berkeley Historical Society, which, I believe, was his true love.”  

He leaves his devoted friend, Millie Stansfield, his son, John, and two grandchildren, Arianna, 7, and Jeanine, 6, as well as friends and community, who benefited greatly from his life of service.

Molly Fraker will join the Berkeley Public Education Foundation today (Tuesday) as its new executive director. 

A graduate of American University, Fraker led the Chez Panisse Foundation for seven years as its first executive director.  

She brings more than 30 years of experience in the non-profit sector to the foundation, eleven of which have been in Berkeley. 

Besides serving the Berkeley Community Fund as its executive director during the past year, she also managed the Centennial Campaign for Cal Performances. 

Before moving to Berkeley with her family, Fraker worked in Washington, D.C., and New Jersey. 

“We are delighted to welcome Molly to the Berkeley Public Foundation, and feel fortunate to have someone with her knowledge, skills, and experience,” said Calvin Eng, who chairs the foundation’s board. “She brings a deep understanding of the importance of philanthropy in our community, and a commitment to bringing resources and innovation to Berkeley schools. We look forward to her leadership as we continue our efforts to sustain and broaden the foundation’s positive impact in classrooms across the school district.” 

In its 25th year, the Berkeley Public Foundation raises funds for classroom grants. It also encourages volunteering through its Berkeley School Volunteers program and works to bring resources and address special needs and programs within the schools. 

The foundation has raised over $1.5 million annually through donor contributions and volunteers services. 

The Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will meet Thursday at a new time and with a new secretary. 

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

The board will review the draft environmental impact report for Biofuels Oasis at 1441 Ashby Ave. At an earlier meeting the board passed up landmarking the building. 

Other items 

• The board will continue the request permit for structural alteration of the Amy and Frederick Corkill House at 2611 Ashby Ave., perhaps with the addition of a subcommittee to start looking at the project. 

• The board will conduct a public hearing before they vote to designate the Cambridge Apartments at 2500 Durant Ave. as a city landmark. The property had first appeared before the LPC on June 5. 

• The board will review plans to remove the rear portion of an existing seminary chapel at 2452 Ridge Road in order to construct a new assembly area which will be connected to the remaining front portion of the chapel.  

Since the removal will affect more than 50 percent of the exterior walls and roof, it is considered as “demolition” under the zoning ordinance. The ordinance requires the LPC to review any proposal to demolish a non-residential building which is more than forty years old. 

However, since this is a church building, it does not fall under local land use law for landmarking status. 

With support from two key East Bay representatives, State Senate President Don Perata’s SB67 sideshow 30-day car confiscation legislation easily passed the state assembly on a 74-0 vote last week. 

The measure has already passed the senate, and now moves to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office for consideration. 

Because the bill has received virtually unanimous support from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in both houses, Schwarzenegger is expected to sign it. 

Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) was the assembly sponsor for the bill, and Assemblymember Sandré Swanson (D-Oakland) voted in favor. 

Aimed directly at Oakland’s illegal street sideshows, SB67 renews provisions in California law that were originally passed in 2002 but expired in January. 

Under the new law, if it is signed by the governor, as expected, California cities will again be able to seize vehicles whose drivers are accused of violating various reckless driving traffic laws. Cities will also be authorized to hold those vehicles for 30 days, without a prior hearing, solely on the word of a police officer that a violation has occurred. 

Despite the fact that there have been complaints of abuse of the law by Oakland officers, Oakland police officials have failed to provide reports to either the public or city officials on how the confiscation provisions were handled in Oakland in the five years the original law was in effect between 2005 and 2007. 

Last month, the California Supreme Court ruled against a City of Stockton ordinance that allowed such no-trial vehicle confiscations in drug and prostitution pickup cases on the grounds that city’s did not have the authority to pass such laws when state laws were already in effect. That nullified car confiscation ordinances passed at the city level by cities such as Oakland, but had no effect on such laws passed by the legislature. Despite asking lawyers to provide briefs on the constitutionality of the non-hearing car seizures, the court decided not to rule on the constitutionality of such seizures. 

It began with a flimsy yellow ribbon and ended with a riot, two arrests and a courtroom hearing. 

At about 6 a.m. Wednesday, the UC Berkeley Police Department started taping off the oak grove adjacent to the UC Berkeley Memorial Stadium to construct an eight-foot chain-link fence around the grove.  

Protesters have been camped in the trees since December in an effort to stop the university’s plan to remove the trees. 

A scuffle between the UC police and protesters during a Wednesday evening rally held by Save the Oaks turned into a riot when the police confiscated food and water that was being sent up to the tree sitters. 

UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof told the Planet that the temporary fence would create a “safety zone around trees adjacent to Memorial Stadium” to protect both the tree-sitters and the 73,000 fans who are expected at the stadium for Saturday’s football game against University of Tennessee. 

The tree sitters are protesting the university’s plan to raze the grove to make way for a $125 million student-athlete high performance center in its place, a move that led the City of Berkeley to sue the university over safety concerns. 

“Emotions and passions are running high on both ends,” Mogulof told the Planet. “A temporary barrier is needed because protesters continue to illegally occupy some trees at the site and investigations by the UC police have suggested that it would be a good idea to put a fence up before fans come to the game. We are going to analyze this on a week-to-week basis.” 

Assistant UC Police Chief Mitch Celaya told the Planet Wednesday afternoon that the tree sitters had been asked to come down before university-hired contractors had started constructing the fence. 

“They made a choice,” Celaya said. “We are not trying to start a riot. We are just trying to prevent potential problems. We don’t want the football fans to walk into the [grove]. We are not allowing anybody to go in and if anyone tries to leave or provide food or water to the tree sitters they will be cited for trespassing.” 

Steve Volker, attorney for the California Oaks Foundation—one of the three plaintiffs in the lawsuit against UC’s plans to construct the training center—arrived at the grove Wednesday to inform protesters that he had filed a restraining order for the fence that was heard Thursday in Hayward Superior Court. 

“This fence is contrary to Judge Barbara Miller’s ruling on Feb. 9 that there should be no physical alteration on the environment of the oak grove until the court rules on the merits of the case on Sept. 19,” he said. “It is a direct attack on fundamental rights, a noose on the First Amendment ... Berkeley is the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement and it now threatens to be its graveyard. This day will be remembered as a day of infamy for this university as an attempt to crush the community’s voice.” 

Citing a similar case at Cornell University where the court had upheld a student’s right to remain on a tree to protest its being cut down, Volker said that courts have repeatedly ruled that no one should be deprived of their civil rights—food and water in this case—on a college campus. 

“The sitters have a constitutional right to protest the logging of the trees,” he said. “They have placed themselves in harm’s way to protect these trees. We either make a stand now or watch our rights disappear.” 

The first altercation took place when the tree sitters got down to the lower branches and one of their supporters tried to attach a can of guacamole to a bag lowered with ropes. UC police cut the rope off with a pole cutter while an angry group of surrounded them, screaming “shame on you.” 

“Fuck you, Pigs,” said one of the protesters. “What are the rules? We will get food up there one way or the other.” 

At one point supporters started throwing apples and granola bars inside the fence while others continued attempts to tie bottles of water and food packets to the ropes lowered from the trees. 

Celaya said the police were preventing food and water from being sent up to the trees since the sitters were already stockpiled with supplies.  

After observing the situation at the grove, Mayor Tom Bates said in a statement, “While the university may have serious concerns about the safety of the protesters and football fans at Saturday’s game, there is simply no justification for UC Berkeley Police to deny protesters food and water.” 

“UC’s actions are unacceptable and I believe they are putting people’s lives at risk unnecessarily,” Bates said. “I contacted the chancellor’s office to urge them in the strongest possible terms to reconsider their position and allow the protesters access to food and water. Regardless of a person’s opinion of the merits of the tree sitters protest or the UC stadium proposal, we all need to respect basic human and civil rights.” 

Close to 6 p.m. students, community members and a few city officials gathered outside the fence to watch the tug-of-war between the tree sitters and UC police. After about half a dozen attempts to prevent the protesters from handing over more food, UC police made two arrests. 

Celaya said that Joseph Fisher, 18, was arrested on two counts of battery and one count of resisting arrest and Drew Beres, 18, could be charged with one count of resisting arrest. Nobody was injured. 

The arrests led to more pushing, yelling and general chaos at the grove. At one point police chased a man dressed in black down Piedmont Avenue. Some protesters formed a circle in front of the evening traffic and refused to budge from the spot for almost 15 minutes. 

“Cut your engine off,” one woman told a driver of a silver Toyota. “You are not going anywhere.” 

“Berkeley’s back,” yelled another oak grove supporters. Drum beats echoed in the distance and strains from the UC football band practicing for Saturday’s game added to the melee of sounds at the grove. 

“They are attempting to deny the protesters food and water to starve them out of the trees,” said former mayoral candidate Zachary Running Wolf, who was one of the initial tree sitters. “There are many measures that can be done to control crowds. They say they are protecting the sitters but are refusing them their fundamental rights at the same time.” 

“We shall overcome,” sang Berkeley resident Debbie Moore strumming a guitar as she stood wrapped in yellow police tape to show her support for what might be the longest-standing urban tree-sit. 

“How much did that fence cost?” asked Jonathan Huang, a UC Berkeley sophomore. 

“That’s my out-of-state tuition money that’s going to build a fence,” said another UC Berkeley student. “My parents worked their butts off to pay the $40,000 a year and this is what I get! I am pissed off!” 

As evening paved the way for night, the UC cops pulled out six generators and 25 spotlights. A thick yellow rope was let down for water, but this time the police did not attempt to block it. 

“I think our response will be summed up in one word: De-fence,” a masked tree-sitter told media news crews from his leafy perch. “The tree sitters and UC are too polarized and it’s hard to bridge that gap.” 

Amy Elmgren, a peace and conflict studies major from UC Berkeley, pressed her nose against the fence to watch the UC police officers videotaping the tree sitters. 

“I think this is insane,” she said. “Before today I was ambivalent about what was going on at the grove but this certainly changes it. I am hoping this will reinvigorate student activism on campus.” 

Gianna Ranuzzi, a long-time Berkeley resident, said she was worried that the poles were damaging the tree roots. 

Catcalls, boos and whistles followed the police as they patrolled the grove. The crowds started thinning around 7 p.m.  

The next scheduled showdown will be the lawsuit scheduled to be heard on Sept. 19. 

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon Mayor Bates said that he was open to negotiations for a settlement agreement regarding the lawsuit. 

“From the beginning, I have maintained that a negotiated settlement that addresses our significant public safety and legal issues is a preferred outcome,” he said. “It is regrettable that the university made no offer at the court-mandated settlement conference in February and has yet to submit any settlement offer to the city in this litigation. In fact, the university’s lawyers have at all times urged that this case be expedited to a court resolution. The university sent a letter to the City Council and me last month with an update on their plans—including modest changes such as a reduction in their new parking lot and improved landscaping—but made no offer to negotiate.” 

The statement, however, issues a caveat that the city was one of four entities engaged in legal action over the university’s proposed stadium projects and “even if the city were to reach an acceptable resolution, the lawsuit would likely continue.” 

UC Berkeley officials have emphasized the importance of a new gym for its 13 athletic teams to replace the seismically unsafe Memorial Stadium, but the city contends that the proposed site is unsafe since it located on the Hayward Fault. 

The Berkeley City Council is scheduled to meet in closed session with its lawyers on Tuesday to discuss the litigation. Bates has requested that the university provide information about a settlement agreement to the city’s attorneys so that the council is able to consider it.

Judge Barbara Miller ruled late Thursday that the chain-link fence at the UC stadium oak grove does not violate the preliminary injunction against any alteration at the site. 

Steve Volker for the California Oaks Foundation and others, Michael Lozeau for the Panoramic Hill Association and Charles Olson for UC Berkeley battled out the fate of the fence at an hour-long hearing in Judge Miller’s Hayward courtroom earlier in the day. 

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday at the Alameda County Superior Court by Volker and Lozeau alleged that the university violated the Feb. 9 injunction by constructing the fence. 

Miller also ruled that the protesters’ free speech rights were not before her in the lawsuit and even assuming that the court had jurisdiction over the free speech issue, evidence presented had shown that protesters had been involved in illegal trespassing and assault with a deadly weapon. 

Volker told the Planet he respected the judge’s ruling. 

“She is technically correct,” he said. “The lawsuit challenges the university’s construction of the student-athlete center. It has nothing to do with free speech.” 

Volker said he would not appeal the judge’s ruling since he was confident of winning the Sept. 19 lawsuit on the issue. He said he took exception to UC’s decision to deprive the tree sitters within the fence of food and water. 

“We want to cut to the chase and not get distracted at this point,” he said. “Whether or not the university could attempt to curb their lines of supply with impunity remains an open question.” 

Miller said that she would not rule on whether the tree- itters could remain in the oak grove or if the supporters could supply them with food and water. 

During the afternoon hearing, Volker complained that UC failed to meet and confer regarding the proposal to enclose the oak grove. 

“We could have reached an accommodation,” Volker told Judge Miller. “Instead UC preemptively struck and put up a fence anchored in concrete with padlocked gates which leaves the protesters stranded in the trees and the public excluded.” 

Lozeau pointed out that UC has used temporary barriers on game days to block and divert traffic and they could have done the same around the trees for the days the football game was on at the Memorial Stadium. 

Olson, attorney for the university and the UC Regents, said he concluded that the fence was outside the scope of the Feb. 9 court order. 

“What about less restrictive alternatives?” Miller asked him. 

“UC is strapped for security on game day and the situation is exacerbated this year as the tree sitters presence is well known,” he told the judge. “UC Police chief Victoria Harrison is extremely concerned about the extreme volatility in a very difficult situation.” 

The UC Police Department also provided testimony of vandalism in the oak grove, including exhibits of spray-painted trees. No convictions have been made on any of the vandalism charges. 

“If there are 80,000 people attending the game and lots of passion on both sides, shouldn’t they separate them?” Judge Miller asked Volker. 

Volker replied that there were less intrusive ways of doing this. 

“The protesters are entrapped,” he said. 

“Doesn’t this protect the protesters?” Miller asked 

“Not if you deny them food and water,” Volker replied. 

Volker also said that the fence furthered the proposed Student-Athlete High Performance Center because it forced the protesters out. 

Oak grove supporters who showed up at the hearing included Michael Kelly of the Panoramic Hill Association, Doug Buckwald of Save the Oaks and Berkeley residents Sylvia MacLaughlin and Leslie Emmington. 

Volker, Olson and UC spokesperson Dan Mogulof answered questions from media after the hearing. 

“The people in the trees have given their lives to save the trees for 270 days, and they are being brushed off as miscreants by the university,” Voker said. “The university talks about public health and safety and then puts 72,000 spectators in one of the most dangerous stadiums in the world. The stadium stands over the Hayward Fault.” 

Volker added, “They want to starve the tree sitters out. When one good soul provided food to the tree sitters yesterday, he was arrested. Anyone attempting to give food and water was arrested. There will be six games this fall, and UC can always provide temporary barriers on game days.” 

Steve Volker, attorney representing the California Oaks Foundation, talks with reporters at the grove during Wednesday’s rally. Photograph by Anne Wagley.

The first day of the new school year went off without a hitch for Berkeley public schools Wednes-day. 

There were the usual back-to-school jitters, of course: the rush for last-minute registration, the minor school kitchen faux pas, and the kindergartner from Yemen who was sent home because he was too jetlagged for class. 

Other than that everything went according to plan. At LeConte Elementary School students were treated to strawberries while their parents thronged the school’s auditorium to learn about health, transportation and after-school programs. 

“We are happy to be back after summer, energized and ready to learn,” LeConte principal Cheryl Wilson told the Planet during the morning reception. 

“One of my major goals is to help those who are below and far below the STAR program requirements.” 

STAR scores for the Berkeley Unified School District gained a point in the recently released California STAR test results. 

Wilson added that the school would begin an extensive reading campaign, which would focus on fluency and endurance levels. 

“The district provides support for math, reasoning and conceptual understanding for all kids,” she said. “We also want to focus on the importance of writing for 4th and 5th graders.” 

For new parents, LeConte represented more of a community than an educational institution. “We wanted to be able to walk our child to school,” said August Fern, whose oldest child started school Wednesday. “I am kind of expecting to find a sense of belonging here. I am sure my son will make lots of friends in the classroom. Since he likes sports, I am hoping I can find something suitable for him.” 

In one corner, Lyn Dailey from the city’s health department answered questions from anxious parents about MediCal. 

“Depending on immigration status, some kids may not qualify for healthcare,” Dailey said. “There is also very little insurance available for adults, but we try to fill all the gaps and meet the needs of the whole family.” 

As the kids filed neatly into room KG 110, names were exchanged and new friendships formed. The shy ones hid behind Ms. Mary Lewis’ skirt, hesitant yet curious about the goings-on in the classroom. 

“This year we are trying out ‘Balanced Beginnings’ for the first time at LeConte,” said Ms. Lewis, the school’s kindergarten teacher. “According to this program, we don’t place the new students permanently in a class until all the kindergarten teachers have met them and had a sense of who they are. As a result the classes end up balanced in language, gender and maturity level.” 

Out in the yard, freshmen Matilda Hallowell, Juan Garcia and Mateo Gran-Rodriguez had just completed a lesson in recycling. The students belong to a Spanish emersion program that teaches in two languages and provide lots of play-acting. 

Charity DeMarto, director of the LeConte community after-school program, said the focus was on community partnership with local programs and enrichment classes.  

“We want to open up all the resources to the community,” she said. “A lot of kids don’t live in the neighborhood, so we want them to feel they are a part of it too.” 

At Malcolm X Elementary School, Berkeley Unified nutritional services director Ann Cooper gave a hint about what the new school year meant in terms of food. 

“It’s all about organic milk this year,” she said pointing toward the cavernous school kitchen where elementary school lunches are prepared every day.  

Malcolm X principal Cheryl Chinn said she was expecting a marked improvement in the API and AYP scores scheduled to be released Friday (today). 

“Last year, the school received a score of 785 out of 800 in the API,” she said. “We have continued our focus on arts and academics. We can’t forget that we are officially an arts magnet school. Last year we started a strategic plan that allowed us time to monitor and assess our students every year, and our focus is on closing the achievement gap for African Americans and Latinos.” 

Posie Romweber, a newcomer at the school, was busy doing puzzles with kindergarten teacher Maylynee Gill. 

“This is just my first day,” Posie said. “It’s a little scary to be at a big school, but I made some new friends.” 

In another part of South Berkeley, B-Tech principal Victor Diaz was finishing up a welcoming speech in one of the classrooms. 

The campus was picture perfect Wednesday afternoon, all 110 students hard at work on their assignments. 

“The school has a capacity of 140, so we are expecting some more students from Berkeley High in the next few weeks,” Diaz said. “It’s not a popular move to move students from the high school to out here but it’s important. It’s the collective district’s efforts to retain a student, and we do a great job.” 

Diaz, who is currently in his fourth year as principal, said that the attendance for the summer program had been very high. 

“We started out with 80 students,” he said. “These are kids who would have not gone to Berkeley High. Some of them also had a chance to intern with the mayor’s office and various city councilmembers. At the end of the program, nearly all the kids passed their classes.” 

B-Tech saw one of its seniors enter a four-year college program this fall for the first time in the school’s history. 

Although Diaz said that the school was moving in the right direction, he emphasized the need for better performance in the standardized tests. 

“We didn’t do so well in the STAR tests and I don’t think we will do any better in the AYP’s,” he said. “There is a districtwide culture that state tests are not important, but if we don’t take it seriously then it disproportionately affects our students.” 

One of the bright spots for B-Tech students this new school year is the opening of the Derby Field right next door. The school, which lacked open space for physical activity, will now be able to use the space for PE classes and other school programs.

Oakland Unified School District board members were informed on Wednesday night that a $1.4 million district deficit in the adopted 2007-08 budget—which district officials had said had been whittled down from a projected $4.3 million deficit last June—was now up to $4.7 million in updated figures recently compiled by the district’s interim chief financial officer.  

A district spokesperson said by telephone today that the in-creased deficit figures was a rollover from higher than expected enrollment that has not yet been matched by increased state funds to handle the necessary teaching personnel, causing “financial pressure in the short run.” 

“The increased enrollment is a good thing,” district spokesperson Troy Flint said by telephone. “But the revenues needed to take care of that increase has not yet caught up, and that, of course, is a bad thing.” 

The bad financial news was presented to board members this week by OUSD State Admini-strator Kimberly Statham and interim CFO Leon Glaster for information purposes only. 

Under the terms of the 2003 state takeover of the OUSD, board members have neither responsibility for budget problems nor the ability to cure them. The board only recently won back limited self-control in the areas of community relations and governance. Fiscal control remains in the hands of the state-appointed administrator. 

In her report to the board, Statham said she had instructed Glaster to “establish a plan to correct our ongoing structural deficit” and to present a balanced budget by December of 2007.  

The figures that led to the $1.4 million deficit projected in the adopted June budget were prepared by former OUSD CFO Javetta Robinson, who Statham fired in July. The revised figures were prepared by Glaster, Robinson’s interim replacement. District spokesperson Flint said the revised figures were based upon Glaster’s “more conservative projections. We are trying to be exceptionally prudent, and think that it is best to err on the conservative side.” 

The revised figures put the blame for the increase deficit primarily on increased certificated salaries ($1.3 million more than budgeted), classified salaries ($1.2 million more), benefits ($325,000 more), and services and operations ($987,000 more).  

Flint explained that Glaster penciled in a higher number of substitute teachers to ensure that each classroom in the district was staffed at all times, and also added an increase in the custodial staff. 

California school districts are prohibited by law from passing out-of-balance budgets, and it was the discovery of a massive deficit that led to the state takeover of the Oakland schools in 2003. But since the only penalty for the introduction of such a budget is takeover by the state, the state does not appear to be subject to any legal consequences when passing unbalanced budgets in school districts it already runs. 

OUSD Board President David Kakishiba called the situation a “fiscal crisis” on Wednesday night. During a telephone interview on Thursday, Kakishiba said that “Under normal circumstances, if we were an out of state receivership and had passed an initial budget that was $1.4 million in the red and then, two months later, moved the deficit up to $4.7 million, it would begin to raise questions about the reliability of the board and the administration to keep the district fiscally solvent.” 

Kakishiba added that “we are in the fifth year of state receivership. There is no excuse at this point not to have a balanced budget.” 

The board president said that it was time for the district to begin to analyze increases in the number of full-time teachers and administrators over the last two years that might have led to the current structural deficit. “Personnel is 80 percent of our budget, and if we are overspending, it is likely that the problem will be found there,” he said. 

Kakishiba added that there are two specific areas that may have contributed to personnel increases. 

“We have created more schools,” he said, and the Expect Success! administrative model the district has been operating under for the past three years “requires that more administrators be hired.” 

Kakishiba said that Expect Success! in particular “deserves some reflection time for the district. One of the tenets of Expect Success! is to establish good business practices for district operations. I think it’s ironic that our fiscal situation has deteriorated following its adoption by the district. That doesn’t sound like very good business practice.” 

Flint added that the district is still in the discovery phase of the process, and while officials have identified some, but not all, of the areas where cuts will be made, the district is not ready to reveal any of them.  

“It’s evident that some belt-tightening will take place,” the spokesperson said. “We are looking at every aspect of district operations,” adding that the cuts will be made without sacrificing the district’s core educational goals. He said that the district expects to restore the legally mandated two percent operating reserve and eliminate the structural deficit by June of 2009.

The battle lines over just how much and how high new development should rise in downtown Berkeley are growing, with UC Berkeley weighing in on the side of greater density. 

Assistant Vice Chancellor Emily Marthinsen will make the university’s case Tuesday night when she addresses the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). 

Marthinsen, who works on capital projects and planning for the school, expressed her concerns in a four-page letter to Dan Marks, the city’s director of planning and development. 

With up to 800,000 square feet of development planned off-campus in the city center, the university is the biggest player in the downtown development sweepstakes, and Marthinsen’s letter makes clear the university wants a taller downtown than some DAPAC members might like. 

According to the legal settlement that resulted in the creation of a new plan, UC holds an equal say with the city over the plan, and the planning effort is staffed by two planners—one working for the city and the other for the university—with the university giving the city $250,000 for the planning process. 

If the city doesn’t adopt a plan to the university’s liking by the end of May 2009, the university will start cutting off $15,000 a month from compensatory funds it is paying the city to make up for the financial impacts of its development on the community. 

Both the city and the university agreed to use an outside mediator in the event of a dispute—and the university “reserves the right to determine if the DAP or EIR meets the Regents’ needs.” 

The EIR is the environmental review that must be completed and approved with the adoption of a new plan. 

The planning process is spelled out in the May 25, 2005, settlement of a lawsuit filed by the city over the impacts of the university’s Long Range Development Plan 2020—a document that doesn’t include the stadium area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory or the university’s Richmond Field Station. 

Tuesday night’s meeting is DAPAC’s 40th session since first convening on Nov. 21, 2005. 

University’s wants 

Marthinsen’s letter to Marks spells out the university’s vision of the downtown more clearly than anything yet placed before the committee. 

“Based on both urban design and economic factors, we propose the DAP include height and density limits on the downtown blocks adjacent to campus with at least these values: 

• Maximum height of 90 feet, not counting a structure of house mechanical gear on the roof. 

• An average building height of 75 feet for the area between Hearst Avenue and Berkeley Way and between Allston Way and Durant Avenue. 

• A maximum floor-to-area-above-the-ground-floor of six-to-one between Berkeley and Allston ways and a four-to-one ratio between Berkeley and Allston ways to Durant Avenue.” 

In addition, the university wants the city to consider even greater heights and densities on “certain parcels” in the downtown core to encourage “projects with extraordinary public benefits such as the proposed downtown hotel.” 

Marthinsen had no problem with the notion of limiting the street facades of buildings to 50 feet, with higher development stepped back from the frontages. 

But the university “opposes height and density criteria based on an unreasonably low ‘base’ limit, which may be only increased through ‘bonus’ provisions designed to promote specific policy goals”—a position certain to spark resistance from many DAPAC members. 

In addition to bonuses already in existence for building lower-rent apartments and condos into new buildings, DAPAC members have also proposed bonuses for green building practices designed to reduce energy emissions and consumption, both in construction materials and during the life of a structure. 

Marthinsen wrote that the university also wants more Class A office space downtown “[t]o capture for the city the potential of entrepreneurial ventures generated by university research and professional programs” as well as to support downtown daytime vitality. 

The university also “intends to explore an above-grade [parking] structure” on the site now occupied by University Hall Annex, she wrote.  

Long session 

Tuesday night’s session will be unusually long for the committee, starting at 6:30 with a presentation by landscape architect Walter Hood of his concepts for a plaza on Center Street between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue. 

A UC Berkeley professor and former chair of university’s Landscape Architecture Department, Hood also heads his own design firm. His proposal, described by Marks as an “advocacy plan,” is being funded by grants from the Mazer Foundation and several local donors. 

The notion of a block-long pedestrian plaza, perhaps incorporating a daylighted Strawberry Creek, was first broached by the city committee appointed to  

offer suggestions for the hotel the university plans at the northeast corner of the intersection of Center and Shattuck Avenue. 

After public comments, Marthinsen will make her pitch, followed by a committee review of the plans draft Land Use Policies and Alternatives chapter. 

The meeting is being held in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

The joint subcommitee of the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) and the Downtown Area Planning Advisory Commission (DAPAC) met Monday to develop a final version of the Historic Preservation and Urban Design chapter which DAPAC is scheduled to consider this fall. 

The DAPAC-LPC subcommittee has finished making changes to most of the document with the exception of a couple of goals and the strategic statement. Members decided to continue the issues to another meeting in September. A date has not been set. 

DAPAC chair Will Travis asked subcommittee members to abandon the idea of a historic district during public comment. 

“I don’t believe you have made a compelling case as to why a downtown historic district is necessary or how it would make the downtown more vibrant, more attractive or more successful,” he said. “The Landmarks Preservation Commission is responsible for seeing that Berkeley’s historic architectural resources are protected. The LPC already has all the authority it needs to ensure that any remodeling, alteration, expansion or any other change to a designated landmark or a structure of merit will be in keeping with the integrity and character of the historic structure. The LPC can add more buildings to this inventory of historic resources at any time. And any proposed demolition of any building over 40 years old is referred to the LPC, which can decide whether the building is worthy of being designated and spared from destruction.” 

DAPAC member Wendy Alfsen said that she was in favor of improving downtown but did not want to turn it into a monolith. 

“I don’t want the new buildings to look like they were plunked down from outer space,” she said. 

Deborah Badhia, director of the Downtown Business Association, said that the vitality of storefronts was important for a successful downtown. 

“One of the reasons why some of the buildings haven’t done well is because of the lack of detail to retail space,” she said. “It’s squeezed in at the last minute.” 

At Badhia’s urging the subcommittee added “street-level commercial spaces” to the list of factors which would encourage appropriate new development downtown. 

Travis also said that although downtown Berkeley had many historic resources that should be protected by the LPC under existing laws, ordinances and procedures, there was also an abundance of undistinguished buildings and underutilized properties. 

“These resources represent our best opportunity for changing the face of downtown and making it into the attractive, innovative, prosperous and sustainable community we all want.” 

Travis criticized the LPC and said that there was nothing in the commission’s charter, experience or expertise that suggested that it was the best institution to act as an advocate for change and the catalyst to stimulate downtown. 

“All new development must be of the highest quality so that one day it too will become an historic landmark,” he said. “The best way to achieve this is to set clear use, height, and appearance standards. The Zoning Adjustments Board had the primary responsibility for administering these standards. No compelling argument has been advanced as to why it would be better for the LPC to do this job downtown than for the ZAB to continue to do it. In fact, your subcommittee has often noted that the LPC has not been able to carry out all of its current responsibilities.” 

Doug Buckwald performed a song titled “Hello DAPAC” to the tune of “Hello Dolly.” 

“It’s sad we have lost as much as we have of what we have downtown,” he said. “The main thing that governs any district’s character is history, otherwise they are all the same.” 

The DAPAC subcommittee has been meeting for over a year now to work on historic preservation issues for the Downtown Plan. 

After working with the Architectual Resources Group on a study of existing buildings, the project was turned into a context statement for the environment review process. 

Later, staff also asked the subcommittee to rate the integrity of each building so that the LPC could determine whether or not it should be protected so that developers had some knowledge of which buildings were eligible to be demolished. 

After the subcommittee rejected the focus, it decided to develop the historic preservation chapter for the Downtown Area Plan instead. 

Oakland Assemblymember Sandré Swanson’s AB45 Oakland school bill passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on a 10-7 vote on Thursday afternoon, bringing the Oakland Unified School District a step closer to possible return to full local control. 

Swanson’s bill, which earlier passed both the full Assembly and the Senate Education Committee, would put full discretion for return to local control of the Oakland district in the hands of the state-funded, Bakersfield-based Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) rather than at the discretion of State Superintendent Jack O’Connell.  

Swanson believes that this will speed up a return to local control of the Oakland schools. 

Earlier this year, two years after FCMAT recommended it and after Swanson had introduced his AB45 local control bill, O’Connell returned local control to the Oakland school board in the areas of community relations and governance.  

All other aspect of Oakland school district operations, including district control, have been in the hands of state administrators hired by O’Connell since the state seized control of OUSD in 2003. 

AB45, which is opposed by O’Connell, still has two major hurdles to cross. The first is passage in the full senate, where it is being managed by State Senate President Don Perata, the author of the originale 2003 OUSD takeover legislation that AB45 seeks to modify.  

If the bill passes the senate, it then needs the signature of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to become law. Because the bill has gotten limited Republican support during its consideration in the legislature, a two-thirds vote to overcome a possible Schwarzenegger veto is considered all but impossible. 

Earlier this year, Swanson said that he had made amendments to the bill that answered concerns raised by the governor’s office. But Schwarzenegger has not yet said whether or not he will sign AB45 as amended.

Each August, fans of many top-ranked college football teams sit down to scrutinize an all-important statistic. 

How many first-string players on their favorite squads are confronting criminal or academic troubles serious enough to prevent them from playing in the home opener? 

Berkeley has to do things differently, though. Here, the players on Cal’s team—ranked 12th nationally in pre-season—are legitimate, but the future of the stadium is in court. 

2006 seemed to be the last season before major change at Memorial Stadium. All expectations were that construction would begin on the first phase of a multi-stage expansion and retrofit of facilities. 

Little did I expect that following the 2006 Big Game, protesters would climb into oak and redwood trees next to the stadium, that some of them would still be there as opening day approached a year later, that construction would still be in the future—although a lot of actual trenches have been dug and symbolic lines in the sand drawn—or that a former Cal football player would, as Mayor of Berkeley, be leading the lawsuits. 

I’m not going to speculate about the legal issues, which seem headed for their next court hearing in mid-September, nor discuss the changes to the Stadium. (Disclosure: I work for the university in an office that has been involved with the stadium planning). 

I am interested, though, in how Golden Bear football is evolving beyond facilities. Cal football now seems to be a consistent national contender for the first time since Coach Pappy Waldorf hung up his sport coat five decades ago. 

A Sports Illustrated writer labeled Saturday’s Cal-Tennessee contest as the “the best game on college football’s opening weekend” and ranked both it and this season’s Cal-USC match-up as among the top 20 games to watch in 2007. 

In five seasons at Cal, current Head Coach Jeff Tedford and his staff have raised expectations that high. Tedford teams have beaten formidable opponents, never lost to now hapless Stanford, and compiled a respectable 43-20 record including two seasons with ten wins each.  

A pre-season Top-20 ranking and a post-season bowl game—and bowl win—for Cal are now annually expected and there are localized fevered eruptions of speculation about national championships.  

But, after last year’s season-opening loss to Tennessee and a third consecutive loss to USC in 2006, Cal fans can’t indefinitely dine out on the glory of ten-win seasons or having been one of the last teams to beat USC (in 2003). 

If Cal doesn’t beat one of the two, and preferably both Tennessee and USC, this season perfectionist critics may carp that the Bears still can’t win the biggest games, not withstanding their recent dominance of the Big Game. 

The Big Game, of course, remains the sine qua non for any Cal fan older than, say, 25. Even when the rest of the season goes south, a Big Game victory is still counted upon to ease the disappointment. 

Here, Tedford is on especially solid ground. The last Cal head coach with a good overall record is still regarded by some Cal fans as Bruce “couldn’t win a Big Game” Snyder. Tedford’s teams, in contrast, have run all over the Cardinal in recent years and a full Stanford class has come and gone without getting near the Axe trophy.  

As Cal’s star as risen, Stanford has gone into eclipse. A significantly scaled down new Stanford Stadium still doesn’t fill up and an eleven loss Cardinal season in 2006 was preceded by a 2005 death march when Stanford lost to not one, but three, UC schools; Cal, UCLA, and UC Davis. 

Still, Stanford leads in overall Big Game wins and points scored, and Cal has a long way to go to even the long-term record. And Stanford has had one form of enduring revenge this season. 

For most of the 20th century many individual Cal fans held to a cherished tradition, “consecutive Big Game attendance” (my attendance at 28 of the past 29 Big Games is very unremarkable as these things go). 

By shrinking its stadium and limiting the number of tickets available to the visiting team, Stanford has now permanently shut out tens of thousands of Cal fans. Most will not be able to make the trek to Palo Alto every two years unless they buy both Cal and Stanford season tickets, and “consecutive Big Games in Berkeley” might become the default standard. 

In recent years I’ve also heard Cal students speak heresy; compared to winning a national championship or beating a #1 team the Big Game is just another game. If the Golden Bears continue to win, that talk will increase, as will expectations for the rest of the schedule. 

Tedford, in his sixth season, is approaching an important milestone. Pappy Waldorf was the last—and only—Cal coach to have several consecutive seasons of great success.  

From 1947 to 1952, Waldorf teams won no less than seven times a season and twice posted 10-1 and 9-1 records. 

Andy Smith might have achieved a higher pinnacle but he died not long after coaching the best five seasons in Cal history, a staggering 44 game winning streak from 1920 to 1924, flanked by otherwise quite respectable 6-2, 6-2, and 6-3 seasons. 

Waldorf and Smith coached Cal for ten years apiece. If Tedford reaches a decade continuing his success to date, he will have reason to claim to be the best long-term coach in Cal history, although some might still put an asterisk after that until his teams win not only a clear-cut Pac-10 championship but also make a Rose Bowl appearance. 

(Waldorf’s teams had three conference championships and three Rose Bowl losses. Smith’s teams went to the Rose Bowl twice, lost once.) 

Current success has literally come at a price for Cal fans. Ticket costs have risen. Cal was asking—and got—a whopping $66 each for now sold out single-game USC and Tennessee tickets this season. 

But price increases don’t seem to have dampened sales. This year, mid-August more than 40,000 season tickets had been purchased, a fourth consecutive year of record sales. 

Average game attendance exceeded 64,000 last year, meaning Memorial Stadium was nearly full for most games. 

And how will those crowds behave? This season Cal fans need to show they can handle consistent success gracefully, not edge towards the sort of Ugly Athleticism and arrogance that accrues around many top-ranked teams. 

Cal is in a unique situation. No other American university—with the possible exception of Cal’s “Brother Bruin”, UCLA—can claim, this decade at least, to be consistently top ranked in academics and football. In other words, it’s Nobels but No Bowls, except at UC campuses. 

One mixed result of football success has been the near demise of the afternoon home game at Memorial Stadium. For West Coast teams, getting television exposure often means accepting late day game slots.  

The earliest announced starting time for a 2007 home game is 3:30 p.m., and some appear likely to start at 5:00 or even 7:00, meaning that homeward bound fans may be clogging the streets of Berkeley as late as ten or eleven on a Saturday night. 

While I mourn the loss of sunny September and October Saturday afternoons at Memorial, many Bay Area Cal fans seem to appreciate having Saturday morning to do other things, like soccer games for the kids, before heading off to Berkeley for late afternoon or evening football. 

Last Thursday evening I sat in Memorial Stadium after a special practice, as a Cal player lead hundreds of student rooters in chants of “Whose House? Our House!” Just beyond the Stadium wall a “Save the Oaks!” tree house was visible atop a truncated conifer. 

Come tomorrow, the new season kicks off and Berkeley will eventually see which vision has built a more durable home. 

For information on Cal football, including tickets and home game 

information: calbears.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl. 

Steven Finacom attended his first Cal football game in 1975 and has written about Cal football twice before for the Daily Planet. 

Photograph by Steven Finacom. 

The California Marching Band blasts out a fanfare as the team leaves the field during a Thursday, Aug. 23, evening practice and rally at Memorial Stadium.

For openers, whining (or whinging, if you’re British). I very seldom try to take a whole week off, and even then I try to fill this space via e-mail if I can. In fact, the last time I tried this, I was in Oxford when the University of California at Berkeley suckered one of its devoted alumni into letting them off the hook on the City of Berkeley’s righteous lawsuit challenging just one of the university’s several mammoth expansion schemes which are proposed over the next 20 years. Planet reporters did a good job of covering the fireworks, but it would have been fun to see them close up. 

This week I’m visiting the grandkids, trying to relax in the country near Santa Cruz, and I get a phone call at 7 a.m. on Wednesday: “They’re going after the oaks!” Two of our four reporters also elected to take a vacation this week. It was supposed to be a quiet week, what with Berkeley councilmembers busily adding to their carbon footprint over the summer and the new semester on campus barely underway. Then, whammo, the sadly predictable university administration makes another dumb move. 

I happened to talk to a former mayor yesterday, and commenting on the university’s latest erection, she said “That’s no way to build trust”—the understatement of the week. I’ll leave it to your imagination which former mayor it was. 

What the university built instead, in case you’ve missed the news flash on the Planet’s website, is a big fence around the oak grove which is slated for destruction to build a gym/office complex for a sub-set of UC’s competive athletes and the bureaucrats who support them, chock-a-block with the football stadium. Why they built the fence depends on who you ask.  

On the one hand, the exemplary UC press release (I sometimes think the only cool heads on campus are in the press office) said: “As the football season begins with a home game on Saturday, Sept. 1, police and campus leadership want to ensure the safety of everyone—fans and protesters—coming and going around the area.” But the message doesn’t seem to have gotten to all of the troops, since UC police cut off and arrested, with on-camera bashing, some supporters who were trying to get basic necessities to the tree-sitters. “As long as the people in the trees are getting food, water and whatever contraband, they’re not going to get down,” assistant UC police chief Mitch Celaya told a Chronicle reporter. The whole ugly scene, complete with nasty skinhead cops with gas masks clubbing unarmed victims, has been captured on Youtube by LA Wood on the bcitizen website at www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKCY4MJuJeY> .  

Isn’t withholding food and water a violation of one of the Geneva Conventions? Not, of course, that it would matter to an institution which still employs John Yoo, the unapologetic author of the Bush adminstration’s torture policy, on its law school faculty. But as of press-time on Thursday the police seemed to have relented on this point, perhaps because a sizeable crowd which included a number of prominent persons had gathered at the grove on Wednesday to complain. 

As mentioned earlier, this paper has been on the receiving end of an organized letter-writing campaign from football fans of ever-diminishing literacy whose missives can be found on these pages. One would have thought that if they really are UC Berkeley’s alums the difference between fact and sentiment would have been part of their education, but evidently not. The location of the Hayward earthquake fault, for example, whether it’s under or simply next to the construction site, will be determined from scientific evidence if and when a proper environmental impact report (EIR) is completed. However the legal dispute in the four outstanding lawsuits is over whether a decent EIR has actually been done, and in particular whether the danger to those who will be on site when the Big One happens has been accurately analysed. The location of the fault itself is only a part of the calculus.  

Up until this point I’ve tried to be polite, but now it’s time to come out of the closet. I am one of the quite sizeable majority of graduates of elite universities who actively dislike all forms of professional football, including the so-called amateur teams fielded mostly by second-rate “athletic powerhouses.” People like me tend to regard the whole megilla as breeding ground for the Michael Vicks of the future. We are not thrilled that our alma mater has jumped on this bandwagon with big bucks.  

One pro-football letter-writer argued that “Frankly, the idea of the nation’s premier liberal university featuring a dominant football team would make Cal utterly unique in the college landscape.” My point, exactly.  

The writer does not seem to wonder why all the other top-ranked universities aren’t trying to compete with Cal on the football field, but there could be reasons, good reasons. Harvard, Caltech, Oxford—none of them are trying to become football champs. Why? 

(By the way, “unique” doesn’t take qualifiers. Cal Berkeley is unique, period, in this regard.)  

The United States is in danger of becoming a spectator society inhabited by people who can no longer play their own games or even make their own music. The millions and millions of dollars which are proposed for the Strawberry Canyon entertainment extravaganza should instead be spent making sure that all of us, especially our kids, have access to healthy exercise of all kinds, including team sports for those who enjoy them, but also hiking, dancing, swimming, ice skating and other individual pursuits which can be enjoyed into old age.  

We’ve run many letters pointing out that it’s harder and harder for kids to find places to play. Baseball fields are scarce and getting scarcer. The mayor and City Council allies are colluding with developers to demolish Iceland. Hourly rates for the new soccer fields (supported by public funds) are prohibitive. Even the drill team which provided hours of wholesome fun for the kids in San Pablo Park seems to be having fee problems. And this is in Berkeley—what’s happening in Oakland, Richmond, Vallejo? 

Thanks to the excellent education provided for me by the state of California in better days, the letters from some of the fans remind me of the Roman poet Juvenal’s often-quoted line about panem et circenses—bread and circuses. He lived in the late first and early second century A.D., at a time when the once mighty Roman empire was in decline. 

Roughly paraphased in modern language, his poem laments that in the old days no one could buy the people’s votes, but now they’ve given up their duties. They used to control everything, he says, the military, political office, everything, but now they only worry about two things, bread and circuses, commodities provided by the Roman government to keep down the grumbling. 

Sounds a lot like the Unites States today, another once-proud empire in decline, doesn’t it? For bread, read cheap energy, as promised by British Petroleum to justify its recent purchase at garage-sale rates of a major portion of what used to be the people’s university. But not to worry, the people, most of them, won’t be complaining. The university, funded by the major industrialists who now provide its entertainment budget, is going to build them an even fancier arena for the on-going circus that is top-tier college football these days. And meanwhile, Richard Cheney and his lackeys, including the putative president, are running the country, and the people are letting them do it as long as the bread and circuses keep on coming. 

MISVIEWING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

During the Reagan years, one of the authors of either The Clothes Have No Emperor, or Reagan’s Reign of Error, collections of verbal slips by President Reagan, pointed out that while watching the president and his press secretary’s televised speeches, he couldn’t help but notice that the sign behind him, 

THE WHITE HOUSE 

WASHINGTON, D.C., 

was (and still is) often shown from an angle where his head, shoulders and torso block some of the letters, leaving the words: 

THE WHITE 

WASHING 

Recently, it was especially interesting when Press Secretary Tony Snow blocked those letters. 

O.V. Michaelsen 

• 

COMMUNITY BENEFITS DISTRICT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

One of the problems with the Community Benefit District (CBD) proposed for West Berkeley is its lack of specifics. Merely duplicating City services is not a program that can be tracked or measured. How can we tell if the fact that we haven’t been raped or burgled is due to the private security presence (only proposed for daylight hours) or simply because we live in a somewhat civilized society that provides an effective police force? If a benefit district has a specific project such as undergrounding the utilities there is a way to measure progress and success. For the proposed CBD the services to be provided are vague and there is no way to measure their effectiveness.  

Furthermore the proposed services were decided upon with no input from the majority of property and business owners in the affected area. Many of us feel city services are adequate and we do not wish to be taxed to duplicate those services. In some cases a weighted method of apportioning taxes seems appropriate. For example, if there was a benefits district for sewers or undergrounding utilities the property owners who use the most of the service should pay the most. It would be relatively easy in such a case to calculate usage and benefit and apportion it accordingly. Where the type and amount of service is stated in the vague manner of the proposal now being considered how is it possible to measure the effectiveness and fair proportioning of the services? This benefit district was concocted by a few large property owners. They are a minority in numbers but wealthy in land and therefore get to tax the majority of the property owners. To those of us who were brought up to believe democracy is the ideal form of government this weighted power for the wealthy is shocking. Just because it is legal does not make it right. 

The Mello-Roos bill of 1982 was designed to allow this form of taxation in order to make up the shortfall to cities from the passage of Proposition 13. However it contains an insidious accelerated foreclosure clause. The County must allow tax payers 5 years to catch up when their taxes are in arrears, the CBD may foreclose after 180 days. The potential land grab of foreclosed properties by developers seems obvious.  

The effects of Proposition 13 are still being felt and continue limit the ability of cities to provide the services that make the local environment viable and pleasant. The short-sighted voters in 1979 passed a law for their own benefit without realizing the unintended long-term consequences. Californians who want to live in clean and well-functioning communities with adequate services are going to have to put the public interest ahead of their self-interest and roll back Proposition 13. Then there would be no need to bring in outside private resources with little or no accountability to citizens. 

Margret Elliott 

• 

OUSTING BUSH, CHENEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Here is a winning scenario for the present public disgust with Bush et al.: 

First, Rep. Kucinich must be reminded that if Cheney is impeached alone, without Bush, Cheney still has right of free speech and could still “run” Bush. After acknowledging this truth Kucinich should persuade his fellow Democrat House members to expel Pelosi by requisite simple House majority. Pelosi has from the first given Bush and Cheney carte blanche, by personally superseding a vital part of the Constitution when she took impeachment “off the table,” thus leaving in place the only other real Congressional check on presidential power—override of vetoes—impossible to achieve with present small Democrat majorities in both houses. 

After expulsion of Pelosi the House’s Democrat caucus should elect Kucinich speaker of the House and then proceed to revise House rules to vote directly up or down (as Bush asked of the Senate for Ms. Meir’s failed appointment to the Supreme Court) on impeachment of both Bush and Cheney. By their imposing neither fines nor imprisonment, only removal from office, the founding fathers told us that impeachment is merely a premature firing from a job done unsatisfactorily. No trial is needed, and the Constitution makes no mention of one for impeachment. Breaking oaths to support (obey) and defend the Constitution, (including the Eighth Amendment forbidding cruel and unusual punishments—with no geographic limits), by publicly okaying water-boarding (not as punishment but, worse yet, in interrogation of the presumed innocent) has become common knowledge around the world and is surely sufficient justification for firing.  

Unlike the full two-thirds vote required in both houses for an override, after House impeachment by a simple majority, Senate conviction of the impeachment requires yes votes from only two thirds of the senators present for the vote. The 20-odd Republican senators up for reelection in 2008 should be persuaded that in their own interest they best stay home for the vote, or vote for conviction with the Democrats. Republican senators facing election in 2010 should also fear to appear for the vote lest they be seen by their states’ voters as pro-Bush/Cheney and the war. It should be noted that every Republican senator who votes with the Democrats means two fewer Republicans need stay home for the vote in order for conviction to be achieved. 

Completing the scenario after removal from office of Bush and Cheney, Kucinich, having supplanted Pelosi as speaker of the House, would become president until 2008, with power to name a new cabinet, etc. Kucinich may lack movie and TV handsomeness, but if he performs well in this scenario might he not also continue as winner of the presidency in 2008? Or do I dream too much? 

Judith Segard Hunt 

• 

IF IRAQ WERE 51ST STATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What if Iraq became our 51st state, think of the results. We would offer Iraqi citizens an incentive. They would have three U.S. senators instead of the normal two, one for each region. They would have representation in the House of Representatives according to their population. The U.S. Senate would have 103 members. I don’t know how this would effect the Democrat/Republican ratio and balance of power in the Senate. I am guessing it would favor the Democrats. Each region of Iraq would have its own governor and Legislature. 

This of course would only happen if the Iraqi people voted for statehood. If the residents of Hawaii wanted statehood, why wouldn’t the Iraqis? It has been a long time since we added a state to our union. We could insure the statehood election would be fair by sending over as our election representatives the Republican secretaries of state from Ohio and Florida. They both have experience in running fair elections. The outcome would be unquestioned.  

I know there is no snorkling in Iraq, but there would be other benefits. 1) We would increase the U.S. population and add more diversity to our already diverse nation. 2) We would be able to add a 51st quarter to our collections. A friend of mine suggested a camel for the design. 3) If our weapons disappeared, at least they would be in U.S. hands. 4) It would drive the Iranian theocracy nuts, or are they already there. 5) We would have a strong and legitimate presence in the region. 6) The oil. We would have the oil, especially as a backup reserve in case a Katrina-style hurricane devastated our Louisiana and gulf oil supplies or wealthy coastal residents near Santa Barbara wouldn’t allow oil rigs in their views. 7) Baghdad would have both a major league baseball team (I hear the ball travels farther in the light desert air) and an NFL football franchise. Think of the marketing. The teams could have meaningful names, like the warriors or the insurgents. 8) We would have a common currency. Think of the power. Look out Euro. 9) HBO. If HBO can give us the Sopranos from New Jersey and Big Love from Utah, think what they might provide us from Iraq. There would be no end to our Sunday night television entertainment. 10) Cell phone calls to Iraq would improve. No more are you there or can you hear me.  

There are other benefits worth mentioning. One of course would be that U.S. News and World Report would be able to rank their universities. Another benefit worthy of mention is Iraqi citizens would have freedom of religion and freedom from religion. Something we Americans take seriously.  

Would the Iraqis want to be U.S. citizens? Let’s give it a shot.  

Paul M. Schwartz 

• 

THE COMPLETE PICTURE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the rhythm of our nation’s political life August is an interval of rest during which leaders gather their thoughts, review what was done, not done and study what needs doing.  

We are at the end of August and the coming season promises to be a stunning finale to the worse presidency we’ve ever had. It will begin with a cacophony of views, proposals, prospects and prophecies regarding the mess in Iraq, prelude to which will be a report General Patraeus, Bush’s surge chief, and Mr. Crocker, his ambassador to Iraq, will deliver to Congress.  

Given the obstinacy, not to mention the self-serving habits, of our governing elite, it is unlikely that anything will change; the general and the ambassador will inform Congress of the details of the surge’s “tactical momentum” and leave those spineless lawmakers to bicker, not debate, about what to do next.  

I long for someone to make them see a missing but vital bass line to Iraq’s current devastating inhuman dissonance: it began with unprovoked “shock and awe” and gains raw energy from the Iraqi people’s desperate need to expel our occupying forces.  

Far from providing stability, our military presence provokes violence.  

How would you react if foreign soldiers lived in fortified compounds from which they patrolled your city streets day and night, death-dealing weapons at the ready? 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

On Wednesday, Aug. 22, the Berkeley School Board voted to charge youth groups “only” $35 per hour to use the new field at East Campus. This is “only” 300 percent higher than what these groups currently pay to use other grass fields in Berkeley. To put this in perspective, if BHS baseball and softball teams were required to pay this same amount for the City of Berkeley fields that they use it would cost about $300-$400 per player per season, just for field costs. This would be on top of the expenses for uniforms, equipment, umpires, coaches, etc. 

For board members regularly dealing with taxpayer dollars in the millions this $35 probably seems like an inconsequential number. However, these youth groups are mostly all-volunteer non-profit organizations whose only source of income is from the pockets of the parents who want their children involved in these after-school recreation programs. If BHS was forced to require parents of children who wanted to play baseball or softball to pay a participation fee of $300 or $400, the outcry from the parents would be loud enough for board members to understand that $300 or $400 is a number that actually means something to a lot of families, particularly low-income parents who would not be able to afford this cost. 

But who are these “youth groups”? They are BUSD elementary and middle school children who play in these community programs because the school district cannot afford to provide them. They are BHS high school students who want to play soccer in the fall because they don’t have an interest in the football and field hockey being offered by the school. They are the children of parents who want their kids exercising in supervised after-school programs because they are concerned about their child being healthy and engaged. They are the same children the School Board wrings its hands over when it talks about the obesity crisis and keeping children out of trouble. 

And given all the above the School Board doesn’t understand that raising prices 300 percent only makes these programs more expensive and less affordable to many families in the community—particularly low-income families? Do board members really believe this is good public policy and is in the interest of the children they are supposed to be serving? 

Ah, but we do have the issue of costs. After all, these fields cost money to maintain and it only seems fair that the people using them help pay for the upkeep. If this is the case, why is it that children playing on BHS teams pay nothing to use City of Berkeley fields but City of Berkeley children have to pay $35 per hour to use school fields? This rate is one of the most expensive hourly rates (if not THE most expensive hourly rate) in Northern California. And why is it that our organization, ASFU, can charge $12 an hour for children and $29 for adults and cover the maintenance costs for the playing fields it maintains but the school district needs to charge $35 and $90 for the same service? 

Thankfully, there is a simple solution to this problem. The School Board does not need to reinvent the wheel. The City of Berkeley, which oversees the maintenance and management of 23 playing fields, already has worked through the issue of pricing for the use of athletic fields. Prices are set through a cooperative process, which involves the Parks and Recreation Commission, the Parks Department, which is also concerned about maintenance costs, the various youth groups that use the fields, and the Berkeley City Council. The same taxpayers that accept this field pricing process are the same ones that pay the taxes, which support BUSD. The School Board can simply agree that it will charge the same rates for its grass and artificial fields that the community has agreed are appropriate for City of Berkeley fields. 

Doug Fielding is chairperson of the Association of Sports Field Users.

I am a student at Berkeley City College and am quite distressed at the cost of books, especially the ones sold in the schools own bookstore, and one policy in particular which I feel is totally unfair: the buy-back and return policy. As students, we have seen the results of state budget cuts with fewer classes, the increase in fees and the painfully high cost of our textbooks, no teaching supplies and more, but to be ripped off by our own school is terrible. First, if I buy let’s say a $100 book and return it, still wrapped four days later the bookstore will pay me only $50 for it, then turn around and sell it again for $100 to the next unsuspecting student. That has got to be criminal, but what’s worse is returning your old textbooks.  

The book I buy for $65 at the beginning of the semester the bookstore will buy back for 50 cents, then resell it as used for $40. The BCC Bookstore generates over $100,000 per year and I am unable to find out from anybody here what the mark-up rate is or who is even responsible for this thieving policy. Due to my financial situation I applied for a book voucher program here, they gave me a voucher good only at the schools bookstore for $175...can you guess how many books I can get? If you said more than two, you’re wrong, some people can get only one book. There are alternatives of course: online shopping can cut costs by 50% or more, but in many cases delivery can take several weeks and put the student quite behind in classwork, affecting performance and motivation.  

You would think another alternative would be the school library. Wrong. For a class of 30 students you might be lucky to find one textbook on reserve, if it hasn’t been stolen. I have found for many of my classes the required reading simply doesn’t exist. Our book stacks are less than half full! So I go to a school that gouges its students with insane book prices and policies, an empty library and teachers who use road maps from AAA to teach history. 

For many of us this will be our only college experience. What are they preparing us for? I’ve got a clue but I am too polite to say it. I need help and at least got a little something, and while its sounds like I may be unappreciative, I really am. I am not the only student with this problem, there are 5,000 non-represented students. I somewhat envy the Cal students who at least have Mr. Worthington working with them, but where’s Dona Spring or whoever is our district’s councilmember? What about the mayor? I think both have come to our city’s community college once; they don’t support us at all. Who will care for us? Who will shed light on the policies of buying and selling books here? Who is there that can help us and is there any hope? In such a beautiful building that cost millions of dollars, it is dismally bleak inside.  

David Kamola is a Berkeley City College student.

A media campaign on television has been launched to brainwash Americans into thinking that alcohol fuels are mechanically impractical for cars and to be produced, require huge amounts of petroleum. These are myths that I can strongly argue against with a few engineering facts. I believe the big oil merchants are influencing the press and promoting the idea that oil consumption is the “only way after all.”  

To begin with, we should be suspicious concerning the timing of these news pieces. These news pieces are being coincidentally run at a time when progress would be expected on the transition toward alternatively powered transportation. The public has been fed ideas that we can expect changes in how our cars are powered, and now is the time when it is psychologically prudent for the propagandists to give the public the letdown.  

I expect that many of the same corporate conglomerates that own the oil companies also own the television channels that run these stories. These same conglomerates could own the farm corporations who are most inefficiently growing corn to produce ethanol.  

Another main point is that we are still being fed huge gas-guzzling automobiles to drive. The mainstream advertisements promote the idea that we must have a huge, towering presence on the road or be run over by the other guy. Cars haven’t become smaller. This is another indication that a sincere effort isn’t being made to reduce our petroleum consumption. 

As for the technical arguments, they are as follows: Corn isn’t necessary to manufacture ethanol. It can be done with waste products like sewage and compost. Natural gas can also be used. Methanol, ethanol’s cousin that could power the Model T and is used in race cars, can be manufactured out of wood and potatoes. Hydrogen fuel can be derived from water with a solar-powered hydrolysis unit. These can be put on every block. Hydrogen can power fuel cell cars. It isn’t necessary to spend all that money on farming tons of corn to get ethanol.  

The problem with how the government wants to do things is they pick the most inefficient possible method involving the greatest number of steps to accomplish a task. This way the most people possible can be paid. If you are in charge of more people, your paycheck is bigger. 

The conspiracy I expect exists is this: Some big entities want us to stay plugged into foreign oil so that we will continue to stay plugged into the Middle East. Why are they doing this? I don’t have access to that.  

What can Americans do? At the very least, we can demand smaller more reasonable cars. We can demand that real progress be made toward alternately powered vehicles. We can openly disbelieve propaganda from the oil companies. 

Jack Bragen is a Martinez resident.

MISREPRESENTING THE FACTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Despite receiving numerous letters on the subject, Becky O’Malley and the Daily Planet continue to misrepresent the facts about UC’s proposed Student Athlete High Performance Center. It is clear now that the Planet is incapable of presenting the issues fairly. I am not calling Ms. O’Malley a “nimby or worse,” a “crypto Stanford fan,” or an “opponent of physical fitness”; I am calling her an irresponsible editor.  

For the Daily Planet readers that are interested, here are the facts yet again. Extensive testing has shown that the SAHPC will not be built on a fault and can be built safely (in fact, experts say, it can be built more safely than most buildings in downtown Berkeley). The USGS, the country’s leading seismic authority, has reviewed and certified those findings. UC has offered to reduce the number of parking spaces from the original plan so that there will be no increase in the number of parking spaces in the area. The project does not increase the number of people in the area, it builds a new, seismically safe building for the 13 teams and 400 athletes (only a quarter of which are football players) that currently train in Memorial Stadium. 

Ms. O’Malley caps off her tirade against the project by misstating the student population at Cal by 20 percent (the student population is about 35,000, not 40,000). But what is 5,000 students when you’re trying to make a point about how big and unsavory the university has become? 

David Schlessinger 

• 

GROSSLY IRRESPONSIBLE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Berkeley City Council has my full support for the lawsuit against the University Regents over the university administration’s grossly irresponsible plan to build a student athletic center and parking garage adjacent to the Hayward Fault, to raze a beautiful carbon-sequestering grove of mature coast live oak trees, and to assault neighboring residents with the effects of heavy construction in an area utterly unsuited to large buildings that should be preserved and protected from any further construction. 

The arrogant disregard for common sense represented by the current university administration, Chancellor Birgeneau, and the Regents is appalling. They are threatening this beautiful Strawberry Canyon watershed and its neighboring residents on three fronts with the plan to build a four-story student athletic center in an utterly unsuitable area, the plan to demolish the Bevatron, and the plan to work with British Petroleum to build more buildings in Strawberry Canyon to support dangerous research on genetically-modified plants to facilitate continued use of polluting internal combustion engines. There are much safer and more appropriate sites on campus if an athletic center is needed. The Bevatron should be preserved in place as a historic building rather than being demolished, with all the negative environmental consequences that entails. And the plan to join forces with a private oil company to further its commercial interests should be reconsidered and terminated. 

The great University of California was founded in Berkeley to provide an academic education to California students. These projects represent a tragic betrayal of that clear and praiseworthy goal. 

Charlene M. Woodcock 

• 

WHAT CHOICE DID THEY HAVE? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While it is regrettable that by erecting a fence more attention has been focused on the tree sitters at Memorial Stadium, what choice did the university have? On Saturday 75,000 people will come to the stadium, and among that number there is the possibility that one or two passionate fans will take issue with the presence of the tree sitters and the subsequent suit that prevents the university’s efforts to build a safe and clean athletic center and retrofit the stadium. The university cannot control the behavior of people on either side of the issue who might behave badly, but certainly it would be held responsible if an ugly incident were to occur. It certainly does have a responsibility to do what it can to protect everyone involved, and a fence that allows the tree sitters to sit if they wish to continue to do so, seems pretty benign. Berkelyans For Cal, an independent citizen group, believes that the university has acted responsibly and pro-actively. 

Sandy Bails 

• 

NO DOLLARS, NO SENSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

How can the City of Berkeley put out an annual report, as City Manager Phil Kamlarz has just done, without anything about the city’s finances and budget?! How are we spending the money? I consider myself as progressive as the next Berkeley resident, but I am interested in how the money is being spent. As some wise person has noted, the allocation of resources is the most important ethical question of our time. By contrast, the report for the City of Sacramento has, at least in years past, has shown how the budget for the past fiscal year was spent, and how it is allocated for the current (or next) fiscal year. Sacramento presents not only the dollar amounts, but a pie chart to give the reader a visual of allocations and their changes over time. How refreshing! It would also be useful to know how much we are falling behind in infrastructure investment. Is the city budgeting for replacement and/or maintenance of facilities at a fiscally prudent level? Maybe next year, the annual report from Berkeley can be more informative and revealing. 

Robert Blomberg 

• 

STRAIGHT TALK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For those interested in some straight-up unadulterated information about the Student Athlete High Performance Center (SAHPC), half of one of the seven projects included in the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects (SCIP), and are sick of arguments by innuendo and slander and sweeping generalizations, consider the following all of which is verifiable at the university’s website:  

www.cp.berkeley.edu/SCIP/DEIR/SCIP_DEIR.html. 

• That in fact the SAHPC would not only accommodate football players but also teams which neither practice nor hold games near the stadium. These include men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s crew, men’s and women’s gymnastics, and men’s and women’s soccer, none of which are tied by proximity to the stadium location.  

• That the SAHPC would not only be a training facility but also an office complex that would accommodate an “additional 368 employee headcount” and who might reasonably be located somewhere besides the western façade of Memorial Stadium.  

• That the SAHPC would degrade the western façade of the historic stadium, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and that the university considers this impact “significant and unavoidable” (emphasis added). To be precise, according to the environmental impact report, “…the SAHPC, would cause a significant adverse change in the historical significance of the CMS.”  

• That the threatened oak grove west of the stadium is a contributing feature to the stadium’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places. As explained in the university’s own Historic Landscape Report, by Page & Turnbull, “The plan for the landscape, likely the work of John Galen Howard and MacRorie & McLaren, was an innovative solution to a very complex and challenge site. The construction…caused immense damage to Strawberry Canyon, necessitating a landscape plan that would quickly mask the scars and retain some of the natural beauty.”  

Expanded from a design that could be accommodated within the stadium footprint to a building that is as large as the Recreational Sports Facility, the proposed SAHPC is bloated and excessive. There are alternatives that would have been protective of our student athletes and office workers, yet were ignored.  

To read the Panoramic Hill Association’s opening trial brief visit www.panoramichill.org/SCIP/PHA_opening_brief.pdf 

Janice Thomas 

• 

FOX NEWS COVERAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I cannot recall seeing a news piece that presented the campus administration, and also the UCPD, in such a disingenuous light as the one done by Fox News tonight regarding today’s disruption on campus of the tree-sitting at Memorial Stadium. 

The UCPD came across with the same absence of integrity that cops in Selma, Alabama portrayed back in 1963. And the ridiculous pretense of public safety that was given as a reason for erecting a permanent chain link fence around the trees is the kind of logic, mentality, and philosophy that reminds one of the sensitivity displayed by Ronald Reagan when he bombed the campus way back when. Who the hell is in charge? Who could possibly be cooking up this ridiculous stuff? 

When this whole charade began, I counted among those who supported the erection of a new athletic facility as presented by the Cal administration, but whatever faith I put in the ability of this administration to make intelligent decisions on this subject has evaporated. 

I am outraged and angered at this boorish nonsense, and I expect there will be many others in the community who will be as well. The buck stops with the Chancellor on this one, and so far, he has beefed it badly. Already, the sports commentators are joking that Cal may have another potential national championship team: fencing. God, I hope the judge wasn’t watching or we’ll never get this damned thing built. 

Michael Minasian 

• 

SEN. CRAIG’S STANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s becoming increasingly clear that are about as many gay Republicans as there are gay Democrats in Congress; it’s just that when the Republicans come out, they’re wearing handcuffs. 

Dave Blake 

• 

PACIFIC STEEL EMISSIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want to thank the community monitoring team for finally bringing the Pacific Steel Casting toxic trail into the light of relevant and verifiable data. The press conference on Tuesday was totally professional and good spirited. Personally, I look forward to the additional 100-plus tests now underway and to the quick death of a factory and PR machine that is killing our children, seniors and green landscape in Berkeley and beyond. I continue to be extremely disappointed with Councilmember Linda Maio’s performance. Her record on Pacific Steel Casting is pathetic and dangerous. She hasn’t cleaned up the air and she’s allowed the factory to stall and play games. Where was “Green Berkeley Mayor Tom Thumb” on Tuesday? Nowhere to be found! 

Be warned, kind citizens, of Pacific Steel’s PR hack Elisabeth Jewel. She is quoted in the Chronicle this way: “It’s very difficult to point the finger solely at Pacific Steel.” Bullshit. 

Let’s give her the finger right back! Join us as we slam the coffin down on PSC President and CEO Robert Delsol’s death-for-profit machine. May God have mercy on your soul, Delsol. 

Willi Paul 

• 

CORRECTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In my Aug. 28 commentary, “West Berkeley’s Air Quality: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” I misstated that “UCB’s School of Public Health had calculates that in recent years, PSC’s toxic air emissions have risen 160 percent.” According to the California Air Resources Board data, the emissions for of some PSC airborne pollutants (benzene, copper, cresols, phenol, and zinc) have increased by over 160 percent. PSC’s manganese and Nickel emissions increased 51.6 percent during this period, formaldehyde increased 127.2 percent, lead increased by 128.5 percent, total particulates by 13.7 percent and pm 2.5 by 11 percent.  

L A Wood 

• 

ALAMEDA JOURNALISM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Comments in Becky O’Malley’s Aug. 21 editorial “Welcome To The East Bay’s Many Wonders” rings true for many of us here in Alameda. We are witness to the departure of the editor of the Alameda Journal (a MediaNews publication), a certain Mr. Jeff Mitchell, who is pleased to “get back out on the ‘proverbial’ street again” as he wrote, in a beat reporter position with the Oakland Tribune, also a MediaNews publication. It’s odd that Mr. Mitchell notes that he is looking forward to “conducting some investigations” in this new role—he did so haphazardly, and only at his convenience, during his past 16 months with the Journal. I guess with the recent union turmoil at the Tribune and within MediaNews in general, he’s happy to still have any job to put the best face to. 

Pursuant to our disappointment with our local media authorities here in Alameda, I’ve been “conducting some investigations” of my own. One thing I uncovered is a 25-year-old quote that could have been written yesterday. In Anger, the Misunderstood Emotion (1982), Carol Tavris writes ,on social injustice and anger, the following: “True investigative reporting, such as uncovering governmental corruption, is one of the essential aspects of the media’s job. But by attacking the media for their alleged bias, the government has successfully cowed the very institutions that ought to be monitoring it—with the acquiescence of the public, who want to be polite, and who do not want to be angry with their leaders.” and “But it is not too much to hope for an electorate that can tell the difference between hatemongering attacks and legitimate accusations, a public that does not confuse brutality with ‘openness’ or passivity with ‘politeness.’ Were the public to avoid all anger on the grounds of manners, that would be a calamity. Were the public to favor an unrestrained howl of rage on the grounds of honesty, that would be a catastrophe.” 

Let’s hope that Mr. Mitchell re-discovers the meaning of investigative reporting on the streets of Oakland. 

David Howard 

Alameda 

• 

WATERSIDE WORKSHOP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was glad to read your extensive Aug. 7 article about the Waterside Workshop (“A Fresh Start for Berkeley’s Aquatic Park”). But there was one program that was left out that is a valuable resource for the community.  

The Waterside Workshop also has a budding sewing program. They offer two workshops—Sewing Lab for children (Tuesday. 3-6 p.m.) and Sewing Lab with Tea for adults and children (Sunday, 5-9 p.m.). These two workshops are supervised by Ingrid Good. 

It was my good luck to find the Waterside’s sewing program. I got involved because I wanted to update some of my clothes. Ingrid is an excellent instructor able to problem solve any thing I and others have presented to her. The lab provides various kinds of sewing machines, basic supplies and even some donated fabric. All this for $3 an hour. My understanding is that they are planning special classes for the future.  

If you are interested in updating your skills or just want to use a specific type of machine I recommend that you come by the Waterside Workshop. 

J.E.M. Reich 

• 

FANDANGO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What is the meaning of the “Fandango” sign on the University Ave. pedestrian overpass? Any comments? 

Valerie Artese 

• 

VAN HOOL BUSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I really appreciated Glen Kohler’s Aug. 24 commentary “Empty Van Hool Buses on Telegraph.” It’s about time AC Transit answered some questions about the obvious over-capacity of the huge buses charging up and down Telegraph Avenue through Berkeley. Undoubtedly, part of the problem is that these buses stop at fewer stops, so fewer people find them convenient to use. And they are also very uncomfortable to ride in, as J. Douglas Allen-Taylor pointed out in his wonderful Aug. 21 “amusement park ride” parody of these unwieldy monsters. 

I have to mention, however, that Mr. Kohler’s tallies of the numbers of passengers on the Van Hools are a bit higher than mine have been. I sometimes see buses with no passengers at all on them. I even saw two such “zeroes” in a row last week. And I regularly see buses carrying three to five riders. It is clearly bad for the environment to have these large buses spewing diesel exhaust throughout the city for such meager passenger loads. 

But enough negativity. Let’s look at the silver lining. It occurs to me that “Van Hool Passenger Counting” could become a new Berkeley hobby, sort of like trainspotting in Britain. Find out how many times you can break into double figures—that’s an accomplishment itself. For a real challenge, try to count the most “zero passenger” loads in a row. It’s fun and exciting, and the whole family can participate! Thanks, AC Transit! 

Doug Buckwald 

• 

BAY BRIDGE BOONDOGGLE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Over the Labor Day weekend Bay Area traffic is having its nose rubbed into what is at least one of the costliest boondoggles in history, and an ugly white elephant at that—the new Bay Bridge east span. 

According to a long-time CalTrans engineer I know, the public has been fooled into thinking that the existing Bay Bridge east span had to be replaced because on section dropped after a major quake. He said that the bridge had been designed to allow single sections to break clear to protect the entire structure from major damage. It functioned as planned and should have been back in operation within weeks.  

Given sufficient time or a big enough quake the new east span will face the same end as the bridge that recently collapsed over the Mississippi—especially as it is made up mostly of concrete, which hides damage being done by time and corrosive saltwater. It is interesting to note that the concrete bridge that collapsed was only about 40 years old, whereas the steel Golden Gate and Bay bridges are close to twice that old, with no major problems. 

Finally, for the same amount of money, or less, we should have been able to get a sensible southern crossing connecting to 280, reducing traffic through San Francisco and providing a backup bridge. 

S. Rennacker 

• 

COMMUNITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My car stalled in the middle of the street today near Berkeley Bowl, blocking in a car parked on the side just as its driver was arriving. This was at afternoon rush-hour, with bumper to bumper traffic along Shattuck. 

I was quite frazzled but did manage to push my car far enough for that other car to leave, easily. Its driver had no further concern with me... except: Instead, the person in that other car noticed my situation and helped push me to a safe pull-over, turning an otherwise stressful event into a reminder of the pleasure of living in community. Thank you to that person. (My aged car did restart, happily, after it cooled down a bit. Sigh. It’s never done that before.) 

Thomas Lord 

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The BRT scheme is sick. Buses, according to the MTC master plan, are supposed to be feeders to BART, not competitors. Yes, BART is inadequate, so the express buses are filled, but during rush hour only. If AC Transit really wants more riders, they should start running all buses at no more than 15 to 20 minute intervals outside of peak hours. Waiting an hour for a bus implies a luxurious amount of spare time and no pressing appointments. It would cost no more to double/triple the current schedules than to put in BRT, and would definitely increase ridership. Oops, I forgot. That would mean serving the community rather than having bragging rights at a convention of professional urban planners. That writer who suggested free rides was also right on. Even if the free rides are only during off-peak hours, they would spread the load around and make the bus a truly desirable option, if the bus ran often enough to even be an option. 

Teddy Knight 

• 

A FEW STATEMENTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Which of these statements is true? 

President Bush’s actions and policies in Iraq played a part in creating the disaster we now find ourselves in. 

Bush and the Republican-led Congress waged a pre-emptive war on a country that had not attacked us (and posed little threat), thus creating a breeding ground for terrorists where none had previously existed. 

Expanding terrorism can be traced to specific causes. In the last five and a half years United States has invaded and occupied two Muslim countries. 

Unilateral military efforts will not put an end to Islamic extremism; they only make the problem worse. 

Instead of a military surge in Iraq, we should be addressing the root causes of extremism. Delivering vital services and promoting human rights will do more good than bombs and bullets. 

Bush and his Republican supporters saying that “we’re fighting them there so we don’t have to here” is utter nonsense. 

The Bush White House has continued to used fear of terrorism since 9/11 to justify its war in Iraq. 

Ron Lowe 

Grass Valley 

The question of Kitchen Democracy (KD) has emerged in an important way in Berkeley over the last few months; and we need to understand its potential impact on what we are trying to do. Kitchen Democracy is a website that purports to constitute a connection between citizens and city hall. 

When Robert Vogel presented KD to the City Council in June, 2006, he presented it as a center for the dissemination of information, and a way in which citizens of Berkeley could exchange opinions on local issues, and present them to government. Marie Bowman of BANA, and Karl Reeh of LeConte Neighborhood Association both sponsored City Council funding KD as a site for information and idea exchange. But today, KD presents itself as a place to “vote” on issues. In fact, the idea of voting has become primary over the expression of opinion: KD informs its readers that they can “vote and optionally post a comment.” And KD considers that its tallies represent decisions made on issues. Councilmember Wozniak, who funded KD, presented KD as a place to “vote” on the rezoning of Wright’s Garage in Elmwood last Spring. Why is this important? 

A “vote” is a formal decision making procedure under established democratic rules. It is defined by a constituency which is composed of those people that the formal procedure of voting recognizes as legitimate voters. And it provides that constituency the means of making decisions for itself on issues that concern it. That decision-making process can take the form of a referendum, a vote on a proposition, or an election of a person to a governing body. In all cases, a vote is a formal procedure, under certain pre-established rules, for a defined constituency, toward the making of political decisions. 

A vote is to be differentiated from a petition. A petition is a voluntary expression of opinion by a list of signatories, directed to a policy-making body concerning their feelings and desires with respect to an issue. It addresses itself to those who have the power to vote on the issue. Because it is self-generated and self-constituting as a voluntary collective expression, it does not have the political weight of a decision-making process. Its aim is to collectively influence a decision-making process. It is not formal according to any rules of decision-making, but is ad hoc as an expression of proffered popular feeling. 

There are many other forms of political expression along with petitions. Letters to the editor, for instance, or letters to City Council or a zoning board, or statements posted on a bulletin board. All these are individual or collective expressions of opinion that do not have decision-making power. 

Since KD is a website to which people go voluntarily and in an ad hoc fashion, to register their opinions, it functions as a bulletin board. It is not a mechanism set up by a constituency through which that constituency can make a decision. It is purely voluntaristic. It does not facilitate any formal decision-making process for an established constituency, nor does it establish a constituency for itself. As a bulletin board enterprise, it belongs to the category of petition, and not of vote. 

KD is thus in bad faith when it presents the service it provides for people to voluntarily express an opinion as “voting.” It is doubly in bad faith when it presents a tally of opinions for and against a certain statement of an issue as a legitimate vote on the issue. It is triply in bad faith in presenting its own statement of an issue as representing the way a constituency to which it does not belong would state the issue. In sum, it is politically misleading people. And similarly, any person, whether city councilmember or private citizen, who interprets or evaluates the service that KD provides as “voting” is misleading people, and in bad faith. 

What is important (and inexcusable) about this element of political sleight of hand (pretending a bulletin board is a vote) is that both City Council and the zoning board have accepted the tallies proclaimed by KD as real votes on issues. They are thus, without the people’s agreement, giving KD the character of a referendum, with all the political weight that a referendum has. This is a large betrayal of trust on the part of City Council and the zoning board. Indeed, it constitutes an injustice on the part of City Council and the zoning board toward the citizens of Berkeley. 

Steve Martinot is a Berkeley resident. 

I am so thankful to Dan Marks of the Berkeley Planning Department for pointing out how the planners know better than the citizens what is best for everyone. It is so relaxing just to be able to leave all the decisions to the professionals. Why should we criticize them for favoring big developers when only two or three of their 100 or so taxpayer-funded staff spends time on Big Projects? Of course the rest of them are busy handing out forms like the ones I filled out when I moved my law office from one office suite to another, asking how much food I would sell on the new premises and whether I planned to sell alcoholic beverages. One always has to watch for lawyers selling alcoholic beverages to minors in law offices close to the impressionable University of California students. I had, of course, thought that the admissions standards were too strict for the university to be accepting the kind of person who would walk into a law office looking to order a gin and tonic (and as yet, none have), but our city bureaucrats know better than we do about such things, and the best thing is to let them do their jobs (while envying them their health insurance.) 

One of those Big Projects is right down the street from my office in downtown Berkeley. I must preface this by saying that I spent part of my childhood in Philadelphia, which has thoroughfares named, “Spring Garden Street” “Hunting Park Drive.” One would think, reading the names of these streets, that they are pleasant greenery-filled paths through an east coast Eden, an earthly paradise fittingly placed in the City of Brotherly Love. Sorry, they’re not. They look like post-industrial visions of rust-belt hell. So, when the name “Library Gardens” is applied to a Big Project in our own downtown, we shouldn’t have high hopes. It is next to the Berkeley Public Library, accounting for half of its name. If there are any gardens, though, in the premises they certainly aren’t visible from the street. The architecture looks like a cross between a Soviet-era workers housing complex in Irkutsk, and a monolithic miniature of San Quentin Prison. The charm of this project is enhanced by its Pepto-Bismol pink paint job appropriate for addressing the nausea that it induces. The Hinks parking lot it replaced was more architecturally pleasing. But who am I to complain—after all the best minds of our planning staff worked on and approved it. 

The point, according to Marks, is that we want to put a lot of people in the center of town. This leaves a smaller footprint and encourages people to take advantage of public transit. Apparently there is an academic course that is taught in some esteemed university for planners that holds that the way to get people out of their cars and into public transit is to make their lives so aggravating, to so ramp up the annoyance factor of getting from one place to another, that everyone will all give in and ride the bus. Take away parking lots. Increase parking fees. Decrease lanes to drive in. Set up barricades so that drivers can’t get from one place to another very easily. The other view, which is to provide more and better public transit, somehow doesn’t cut it with are esteemed public agencies. BART decreases the number of cars per train so that no matter what time of day you ride, you have to stand up. BART parking lots charge a parking fee. BART makes it harder to transfer from one line to another by matching fewer of the trains. AC transit decreases buses and routes. Forget the Muni. It is historically one of the worst systems in the known world.  

An example of inadequate public transit: I worked for 15 years in northern Marin County, commuting from the East Bay. That ended eight years ago. But during that time—and until today—there never has been any direct public transit between Berkeley or Oakland and Marin County. The only reliable way to get there by public transit was to take a bus to BART, take BART to San Francisco, walk to a pick-up spot for Golden Gate Transit, then take GGT from San Francisco to northern Marin. The whole trip is about two hours, using three public transit entities. Because of the lack of direct transit, I used my car daily. I heard lectures, read newspaper articles, had my employer decrease parking spaces, all to get me and my co-employees to take public transit. But you know what? Without public transit, I couldn’t. Twenty-three years later, if I still worked there, I still couldn’t. That’s nearly a quarter century without progress. 

Or you can take BART to the city. I often do, seeing as how it is impossible now to get a second loan on the house to pay for a parking space, given the present financial markets. But forget it if you want to stay there after midnight, which some people do. BART stops running. One would think if you wanted to get people out of their cars, you would provide public transit instead of increasing annoyances to people who have no other way to get around. But our public servants know best.  

Since I moved my office to downtown, the city planners, whose wisdom is enshrined in the design of Library Gardens, have removed two parking lots. The Hinks lot is gone. Now the one on Oxford where the Brower Center will be is gone. And, if you walk down Shattuck Avenue, there are standing memorials to what used to be businesses. Eddie Bauer—an empty building. Gateway Computer—empty. Barnes & Noble—empty. Cambridge Sound Works—empty. There are three empty store fronts just on the block between Bancroft and Durant, bounded by the new Longs and the old Cambridge Sound Works. Outside my office, on the street running between Berkeley High School and the university passing by Library Gardens, are sidewalks covered with human urine, broken glass, empty liquor bottles and cans, human shit, cigarette butts and the occasional used condom or hypodermic needle. If one were of the conspiratorial mindset, one might think that the city was purposefully set on destroying downtown so that yuppie condos and university offices could replace local business. But to believe that, one would have to believe that our government would engage in secret negotiations with the university and come to agreements that they would then conceal from the public. 

According to Marks, we are paying a department of planners for this. If there are 100 of them—as Marks’ commentary seems to say—and they are making an average of $50,000 per year, plus another $10,000, conservatively, of benefits, we are paying over $6 million per year for these results. Think how what a good start that money would be to improving public transit. 

Paul Glusman is a Berkeley attorney.

Since the invasion of Iraq, in March of 2003, George W. Bush’s rationale for the occupation has continually shifted. On Aug. 22, the White House once again changed its criterion for success. As disturbing as this is, what’s more disturbing is the new justification: keep Iraq from becoming another Vietnam. 

America invaded Iraq as retribution for the alleged complicity between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, and because Iraq was said to harbor weapons of mass destruction that were an imminent threat to the United States The Bush administration’s original justification for the occupation was to find the WMDs. When none were located, the rationale shifted to establishing Iraq as a model democracy. When Iraq’s new government floundered, the criterion changed: the United States would train Iraqi forces until they provided the security needed for the fledgling government to function. As the Iraqi security forces faltered, U.S. forces were bolstered—the “surge”—and it was implied they would remain until the government matured.  

On Aug. 22, Bush again changed the rationale and compared Iraq to Vietnam. “One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America’s withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens.” “If we were to abandon the Iraqi people, the terrorists would be emboldened ... Unlike in Vietnam, if we withdraw before the job is done, this enemy will follow us home. And that is why, for the security of the United States of America, we must defeat them overseas so we do not face them in the United States of America.” 

Fortunately, the Iraq Study Group, a non-partisan body, assayed the prospects of the occupation last year. Their report observed, “There is no action that the American military can take that, by itself, can bring about success in Iraq.” They cautioned, “The United States should not make an open-ended commitment to keep large numbers of American troops deployed in Iraq.” 

On Aug. 22 President Bush made the open-ended troop commitment the ISG recommended against and claimed, “Iraq is one of several fronts in the war on terror—but it’s the central front.” Disturbingly, Rudy Giuliani and other front-runners for the 2008 Republican nomination for President share Bush’s position that Iraq is the center of the war on terror. 

There are three problems with Bush’s argument. The first is that most observers believe we are primarily fighting Iraqi insurgents rather than al Qaeda. The second is that the administration is determinedly pursuing a strategy the ISG strongly recommended against because it would weaken U.S. security. And, there is a critical third problem: it is a continuation of his “war on terror.” In her July 29 New York Times article, terrorism expert Samantha Power observed that this Bush administration policy has been counter-productive: “The administration’s tactical and strategic blunders have crippled American military readiness; exposed vulnerabilities in training, equipment and force structure; and accelerated terrorist recruitment. In short, although the United States has not been directly hit since 9/11, we are less safe as a result of the Bush administration’s rhetoric, conduct and strategy.” 

Despite compelling arguments to the contrary, George W. Bush intends to continue to deploy large numbers of U.S. troops in Iraq. Remarkably, the Republican Party has adopted Bush’s fight-them-there-not-here stance. The basis for this is not a clear-eyed understanding of the nature of Islamic terrorism, but rather Party orthodoxy. 

Many leading Republicans, including Presidential candidate John McCain, agree with Bush that the United States made a mistake withdrawing from Vietnam. They believe that if American troops had stayed, they would have won the war. They argue that Vietnam was not lost because of poor decision-making and squandered opportunities, but rather because the United States lost the will to continue. Many claim that Richard Nixon had no choice but to bring that war to end, because defeatist Democrats turned public opinion against it. 

This Republican orthodoxy sees a parallel between Iraq and Vietnam. The United States could have “won” in Vietnam if it had the will to persevere. The United States can still “win” in Iraq if we stay the course. Therefore, Giuliani, McCain and most of the other Republican presidential candidates are unwilling to countenance any withdrawals on Bush’s watch. They see themselves as real men, while war opponents are cowardly defeatists. 

Thus, the terms of the debate over Iraq could not be clearer. Republicans see Iraq as the forefront of the battle against Islamic terrorists and argue that success is dependent on America’s will to prevail. War opponents see Iraq as a dangerous distraction that has made the United States less safe. They contend that national security is dependent upon our leaders regaining their senses and insisting on a rational decision process: one that has clear standards for success and holds people accountable for bad decisions. 

In the early days of the Bush administration, they boasted of their “faith-based” initiatives. Little did any of us suspect at the time that Iraq would become a faith-based initiative. Now, this has become the Republican rallying cry: Keep supporting the administration and we’ll eventual have “victory” in Iraq. No matter what the cost there must be no more Vietnams. 

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

Although you wouldn’t expect a book about metabolic ecology to be a page-turner, I found John Whitfield’s recent In the Beat of a Heart: Life, Energy, and the Unity of Nature engrossing. Whitfield, a British science journalist, explains how metabolism relates to size, volume, and surface area. Along the way, he looks at why bats outlive mice, whether humans are allotted a fixed number of heartbeats in their lifetime (astronaut Neil Armstrong said that if that was true, he was damned if he was going to waste any of his jogging), and the tragic fate of Tusko the elephant. 

Tusko, a bull Asian elephant at the Oklahoma City zoo, was the recipient of the largest hit of LSD ever administered to a living organism—297 milligrams, right in the rump, back in 1962. Psychiatrist L. Jolyon West was trying to induce musth, a state of apparent derangement to which male elephants are prone during the breeding season. West and his associates calculated the dose by extrapolating in linear fashion from the amount required to make a cat hallucinate. 

It was too much, of course. Tusko staggered despite his mate Judy’s attempts to support him, trumpeted, collapsed on his side, and began having seizures. He was pronounced dead an hour and 40 minutes later. Scale matters. The results were published in the prestigious journal Science, with the following summation: “It appears that the elephant is highly sensitive to the effects of LSD—a finding which may prove to be valuable in elephant-control work in Africa.” 

Size isn’t the only variable affecting metabolism. Some creatures are able to bank their internal fires during periods of extreme cold or heat and scarce resources, living on stored body fat: aestivating ground squirrels, hibernating bears, those male emperor penguins guarding their eggs through the Antarctic winter. It’s a risky strategy. Once fat levels fall below 10 percent of body mass, the animal has to burn its own protein—effectively digesting itself.  

Snakes, like other living reptiles, were known to keep their thermostats set lower than mammals or birds (the dinosaurs may have been different). But it was unclear until recently how they endured periods of food deprivation. As you will have noticed if you’ve ever handled a snake—something I would recommend, although not necessarily in a spiritual context—snakes don’t have much fat on them.  

To explore that question, Marshall McCue, a graduate student at the University of Arkansas, worked with captive ball pythons, rat snakes, and western diamondback rattlesnakes. The reptiles, in cages that constrained their activity, were kept at a constant 80.6 degrees F, limiting their body temperatures. They were deprived of food for up to 168 days while McCue recorded their oxygen consumption. Snakes were sacrificed at various set points during the experiment and their fat and protein levels measured; McCue went through a lot of snakes during this project. 

The snakes were able to lower their resting metabolic demands by up to 72 percent. “It would seem that their pilot light, which we already thought to be as low as possible, can actually go much lower,” McCue told a reporter for Nature. Their fat levels fell to 5 percent, which would have doomed most other vertebrates.  

And they accomplished this without going dormant. They stayed alert enough to attempt to bite their handlers; if a tasty rat had been offered, they would have been right on it. Some even managed to grow while starving.  

The rat snakes began to break down protein sooner than the rattlers or pythons, which makes ecological sense. Rat snakes are active pursuit predators; the others are ambush predators, more likely to experience significant lag time between meals. But the fact that snakes from three diverse lineages, including the relatively underived (it’s bad form to say “primitive”) pythons, share the ability suggests it’s an ancient trait in this group of reptiles. 

McCue uses an economic metaphor: the snakes reduce energy demand by lowering their metabolic rate and cope with the supply side by frugal use of their fat reserves. Just how they do this remains uncertain: maybe by reducing the density of mitochondria—the energy-generating powerhouses of the cells—in liver, heart, and other highly active tissues. 

All this may explain how snakes lucked out at the end of the Cretaceous, when some combination of extraterrestrial impact and volcanism killed off the dominant reptile groups—the dinosaurs, the pterosaurs, the great sea dragons. With whole ecosystems trashed and food webs disrupted, being able to just shut down for a few months would have had enormous survival value.  

According to McCue, the snake study may have practical spinoffs in monitoring nutritional success—more than can be said for the experiment that left the unfortunate Tusko a martyr to science.  

Photograh by Ron Sullivan. A gopher snake relaxing between meals near the Richmond shoreline.  

Joe Eaton’s “Wild Neighbors” column appears every other Tuesday in the Berkeley Daily Planet, alternating with Ron Sullivan’s “Green Neighbors” column on East Bay trees. 

Department of Corrections: the photograph of the California clapper rail accompanying my Arrowhead Marsh article was taken by Ron Sullivan.

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 U.S.A.” 

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 United States 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 United States 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 United States … 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 United States 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 United States 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 Ache.  

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).

If the items on the Crooks and Liars progressive blog are a bellwether of what a good portion of the nation is thinking and talking about, then for a brief period this week, at least, the nation turned its eyes on Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho. 

Mr. Craig, if you missed it—and hard to see how you could, if you opened a newspaper or turned on a news channel—is the Idaho Republican who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct following his arrest in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport men’s room for conduct considered consistent with a man trying to pick up another man to have sex. According to the news accounts, and the far-too-many graphic re-enactments provided by television stations, Mr. Craig sat in one toilet stall and engaged in various actions to try to attract the attention of the man sitting in the next stall to see if he was interested. The actions ranged from running his hand under the stall divider to moving his foot under the same divider to touch the other man’s foot. 

Presumably, though in Mr. Craig’s case it never got that far, these were signals for the two men to join in one of the stalls. 

On Wednesday night, Crooks and Liars led off with a parody on the Republican Party as the old flaming gay Village People group, writing that “the more one looks at the evidence that Craig seems to be gay, the more one can see that it is really just evidence of being conservative....When conservatives gush about how macho Fred Thompson and President Bush are, we do sound a little bit like Village People fans.” The blog then moved to a clip from a Keith Olbermann Countdown segment that read from the police report on the Craig arrest in a parody of the old “just the facts, ma’am” Dragnet television show, followed with a news clip of President George Bush’s reaction to the Craig situation, followed, some items down, with an entry called “James Sensenbrenner BBC’s ‘Little Britain’ channel’s Republican Larry Craig’s Bath Room Bust” which includes a clip which C&L says is “hilarious! Maybe Larry Craig should have used this defense,” followed by a CNN clip in which “CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin laid out a fantastic breakdown of Senator Larry Craig’s bizarre claims surrounding his bathroom sex scandal,” followed, an item or so down, by another clip from Countdown, with the tagline “On Countdown, Keith Olbermann talked with Air America Radio talk show host, Rachel Maddow about Republican Senator Larry Craig’s presser, Mitt Romney throwing him under the bus (along with former President Bill Clinton) the laundry list of Republican sex scandals and the glaring hypocrisy oozing from the Republican Party,” followed, well, you get the picture. 

Of the 24 items on C&L’s first page at 8:30 Wednesday night, nine of them concerned Mr. Craig reflecting not so much a Crooks and Liars obsession as it does a sort of national bout of junior high schoolyard snickering. Larry got caught trying to cop a feely on another boy in the bathroom. No shit? Come with me to my locker and tell me everything! 

The national furor escalated—if anyone could have thought that possible—at mid-afternoon on Thursday after national news stations began playing excerpts from the police interview tapes with Mr. Craig that were taken in the police station following the Senator’s arrest. By Thursday evening, commentator Chris Matthews was advertising a Hardball segment on whether the Craig incident would “derail the Republican Family Values agenda.” 

But there is something about the Craig incident that disturbs me, deeply, and, no, it’s not the continued evidence of hypocrisy among some of our conservative Republican friends. Mr. Craig has been a consistent supporter of the Defense of Marriage laws that would deny marriage to gay couples (he has issued statements saying that “the appropriate definition of marriage is a union between one man and one woman”), and during the height of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, went on “Meet The Press” to announce that Mr. Clinton was “a bad boy, a naughty boy… probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.” 

But that some of the people howling the loudest at the head of the mob are only trying to hide the fact that they are guilty of the same transgressions—in thought or deed—committed by the man whose house the mob is presently burning should come as no great surprise, and is merely one of the constants of the human experience. 

What disturbs me is the way the Craig arrest, and subsequent guilty plea, and subsequent fall from grace, came about. 

From all the available evidence, a plainclothes police sergeant was given the assignment of going into the men’s bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport and sitting on the toilet, with his pants down to his ankles, waiting patiently for the man in the next stall to give some surreptitious signal that some form of sex is desired, and then arresting that man for doing so. Apparently the particular bathroom is a regular liason spot, and local police arrested several men in the sting when they tried to similarly solicit an undercover cop in the adjoining stall. 

What a sad and tawdry little job that must be, waiting in a bathroom stall for men to come on to you, and what a sad and tawdry little nation we are for participation in the resultant public flogging—either as progressive-liberals giggling in delight at another Republican toppled, or conservatives covering, so to speak, their asses while pointedly turning their backs on him. 

Let us be clear on the nature Mr. Craig’s admitted and observed transgressions. 

This was not rape, or the taking advantage of an underage young male by some priest or coach or youth advisor or a middle age internet chatroom predator. It was a man entering a public airport bathroom that had a reputation as a meeting place for men attracted to men, and then enclosing himself in a stall and putting his briefcase—full of important, state papers, presumably—in front of the door to block any view, and then tapping out a code on the floor with his polished shoe in the hope that the anonymous man next door will find him in any way desirable, and want to spend with him a few moments pleasure or release. 

What a horror of a life it must have been for Mr. Craig up until the moment the plainclothes officer flashed a badge instead of some other object under the stall wall, knowing there was always the danger that moment might come, knowing what an embarrassment to himself and to his family—now and for all time—that exposure of his actions would bring, knowing what his colleagues and his neighbors and the national press would most certainly say, but unable, with the weight of all that awful world in danger of falling upon him, to stop himself. 

Yes, I know that more than hypocrisy, it is an abomination for a powerful office-holder—a United States Senator—to slip into bathroom stalls to have anonymous sexual encounters with other men, thereby breaking his own marriage vows, while simultaneously denying the right of gay and lesbian couples to have legally-sanctioned marriages in the midst of loving and monogamous relationships. On that score, in any event I do not advocate that Mr. Craig be absolved of all guilt (although a “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” sort of Christianity might appear to be in order from the professed Christians amongst us). All that being said, for my progressive friends, nothing in the current junior high chatter over Mr. Craig’s peccadilloes moves us closer to any larger sexual acceptance and understanding that would lead to a more inclusive national definition of marriage, a goal that many, if not most, progressives say they are working towards. Quite the contrary. By progressives tittering on about toe-tapping in the toilet, as tempting as this may seem in the current political climate, I believe it moves us further away. 

There are important matters to be discussed here. About sexuality. And tolerance. And temptation. About what types of relationships and activities stabilizes our society, and what types of relationships and activities breaks it apart. About what type of rules by which we wish to govern our own individual lives. About how much—or how little—we believe our own beliefs should be imparted to or imposed upon the guy in the next stall. Yes, I confess, I laughed, at first, with most of my friends when I first heard of Mr. Craig’s story. But as the laughter and the self-righteous speeches die down, before the moment dies and our thoughts turn elsewhere, let us hope that the talk can turn to a more serious social debate. The question is not so much what this will the Craig affair do to the Republican Family Values agenda, which always had a bit of a hollow core to it, but what will be our national values as a whole. 

The address 2411-31 Russell St. in southeast Berkeley is a small cluster of mid-century townhouses on the edge of a fashionable neighborhood where stately brown shingle and period revival houses claim most of the curb appeal and attention. 

But this complex of more modest homes is, its own way, very liveable and contextual. One two bedroom unit—2427 Russell—is currently for sale at $534,900. John Koenigshofer is the listing agent, at Elmwood Realty. (www.erihomes.com) 

There’s an open house this coming Sunday, Sept. 2, from 2 to 4 p.m. 

2427 is tucked into the northeast corner of the larger of two buildings in the complex. It’s one of nine townhouses forming a shallow “C” facing the street and bracketing a smaller, two-unit, building. Encircling the property is a driveway that leads to 11 covered parking spaces along the rear property line. 

Inside, the unit is a simple, two-story, cube. The front door enters a living room with a stairway in one corner, diagonally across from a dining nook. The dining area leads around into the kitchen, in the rear of the first floor.  

Upstairs are two bedrooms—one large, one smaller—and a bath. The bedrooms look out from different sides of the building.  

On paper the unit seems small—some 924 square feet—but in reality it’s not claustrophobic. Windows face east, northeast, and west, there’s natural light and the spaces flow well.  

The units are “really well designed, they’re super-efficient” says David Lehrer, head of the homeowner’s association. 

The architecture is quite uncomplicated, reflecting mid-century Modern values. Small features—like a sculptural metal railing on the staircase, simple tilework, a fluted bathroom window—substitute for more elaborate and extensive decorative details. Stairs and floors are finished hardwood. The unit has been nicely painted for staging and sale.  

The kitchen appears to have several original features—tile counters with raised rims, a big triangular tile shelf perfect for plants above the sink and below the corner windows, and a built-in ironing board cabinet now fitted with tiny storage shelves. A skinny doorway leads to storage under the staircase.  

There are small closets upstairs and down and storage closets by the parking, and the closet in the larger bedroom has a deep niche above the stairs for extra storage.  

This could be a compact but quite liveable home for a single resident, a couple or two separate adults without children, or perhaps a single parent or family with one child.  

Most units—including the one for sale—look out the front onto a courtyard, and have a rear door opening to the driveway or parking area. There’s a common laundry room at a back corner of the complex. 

The landscaping along the public sidewalk is slightly raised and handsomely planted—in part by a UC Botanical Garden staffer who owns a unit—and the tranquil center court has a rectangle of lawn and flowering shrubs and other foundation plantings. 

Simple principles also shape the exterior architecture. The roof pitch appears shallow, almost flat. Outside walls—painted in peaceful cream tones--have a band of red brick across the base, stucco above, and painted horizontal boards at the top. Some windows project slightly in very shallow bays. 

I haven’t been able to find much of the history of this property, only some tantalizing possibilities. The realtor gives the year of construction as 1946, right after World War II ended.  

Post-War housing was scarce in Berkeley, since wartime needs and labor shortages had diverted resources from private residential construction at the same time there was a big influx of immigrants into the East Bay to work in war industries. 

One resident says he’s heard these units were built for UC professors. A long-time neighbor up the block recalls coming across early photos of the buildings in an archive of one-time U.S. Navy housing.  

I’ve never heard of UC housing at this site, but it’s conceivable. As the war came to an end, the University had a number of long term and temporary arrangements to house not only home front students but a large number of veterans coming to college on the G.I. Bill. Further research awaits. 

Whatever the early history, it has followed the trajectory of many of Berkeley’s small multi-unit complexes. Built to meet high housing demand, it spent decades in rental use. Conversion to condos followed in the late 1990s as detached single family homes in Berkeley became unaffordable for many residential buyers. 

Today, the residents are “a cross section of Berkeley”, says Lehrer. Some are tenants who purchased their units; others bought after the condos were created. They include owner occupants who are “professionals, several teachers, some UC employees” including one professor, plus a few renters says Lehrer. 

The property is self-managed, with a group of five residents heading up the homeowner’s association. Twice a year, Lehrer says, all the residents help out with a landscaping work party. 

The complex lies near the southwest corner of the Willard neighborhood. The Elmwood shopping district is just three blocks east, up Russell Street.  

Most of the buildings in that direction are large single family homes from the early 20th century when the area was developed as the Berry-Bangs Tract (see the Valentine/Dakin house article in the July 6 Planet for a more detailed neighborhood description). 

Immediately to the west there once was a mansion on a huge lot between Russell and Oregon, dating to when south Telegraph was a pleasant residential street with large lots and homes. The house was torn down in the 1960s and replaced with a bland, six-story, office building partially ringed by a large parking lot. 

If you visit 2427 Russell also walk one street north to the 2400 block of Oregon Street to see an eclectic row of houses ranging from a huge, white columned,, house to what may be southeast Berkeley’s smallest detached home on a postage stamp lot.  

Or go up Russell and south on Regent Street to one of Berkeley’s cutest bungalow courts with a semicircle of doll-house cottages, the Presbyterian Mission Homes, used by clergy families on sabbatical. 

There’s public transportation nearby on Ashby and Telegraph. Whole Foods, Berkeley Bowl, and the Telegraph Andronicos are within easy walking distance, as are Le Conte Elementary School, Willard Junior High, and the Willard Swim Center and park. Alta Bates Hospital is a few blocks south, and immediately east of the condo unit is an older house inconspicuously used for medical offices.  

Although just a block north of busy Ashby, this stretch of Russell Street is relatively quiet, despite the installation a few years ago of a largely unneeded traffic signal at the Telegraph intersection. Russell is a City “bicycle boulevard,” blocked to through traffic west of College. 

In this neighborhood scattered pre-war two and three-story apartment buildings—some in courtyard designs—generally harmonize with the surrounding single family homes in the way that later 1950s/60s apartment buildings—and many present day “infill” buildings—don’t. 

I decided to write about this Russell Street property in part because it has several qualities that should be kept in mind by those so anxious to make Berkeley more “liveable” by building more multi-unit housing.  

By any objective standard this eleven-unit property is fairly dense. Three free-standing Berkeley homes—or two suburban ranch houses, or one Marin County or Menlo Park manse—would fit on a land parcel this size.  

But these units don’t feel crowded. They share one or two side walls, but there’s no one living above or below. Several have windows on three sides. The residents get light and air. The lack of private yard space would be a drawback for some, but fine for non-gardeners. Units have separate, ground level, entrances and porches.  

At two stories this housing doesn’t tower above its detached residential neighbors. It fits in along the street, with setbacks and landscaped space. The development doesn’t include the security gates and grates, walls and fences, under-building parking and ostentatious “loft” interiors that make too many new multi-unit properties bulky and forbidding places.  

By having a mix of single family homes and properties like this (as well as lots of hidden housing in backyard cottages, in-law units, flats, and attics) a Berkeley neighborhood can be, in reality, relatively dense while still feeling fairly green and suburban in the most positive sense. 

Photograph by Steven Finacom. 2427 Russell fits into a sunny corner of the townhouse courtyard. 

Containers for planting are limited only by your imagination—and a few realities, what plants need.  

Their roots need access to oxygen, and that gets ignored way too often. Out of sight, out of mind, evidently. That mistake happens in the ground, too: people bury tree roots under paving or a few extra feet of soil, and then wonder why their prized tree is dying.  

Oxygen can’t get to roots when they’re underwater, a surprisingly common problem with container plants. People actually put plants into containers with no drainage holes.  

The poor plants stand in water, which despite being two-thirds oxygen can’t deliver that element to roots. The fact that one can sometimes get away with it—that infrequent watering, well-aerated soil, a very tough plant, and dumb luck come together just long and often enough—perpetuates the bad habit. 

If you have a pot without drainage and it absolutely needs a plant, as opposed to your knitting-needle collection or the cat’s drinking water, you have choices. Drill holes in the bottom, and don’t be stingy; make several and make each an inch wide.  

Too scary? Find a real plant pot small enough to fit inside, and pot your plant in that. Take it out to water it, or at least pour the leftovers out after you water.  

If you have a sunny enough spot—they’re almost always sun-lovers—and your non-draining pot is wide and shallow enough, you might adopt a carnivorous plant: a Venus’ flytrap, a sundew, or a handsome hooded Sarracenia, “pitcher plant.”  

These do well when their pots sit in shallow water; most are originally swamp or freshwater marsh plants. Use distilled water, or its “purified” equivalent.  

Unglazed clay is the best material for a plant pot. It’s porous enough to let water evaporate through it, to “breathe.” It’s also heavy, brittle, and often homely.  

Glazed ceramic pots can be prettier, and generally are at least a bit cool inside to keep roots happier. Wooden boxes and half-barrels have that virtue too, but they decay faster. Biodegradable is good, if it doesn’t involve, say, fungi that also attack roots.  

Those ubiquitous black plastic nursery cans are hard on plants. They’re meant to be temporary vehicles, not permanent homes. In plastic, it’s easier to create an anaerobic situation because the only way water can escape is through the holes in the bottom, which sometimes get blocked by roots. 

The other problem with most nursery cans is that they’re black. Black plastic absorbs heat very fast. You can cook your poor plant’s roots to death in a day when the sun’s angle changes with the season.  

If you’re stuck with plastic, at least look for tan or cream-colored cans. I’ve even seen bright pink one-gallon horrors. As you like it; I’m not playing Martha Stewart here.  

Tufa, a light porous stone, has ideal drainage and a good imitation, “hypertufa,” can be mixed up and molded.  

There’s a “Beginning Hypertufa Trough Construction” class at the Tilden Botanic Garden on Sunday, October 14, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. $65. See to www.nativeplants.org/classes.html for a registration form. 

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.

The Europeans have had it all over us for some decades when it comes to energy efficiency. This might have something to do with a political attitude toward wasting energy or sheer economy. In any event, our European brothers and sisters are more inclined to pinch a BTU (that a British Thermal Unit for those of you new to the energy game). 

One of the things that they’ve long embraced has been small, “on-demand,” “flash” or “tankless” water heaters. Before I get into a description of what an on-demand water heater is, let’s take a brief look at “tanked” conventional water heaters. 

A conventional gas water heater (electric water heaters are worthy of discussion but are relatively rare in our area) is made up of a vertically mounted water tank (usually 30-50 gallons) with a gas burner mounted at the bottom. Water is heated in the tank until it reaches the set temperature (adjustable at the front with a non-specific dial, i.e. warm, hot, hotter) and the water is held at that temperature by the intermittent operation of the burner. In other words, the burner comes on many times each day to keep the water at the desired temperature. This is true whether you are home, sleeping or at work. All so that you’ll be able to enjoy a nice hot shower whenever you’re in the mood. 

This requires a lot more energy and cost than if you heated the water as you needed it (which we’ll get back to that in a little while). 

These water heaters take up several square feet of space and need to be mounted on a floor or stand (in a garage, they should be placed on a stand so that the flame is at least 18” above the floor to prevent ignition of gas fumes unless a special FVIR model is used). 

Water heaters are also very heavy and can become a bull in a china shop during an earthquake. If they do move more than a tiny bit during an earthquake they can break their gas lines and cause a gas build-up and explosion. This is one of the really serious seismic issues everyone should be looking at and every “tanked” water heater should be heavily strapped, top and bottom (and a third if they’re over 50 gallons). 

Lastly, a conventional water heater runs out of hot water after a while and must “recover” which can take anywhere from 15-45 minutes, depending on the model. In short, your shower is over at some point. 

An on-demand water heater is different from this conventional gas model in several respects. First, there’s no tank (I’m not actually this stupid. Yes, of course you knew that). Instead, there is a very long coil of tubing seated above a large burner. When you turn on your hot tap, water begins to flow through the coil and a sensor picks up the movement. The burner comes on and heats the water as it flows through the coil. The whole heating process takes a few seconds and hot water emerges at the other end of the coil of tubing. You have hot water in a few seconds at your point of use (shower, sink, laundry).  

This means that you get to have hot water for as long as you want. It never run out. You can stay in the shower all afternoon! What a concept. 

Because you are only heating water when you need it, you end up saving serious money on your gas bill. You also save the earth a little bit by decreasing green house gas emission (CO2) from your home.  

You may save two hundred or more dollars per year with a unit like this. Because these units are not filled with many gallons of water, they are much lighter and much less likely to move during an earthquake. This means that the likelihood of a gas explosion after an earthquake is much less. The units are typically bolted to a wall as a part of their normal installation and many models are designed to be hung on an exterior wall. These features decrease gas danger even further.  

Lastly, I frequently get asked by my clients how we can get the water heater out of laundry room or kitchen to make more room and the installation of an on-demand on an outside wall is often my response. Although these “new wave” of water heaters are costlier, they can give you back a room that’s been taken over by that looming old figure by the stove. With the increased efficiency, lower operating cost, added interior space and increased seismic safety, it’s hard to argue against these newcomers, even at their higher cost.  

A number of models exist (I’m only looking at gas units at this point, but electrics do exist) and new ones are coming along every year. If you decide to go this route, make sure you get a large enough model so that you don’t run out of water when you’re running shower, laundry and sink. Although these units keep producing hot water, they do have limits on how much they produce per minute. It is best to talk to an expert about the model that’s right for you. A downside you should expect with these units is that you will have to turn the water to a good flow to get them to kick on. They can generally be throttled down somewhat afterwards.  

Life is good. You can finally achieve your life’s goal of staying in the shower all afternoon. 

The above article was published in the Berkeley Daily Planet in June 2005 and, since you’ve all gotten so much smarter since then, there are some finer points I think you’re now ready to handle so here’s a little update: 

On demand water heaters do a lot of heating in a very short time and so need a huge burner (about three times as powerful as your central furnace). This means that they need a big gas line.  

When installing one, you should expect to have to provide at least a three-fourth of an inch gas line to the unit. If you’re more than about 30 feet away, it may have to be 1 inch. If you get a more powerful unit, the gas line may be bigger. This calculation is a critical part of the plumber’s job. Putting the device closer to the gas main is a good idea since it can not only decrease the length (and cost) of the gas piping, it can also decrease the size (and more cost) of the gas piping. Try to put the unit on the outside of the house and on the same side as your gas main (unless your main is on the front since this will look lousy). 

It now looks as though these devices have a very bad relationship with galvanized water pipe and can be killed in as little as two years if the piping leading to them is galvanized steel (the old stuff). For now, there doesn’t seem to be a service repair for the part that gets damaged by steel so it’s very important that you have your unit installed with copper piping coming to the unit from the street (3/4” is best for most houses). 

Lastly, placement of the unit on the outside can save hundreds of dollars on the purchase of very expensive stainless steel flue piping as well as creating more inside space. Remember how these burn a whole lotta gas. Well, the corrosion caused by this is too much for the common double-wall metal flue that we usually love so, if you have your unit inside (including inside your basement, garage or crawlspace) you have to spend mucho bucks on Class 3 stainless flue pipe. This can easily add hundreds of dollars SO, save the money and put it out with the cat. Make sure that the unit is at least a couple of feet away from (and not below) an openable window so that the exhaust doesn’t blow back inside. Be proud if you make this bold move. It’s a not-all-that-small part of saving the planet. 

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

TUESDAY, SEPT. 4 

EXHIBITIONS 

CCA Photography Retrospective Works by recent graduates as well as faculty opens at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., at 25th St., Richmond. 620-6772.  

FILM 

“Please Vote for Me” A documentary by Weijun Chen on fifth-graders in China at 6 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 100 Oak St., Oakland. Free. 326-1440.  

Devotional Cinema: Films by Dorsky and Ozu with Nathaniel Dorsky at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

David Kirp describes “The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

John Aubrey Douglass discusses “The Conditions For Admission: Access, Equity, and the Social Contract of Public Universities” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Gerard Landry & the Lariats at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Duke Robillard, blues guitarist, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 5 

FILM 

“Ankur” with filmmaker Shyam Benegal at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Khalil Bendib introduces “Mission Accomplished: Wicked Cartoons by America’s Most Wanted Cartoonist” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Zachary Schomburg and Lily Brown read their poetry at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

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 

Jazz Masters Concert with Cow Bop, jazz goes Western, at noon at 12th and Broadway, Oakland.  

Wednesday Noon Concert, with Michael Seth Orland, solo piano at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Ben Flint Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

The Mighty Diamonds, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054.  

Whiskey Brothers, old-time and bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Jamie Davis at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200.  

Groove.org at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 6 

FILM 

“Shorts by Lindsay Anderson” at 5:30 p.m. and “Bhumika” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Brenda Hillman reads her poetry at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Ruthann Lum McCunn reads from her novel “God of Luck” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Mary Gordon reads from “Circling My Mother: A Memoir” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Eric Yates & Friends, Americana, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054.  

Jamie Laval with Ashley Broder, Celtic violinist and mandolin at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Marmadou & Vanessa Sidibe Music Mali at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Beltaine’s Fire, Boudica, Greenbridge at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

Otro Mundo at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10. 849-2568.  

Kenny Burrell & The Jazz Heritage All-stars at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 7 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “Urinetown, The Musical” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through Oct. 6. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Aurora Theatre “Hysteria” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through Sept. 30. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Black Repertory Group “Secret War” Fri.-Sun. at 2:30 and 8 p.m., Gala Sept. 15. Tickets are $25-$35. 652-2120. www.BlackRepertoryGroup.com 

Impact Theatre “Sleepy” opens at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. and runs to Oct. 13. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “The Shadow Box” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., selected Sun. matinees, at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. This show is not recommended for children. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Woodminster Summer Musicals "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat” Fri.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland, through Sept. 16. Tickets are$23-$36. 531-9597. www.woodminster.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Heading North: Journey to Atacama Desert, Chile” Photographs by Thea Bellos. Artist reception at 6 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“The Sacred in the Mundane” works by Pauletta M. Chanco. Opening reception at 5:30 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., Oakland. 465-8928. 

“Down There” New Work by Ayako Higo and Meadow Presley at 7 p.m. at Front Gallery, 35 Grand Ave., Oakland. 444-1900. 

“Distractions” Works by Janelle Renée. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at The Gallery at Lavezzo Designs, 5751 Horton St., Emeryville. 428-2384. 

FILM 

“War Made Easy” narrated by Sean Penn at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Zubeidaa” with filmmaker Shyam Benegal, at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Sunset Cinema: “Mighty Warriors of Comedy” about an Asian American sketch comedy group from San Francisco, at 7:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. 238-2022. 

“Great Wall of Oakland” Prjected video and improvisational music at 8:30 p.m. on Grand Ave., just west of Broadway. www.aoklandculturalarts.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Rhonda Benin and Soulful Strut at 5 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. 238-2022. 

Jim Ryan & Friends at 8 p.m. at Free-Jazz Fridays at the Jazz House, 1510 8th St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$15. 415-846-9432. 

E.W. Wainwright’s Tribute to Elvin Jones at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Iris Dement at 8 p.m. at The Thrust Stage. Cost is $26.50-$27.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Baha and Sam Coble at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Sleepyboy Moe, The Slow Poisoner, L. Cooper at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Du Uy Quintet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Cari Lee & the Saddle-ites at 9 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810.  

MDC 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. 

Kenny Burrell & The Jazz Heritage All-stars at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 8 

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 

The Crucible’s Fall Open House Celebrating Art & Community frp, 2 to 6 p.m., followed by Artist-in-Residence Reception from 6 tp 8 p.m. at 1260 7th St., Oakland. www.thecrucible.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Niloufer Ichaporia introduces delicacies from “My Bombay Ckitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Mozart, Mendelssohn & Brahms” with Tom Rose, calrinet, Darcy Rindt, viola, and Lynn Schugren, piano at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St.. Tickets are $18-$12. 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Iris Dement at 8 p.m. at The Thrust Stage. Cost is $26.50-$27.50. 548-1761.  

Stephen Taylor-Ramirez, Fontain’s M.U.S.E., The Simple Things at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Beyond Walls, Beyond Wars with Georges Lamman, presented by the Arab Cultural Initiative at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$14. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Dana Kemp’s Gateswingers Jazz Band at 8 p.m. at Central Perk, 10086 San Pablo Ave. at Central, El Cerrito. 558-7375.  

Eric Swinderman Quartet In Pursuit of Sound at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Sukhawat Ali Khan Band, The Wingin It Experience at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054.  

Del Rey & Suzy Thompson at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Diablo’s Dust, Fernando Tarango at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Izabella, Cas Lucas, Mattt Lucas at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Dangerous Rhythm with Tim Fox at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

The Ravines at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Royal Hawaiian Serenaders at 9 p.m. at Temple Bar Tiki Bar & Grill, 984 University Ave. 548-9888. 

Rock ‘N’ Roll Adventure Kids 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. 

Bitches Brew at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 9 

THEATER 

Kung Pao Kosher Comedy “A Muslim, A Mormon, and A Jew Walk into A Bar” at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 800-838-3006. www.brownpapertickets.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“graham + erikson”A sculpture and photography exhibit at the Addison St. Windows, 2018 Addison St. Sidewalk reception at 3 p.m. 981-7533. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Nathaniel Tarn and H.C. ten Berge read their poetry at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Conversations on Art “Art and Memory: An Intergenerational Conversation with Mayer Kirshenblatt and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett at 2 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $10-$12. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tessa Loehwig & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Evening for the Buffalo featuring Mike Mease and Phoenix & Afterbuffalo. Presentation at 7:30 p.m., show at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Skinny String Gals at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Americana Unplugged with The Stairwell Sisters at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

MONDAY, SEPT. 10 

EXHIBITIONS 

“They Called Me Mayer July” Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust opens at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St., and runs to Jan. 13. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

“Wall Writings” A photographic investigation of abandonned buildings by Michelle Nye opens at The Light Room Gallery, 2263 Fifth St. 649-8111. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Robert Reich reads from his new book “Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donations requested. 559-9500. 

Peter Neumeyer discusses children’s literature and his new book “The Annotated Charlotte’s Web” at 7 p.m. at Kendington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Actors Reading Writers “Dream a Little Dream” stories by Lawrence Block, Thomas Meehan and James Thurber at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 932-0214. 

Brent Cunningham, Bill Luoma and Cynthia Sailers read their poetry at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express with Buford Buntin at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Nada Lewis, French cafe music, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100. www.lebateauivre.net 

Conjunto Karabali at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

At the top of the hill for the Solano Stroll, C.Z. and the Bon Vivants will be pumping out Zydeco and Cajun music for listening and dancing. It’s the third time the popular group will do the Stroll, and as fiddler Catherine Matovich said, “It’s been more fun every time—and nicer up there at the top. People can dance, then go into Andronico’s for something to drink, to keep from passing out!” 

Matovich talked about the musical and ethnic backgrounds of the quintet’s players. 

“Four out of five of us have no business playing this music, if you go by ethnicity,” she said. “Marty Jara, our guitarist, is Mexican, a fabulous dancer, known in L. A.; Tim Orr, the drummer’s from Massachusetts, whose family probably came over on the Mayflower; I’ve never asked Elaine Herrick what her background is, but a woman playing bass with Cajun, Latin and Jazz groups is suspect, anyway, right? and I’m Montenegran, classically trained, having played for symphonies, string quartets and backing people on tour like Neil Diamond and Olivia Newton-John! That leaves Andrew [Carriere], who’s Creole from Lake Charles, our accordion player. Andrew’s father, Bebe, was a famous Creole fiddle player in Louisiana. There’s a video of him playing in the 70s, not that long ago, but a different world. Some people follow us just to hear Andrew sing in the old patois.” 

Andrew Carriere turned 70 last Friday, and spoke from his East Oakland home about where he came from and moving to the Bay Area in 1972, taking up his instrument here. “About 80 percent of my people were musicians in Louisiana. The old people back home were kind of strict. They wouldn’t let me play accordion, said, ‘You’re going to break it!’ When I was eight or nine years old, I used to watch them. I knew how to sing that stuff, and after I moved here, say sometime in ‘73, I grabbed my cousin’s accordion ... it was a right-handed instrument, and I’m left-handed!  

“After a while, he let me get on stage,” Carriere said, “and people liked my style, mixing up Cajun music with Zydeco, which is mostly a faster two-step. People love that stuff. Finally, he wouldn’t let me up, ’til people asked for me—then only let me sing! I bought me an accordion, maybe in ‘83. In ‘95, my cousin, who was music representative of the California Cajun Orchestra, died of a bad heart, and I took over for him. I had to study real hard, get busy ... but it didn’t take me long!” 

Carriere plays regularly with the Bon Vivants and works with other groups occasionally. “Everybody hires me to go ‘way up and down somewhere for weddings.” He’ll sit in with his friend, Gerard Landry Sept. 4 at Ashkenaz, and on the 5th will play with the Creole Belles from 6:30-8 p.m. at Albany Memorial Park. 

“Andrew’s the type of person who’d get along with the president of the United States and with ditch diggers,” said Matovich. 

She spoke about playing Cajun music and Zydeco, and how the group got its start. “I got started late in this sort of music. I was used to the classical scene, all the music written out on charts. I wasn’t used to playing by ear, That was a big learning curve for me. Andrew doesn’t play the music by rules; he’s heard it from birth. It’s not a formula. He keeps us on our toes, lots of times throwing out a song we don’t know: ‘Come on!’  

“The group came about as an accident, and was originally an all-girl group called The Cajun Babes. My day job was with the California Symphony, and then heard Tom Rigney, fiddler who used to play with Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band. I went up on stage and said, “You’ll teach me!” In 2003, for Mardi Gras in Alameda, I found a bassist in a jazz bar and told him I was trying to put together a group, and he said his girl friend could help—so it was Elaine who found almost everyone. Then our accordionist had a baby, and Andrew was suggested. We had to change the name, and did it by democratic process. There were five of us, and it took eight months!” 

For the Solano Stroll, Matovich said there will be “a few special guests sitting in, who are under four feet tall—I’ll leave it like that as a teaser. She put in a last word and a couple anecdotes about playing the music. “It’s really simple roots music, and I appreciate it for that, in a different way than symphonies. Something about the beat; maybe close to the human heartbeat. I’ll see the huge delight on the faces of children of three or four years old hearing it, as if they’re saying, ‘Let me out of the stroller! I’ve got to rock!’ 

“One time, Andrew, Marty and I were playing up on a mountain at 7 a.m. for a bicycle marathon—and Andrew was having a party! I admire that; he’s the real deal. Another time, the three of us were busking on Solano—and George Cleve walks by! I’ve been under his baton in symphonies and operas—and his double take was worth everything! ‘What are you doing?’ he said—and I said, ‘I’m playing music for quarters. What are you doing today?’ And he laughed.” 

C.Z. and the Bon Vivants will perform at the Solano Stroll on Sunday. 

The only way to beat this thing ... is to leave nothing behind, nothing unsaid, nothing undone—use it all up! (But I’m scared to death!)” 

So says Brian (Jim Fye), a self-styled “self-satisfied, admittedly bad writer,” author of (among other atrocities), “four autobiographies, each one under a different name,” to his boozy, partygirl ex-wife Beverly (Dana Zook), who has almost come to blows with Brian’s doting boyfriend, ex-hustler Mark (Ben Ortega), in the hospice cottage where Brian’s living out his last days—not exactly in double connubial bliss, but in a funny way, near enough—as the center panel in the triptych of moribund cottagers and their loved ones, in Michael Cristofer’s The Shadow Box, splendidly staged by director Phoebe Moyer at the Masquers Playhouse in Point Richmond. 

The Shadow Box is very probably the best of a genre that came in with the ’70s, preceded a little by hits like Brian’s Song, meditations and milieu dramas on mortality, often very sentimental—if not maudlin—mostly pushing carpe diem to the middle-class limit of self-discovery. 

The Shadow Box differs from the cliche considerably, even if it has weathered a little as time goes on, due to its superior mostly non-, even anti-sentimental script—and its abundance of comic and satiric features, which offset any sense of brooding that could accumulate like weepy humidity. 

Cristofer is maybe more familiar (though not by name) to audiences as a screenwriter; the stage sharpened his ear for dialogue and that unusual taste for the satiric. Hordes of viewers (as most have, if at all, seen it on video after it was “untimely ripped” from the big screen) might excoriate him for his work on the movie version of Bonfire of the Vanities—but some think it the best film satire of the ’80s and its Reaganomics attitudes and fake Frank Capra film hits, in no little part due to its scenario, deliberately crossgrain to the popular Tom Wolfe book and its racy dialogue.  

It’s that sense of capturing the atmospherics, real or imagined, of an era that conditions The Shadow Box, its backgrounds, its characters and their stories—though, with that said, Phoebe Moyer (herself a fine actor) has used this “of its time” quality without comment or overhang (or hangover—excepting Beverly’s), concentrating intensively on the theme and script with her cast to bring off a coup of ensemble playing, true to the play’s intended end, unusual for a community theater, even such a solid, group-oriented production house as the Masquers. 

And, as par for the usual Masquers course, she’s been ably assisted by Tammy Berlin’s costume design, John Hull’s set, Rob (alias “Bill”) Bradshaw’s lights, Jerry Telfer’s sound and Margaret Paradis’ props. 

The scenes and vignettes are increasingly syncopated as the play progresses, and the dialogue of the three groups begins to skillfully overlap, making yet another element in a story that’s developed from bits and pieces of conversation and memories told to another—and interviews delivered to the audience, where The Interviewer (Elizabeth Smith) sits by the side, watching the play as well.  

The families are a mix. Besides the humorously louche grouping of Brian’s bunch, to stage right (and opening the play) is a literally regular Joe (Dale Camden), welcoming his reticent wife Maggie (Elizabeth Williams) and (like Brian as writer, admittedly bad guitarist-singer) son Steve (Joshua Huston) to the cottage (which Maggie won’t enter), only to discover Steve hasn’t learned of his terminal diagnosis.  

To the left is a sodden mother-daughter act: bitter, salty (and blind) Felicity (Christine Macomber) and her downtrodden offspring Agnes (Kristine Anne Lowry)—who hides a secret from her strangely vulnerable “tough case” mother. 

Cristofer breaks with convention by putting the comical milieu at center stage, but it’s a coup that makes the play come alive, defying the ravages of time and taste as its characters aspire to do. It also enables Fye and Zook to perform a comic rave-up as a very funny and truly odd ex-couple, while Ortega (also a standup comic) expertly deadpans as “straight” man. 

The overlapping dialogue is finally fulfilled in its syncopation with a chorus of the full cast addressing the audience, or life itself, in broken, almost ecstatic phrases that approximate a tone poem. 

THE SHADOW BOX 

Through Sept. 29 at Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org. 

Although you wouldn’t expect a book about metabolic ecology to be a page-turner, I found John Whitfield’s recent In the Beat of a Heart: Life, Energy, and the Unity of Nature engrossing. Whitfield, a British science journalist, explains how metabolism relates to size, volume, and surface area. Along the way, he looks at why bats outlive mice, whether humans are allotted a fixed number of heartbeats in their lifetime (astronaut Neil Armstrong said that if that was true, he was damned if he was going to waste any of his jogging), and the tragic fate of Tusko the elephant. 

Tusko, a bull Asian elephant at the Oklahoma City zoo, was the recipient of the largest hit of LSD ever administered to a living organism—297 milligrams, right in the rump, back in 1962. Psychiatrist L. Jolyon West was trying to induce musth, a state of apparent derangement to which male elephants are prone during the breeding season. West and his associates calculated the dose by extrapolating in linear fashion from the amount required to make a cat hallucinate. 

It was too much, of course. Tusko staggered despite his mate Judy’s attempts to support him, trumpeted, collapsed on his side, and began having seizures. He was pronounced dead an hour and 40 minutes later. Scale matters. The results were published in the prestigious journal Science, with the following summation: “It appears that the elephant is highly sensitive to the effects of LSD—a finding which may prove to be valuable in elephant-control work in Africa.” 

Size isn’t the only variable affecting metabolism. Some creatures are able to bank their internal fires during periods of extreme cold or heat and scarce resources, living on stored body fat: aestivating ground squirrels, hibernating bears, those male emperor penguins guarding their eggs through the Antarctic winter. It’s a risky strategy. Once fat levels fall below 10 percent of body mass, the animal has to burn its own protein—effectively digesting itself.  

Snakes, like other living reptiles, were known to keep their thermostats set lower than mammals or birds (the dinosaurs may have been different). But it was unclear until recently how they endured periods of food deprivation. As you will have noticed if you’ve ever handled a snake—something I would recommend, although not necessarily in a spiritual context—snakes don’t have much fat on them.  

To explore that question, Marshall McCue, a graduate student at the University of Arkansas, worked with captive ball pythons, rat snakes, and western diamondback rattlesnakes. The reptiles, in cages that constrained their activity, were kept at a constant 80.6 degrees F, limiting their body temperatures. They were deprived of food for up to 168 days while McCue recorded their oxygen consumption. Snakes were sacrificed at various set points during the experiment and their fat and protein levels measured; McCue went through a lot of snakes during this project. 

The snakes were able to lower their resting metabolic demands by up to 72 percent. “It would seem that their pilot light, which we already thought to be as low as possible, can actually go much lower,” McCue told a reporter for Nature. Their fat levels fell to 5 percent, which would have doomed most other vertebrates.  

And they accomplished this without going dormant. They stayed alert enough to attempt to bite their handlers; if a tasty rat had been offered, they would have been right on it. Some even managed to grow while starving.  

The rat snakes began to break down protein sooner than the rattlers or pythons, which makes ecological sense. Rat snakes are active pursuit predators; the others are ambush predators, more likely to experience significant lag time between meals. But the fact that snakes from three diverse lineages, including the relatively underived (it’s bad form to say “primitive”) pythons, share the ability suggests it’s an ancient trait in this group of reptiles. 

McCue uses an economic metaphor: the snakes reduce energy demand by lowering their metabolic rate and cope with the supply side by frugal use of their fat reserves. Just how they do this remains uncertain: maybe by reducing the density of mitochondria—the energy-generating powerhouses of the cells—in liver, heart, and other highly active tissues. 

All this may explain how snakes lucked out at the end of the Cretaceous, when some combination of extraterrestrial impact and volcanism killed off the dominant reptile groups—the dinosaurs, the pterosaurs, the great sea dragons. With whole ecosystems trashed and food webs disrupted, being able to just shut down for a few months would have had enormous survival value.  

According to McCue, the snake study may have practical spinoffs in monitoring nutritional success—more than can be said for the experiment that left the unfortunate Tusko a martyr to science.  

Photograh by Ron Sullivan. A gopher snake relaxing between meals near the Richmond shoreline.  

Joe Eaton’s “Wild Neighbors” column appears every other Tuesday in the Berkeley Daily Planet, alternating with Ron Sullivan’s “Green Neighbors” column on East Bay trees. 

Department of Corrections: the photograph of the California clapper rail accompanying my Arrowhead Marsh article was taken by Ron Sullivan.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 4 

Special Session of the City Council to discuss UC’s athletic center at the Oak Grove at 5 p.m. at Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 981-6903. 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit Wildcat Canyon. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

Introduction to International Folk Dance at 7:45 p.m. at Live Oak Park, 1201 Shattuck Avenue, Live Oak Park. Dance classes continue for 8 weeks. Cost is $30. 528-9168. www.berkeleyfolkdancers.yahoo.org  

Birding Class on Migrating Shorebirds, Tues. evenings in Sept., with Sat. field trips. Cost is $60. To register call 843-2222. 

End the Occupation Vigil every Tues. at noon at Oakland Federal Bldg., 1301 Clay St. www.epicalc.org 

“America: From Freedom to Fascism” A film on the erosion of civil liberties, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Climate Change, Empowerment, and Despair“ A presentation by Rainforest Information Centre, Rainforest Action Network, and Pachamama Alliance, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo Ave. www.climate.net.au  

“What Happened to the Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville High School Seniors Who Did Not Pass the Exit Exam in 2006 and 2007?” Brown bag lunch with Helene Lecar at noon at Albany Library, at Marin and Masonic Aves., Albany. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters. 843-8824. 

“Nature and Nurture: The Challenge for Adoptees” a six-week class on Tues. from 7 to 9 p.m. at Albany High School, 655 Key Route Blvd. Cost is $50. To register call 559-6580. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from 4 to 5 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. 644-8833. 

“Please Vote for Me” A documentary by Weijun Chen on fifth-graders in China at 6 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 100 Oak St., Oakland. Free. 326-1440.  

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. 

Free Sewing Class for Youth at Sew Your Own, from 3 to 6 p.m. at Bolivar Drive, Aquatic Park. 644-2577.  

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

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. 548-3991.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Street Level Cycles Community Bike Program Tues., Thurs., and Sat. from 2 to 6 p.m. Open bicycle repair lab where participants may use our tools as well as receive help with their own repairs free of charge. Waterside Workshops, 84 Bolivar Drive, Aquatic Park. 644-2577. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 5 

Stone Pillars of Northbrae Walking Tour Learn about the history of one of Berkeley’s most park-full neighborhoods through its scores of stone pillars. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of North Berkeley Library, on the Alameda near Hopkins St. 524-2383. www.berkeleypaths.org/events/wedwalks.htm 

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. 

“Inventing Human Rights” with Lynn Hunt, Prof. of History, UCLA, at 2 p.m. at Townsend Center for the Humanities, 220 Stephens Hall, UC Campus. 643-9670. http://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/publicworld.shtml 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 10 a.m. to noon in Oakland. Advanced sign-up is required. 594-5165.  

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Auditions at 4 p.m. at the Crowden School. For information on what to prepare and to make an appointment call 849-988. 

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Colloquium with Paul Groth on “Bodies and Storefronts: Orchestrating Dances of Desire” at 1 p.m. at Wurster Hall, Room 315A, UC Campus. All welcome. http://laep.ced.berkeley.edu/events/colloquium 

Recording African American Stories Add your voice to the Library of Congress and the National Museum of African American History, Wed. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., by appointment, at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, through Sept. 12. For appointment call 228-3207. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 6 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from 7 to 8 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. 644-8833. 

The Princess Project - East Bay Open House from 6 to 8 p.m. at Youth Uprising, 8711 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. Come help Bay Area girls feel confident and special; help organize a volunteer-run effort to distribute free prom dresses and accessories. 846-5271. 

El Sabor de Fruitvale from 3 to 7 p.m. at Fruitvale Transit Village, Fruitvale BART station, with music, fresh produce and children’s activities. 535-6900. 

Babies & Toddlers Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755.  

FRIDAY, SEPT. 7 

“Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change” A documentary of Bloody Sunday in 1965, at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the WOrker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free. 482-1062. 

“War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” Film screening and discussion with Normon Soloman at 8 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Circular Migration of Labor” with Rosalio Muñoz, chair, CPUSA Subcommittee on Immigration at 7 p.m. at the Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Suggested donation $5. 251-1120. ncalview@igc.org 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente Offices, Harrison Building, Room 8-K, 1950 Franklin St., Oakland. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com  

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, SEPT. 8 

East Bay AIDS Walk from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Lake Merritt, Bellevue and Grand Aves. To register see www.eastbayaidswalk.kintera.org 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of Rocks, Parks and Neighborhoods of North Berkeley from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10, season pass is $30. To register and for meeting place call 848-0181. 

Open The Farm Meet and greet the animals at the Little Farm in Tilden Park as you help the farmer with morning chores, from 9 to 10:30 a.m.. 525-2233. 

Reptile Rap Meet our resident snake and turtle friends with an interactive talk for the whole family, from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Sierra Club Grassroots Organizing Workshop from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 2530 San Pablo Ave. RSVP to 848-0800, ext. 307. 

Recycle Your Electronics Sat. and Sun. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the El Cerrito Dept. of Motro Vehicles, 6400 Manila Ave. Items accepted are computer monitors, computers, televisions, VCR and DVD players, toner cartridges, printers, fax machines, telephone equipment, cell phones and MP3 players. Sponsored by the City of El Cerrito. For infomation call 1-888-832-9839. www.unwaste.com 

Restoration Workday on the Banks of San Pablo Creek from 9:30 a.m. to noon at 4191 Appian Way, El Sobrante. For information call 665-3538. 

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. 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Montclair Village Meet at 1 p.m. at Montclair Branch Public Library, 1687 Mountain Blvd. for a gently sloping walk. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Salud! A Celebration of Latino Art, Health and Community with health information, visual art and live music, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave. 601-4040. www.wcrc.org 

The Crucible’s Fall Open House from 2 to 6 p.m. followed by Artist-in-Residence reception at 1260 7th Street, Oakland. www.thecrucible.org 

Fall Bloomimng Perennials & Shrubs at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. off 7th St. 644-2351. 

“Interested in Becoming a Foster Parent?” Information and training from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. RSVP to 925-370-1990. 

“The Art of Narration in Television and Radio Ads” with Paul Rowan at Dramatically Speaking, at 9 a.m., 1950 Franklin St., Room 2C, Oakland. Free, but please RSVP. ID required to get into building. 581-8675. Lunni8@aol.com 

East Bay Baby Fair from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. 540-7210. www.eastbaybabyfair.com 

Common Agenda, a local alliance of some 20 organizations in the Bay Area meets at 2 p.m. at the Peace Action Office, 2800 Adeline St. at Stuart. 524-6071. 

Auditions for Soli Deo Gloria from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, 1323 Central Ave., Alameda. For infromation call 888-734-7664. www.sdgloria.org 

Careers in Travel a full day class at Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St. Cost is $10. RSVP to 981-2931.  

Luna Kids Dance Open House and creative dance class from 1 to 3 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 644-3629. 

Produce Stand at Spiral Gardens Food Security Project from 1 to 6 p.m. at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon St. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10 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, SEPT. 9 

Solano Stroll “Going Green - It’s Easy” with entertainment, food, information booths, and more from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Solano Ave. in Albany and Berkeley. info@solanostroll.org 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Broadway Auto Row Meet at 10 a.m. at 28th and Broadway, the tip of the Flatiron Building. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Huston Smith “Three Outstanding Experiences of My Life” at 10 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

The Red Oak Victory Ship Pancake Breakfast from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on board the ship, in Richmond harbor off Canal Blvd. Cost is $6, children under 5 free. 237-2933. 

The Great War Society meets to discuss “The Asquiths & Woods” by Peter Wood at 10:30 a.m. at 132 Montwood Way, Oakland. For information call 527-7118. 

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. 

Sew Your Own Open Studio from 5 to 9 p.m. at 84 Bolivar Drive, Aquatic Park. Our workshop has industrial and domestic machines and tools which you can come learn to use or work on your own projects in a social setting. Cost is $3 per hour. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

MONDAY, SEPT. 10 

The 9/11 Truth Film Festival Films include “Hijacking Catastrophe,” “The Reflecting Pool,” “Zeitgeist,” “Let's Get Empirical,” “9/11: Press for Truth,” and “9/11 Mysteries” from 1 to 10 p.m. Mon. and Tues. at the Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Donation $5-$10. 

Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning Workshop for six consequtive Mon. eves. from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Adult School, 1701 San Pablo Ave. Pre-registraion encouraged. 644-6130. http://bas.berkeley.net  

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra rehearsals begin for Puccini's Messa di Gloria at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Pre-registration strongly recommended. www.bcco.org  

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at West Pauley Ballroom MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com  

People's Park Community Advisory Board meeting at 7 p.m. at Trinity Methodist Church, 2362 Bancroft Ave. 642-3255.  

Free Sewing Class for Youth at Sew Your Own, from 3 to 6 p.m. at Bolivar Drive, Aquatic Park. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Special Session of the City Council to discuss UC’s athletic center at the Oak Grove at 5 p.m. at Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 981-6903. 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Sept. 5 , at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., Sept. 5, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., Sept. 5, at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 981-4950.  

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400.  

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 6, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7419.  

Public Works Commission meets Thurs. Sept. 6, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6406.  

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Hysteria” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through Sept. 30. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.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 

“Citizen Josh” with monologoist Josh Kornbluth, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2025 Addison St., through Sept. 2. Tickets are $25-$30. 647-2949. 

Masquers Playhouse “The Shadow Box” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through Sept. 29. This show is not recommended for children.Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org  

TheaterInSearch “Epic of Gilgamesh” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Sept. 2. Tickets are $12-$20. 262-0584. 

Viaticum “The Carnal Table” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. through Sept. 2. Tickets are $10-$15. 848-3338. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Hit the Road, Jack...” A mixed-media group show. Opening reception at 7 p.m at Eclectix Gallery, 7523 Fairmount Ave., El Cerrito. 364-7261. 

FILM 

From the Tsars to the Stars: A Journey through Russian Fantastik Cinema “The Heavens Call” at 7 p.m. and “Zero City” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Los Boleros, Havana dance party, at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jessica Jones Group at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

8:00 p.m., August 31, VidyA, South Indian jazz group. Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley. $15 at the door; $10 for club members and seniors.  

Melvin Seals & JGB, The Jolly Gibsons at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $17-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Judea Eden Band at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Mike Eckstein and Vanessa Lowe at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Matthew Hansen, James Deprato, Sean Hodge at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Jeff Jernigan at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Pacuzo, Digust of Us, alt, jazz, latin, at 9:30 p.m. at the Stork Club Oakland, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 444-6174. 

Lifesavas at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8-$10. 548-1159.  

Shim Sham Rebellion at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Allan Hodsworth at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 1 

CHILDREN  

“Aesop’s Fables Puppet Show” Sat. and Sun. at 11 a.m. and 2 and 4 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. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with David Alpaugh and Lynne Knight at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Roseanne Dimalanta & Ray Obiedo’s Latin Project at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

M’Balou Kante at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Guinean dance workshop at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Sotaque Baiano, Brazilian, at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Heaven with Your Boots On, Kevin McCarthy at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

Jonathan Segel, Victor Krummenacher, P.A.F. at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Allegiance, Set it Straight, SBV, Down Again, at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 2 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Philips Marine Duo at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Naked Barbies record release party at 4 p.m. at The Starry Plough. all gaes. 841-2082.  

La Kay, Haitian, at 5 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Doomhawk, Red Herring, Pet Club at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, SEPT. 3 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Face of Place” mixed media by Janet Brugos opens at L’Amyx Tea Bar, 4179 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. www.lamyx.com 

“Found Photos” An exhibition of photographs by Yvette Hoffer shot 50 years ago in Europe on exhibit at Downtown Restaurant, 2102 Shattuck, through Oct.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Don Coffin and Paul Ellis, Celtic, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100.  

TUESDAY, SEPT. 4 

EXHIBITIONS 

CCA Photography Retrospective Works by recent graduates as well as faculty opens at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., at 25th St., Richmond. 620-6772.  

FILM 

“Please Vote for Me” A documentary by Weijun Chen on fifth-graders in China at 6 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 100 Oak St., Oakland. Free. 326-1440.  

Devotional Cinema: Films by Dorsky and Ozu with Nathaniel Dorsky at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

David Kirp describes “The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

John Aubrey Douglass discusses “The Conditions For Admission: Access, Equity, and the Social Contract of Public Universities” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Gerard Landry & the Lariats at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Duke Robillard, blues guitarist, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 5 

FILM 

“Ankur” with filmmaker Shyam Benegal at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Khalil Bendib introduces “Mission Accomplished: Wicked Cartoons by America’s Most Wanted Cartoonist” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Zachary Schomburg and Lily Brown read their poetry at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

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 

Jazz Masters Concert with Cow Bop, jazz goes Western, at noon at 12th and Broadway, Oakland.  

Wednesday Noon Concert, with Michael Seth Orland, solo piano at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Ben Flint Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

The Mighty Diamonds, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054.  

Whiskey Brothers, old-time and bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Jamie Davis at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, SEPT. 6 

FILM 

“Shorts by Lindsay Anderson” at 5:30 p.m. and “Bhumika” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Brenda Hillman reads her poetry at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Ruthann Lum McCunn reads from her novel “God of Luck” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Mary Gordon reads from “Circling My Mother: A Memoir” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Eric Yates & Friends, Americana, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054.  

Jamie Laval with Ashley Broder, Celtic violinist and mandolin at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Marmadou & Vanessa Sidibe Music Mali at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Beltaine’s Fire, Boudica, Greenbridge at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

Otro Mundo at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10. 849-2568.  

Kenny Burrell & The Jazz Heritage All-stars at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

I’m dying! Bring in the gravediggers. Let the mourners come.” On a set out of a Gothic fairytale (designed by Kim A. Tolman)—a crypt with a crazy rose window above, a hovering eye and the Mona Lisa with her face half covered by a hand as she gazes out over the audience, a chessboard below as flooring—Saul Strange (David Usner, himself a skydiver) writhes on his seeming deathbed, rigged with parachute lines, in an upbeat final agony, attended by his family with painted faces (and occasionally a fantastic creature, a kind of celestial butoh drag queen, played by Kinji Hayashi). 

But on being wished “Happy Birthday, Grandpa!” by May Strange (Maikiko James), who presents him with his old combat medal and ribbon she’s discovered, and donning an O.D. jacket with epaulets and fringe over longjohns and (gold Arabian Nights slippers) taken from a coffin-shaped armoire, the old campaigner’s mournful talk turns to thoughts of restaurants and food. 

As Helen Pau’s creation, which she wrote and directed, shifts gears, and shifts again and again, to settle in (though not for long) at the “Carnal Table” that figures as the subtitle of Viaticum, an Incubator 16 production going into its final weekend at Live Oak Theatre. 

It’s not so much the dishes served at that fleshly board as the manner in which the feast unfolds that gives Viaticum its ultrachromatic, even atonal resonance. Monologue follows repartee after vignette, flowing right along like a branching stream into various landscapes, the connectives (as in a dream) quickly brushed over, or eliminated. It’s like a Mannerist painting, in which all kinds of action exists side-by-side in a variety of perspectives on the same canvas—nervewracking to take in all at once, but enjoyable in courses, once the spectator sits back and partakes in the procession of offerings, one by one, and lets it all correspond in its own way, mostly through wry (even skewed) humor. 

The deathbed, turned round, becomes the table of a Last Supper that easily outdoes any Da Vinci Code blather (and Leonardo’s name and work are invoked, under the shy Mona Lisa hovering above, just as Lewis Carroll seems to be in the wings, ready to step on the chessboard, or present in the sub-sub-title/description of “A TragicFarce in Ten Fits,” à la his “Hunting of the Snark”). 

The motifs jostle each other awkwardly, visually and verbally, as in a de Chirico painting, or a book by his prolific brother Savinio. In some ways less Surrealist (in the fullbore Parisian sense) than pre- and para-Surrealist, Viaticum plays off the mad Gothic sensibilities of, say, Poe or Comte de Lautreamont, dragooned as predecessors by Andre Breton’s gang—or the fascination with eccentric popular genres, like pirates, porn, secret agents and salacious nuns—all served up with a dollop of scatology and oodles of incest. 

Auditors straining for a plot may be hard pressed to respond, and some will find Viaticum irritating or “too conceptual” if they focus on the foreground, which evaporates constantly over the horizon or off the vanishing points. Better to take in the textures of offbeat stories spinning out, as the family of characters shifts shape to suit whatever gambit they’re on, all accompanied by cello (often in pizzicato), pennywhistle and toy piano by musical trouper Alex Kelly. 

The family (including Jacquie Duckworth and Steve Budd) moves through its various characterizations, anchored by the constants: parents/grandparents Saul and Jean Beatrice—Michaela Greeley, excellent in an almost deadpan performance, whether echoing the tail ends of others’ lines like a parrot as she serves as dresser and factotum in brown karate drag, or in basic black, hat and veil, squatting on an enormous white pawn, reeling out long lines of Strindbergian monologue. 

An unusual stage event, especially to end a slower summer than the past two. With another original out there like George Charbak’s Gilgamesh, also ending this weekend, it makes for a picaresque time of show-hopping in Berkeley, just like Helen Pau’s peripatetic script ... ready to praise the Prince of Darkness at any moment, while excusing oneself to run off to prayers! 

VIATICUM: THE CARNAL TABLE 

8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday. $10-$15. 848-3338. 

Live Oak Theater. 1301 Shattuck Ave.

Time is running out to see a superb and fascinating photography exhibit at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art. “Think While You Shoot!” a career-spanning retrospective of the tremendously varied body of work by Hungarian-born photographer Martin Munkacsi, runs through Sept. 16. 

Munkacsi could do it all—and with style, insight, and humor. From sports and action to war and politics, from bathing beauties to portraits and fashion, from pop culture to gripping photojournalism, the versatile Munkacsi seemed to master every subject he took on. 

He began his career in Hungary, working primarily as a sports photographer, capturing athletes in motion with crystal-clear precision. The exhibit begins with some of this early work. One image shows a goalkeeper lunging, frozen in time while floating horizontally above the ground with outstretched arms, straining for a ball that passes just out of reach. Another shot shows the gritty rush of speed as a motorcyclist crashes through a puddle, eyes squinting as dark jets of mud splash up all around him. 

In the late 1920s Munkacsi made his way to Berlin, where he took a job with the leading German photo weekly Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, for which he traveled the world in search of photojournalistic fodder. Some of his most striking images from this era present a radical departure from his usual joyous photographs, as he documented the transfer of power from German President Paul von Hindenburg to Adolf Hitler.  

The force of Munkacsi’s shots of German soldiers on the march is only intensified by their placement in the gallery opposite a long wall of lighthearted portraits of beautiful young women frolicking on sun-soaked beaches. The rise of the Nazis prompted the Jewish photographer to emigrate to the United States, where he took a job with Harper’s Bazaar. The bathing beauty portraits illustrate how Munkacsi immediately influenced his profession: he transformed fashion photography from a static, studio-bound form to a celebration of the body in action, producing kinetic, exuberant photographs of models in motion outdoors, on city streets and beaches. His models didn’t just strike a pose and let their finery hang in luxurious folds; they walked, they ran, they jumped and danced. 

Also on view are shots that display Munkacsi’s sense of humor and his curiosity about people. At some point he stopped shooting the athletes at sporting events and focused his camera instead on the spectators, making for a delightful series of images that bring out the emotion—heartache, anticipation, and joy—of people watching other people. This semi-voyeuristic approach comes to full fruition in another striking display: Munkacsi’s series of a couple riding a double-decker bus. The body language in these three photographs suggests that a particularly intimate conversation is taking place against the shifting backdrop of urban streets. One of Munkacsi’s most noteworthy talents was this ability to distill an image in such a way that it suggests meanings and plot lines and happenings far beyond what is within the frame. 

Other images take a more comic approach. One shows a skier making his way uphill, the criss-crossing pattern of his splayed ski prints in the snow behind him sharply telling of his cumbersome journey. Another shot looks down on a field full of schoolchildren reclining for what appears to be an impromptu nap or perhaps a group cloud-watching session. Munkacsi’s camera transforms them into a haphazard geometric pattern without losing the human appeal of a lazy afternoon spent lolling in the grass with a few dozen friends. 

Munkacsi had a gift for finding the humanity in everything he photographed. And though his images of the rise of the Nazis and his respectful but harrowingly intimate documentation of the death and sorrow of a mine disaster may be stirring, jarring, and powerful, his most lasting contribution to photography is the joyful exuberance he brought to his best work. 

MARTIN MUNKACSI:  

THINK WHILE YOU SHOOT! 

Through Sept. 16 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 151 Third St., San Francisco. Open 10 a.m. - 5:45 p.m. Monday and Tuesday; 10 a.m.-8:45 p.m. Thursday; 10 a.m.-5:45 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Closed Wednesday.  

www.sfmoma.org. (415) 357-4000.

The address 2411-31 Russell St. in southeast Berkeley is a small cluster of mid-century townhouses on the edge of a fashionable neighborhood where stately brown shingle and period revival houses claim most of the curb appeal and attention. 

But this complex of more modest homes is, its own way, very liveable and contextual. One two bedroom unit—2427 Russell—is currently for sale at $534,900. John Koenigshofer is the listing agent, at Elmwood Realty. (www.erihomes.com) 

There’s an open house this coming Sunday, Sept. 2, from 2 to 4 p.m. 

2427 is tucked into the northeast corner of the larger of two buildings in the complex. It’s one of nine townhouses forming a shallow “C” facing the street and bracketing a smaller, two-unit, building. Encircling the property is a driveway that leads to 11 covered parking spaces along the rear property line. 

Inside, the unit is a simple, two-story, cube. The front door enters a living room with a stairway in one corner, diagonally across from a dining nook. The dining area leads around into the kitchen, in the rear of the first floor.  

Upstairs are two bedrooms—one large, one smaller—and a bath. The bedrooms look out from different sides of the building.  

On paper the unit seems small—some 924 square feet—but in reality it’s not claustrophobic. Windows face east, northeast, and west, there’s natural light and the spaces flow well.  

The units are “really well designed, they’re super-efficient” says David Lehrer, head of the homeowner’s association. 

The architecture is quite uncomplicated, reflecting mid-century Modern values. Small features—like a sculptural metal railing on the staircase, simple tilework, a fluted bathroom window—substitute for more elaborate and extensive decorative details. Stairs and floors are finished hardwood. The unit has been nicely painted for staging and sale.  

The kitchen appears to have several original features—tile counters with raised rims, a big triangular tile shelf perfect for plants above the sink and below the corner windows, and a built-in ironing board cabinet now fitted with tiny storage shelves. A skinny doorway leads to storage under the staircase.  

There are small closets upstairs and down and storage closets by the parking, and the closet in the larger bedroom has a deep niche above the stairs for extra storage.  

This could be a compact but quite liveable home for a single resident, a couple or two separate adults without children, or perhaps a single parent or family with one child.  

Most units—including the one for sale—look out the front onto a courtyard, and have a rear door opening to the driveway or parking area. There’s a common laundry room at a back corner of the complex. 

The landscaping along the public sidewalk is slightly raised and handsomely planted—in part by a UC Botanical Garden staffer who owns a unit—and the tranquil center court has a rectangle of lawn and flowering shrubs and other foundation plantings. 

Simple principles also shape the exterior architecture. The roof pitch appears shallow, almost flat. Outside walls—painted in peaceful cream tones--have a band of red brick across the base, stucco above, and painted horizontal boards at the top. Some windows project slightly in very shallow bays. 

I haven’t been able to find much of the history of this property, only some tantalizing possibilities. The realtor gives the year of construction as 1946, right after World War II ended.  

Post-War housing was scarce in Berkeley, since wartime needs and labor shortages had diverted resources from private residential construction at the same time there was a big influx of immigrants into the East Bay to work in war industries. 

One resident says he’s heard these units were built for UC professors. A long-time neighbor up the block recalls coming across early photos of the buildings in an archive of one-time U.S. Navy housing.  

I’ve never heard of UC housing at this site, but it’s conceivable. As the war came to an end, the University had a number of long term and temporary arrangements to house not only home front students but a large number of veterans coming to college on the G.I. Bill. Further research awaits. 

Whatever the early history, it has followed the trajectory of many of Berkeley’s small multi-unit complexes. Built to meet high housing demand, it spent decades in rental use. Conversion to condos followed in the late 1990s as detached single family homes in Berkeley became unaffordable for many residential buyers. 

Today, the residents are “a cross section of Berkeley”, says Lehrer. Some are tenants who purchased their units; others bought after the condos were created. They include owner occupants who are “professionals, several teachers, some UC employees” including one professor, plus a few renters says Lehrer. 

The property is self-managed, with a group of five residents heading up the homeowner’s association. Twice a year, Lehrer says, all the residents help out with a landscaping work party. 

The complex lies near the southwest corner of the Willard neighborhood. The Elmwood shopping district is just three blocks east, up Russell Street.  

Most of the buildings in that direction are large single family homes from the early 20th century when the area was developed as the Berry-Bangs Tract (see the Valentine/Dakin house article in the July 6 Planet for a more detailed neighborhood description). 

Immediately to the west there once was a mansion on a huge lot between Russell and Oregon, dating to when south Telegraph was a pleasant residential street with large lots and homes. The house was torn down in the 1960s and replaced with a bland, six-story, office building partially ringed by a large parking lot. 

If you visit 2427 Russell also walk one street north to the 2400 block of Oregon Street to see an eclectic row of houses ranging from a huge, white columned,, house to what may be southeast Berkeley’s smallest detached home on a postage stamp lot.  

Or go up Russell and south on Regent Street to one of Berkeley’s cutest bungalow courts with a semicircle of doll-house cottages, the Presbyterian Mission Homes, used by clergy families on sabbatical. 

There’s public transportation nearby on Ashby and Telegraph. Whole Foods, Berkeley Bowl, and the Telegraph Andronicos are within easy walking distance, as are Le Conte Elementary School, Willard Junior High, and the Willard Swim Center and park. Alta Bates Hospital is a few blocks south, and immediately east of the condo unit is an older house inconspicuously used for medical offices.  

Although just a block north of busy Ashby, this stretch of Russell Street is relatively quiet, despite the installation a few years ago of a largely unneeded traffic signal at the Telegraph intersection. Russell is a City “bicycle boulevard,” blocked to through traffic west of College. 

In this neighborhood scattered pre-war two and three-story apartment buildings—some in courtyard designs—generally harmonize with the surrounding single family homes in the way that later 1950s/60s apartment buildings—and many present day “infill” buildings—don’t. 

I decided to write about this Russell Street property in part because it has several qualities that should be kept in mind by those so anxious to make Berkeley more “liveable” by building more multi-unit housing.  

By any objective standard this eleven-unit property is fairly dense. Three free-standing Berkeley homes—or two suburban ranch houses, or one Marin County or Menlo Park manse—would fit on a land parcel this size.  

But these units don’t feel crowded. They share one or two side walls, but there’s no one living above or below. Several have windows on three sides. The residents get light and air. The lack of private yard space would be a drawback for some, but fine for non-gardeners. Units have separate, ground level, entrances and porches.  

At two stories this housing doesn’t tower above its detached residential neighbors. It fits in along the street, with setbacks and landscaped space. The development doesn’t include the security gates and grates, walls and fences, under-building parking and ostentatious “loft” interiors that make too many new multi-unit properties bulky and forbidding places.  

By having a mix of single family homes and properties like this (as well as lots of hidden housing in backyard cottages, in-law units, flats, and attics) a Berkeley neighborhood can be, in reality, relatively dense while still feeling fairly green and suburban in the most positive sense. 

Photograph by Steven Finacom. 2427 Russell fits into a sunny corner of the townhouse courtyard. 

Containers for planting are limited only by your imagination—and a few realities, what plants need.  

Their roots need access to oxygen, and that gets ignored way too often. Out of sight, out of mind, evidently. That mistake happens in the ground, too: people bury tree roots under paving or a few extra feet of soil, and then wonder why their prized tree is dying.  

Oxygen can’t get to roots when they’re underwater, a surprisingly common problem with container plants. People actually put plants into containers with no drainage holes.  

The poor plants stand in water, which despite being two-thirds oxygen can’t deliver that element to roots. The fact that one can sometimes get away with it—that infrequent watering, well-aerated soil, a very tough plant, and dumb luck come together just long and often enough—perpetuates the bad habit. 

If you have a pot without drainage and it absolutely needs a plant, as opposed to your knitting-needle collection or the cat’s drinking water, you have choices. Drill holes in the bottom, and don’t be stingy; make several and make each an inch wide.  

Too scary? Find a real plant pot small enough to fit inside, and pot your plant in that. Take it out to water it, or at least pour the leftovers out after you water.  

If you have a sunny enough spot—they’re almost always sun-lovers—and your non-draining pot is wide and shallow enough, you might adopt a carnivorous plant: a Venus’ flytrap, a sundew, or a handsome hooded Sarracenia, “pitcher plant.”  

These do well when their pots sit in shallow water; most are originally swamp or freshwater marsh plants. Use distilled water, or its “purified” equivalent.  

Unglazed clay is the best material for a plant pot. It’s porous enough to let water evaporate through it, to “breathe.” It’s also heavy, brittle, and often homely.  

Glazed ceramic pots can be prettier, and generally are at least a bit cool inside to keep roots happier. Wooden boxes and half-barrels have that virtue too, but they decay faster. Biodegradable is good, if it doesn’t involve, say, fungi that also attack roots.  

Those ubiquitous black plastic nursery cans are hard on plants. They’re meant to be temporary vehicles, not permanent homes. In plastic, it’s easier to create an anaerobic situation because the only way water can escape is through the holes in the bottom, which sometimes get blocked by roots. 

The other problem with most nursery cans is that they’re black. Black plastic absorbs heat very fast. You can cook your poor plant’s roots to death in a day when the sun’s angle changes with the season.  

If you’re stuck with plastic, at least look for tan or cream-colored cans. I’ve even seen bright pink one-gallon horrors. As you like it; I’m not playing Martha Stewart here.  

Tufa, a light porous stone, has ideal drainage and a good imitation, “hypertufa,” can be mixed up and molded.  

There’s a “Beginning Hypertufa Trough Construction” class at the Tilden Botanic Garden on Sunday, October 14, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. $65. See to www.nativeplants.org/classes.html for a registration form. 

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.

The Europeans have had it all over us for some decades when it comes to energy efficiency. This might have something to do with a political attitude toward wasting energy or sheer economy. In any event, our European brothers and sisters are more inclined to pinch a BTU (that a British Thermal Unit for those of you new to the energy game). 

One of the things that they’ve long embraced has been small, “on-demand,” “flash” or “tankless” water heaters. Before I get into a description of what an on-demand water heater is, let’s take a brief look at “tanked” conventional water heaters. 

A conventional gas water heater (electric water heaters are worthy of discussion but are relatively rare in our area) is made up of a vertically mounted water tank (usually 30-50 gallons) with a gas burner mounted at the bottom. Water is heated in the tank until it reaches the set temperature (adjustable at the front with a non-specific dial, i.e. warm, hot, hotter) and the water is held at that temperature by the intermittent operation of the burner. In other words, the burner comes on many times each day to keep the water at the desired temperature. This is true whether you are home, sleeping or at work. All so that you’ll be able to enjoy a nice hot shower whenever you’re in the mood. 

This requires a lot more energy and cost than if you heated the water as you needed it (which we’ll get back to that in a little while). 

These water heaters take up several square feet of space and need to be mounted on a floor or stand (in a garage, they should be placed on a stand so that the flame is at least 18” above the floor to prevent ignition of gas fumes unless a special FVIR model is used). 

Water heaters are also very heavy and can become a bull in a china shop during an earthquake. If they do move more than a tiny bit during an earthquake they can break their gas lines and cause a gas build-up and explosion. This is one of the really serious seismic issues everyone should be looking at and every “tanked” water heater should be heavily strapped, top and bottom (and a third if they’re over 50 gallons). 

Lastly, a conventional water heater runs out of hot water after a while and must “recover” which can take anywhere from 15-45 minutes, depending on the model. In short, your shower is over at some point. 

An on-demand water heater is different from this conventional gas model in several respects. First, there’s no tank (I’m not actually this stupid. Yes, of course you knew that). Instead, there is a very long coil of tubing seated above a large burner. When you turn on your hot tap, water begins to flow through the coil and a sensor picks up the movement. The burner comes on and heats the water as it flows through the coil. The whole heating process takes a few seconds and hot water emerges at the other end of the coil of tubing. You have hot water in a few seconds at your point of use (shower, sink, laundry).  

This means that you get to have hot water for as long as you want. It never run out. You can stay in the shower all afternoon! What a concept. 

Because you are only heating water when you need it, you end up saving serious money on your gas bill. You also save the earth a little bit by decreasing green house gas emission (CO2) from your home.  

You may save two hundred or more dollars per year with a unit like this. Because these units are not filled with many gallons of water, they are much lighter and much less likely to move during an earthquake. This means that the likelihood of a gas explosion after an earthquake is much less. The units are typically bolted to a wall as a part of their normal installation and many models are designed to be hung on an exterior wall. These features decrease gas danger even further.  

Lastly, I frequently get asked by my clients how we can get the water heater out of laundry room or kitchen to make more room and the installation of an on-demand on an outside wall is often my response. Although these “new wave” of water heaters are costlier, they can give you back a room that’s been taken over by that looming old figure by the stove. With the increased efficiency, lower operating cost, added interior space and increased seismic safety, it’s hard to argue against these newcomers, even at their higher cost.  

A number of models exist (I’m only looking at gas units at this point, but electrics do exist) and new ones are coming along every year. If you decide to go this route, make sure you get a large enough model so that you don’t run out of water when you’re running shower, laundry and sink. Although these units keep producing hot water, they do have limits on how much they produce per minute. It is best to talk to an expert about the model that’s right for you. A downside you should expect with these units is that you will have to turn the water to a good flow to get them to kick on. They can generally be throttled down somewhat afterwards.  

Life is good. You can finally achieve your life’s goal of staying in the shower all afternoon. 

The above article was published in the Berkeley Daily Planet in June 2005 and, since you’ve all gotten so much smarter since then, there are some finer points I think you’re now ready to handle so here’s a little update: 

On demand water heaters do a lot of heating in a very short time and so need a huge burner (about three times as powerful as your central furnace). This means that they need a big gas line.  

When installing one, you should expect to have to provide at least a three-fourth of an inch gas line to the unit. If you’re more than about 30 feet away, it may have to be 1 inch. If you get a more powerful unit, the gas line may be bigger. This calculation is a critical part of the plumber’s job. Putting the device closer to the gas main is a good idea since it can not only decrease the length (and cost) of the gas piping, it can also decrease the size (and more cost) of the gas piping. Try to put the unit on the outside of the house and on the same side as your gas main (unless your main is on the front since this will look lousy). 

It now looks as though these devices have a very bad relationship with galvanized water pipe and can be killed in as little as two years if the piping leading to them is galvanized steel (the old stuff). For now, there doesn’t seem to be a service repair for the part that gets damaged by steel so it’s very important that you have your unit installed with copper piping coming to the unit from the street (3/4” is best for most houses). 

Lastly, placement of the unit on the outside can save hundreds of dollars on the purchase of very expensive stainless steel flue piping as well as creating more inside space. Remember how these burn a whole lotta gas. Well, the corrosion caused by this is too much for the common double-wall metal flue that we usually love so, if you have your unit inside (including inside your basement, garage or crawlspace) you have to spend mucho bucks on Class 3 stainless flue pipe. This can easily add hundreds of dollars SO, save the money and put it out with the cat. Make sure that the unit is at least a couple of feet away from (and not below) an openable window so that the exhaust doesn’t blow back inside. Be proud if you make this bold move. It’s a not-all-that-small part of saving the planet. 

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

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

Compost for Berkeley Residents from 8:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at Berkeley Marina Maintenance Yard, 201 University Ave., next to Adventure Playground, Berkeley. 981-6660.  

“This is my Home” a film on the struggle of displaced public housing residents in post-Katrina New Orleans, at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way, under the Sather Gate Parking Garage. 848-1196. 

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, SEPT. 1 

Remembrance, Reflection, and Recommitment on the 20th Anniversary of the attempt to stop the naval weapons shipment to Central America at 10 a.m. at the tracks opposite the Concord Naval Weapons Station, off Highway 4 on Port Chicago Hwy North, where the tracks cross the road. 528-5403. NurembergReunion@comcast.net 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around Preservation Park to see Victorian architecture. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of Preservation Park at 13th St. and MLK, Jr. Way. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

The Scoop on Ponds Learn how our pond critters have held up through the dry summer at 10:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Read the Signs Learn how to find out where animlas have been and what they were doing, on a walk around Jewel Lake. Meet at 1 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Art & Soul Festival, with live music, children’s entertainment, arts and crafts, and food from local producers, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sat.-Mon. at Frank Ogawa Plaza, downtown Oakland. ArtandSoulOakland.com 

Politcal Affairs Reading Group will discuss “Class, Race and Women’s Equality: A Strategic View” by Sam Webb at 10 a.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library for Social Research, 6501 Telegraph Ave. 595-7417. www.marxistlibr.org 

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 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

SUNDAY, SEPT. 2 

Poetry Garden Celebration from 1 to 3 p.m. on the corner of Milvia and Lincoln at Berkeley Arts Magnet School. Open mic for poetry performance and paper and pencils for on the spot poetic inspiration. Children especially welcome. 548-1707. mccoatty@hotmail.com  

Birdwatching Bicycle Tour of the Eastshore State Park Meet at 8:40 a.m. at El Cerrito Del Norte BART station. Trip ends at Aquatic Park in Berkeley. Bring bicycle lock, lunch and liquids. Kathy_Jarrett@yahoo.com 

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 

“Evil is Not Good for You: The Dangers of Demonization” with Walter Truett Anderson at 10 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Solo Sierrans Sunset Walk in the Emeryville Marina. Meet at 5 p.m. behind Chevy’s for an hour walk on a paved trail. 234-8949. 

Kensington Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 

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 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712.  

MONDAY, SEPT. 3 

Labor Day Open House at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park, with crafts, nature walk,s and farm activities from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 525-2233. 

TUESDAY, SEPT. 4 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit Wildcat Canyon. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

Introduction to International Folk Dance at 7:45 p.m. at Live Oak Park, 1201 Shattuck Avenue, Live Oak Park. Dance classes continue for 8 weeks. Cost is $30. 528-9168. www.berkeleyfolkdancers.yahoo.org  

Birding Class on Migrating Shorebirds, Tues. evenings in Sept., with Sat. field trips. Cost is $60. To register call 843-2222. 

End the Occupation Vigil every Tues. at noon at Oakland Federal Bldg., 1301 Clay St. www.epicalc.org 

“America: From Freedom to Fascism” A film on the erosion of civil liberties, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Climate Change, Empowerment, and Despair“ A presentation by Rainforest Information Centre, Rainforest Action Network, and Pachamama Alliance, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo Ave. www.climate.net.au  

“What Happened to the Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville High School Seniors Who Did Not Pass the Exit Exam in 2006 and 2007?” Brown bag lunch with Helene Lecar at noon at Albany Library, at Marin and Masonic Aves., Albany. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters. 843-8824. 

“Nature and Nurture: The Challenge for Adoptees” a six-week class on Tues. from 7 to 9 p.m. at Albany High School, 655 Key Route Blvd. Cost is $50. To register call 559-6580. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from 4 to 5 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. 644-8833. 

“Please Vote for Me” A documentary by Weijun Chen on fifth-graders in China at 6 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 100 Oak St., Oakland. Free. 326-1440.  

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. 

Free Sewing Class for Youth at Sew Your Own, from 3 to 6 p.m. at Bolivar Drive, Aquatic Park. 644-2577.  

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

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.  

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. 

Street Level Cycles Community Bike Program Tues., Thurs., and Sat. from 2 to 6 p.m. Open bicycle repair lab where participants may use our tools as well as receive help with their own repairs free of charge. Waterside Workshops, 84 Bolivar Drive, Aquatic Park. 644-2577. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 5 

Stone Pillars of Northbrae Walking Tour Learn about the history of one of Berkeley’s most park-full neighborhoods through its scores of stone pillars. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of North Berkeley Library, on the Alameda near Hopkins St. 524-2383. www.berkeleypaths.org/events/wedwalks.htm 

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. 

“Inventing Human Rights” with Lynn Hunt, Prof. of History, UCLA, at 2 p.m. at Townsend Center for the Humanities, 220 Stephens Hall, UC Campus. 643-9670. http://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/publicworld.shtml 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 10 a.m. to noon in Oakland. Advanced sign-up is required. 594-5165.  

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Auditions at 4 p.m. at the Crowden School. For information on what to prepare and to make an appointment call 849-988. 

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Colloquium with Paul Groth on “Bodies and Storefronts: Orchestrating Dances of Desire” at 1 p.m. at Wurster Hall, Room 315A, UC Campus. All welcome. http://laep.ced.berkeley.edu/events/colloquium 

Recording African American Stories Add your voice to the Library of Congress and the National Museum of African American History, Wed. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., by appointment, at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, through Sept. 12. For appointment call 228-3207. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 6 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from 7 to 8 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. 644-8833. 

The Princess Project - East Bay Open House from 6 to 8 p.m. at Youth Uprising, 8711 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. Come help Bay Area girls feel confident and special; help organize a volunteer-run effort to distribute free prom dresses and accessories. 846-5271. 

El Sabor de Fruitvale from 3 to 7 p.m. at Fruitvale Transit Village, Fruitvale BART station, with music, fresh produce and children’s activities. 535-6900. 

Babies & Toddlers Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

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.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Tues. Sept. 4, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900. 

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Tues. Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Sept. 5 , at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., Sept. 5, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., Sept. 5, at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 981-4950.  

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400.  

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7419.  

Public Works Commission meets Thurs. Sept. 6, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6406.