Posted Thurs., Jan. 24—Full implementation of AC Transit District’s proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line ran into a potential chokepoint Wednesday night when dismayed district board members learned that the planned bus-only lanes may not be possible in a 1,000-yard stretch in the heart of Oakland.  

At issue is the 12-lane expressway that currently runs over the 12th Street dam that divides Lake Merritt from the Kaiser Convention Center, separating East Oakland from downtown. 

The problem involves Oakland’s upcoming Measure DD restructuring of the 12-lane expressway, where normal speeds currently go above 40 miles per hour into a slower, six-lane city road. 

If it’s not resolved, a civil and traffic engineer hired by the City of Oakland said the problem could—in the worst case scenario—cause traffic delays of two minutes or more in that single stretch during peak commute hours when BRT is eventually put in place. 

“That is enough of a delay to destroy the entire purpose of rapid transit,” AC Transit Board Vice President Rebecca Kaplan (At Large) told Oakland officials on Wednesday. “I don’t know where we go from here.” 

As proposed by AC Transit officials, BRT would operate on two dedicated, bus-only lanes carved out of the existing Telegraph Avenue and International Boulevard/E. 14th Street and running from UC Berkeley, through Oakland, and into San Leandro. Within those dedicated lanes, special AC Transit buses would be able to run free of auto traffic. 

The proposal has run into potential roadblocks at the two far ends of the system. In San Leandro, city officials have balked at setting up bus-only lanes in the narrow stretch of E. 14th Street that runs through the city’s downtown section, and AC Transit officials have been working with them to carve out an alternate solution acceptable to both sides.  

On Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, a loose coalition of merchants and residents has been actively opposing BRT’s proposed changes for months. Until this week, however, problems had not appeared publicly in Oakland. 

Oakland Measure DD Project Manager Joel Peter told transit officials on Wednesday that Oakland project engineers and planners had been working for months to reconcile bus-only lanes over the 12th Street dam with Measure DD’s goals of traffic slowdowns in the area and creation of a park at the west end of Lake Merritt, with no success. 

“Everything we’re doing involves balance,” Peter said, adding that traffic engineering studies showed that if Oakland dedicated one of the three downtown-bound lanes to buses, the resulting backup of cars around the Alameda County Courthouse would eventually reach back to the eastern entrance to the 12th Street exchange, causing the buses to be delayed in entering the exchange, and defeating the whole purpose of the dedicated lanes. 

“How can we ask Berkeley to give dedicated lanes to BRT and not Oakland?” a frustrated Ward 2 Director Greg Harper (Emeryville, Piedmont, Berkeley) told Peter. “All the buses are going to bunch up here. We were told by Oakland that AC Transit was going to be in the loop on these decisions. I don’t know why all of a sudden, when space is available, we can’t get a lane when we’ve been planning for one for seven years.” 

Peter said that Measure DD planners were willing to look at any alternate solutions, and the issue is certain to come up at the end of this week at a regularly-scheduled transportation planning meeting between city and transportation agency officials. The Measure DD Environmental Impact Report is scheduled to be published on Friday of this week or the following Monday, with consideration by the Oakland Planning Commission on Feb. 13. 

Posted Wed., Jan. 23—The little town of Albany stood up Tuesday night, first to the University of California and then to the California Food and Drug Administration and the CFDA partner, the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

The City Council condemned the UC Berkeley’s decision to cut down some 300 trees on the university-owned Gill Tract property at Marin and San Pablo avenues, claiming that only some of the trees are damaged. The council authorized its attorney to go to court to block what some community members called “clear cutting” if a delay in removing the trees—except for seriously diseased Monterey Pines—cannot otherwise be negotiated.  

The university said it plans to begin cutting down the trees as early as Jan. 26. 

And the council passed a strongly worded resolution opposing CDFA plans for aerial spraying to eradicate the light brown apple moth (LBAM). 

The state had planned to begin spraying Alameda County in the spring in its ongoing efforts to eradicate the LBAM. But Tuesday afternoon, just hours before the council meeting, the CDFA/USDA released their decision to delay the aerial spraying, according to John Connell, CDFA Plant Health & Pest Prevention Services director, who told the council and some 45 people who waited until past 11 p.m. to hear the discussion on the moth. 

After the state sprayed in the fall in the Monterey and Santa Cruz areas, hundreds of people reported feeling ill. Santa Cruz and Monterey counties filed lawsuits, alleging CDFA failed to perform an environmental impact report before spraying. The EIR would have included a range of alternatives to the spray and would have considered public comment. 

“In consultation with the technical working group, an international panel of experts, that panel recommended that CDFA/USDA take a look at other materials that have become available for the [eradication of] the light brown apple moth,” Connell said. “They do remain committed that this moth should be eradicated, and the primary tools to achieve that eradication would be an aerial application” of a product designed to disrupt mating behavior of the moths. 

A new product is being developed and tested in New Zealand, however, Connell said, noting that the CDFA expects to get the results of New Zealand trials of the product by early April. 

Once they decide which product to use, the CDFA will first go back to the Santa Cruz/Monterey area to continue spraying there, then on to the Bay Area, Connell said.  

Meanwhile, the state plans to use other methods of eradication. They are evaluating, among other means, traps tied to host plants with pheromone mixed with a small amount of pesticide that would attract then kill the male moths, according to a Jan. 22 CDFA/USDA press statement. 

Neither the council nor the public was convinced that aerial spaying using the newer product should take place. 

“There’s no information in what was released today,” Nan Wishner, chair of the Albany Integrated Pest Management Task Force, told the council. "The concern is that [the product] is used with aerial spraying.” 

The spray used in the Santa Cruz area, Checkmate OLF-F and Checkmate LBAM-F, contains a synthetic pheromone, scents designed to confuse male moths to keep them from mating. When sprayed from the air, the pheromones are contained in microcapsules with ingredients some say are potentially harmful, such as formaldehydes.  

Opponents of the spraying say the microcapsules can cause lung damage, while the state says the product is safe. 

Albany resident Ed Fields objected to the state use of the new product: “We will be the subject of the tests—they will try it out on us,” he said.  

The council was unanimous in its opposition to the spray: “Even a few people being hurt is not acceptable,” said Councilmember Farid Javandel. 

While the resolution cannot prevent the state from going ahead with its plans, Mayor Robert Lieber said it was important to take a stand. “We need a grassroots movement to say it’s not OK” to spray for the moth, Lieber told the Planet after the meeting. “We need to start having an effect on other communities.” 

The state will make a presentation to the Berkeley City Council on the LBAM Feb. 26.  

A community meeting on the spray will take place Jan. 30 7:30 p.m. at the Center for Environmental Health, 528 61st St., Oakland. 

Berkeley’s official design review panel gave a scathing review to developer Ali Kashani’s five-story condo complex planned for a corner of one of the city’s busiest intersections. 

The building’s 96 condos above a ground floor of retail and parking will be built on a stretch of San Pablo Avenue from Ashby Avenue south to Carrison Street on the site of a recently demolished Shell gasoline station. 

“This is not the model for Berkeley in any sense of the word,” said Design Review Committee Chair David Snippen. “You’ll have to make it look more like Berkeley than Emeryville.” 

The E-word—Emeryville—immediately became the dominant meme in describing the plans designed by architect Jill Williams of Oakland’s KTYG Group as she and Kashani sat in the front row, taking notes. 

The 183,000-square-foot building includes 96 condo apartments, with eight studio units, 50 one-bedroom units and 38 with two bedrooms and 12,600 square feet of ground floor commercial space. 

Each condo will have a single parking space, with an additional 25 spaces allotted for the retail users. Entrance to the parking spaces will be on Carrison Street to the south, one of the major concerns raised by neighbors. 

Residential parking will be in a single underground level. 

Thursday night’s presentation was an informal preview for the committee, an option which allows a developer to look for input without the threat of formal action. 

Kashani came to the meeting armed with a sense of humor. “In the last four years, I left the non-profit sector and went over to the dark side,” he said as he began his presentation. 

After closing escrow on the property early last year, he said, he began mapping studies in April and held the first meetings with project neighbors in July. 

Kashani’s partner in the project is Rawson, Blum & Leon, a San Francisco development firm, represented by Vice President for Acquisitions David S. Greensfelder, the former real estate manager for Longs Drugs. 

The San Francisco firm owns commercial properties on the West Coast and in Louisiana. 

Kashani said they had consciously decided not to maximize the development: to build up to the full scale allowed by law. “There is 280 percent more open space than is required,” he said, and 33 percent more parking for retail customers than city standards mandate. He had also included 15 foot ceilings for the retail spaces, he said. 

The project also includes 15 units reserved for low-income buyers, Kashani said, which entitled him to add a fifth floor to the building. 

Architect Williams said her plans will meet the requirement for the most basic of the four levels of certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. 

Helen Jones, a project neighbor, told the committee she had two basic concerns. “I just worried about it being so huge,” and because of the additional traffic it would generate in conjunction with the nearby new Berkeley Bowl outlet now under construction. 

“When I first started hearing about this project, they asked us what we’d like to see,” said Alan Bretz. While some suggested “a small organic produce stand, it has exploded into this.” 

Eric Stark, a Carrison Street neighbor, said the frontage on his street “looks like a cinder wall.” He said he was also worried about traffic, since his children play on the residential street. He also dropped the E-word. 

“I’m just appalled by the lack of imagination in every new building going up in Berkeley,” said Michael Larrick, adding that architectural detail had been replaced by the application of different colors of paint to stucco. 

Of the project itself, he said, “It’s cheap, it’s easy to construct ... it’s a box with no adornment.” Instead, designers should look to the nearby Heinz Building, a city landmark, to seek details to pick up in the new design. 

“I want some consideration for the safety of my kids and for our neighborhood,” said Phillip Mason, another Carrison Street resident. ”We have a good street. We don’t need this.” 

The it came time for committee members to weigh in again. 

“My first response is that it’s big,” said Burton Edwards. “My second, third and last responses are that it’s big.” 

While the project “is much bigger and more massive than I would approve, it may be out of our hands because of the density bonus.” 

That said, “There are some hideous units in the middle of this building,” with the condos looking onto the courtyard on the first and second residential floors topping his list. 

Edwards said he also wanted to see more variety in the street frontage along San Pablo, a point taken up by Snippen, who also described the project as “an awfully big building.” He too wanted to see more articulation along the street frontage. 

Snippen said he also wondered why many of the units “are really tiny, especially the interior courtyard units.” 

The project, he said “is not the model for Berkeley in any sense of the word.” 

Sarah Shumer said she wanted to see the building set back along Carrison, because otherwise the structure “would block sense of front yards along the street.” 

Carrie Olson said she wanted to see the street frontage massing broken up, and offered some advice for the neighbors, citing other neighborhoods which had battled projects along San Pablo. “Other neighborhoods have done through this,” she said, “so you have brothers out there.” 

“And sisters,” quipped Kashani. “Don’t forget Marie Bowman.” 

Bowman had battled with the developer over another project, the five-story Sacramento Senior Homes building at Sacramento and Blake streets. 

Olson also said she didn’t understand which Kashani’s project called for a 58-foot height. 

“There is a new code that allows it,” he said. 

“That is a building code,” not a zoning ordinance, Edwards cautioned. 

“This is a very big volume,” said Rob Ludlow. “It is overbearing on the neighborhood.” 

While he like the retail space, Ludlow said there was a lack of continuity between the proposal’s upper and low levels. He also cautioned Kashani that while traffic flow itself was up to the city’s transportation commission and staff, the impact of car lights and traffic noise did fall within the design review committee’s ambit. 

Kashani’s only response to the critique was to say that he was shocked by the critique of the courtyard units, which he thought had been nicely designed. 

It’s now up to the developer and his architect to decide how to respond to the critique before coming back more formally in search of permits and official design approval.

Berkeley Design Review Committee members gave a qualified thumbs up Thursday night to plans for a controversial and long-delayed condominium project on University Avenue. 

Zoning Adjustments Board members had approved the project at 1698 University Ave. nearly three years ago, but the project had fallen into limbo. 

Then Pinole real estate broker Brian Baniqued bought the property, obtained new financing, submitted new designs and sought approval of a modification of the original use permit. 

Known informally as the Tune-Up Masters project because of the auto maintenance business that once occupied the site, the building plans had sparked heated debate at ZAB before they approved it in April 2005. 

After an unsuccessful appeal by neighbors to the City Council was defeated three months later, the project fell into development limbo. 

Beyond the objections of neighbors who worried about the building’s impact on homes on Addison Street to the rear of the site, ZAB members were concerned at learning the city had differing affordable housing requirements for condo projects and apartment buildings. 

Ownership projects were required to set aside 10 percent of units for buyers making 120 percent of the area median income, while apartment builders are required to set aside twice as many. 

In return for providing the affordable units, developers are entitled to density bonuses, allowing them to increase the size of their projects above the maximums that would otherwise apply under city zoning regulations—though just how much has been a bone of contention between city planning staff and some of the citizen commissioners and city councilmembers. 

Concerned, ZAB created a density bonus subcommittee to study the issue and formulate policy recommendations, and the City Council later added members from the Planning and Housing Advisory commissions. 

When the subcommittee’s mandate was ended, the matter was handed on to the Planning Commission, which is currently pondering the issue. 

Meanwhile, Pacific Bay Investments, the original developers, sold the property and its already approved development rights to Baniqued. 

The new owner hired Berkeley architect KwanLam Wong to modify the project, in part to address neighborhood noise and privacy concerns. 

“This is a really, really big building for our neighborhood,” said Robin Kibby, an Addison Street resident who had fought the project three years earlier. 

Kibby said she was happy that a roof deck had been pushed back and plantings added to meet privacy concerns, but she was still concerned about traffic and a design she described as “industrial.” 

While committee members said they were concerned about several design issues, Baniqued said that if their concerns threatened to prolong the project, he would simply move forward under the existing permit. 

With his funding commitment about to expire, Baniqued said, he had no other option. 

The committee will still have one more chance to make small modifications—color scheme was one issue—after he takes the project to ZAB for approval of the new permit. 

Fantasy kids 

Wareham Developers partner Chris Barlow gave the committee a preliminary look at the newest tenant of one his firm’s newest acquisitions, the Fantasy Building at 10th and Parker streets in West Berkeley. 

Pixar Studios, the Emeryville filmmaker specializing in digital animation features, has leased 9,960 square feet of ground floor space for a child care center. 

The plans Barlow and landscape architect Cesar Lau showed the committee focused on the additional 7,500 square feet of the current parking lot of the south of the building which Pixar has leased for a playground. 

“This is a fine use of the site,” said committee chair David Snippen. 

The playground will be divided into two sections, one for older children and one for toddlers. All plantings will be either harmless or edible, and most of the surfaces will be water permeable. 

The one concern shared by committee members was the fence design, which all agreed was too plain. 

Instead, members urged, Pixar should come up with something as imaginative as their cinematic creations. 

After his presentation, Barlow told a reporter that Wareham had been very successful in keeping the tenants who had leased their offices and students from film producer Saul Zaentz when he owned the structure. 

“We’ve retained 85 percent of the tenants, and we are very pleased with what’s been going on. And we are committed to maintaining a world-class media center,” he said. 

Among Wareham tenants are Zaentz himself and some of the producer’s partners, he said.  

1819 Fifth St. 

Committee members were much less enamored of architect Tim Rempel’s plans to expand the vacant one-story brick warehouse building at 1819 Fifth St. into a project with nine live/work units, three commercial units and 10 light industrial units. 

It wasn’t that they didn’t like the design—the consensus was that he had designed an admirable project. The problem was, they said, that it wasn’t well configured for the place where he wants to build it. 

Rempel told the committee he’d “been on the verge of abandoning the project a number of times.”  

And judging from their comments before the committee on Thursday, that wouldn’t displease many of his neighbors. 

Rempel’s plans have drawn fire from neighbors before, and he was forced into a long-running battle with neighbors and Landmarks Preservation Commissioners over his designs for two buildings in the 2100 block of Sixth Street. 

While committee members said they generally liked the design, most said they felt that the massive front it presented on Fifth Street overpowered the neighborhood. 

“ ‘If this was a new building in a different context, I would very much like the design,” said Rob Ludlow. “But there are issues because of where it is and how it relates to the buildings around it.” 

“”I like your designs in general,” said Burton Edwards. “But I’m not sure I like this particular design in this particular place.” 

Carrie Olson called the design “massive on the street frontage for this area” and overbearing for the neighborhood. 

“Looming,” declared Sara Shumer. “It’s out of context for the community in this area.” 

It was Chair David Snippen who first suggested reorienting the mass of the structure from the street frontage to the interior of the lot, a notion which seemed to find favor with most of his committee colleagues. 

Neighbors wanted to preserve the brick facing of the existing building, another notion the committee favored over Rempel’s proposal to cover the bricks with a layer of gunite (sprayed concrete). 

“It’s a real sterile building that has no character that matches the street. It wouldn’t fit at all,” said neighbor John Fordice. 

Joyce Robertson, who lives behind the building in a landmarked home on Sixth Street, said the structure would block her view of the bay, and said the project is “out of scale with anything around it.” 

Robert Brady, who lives just across from the site on Fifth Street, said he has a problem with the size of the project, and was disappointed that Rempel hadn’t reduce the building’s scale after hearing complaints from neighbors. 

John Emberton, a self-described “lizard farmer” and owner of the East Bay Vivarium, which is located immediately to the south of the project, said the building would render the entrance to his business invisible from the street. He also said the 22 parking spaces planned for the project are “grossly inadequate.” 

Emberton said he was also concerned that the tool and die business which had operated for decades on the site may have contaminated the soil with oil, solvents and metal shavings. 

In the end, the committee voted to continue their evaluation to see how Rempel had accommodated their criticisms. 

And, as Olson reminded him, he still needs to clear his plans with the Landmarks Preservation Commission because the site is adjacent to the Delaware Street Historic District.

While Albany is preparing to take an aggressive stand in opposition to aerial spaying intended to eradicate the light brown apple moth—epiphyas postvitattana—Berkeley has adopted a wait-and-see attitude. 

“We don’t really have enough information,” said Dr. Linda Rudolph, the city’s public health officer. The city will know more after state officials make their presentation to the City Council, rescheduled from Jan. 15 to Feb. 26. 

The state will make a presentation at the Albany City Council meeting tonight (Tuesday). Also on the Albany agenda is a resolution by Mayor Robert Lieber, opposing aerial spraying of the moth. The meeting begins at 8 p.m. at 1000 San Pablo Ave. 

Albany is taking a proactive stance. “We don’t want to wait and have only two weeks advance notice of the spraying,” said Nan Wishner, chair of the Albany Integrated Pest Management Task Force.  

The state had originally planned to spray in the Berkeley area beginning in March, though Steve Lyle, spokesperson for the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), said the state has not determined if or when it will spray in Alameda County. 

In a phone interview Friday, Lyle called the invasion of the moth, a native of Australia, a “significant national threat.” Total eradication is necessary because of the moth’s ability to spread quickly, dining on a variety of some 2,000 host plants, Lyle told the Planet in a phone interview Friday. It could spread to 80 percent of the country, he said. 

The state conducted aerial spraying in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in the fall. A public outcry followed, with hundreds of people complaining to the CDFA that the spraying had made them ill. Symptoms included asthma attacks, bronchial irritation, coughing, skin rashes, nausea and more. 

Lyle, however, said he had stood with the California Secretary of Agriculture A.G. Kawamura beneath the planes as they sprayed and neither suffered adverse effects. 

The process as Lyle described it, is an aerial spraying of synthetic pheromones, which are scents designed to confuse the male moths to keep them from mating.  

When sprayed from the air, the pheromones are contained in microcapsules with other inert ingredients. 

“You can breathe them in and they disintegrate in the lungs,” said Albany Mayor Lieber, a registered nurse. “It’s a public health issue.” 

Paul Schramski of Sacramento-based Pesticide Watch told the Planet Friday that the concern is not with the pheromones themselves, as long as they are used in traps on the ground. In fact, he said he supports their use as part of an integrated pest management process, where the least amount of harmful substances are used.  

The problem is that when the pheromones are delivered through aerial spraying, potentially harmful ingredients including formaldehydes and isocynates are used. 

The inert ingredients “have not been proved safe or effective,” Schramski said. 

“The pesticide mixture is packaged in minute plastic capsules that are inhaled by anyone exposed to the spray,” wrote Wishner in a January 2008 report, “Aerial Pesticide Spraying the East Bay for the LBAM.” 

Speaking to the Planet Friday, Wishner said the state is able to go directly to spraying, rather than using other means such as cleaning up debris by trees and bringing in natural predators and parasites. The CDFA declared a “state of emergency,” which means it does not have to do an Environmental Impact Report, which would show the need for spraying and allow for the public to comment on the issue. 

The city and county of Santa Cruz, among others, are suing the CDFA for failing to do an EIR. The suit is pending. 

“There has been no reported quantifiable damage done by the LBAM in Santa Cruz County,” wrote Daniel Harder, executive director of the Arboretum of UC Santa Cruz, in his expert testimony as part of the Santa Cruz lawsuit. “In other areas of the globe, such as New Zealand, the only real threat LBAM presents is the imposition caused by export regulations for products like apples,” he wrote. 

Lyle, however, said the infestation has the potential of seriously harming California’s grape crop. 

The Albany resolution says, in part, that “aerial and other blanket pesticide applications have repeatedly been shown in the past to upset natural ecosystem balance in unpredictable and often catastrophic ways and … have repeatedly been shown in the past to cause unintended, unpredictable and often serious human health effects.”  

It calls on the state CDFA to protect the health and welfare of the residents of Alameda County and to conduct a long-term study of the health and environmental effects of the aerial sprayings that took place in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. 

The resolution also “supports the introduction and passage of state legislation requiring explicit consent of affected residents before any aerial spraying program can be implemented.” 

A community meeting on the aerial spraying question will be held Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m. at the Center for Environmental Health, 528 61st St., Oakland.  

Oakland teachers fired the first shot in the upcoming Oakland Unified School District contract negotiations, with more than 100 representatives braving chilly afternoon temperatures last Thursday to present their contract proposals at a press conference in front of Castlemont High School in East Oakland. 

Among the proposals are a reduction in class size, reductions in caseloads for support staff, pay raises, and a release from strict adherence to Oakland Unified’s highly standardized teaching curriculum.  

The first three proposals would cost the district money and come during the same week that Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed a 10 percent across-the-board budget cut—including education—because of the economic downturn. 

“We are presenting bold proposals, what some might call ‘unrealistic’ in the current budget crisis,” OEA President Betty Olsen-Jones said in a prepared statement read at the press conference. “But if we don’t set our expectations high, we’ll be accepting the status quo, and the next time around we’ll be told the same thing, that ‘there’s not enough.’ We’re here to say the conversation about reforming public education has to be changed from one of scarcity to one of how we are going to solve the problem! If the district, as currently run by the California Department of Education and wealthy patrons like Eli Broad, is truly interested in fulfilling their obligation to educate all—not just some—of our children, then we challenge them to find the resources for doing so.” 

Behind Olsen-Jones, teachers held up a banner reading “Education Is A Civil Right! Corporate Oakland Pay Your Share.” 

With formal proposals expected to be presented by both sides at the Jan. 30 OUSD administrator-board meeting, OEA officials did not provide details of their contract proposals at last week’s press conference. The contract between the OEA and OUSD expires in June. 

OUSD Public Information Officer Troy Flint said by telephone a day after the OEA press conference that the OUSD state administrator’s office supports OEA’s goals in principle.  

“OEA is fighting for very important goals,” Flint said. “We support an increase in teacher compensation and a reduction in classroom size.”  

But Flint added that “we are operating in a restrictive financial environment, and there will have to be a compromise that is within the realm of realism.” 

After years of state receivership, Oakland Unified is moving into limited local control in several areas, including personnel management, and the first steps are being taken to hire a local superintendent.  

The State of California still maintains control over Oakland Unified’s fiscal decisions, however, and the contract negotiations will be conducted between the OEA and the office of interim OUSD state administrator Vincent Matthews. 

Berkeley Public Works officials told the Aquatic Park subcommittee that they expect to turn in a revised dredging work plan for the Aquatic Park lagoon to the Regional Water Quality Control Board this week. 

The city’s Public Works department dredged the lagoon at the north end of the park on Nov. 5 and unloaded the spoils along the shoreline without requesting a permit from the water board. 

Loren Jensen, supervising engineer for Public Works, told the Aquatic Park subcommittee Wednesday that the project had commenced without notifying the proper authorities and the Parks Recreation and Waterfront division. 

Jensen said the plan to dredge the lagoon to clear out the debris around the tidal tubes and clean out the Strawberry Creek storm drain to improve circulation had been entrusted to Public Works by Cliff Marchetti, the city’s former waterfront manager, and Marc Seleznow, former director of Parks Recreation and Waterfront, last February. Both are now retired. 

William Rogers, acting director of Parks Recreation and Waterfront, said that he had been unaware of the project. 

Jensen said that Public Works was responsible for the miscommunication. 

“Project manager [for the dredging project] Hamid Kondazi indicated that he had turned in applications to the Army Corps of Engineers, the BCDC and the water board, but it turned out he had not,” Jensen told the subcommittee. “We were contacted by the water board on Nov. 7 and I went out to see the work. The project was immediately stopped. 800 cubic yards of spoils have been removed so far. Another 700 to 800 cubic yards will be removed from the Strawberry Creek storm drain.” 

Jensen said that although a trench had been put around the existing spoils, it needs to be put in water-tight containment after the work plan is approved. 

The spoils, tested by W.R. Forde, the contractors responsible for the dredging, were high in lead, the principal contaminant, but were not hazardous. 

Jensen said that the city’s toxics department had done an independent test on the spoils and reconfirmed the lab tests, and that the spoils would be retested in May before being sent to a suitable landfill. 

At the Dec. 18 City Council meeting—at which the council voted to consider the six-page staff report and accompanying 63-page lab analysis of the dredged spoils—some councilmembers had questioned whether the existing spoils could be used in the park itself.  

Jensen told the subcommittee that the water board had recommended against it. 

Although the original dredging contract would have cost the city $80,000, Jensen said that a revised work plan would mean higher costs. 

Councilmember Darryl Moore has said that he would conduct workshops to look at the root cause of toxics entering the lagoons. 

The subcommittee also forwarded the Aquatic Park Improvement Program to the Parks and Recreation Commission with the recommendation that it sends the plan to council for CEQA review. 

A $2 million grant was awarded to the city by the Coastal Conservancy from Prop 50 for habitat improvement in Aquatic Park. 

The proposed project plans to do this by widening the storm drain outlets in the park to help circulation. 

Subcommittee members stressed that they would prefer the project would eliminate storm water entering the park. 

Located in West Berkeley, Aquatic Park was created in the 1930s as part of the construction of the road which later become I-80, in order to provide a water-based recreation area. 

It is made up of 101.5 acres, including 68 acres of open water and seven acres of roads and trails.  

The Main Lagoon, the Model Yacht Basin and the Radio Tower Pond are connected to the bay through a series of tide tubes and through the Potter Street Storm Drain, parts of which have deteriorated over the years.

The National Register of Historic Places granted the Berkeley High campus the status of a historic district, the National Park Service announced last week. 

The decision, made on Jan. 7, came two months after the State Historical Resources Commission unanimously approved the nomination for the campus to be listed on the National Register as a historic district. 

The school district will receive a formal letter from the State Historic Preservation Office in the next few weeks informing them of the decision. 

The Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission’s vote to nominate the campus to the National Register in November was tempered with the acknowledgment that the old gym on the campus, itself the subject of a landmarking battle and now slated by the Berkeley Unified School District for demolition, had been neglected and altered, and that a number of non-historic structures occupy the southern part of the campus. 

Marie Bowman, a member of Friends Protecting Berkeley’s Resources, the group responsible for writing the historic district nomination, was not available for comment by press time. 

Located on four consolidated city blocks in downtown Berkeley, Berkeley High was the first high school in California to be built according to a campus plan and is the only collection of school buildings in Berkeley which comprises different architectural styles of early 20th-century school designs. 

“It’s gratifying,” said Berkeley landmarks commissioner Carrie Olson, who attended the school. “The state has finally recognized the hard work and years of research of the few willing to give up their lives and push on. I am thrilled that the city supported it in the end. I honestly don’t know what the school district will do in the end but these designated structures are not something to be taken lightly. It’s a matter of great honor.” 

The school district had sent a letter asking the state to exclude the old gym since it lacked the integrity needed to belong to the historic district. 

In her letter to Milford Wayne Donalds, the state historic preservation officer, district Superintendent Michele Lawrence stated that the different buildings on the Berkeley High Campus could be more accurately defined as “several districts rather than one cohesive district.” 

“We think the important consideration for the commission is to avoid creating a historic district when there is no reason to create one,” the letter stated. “If the commission determines that an historic district is warranted, we would suggest that the district include only the Art Deco Buildings (G, H and the Community Theater) and no other buildings or landscaping.” 

The letter further states that the school district’s analysis of the old gym concluded that the most important historical characteristic of the building was not its original look or design, but its structural retrofit completed in the 1930s. 

Lawrence could not be reached for comment by press time. 

The Friends sued the school district in March for what it charged was an inadequate environmental impact report on the demolition of the gymnasium and warm water pool within its Berkeley High School South of Bancroft Master Plan.  

The Berkeley Board of Education recently approved a plan to demolish the Old Gym and the warm water pool within it to build classrooms and an athletic facility which is scheduled to take place in 2010 as part of the master plan. 

According to the letter, the retention of the building would “hinder the full utilization of the school site for educational use.” 

Lawrence urged Berkeley High teachers at a meeting last week to reach out to the community about their problems with space crunches on the campus. Currently classes are held in portables at Washington Elementary School and the lobby of the Community Theatre. 

The plan to relocate the warm pool to the school district’s Milvia Street site will require Berkeley voters to approve a $15 million ballot measure. 

The City Council last week delayed a decision to put it on the November 2008 ballot.

More than two months after HazMat experts replaced local volunteers to clean up the gunk left over from the Cosco Busan oil spill, city officials declared the Berkeley shoreline reopened Wednesday. 

William Rogers, acting director for the city’s Parks Waterfront and Recreation division, told the Planet that the city was working on an additional oil spill recovery plan to thwart unforeseen incidents in the future. 

“So that next time it happens we are even more prepared than we were,” he said. “I am overall satisfied. Our city came through at the right time. In the beginning the volunteers did a great job with the clean-up and then the hired contractors took over the dangerous bits.” 

Rogers said that the O’Brien Group, the private recovery firm hired by Cosco Busan owner Regal Stone Ltd., had finished cleaning the oil inside the Marina and from the city’s beaches. 

More than 40 HazMat professionals used hand towels to wipe the rocks along the city’s shoreline free of tar-like bunker fuel for more than seven weeks. 

At an Aquatic Park Subcommittee Wednesday, Rogers said that the lagoon had not been affected by oil at any point during the incident. 

He pointed out that the city had closed all the tidal tube gates on Nov. 9—two days after the cargo ship crashed into a Bay Bridge tower and spilled oil into the bay—except for one. 

“We put a berm in front of that gate so that no oil could enter the park,” he said. “The gates have now been opened.” 

The city also lifted its state of emergency on Dec. 19, almost a month after it had been put into place. Other emergency proclamations, including prohibition of water exposure, boat washing and off-leash dogs, have also expired. 

Restrictions on boat traffic for all commercial and recreational owners have also been lifted. 

According to a City of Berkeley online update, tar balls and other oil spill residue can still be seen in some marina locations and the city’s Environmental Health division is currently monitoring the situation. 

“I believe there may still be some health warnings posted out there,” said city spokesperson Mary Kay Clunies-Ross. 

According to the city’s website the spill advisory is still in effect: 

• Avoid direct skin contact with the oil or tar balls. 

• If you get oil on your skin, wash it off with soap and water and be sure to wash your hands before eating. 

• Do not eat mussels collected from the Berkeley shoreline until further notice. 

• Do not burn debris, driftwood or other materials contaminated with oil. 

The Cosco Busan Unified Command Oil Spill Response website reports that several East Bay beaches—including Albany Beach, Brickyard Cove shoreline, sections of Park Point Isabel Regional Shoreline, and all Richmond beaches—remained closed last week for oil monitoring and assessment. 

“Hot shot” teams with appropriate equipment to clean up oil, tar balls and contaminated debris on the water and the shoreline are still doing scheduled maintenance and monitoring while remaining on standby to respond to oil sightings. 

Oil sightings can be reported to the incident command post by calling (415)-398-9617.

Berkeley Planning Commissioners begin their review of the proposed Downtown Area Plan Wednesday, when DAPAC Chair Will Travis formally presents the document for their critique. 

Members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee spent two years creating their draft of a document designed to plan for a downtown that will be impacted by 800,000 square feet of new construction planned by UC Berkeley. 

The plan, created under the terms of the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging the impacts of the university’s massive expansion into the city center, must win approval of the Planning Commission, City Council and the university itself before it can be finally adopted. 

The document is certain to face a critical reception at the commission, which is chaired by James Samuels, perhaps the strongest critic of some of its proposals and one of four committee members who dissented against the 17 others who voted to endorse the plan Nov. 29. 

The three Planning Commission members who voted for the plan as members of DAPAC—Gene Poschman, Helen Burke and Patty Dacey—often find themselves on the losing side of 5-4 votes on the commission. 

DAPAC Chair Travis often sided with Samuels in his critiques, though he joined with the committee majority on their final vote. 

Commissioners will also continue their discussion of changes in city zoning ordinances that would give developers more flexibility in developing projects in West Berkeley. 

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

AC Transit bus drivers and mechanics voted overwhelmingly last week to authorize a strike in the event ongoing contract negotiations break down, but no strike appears imminent. 

Members of Amalgamated Transit Workers Union Local 192 voted 92 percent Tuesday and Wednesday to allow a strike if and when union workers reject any “best and final offer” from the two-county bus agency. AC Transit has not yet made a “best and final offer,” and union and company officials return to the bargaining table next Tuesday in an attempt to reach agreement on a contract that ran out last summer. 

ACT Local 192 President and Business Manager Yvonne Williams said by telephone last week that working conditions, including public safety issues and meal and rest periods, are holding up agreement. 

“There are minor differences over compensation and we could get closer on health and welfare,” Williams said, adding that “we’re hoping to avoid a strike.” 

Strike votes are a common escalation tactic in labor negotiations, and AC Transit workers have approved several in the past few years before eventually agreeing to a contract. The last AC Transit strike was in 1977. 

The San Francisco Planning Commission unanimously approved the 55 Laguna mixed-use project last week. It proposes to develop the historic UC Berkeley Extension site for private use. 

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual affordable housing activists forced a compromise less than two weeks before the planning commission’s decision by getting the City of San Francisco to kick in money to make the 110-unit building built by OpenHouse, a non-profit LGBT senior services organization, 100 percent affordable to people at 50 percent of area median income or less, with 20 percent of the remaining 340 units meeting the city’s inclusionary requirements.  

This 15 percent increase was possible partly due to efforts from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Office of Housing and San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi. 

The campus, which was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Jan. 7, is built on 5.8 acres of public land, 15 percent of which is owned by the City. 

It is also the former home of the San Francisco State Teacher’s College campus.  

The proposed project would result in the demolition of two of the five contributing buildings—Middle Hall Gymnasium, the oldest building on the campus, and Richardson Hall Annex.  

Preservationists rallying at the meeting said they would appeal to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to save all the buildings and sue to protect the National Register Historic District.  

They also plan to encourage UC, project developers A.F. Evans and the OpenHouse team to modify their design to prevent demolition of any of the buildings. 

According to the project’s website (www.55laguna.com), the proposed plan will “preserve the historic buildings on the site by transforming them into market-rate and affordable rental apartments housing and a public community center. 

The listing of the campus on the National Register makes A.F. Evans eligible for a 20 percent Federal tax credit for all work on the historic buildings. 

The Berkeley Democratic Club could not agree on a presidential candidate to endorse at its meeting on Thursday night. The vote was: Obama 15, Clinton 13, Edwards, 4 No endorsement, 2. 

Members endorsed Yes on 92; Yes on 93; No on all the gaming measures. 

Sixty percent of those voting is required to make an endorsement. 

The Wellstone Democratic Club has endorsed Edwards. 

In other news, campaign consultant Phil Giarrizzo sent out a press release on Thursday announcing that former Alameda County Sheriff Charles Plummer has endorsed Dr. Phil Polakoff in the race for the Democratic nomination for the 14th Assembly District. Polakoff attended the BDC meeting but did not ask for the club’s endorsement. 

In endorsing Polakoff, Plummer said: “As a seasoned law enforcement officer, I have observed the political process in Alameda County for well over 50 years. Once in a blue moon, a quality individual shines down on us—and that person is Dr. Phil. He is a man of integrity, and he is smart as hell. How could you beat that for a good old one-two punch.”

California voters who have not registered with any party can vote in next month’s Democratic presidential primary if they request a ballot from their local Registrar of Voters office. 

Alameda County Registrar of Voters Public Information Officer Guy Ashley clarified that issue by telephone last week after the Daily Planet received complaints from several independent voters about confusion over the Feb. 5 primary. 

Ashley answered several other voter concerns during his interview: 

• The California Democratic Party runs an open primary. The California Republican Party does not. Non-partisan registered voters—that is, those who answer “decline to state” when asked to declare their party affiliation when they register to vote—can vote in the Democratic primary, but not in the Republican primary. 

• If “decline to state” voters do not want to vote in the Democratic primary, they can still vote for the various state propositions and local measures on the Feb. 5 ballot. 

• In order to have a ballot mailed to them in time to vote on Feb. 5, absentee voters have until Jan. 29 to request a mailed ballot from the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office. After Jan. 29, absentee voters will still be able to come into the Registrar of Voters office themselves between Jan. 30 and election day to pick up a ballot to vote. On election day itself, absentee voters can still go down to their precinct voting station and vote if they have not received a ballot by mail. 

• In answer to a question about a woman who said she had been asked to provide her Social Security number and drivers license in order to register, Ashley said that California election law now requires either a valid California Drivers License or state identification card number in order for a citizen to register. If the citizen does not have either card, they must provide the last four numbers only of their Social Security card in order to register. 

Voters with any other election or registration concerns are being urged to contact the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office directly at 272-6933. The contact number for absentee voting concerns, questions, or requests is 272-6973. 

This is hard. To write about a dear friend’s passing before her absence has fully sunk in is quite a challenging task. What I can easily write about is what I know about Rae; who she was and what she meant to me and so many others in the arts community. 

Born in New Orleans and reared in Los Angeles, Rae attended Pepperdine College and received her art degree from Cal State Northridge. After moving to the Bay Area in 1987, she took on her “day job” at Pac Bell, moving up the corporate ladder while she created beautiful pastels and paintings inspired by a trip to West Africa.  

Like many other artists of color, Rae witnessed a lack of representation in major art galleries and museums. Actually, this exclusion of black and brown artists generally begins in elementary school and continues throughout college. When I was a student at UC Berkeley in the 1970s, the entire art department faculty was white male and the only cultures represented in art history and aesthetics courses were European and Asian. I felt invisible.  

Years later, I was delighted to discover The Art of Living Black (TAOLB), an annual celebration of African-American artists co-founded by Rae Louise Hayward and Jan Hart-Schuyers in 1997.  

Each year nearly 100 black painters, sculptors, photographers, mixed media and crafts makers display their art at the Richmond Art Center. To walk into this space overflowing with vibrant colors, arresting forms, subtle lines and uniquely interwoven beads, fibers and leaves and listen to the conversations and laughter and feel the warmth and joy emanating from all who are present is no less than magical. As was Rae. 

“Rae was The Art of Living Black,” attests Jeannette Madden, a fine artist and long-time TAOLB participant. 

“She was a masterpiece,” says Latisha Baker. “When she walked into a room she lit up the place ... her gracefulness, her presence. And she was so open to all art forms. When I began my work as a pyrographer (burning images into wood), no one else around was doing it. She inspired me to go forward with my art and experiment.” 

Conceptual artist Karen Carraway-Senefuru agrees. “Rae created a place that allowed us to strip down ornamentation to reach our essence. She encouraged freedom of expression.” 

Rae was a vision. Her natural beauty adorned by unusual jewelry, classic scarves and tasteful attire radiated a certain creative elegance that could be seen in her artwork as well. A striking balance of rich colors and forms, Rae’s work is often geometric, always well thought out. Rae, who was full of praise and encouragement when it came to other artists, was humble about her own artwork. So it followed that very few knew just how ill she was. Diagnosed with cancer in October of 2007, Rae quietly began planning her own service while she continued to work on this year’s TAOLB exhibit.  

Karen Carraway-Senefuru, who also creates incredible handmade dolls, was working on a new doll when she heard of Rae’s transition. Karen hadn’t made a doll in quite awhile and Rae had been encouraging her to do so. 

“I had a bead in my hand and was applying it to cover up some negative space and thinking ‘Rae is going to love this’ when I heard,” Karen told me. I gave Karen a hug and told her that I would take over where Rae left off—that I would call her and bug her until she created yet another masterpiece out of beads and cloth and spirit. 

And I will. It’s up to us, after all. It is up to each one of us to support and encourage each other to take our individual talent as far as we possibly can. I believe this is what Rae would have wanted: for us to continue to love and support TAOLB by working as hard and selflessly as she did to make it stronger and more successful each year. We of TAOLB promise you, Rae, to do our very best. We love you.  

The Art of Living Black 

Feb. 5-March 14. Artists’ reception 

Saturday, Feb. 9, 3-5 p.m. Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. 

620-6772.

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), in which voters are allowed to rank their second and third choices in a multi-candidate election rather than waiting for a possible runoff between the top two vote-getters, will almost certainly not be held in Oakland and San Leandro June municipal elections in 2008 as was anticipated.  

It is still possible, however, that the system will be in place for Berkeley city elections in November. 

The problem is a long delay in IRV software approval by the Federal Elections Commission for Sequoia Voting Systems, the vendor which supplies machines for Alameda County elections. 

Oakland, Berkeley, and San Leandro have all approved IRV for their municipal elections, contingent on the county coming up with an approved electronic counting system.  

But with federal approval still pending and the state approval process to follow, making a June implementation virtually impossible, the San Leandro City Council Rules and Communications Committee has recommended to the full council that San Leandro scrap any plans for IRV and instead hold a June 3 general election with a possible Nov. 4 runoff for any undecided contests.  

Oakland City Council is scheduled to take up the question on Feb. 5. 

The spokesperson for the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, Guy Ashley, said in a telephone interview this week that approval and implementation of IRV is still possible for Berkeley’s November elections. 

In an IRV presentation given to Oakland City Council last July, Registrar of Voters Guy MacDonald said that his office and city clerks from the three Alameda County cities had been meeting regularly since March of last year to discuss IRV implementation, and said that there was “general agreement in that group that if IRV is not ready by January 2008, launch should be postponed to a date beyond November 2008.” 

Under the county contract signed with the election machine vendor, Sequoia was supposed to have IRV software developed and ready for testing by December of last year.  

Ashley said this week that Sequoia met the contract’s software submission timetable, delivering IRV software in August of last year, but said that “because IRV is still a new concept,” the federal testing and approval process has been slower than anticipated. 

The Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) on Thursday will hear a project proposed for 1923 9th St. and 1920 10th St. involving the demolition of five rent-controlled units to allow construction of a 15-story condominium project. 

The meeting will take place at the Council Chambers of the Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way at 7:00 p.m. 

Neighbors are worried about density and parking, the latter being described by some residents as extremely tight. 

Some zoning board members have expressed concern over the demolition of the five rent-controlled units. According to applicant Justin Jee, the units are occupied and the tenants will have to be evicted before construction starts. 

To approve a demolition permit for the proposed project under the Zoning Ordinance, the board needs to make specific findings that the demolition would not be detrimental to the housing stock of the neighborhood and the city. 

At an earlier meeting, board member Jesse Arreguin argued that the demolition would be damaging as it would change the character of the neighborhood. He added that the five rent-controlled units would be permanently lost and the project would set a precedent for future projects. 

However, zoning staff contends that the demolition would not be detrimental because Jee had agreed to pay an in-lieu fee to the Housing Trust Fund. 

The board might also have to make additional findings to allow the removal of rent-controlled units, one of which is that the tenant would not be involuntarily forced out of his unit. 

At the Jan. 10 meeting, the board continued the project to Thursday to allow Jee and the neighbors to enter into mediation.

Christopher Rodriguez, a 10-year-old Oakland boy who likely will be partially paralyzed for the rest of his life after being struck by a stray bullet while taking a piano lesson, “has a rough road in the future,” Dr. Jacob Neufeld said last week. 

Neufeld, a pediatric physician at Children’s Hospital Oakland, where Christopher is in fair condition in the intensive care unit following the shooting incident at a music school on Jan.10, said Christopher will remain hospitalized indefinitely and then will undergo therapy aimed at teaching him how do things on his own. 

The goal is for Christopher, a fifth-grader at Crocker Highlands Elementary School in Oakland, “to be a fully independent young man again,” said Neufeld, who was joined by boy’s parents at a news conference at the hospital to provide an update on his condition.  

In response to a reporter’s question, Jennifer Rodriguez, Christopher’s mother, said, “As a parent, of course you wish for a miracle because you have to have hope.” 

She said, “You always hope for a miracle because otherwise you won’t get through the day.” 

Richard Rodriguez, the boy’s father, was more glum, saying, “What can you say when your son has been shot and never will walk again?” 

Rodriguez said, “All the possibilities and dreams he (Christopher) had have to be changed. It’s a different world.” 

Jennifer Rodriguez said that when Christopher leaves the hospital, the family, which currently lives in a house with stairs, will have to move to a new residence that’s handicapped accessible and get a van in which to transport him.  

Richard Rodriguez said, “As a result of his injuries, we don’t have time to work, so funds are needed for a lot of things.”  

He said Christopher is starting to ask questions about what happened to him, at one point asking why he was shot in the back and whether the shooter was trying to kill him. 

Rodriguez said that when he told his son he thinks the shooting was accidental, Christopher said, “I feel much better.”  

Neufeld said the bullet went through Christopher’s left side and ripped through his kidney, spleen and spinal cord, causing paralysis below his waist. However, he said the boy “has full strength in his upper extremities” and is able to play video games while he’s in the hospital. 

Neufeld said Christopher’s injuries have affected his bowel and bladder, so he can’t eat normal food at this point and suffers from a low-grade fever.  

According to Oakland police spokesman Roland Holmgren, the bullet that injured Christopher was from one of several shots fired during a robbery attempt at a Chevron gas station at 4400 Piedmont Ave. at Pleasant Valley Road about 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 10. It traveled across the street and into the Harmony Road Music School, where he was taking a lesson.  

Several police officers were completing a traffic accident investigation in the area when they heard the gunshots from the robbery and citizens directed them to the suspects’ vehicle, which was speeding away from the scene, according to Holmgren. The officers chased the vehicle as it sped west on Pleasant Valley Road, continuing to the intersection of 51st Street and Telegraph Avenue, where it struck another vehicle and a parked car, Holmgren said.  

The driver, 24-year-old Jared Adams of Oakland, was detained by officers as he attempted to flee on foot, Holmgren said.  

Witnesses identified Adams as the robber and the shooter and officers arrested him for multiple felony charges, according to Holmgren. He said Adams has a prior criminal record, including a prior gun conviction. Holmgren said the passenger of the vehicle was identified as Maeve Clifford, who also was arrested.  

Adams has been charged with willful, deliberate and premeditated murder, robbery, evading a police officer and being an ex-felon in possession of a gun. He could face life in prison if he’s convicted. Clifford is charged with robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.  

Donations can be made to a trust account at Wells Fargo Bank: Christopher G. Rodriguez, Trust Account No. 7013202606, Piedmont Avenue Branch, 151 40th St., Oakland, 94611.  

People who want updates on Christopher’s condition can go to www.christopherrodriguez.blog.spot.com.  

Jennifer Rodriquez said Christopher had been a piano student since October of 2006 and also played the drums, performing in a concert at Yoshi’s jazz club in Oakland in December.  

She said Harmony Road will sponsor a benefit concert for Christopher at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland on Feb. 10.

Posted 1/21—Berkeley Design Review Committee members gave a qualified thumbs up Thursday night to plans for a controversial and long-delayed condominium project on University Avenue. 

Zoning Adjustments Board members had approved the project at 1698 University Ave. nearly three years ago, but the project had fallen into limbo. 

Then Pinole real estate broker Brian Baniqued brought the property, obtained new financing, submitted new designs and sought approval of a modification of the original use permit. 

Known informally as the Tune-Up Masters project because of the auto maintenance business that once occupied the site, the building plans had sparked heated debate at ZAB before they approved it in April 2005. 

After an unsuccessful appeal by neighbors to the City Council was defeated three months later, the project fell into development limbo. 

Beyond the objections of neighbors who worried about the building’s impact on homes on Addison Street to the rear of the site, ZAB members were concerned at learning the city had differing affordable housing requirements for condo projects and apartment buildings. 

Ownership projects were required to set aside 10 percent of units for buyers making 120 percent of the area median income, while apartment builders are required to set aside twice as many. 

In return for providing the affordable units, developers are entitled to density bonuses, allowing them to increase the size of their projects above the maximums that would otherwise apply under city zoning regulations—though just how much has been a bone of contention between city planning staff and some of the citizen commissioners and city councilmembers. 

Concerned, ZAB created a density bonus subcommittee to study the issue and formulate policy recommendations, and the city council later added members from the Planning and Housing Advisory commissions. 

When the subcommittee’s mandate was ended, the matter was handed on to the Planning Commission, which is currently pondering the issue. 

Meanwhile, Pacific Bay Investments, the original developers, sold the property and its already approved development rights to Baniqued. 

The new owner hired Berkeley architect KwanLum Wong to modify the project, in part to address neighborhood noise and privacy concerns. 

“This is a really, really big building for our neighborhood,” said Robin Kibby, an Addison Street resident who had fought the project three years earlier. 

Kibby said she was happy that a roof deck had been pushed back and plantings added to meet privacy concerns, but she was still concerned about traffic and a design she described as “industrial.” 

While committee members said they were concerned about several design issues, Baniqued said that if their concerns threatened to prolong the project, he would simply move forward under the existing permit. 

With his funding commitment about to expire, Baniqued said, he had no other option. 

The committee will still have one more chance to make small modifications—color scheme was one issue—after he takes the project to ZAB for approval of the new permit. 

Posted 1/20—Concord, New Hampshire, Thursday, Jan. 3, 8:30 a.m., 4°F. It’s hard to believe we actually get votes and elect presidents this way—standing on street corners waving signs and yelling, driving miles and walking miles and missing three dozen people, talking to a dozen more who aren’t even slightly interested just so we can talk to one or two people who might possibly, with a lot more coaxing and contact, be persuaded to vote our way.  

It is, after all, the way they really want to vote, the candidate so many say they agree with, but no, they’re going to vote for (fill in name here). We have a hard time understanding that. We’re frustrated about it and talk about it all the time; we come up with responses but no resolution.  

We’re a small, underfunded campaign and there are only eleven of us for this town and the towns around it. We’re vastly outnumbered and months late getting to each person and neighborhood. So how come we’re so excited about doing it? 

I left my house at 2 a.m. yesterday to get a plane to New Hampshire, via Chicago. I’ve only flown three other times since 2001. Before that I had a job that involved charter flights—lots of room and personal attention and few rules. So to me flying is misery now, compounded by my views on living in a police state.  

But the train cost three times as much—a reminder of why I’m supporting the candidate I am. What’s old hat to many is new and annoying to me—seats too close for a laptop or stretch (I’m 5’10”, a statistically average man), too many people to climb over to bother getting up. The seats are perfectly sized to be absolute—well, I was going to say torture, but what’s coming makes me pause.  

I have a choice—sit up straight and let my head loll around hurting my neck as I doze and wake, or hurt my low back by scrunching down so the seat supports my head. I go back and forth so both hurt half as much. When I’m not amusing myself with that I read—The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein.  

The first chapter is about how the CIA perverted electroshock, an already perverse method of “therapy”, into torture. With the help of a few psychologists they combined it with all the familiar abuses we’ve been hearing about, into a scientific program to break people. Two of the chief techniques are sleep deprivation and stress positions so I am in an appropriate state to read this. No hallucinations yet but everything about this trip feels a little unreal to me already. 

Friday, Jan. 4, 11°F 

Couldn’t get to my stored winter clothes so before canvassing the first night I bought a hat and gloves. Now when I get smiles talking to people I can’t decide if it’s the funny hat, the hat hair, ice on my beard fellow volunteers call my Mountain Man look, or sheer delight in the democratic process. No, I’m not being sarcastic.  

People—most people—in New Hampshire seem to love this: being first, the “retail politics” of the state, not the media blitzkrieg but the door-to-door neighbor-to-neighbor Norman Rockwell-Frank Capra extraordinary ordinariness of it. Most of them even seem to love us, funny-sounding southern flatlander radicals from California, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey who have come here because we believe in the process, believe our candidate deserves a hearing, and want to help him get it.  

We hold that belief in the way that a child holds the belief, early Christmas morning, that s/he actually will get the pony. That is, we believe in the potential of the process, even though it’s knocked us down and kicked us senseless more times than we can count. We hope that a better-than-expected vote here will lead to coverage which will lead to money which will lead to votes in the next primary and so on, the underdog insurgent everybody agrees with but nobody votes for.  

The hope is held through the week, immovable at first, then rising and falling in response to 12-hour days in the cold, caffeine, blood sugar, excitement from supporters and wannabe supporters “I really like your guy, but he can’t win. I’m voting for __________.” We show people the poll graph—76 percent of the people in our party agree with him most, out of all the candidates running, on the issues.  

The People are unmoved; the circular logic of ‘nobody will vote for him because he can’t win because nobody will vote for him’ is unassailable. Trying to avoid antagonizing, and because he is ‘ the peace candidate’ after all, we restrain our impulses to beat people with our signs and clipboards.  

As we go on, the hope dips lower and lower between the highs, and the highs and high fives are predicated on less and less—one yes instead of ten in a neighborhood, jokes and encouragement among ourselves, the rare media mention of our candidate or an actual issue, a meal that’s not pizza.  

We’re frustrated that we weren’t here six months ago, by the disorganization of the campaign, by the overwhelming odds we face out in the streets, in the media, and at people’s doorways. “Yeah, I love your guy on the issues. I think he’s the best candidate. But I’m voting for ____________.”  

Saturday Jan. 5, 21°F 

So many people are not home when we canvas we’ve been looking forward to getting out on the weekend. Saturday, 40 minutes into a 45 minute drive to Hooksett, neighborhoods divvied up, enthusiasm high again, the phone rings. It’s campaign headquarters; we go back to Concord and then Manchester (via Hooksett) for a spouse’s forum.  

There’s Elizabeth Kucinich—who yes, is gorgeous—and Whitney Gravel. Fifty people are in the audience; maybe 30, I learn as the week goes on, are my candidate’s volunteers and interns. All the other spouses declined or cancelled.  

At least we’re inside. And Elizabeth is smart, informed and articulate—besides, you know, that other thing. The two almost agree on almost everything; all is cordial and civilized. We have lunch in a booth next to Chris (Hardball) Matthews. The televisionless among us (me) have to be told that. 

The congressman has been excluded from the Democratic debate outside Manchester tonight, so we go, he goes, all the volunteers in the state go, and in the medieval/post-Apocalyptic scene, with snow and camera lights and steam rising in the darkness and a dozen different chants going without a pause for hours, we march around chanting “Let him debate!” until we can’t. He does some TV interviews, they have the debates without him, we chant some more and then go home. I write, then read a bit more.  

Klein is talking now about parallels between personal and political shock—neoconservative economics that have destroyed so many countries and the mutually reinforcing military and torture policies pioneered here in the U.S., where they are also now being applied. I’m reminded again why I’m in New Hampshire. 

Sunday Jan. 6, 25°F 

Frustrated desire to actually recruit votes is making some of the volunteers manic. The phone rings: the congressman, his wife and Viggo (Aragorn) Mortensen are coming to Concord. We have four hours to make flyers, distribute them, notify the local media, get two hundred people there, and by the way, clean the office—a jumble of snack food, campaign literature, computer cables and winter clothes. We look outside, see only people carrying Hillary and Obama signs.  

We fan out, we drive to all the video stores in and near town: three chain stores and one little VHS-only independent. I’m reminded again why I’m here. All goes well; “Gondorians for the Congressman” and all the usual signs and balloons on the walls. As the sun sets and cold settles we go out to canvas. The primary is two days off; people are turning off lights when they see us coming.  

The last two days are more of the same: canvassing; corners; events; rising temperature no longer a factor. Almost everyone’s mind is made up.  

We become aware we’re fishing for an ever-tinier segment of the small primary electorate for one party in a small atypical state. The first primary hasn’t even been held and the decision is made already—has been for months, in fact. The miracle we’re hoping for—the pony, is beginning to seem impossible even to us. Is this really how we choose presidents? And the answer, it seems to us, is no.  

The candidates are sorted early into ‘supported by corporate money’ and ‘not’; only a vanishingly narrow range of views is heard, and the longer the race and the polls go on the narrower it gets. The news is about who has more money and who’s ahead in the polls (that ole devil, circular logic again) broken up by the occasional furor over the most foolish and trivial matters possible. Haircuts. Tears.  

It reminds me of an argument I had once about painting a room. It took five minutes to eliminate all colors but one. And then hours to choose between cream, ivory, eggshell, ecru or beige. Turns out it wasn’t about the paint. We broke up and I painted the room her choice—yellowish-ivory. Sunny mornings it was nice. 

Tuesday, Jan. 8, the day of the primary 

We scattered to polling places and stood with signs. I gave up handing out literature—too late and too … profane? ... for this place this day. So I just handed out copies of the Constitution. It was why I was here, after all. And Walt, the guy standing next to me, holding a sign promoting alternative energy. The local Congresswoman left and the sun went down.  

Walt’s wife, sitting in a wheelchair next to him, didn’t speak to me the whole time he and I talked—an hour, I’d guess. She has MS and dementia; he had given up his job and benefits and impoverished them both to take care of her. Just one of her medications costs $3000 a month, he said.  

The house was next; he didn’t know how they were going to live. Across the street were enormous signs for one of the other, tax-cutting candidates. “ I hope this never happens to any of them,” he said. “But you know it would change their tune about government.” 

“I like your guy, though,” he said. I offered a Constitution to someone walking toward the poll; she shook her head and kept going. Who refuses a Constitution? I thought. 

“You going to vote for him?” I asked, feeling stupid and regretful, simultaneously collapsing and bracing for it. “No, I voted for _______. Your guy can’t win.” 

Posted 1/19—While Albany is preparing to take an aggressive stand in opposition to aerial spaying intended to eradicate the light brown apple moth—epiphyas postvitattana—Berkeley has adopted a wait-and-see attitude. 

“We don’t really have enough information,” said Dr. Linda Rudolph, the city’s public health officer. The city will know more after state officials make their presentation to the City Council, rescheduled from Jan. 15 to Feb. 26. 

The state will make a presentation at the Albany City Council meeting this Tuesday. Also on the Albany agenda is a resolution by Mayor Robert Lieber, opposing aerial spraying of the moth. The meeting begins at 8 p.m. at 1000 San Pablo Ave. 

Albany is taking a proactive stance. “We don’t want to wait and have only two weeks advance notice of the spraying,” said Nan Wishner, chair of the Albany Integrated Pest Management Task Force.  

The state had originally planned to spray in the Berkeley area beginning in March, though Steve Lyle, spokesperson for the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), said the state has not determined if or when it will spray in Alameda County. 

In a phone interview Friday, Lyle called the invasion of the moth, a native of Australia, a “significant national threat.” Total eradication is necessary because of the moth’s ability to spread quickly, dining on a variety of some 2,000 host plants, Lyle told the Planet in a phone interview Friday. It could spread to 80 percent of the country, he said. 

The state conducted aerial spraying in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in the fall. A public outcry followed, with hundreds of people complaining to the CDFA that the spraying had made them ill. Symptoms included asthma attacks, bronchial irritation, coughing, skin rashes, nausea and more. 

Lyle, however, said he had stood with the California Secretary of Agriculture A.G. Kawamura beneath the planes as they sprayed and neither suffered adverse effects. 

The process as Lyle described it, is an aerial spraying of synthetic pheromones, which are scents designed to confuse the male moths to keep them from mating.  

When sprayed from the air, the pheromones are contained in microcapsules with other inert ingredients. 

“You can breathe them in and they disintegrate in the lungs,” said Albany Mayor Lieber, a registered nurse. “It’s a public health issue.” 

Paul Schramski of Sacramento-based Pesticide Watch told the Planet Friday that the concern is not with the pheromones themselves, as long as they are used in traps on the ground. In fact, he said he supports their use as part of an integrated pest management process, where the least amount of harmful substances are used.  

The problem is that when the pheromones are delivered through aerial spraying, potentially harmful ingredients including formaldehydes and isocynates are used. 

The inert ingredients “have not been proved safe or effective,” Schramski said. 

“The pesticide mixture is packaged in minute plastic capsules that are inhaled by anyone exposed to the spray,” wrote Wishner in a January 2008 report, “Aerial Pesticide Spraying the East Bay for the LBAM.” 

Speaking to the Planet Friday, Wishner said the state is able to go directly to spraying, rather than using other means such as cleaning up debris by trees and bringing in natural predators and parasites. The CDFA declared a “state of emergency,” which means it does not have to do an Environmental Impact Report, which would show the need for spraying and allow for the public to comment on the issue. 

The city and county of Santa Cruz, among others, are suing the CDFA for failing to do an EIR. The suit is pending. 

“There has been no reported quantifiable damage done by the LBAM in Santa Cruz County,” wrote Daniel Harder, executive director of the Arboretum of UC Santa Cruz, in his expert testimony as part of the Santa Cruz lawsuit. “In other areas of the globe, such as New Zealand, the only real threat LBAM presents is the imposition caused by export regulations for products like apples,” he wrote. 

Lyle, however, said the infestation has the potential of seriously harming California’s grape crop. 

The Albany resolution says, in part, that “aerial and other blanket pesticide applications have repeatedly been shown in the past to upset natural ecosystem balance in unpredictable and often catastrophic ways and … have repeatedly been shown in the past to cause unintended, unpredictable and often serious human health effects.”  

It calls on the state CDFA to protect the health and welfare of the residents of Alameda County and to conduct a long-term study of the health and environmental effects of the aerial sprayings that took place in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. 

The resolution also “supports the introduction and passage of state legislation requiring explicit consent of affected residents before any aerial spraying program can be implemented.” 

A community meeting on the aerial spraying question will be held Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m. at the Center for Environmental Health, 528 61st St., Oakland.  

Faced with some two dozen irate small business owners, the Berkeley City Council reversed itself Tuesday, backing away from a December decision to charge bars, restaurants and liquor stores $467 each year to inspect for  

substandard conditions—graffiti, sidewalk drinking, sales to minors and the like. 

The body also voted to take a new look at a law passed in March making it mandatory for those who serve or sell alcoholic beverages to be certified in alcohol sales. 

At a public hearing on the fees at the Tuesday council meeting, business owners argued that they are not the culprits targeted by the inspection program; the scofflaws are, in fact, nuisance neighborhood liquor stores, they said. 

While the council approved the standards at its Dec. 11 meeting, rules mandate a second reading of the ordinance to become law. The second reading was on the agenda Tuesday. 

A separate item on fees for inspections had been approved in concept by the council in Decem-ber and required the public hearing that was held Tuesday. 

“We’d rather have the problem-makers take the burden,” said Jean Spencer, owner of The Musical Offering café on Ban-croft Way across from the UC Berkeley campus, addressing the council at the public hearing.  

“I support the general idea of standards,” she added. 

Code Enforcement Supervisor Gregory Daniel spoke to the need for standards to create “a level playing field,” so that all business owners know exactly what is expected of them. 

Ralph Adams of the Berkeley Alcohol Policy Advocacy Coali-tion (BAPAC), the community group that has been fighting to curb problems created by alcohol abuse and that helped to write the standards, urged the council to adopt the standards and fees.  

“I’ve dealt with a lot of nuisance behavior in my neighborhood” due to alcohol sales from liquor stores, he said, underscoring that the $467 fee should be affordable to any person whose business is viable. 

Speaking at the hearing, restaurant owners said the proposed fees were inequitable: liquor stores were to be inspected four times annually and restaurants only once—all would pay the $467 fee. Logically, they said, with fewer inspections, they should pay a lesser annual fee. 

Others said there should be a fee differential between small owner-operated stores, for whom beer and wine is a tiny percentage of sales, and large grocery and liquor stores that sell greater quantities of alcohol.  

C.J. McGowen, has owned Berkeley Bait and Tackle on San Pablo Avenue near Bancroft Way for 23 years. He’s at work in his shop from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. most days. Fishing poles dangle from the ceiling of the small shop and fishing hats decorate the walls. Customers come in for worms and hooks, tell stories of the really big one and eye the gear that fills the shelves.  

McGowen also sells soda, bottled water and beer. People come in and buy a six-pack to take with them when they go fishing, he told the Planet in a short interview Wednesday at his shop. 

He told the council Tuesday night that alcohol is just a fraction of his business. He doesn’t sell wine in his shop, he said. 

“This man has a bait and tackle shop. I’m sure he’s going to sell a few cases of beer each week—that the same as Andronico’s?” asked Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, questioning the one-fee-fits-all concept. 

Public speakers also expressed outrage at a law passed last year mandating certification for all those who serve or sell alcoholic beverages. They pointed to a dearth of free classes provided by the California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control and the high cost of private training sessions: $30-to-$70 per individual. 

They underscored that the high turnover of part-time restaurant workers means that restaurateurs must pay thousands of dollars annually to certify their workers. 

Daniel, the city code inspection supervisor, told the council that owners can get certified to run the classes and certify their staffs. 

The council voted to put both the standards and fees laws on hold and appointed Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmembers Laurie Capitelli, Gordon Wozniak and Darryl Moore to revise the fee schedule and take a new look at the ordinance that mandates certification for those who sell alcohol. The meetings will be noticed and open to the public.  

Photograph by Judith Scherr. 

C.J. McGowen, Berkeley Bait & Tackle owner, sells six or seven cases of beer a week. Under a City Council proposal—now under revision—he would have had to pay the same alcohol inspection fees as large grocers such as Andronico’s.

The mayors of Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville, along with the UC Berkeley chancellor and the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, met under the TV cameras’ glare in early December to unveil the East Bay Green Corridor Part-nership. 

At its meeting Tuesday night, a unanimous Berkeley City Council voted to sign onto the partnership that promises support for green industries and “green collar” jobs. 

For some, the substance of the partnership is unclear: how do its members interpret “green?” what is the structure of the partnership and will the community be able to interact with it?  

The partnership was the last issue before the council Tuesday night. Councilmember Kriss Worthington challenged Mayor Tom Bates, saying he should not have signed the partnership’s statement of principles without first getting City Council ap-proval. Unlike Oakland, which is governed by a “strong mayor,” Berkeley has a council-manager form of government. 

“I think this is very appropriate that this is finally coming to the City Council,” Worthington said. 

“I don’t see that the mayor has the power to sign something like this,” according to the City Charter, he said. “The mayor is a ceremonial figurehead according to the charter.” 

Bates cut off Worthington: “It doesn’t say anywhere that I’m obligating the city to do anything, Kriss.” 

Acting City Attorney Zach Cowan agreed with the mayor, saying that the principles signed by Bates were not binding, therefore the mayor’s signing the statement was not problematic. 

Speaking to the Planet on Thursday, however, Worthington said it was wrong for the mayor to have committed staff to work on an issue without first getting council approval. 

Bates underscored the intent of the partnership: “The idea is that the mayors and their staffs would get together to see how we could leverage funds for jobs in the East Bay to have a workforce available for the jobs of the future,” he said. 

But speakers from the public questioned what the mayor means when he says “green.” 

Merrilie Mitchell pointed out that LBNL Director Steven Chu supports development of nuclear energy, something that has long been controversial in the environmental community.  

Mitchell also asked if the Green Corridor Partnership was going to support BP. UC Berkeley recently entered into a $500 million partnership with the oil giant to develop biofuels, a gasoline substitute questioned by scientists such as UC Berkeley’s Ted Patzek and Ignacio Chapella. 

Amy Beaton, a LBNL employee on leave, dressed up to speak to the council in a BP Bear costume, complete with pompoms.  

She said that when she had first heard of the green corridor partnership, she had envisioned a swath of land in which high school kids would be planting trees—instead, she said she feared it would be supporting projects such as the BP-university deal. 

“I want to remind the City Council that their job is to protect us as citizens,” she said. 

Bernard Marszalek works at the Inkworks printing collective, a union shop that has won awards for its use of green printing methods including soy inks and recycled paper. He spoke to the council representing both Inkworks and West Berkeley Artists and Industrial Companies, making a plea to protect the small businesses in the area. 

“We’re glad the mayors are getting together to talk about creating green jobs—we’re providing green jobs. We can provide a lot more green jobs,” he said. “What we need is … a way of bringing in more businesses that compliment businesses that are in West Berkeley. 

“We need affordable rents; 80 percent of the businesses in West Berkeley rent. What’s protecting those rents? What’s protecting those jobs? The West Berkeley Plan,” Marszalek said, referring to a push by some West Berkeley developers to make changes in the West Berkeley Plan that some say would permit laboratory space where it is currently prohibited. 

“We make a plea for you to talk to people providing green jobs and include them in this,” he said. 

Councilmember Dona Spring supported the public speakers. “The BP deal is very controversial,” Spring said. “We don’t want something that benefits the multinationals. We want to support the grass roots.” 

Worthington tried to formalize inclusion of the community in the East Bay Corridor Partnership process, asking for the participation of the community colleges as equal partners with the mayors, UC and the labs and for meetings to be open to the public.  

But Bates said that he could not speak for the others in the partnership. 

“I can‘t impose on the other cities, the chancellor or the other people,” Bates responded saying there would be one annual open public meeting. “Yesterday, I met with Gavin Newsom and Ron Dellums—am I supposed to follow the Brown Act to meet with the mayors?” 

It is already hard to call a meeting and get all the players there; adding participants would make it even more difficult, he said 

Bates added, however, that, while the partnership now has no formal structure, that could change. “If we receive the grants, then we would have to figure out how we would administer it—we don’t really know.” 

Bates said there have been preliminary conversations with Rep. Barbara Lee on getting federal funds, but assured councilmembers that he would come back to council to get approval for any grants the city may apply for.  

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak lauded Bates’ role in the partnership. “I think our mayor deserves a lot of credit,” he said, arguing against causing the group to become more bureaucratic.  

“This is our opportunity,” he said, pointing out the importance of the Bay Area getting federal green funds. “We want to make sure they don’t end up in Texas,” he said. 

Berkeley city officials turned thumbs down on a request by UC Berkeley officials to build yet another fence surrounding the tree-sitters encamped near Memorial Stadium. 

The university needed city approval because they wanted to build the enclosure—which would have been the third concentric ring of woven wire around the protest site—because part of the fence line would intrude on the city’s right of way along Piedmont Avenue to the west of the site. 

“The university requested the extension based on safety concerns along the sidewalk area,” said Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna. 

“They are very concerned about the safety of the people in the trees as well as the safety of people on the sidewalk being hit by things falling from the trees,” said the city official. 

“Yeah, like Chicken Little,” said Karen Pickett of the university’s contention that measures were needed to protect passing pedestrians from debris from the trees. 

Pickett, of Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, is a prominent supporter of the protest who has helped organize events at the Grove. 

“If they were really concerned about the health and safety of the tree-sitters, they wouldn’t be denying them food and water,” she said. 

But Dan Mogulof, executive director of the university’s Office of Public Affairs, said that “when we talk about public safety, we talk about the safety of the 30,000-plus students on campus, faculty members and other employees and members of the community. Our concern for the health and safety of the people in the trees isn’t at the top of our list. 

”The people in the trees can’t have it both ways, “ he said. “If they continue to violate the law and court orders, they must be willing to accept the consequences.” 

But Caronna said the city denied the request “because we didn’t see the need for any sidewalk closure, and because we didn’t have the authority to close the sidewalk based on the information we had,” Caronna said. 

The city has jurisdiction over the sidewalk, but has no say over what happens on the adjacent university property—though the city is fighting a court battle challenging the legality of the university’s approval of environmental documents which would pave the way for a slate of building projects in the area. 

The tree-sitters, who first ascended the branches of the grove west of the stadium more than 13 months ago, are demanding that the university relocate the $125 million high tech gym now planned for the site. 

A legal challenge by the city, neighbors on Panoramic Hill and environmentalists contends the UC Board of Regents improperly approved the projects in votes last November and December. 

They contend the Student Athlete High Performance Center—the four-level gym and office complex planned at the grove—violates state law governing construction with 50 feet of an active earthquake fault. 

The stadium sits directly on top of the Hayward Fault, judged by federal geologists as the likely origin of the Bay Area’s next major earthquake. 

The battle over approval of construction of the gym and the broader environmental impact report covering the gym, a large underground parking lot northwest of the gym and a large nearby office and meeting complex joining functions of the university’s law and business schools is currently under consideration by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara J. Miller.  

Judge Miller must make one key decision before ruling in the case, and that is whether or not to take new expert evidence to help her decide a key issue raised in the legal arguments by both sides. 

The plaintiffs charge that the two buildings are connected, with the gym being an extension of the stadium. The university contends the buildings are separate. 

Stephan Volker, the plaintiff’s attorney representing California Oak Foundation, said the petitioners have argued that the judge should decide the case based on evidence already received. 

Attorneys for both sides made their arguments during a hearing last Friday, with the university supporting the judge and the plaintiffs opposed. The judge promised a quick decision. 

“We’re confident that there’s no basis for the court to reopen the record,” Volker said. But if the judge does seek expert statements, he said “we are confident that we can introduce expert testimony that they are interconnected and interdependent,” he said. 

In December, two months after both sides had rested, Miller ask both sides to present declarations from building code experts to help her decide.  

If she finds the gym to be an extension of the stadium, her ruling would place severe restrictions on the amount of money the university could spend on the project. The Alquist-Priolo Act limits the cost of additions or renovations to buildings within 50 feet of faults to half of the value of the existing structure.  

Just how to establish the value of the aging and ailing stadium is another key question in the case, the university pushing for replacement value for a new up-to-current-code structure, while the plaintiffs are arguing for the appraised resale value of the current structure. 

Mogulof said the university has used the delays caused the legal challenge to explore a variety of options about project construction methods, seismic safety issues and timing—and to address needs of both the public and students who will be using the facility. 

If the judge gives the green light, Mogulof said, “we will be able to begin construction immediately.”

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums flipped the script in his first State of the City address Monday night—as the hip-hoppers like to say—focusing on policy recommendations for the coming year rather than on listing accomplishments for the old, and largely abandoning the rhetorical flourishes for which he is best known, replacing them with a more sober and businesslike recitation of details. 

“We wanted to challenge Oakland to see its destiny as the model city,” Dellums said. “We have been consistent in moving forward to that goal.”  

He closed saying that “I believe we can meet our destiny to be a beacon of light in this state and in this nation.” 

The mayor spoke for an hour and eight minutes without notes. While the overflow crowd of some 800 seated inside at the Marriott Hotel ballroom and several hundred more watching on monitors in the foyer outside interrupted him several times with applause, Monday’s event was nothing like the electric excitement that greeted Dellums’ announcement in early 2007 of his intention to run for mayor, or the enthusiasm that greeted many of his speeches in the spring campaign that followed. 

Instead, the audience listened intently and quietly to their city leader as he devoted the bulk of his speech to Oakland’s most serious and nagging problem: crime and violence. 

“Scores have been murdered and hundreds have been adversely touched by violence and crime in Oakland,” Dellums said, saying it was a fundamental right to be guaranteed by the city for people “to go about their lives in peace, security, and safety.”  

While saying that murders in Oakland are down 15 percent this year from last and overall crime “is at a level pace” during a year when crime in the nation is up 6 percent, Dellums said “that is not enough. When a journalist is killed on the streets of Oakland or a young boy is in the hospital, paralyzed by a shooting, we can take no comfort in that.” 

Responding to the repeated calls from several quarters in Oakland for more police on the streets, Dellums said that “we must commit to join together to do whatever it takes so that at the end of this year, we will have the full [authorized strength of] 803 police officers.” 

The 803 police strength authorization was originally approved by Oakland voters in 2004 in the violence prevention ballot Measure Y during the administration of former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, but difficulties in getting enough recruits through the tough police academy course and offsetting retirements by veteran officers during the last Brown years and the first Dellums year have kept Oakland’s police strength only a little over 700. 

To meet the 803 authorization by the end of the year and to determine how many police Oakland will need, at what cost, in the future, Dellums gave a list of eight specific proposals [see sidebar]. 

The mayor also said that he would soon order all city department heads “to deploy and align their staff” in the same three geographical divisions recently developed by Police Chief Wayne Tucker and to coordinate their efforts with the police under an overall public safety plan, a hint that a promised comprehensive public safety plan that has been worked on by the mayor’s staff for many months may be soon finalized and released to the public. 

But while repeatedly praising the city council for its cooperation in his first year’s work and asking for their help in future projects, Dellums also fired a warning shot across the Council bow to those who might think he had no defense against charges that the lack of full police strength was his fault. 

Saying that “we should have known by 2000” that the retirement of the baby boomer generation of police officers would overwhelm efforts to recruit new police, Dellums said that something should have been done earlier to address that problem. He also said that the low police levels were exacerbated by the 2002-04 police hiring freeze instituted by the Oakland City Council, most of whom still hold their seats. For both events, Dellums said that “I make no judgment. There may have been good reasons for it. I don’t know. I wasn’t there. It wasn’t on my watch.” 

But Dellums said that adding more police was not enough, and that the city “must address the underlying causes of crime and violence.” 

Noting that some 3,000 ex-offenders return to Oakland every year, Dellums said that these persons are responsible for 40 to 50 percent of the crime in the city. “They leave prison with $200 in their pockets” given to them by the state, the mayor said. “When that $200 is gone, where is the next $200 coming from? It’s ‘stick ‘em up.’”  

Dellums said that “we must deal with their problems of re-entry into society, give them a sense of pride, train them, and provide them with the resources necessary.” 

The mayor said that he has already employed an ex-offender re-entry specialist in his office, and said that $200,000 in Measure Y money has been allocated to go to a local institution to retrain ex-offenders for employment. 

In another violence prevention initiative, Dellums said that his request for $575,000 in funding has been authorized by the city council out of Measure Y money to put violence prevention outreach workers in East Oakland, West Oakland, and the Fruitvale in a pilot project to deal with conflict resolution in the troubled streets of those neighborhoods before those conflicts flare up into violence. 

In other policy announcements: 

• The city will be sending out an RFQ “in the next few weeks” for the city’s plans to develop the old Oakland Army Base. Dellums said he hopes the project will eventually bring in $10 million a year in revenue and 10,000 new jobs to the city. 

• Declaring that “people who live in Oakland should have the right to stay in Oakland,” the mayor said he will be presenting his comprehensive housing policy to the city council “in the next couple of weeks” to ensure that “we will not sacrifice the richness and diversity of Oakland.” The council is currently set to discuss two highly controversial affordable housing proposals concerning inclusionary zoning and condominium conversion, and has been waiting for the mayor’s plans to assist in its deliberations. 

• He announced two health care initiatives, one an upcoming three year demonstration public-private collaboration project to eventually put health care clinics in every high school and middle school in Oakland, the second to collaborate with the Peralta Community College District to put health clinics—with community access available—in every Peralta campus. 

• He has committed $350,000 in city money for an ultimate $1 million “Green Corps” project to train low income Oakland residents for entry into the area’s growing green industry. 

Dellums’ first State of the City address was a marked departure from the practice of past mayors. While former Mayor Jerry Brown gave his major State of the City speech annually to a breakfast meeting of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, which the Oakland public could attend by paying a $50 fee to the chamber, Dellums chose to give his speech at an evening event which the public could attend for free. Dellums, as was Brown’s practice, gave a shortened followup address to Oakland City Council on Tuesday night. 

[The mayor’s State of the City speech can be heard online at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kalw/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1212138. The mayor’s accomplishments during 2007 were listed in a 24-page booklet handed out at the address and available for download at the mayor’s website at http://www.mayorrondellums.org/.]

Brandishing posters, placards and signs at the Berkeley Board of Education meeting Wednesday, more than 30 Berkeley High School teachers urged board members to construct the new classrooms approved for the high school by August. 

The board approved a $2 million project on Jan. 9 to create four new classrooms through remodeling and to buy six portables in order to add 10 classroom spaces. 

The lack of space at Berkeley High has compelled its teachers to hold classes inside the Washington Elementary School portables and in the Community Theater lobby. 

“We have reached a critical situation for space at Berkeley High,” said district spokesperson Mark Coplan, who explain-ed that recent voter-mandated reductions in class sizes have meant an expansion of classes. “The trade-off for having smaller class sizes meant we would have a lack of space,” he said. 

According to a survey conducted by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) in 2007, 70 percent of Berkeley High teachers not connected to a small-school program either shared a classroom or moved around from room to room. 

“They take their belongings in a cart and move along,” said BFT President Cathy Campbell. “It’s really hard getting from one class to the other. It’s hard to be on time and hard to get the room arranged and hard for the students to find their teachers. You can’t think and plan and analyze properly. Most teachers are doing that work at home, and for a lot of us with families, it’s not the best plan.” 

Campbell said that it was important to have the new spaces ready by mid-August. 

“Beginning of the school year is such a critical time,” she said. “We’d prefer to have the students in the new classrooms by fall rather than have them change rooms in January or February.” 

Dozens of children attending Hasmig Minassian’s freshman seminar class in the Washington Elementary portables wrote letters to board members asking them to provide teachers with their own rooms. 

“Our teacher never stays after class to answer our questions,” wrote freshman Michelle Casimiro. “We don’t know where she is if we have something important to ask her.” 

Others complained about not being able to post their work on any classroom wall. 

“For students these spaces will mean that when they enter their classroom their teacher will be there, greeting them at the door, calm and ready to use every possible instructional minute to its fullest potential,” said Shannon Erby, who has taught at Berkeley High for three years.  

“The homework will be written on the board and the desks will be preconfigured to support the lesson,” she said. “Baskets of extra handouts and clear places to turn in homework will be available. Student work and visual resources will adorn the walls, and the entire whiteboard at the front of the room will be available to support visual learners.” 

Erby added that more classrooms would improve student achievement, strengthen student-teacher relationships and assist in teacher retention. 

“I am one of Berkeley’s finest teachers, but I don’t need a classroom ... I have this,” Berkeley High teacher Tim Mullering said, exhibiting a black marker to the school board. “We could have a class in the park, in the steps of the Community Theatre or in the warm pool ... But it’s very difficult for my students. I volunteered to write letters of recommendation for 40 of them and they had a tough time looking for me.” 

“As a teacher it’s really hard to be taken seriously by your kids when you don’t have your own space,” said Jordan Winer, who teaches drama at the high school. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence—who will retire Feb. 2—informed the teachers that it would be difficult to have the spaces available before next spring. 

Lawrence will be replaced by Bill Huyett, who until recently served as superintendent of the Lodi Unified School District. 

“At least three rooms will be ready for use in September,” Lawrence said. “It will be tough to get it all done by August, even if we pull out all the stops.” 

Lawrence reminded the group that the portables were more of a temporary solution to the space problem and that the district hoped to build permanent classrooms after demolishing the Old Gym. 

“The issue about overcrowding really needs to be heard by the community,” she said. “Some momentum will help us get through the issues of licensing and the environmental impact report.” 

Lawrence reported that the lawsuit by Friends Protecting Berkeley’s Resources to block the demolition of the old gym and warm pool was delaying the plans for the proposed three-story classroom building from moving ahead. 

According to a report submitted to the school board by district’s facilities director Lew Jones last week, Berkeley High doesn’t have enough space for its 3,172 students, and the crunch will only increase as the student body is projected to keep growing until 2011. The report also states that the school currently has 114 available classrooms, as opposed to the need for 128 regular education classroom. 

The 10 new classroooms, which would supplement the four Washington Elementary portables, include recapturing one space from Berkeley Community Media, dividing three larger rooms and adding six classroom portables and a restroom portable. 

Although the Berkeley High administration have identified the school’s softball field as the best location for these buildings, nothing definite has been decided yet.

Rebuilding Berkeley’s therapeutic warm pool hit troubled waters Tuesday, when a City Council majority balked at expressing its intent to place a bond measure for the pool on the November ballot without first having details on operational costs. 

Several councilmembers indicated, as well, that they wanted to wait until all the possible bond measures—which could include taxes for sewers and storm drains and for police and fire—were before them to decide which to place on the ballot. 

“There are many needs in the city,” said Councilmember Gordon Wozniak. “We have trouble keeping the other pools open.” 

Wozniak pointed out that four years earlier proposed taxes went down to defeat because of the number of them on the ballot. “I haven’t heard what the competing things are,” he said. 

Councilmember Dona Spring said she was anxious to get council approval for the $15 million bond to go before the voters. “We really need to go forward putting this on the ballot; we need to start working on a campaign that will pass this measure,” she said, urging her council colleagues to vote their intent to put the measure on the ballot and at the same time allow the city manager until Feb. 12 to finalize cost estimates. 

In 2000, Berkeley voters passed a $3.25 million bond measure to refurbish the warm pool at Berkeley High. The pool is used primarily by disabled people and seniors. Subsequently, the school district decided to demolish the warm pool at its current location. After discussions with the city, the school board approved dedicated space in its Master Plan on a former tennis court east of Milvia Street for a new warm pool. 

The estimated $15 million project would cost taxpayers about $5.59 per $100,000 of assessed property value annually. 

City manager Phil Kamlarz told council that another wrinkle in the project is that the school district’s Surplus Site Committee first has to declare the site as surplus, which won’t happen for a number of months. 

But district spokesperson Mark Coplan, speaking to the Daily Planet on Wednesday, said that, while it’s true that the committee needs to formally surplus the site, the school master plan clearly states that a former tennis court east of Milvia is dedicated to the warm pool.  

He added that the school board has clearly recommended siting the warm pool there and that the board, not the committee, has the final word on the question.  

Wozniak added another concern: Operational costs cannot be estimated without a study of the demand for a warm pool, he said. “We have no idea where operating funds are going to come from,” he told the council, further pointing out that 40 percent of those who use the pool come from outside the city.  

“If there’s not a contribution from other cities, I’m going to be hard pressed to go to Berkeley voters saying ‘Gee, cough up $15 million and we’re going to be letting all these other people use it free,’” he said. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, however, said the responsible thing for the council to do is to express its intent to place the question before the voters, particularly because the voters already showed support for the pool in 2000 by authorizing funding for refurbishment.  

Seeing that only Worthington supported her recommendation to place the measure on the ballot, Spring withdrew her motion, saying that she was willing to wait until Feb. 12 when the city manager would have more detailed information. 

The council needs to be clear and demonstrate that they will support a warm pool, she said. “If they don’t, then don’t just string [the public] along any more,” she said. “People have to decide whether they want to go ahead with it or kill it.” 

In other city business, the council unanimously approved easing building code restrictions on retrofit work for soft story and brick buildings, placing the Patient’s Access to Medical Cannabis Act on the November ballot (the courts ordered it resubmitted to voters after 2004 problems in a recount, because the county did not retain some ballots), and approved enhanced controls over the city’s taxi script program for low-income seniors and disabled people. 

Last month, Berkeley lost one of the individuals who make Berkeley Berkeley. Robert “Bob” (to some) Kinzie Ewing passed on to the great atheistic beyond. He was 75. A Berkeley resident since 1957, Robert spent a quarter century among the “old men” at Peet’s on Vine and on “The Bench” at Fat Apples debating the Constitution, the press and human rights.  

Robert carried the banner of social democracy all his life, whether he referred to it as Marxist, Socialist, or even the Democratic Party. His politics were rooted in his personal history. Born in Hope, Ark. in 1932 and orphaned as an infant, Robert was raised in Jackson, Tenn. by his grandmother and his maternal aunt. At college in Knoxville, Tenn., a philosophy class inspired him to leave his Methodist upbringing in favor of more radical politics. He moved to California and never looked back.  

In true Socialist style, he dropped out of Boalt Hall School of Law and labored as an EBMUD meter reader for 27 years, and was a strong voice for the union. For Robert, politics were personal, and inadequately understood by most of his fellow humans. He felt we all paid too much attention to labels and not enough to content. A tall spitfire of a man, he was instantly recognized also by the duct tape obscuring any brand name or logo on his clothing, hat or belongings.  

Robert’s charm was empathy and keen observation of the human condition, and it transcended all social barriers. He connected with people of every race, class, age and occupation. He cared enormously about family—his own four children, and yours, too. He remembered names, personal stories and life issues, and held personal struggle in high regard. Everyone was important. No one can know how much of this was his Tennessee upbringing or simply his personality, but he certainly had more than his share of what might be called “Southern Charm.” He was tall and handsome and could be quite a flirt (as well as the recipient of same). 

Robert was a powerful presence. We who had the privilege of his company give thanks for having known him. 

A memorial will be held this Sunday at the Live Oak Park community center, at 1 p.m. for those who wish to share stories of Robert.  

Several of Robert’s family members contributed to this article. 

The “What Were They Thinking?” award for this week goes to whoever put together the elaborate plan for inspecting every establishment in Berkeley which sells alcohol, to be paid for by a flat fee that would have been the same for all sellers, from the little deli that sells an occasional six-pack of beer to the big grocery and liquor stores that sell hard liquor by the case. It’s not that alcohol isn’t associated with problems for some users, but the city’s plan was primarily a solution in search of a problem. And the award shouldn’t go only to the bureaucrats who put it together—the elected councilmembers who passed the measure at first reading and were geared up to finalize it last week before restaurateurs rallied to protest deserve part of the credit (or blame) too. 

First, let’s be clear that Berkeley has its share of nuisances or even crimes caused by alcohol sales, just like other urban areas. What are called “corner” liquor stores—small stores in residential areas whose main business is selling alcoholic drinks in bottles—can turn into a hangout for disreputable alcoholics if they’re not aggressively well-managed to avoid selling to the wrong people. On the other hand, small grocery stores within walking distance can be a real asset to neighborhoods if proprietors do a good job of screening their clientele. Two such establishments, the Roxie Deli near our office and the Star Grocery near my home, have saved me many miles of automobile usage for grocery purchases and never caused a moment’s grief. This is because they’re primarily in the food business, with alcoholic beverages just a sideline, albeit a profitable sideline that probably keeps the rest of the enterprise solvent, and because their owner-operators are always on the job. 

The other group of problem alcohol buyers who need some form of protection is minors. Binge drinking by college and even high school students is reported to be on the rise. When I was an undergraduate it was illegal to sell alcohol within a mile of the UC campus, but as the campus has metastasized to cover large areas of Berkeley and even Oakland, Albany and Richmond that’s no longer practical.  

The primary control method for these drinkers is the same as for unruly adults: The seller needs to be careful who’s buying. But wily collegians long ago figured out that the way around this is to send a qualified older person in to buy the booze, which is then consumed in the privacy of a frat house, dorm, or (increasingly) a downtown condo. At Tuesday night’s council meeting, one restaurant owner who’d grown up in Berkeley disclosed the method of choice he knows about: a fellow named “Smitty” who hangs out in front of a chain drugstore, and who’s always willing to buy a six-pack for anyone willing to pay a suitable fee up front. We can’t expect restrictions on sellers to easily end the problem of underage consumption. 

There has never been a serious documented allegation that restaurants which allow food patrons to purchase beer and wine with their meals have created any kind of problem in Berkeley. Even bars—where the main business is alcoholic drinks by the glass, with or without a bit of food—are not usually associated with neighborhood complaints. Bar owners are justifiably wary about making the mistake of selling to an underage or intoxicated person because they are regulated by the state’s Alcohol Beverage Commission, and they could get their license pulled for lapses.  

At Tuesday’s meeting, the discussion of where complaints about establishments selling alcohol originate was a perfect illustration of the simplistic reasoning that went into drafting the ordinance. The fees are supposed to go to setting up an elaborate inspection bureaucracy. Restaurants are supposed to be checked three times a year, stores just one, though the reasoning for the differential was not made clear.  

A city employee contended that more restaurants were cited annually for violations than stores, which was his justification for charging all the same flat fee. Councilmember Wozniak (scientifically trained) pointed out that this figure was meaningless unless you took into account how many restaurants versus how many stores there are in the city, and also whether a few repeat offenders were skewing the statistics. 

On the checklist are multiple items obviously generated by the now thoroughly discredited “broken window” theory of crime prevention. Do you have any graffiti? Any broken windows? Well, then, you must have an alcohol sales problem. There’s no data offered to support this concept, however. 

And whatever is the point of inspecting genteel restaurants like La Note on Shattuck (French cuisine with a pricey winelist) or The Musical Offering (a classical recording store with a tiny cafe counter and wine by the glass) three times a year to see if they have any graffiti on the premises, or if their windows might be broken?  

Penalizing establishments which do suffer from taggers is a classic case of blaming the victim anyhow. The Planet’s office is in a somewhat gritty stretch of Shattuck south of Ashby, and we have a terrible time keeping the graffiti off of our newspaper distribution box right by our front door. There’s an anecdotal tale making the rounds of a small non-alcohol-serving restaurant which got a stern warning letter from the city because owners failed to notice and paint out a two-inch tag which was on the side of their building under a drainpipe.  

A major focus of proprietors’ complaints was the requirement that each and every individual who sells alcohol to the public receive four hours of training. Anna De Leon, who owns Anna’s Jazz Island, estimated that she has 20 part-time servers who would need the special training. When you figure in their hourly pay plus the fees, it would come to $2,500 a year, a hefty hit in an industry where profit margins are tiny. Now bar owners, per state ABC rules, get themselves trained and train their employees, and it’s a system which works just fine. It appears that councilmembers, having finally come to their senses, will dump this part of the program. 

Clubs like Anna’s and our many world-renowned restaurants are major assets for Berkeley’s economy. Jazz fans like me know that it’s the liquor that pays for the musicians, even though Anna has diversified into offering food and other beverages for non-drinkers. As more and more small shops go out of business or move to the malls, it’s food that defines Berkeley’s ground floor retail, and it’s the profitable beverage component that keep many restaurants afloat.  

This whole episode is one more case of the civic nanny thoughtlessly tossing out the baby with the bathwater. Berkeley has more than its share of Carrie Nation wannabes who think that if they don’t like it, it must be banned.  

Just two examples: I stopped smoking 40 years ago, I wrote a prize-winning article about the dangers of cigarettes in 1980, the paper doesn’t accept cigarette ads, but I think that the part of the Public Commons ordinance that blames cigarette smokers for street behavior problems is foolish. So is the rule that says street trees must be pruned up to eight feet above the sidewalk, presumably to accommodate any eight-foot-tall pedestrians we might have. There are many more foolish regs like this which scarce city funds are spent to enforce.  

There’s a general legal principle that regulations should be rationally related to the problem they’re supposed to solve, but it often seems to be ignored by Berkeley bureaucrats. The restaurant inspection ordinance looks like yet another case of city employees with too much paid time on their hands making work for themselves, and it should be remembered when tax increases are proposed.  

Let’s build our dream candidate, shall we? Experienced, smart, African-American, from an immigrant family though born in the U.S.A., and female.....wouldn’t we all be proud to support that person, don’t we wish she were running this year? Well, folks, I’ve been there, done that, in 1972, no less. I was one of the core group (non-hierarchical, of course) who ran the Michigan primary campaign for Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, and it was a huge success: We got 5 percent of the vote. It was an enormously satisfying experience, right up until Richard Nixon was re-elected in a landslide vote. It’s all been downhill since then. 

Elections, unfortunately, are about more than self-expression. That’s why it’s profoundly depressing to see people who should know better expressing themselves loudly in public places (e.g. the New York Times op-ed pages) about how various candidates make them feel. Some women and men who should know better are reviving the pointless old debate about whether women or black people have been more oppressed in this country. One of them, Gloria Steinem, was part of the Chisholm campaign like me, yet she leaped into the arena at the first hint of a controversy between the Clinton and Obama campaigns over whether gender or race counted for more sympathy points in the contest for the nomination.  

She and Melissa Harris Lacewell, African-American and Princeton professor, locked horns on Amy Goodman’s show in an embarrassing exchange of postures that did neither candidate any good. Luckily Amy Goodman viewers don’t swing many elections. 

What’s most annoying about the media’s attempt to build up a few tense words between the candidates or their followers is that Hillary Clinton is not the Average White Woman, and Barack Obama is not the Average Black Man. Oppression in this country and many other countries has always been as much about class as it has been about gender and race.  

All over the world throughout history, certain women attached to the ruling class (and every society has one) have had a kind of free pass from some forms of gender oppression. That was true in Renaissance Britain, where rival queens Elizabeth I of England and the Irish pirate queen Grace O’Malley once took tea. Elizabeth would have been no one without Henry VIII, and Gráinne Ní Mháille (the Gaelic version) learned everything she knew about sea-faring from her father. Benazir Bhutto is the most obvious contemporary example of daughters learning from fathers how to get ahead. 

But even for men in the United States it’s been conventional for family members to play off the success of their relatives, going all the way back at least to the two presidents named John Adams. It’s one career strategy, and as often beneficial for the country as harmful. John Kennedy was a pretty good president, and his brother Bobby would have been a better one. Ted Kennedy has been an excellent senator, and Robert Kennedy, Jr. has had an honorable career with more perhaps to follow. On the other hand, we have the Bush family, but gender is not the problem there.  

Hillary Clinton has had all the advantages of an upper middle class woman in her cohort. She received an excellent education with little trouble and no student loans to pay off. Her choice to throw in her lot with another smart young lawyer, Bill Clinton, was sensible, and has worked as expected. But her gender shouldn’t count either for her or against her for Democratic voters trying to make up their minds before Feb. 5. 

Barack Obama has similarly had many more advantages than those African-Americans who are the descendants of slaves and of recent ancestors who have suffered under segregation and racism. His African father seems to have been a member of the ruling class in his country of birth, and his European-American mother’s family was solidly midwestern upper-middle class, probably a lot like Hillary Clinton’s family. He has undoubtedly experienced a measured amount of race-based prejudice in his lifetime, but nothing compared to the experience of African-Americans from families long oppressed in this country. But again, this shouldn’t count much either for or against his candidacy. 

The candidates seem to have made a real effort in the last couple of days to counter the attempts of frivolous commentators like Maureen Dowd to turn the Democratic primary campaign into the feud between Britney Spears and her ex-boyfriend. They have participated in staged Kumbaya moments, and said nice things about one another. It would be great if they could keep it up, at least until Super Tuesday.  

What role will racism, the plain old-fashioned ugly kind, play in voters’ decision at that point? Not all that much, I’d be willing to wager. Most Americans have gotten, finally, to the point where they’d actually like to be able to vote for someone like Obama, just as they enjoy being fans of the right African-American music or sports celebrities. (This tells you nothing about their opinions on racial hot button issues like crime or welfare, however.)  

The racial component in choices made by voters, if there is one, will come from the handicapper mentality. It seems that increasingly, particularly in primaries, voters think that their job is to bet on the winner. In the Democratic primary, that leads some of them to this convoluted reasoning path: “I’m not racist myself, and I’d like see Obama as president, but since other people are racist, perhaps I’d better not vote for him.” This kind of one-degree-of-separation racial analysis could harm Obama’s prospects in the remaining primaries, if too many otherwise well-meaning Democrats fall for it.  

In the week in which we celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday, it’s useful to remember the exhortation which he made popular in the civil rights movement: Keep your eyes on the prize. What we’re trying to do here is choose a president, folks. 

In grade school we were asked to debate the question of “who was the greatest president, Washington or Lincoln?” I never had a moment’s doubt arguing for Lincoln, because of the whole log cabin thing: He’d overcome his humble background to rise to the top, a trajectory most admired in America.  

But in maturity I realize that there’s more to the story than that. Even if Hillary Clinton does represent women overcoming gender discrimination, or if Barack Obama does represent triumph over racial discrimination, those aren’t the best reasons to vote for either of them in 2008.  

It’s better to choose our elected officials on the basis of what they will do if elected, instead of on what they represent as symbols. Much more relevant is evaluating the choices they’ve made.  

It’s not the fact that Hillary Clinton chose to hitch her wagon to Bill’s star that counts against her, it’s what they, admittedly as a team, did with the presidency. She has experience, all right, but there is little to be proud of and much to be ashamed of in the Clinton record. The obvious comparison is to Eleanor Roosevelt, who made the same decision about her career, though she never had a chance to run for office on her own, but did much more good with her chosen path.  

Sen. Barack Obama has the advantage of an essentially clean slate. He is often compared to Sen. Jack Kennedy, who did a fair job with the presidency in the short time he had, but Obama, the same age as Kennedy was when he was elected, has achieved much more on his own than Kennedy had at the same point in his life. Kennedy was never a scholar like Obama, nor did he devote any time to community service jobs as Obama does.  

But in the last analysis, even by studying history, it’s impossible to predict with certainly what any candidate will do if elected. Like it or not, we fall back in the end on image: what a candidate seems to stand for.  

John Edwards is a tempting choice because his campaign invokes the best of the Democratic party’s past, but at the same time he reminds us of the party’s failures to solve many problems. Hillary Clinton has only experience as her product, only her partnership with Bill as her resume, and that’s tainted by his obvious shortcomings. What the Obama campaign is selling is not much more than hope that the future will be different from the recent past, but hope is a potent prescription. It might be the one that works this time. 

PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Could we please have a “baby changing table” at the Totland playground?  

Thank you. 

Philip and Fionn Rowntree  

• 

ACCOUNTABILITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

During President Clinton’s second term of office he was impeached for perjury in front of the grand jury. This crime seems so minor comparatively to the crimes committed by President Bush and Vice President Cheney in their efforts to extend the power of the executive branch and use of executive privilege. If we do not bring charges against them before they leave office, then we may never know the extent of what they’ve done, as they are refusing to give Congress “Top Secret” documents that they claim are essential to National Security. 

It will be more harmful to National Security if we do not know the extent of the torture programs and the internal civil rights violations committed by the vice president and president. We know that they have committed numerous crimes. We need to hold them accountable, to uphold our Constitution, so that this practice does not become an accepted precedent. 

Rebecca DePalma 

• 

HAVE A HEART 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Have a heart O you rich people! Provide health care. Don’t raise rents. Don’t raise taxes for the poor and the middle class. Give to each according to his or her need. Have a heart. 

Romila Khanna 

Albany 

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT DEBATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Sure, we’d like to hear more about BRT. I’d still like to hear from someone who hasn’t yet spoken, someone who would ride the BRT instead of drive. The population of Berkeley can’t be made up of only dedicated bus riders like me, dedicated car drivers like Vincent Casalaina and people who don’t care about congestion, greenhouse gases or the end of oil. 

Steve Geller 

• 

GREENING THE EAST BAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If East Bay mayors are truly interested in creating “conditions that support new and emerging green industry,” they don’t need to go to Washington for money. 

On a recent trip to Cambridge, Mass., I learned that there are 50 biotech startups and countless software development firms within walking distance of MIT. How many similar firms are there in Berkeley? We have the same first-class university setting, but the jobs associated with UCB’s research efforts migrate elsewhere. 

Two changes to existing Berkeley regulations will stimulate new, “green collar” and other “high tech” businesses: 1) eliminate the gross receipts tax which is a killer for start-ups with revenues but no profits in the early years, and 2) eliminate the antiquated prejudice against intellectual work in favor of “light manufacturing” in the zoning laws. 

Make these two changes, stand back, and let the start-ups bloom. 

Tom Burns 

• 

A PREFERENCE FOR PRIVATE TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In theory, I think public transit is a fine thing. For many years I did without a car—until I missed a job opportunity because you had to drive to get there. Now, a driver and partially disabled senior, I note these reasons (among many) to continue driving. 

• I never have to stand waiting 45 minutes for my car to arrive.  

• My car never passes me by because it is already full to capacity. 

• My car never passes me by although it is empty. 

• There is never a puddle of unidentified liquid on the seat next to mine. 

• None of the passengers in my car ever cusses me out for my skin color. 

• None of the passengers in my car ever tries to steal my bag. 

• The driver of my car does not play the radio too loudly. 

• The driver of my car does not let me off blocks past my stop. 

• When winter comes, the heat in my car works. It is not turned on too high. 

• When winter comes and I turn on the heat in my car, no cockroaches come out of hiding. 

• The floor and seats of my car are clean and free of debris. 

• The windows of my car are not blocked by dirt or advertisements. 

• No passenger in my car coughs flu germs into my face. 

• The driver of my car never tells me to hurry up, he doesn’t have all day. 

• No passenger in my car takes two seats for sleeping. 

• No passenger in my car has been falling-down drunk. 

• The rear exit of my car does not smell like urine. 

• I can transport heavy items in my car because the walk to my apartment is short. 

Riding on public transit as it exists is seldom quality time. One must be vigilant and on guard. It practically guarantees illness in winter, generally unsanitary conditions, harassment, delays, and danger. I can’t trust a bus or BART to get me to medical appointments on time. Expensive new coaches don’t provide solutions to any of these issues. May I suggest that if public transportation is to attract and keep riders, convenience, courtesy, promptness, order and cleanliness might be addressed in addition to ecological concerns. 

A. Zagata 

Oakland 

• 

FLUORIDATED WATER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Fear now tempers my once pure pleasure at swimming at the Berkeley city warm pool (sadly on BHS property); I worry about BUSD bulldozers but even more I dread the uncertain prospect of increasing arthritis-like symptoms not due just to the passage of time and aging but perhaps due to fluoridation of the water supply. Lena Berman on KPFA points to research indicating children may be especially at risk that way, of fluoridation-linked arthritis. Berman follows medical research closely. 

Berman outlined other suspected risks related to fluoridation of the domestic water supply in recently broadcast programs. 

My knees and hip joints won’t straighten out anymore; my doctor is puzzled because there is no significant pain. Due to this, I can no longer stand; should I quit swimming for a while? Forever? Stay in for shorter times? Scrub down with abrasives? 

Fluoridation (mandatory by law!, I learned from an East Bay Municipal Utilities District representative) of the U.S. domestic water supply seems like overkill. The topical use of fluoride, applied directly to the outer surfaces of teeth by dentists in their offices is thought, found, said by some researchers to be somewhat useful to “harden” or toughen the enamel—that is to say, to make them mysteriously less vulnerable to bacterial penetration related to “bio-film” buildup. But internal application from swallowing fluoridated water is hardly the same thing. 

(Exceedingly tough bio-films such as plaque notoriously require a jackhammer approach to their demolition and control, such as abrasive scrubbing by a qualified professional in your dentist’s office.) 

Perhaps related: Fluoride-induced bone-embrittlement is strongly suspected, according to some research, says Berman on KPFA. 

The warm pool at BHS provides an ironic example: Fluoride as used to treat water here and now largely in the United States has been causally linked to arthritis by some researchers including or especially by some in China, according to Berman; meanwhile the warm fluoridated-water pool is used by many who seek relief from the pains and other agonies associated with arthritis. 

Also, “endocrine disrupters” in general are recommended to be avoided; fluoride, even in the usual minuscule proportions is thought by some researches to fall into that class, according to Berman’s sources. 

If fluoride is capable of affecting, protecting, or enhancing the hardness of the surface of the hardest surface in our bodies—tooth enamel—what might fluoride inadvertently be capable of doing to other organs, such as the skin, or even more delicate internal organs like the nerves, etc.? Tooth enamel as a bio-mineralized hard cover with some thickness is not especially actively fed or regulated, one reasonably assumes, by or via the internal blood supply; so fluoride, if at all, reaches this enamel layer of the tooth essentially from its outer surface, not from within. 

Therefore, why add a potentially dangerous chemical into drinking water used for many delicate purposes besides rinsing the teeth? Further: Fluoridated toothpaste is not intended to be swallowed. Why force us to drink a substance from which we can’t or might not reasonably benefit? 

If any of this is true, it seems fluoridation simply defies reason and is tantamount to legislating the poisoning of our water! Is this yet another example of more ignorant corporate meddling with legislation and lawmakers? 

In Europe, the tapwater does not contain added fluoride, says Berman! We must assume they have looked into the entire matter with care and find fluoridation’s credibility to be tenuous, if that. 

Berman says bone brittleness is suspected by some researchers to be increased, induced by fluorides. Researchets link fluoride to bone cancer in children, says Yolanda Huang, a member of the Berkeley Parks and Recreation Commission, in a recent letter to the Daily Planet. Huang cites sources; Berman refers to a website. 

Chemicals never tested for their toxicity due to corporate meddling are daily used by the American public. They number in the thousands; some say tens of thousands. We the public are experimental lab rats for the profits of the chemical industries; we already know that. We don’t have to like it. 

Terry Cochrell 

• 

WAKE UP AMERICA! 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Nov. 23, 2007, John Rothman, on his KGO radio program, referring to the Valerie Plame leak, picked up the story where former White House spokesman Scott McClellan made the following statement: “I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials of the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president’s chief of staff, and the president himself.” 

Rothman, an erudite historian who knows well constitutional law, pointed out that this statement should be investigated by the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Patrick Leahy. Rothman called on listeners to flood Sen. Leahy’s office with phone calls or e-mail to summon McClellan immediately, under oath, to testify to the veracity of this statement. Bush and Cheney et al. should be held accountable for perjury and the obstruction of justice. 

I am an 84-year-old grandmother living in a Berkeley senior housing residence, and have asked my friends and fellow residents to communicate with Sen. Leahy’s office as well as Sen. Feinstein, who is also on the Judiciary Committee, to take immediate action regarding McClellan’s statement. I appeal to Daily Planet readers to join in our endeavors to save our country for our grandchildren and let your voices be heard. Congressional office: 1-800-828-0498. 

(Remember how Watergate started.) 

Helen M. Harris 

• 

FERAL CATS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Concerning the feral cats: Wildlife is receiving large donations now, so let us spread the wealth. Trapping these ferals, neutering, and spaying them is a big help to the feral population.  

I have been feeding and helping to trap these ferals. Kittens are being poisoned by anti-freeze, harmed or killed by humans, cars, and foxes. There is no excuse for letting these baby ferals suffer so.  

I have been feeding ferals for four years, and still do. It breaks my heart to see them running down the hill, waiting for me every morning. 

I have raised a feral that is now four years old, and is now a house cat. 

Please give ferals your attention. 

Alice Noriega 

San Pablo 

• 

EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the new year the papers carry the statistics of those killed by drunken holiday celebrants driving illegally. No doubt designated drivers lessen the slaughter, yet I write to remind those I can that millions continually suffer personally or indirectly from the effects of alcoholic drinks. No one ever suffered from never taking an alcoholic drink. 

Like everyone else I know, I have had bad, unforgettable encounters with the effects of drink. I once read in the paper that a high school classmate had confessed to and received a long sentence for the axe-murder of his wife. It was not so stated but I’m sure the crime was committed drunkenly; the confession proved it. His drunken behavior was bad and always ended with remorse. Abstention from birth would have guaranteed him a far better life. Yet not even AA meetings I’ve visited ever spoke of that obvious faction axiom that should be universally affirmed to children. 

Liquor can decide large battles. One early Sunday morning Japan succeeded at Pearl Harbor because the attackers knew the U.S. Army and Navy would be (and were!) suffering a hangover. 

Not long ago there played in local movie houses, and elsewhere, without negative comment, a film depicting at least one carefree schoolteacher who drove up to Napa with open liquor bottles in his car and drank from a bottle of beer or wine while driving. Several friends I asked found the movie amusing. Not one noticed or was shocked by being shown without opprobrium a schoolteacher’s flaunting of what, if they considered it, my acquaintance would say was good law—no drinking while driving. 

In San Francisco, small businesses used to give policemen wine or hard liquor as holiday gifts. Is the custom widespread? 

Judith Segard Hunt 

• 

OPEN LETTER TO THE UC REGENTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a 2007 graduate of our flagship institution, Berkeley. I am writing to express my outrage over the actions your board has taken, since 2002 and prior, in order to make a UC education less affordable and attainable. 

I consistently watched as you raised tuition almost every single year by a matter of five to seven percent. The justifications are many, but legitimate ones are few. 

You raised a secretary’s salary by about $60,000 to bring her to over a quarter-million dollar salary? Your justification is that you want to retain top talent. What is top talent worth when the people who are paying their salaries won’t have a chance to benefit from it? Its unlikely that California taxpayers and students will get their money’s worth. 

If your priority was to ensure student access, and to mitigate the UC’s financial problems in the least bit, you would stop increasing administrator (and their aides) salaries by as much as you do. I am a huge labor advocate, but I also believe in getting paid what your deserve, and what is reasonable. These increases can’t be seen as reasonable—maybe only by those receiving them. But, at whose detriment? The students. 

I would assume that most of your students are on financial aid, and by increasing fees, you are levying an unnecessary loan—the fee increases that we will pay for- on top of standard financial aid loans. 

It seems as if UC is no longer a state-subsidized, public university. I will always be proud of my degree from Berkeley, but saddened by the chance that others, thousands per year, will not be able to say the same. 

Stop the fee increases. Find another way. 

Nicholas Smith 

• 

THE UNITED NATIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There are several conservative think tanks in this country that want to get rid of the United Nations with their distorted accusations. They say that the UN is irrelevant and this country should pull out of the organization. For example, these think tanks tell lies about the United Nations involvement in the Oil for Food scandal. There was no proof of their accusations. 

However, people in this country believe the accusations, which may explain the fact that public support for the United Nations is at an all-time low. Let me set the record straight. While this organization is not perfect, it does a lot of good things, like being concerned about indigenous people’s rights, human rights, women’s rights, preventing war, and protecting the environment. 

I feel that the real reason for these conservative think tanks’ animosity toward the United Nations is that the UN believes in both a multi-cultural and multi-racial world which these think tanks despise. I feel that more Americans need to be aware of the good things that the United Nations is doing. 

Billy Trice, jr. 

Oakland 

• 

ROUNDABOUT SIGNAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley and Albany have the wrong signs for entering their roundabouts. The use of yield signs is done by all other cities that have roundabouts. 

The stop signs of Berkeley and Albany are an unnecessary bother for motorists who should just pause briefly. The Police Department may be issuing more citations as well. 

Part of the use of stop signs has resulted from Berkeley letting residents in nearby cities decide what they want, which is a funny way to decide what is right and proper. 

A full discussion of roundabouts is contained in the Tech Transfer newsletter, No. 58, published by the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California. Their phone number is 665-3632. 

Charles Smith 

• 

JOHN McCAIN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Don’t be fooled, John McCain is no moderate. He is much like conservative ideologue George Bush. McCain is as pro-war as they come, an anti-abortion activist; forget a woman’s freedom of choice and Roe v. Wade under John McCain as president. McCain now loves those Bush tax cuts for the wealthy which endears him to anti-tax conservatives. 

The “Mac Is Back” campaign slogan is perfect: With John McCain as president, George Bush would be back in the White House. There is little or no difference between the two Republicans. 

Ron Lowe  

Grass Valley

We—all 6.6 billion of us humans—live on the surface of a ball which we call planet earth. We have some theories and some evidence as to how land masses and oceans formed over millennia. The land masses were fixed, for the most part, until recently when the waters start to rise and encroach on bordering populations. We are in this together, so what should our response be? What should be our guide? 

If we follow the teachings of Jesus, we would live and let live, love our neighbors as ourselves, and treat others as we would want them to treat us. If we follow the Ten Commandments, we would not covet our neighbors’ goods and property. If we follow Qur’anic teachings, we would view the earth as a carpet on which people should be free to walk. If we follow the Golden Rules, it’s even simpler—we would do no harm. If we believe that all men, women, and children are created equal, then crafting public policies around these simple tenets should not be difficult. These tenets would guide our justice and economic systems and immigration laws, and we would not wage wars. But we do not adhere to any of these principles. So we should agree that religion does not shape our public decisions and activities and set it aside. So what should we fall back on to guide us? 

For a start, we should recognize that the entity we refer to as the human spirit runs through all 6.6 billion of us. In other words, we share an identical human spirituality. To the extent the source of this spirituality is some higher power, some super-natural energy, some extra-terrestrial, some celestial being, it’s the same for all of us. There is not one source for North Americans, another for Europeans, a different one for Asians and yet another for Africans. It gets easier. Scientists tell us that we share 98.5 percent of our genetic make-up, our DNA, our biological heritage, with primates, our closest non-human relatives. By this reasoning we have a one and half percent wiggle room in our humanness. It’s a tight fit. This is the physical diversity we spend so much time writing about, arguing and fighting over. It’s really silly when you think about it.  

If we accept that our finite resources are not to be wasted but to be shared equally until the last hungry child on the planet has been fed, we would start to behave differently towards each other. We would begin to view the world as a whole system. We would develop technologies, through mutual cooperation not market competition, that are beneficial to the entire system. We would develop whole systems making sure that a perceived gain in one part of the system does not produce a negative consequence in another part. We would elect public leaders who are capable of thinking in these terms; who would develop policies whether in food, health, education, housing, transportation, energy, the environment or foreign policy built upon these simple basic principles. This would be genuine democracy. This should be the basis of a universal human religion if we want to face an imperiled planet together as a single human race.  

Nazreen Kadir is an Oakland resident. 

Almost everything I know I learned from sitting in front of the television watching old movies. 

Recent events in Oakland recall the 1943 Western classic, The Ox-Bow Incident, made before American right wingers awoke from their united front against fascism stupor and drove all the communists out of Hollywood. 

In the town of Ox-Bow, during the early days of the West, when towns were not blessed with the paragons of blind justice and eminently fair and qualified law enforcement agencies we enjoy today, three cow herders are falsely accused and hung by a lynch mob for the murder of a local rancher, who it turns out was not even murdered. 

Leigh Whipper, the Hollywood pioneer and founder of the Negro Actors Guild who unbelievably goes un-credited in this film classic (apparently even the communists couldn’t get the studios to credit black supporting actors), plays Sparks, the itinerant black preacher of Ox-Bow who gives voice to the humanitarian conscience of the Ox-Bow townspeople who unsuccessfully take a stand against the lynching. 

I watched this film for perhaps the 10th time the other day and became intrigued by the role of Sparks in the lynching. Of all the lynchings I had heard or read about, black folk usually made themselves “unavailable” when white America went into its nationalistic fervor/holiday mode of lynching. 

I spent an entire day reading about lynchings, usually of African Americans, and scoured many books at the University of California’s Bancroft Library to see if there was one recorded incident of a black man playing the anti-Sparks, one who actually supplied the rope. Although there are numerous occasions in U.S. history of blacks owning other blacks I couldn’t find one example of a black person being so twisted in emotional development as to have participated in a lynching. 

Which is why the Ox-Bow incident in Oakland is so disturbing.  

Apparently because the Barry Bond’s trial is on hiatus and we are between baseball seasons, the Bay Area’s daily newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Oakland Tribune, feel they can move beyond the crassness of simply spiking readership by publically lynching Barry Bonds and get about with the more serious business of stoking the flames of mob mentality by publically lynching Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums. 

But what is so disturbing about the campaign against Dellums, even more disturbing than the campaign against Bonds, is that a black man, Chip Johnson of the Chronicle, is playing the anti-Sparks, the town drunk, who provides the rope and bullies the mob into action. 

Two years ago former Congressman Dellums was minding his own business, enjoying life as most former members of Congress do, raking in the cash by lobbying for the same corporations they were supposed to have been protecting us from. 

Then the congressman’s friends decided he would be an excellent antidote to everything that ails Oakland, he could fix Oakland’s crime problem and most importantly he could make them feel good about living in Oakland. In fact he made them feel so good they drafted him for mayor and elected him. 

Today Dellums has been mayor for one year. His most notable successes have been ending the union busting-inspired garbage strike, facilitating the amazingly quick fix of the portion of the freeway that melted following a fuel truck explosion and overseeing a 10 percent decline in Oakland homicides. 

What? Homicides went down 10 percent in Oakland last year and nobody informed us? Does a lynch mob draw up a bill of particulars before it throws a rope over the nearest tree? 

Obviously here are massive problems in Oakland; in fact the rate of serious crimes rose three percent last year. 

But the Chronicle’s Johnson wrote in the Jan. 15 edition, “The only way a politician could get any softer on crime would be to hold a party in honor of convicted felons and pass out manuals on how to beat the criminal justice system.” 

In fact Johnson has written likely more columns attacking Dellums in just the last year than he wrote addressing the previous mayor on any issue in the previous eight years. 

Meanwhile in San Francisco, last year the city experienced its highest homicide rate in more than a decade, its’ highest since 1995 in fact. Meanwhile the mayor, most noted for his high-profile serial monogamous relationships and an alcohol-fueled tryst with his campaign manager’s wife, is not held in the least accountable, for anything, ranging from his personal behavior to the crashing of the city attorney’s witness protection program, to the genocidal conditions that exist in much of much of the city’s public housing. 

One is forced to wonder, why is a black mayor of Oakland held to levels of accountability to which his white predecessor was never held and to which his counterpart in San Francisco who is white is not held? 

What is at work is more than a simple racist double standard of treatment that has worked against Barry Bonds and the steroid issue. 

In Oakland what seems to be at work is racism in response to changing demographics. 

White people, for whom Chip Johnson, a black man, has become their primary voice, are fearful of having to exist as minorities in a majority black, brown and Asian city, which is Oakland. 

As of the 2000 census, white people make up just one third of the Oakland population and there is no question it is white people who are largely behind the effort to expand the size of the Oakland Police Department, an agency Oakland blacks have long distrusted, in order to alleviate conditions that have historically been assigned to black and other minority communities. 

The strange and uniquely tragic aspect of the situation in Oakland is that it is a black man who unlike Sparks in The Ox-bow Incident speaks out against the lynching, holds the rope and pours alcohol on the racist fires of white rage against the black mayor.  

Jean Damu is the former western regional representative for the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA), taught Black Studies at the University of New Mexico, and currently serves as a member of the Steering Committee of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.

As I once again encounter the god-damned Jesus freaks holding forth at the corner of Telegraph and Haste, and wonder what should be done about them, the answer seems clear: put up with their crap. My reasoning follows.  

This situation, a group with a religious axe to grind taking up residence in the heart of Berkeley’s “time warp” zone extending straight back to the 1960s, with the expected resulting jaw-grinding, is the classic free speech conundrum. And the proper reflex here, one would think, would be to let free speech prevail. After all, this spot is just a couple blocks from the holiest of holies, the public birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, the place where free speech became sacrosanct. 

Now along come these absolute clowns, these bible-thumping jerks, these brothers to the assholes who traumatize women outside of Planned Parenthood clinics, right in our faces! So the reaction becomes, OK, we have to defend free speech; but isn’t there something we can do about these idiots? Can’t we restore (relative) peace and quiet to this stretch of Telegraph? After all, these jerks torque my jaw too every time I pass by them. 

The answer, unfortunately, is no: we can’t have it both ways. We can’t pay lip service to Free Speech and at the same time cunningly think of ways to hem in that troublesome right, circumscribe it so it doesn’t disturb our stroll down the street or our sleep. But wait a minute: let’s put the shoe on the other foot, shall we? What if we, proud descendents of the FSM, took on a cause—South African apartheid, opposition to a brutal war, you name it—and decided that we needed to disrupt business as usual in order to bring it to the attention of the public. What if we felt compelled to, in those celebrated words, throw ourselves on the gears, wheels and levers of the machinery of the oppressor? Wouldn’t we then also feel compelled to raise our voices, to disrupt the normal flow of daily life, to get in people’s faces, to make things uncomfortable for passersby, so that they would be forced to deal with the issue? In fact, isn’t that exactly what many of us have done? And if so, then how does this differ from what the Jesus freaks are doing? After all, one would think they feel the same urgency towards their “mission,” even if one feels they are misguided. 

I just wonder how much of the growing opposition to the holy rollers is good old-fashioned Berkeley whining, without even the pretense of a nod to free speech. After all, that’s another time-honored tradition here: endless kvetching about the smallest perceived slight, the tiniest disruption to peace and quiet, characterized as a personal assault on My Precious Space. Isn’t this, after all, pretty much the genesis of the current manifestation of hyprocisy known as the “Public Commons for Everyone” catastrophe? Isn’t this the impulse that leads to the construction of “free speech zones” at major protest sites? Where does it stop?  

If one can dish it out, shouldn’t one be able to withstand it? 

What would Mario do? 

David Nebenzahl is a North Oakland resident.

Beyond all the bloviating, bombast that we have been subjected to in the last few months, (and will continue to be bombarded with for the foreseeable future) there are several questions we voters should be asking ourselves amidst this egomaniacal cacophony, otherwise known as politics. 

First of all, given the positions of power they have occupied, what have of these candidates tried, with any earnestness, to accomplish that might be of interest, relevance or importance to us? Secondly, what have any of them actually carried out? Third, why would they be more likely to realize these objectives in their ascendancy to higher office? 

I bring these specific matters to bear as it has become perfectly clear that the greatest challenge to the integrity of a dynamic democracy is dissolving the chasm between what a politician says he or she will do, and what that politician actually does, or at least attempts to do with any focus and vigor. Politics has been fraught with this dilemma for decades, but never before has the media fostered such a chronic “American Idol” political mentality that has all but obfuscated the nuts and bolts of what is involved with getting real problems solved. Instead, we are assaulted with a ratings driven, horse-race like energy as the candidates are let out of the gate before any of them really addresses anything beyond their myopic preoccupation with generalizations, and imagistic claptrap. 

More than 200 years ago, John Adams remarked: “Public affairs go on pretty much as usual: perpetual chicanery and rather more personal abuse than there used to be...” Today, it appears we have reached what is hopefully the apex of such debauchery in the name of “the people.” How many times can we tolerate a candidate roaring like a bellicose beast: “When I’m president, I’m going to.....blah...blah....blah!... we’re not taking anymore of that other person’s or party’s blah-blahbedy-blah.” 

When was the last time you heard a candidate reference national, or populist ethics (beyond corporate greed) as a major talking point? When has the word “honesty” been thrust forward into the rhetoric with the same spirit as the endless attacks, and concocted, facile misrepresentations of the scope and challenges that these circus-like campaigns and pitiful ‘debates’ suggest as necessary? 

As Billy Joel so eloquently sang: “Honesty is such a lonely word”....but, it’s mostly what we need from them, and from each other, if we’re ever going to transcend the inflated sense of self that has come to define politics abroad, and increasingly so here in the U.S.. Today, our problems have become defined by such gravity and urgency that anything less would be nothing more than ‘business as usual’...and that won’t come close to saving our crisis-laden, teetering times. 

Marc Winokur is a Berkeley  

resident.

The Berkeley old Adult School complex on lower University Avenue (directly across from All Star Donuts, 1255 University, Berkeley 94702) sits empty, idle, deteriorating, just as it did when I arrived in Berkeley three years ago. I’ve had countless conversations with Berkeley’s homeless, frequently centering on how the old unused Adult School would make an ideal shelter complex. As it surely would. The building has miles of space for dormitories, numerous lavatories and several full-service kitchens. 

Last year at Thanksgiving I approached social worker J.C. Orton who operates Catholic Charities “Night on the Streets” van, in an effort to learn who could be contacted about the old Adult School.  

Orton promptly said, “It’s been proven, large shelters don’t work,” and hurried away. 

Wake up and smell the coffee, J.C.! 

The kind of thinking that worked in the sixties is hopelessly outdated in post-millenium America, more out of tune with the times than Scarlett’s green print barbecue dress from the set of Gone With the Wind. 

And it is disastrous for Berkeley’s 2,000-plus population of homeless men and boys. There is only one shelter with tolerable conditions in Berkeley, the YEAH shelter for homeless teens at the Lutheran Church of the Cross at 1744 University Ave. 

Homelessness is undesirable, so the old social reform thinking went, and if homelessness is made as disagreeable as possible, the homeless will disappear. A tidy way to justify allocating as little as possible from public monies for services to the homeless. 

Too much of so-called social reform thinking remains based on the underlying fallacy that the poor themselves are to blame for their poverty. 

Thousands of Americans are currently jobless and homeless, the majority through little fault of their own. The United States continues to squander multi-billions—on the space program, for instance, on futile educational and crime-fighting programs and third-world aid packages. 

I came to Berkeley believing in its model programs like the Center for Independent Living. Berkeley was the first town in the United States to have a C.I.L., the first to make pavements and public transportation wheel-chair accessible.  

The Daily Planet has run stories on Berkeley’s outstanding and unique examples of WPA work projects, the Rose Garden for instance. No reason why the old Adult School could not become a town-sized work project with those who would benefit most working make it habitable. The homeless themselves could clean and repair the shelter, collect necessities for bedding, canvas Berkeley’s many restaurants, supermarkets and markets for food to augment government surplus allotment. 

The key to making the shelter complex would be to end the outdated dictate that homeless clients must be turned out in the wee hours of the morning to wander the mean streets, even in the most inclement weather.  

A realistic program allowing for all-day long term stays of several months would give homeless people a real opportunity to contact distant family or work with social agencies to find subsidized housing. Those who receive government checks could contribute a stipend for board. Berkeley’s homeless population, given a real chance to help themselves, could become a model for national reform. 

Channel surfing one night in 2005 I caught Jim Jeffords, now retired as the Independent senator from Vermont on Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor.” Asked what he thought was America’s greatest problem, Jeffords immediately replied, “Unemployment.”  

America’s most popular television commentator and best-selling author was taken aback.  

“What?” O’Reilly snapped, trademark glibness momentarily punctured. “Bigger than the war in Iraq—or illegal immigration?” 

Right-on Mr. Jeffords.  

Nobody, much less our politicians, will admit as much, but America is currently is as bad or worse shape than it was during the Great Depression, when breadlines stretched for city blocks, thousands of families went homeless—and hundreds of Oakies and Arkies migrated to the Promised Land formerly known as California.  

The manufacturing industries that created the hundreds of thousands of jobs that made Americans prosperous are long departed—having relocated and reformed as Third World sweatshops. Family farms, especially in the Midwest went under during the eighties and nobody but Willie Nelson gave a damn. Our universities have long since become Big Businesses, staffed by well-paid neo-feminists and other elitists. 

Some of the homeless I suppose, deserve the label “undesirables.” How about the alcoholic Vietnam vets who sprawl nightly on Berkeley pavements, victims of a disgraceful, futile war nobody wanted? They have since been joined by the Gulf War vets.  

Then there are the 20 and 30-something victims of the social and educational “war on boys.” 

You can see these lads in any fair-sized town in the United States always in uniform: sneakers, sweats, baseball cap, cellphone.  

Many are street-level drug dealers, making less than it takes to keep their cells activated, their canine companions fed and themselves high. In homeless “capitals” (Portland, Ore. being the current homeless center for GenX) they are accompanied by their girls and their babies. About five years ago, the ever-elitist New York Times ran a full color feature on these jungfolk and their culture and music in the devastated Midwest, warning the affluent liberal elite readership about their “dangerous” anger and lifestyle.  

Are the disenfranchised “dangerous?” You betcha. 

Like many in the East Bay I suppose, I was shocked when the Siberian tiger Tatiana at the San Francisco Zoo went berserk at Christmastime for the second year in a row and, (on almost the same date) this time killing a young male bystander.  

Surely there is a warning to be taken from this inexplicable holiday tragedy. A quote from Churchill kept running through my head: “Dictators ride about on tigers from which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are growing hungry.” 

Randall Busang is a Berkeley resident.

Ciao. I’m Don Tommaso. I’m the capo of the Kachinga Tribe, and I’m makin’ a special appeal to youse, the voters of California. When youse go to the polls on Feb. 5, please vote yes on Propositions 94, 95, 96, and 97. These propositions would approve agreements that four Indian tribes have negotiated with the State of California to triple the number of Indian-run slot machines in some parts of the state. Ka-CHING! 

Naturally, my tribe, which has certain business relationships with the other four, is positioned to get a piece of the action. So, we who discovered America are doin’ business with those who were already here when we discovered it. It’s workin’ out for everybody, and it’s tax-free, sweetheart. Ka-CHING! Of course, bein’ a benevolent and generous people, we Kachingas share our good fortune with our needy relatives in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and elsewhere in the Badabinga nation. So, don’t screw it up for us. 

Sure, these so-called “amended gamin’ compacts” allow California environmental regulations to be circumvented, so youse won’t have any of those long, boring environmental impact reports to look over, it’ll just be a done deal. Easier for you, cheaper for us. This’ll minimize our start-up costs. Ka-CHING! Remember that Indian who used to cry about the litter on the side of the road? Forget about it! There’s gonna be so much traffic in and out of these joints we’re gonna build that youse’ll probably run over the guy without ever seein’ him. And never mind that a lot of the traffic will be poor mooks who can’t afford to spend a weekend in Nevada. 

Oh, and labor law, we can get around that, too, which’ll minimize our operatin’ expenses. Ka-CHING! That’s because these tribes have what they call “sovereign immunity.” Now, normally I don’t do business with guys who have been given immunity by the feds, but in this case, it’s a beautiful setup. 

Believe it or not, the feds are actually in bed with us on this one. The Bush Administration approved the compacts for the big four gamblin’ tribes without a public hearing, which could preempt the state propositions on the February ballot, so maybe your vote won’t even count. How did we pull this off? Sovereign immunity. There are no political contribution limits placed on Indian tribes. It’s legalized bribery. Ka-CHING! You oughta see how they wine and dine both political parties. I tell you, these guys are untouchable, so we deal through them. 

Now, what the four Indian tribes do with their piece of the action, it’s not my concern. Accordin’ to the gamin’ compacts, they’re supposed to give the state government its fair cut. Yeah, well, who knows for sure? Again, sovereign immunity. The state can’t audit the books, and you know these accountants, occasionally they make innocent mistakes. Ka-CHING! What are you gonna do?  

It’s also not my concern that the dozens of other tribes in California are cut out of the deal that these four tribes made with the state. Let the other tribes take care of their own. Another thing California gamblin’ tribes have figured out is that the fewer the people in the tribe, the bigger cut of the gamblin’ profits each of the tribal members gets. Ka-CHING! So, they’ve been doin’ a lot of downsizin’, as they say in the corporate world. They’re disenrollin’ thousands of their own relatives from tribal rolls. It’s nothin’ personal, it’s just business. 

And what a business! Some Indians are havin’ a hard time adjustin’. I heard one woman complained, “I get forty thousand dollars a month and I think it’s wrong.” Ka-CHING! Keep your mouth shut and get used to it. 

So, vote for these gamblin’ compacts, otherwise there’ll be less money goin’ to the Badabinga nation, less environmental degradation, fewer social problems, better labor practices, and maybe even less corruption in Indian tribal governments and in our state government. Who wants any of that? 

Namaste. (That’s Indian talk.) 

Thomas Gangale is the author of From the Primaries to the Polls: How to Repair America’s Broken Presidential Nomination Process, published by Praeger.

Concord, New Hampshire, Thursday, Jan. 3, 8:30 a.m., 4°F 

It’s hard to believe we actually get votes and elect presidents this way—standing on street corners waving signs and yelling, driving miles and walking miles and missing three dozen people, talking to a dozen more who aren’t even slightly interested just so we can talk to one or two people who might possibly, with a lot more coaxing and contact, be persuaded to vote our way.  

It is, after all, the way they really want to vote, the candidate so many say they agree with, but no, they’re going to vote for (fill in name here). We have a hard time understanding that. We’re frustrated about it and talk about it all the time; we come up with responses but no resolution.  

We’re a small, underfunded campaign and there are only eleven of us for this town and the towns around it. We’re vastly outnumbered and months late getting to each person and neighborhood. So how come we’re so excited about doing it? 

I left my house at 2 a.m. yesterday to get a plane to New Hampshire, via Chicago. I’ve only flown three other times since 2001. Before that I had a job that involved charter flights—lots of room and personal attention and few rules. So to me flying is misery now, compounded by my views on living in a police state.  

But the train cost three times as much—a reminder of why I’m supporting the candidate I am. What’s old hat to many is new and annoying to me—seats too close for a laptop or stretch (I’m 5’10”, a statistically average man), too many people to climb over to bother getting up. The seats are perfectly sized to be absolute—well, I was going to say torture, but what’s coming makes me pause.  

I have a choice—sit up straight and let my head loll around hurting my neck as I doze and wake, or hurt my lower back by scrunching down so the seat supports my head. I go back and forth so both hurt half as much. When I’m not amusing myself with that I read—The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein.  

The first chapter is about how the CIA perverted electroshock, an already perverse method of “therapy,” into torture. With the help of a few psychologists they combined it with all the familiar abuses we’ve been hearing about into a scientific program to break people. Two of the chief techniques are sleep deprivation and stress positions, so I am in an appropriate state to read this. No hallucinations yet but everything about this trip feels a little unreal to me already. 

Friday, Jan. 4, 11°F 

Couldn’t get to my stored winter clothes so before canvassing the first night I bought a hat and gloves. Now when I get smiles talking to people, I can’t decide if it’s the funny hat, the hat hair, ice on my beard fellow volunteers call my Mountain Man look, or sheer delight in the democratic process. No, I’m not being sarcastic.  

People—most people—in New Hampshire seem to love this: being first, the “retail politics” of the state, not the media blitzkrieg but the door-to-door neighbor-to-neighbor Norman Rockwell-Frank Capra extraordinary ordinariness of it. Most of them even seem to love us, funny-sounding southern flatlander radicals from California, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey who have come here because we believe in the process, believe our candidate deserves a hearing, and want to help him get it.  

We hold that belief in the way that a child holds the belief early Christmas morning that s/he actually will get the pony. That is, we believe in the potential of the process, even though it’s knocked us down and kicked us senseless more times than we can count. We hope that a better-than-expected vote here will lead to coverage which will lead to money which will lead to votes in the next primary and so on, the underdog insurgent everybody agrees with but nobody votes for.  

The hope is held through the week, immovable at first, then rising and falling in response to 12-hour days in the cold, caffeine, blood sugar, excitement from supporters and wannabe supporters “I really like your guy, but he can’t win. I’m voting for __________.” We show people the poll graph—76 percent of the people in our party agree with him most, out of all the candidates running, on the issues.  

The People are unmoved; the circular logic of ‘nobody will vote for him because he can’t win because nobody will vote for him’ is unassailable. Trying to avoid antagonizing, and because he is ‘ the peace candidate’ after all, we restrain our impulses to beat people with our signs and clipboards.  

As we go on, the hope dips lower and lower between the highs, and the highs and high fives are predicated on less and less—one yes instead of ten in a neighborhood, jokes and encouragement among ourselves, the rare media mention of our candidate or an actual issue, a meal that’s not pizza.  

We’re frustrated that we weren’t here six months ago, by the disorganization of the campaign, by the overwhelming odds we face out in the streets, in the media, and at people’s doorways. “Yeah, I love your guy on the issues. I think he’s the best candidate. But I’m voting for ____________.”  

Saturday, Jan. 5, 21°F 

So many people are not home when we canvas we’ve been looking forward to getting out on the weekend. Saturday, 40 minutes into a 45 minute drive to Hooksett, neighborhoods divvied up, enthusiasm high again, the phone rings. It’s campaign headquarters; we go back to Concord and then Manchester (via Hooksett) for a spouse’s forum.  

There’s Elizabeth Kucinich—who yes, is gorgeous—and Whitney Gravel. Fifty people are in the audience; maybe 30, I learn as the week goes on, are my candidate’s volunteers and interns. All the other spouses declined or cancelled.  

At least we’re inside. And Elizabeth is smart, informed and articulate—besides, you know, that other thing. The two almost agree on almost everything; all is cordial and civilized. We have lunch in a booth next to Chris (Hardball) Matthews. The televisionless among us (me) have to be told that. 

The congressman has been excluded from the Democratic debate outside Manchester tonight, so we go, he goes, all the volunteers in the state go, and in the medieval/post-Apocalyptic scene, with snow and camera lights and steam rising in the darkness and a dozen different chants going without a pause for hours, we march around chanting “Let him debate!” until we can’t. He does some TV interviews, they have the debates without him, we chant some more and then go home. I write, then read a bit more.  

Klein is talking now about parallels between personal and political shock—neoconservative economics that have destroyed so many countries and the mutually reinforcing military and torture policies pioneered here in the U.S., where they are also now being applied. I’m reminded again why I’m in New Hampshire. 

Sunday, Jan. 6, 25°F 

Frustrated desire to actually recruit votes is making some of the volunteers manic. The phone rings: the congressman, his wife and Viggo (Aragorn) Mortensen are coming to Concord. We have four hours to make flyers, distribute them, notify the local media, get two hundred people there, and by the way, clean the office—a jumble of snack food, campaign literature, computer cables and winter clothes. We look outside, see only people carrying Hillary and Obama signs.  

We fan out, we drive to all the video stores in and near town: three chain stores and one little VHS-only independent. I’m reminded again why I’m here. All goes well; “Gondorians for the Congressman” and all the usual signs and balloons on the walls. As the sun sets and cold settles, we go out to canvas. The primary is two days off; people are turning off lights when they see us coming.  

The last two days are more of the same: canvassing; corners; events; rising temperature no longer a factor. Almost everyone’s mind is made up.  

We become aware we’re fishing for an ever-tinier segment of the small primary electorate for one party in a small atypical state. The first primary hasn’t even been held and the decision is made already—has been for months, in fact. The miracle we’re hoping for—the pony, is beginning to seem impossible even to us. Is this really how we choose presidents? And the answer, it seems to us, is no.  

The candidates are sorted early into ‘supported by corporate money’ and ‘not’; only a vanishingly narrow range of views is heard, and the longer the race and the polls go-on the narrower it gets. The news is about who has more money and who’s ahead in the polls (that ole devil, circular logic again) broken up by the occasional furor over the most foolish and trivial matters possible. Haircuts. Tears.  

It reminds me of an argument I had once about painting a room. It took five minutes to eliminate all colors but one. And then hours to choose between cream, ivory, eggshell, ecru or beige. Turns out it wasn’t about the paint. We broke up and I painted the room her choice—yellowish-ivory. Sunny mornings it was nice. 

Tuesday, Jan. 8, the day of the primary 

We scattered to polling places and stood with signs. I gave up handing out literature—too late and too … profane? ... for this place this day. So I just handed out copies of the Constitution. It was why I was here, after all. And Walt, the guy standing next to me, holding a sign promoting alternative energy. The local Congresswoman left and the sun went down.  

Walt’s wife, sitting in a wheelchair next to him, didn’t speak to me the whole time he and I talked—an hour, I’d guess. She has MS and dementia; he had given up his job and benefits and impoverished them both to take care of her. Just one of her medications costs $3,000 a month, he said.  

The house was next; he didn’t know how they were going to live. Across the street were enormous signs for one of the other, tax-cutting candidates. “ I hope this never happens to any of them,” he said. “But you know it would change their tune about government.” 

“I like your guy, though,” he said. I offered a Constitution to someone walking toward the poll; she shook her head and kept going. Who refuses a Constitution? I thought. 

“You going to vote for him?” I asked, feeling stupid and regretful, simultaneously collapsing and bracing for it. “No, I voted for _______. Your guy can’t win.” 

For over a year now walking has been my primary commute mode from my house on Grizzly Peak to my job (via BART) in downtown San Francisco. This has been made possible by the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association’s work to build paths on the rights of way created long ago when the Berkeley Hills were originally mapped and subdivided. (See BPWA’s website at www.berkeleypaths.org for more on this excellent organization and the history of the paths of Berkeley.) 

It takes me exactly half an hour to get from my front door to the downtown Berkeley BART station. Coming home is uphill and takes about seven minutes longer. Compared to the alternative of driving to North Berkeley BART (which I did for many years), I figure walking takes an extra 27 minutes a day. 

I have long meditated on the meaning of those 27 minutes. In our speed-crazed world, a previous me would have thought those minutes wasted in the race to get work and “be productive.” The actuality is that those 27 minutes spent disengaged from tools and in the presence of nature are extremely effective for my work. Many has been the time when an insight came unsolicited while walking, solving a problem or puzzle that has been challenging me. Where these thoughts come from, I don’t know, but I am happy to be the beneficiary of them. 

The 27 minutes “saved” by driving are also rather illusory. For one, you have to calculate the cost of driving to fairly estimate the costs vs. benefit of walking. This is a complex task. Most of us don’t add up all the costs of owning, maintaining, operating and insuring a vehicle, paying license fees, parking (now a buck a day at BART) and occasional traffic tickets (they’re just gonna happen). We would probably cry if we did! So to drive instead of walk surely adds up to several hundreds of dollars a year or more. And in order to earn this money, I then have to spend more time working, offsetting the 27 minutes “saved” by driving. 

On top of the more obvious costs of automobiles, there are also the hidden costs. I understand that driving a car a mile adds about pound of carbon to the atmosphere. We don’t know yet how to price a pound of carbon in this country. Yet surely in the coming years including carbon costs—indeed, learning to measure all the costs of all our actions—will need to become part of our everyday thinking.  

The 27 extra minutes spent walking compared to driving also give me very valuable exercise and health benefits. Were I to drive, I would need to go to the gym, or go for a run, or do some other kind of physical activity during my day to avoid becoming sedentary. Viewed from this angle, walking is an extraordinarily efficient way to get healthful, low-impact exercise. The walk back uphill in the evening is pleasantly strenuous and I break into a pretty good sweat on all but the coldest days.  

Simply getting more people to walk instead of drive would do wonders for the obesity epidemic in this country and go a long way toward solving the problem of our spiraling health care costs. An ounce of prevention is surely worth a pound of cure when it comes to exercise and health! 

Just as important as the health and ecological benefits are the mental and emotional ones. Walking is a form of meditation and healing. My route is a very pretty one, especially in the wooded hills and walking across the UC campus alongside Strawberry Creek. I find walking calms my thoughts, lowers my stress level, and puts me into a mood of “positive affect” that permeates my day at work and my evening at home with my family. For people who have a hard time practicing formal sitting meditation, walking is almost as good (as long as you leave your i-Pod at home!). 

Walking also connects me to the seasons, and having walked for over a full year, I have found walking to be a joy in every kind of weather. Thanks to lightweight rain gear from Marmot and my Ecco Gore-Tex hiking shoes, I am practically indifferent to inclement weather (in fact, I find walking in the rain is very cool). And were it not for walking, I doubt I would be as aware of the camellias blooming and the first acacia buds starting to open, or the first songbirds of the year announcing in the dawn of morning that light is returning.  

Walking gives me hope— and it is in the spirit of hope that I offer these reflections, that they may benefit others as I have benefitted from walking the paths of Berkeley.

CELL PHONE ANTENNAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

People sometimes say that our mayor has below-normal intelligence. This seems to be corroborated by his willingness—indeed, eagerness—to let his developer friends, along with several cell-phone companies, put up a thicket of cell-phone towers on the old Bekins building in South Berkeley, only a few blocks from the mayor’s own house!  

A number of respected scientific studies have shown that people living near such towers experience significantly increased cancer rates, so it would appear that the mayor is perfectly willing to risk his own life, and that of his wife, not to mention the lives of his neighbors, just to keep the developers and the corporations happy. That, to me, is definitely a sign of below-normal—in fact, dangerously below-normal—intelligence. 

Peter Schorer 

• 

PEDESTRIANS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Was Bernie Lenhoff trying to be serious with his absurd letter (“Pedestrian Safety,” Jan. 15) blaming pedestrians for disturbing his auto utopia and implying we pedestrians deserve our injuries and fatalities? Driving a car is a privilege, not a right, and motorists have a responsibility to be alert, to obey laws and to look for and yield to pedestrians. Buried in the same issue’s commentary page (“Traffic Calming,” by Michael Jerrett), is the all too frequent fact that “Drivers on many occasions have challenged my family and others in the cross walk by speeding directly at us and not slowing down until we back away.” 

Since drivers seem to be granted a 10-15 mph buffer over the posted speed limits before tickets are issued, Berkeley should lower its posted speed limits by this margin so drivers will really limit themselves to a 20-25 mph cap in residential areas. Instead of motorists viewing pedestrians as worthless, crushable insects who are slowing down one’s all-too important journey, the driving paradigm needs to recognize that most everyone’s loved ones occasionally walk, and that every time a driver sets a bad example, the people who “learn” from that example might influence others, mispaying it back to the motorist and the motorist’s own loved ones. 

Motorists need to create a safe environment for pedestrians and bicyclists, recognizing that it is in the motorists own best interest to encourage others to walk, to bicycle, and to leave more vacant parking spaces. 

Sadly, people are in a hurry, and the incentive to shave a few seconds off one’s journey has insufficient consequences. The city should install automated speed cameras in key locations to change the rush-rush driving paradigm! The cameras pay for themselves either by well-deserved citations or by priceless lives saved. 

Mitch Cohen 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

Please tell me that Bernie Lenhoff’s Jan. 15 letter is a satire. He’s trying to be funny, right? 

I walk to work and back along Telegraph Avenue every day. Whenever or wherever I walk, I go out of my way to cross at traffic lights, braving ridicule from family and friends for being so overly timid. Despite crossing on green lights, where the state of California says I have the right of way, I experience near-misses with cars every week, most particularly at the intersection of Webster and Telegraph, just behind Whole Foods. I don’t step in front of speeding cars. I wait for a clear crosswalk, and then venture out. Inevitably, about mid-point in the crossing, some one-handed left or right turner barrels into the intersection, cell phone in the other hand (is that a law? no turns without using a cell phone?), on his or her mission to buy prebiotics and carbon offsets. I stop walking. Best case, the car stops, I cross, no problem. Less good case, car slows down and keeps moving, making me either stop or keep apace—pretty intimidating. What if I trip on a pothole and fall down? Worst case, the car definitely doesn’t seem to be slowing or stopping. I usually stand still, the car speeds by, or screeches to a stop, the driver glares at me. I glare back. Sometimes I yell things. I fantasize about pulling the drivers out of their cars and pummeling them with their iPhones. (Actually, I fantasize something much more satisfying, but probably even the nut who wants to put laser sensors up their emissions would object.) 

Aija Kanbergs 

Oakland 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

Much Jan. 15 commentary focused on parking, traffic, and pedestrian fatality. Both Roy Nakadegawa and Michael Jerrett cite other cities around the world where these problems are addressed by increased taxation of automobile use through special access and parking fees and added fuel taxes. This seems an obvious first step, but the next question is how to apply that funding to real solutions. 

Nakadegawa opts for a transit solution, arguing for BRT and dismissing local shuttles to BART. I think that small frequent shuttles offer the better solution. One might argue that they’re costly due to a small rider to driver ratio, but look at all those nearly empty AC buses - and that’s one use for the added revenue. Above all, we need a regional transit authority with real power to override the turf wars and impose synchronized schedules and fee exchanges among AC, BART and Muni. 

Jerrett argues for traffic calming and offers encouraging research on its effectiveness. I’m skeptical, and suspect that the research may be skewed. He cites a paper “showing that in areas of Oakland with speed humps, traffic injuries to children requiring hospitalization were cut it half compared to other areas without the humps". Yeah, because traffic from the hump areas has all moved to the non-hump areas. This is a zero-sum game. Create obstacles in one area and all the traffic moves to another area - it doesn’t just disappear. And I submit that speed humps and traffic circles are not “traffic calming” but traffic enraging. Moving traffic out of residential streets is desirable, but it necessarily channels frustrated and impatient drivers onto our bumper-to-bumper main thoroughfares.  

What to do? In his Jan. 4 comments on the tragic pedestrian death on Marin, Laurie Capitelli says “All parties were obeying the traffic signals". That says it all! Simple stoplights don’t protect pedestrians. The implementation of traffic signals in Berkeley lags decades behind that in Albany, El Cerrito and Emeryville. On our overcrowded main arteries, every pedestrian crossing needs left turn arrows and timed pedestrian walk signals. Meanwhile, Bernie Lenhoff’s Jan. 15 letter should be required reading for every pedestrian in Berkeley. And a personal note to Dr. Jerrett: If those were my kids, and unless they’re somehow disabled or terminally lazy, I’d damn sure tell them to walk a couple extra blocks and cross Shattuck at Cedar, where there is a traffic light.  

Jerry Landis 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

Though I find Bernie Lenhoff’s contention that “the greatest danger to pedestrians in Berkeley are the pedestrians themselves” extreme (Jan. 15), there is some truth to what he says. I am astonished to watch (usually young) people ambling nonchalantly against red lights and then flip the bird or scream at rattled drivers forced to brake violently to avoid killing them. I have also had several near collisions with pedestrians wearing dark clothing at night who are almost impossible to see until one is upon them. On the other hand, I recently noticed that about a third of the drivers barreling down Hearst Street had only one hand on the steering wheel while they talked animatedly on their cell phones. 

I wish that European-style public transit made cars unnecessary in Berkeley, but until that happy day that will never come, pedestrians and drivers must share some responsibility for our increasingly deadly streets. 

Gray Brechin 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

Measures A and B 

Until Children’s Hospital Oakland, a private hospital, asked the public to pay for a $300 million bond measure—40 per cent of the construction costs of a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility—the salaries of the top CHO executives weren’t really an issue to me. But since they are asking, in the interest of transparency and accountability, voters might be interested to know (according to CHO’s 2006 IRS 990 forms) what salaries CHO pays to those at the top: 

• CEO Frank Tiedemann made more than $673,000 in cash and employee benefit plan contributions that year. 

• Senior vice president Mary Dean made more than $317,000 in 2006 after getting a 15 per cent raise. 

• Chief operating officer and chief financial officer Doug Myers made $420,000. 

• Senior vice president of research Bert Lubin made $362,000. 

• Chief administrative officer Pamela Friedman made nearly $230,000. 

These are only some of CHO’s senior vice presidents. 

By comparison, the CEO of the public Alameda County Medical Center, which includes Highland General, John George, Fairmont and three outpatient clinics, made $351,000. 

CHO might do a little belt-tightening of their own executives’ salaries before coming to the public for a handout. 

Please vote No on A and B. 

Robert Brokl 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

The good news: Susan Parker’s back, funny and feisty as ever! Keep ‘em coming! 

The bad news: Now we have Ron Lowe (not even in the Bay Area, no less) not once but twice in recent issues. How about giving someone else a chance? 

On a more significant note: Children’s Hospital, caught in the act of sideswiping the public, has now been public relations savvy enough to back off from Measure B. Don’t be fooled: Measure A, its replacement, would still deal a blow to the county. Not that I’m against helping sick kids—who is?—but let’s not forget that Children’s Hospital is a private venture and we must direct our ever-more-meager resources to public institutions such as Highland, the place of last resort for low-income Alameda County residents—especially now with terrifying budget cuts being proposed by the governor. Children’s can seek big bucks from foundations and some of those super-rich I.T. and Hollywood folks our state has spawned; schools and other county services can’t. 

Rhoda Slanger 

On Thursday, Jan. 24, the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board will decide whether to allow the demolition of five sound rent-controlled housing units at 1923 Ninth St. and their replacement with condominiums. The case potentially represents a dangerous precedent in a city whose economic diversity depends on rent control, and whose single-family home prices have skyrocketed in recent years. The ZAB should follow San Francisco’s lead and only allow the demolition of sound rent-controlled housing when the units are replaced with new rent-controlled housing on-site, an outcome readily achievable at 1923 Ninth St. 

The scenario at 1923 Ninth St. is all too common: An owner seeks to increase density on what they perceive as an underutilized site. When increasing the number of housing units on a site brings accompanying social benefits, this is a good thing. But as currently proposed, approving the demolition of rent-controlled housing at 1923 Ninth St. is both bad policy and a violation of city law. The ZAB must reject this outcome. 

Let’s start with the policy.  

No city that cares about preserving economic diversity should allow the loss of rent-controlled housing. Absent rent control, Berkeley’s population would be far whiter and wealthier, and more closely resemble Mill Valley than the racially and economically diverse city it has been since the 1960s. 

San Francisco understands the value of rent-controlled housing. A recent experience at the Trinity Plaza Apartments at 8th and Market Streets provides a model for the type of “win-win” solution available at 1923 Ninth St. 

Trinity Plaza currently consists of 370 units, 360 of which are rent-controlled. In 2003, Trinity owner Angelo Sangiacomo announced plans to demolish Trinity and replace it with 1,400 new units. This proposal would have eliminated the rent-controlled housing, and displaced over 100 tenants. 

In response to this plan, I drafted an anti-demolition ordinance that barred the destruction of sound housing. The measure passed the Board of Supervisors, only to be vetoed by Mayor Newsom. We then proceeded to take the measure to the November 2004 ballot, only to have it removed from the ballot by an anti-tenant judge. 

Tenant groups felt strongly enough about saving Trinity’s rent-controlled housing that we began a new signature drive to hold a special election on our anti-demolition initiative. But before we could get started, Sangiacomo agreed to replace all of the rent-controlled housing on site. 

The result is that construction will soon begin on a 500-unit building that will contain 360 rent-controlled units. Since state law prohibits rent controls on newly built housing, this restriction must be part of a development agreement and rent limitations included in the deed. 

None of Trinity’s tenants will be displaced. Instead, all will stay in their homes until the new building is completed, and then move to the much finer apartments at their same rent. 

The 1900-unit complex at the new Trinity Plaza will be San Francisco’s largest new apartment development in over 50 years. It was made possible because the rent-controlled housing at the site was preserved. 

1923 Ninth St. is capable of a similar solution. The city can increase its housing supply from five to fifteen units without sacrificing rent-controlled units or permanently displacing existing tenants. 

All the ZAB has to do is encourage the owner to make five of the 15 new condos subject to rent control via a development agreement and deed restrictions. If tenants must be temporarily displaced by the demolition, the owner must subsidize their rents until they can return to units in the new building. 

Unfortunately, some, and perhaps a majority, of ZAB members appear to believe that eliminating rent-controlled housing can be mitigated by the owner’s payment of replacement housing fees. But there are two problems with this.  

First, there is no certainty that such fees will actually create the same number of affordable units as the rent-controlled units lost.  

Second, such funds are typically allocated to projects that would have been built anyway, so a net loss in rent-restricted housing occurs. 

In addition to the policy reasons for preserving rent-controlled housing, city law appears to require denial of the owner’s proposal. 

A series of opinions from the city attorney’s office makes it clear that Sections 23C.08.030 (E) and (F) of the Berkeley Demolition Ordinance apply to the rent-controlled units at 1923 Ninth St. In order to approve the demolition, the ZAB would have to find that denial of the project would either effectively constitute a “taking”—a claim that has never been suggested and could not succeed, or that the building’s condition is so deteriorated that demolition is necessary—which also does not apply to 1929 Ninth Street. 

The legal obstacles to demolition should encourage the owner to support a revised project that maintains five rent-controlled units on site. 

Rents in the San Francisco Bay Area rose 8.6 percent in 2007, well above the inflation rate. There could not be a worse time for Berkeley officials to encourage the elimination of rent-controlled housing. 

As 2008 begins, the ZAB could help set a new tone in Berkeley’s land-use wars by encouraging a solution that increases density while protecting tenants and rent-controlled housing. If Angelo Sanciagomo, whose rent increases in 1979 spawned San Francisco’s enactment of rent control, sees the wisdom of preserving rent-controlled housing, there is no reason the same outcome should not occur at 1923 Ninth St. 

Randy Shaw is the director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and editor of the online daily newspaper BeyondChron.org. He can be reached at randy@thclinic.org. 

Appealing as Barack Obama’s politics of dialogue and inclusivity may be to the broader electorate, his non-confrontational rhetoric is troubling to some on the Left—people who are accustomed to having to do battle with corporate America for the reforms that will bring about economic and social justice. People like me. 

A prominent spokesperson for this disquiet is New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. In a Dec. 17 column, Krugman labels Obama’s approach naïve, arguing that “[a]nyone who thinks the next president can achieve real change without bitter confrontation is living in a fantasy world.”  

These are serious concerns that I have also heard from some of my progressive friends. But I don’t share them. 

Progressives know that there is one overriding reason corporations exert disproportionate influence in the political process. To get elected, candidates need to advertise profusely, and to pay for those ads, candidates need bucketloads of corporate money. Nothing about this lamentable system will change in the 2008 elections, which means that virtually every member of Congress will owe his or her position in some degree to the corporations and scions of business who funded their campaigns.  

Unless and until we enact (and the Supreme Court upholds) true campaign finance reform, corporations are going to have an important seat at the table for every significant economic reform that a Democratic president proposes. Is it naïve to acknowledge this fact and to express willingness to have a reasoned discussion with affected business interests? Hardly. 

Given the likelihood that the Senate will not have a filibuster-proof 60 Democrats—let alone progressive Democrats—we have a better chance of gaining the needed Republican and moderate Democratic votes if our president refrains from inflammatory rhetoric. 

In our broken campaign finance system, I have learned not to expect any more from a Democratic president and Congress than decent compromise in the direction of progressive reforms. Still, alone among the Democratic candidates, Obama gives me hope for something better. 

Drawing on the difficult life lessons he has learned as the son of a black man from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, and learning from his experience as a community organizer in poor communities in Chicago, Obama has a keen sense of social justice. The power of Obama’s oratory comes not just from his delivery but from the depth and thoughtfulness of his words and the conviction behind them. (Just as one example, read his recent “Call to Serve” speech. ) 

Having read Obama’s autobiography, listened to many of his speeches, and studied his positions on the issues, I have allowed myself to hope that Obama’s words will inspire Americans of all persuasions to focus less on self-interest and more on our common interest in creating a just society. I even have hope that, for the issues that really matter, Obama will convince enough members of Congress to risk alienating their corporate contributors (after respectfully listening to them) and to dare to pursue the reforms we need for the long-term health of our nation. 

But, in voting for Obama and his call for civil political discourse, wouldn’t we be squandering a rising anti-corporate populist tide? I don’t think so. Frankly, economic conditions are (fortunately) not sufficiently bad for enough Americans to elect a firebrand progressive president and a take-no-prisoners Congress. Although the economy could deteriorate significantly in the next 10 months, we do not appear headed into the type of devastating economic depression that freed FDR from the need to worry about the politically weakened corporate sector derailing his progressive reforms.  

In this economic climate, John Edwards’ heated rhetoric about fighting corporate greed—as comfortable as it may sound to many progressives—is doomed to failure in the general election. In the face of relentless Republican general election ads decrying “class warfare,” Edwards’ message will not win over sufficient independent voters. Nor will it help that Edwards’ fiery rhetoric does not square with his moderate voting record as a senator. 

I have focused on domestic politics thus far, but I believe that the promise of an Obama presidency shines brightest in the international arena. Our nation’s standing among reasonable people around the globe has never been lower. In the last seven years, the Bush administration debacles have only reinforced our reputation throughout much of the developing world as clueless neo-colonialists.  

Obama would be an American president the likes of which the world has never seen: He has extended family in Kenya leading hard-scrabble lives; and, as a child, he lived for several years in modest circumstances in predominantly Muslim Indonesia. With such roots in the Third World, Obama has the capacity to understand in personal terms the issues faced by developing nations and to steer a more compassionate foreign policy. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism is arguably the most important foreign policy challenge of our time, and Obama is uniquely equipped to understand and defuse the forces that are fueling this dynamic. Obama’s willingness to engage in a dialogue even with leaders whose views we find abhorrent is exactly the right antidote to the arrogant, hubris-driven Bush foreign policy that has swelled the ranks of our enemies and only served to further undermine our safety and security. 

Americans are weary of politicians whose themes are driven by polling and focus groups. Obama seems to be the opposite—a candidate whose commitment to social and economic justice is a core conviction forged from life experience. Yes, Obama will foster a civil political dialogue, but he shows no signs of abandoning his fundamental progressive convictions.  

Albany resident Thomas Long was a consumer attorney for the Utility Reform Network (TURN), an advocacy group, for many years, and now is an attorney for the city and county of San Francisco. The opinions expressed here are his own.

As we sail into the murky political waters of 2008, it’s useful for liberals (progressives) to remember our core beliefs. Two elemental American narratives illuminate these values: the triumphant individual and the benevolent community. 

The triumphant individual is the story of the man or woman who starts from humble beginnings and becomes a success through a combination of hard work and self-confidence. It’s a testimony to the value of perseverance.  

In the movies, this is the Rocky narrative; in American history it is the biography of Ben Franklin or Abe Lincoln. In the 2008 presidential race, this is the story of Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama, who have had to overcome substantial obstacles—gender, poverty, and race—to get where they are. 

While all Americans cherish the triumphant individual myth, we often disagree on crucial elements of the narrative. One point of contention is the eligibility rules. Historically, liberals have supported a more inclusive definition of whom the narrative applies to. For example, progressives argue that everyone should be eligible to run for president: male or female, black or white, gay or straight, believer or atheist, able-bodied or physically challenged. Conservatives contend that the position should be reserved for white, male, straight, able-bodied Christians, and apply similar restrictions to other positions of power. 

Another point of contention concerns the starting line for each of our lives. Liberals believe in the notion of a level playing field. They contend that every American deserves the right to unfettered opportunity and, therefore, it is unfair to provide some children with advantages that others do not have: For example, progressives believe every child has the right to a quality education.  

In contrast, conservative thinking is heavily influenced by economic Calvinism, particularly the notion that poverty is an indication God does not look with favor upon an individual: If a poor child is served by mediocre public schools and has inadequate healthcare, conservatives argue, that’s what God intended. 

Liberal and conservative values and policies stem from their interpretation of the triumphant individual myth. Progressives defend the notion of elemental human rights, the idea of a strong social safety net—food, housing, medical care, and education. Conservatives emphasize property rights and the necessity of the rich and powerful to operate without interference. 

The benevolent community is the narrative of the group of individuals who set aside personal concerns and work for the common good. In the movies, this is the town in It’s a Wonderful Life. In American history it is illustrated by our response to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, where millions of Americans helped the victims. When Americans came together after 9/11, it represented the best aspects of community. 

While all of us cherish the benevolent community myth, we often disagree on critical elements of the narrative. Liberals visualize the American community as including everyone in the United States and believe: “I am my brother’s keeper and my sister’s keeper.”  

Social conservatives restrict the notion of community to those who identify as Christian, particularly those who say they have been “born again.” In the Left Behind series, La Haye and Jenkins posit that at the end of the world, the rapture, only true Christians are saved. The same discriminatory logic underlies “compassionate conservatism,” where conservatives argue that Christian churches should be enabled to help the needy, but in order to gain social services one must be a believer—participation in social programs requires church attendance. When conservatives seek to disable the social safety net, this reflects their belief there is no national community, only the brotherhood of Christian believers. 

The social consequences of these differing philosophies are profound. Liberals seek an activist federal government that takes seriously the notion of human rights. Conservatives want a passive, diminished government that supports the twin notions of the unfettered market and faith-based social programs. They couple this with a narrow view of human rights, restricting the right of government to interfere with individual activities. 

In the 2008 presidential campaign, there’s been a lot of talk about the “two Americas,” the division between the rich and the poor. But there are also two ideological Americas, two sets of citizens who see our country quite differently. Consistent with their believe in an expansive myth of the triumphant individual and the benevolent community, liberals speak of the common good and have a set of values that reflect their belief “we’re in this together.” Conservatives use a different moral standard, “what’s in it for me?”  

On issue after issue, liberals and conservatives see things in a radically different light: The environment? Progressives believe they have a responsibility to sustain a healthy environment for future generations—it’s an extension of the notion of the common good. Conservatives see the environment as free resources to be used to maximize individual advantage. We perceive differently, because we have different, core beliefs. 

Democratic presidential candidates Clinton, Edwards, and Obama differ on policy details, but their liberal core values are similar. Each of them offers a stark contrast to any of the GOP candidates. 

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

Lately I’ve been channeling my old friend Mrs. Scott. She’s the neighbor who came to our rescue after Ralph had his bicycling accident 13 years ago. The day Ralph came home from the hospital, she marched through our back door and took over. She cooked and cleaned and introduced us to others in the neighborhood. She went with us to doctors’ appointments, watched over the people I hired to help with Ralph’s care, became my right (and left) arm, my best friend, my guardian angel.  

When she died, on Sept. 6, 2001, I lost the most colorful person in my life. She was big and stubborn and ornery, and when she said “Jump” I always asked, “How high?” 

I could use Mrs. Scott’s assistance right now to help me with this Children’s Hospital mess. If she were alive today, she’d walk with me to the office of Mary Dean, CHO’s senior vice president of external affairs, and give her a piece of her mind. She’d tell Ms. Dean in no uncertain terms that the hospital needs to come up with a plan we all can live with, not a colossal 12-story tower that will cast a shadow on her home, making it impossible for her to grow greens and tomatoes in the backyard. Mrs. Scott would have shook her cane and shouted a few curse words, reverently invoked the name of the lord and his son Jesus Christ, and then told Mary “to be sweet and have a blessed day.” She would have grabbed my arm and yanked me out of Ms. Dean’s fancy office and said “Go get the car, Suzy Parker. My feet are all swelled up and I need a ride home.” I would have run the three blocks to her house, jumped into the front seat of her old Ford Mustang, and driven back to the hospital in order to get her. That was the nature of our relationship. She did the talkin’ and I did the walkin’.  

Recently, when my neighbors and I attended a meeting of the Alameda County League of Women’s Voters in order to present our opposition to Measure A, I wore, for good luck, a sweater Mrs. Scott had given me. It’s big and black and it has huge round plastic buttons down the front, each one a different iridescent color: hot pink, lime green, bright blue, and glow-in-the-dark yellow. Sparkle-lee doodads and whatnots cover the front and back of the cardigan. It’s the kind of sweater Mrs. Scott would have worn, if she could have found one in size XXX.  

My neighbors and I aren’t politicians or professional community activists, and none of us has led a fight against a specific ballot measure before. But we did okay. We presented our arguments. We let the League women have a look at us. We showed them our most precious possessions, our children. I brought my niece and nephew with me. Yasmin brought her 3-year old son, Liam. Rainjita held her 2-year old daughter, Kianna, in her arms. Jenna rubbed her big belly, hoping she wouldn’t give birth until the end of the meeting.  

We told the League that it is because we have kids that we don’t want a 180-foot tower looming over us or helicopters whirling above our heads. And it is precisely because of our families that we support Children’s Hospital’s core mission. We have used its facilities and resources. We have sat in its emergency waiting room, visited its critical care unit, its neonatology nursery, its gift shop and cafeteria.  

Yesterday I received the following e-mail from Yasmin. 

“This fight against Children’s Hospital’s high rise has opened doors for all of us and unleashed powers we didn’t know we had. I would never have gotten to know Jean, Geoff, Jenna and all these neighborhood friends and characters if it weren’t for this. It must be a fraction of how you bonded with Mrs. Scott and other neighbors after Ralph’s accident.” 

She’s right, our crusade to get Measure A defeated and to make Children’s Hospital a responsible neighbor has opened many doors and given us a sense of pride and determination. And yes, it is a little like what happened after my husband’s accident. I met Mrs. Scott and she changed my life. 

I don’t know how old you have to be to think of Sunset magazine and early 1960s swimming-poolside dioramas whenever you see a Cordyline australis in its other vocation, as a plain old yard or streetside tree. It’s a classic, though, to complete the post-TK look that starts with a turquoise pool, maybe kidney-shaped, and a Weber kettle. Some of us get whiffs of vinyl, chlorine, and firestarter fluid from our subconscious every time.  

It wasn’t just aesthetic, that fad for “cabbage tree.” Certainly it fit that angular, minimalist, post-Thomas Church look. But its practical virtues include toughness—it won’t flinch from regular sloshing with chemical-laden pool water—and big sturdy leaves that don’t disintegrate and clog the pool filter and don’t get shed often anyway.  

That fibrous toughness has brought cordyline halfway ‘round the world: a few years back, I heard a member of a group of visiting Maori artists laughing about how seeing it and New Zealand flax all over the landscaping made her feel right at home.  

Cordyline has been around the block taxonomically speaking, too. In older books it’s a member of the Amaryllis family. The most recent Sunset Garden Book has it in the Agavaceae, as are the dracaenas. In fact it was at one point assigned to the genus Dracaena, along with the dragon tree and all those indoor plants. Now it’s not even in the same family. In the latest classification dracaenas share the family Ruscaceae with lilies-of-the-valley, Solomon’s-seals, and Sansevieria, the house plant variously known as snake plant, bowstring hemp, and mother-in-law’s-tongue. This week, cordylines—including the Hawai’ian ti plant, C. fruticosa—appear to be in the closely related family Laxmanniaceae.  

Plant taxonomy can be brutal—more so since the geneticists got into the act. They’ve really done a job on the monocots, the plant clade that includes lilies, palms, and grasses. The lily family has been shrunk radically, with all kinds of plants that used to be lilies spun off into their own families. True lilies (like tiger lilies and the showy Oriental types), tulips, fritillaries, and fawn lilies are still lilies, and that’s about it. 

One likely reason that agaves, yuccas, and cordylines were lumped together in the first place, apart from their pointy leaves, is that all three groups include woody species. In general, with the great exception of the palms, monocots don’t get woody. Monocot timber, according to Colin Tudge’s The Tree, is highly variable in structure, and not much like either conifer timber (pines and redwoods) or dicot timber (oaks, mahoganies, and other such broadleaf trees).  

Conifers and dicot trees share the phenomenon called secondary thickening, in which a complete cambium sheath, the live underskin of xylem and phloem just beneath the bark, allows a tree to get thicker and thicker, for years or centuries as it relinquishes its circulatory function and lignifies into supportive heartwood. Dragon trees and cabbage trees have reinvented this strategy, but somehow manage it without the cambium sheath. 

C. australis is tree enough to be included in the Collins Handguide to the Native Trees of New Zealand, where it grows in swampy areas and lower montane forests up to 2,000 feet. Just as cacti on the Galapagos Islands evolved tall tree-like forms under pressure from grazing giant tortoises, the cabbage tree may have been spurred to treehood by the moas, the giant flightless birds that took over the role of browsing mammals on those mammal-less (except for the bats, who don’t graze much) islands. 

When the Maori discovered New Zealand, they recognized the cabbage tree—which they called ti rakau, ti kouka, or whanake—as a potential food source. The pith of young stems was eaten raw, boiled, or baked in earth ovens; roots required longer cooking They must have been patient as well as adventurous, culinarily speaking. Ti kouka was a major dietary starch, along with fern roots. After intensive processing, cordyline roots yielded a juice that they used as a sweetener; other extracts made traditional medicines.  

The Maori also fashioned ropes from trunk and root material and used fiber from the leaves, along with those of another of our landscape favorites, New Zealand flax, Phormium tenax, to make clothing and sandals. There’s good evidence that they developed cultivars for different purposes.  

Early European missionaries were said to have “brewed a tolerable beer” from cordyline, although just what an early missionary would tolerate is an open question.  

As “mid-century modern” architecture—those Eichlers and the Thomas Church gardens that, if their owners are incredibly fortunate, accompany them—get dragged back into fashion, maybe we’ll be seeing even more cordylines in the landscape. Until then, just hail every one you see as an historical marker. Let’s refrain from any discussion of giving them landmark status just yet, though.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan. 

A streetside tree dreams poolside dreams: Cordyline australis. 

Dispatches From the Edge is going to start off 2008 by revisiting two stories the column covered in 2007. 

So what was that Sept. 6 Israeli bombing of Syria all about? The official line is that Israel flattened a Syrian nuclear reactor, which may have been designed by the North Koreans, although with all the chaff being thrown up, it hard to tell what really happened (“chaff “is metallic foil used to confuse radar systems). 

Aviation Weekly reports the facility was first spotted by an Israeli Ofek 7 satellite, and Tel Aviv relayed the intelligence to the Bush Administration. Neither the Israelis nor the Americans will say a word in public, but one “U.S. official” told the New York Times, “There wasn’t a lot of debate about the evidence. There was a lot of debate about how to respond to it.” 

But according to an investigation by B. Michael on the Jewish website Ynet.news.com, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad likely told the truth when he said the raid hit an “unused military building” and blew up “nothing of consequence.” 

First, recently released photos indicate that U.S. intelligence had known about the place since at least 2003, making it far more likely that the United States told the Israelis rather than visa-a-versa. 

Second, the moment people got a chance to look at the photos, the nonsense about its “remote” location began to disassemble. The Dewar az Zawr facility is just over one mile from the major tourist magnet at Halabiya, where rafting trips down the Euphrates are organized. 

Third, as Michael points out, “This ‘reactor’ is not surrounded by any fence. There is no wall there either, no watchtowers, no residential structures, no patrol roads, no anti-aircraft positions, and no barracks.” There is not even a guard post. 

The Israeli explanation for this rather casual approach to security is that the facility was so secret, not even the Syrian Army knew about it, hence the lack of defensive measures. Michael acidly suggests, “this reactor was so secretive that nobody in Syria knew about its existence. Only the Israelis knew.” 

So a case of bad intelligence? Or are some people up to no good?  

Rightwing Israelis used the issue to argue that Syria should have been excluded from the recent Annapolis conference between Israelis and Palestinians. 

U.S. neo-conservatives, like former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, argue that the U.S. should withdraw from the six-party talks with North Korea over disarming that country’s nuclear weapons program because of the charge that North Korea may have helped design the so-called “reactor.” “There’s a growing suspicion that the veil of secrecy about Syria doesn’t have to do so much with intelligence as with protecting the six party talks and the Annapolis conference,” Bolton told the Financial Times. 

The evidence for a “reactor” at Dewar az Zawr is thin. Much has been made of one building close to the Euphrates that is identified as a “pumping station”—water is essential to cool a nuclear reactor—but it doesn’t appear in early images of the facility and neither the Israelis nor the Bush Administration have presented any evidence that the building is a coolant facility.  

“It’s a box on a river,” says Jeffery Lewis, an arms control expert for the New America Foundation. “I am amazed that people can say they know the function just because of its dimensions.” 

The only other evidence is negative: the facility was razed following the bombing, which the U.S. says proves that it was a reactor. Or maybe the Syrians tore down a bombed building? In any case, they have started rebuilding it, same size, same shape, but with a different roof. 

Michaels concludes the attack was all about politics: “A sequence of circular and manipulative intelligence schemes, piles of nonsense premised on tidbits of information, and the exploitation of this entire mess for the sake of political objectives of various leaders and their camps, both here (Israel) and in the United States.”  

This past February, the Bush administration announced the formation of African Command (Africom), the goals of which were “development, health, education, democracy and economic growth.” 

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Teresa Whalen said the initiative was aimed at “promoting security” and helping African nations to overcome “instability that has toppled governments and causes so much pain on the continent.” Confronted with widespread suspicion in the region, Whalen said, “while there are fears that Africom represents a militarization of U.S. foreign policy in Africa …That fear is unfounded.” 

Jump ahead nine months. 

Mogadishu, Somalia (Reuters)—Insurgents dragged the bodies of dead Ethiopian soldiers through the streets of the capital after another flare-up of fighting that killed at least 21 people and sent thousands fleeing the volatile city …The scene recalled the 1993 downing of two United States Black hawk helicopters by Somali militiamen, when dead Americans were dragged through the streets, precipitating American withdrawal and contributing to the end of a United States peacekeeping organization. 

According to Reuters, Ethiopian troops killed more than 60 Somalis in revenge and sent thousands of refugees streaming out of the capital. 

The Ethiopians invaded Somalia to overthrow the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which had brought a modicum of peace to the warlord-riven country. The Addis Ababa regime was acting on behalf of Washington, which charged that the ICU was associated with al-Qaeda, although neither country has ever presented evidence for any such connection. The U.S.—which arms Ethiopia to the tune of $500 million a year—fed the Ethiopian Army satellite intelligence, and bombed and shelled supposed ICU insurgents in Southern Somalia, killing more than 70 civilians according to the UN. 

The outcome of such “stabilizing” activities is that Somalia has now passed Darfur as the major humanitarian crisis on the continent. According to the United Nations, malnutrition rates in some areas of Somalia are 19 percent. Darfur’s rate is 13 percent, and the UN considers 15 percent to be the emergency threshold. 

“The situation in Somalia is the worst on the continent,” said the UN’s top official in Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah. 

Eric Laroche, who heads up the UN’s humanitarian services in Somalia, says that conditions were better under the ICU. “It was much more peaceful and much easier for us to work. The Islamists didn’t cause us any problems.” 

Besides actively participating in the invasion of Somalia and initiating the current humanitarian crisis, the United States is also backing Ethiopia’s suppression of insurgents in its southeastern Ogaden region. When human rights groups and the Red Cross protested Addis Ababa sealing off aid supplies going to the vast desert area, the Bush administration backed up the Ethiopians. 

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said the embargo was justified, because the rebels of the Ogadan National Liberation Front (ONLF) were “trying to get contraband in through those trade routes. Weapons, arms trafficking is taking place with the same trucks bringing in rice.” 

Western aid agencies deny this is the case. 

The result of the embargo, according to the UN, is that 21 percent of Ogaden children are malnourished, an even worse situation than in Somalia.  

The United States is also conducting military maneuvers with 10 countries that border the Sahara, and is expanding naval operations in the Gulf of Guinea, which harbors the vast Bulk of the continent’s oil reserves.  

West Africa currently provides 15 percent of the oil imported to the United States, a figure that will rise to 25 percent by 2015. 

The U.S. is also pouring arms into the region. According to Forecast International, Africa’s “changing geopolitical environments” and “hydrocarbon-derived wealth,” creates “major opportunities for western defense enterprises.” 

The report’s author, Matthew Richie, says, “There is a collection of African nations demonstrating procurement characteristics reminiscent of the Middle East decades ago.” So far, Algeria, Libya and Nigeria are the major buyers. 

And who is selling those arms? Between 1990 and 2006, the United States and European share of that market rose from 34 to 37 percent.

It should come as a surprise to no one—should it?—that the issue of race resurfaced in the Democratic primary campaign as soon as that campaign dropped down I-95 from the snows of New Hampshire to the sandhills and seashores of South Carolina. However it tries to escape or pretend otherwise, the Palmetto State continues to live in the long shadow of the slaverytime plantations. 

I love South Carolina. I spent close to 20 years there, where three of my children were born. California is my native home and where I live, but Carolina is where my heart lies. Still, I have no pretenses about the state. 

South Carolina was one of the gateways into America of the African slave trade and as late as the middle of the last century, and slavery and its aftermath dominated the state up to and through the civil rights and black empowerment eras. Its rotten residue remains. 

In the old citadel square in the center of Charleston, a statue of South Carolina’s most famous politician—John C. Calhoun—towers above the close-cropped grass where tourists lounge and local workers eat their lunches. Mr. Calhoun, once a vice president of the United States, was the chief promoter of the “nullification” philosophy, in which it was reasoned that any individual state had the right to toss out federal law if that federal law clashed with the wishes of that state’s leaders. The law in question, in Mr. Calhoun’s day, was the right of individuals to “own” other people and keep them in bondage as slaves. The so-called Southern “fire-eaters” of the following generation used Mr. Calhoun’s nullification philosophy to justify the break with the union that created the Confederacy and sparked the Civil War, which began both with South Carolina’s withdrawal from the union as well as its firing on federal troops at Fort Sumter in the Charleston harbor. Southern segregationist leaders later used the Calhoun philosophy to justify the denial of civil rights to African-American citizens.  

To this day, Mr. Calhoun’s statue glares across the Charleston landscape, looking to the sea that brought in both African captives and union gunboats. The finger of one of the statue’s hands pointing dramatically downwards. Of old times, African-American men sunning themselves on the park benches below used to joke that Calhoun’s last and everlasting message in that pointing gesture was a warning to his followers to “keep the niggers down.” 

South Carolina’s second most famous politician was Ben Tillman—one-eyed, “Pitchfork Ben,” once a governor and later a United States senator—who led the forces that drove African-Americans out of political power at the end of Reconstruction, using “fraud and violence,” by his own words. Countless African-American leaders and officeholders were assassinated by Tillman’s “red shirt” white terrorist militias during the 1870s and 1880s, homes burned, black citizens driven back onto the plantations and into re-subjugation. Old-timers in Edgefield County, where Mr. Tillman lived, told me of his last days when he sat as a virtual crazy man on his porch, waving a cane at passersby with a withered hand, screaming out, “Keep the niggers off the polls! Keep the niggers off the polls!” Mr. Tillman reportedly died in fits of screaming, visited, the story goes, by demons and the ghosts of many thousands gone. 

South Carolina’s third most famous politician—longtime United States Senator Strom Thurmond—was a boyhood pupil of Mr. Tillman’s, who often said that he learned his politics at the old man’s knee. Both were from Edgefield. A decade ago, I wrote of my impressions of that county: 

“Edgefield is peach country and, on the surface, is beautiful. The orchard rows of sweet-flowered trees stretch on for mile after rolling mile. Along the main north-south highway that runs from Savannah to Charlotte stand clean, white-board houses and restored colonial mansions dotted here and there between acres of farmland and groves of green woods.  

“Wave to folks, both white and black, and they will smile and wave back. Passing through in your car you think that this is where you might want to return when you retire. But stop and stay long enough, and you will catch the odor. It does not take long to recognize it.  

“It is the smell of fear so old and ingrained that it taints the very earth. It is the smell of terror. It is the smell of death. Stay long enough and you will understand the real Edgefield County, sprawling along the Georgia border like some great sick beast sullen and brooding, uneasy, malevolent, the stench of its old segregated systems buzzing its blacktop highways like hot flies on the rotting veins of a dying regime, the clayed ground so dank and red it seems as if it was oozing up blood from the bodies of the murdered martyrs buried in its fields and creek banks. Black martyrs.  

“ ‘I don't even much go through there,’ I once was told by an older African-American woman who lived in neighboring Aiken County. ‘I just drives around it, always. It's bad things happened up in Edgefield. It's bad things still happening.’  

“One flees Edgefield County in deep fear, hoping you can leave the images behind you. But you cannot. Ghosts first emerge from their own graveyard, but they do not remain there. Like some deadly, unidentified disease, the Edgefield Terror has slowly spread itself north and west, infecting the entire country.”  

Strom Thurmond, of course, is the epitomy of America’s tortured tanglings in the race thickets. His political career revolved around the embrace of segregation and white rights. Once, as a South Carolina circuit court judge in the 1930s, he allowed a white mob to take an African-American defendant from his courthouse and lynch him on the town square. In those days, lynch mobs didn’t even bother to hide their identities but Mr. Thurmond, later one of those “law and order” advocates, never pursued charges against the lynch mob who murdered a man on the public commons. In 1948, Mr. Thurmond later broke briefly with the Democratic Party over the issue of civil rights, running for president as a Dixiecrat against Harry Truman. He later defected for good from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party over the same issue, his belief that the party was promoting rights for African-Americans that we, ourselves, for the most part, weren’t even interested in exercising. 

But as we later discovered, Thurmond’s own relations with African-Americans was as tangled as America’s. He had several African-American half-brothers—children of his father—who lived for many years in Aiken, across the county line from Edgefield. Mr. Thurmond himself was the father of a child by an African-American woman. Privately, Mr. Thurmond acknowledged Essie Mae Washington as his daughter, and helped her get through college at South Carolina State, where he sometimes visited her at the African-American home where she boarded. And Thurmond was a great friend of black colleges—what we now call “historically black colleges”—helping to funnel state and federal money to them.  

There is a high school in Edgefield named after him—Strom Thurmond High—a largely African-American school in the post-segregation days of the 1970s and 1980s, and in those years he used to go to every graduation and hand out the diplomas, the long lines predominant with black children filing past him in their graduation hats and robes, the bleachers filled with proud black parents. It was an odd spectacle for those who were introduced to Mr. Thurmond as an enemy of civil rights, and only made sense when you began to understand that Mr. Thurmond, like South Carolina, like America, both loves and hates the African-Americans amongst us, sometimes simultaneously, is both repelled by and attracted to African-Americans, doing his best to both get away from us and get close to us, is both proud of African-Americans and America’s treatment of us and ashamed of African-Americans and America’s treatment of us, and, most importantly, is bound to us, both from the beginning, and forever. 

And given South Carolina’s long history of white men impregnating African-American women—both before and after the end of slavery—and then suffering alternating bouts of shame, denial, and confusion in the face of the offspring of those “events,” it is totally unsurprising that it is this state where Sen. John McCain’s 2000 presidential ambitions foundered and fell after the forces of George W. Bush whispered the rumor that Mr. McCain was the father of a black child. 

And so, shortly before the New Hampshire primary but as South Carolina loomed—with its long racial history and its large contingent of black Democratic voters—it is equally not surprising that Senator Hillary Clinton also succumbed to Carolina’s fever, trying to disparage comparisons of Sen. Barack Obama’s speaking style to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. by implying—carelessly, foolishly, stupidly—that President Lyndon Johnson was actually the determinant of the civil rights victories of the 1960s, not the Reverend King and his followers. 

Ms. Clinton later tried to explain that she hadn’t meant to denegrate Mr. King, but the damage was done, and there followed a round of race-based fighting between the Clinton and Obama camps that was nasty, brutish and, thankfully, short. 

Fueled and egged on by the national media and Republicans on the sidelines, Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama appeared be in a downward death spiral, destined to savage themselves with race-bloodied knives until both campaigns crashed into the swamp, the “winner” unable to recover for the November election. What is remarkable about the events of the past two weeks is that, instead, the two United States senators did manage to pull themselves out, almost apologetically, both seemingly embarrassed by the quick mess they had made of things. That they did is a credit both to them and to whoever pulled their respective coattails and advised them to “stop this, at once, or you will bring both yourselves, the Democratic Party, and perhaps the country down.” 

But going into South Carolina will do that. Like America’s long experience with slavery and the issue of race, South Carolina—a state of unsurpassing beauty and ugliness—tends to bring out both the worst and the best in you. 

When we will break completely and forever away from the ghost of America’s racial past? Like the South Carolina folks say, my eyes don’t see that long. But the last couple of weeks in the Democratic primary has demonstrated, once more, how close to the surface the body lies. 

For many years the Bay Area-based Sunset Magazine, self-described “magazine of Western living,” has been sponsoring “idea houses” in partnership with builders and manufacturers. 

Ranging from subdivision homes to country retreats, these structures are temporarily opened to the public to showcase their design concepts and fixtures.  

It’s a bit like a decorator show house, but with the architecture and building systems promoted as much as the décor. 

The latest Sunset project is in San Francisco’s Mission District. It’s their first Idea House on a solidly urban site, and incorporates a mass of “green” features and materials from a power-generating wind turbine to sustainably harvested wood paneling. 

Sunset’s literature describes it as “one of the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified residential remodels in the nation.” 

The curious can tour it for $20 per adult this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as well as Jan. 25, 26, and 27, after which it closes to the public for good.  

The house—not owned by Sunset—was originally scheduled to premier in August 2007 and close in October, but didn’t open until late November, accompanied by a cloud of rumor and speculation that’s detailed, denied, and discussed on local real estate blogs. 

The building has two units. The smaller one is described as 1,229 square feet. Sunset’s literature doesn’t give the size of the main house, but some on-line sources say it’s 3,600 square feet. 

Surrounding buildings are a mix of Victorian and Edwardian houses and apartment structures, some intact, others remodeled. 

The Idea House, on a corner lot, is resolutely modernist, an asymmetrically angular structure in trendy green hues, designed by San Francisco architect John Lum. 

It’s supposedly “transformed from a 1908 commercial structure,” but I couldn’t spot a visible stick or shred of anything earlier than the 21st century from the site. 

Let’s go inside and take a look. 

The saying “your home is your castle” certainly applies here. A barbarian with a battering train would find it hard to penetrate the fortress-like main entry where two enormous metal doors sandwich a vestibule.  

The ground floor of the main unit is dominated by one of those “endless swimming pools” in which a current allows you to swim in place, along with a sauna, spa room, and half-bath. 

The second floor contains the private living quarters, bisected lengthwise by the stair atrium and a walnut-walled corridor. A guest room and bath, children’s bedroom, and spaces described as “craft room” and children’s “powder room” line up along the street side. 

The craft room has a striking bay window at the corner of the house, with northwest views and a built-in window seat below a light sculpture. The opposite wall is a rather impressive sculptural composition made up of scores of wood scraps left over from the hallway paneling. 

Across the hall a laundry room connects through to the master closet, as big as the guest bedroom. The master bedroom has two floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the interior courtyard, and is divided from the adjacent master bath by an interesting pass-through storage wall. 

The bath features a walk-in glass-walled shower, opaque glass wall facing south, and sculptural concrete counter and sink. 

Rising through the building core, the main staircase emerges in the center of the top floor. Although the floor plate here is smaller than the lower levels, the space seems large since there are no partition walls, except those enclosing a half-bath tucked in a corner. 

A glass bridge across the stairwell allows uninterrupted circulation around the perimeter. An “L” shaped kitchen with long, concrete topped, island, a dining area, lounge area and an adjacent sitting area and wet bar occupy the four quadrants. 

A wrap around outdoor terrace surrounds much of this level and also provides a visual setback from the street below and buildings across the street. Huge doors (both solid wood, and sliding glass) and window-walls that fold back allow much of the floor to be opened up to the exterior. 

The roof sports plantings, photovoltaics, and solar water heaters. 

This top floor has a very comfortable feel with extensive views, lots of light and air, and ample outdoor space. We were there on a not-too-warm January day but it was quite mild inside, even with some of the window walls open. 

(Unfortunately, what a docent cited as “liability concerns” exclude visitors from the terrace. You can only peer through the windows at the outdoor spaces on this level). 

The main unit is filled with built-in and customized storage spaces. An unobtrusive elevator flanks a light well. The central stair is both functional and sculptural, with layered glass treads, glass landings, and balusters made out of tautly angled cables. 

The main unit has a ground level patio in the southeast corner of the lot with plantings, pavers, patio, and an “L” shaped pond. The metal column of the wind turbine rises from one corner. 

There’s a sculptural tower of succulents and strawberries, a recycled plastic deck, and that must-have feature of all Sunset projects, an outdoor “barbecue bar” with the heft and presence of a jet engine. 

Floor to ceiling windows and glass doors divide the patio from the indoor pool. A two-car garage, a mechanical room the size of some studio apartments, and a second exit to the street complete the patio perimeter. 

Sunk beneath the patio are water storage / collection tanks, fed by an artistic “rain chain” that drains the roof. 

In the corner behind the wind turbine two steel beams project from the wall, presumably supports for a future switchback outdoor staircase that the floor plans show descending from the third floor terrace to ground level. 

The smaller second unit, with its own street entrance, hugs the western street side of the building. The ground floor has a master bedroom with no exterior windows, a gigantic master bath, a much more modest second bath, and two spaces—one with a modern murphy bed unit—that can be partitioned off from the circulation core by huge wooden doors that roll on tracks. 

There are no conventional windows on this level, only thick, opaque, glass walls along the sidewalk. A narrow planting verge between building and sidewalk is filled with bamboo for a second layer of privacy screening. 

The upstairs level of the unit has a laundry closet, half-bath, open kitchen / dining / living area, and a nice outdoor patio on the roof of the garage. 

In this unit, look above the stairs for the fascinating photovoltaic sculpture / fan by Mark Malmberg that animates itself, and the small planted “green wall” facing the street from the roof deck. 

I left with these impressions:  

First, the pluses: The really livable open third floor of the main residence and the intelligent approach of putting the “living” areas on top and the bedrooms on the middle level. 

A good effort to provide functional and pleasant roof terraces; there should be more of these in San Francisco, with its many flat roofs. 

Solar systems for hot water heating and power. The jury is out on the urban advisability of the wind turbine. It wasn’t moving during our visit, but both a Sunset employee and a neighbor commented it was pretty audible when spinning. 

The water systems that make extensive use of rainwater and gray water, and also help reduce storm and sanitary sewer runoff. 

Lots of storage spaces, some too modern for my taste, but cleverly designed and fitted in throughout the building. 

The Minuses: Excess. Does any individual Bay Area home really need a luxury kitchen plus a built-in cooking station in the garden, elaborate suites for children, bedroom sized closets, three refrigerators, two bars, two dishwashers, seven sinks, and its own sauna, spa, and indoor swimming pool? 

This house incorporates so many high-end appliances, fixtures, finishes, and design features that it’s improbable the average homeowner could afford to replicate them, at least in this quantity, quality, and combination. 

In the second unit bathroom, for instance, a docent said that the alluring Lumicor divider panels made of “architectural resin” and encasing thousands of tiny pieces of bamboo, cost $13,000. To me, that’s eco-porn. 

This isn’t light or simple living. It’s luxuriousness, albeit with a smaller carbon footprint than a conventional McMansion would generate. 

Such an outcome is to be expected from a project where numerous manufacturers and appliance suppliers want to showcase their wares, but it doesn’t make the result any less unsettling. 

There’s also the size of the main unit. “Faux Density,” was the reaction of the designer who accompanied me. This is not the “smart growth” that urbanization advocates idealize; it’s suburban size in an urban shell. 

The development is lower density than most of the surrounding neighborhood. Each floor of the main residence alone has enough square footage to be a comfortably sized apartment or condo unit.  

There’s also a huge amount of technical complexity. It’s a “green” house where most of the window coverings appear to be moveable only with electric motors, where hundreds of cables coil within closets and cabinets, and where the “mechanical room” is the size of a small garage and sports more fixtures, pipes, and motors than some research wet labs. 

I counted more than 80 separate cables bundled in the back of one closet alone. Presumably a corps of service and repair technicians will be needed in future years until that inevitable day when someone says “can’t get parts for this old thing anymore,” and it all has to be taken out and redesigned. 

Maybe some day Sunset will sponsor an urban home that’s functional, modest, and enduring. Now that’s an Idea! 

The Sunset Idea House is open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. the next two weekends only, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, through Jan. 27. 

Sunset doesn’t publicize the street address, and encourages visitors to park or gather at the San Francisco General Hospital parking garage (2500 24th Street) and catch a free shuttle to the Mission District house. The last shuttle leaves the garage at 3:15 p.m. 

Visit the Sunset website www.sunset.com or call their recorded information line, 1-800-786-7375 for official details. 

$20 per person at the door of the main unit. $15 for seniors on Friday, no children under the age of 10. 

There are docents throughout and lots of wall labels describing spaces and features. 

Each visitor gets a glossy brochure that’s part description, part product advertising. The back of the brochure has useful floor plans that are slightly different from the as-built structure. 

A stop in the garage will yield a hefty armload of free product materials, brochures, and advertising for all of the various manufacturers and others partnering on the project. 

The house is not wheelchair accessible. Improbably, there are three concrete steps from the front door to the interior elevator.

My Quake Resolutions... 

My new year’s suggestion is to set a reasonable time table to do these things to make your family and your home safer: 

• If your home has a “crawl space,” have your retrofit checked 

• Make sure you have emergency kits at home, in the cars, at the office 

• Get an automatic gas shut-off valve installed at your gas meter 

• Secure all your tall/heavy furniture, your wall hangings, and your appliances 

If you have any questions about what to do, call or email me – my passion is earthquake preparedness and I’m happy to talk with you.  

Make your home secure and your family safe. 

Larry Guillot is the owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing and kit supply service. Contact him at 558-3299 or see www.quakeprepare.com to receive semi-monthly e-mails and safety reports.  

A few years ago, Joe and I got a tour of Garvan Woodland Gardens, a newish botanical garden in Hot Springs, Arkansas, courtesy of Uncle Leonard and Aunt Evelyn. We were all toted around in a golf cart, and a docent told us about the origins and current state of the garden, about the plants and other features we were seeing.  

After all these years, Eastern North America has come to seem somewhat exotic to me. I grew up in south-central Pennsylvania, in a biotic blend zone that I’ve come to appreciate only after learning more about the one I live in now. The Ozarks have a lot in common with that zone, being much farther south but more elevated. When I recognize a plant from either of those places, it’s as something I should have known but inexplicably didn’t.  

That half-familiarity attended me in the Hot Springs woodland too, strengthened by the newly familiar horticultural favorites scattered under the pines. Something about them gave me little “Hey, wait! What?” moments, more so than the Arkansas natives I’d encountered on visits to Joe’s home state over the years.  

We weren’t far from the home of Louisiana iris, for example, but I didn’t think I’d’ve been looking at the ‘Black Gamecock’ cultivar—one I like enough to have in a tub in our backyard—unless someone had put it in that little stream eddy down the hill. Those oakleaf hydrangeas scattered artfully through the understory, or the dogwoods: both natives, but disturbances in the leaf litter and mulch suggested they were newly planted.  

Here’s where my own gardening history was getting in the way. I came to gardening via the study of California native plants, and to that via California ecosystems, and to that via birding. I’ve always felt a certain tension between “natural” places and artifactual, even artistic settings.  

I can’t resist planting tropicals and oddities and scented plants and pretty flowers in my own patch, and played with all those as well as natives in the gardens I planted for clients, back in the day. But when I’m walking in the woods I have certain bone-deep expectations. I expect to be surprised by unmediated and unrepeatable experiences, by something foreign to my whole species, yet integral to our lives and souls. I suppose that’s what people mean by “Nature” or “the Wild.”  

Maybe it’s a matter of class, or a relict of a suburban childhood. In my neighborhood, there were yards—sometimes but not always “gardens”—and there was The Woods, also known as “Private Property” (pronounced “private propitty”) because it was thus posted. The Woods was a patch of wild, of sugar maple and violets and who-knows what else, less than a block in area and bordered by The Creek (“d’ Crick”).  

Private though it was, I thought it was natural. Maybe it was. Nothing had been dug (until I stole one of those violets to plant in our yard) or planted. It marked me with an expectation of refuge, unsocial, nonhuman, but mine.  

Still more, next week. 

http://www.garvangardens.org/ 

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.

TUESDAY, JAN. 22 

CHILDREN 

Bill Nemoyten “The Hornman” for ages 3 and up at 6:30 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

FILM 

Experimental Documentaries “Milk n the Land: Ballad of an American Drink” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761.  

Gabor Gyukics, poet and translator, at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Charles Halpern introduces “Making Waves and Riding Currents: Activism and the Practice of Wisdom” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Courtableu at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Singers’ Open Mic with Kelly Park at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

David Lindley at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Bob Kenmotsu, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival, featuring Cyril Pahinui, Dennis Kamakahi & George Kahumoku at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$20. 238-9200.  

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 23 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Cycle of Life: Awakening” Works by Asian women artists, opens at the Institute of East Asian Studies, 2223 Fulton St., 6th flr. Exhibit runs to May 15. 642-2809. 

FILM 

“Reel Bad Arabs” A documentary on the degrading images of Arabs in cinematic history, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Introduction to Film Language” with Prof. Marilyn Fabe at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Mona Sutphen and Nina Hachigian describe “The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Vikram Chandra reads from “Sacred Games” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Sue Miller reads from “The Senator’s Wife” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Writing Teachers Write at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

David Lindley at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Erik Jekabsen Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Balkan Folk Dance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

La Verdad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Code Name: Jonah at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Cyrus Chestnut at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, JAN. 24 

FILM 

African Film Festival “Bamako” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jacqueline Shea Murphy in Conversation with Hertha Dawn Sweet Wong on “The People Have Never Stopped Dancing: Native American Modern Dance Histories,” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com 

Hillary Gravendyk and Logan Ryan Smith, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Sudhir Venkatesh describes “Gang Leader for a Day” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Emam & Friends, Kirtan and world music, at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Kelly Joe Phelps at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Count Basie Tribute Orchestra Benefit at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Laura Zucker at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

The David Thom Band, Jacob Groopman and The Mountain Boys at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082  

Son de Madera at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$15. 849-2568.  

Cyrus Chestnut at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Planet Loop, electro-jazz, worldbeat, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

FRIDAY, JAN. 25 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Barefoot in the Park” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through Feb. 16. Tickets are $10-$12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Altarena Playhouse “Wait Until Dark” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda, through Feb. 16. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Aurora Theatre “Satellites” at 8 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. through March 2. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “The Cocoanuts” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., some Sun. matinees at 2 p.m., at 951 Pomona Ave., at Moeser, El Cerrito, through March 2. Tickets are $15-$24. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Encore Theatre Company & Shotgun Players “The Shaker Chair” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m., at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Jan. 27. Tickets are $20-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Masquers Playhouse “Angel Street” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. through Feb. 23 at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Best Western” Art by Martin Webb. Artist reception at 5 p.m. at Estaban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St., Oakland. Exhibit runs through Feb. 18. 444-7411. www.estebansabar.com 

FILM 

Jean-Pierre Léaud “Love on the Run” at 7 p.m. and “Sweet Love, Bitter” at 8:40 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sonja Lyubomirsky describes “The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oakland East Bay Symphony Verdi’s “Requiem” at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Pre-concert lecture at 7 p.m. 444-0801. www.oebs.org 

Pacific Lutheran University’s University Chorale Concert at 7 p.m. at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 1658 Excelsior Ave., Oakland. Free, donations accepted. 530-6333.  

“The Solo Violin” with Donna Lerew at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

The Isaac Schwartztet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Tempest, Avalon Rising at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Joni Davis at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Any Old Time String Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Ben Ross, Christopher Hanson at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Straggler, Superthief, Humanzee at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Benefit for People’s Park Anniversary with New Thrill Parade, Tulsa, Wildlife, Jump off a Building and the Functionelles, at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Mark Hummel’s Blues Harmonica Blow Out with John Mayall, Kenny Neal, Fingers Taylor & Lazy Lester and the Blues Survivors at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com  

Bayonics at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

Paula Fuga at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Russell Taylor, R&B, at 9 p.m. at Maxwell’s Lounge, 341 13th St., Oakland. Cost is $10-$15. 839-6169. 

SATURDAY, JAN. 26 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with EarthCapades at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5 for adults, $4 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Active Arts Theatre for Young Audiences “Little Women” Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m., through Feb. 3, at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $14-$18. 925-798-1300. www.willowstickets.org  

Uncle Eye Songs and stories at 11 a.m. at Studio Grow, 1235 Tenth St. Cost is $7. 526-9888. 

THEATER 

San Francisco Theater Project “Aftermath of War: in their own words” Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$20. 925-798-1300. www.willowstickets.org  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Don Clausen: Retrospective, 1964 to Present” Reception at 2 p.m. at Alta Galleria, 2980 College Ave., Suite 4. Exhibition runs to March 1. 421-1255. www.altagalleria.com  

FILM 

African Film Festival “Waiting for Happiness” at 6:30 p.m. at “Bamako” at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“As if in Sleep: Collected Stories by Tim Barsky” at 8 p.m. at at the JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $12. 848-0237. 

“The Music of Kurt Weill: September Songs” A film of staged and choreographed dramatizations of Brecht-Weill songs set in an old warehouse, at 5 p.m. at the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph at Alcatraz, Oakland. 527-9584. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jane Bernstein describes “Rachel in the World: A Memoir” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

A Conversation with Christopher Taylor and David Benson author of “Music: A Mathematical Offering” at Chern Hall, Grizzly Peak and Centennial Way. 642-9988. 

Andrew Demcak and Nina Lindsay, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. claybanes@gmail.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

American Bach Soloists “Christmas Oratorio” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $16-$42. 415-621-7900. 

The Arlekin String Quartet Celebration of the 35th Anniversary of Young People's Chamber Orchestra at 4 p.m. at Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave. Suggested donation $15-$25, includes dinner. 595-4688. 

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, with Winton Marsalis, trumpet, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $34-$68. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

De Rompe y Raja “Diáspora Negra” at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Yancie Taylor & His Jazztet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Baba Ken & Kotoja at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Benefit for the Oak Grove Tree Sitters Legal Defense with music by The Funky Nixons, Hali Hammer, Rockin’ Solidarity Labor Heritage Chorus and others at 7 p.m. at Redwood Gardens Community Room, 2901 Derby St. 548-6310. 

Fatlip, Omni at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $12. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Jon Roniger, Scott Waters at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Danny Maseng and Soul on Fire, a multi-media concert at 8:15 p.m. at Temple Sinai, 28th and Webster, Oakland. Free. 451-3263. 

Ravi Abcarian Group at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Any Old Time String Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jonathan Alford Group with Maria Marquez and Alan Hall at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

George Cotsililos Jazz Group at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Izabella, Cas Luas at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Mark Hummel’s Blues Harmonica Blow Out with John Mayall, Kenny Neal, Fingers Taylor & Lazy Lester and the Blues Survivors at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, JAN. 27 

FILM 

“The Trial of Joan of Arc” at 3 p.m., “The Passion of Joan of Arc” at 4:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dorothy Bryant reads from “The Berkeley Pit” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500.  

Linda Jon Myers and workshop students read from “Becoming Whole” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

San Francisco Chamber Orchestra “Virtuosi” by Yu-Hui Chang at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Pre-concert talk at 7:30 p.m. Free. 415-248-1640. www.sfchamberorchestra.org 

Christopher Taylor, piano, at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $34. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Prometheus Symphony Orchestra at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 116 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Free, donations suggested. 415-864-2151. www.prometheussymphony.org  

Midsummer Mozart Festival Benefit Concert featuring pianist Seymour Lipkin, at 5:30 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant. Tickets are $75 and include reception. 415-627-9141. lori@midsummermozart.org.  

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

John Young at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Bandworks at 1:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dayna Stephens, tribute to Sonny Rollins, at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Cheap Suit Serenaders at 5 and 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Flamenco Night with Dani Torres at 5 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Mark Hummel’s Blues Harmonica Blow Out with John Mayall, Kenny Neal, Fingers Taylor & Lazy Lester and the Blues Survivors at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $22-$30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

MONDAY, JAN. 28 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Cycle of Life: Awakening” Works by Asian women artists. Opening reception and lecture at 4 p.m. at Institute of East Asian Studies, 2223 Fulton St., 6th flr. Exhibit runs to May 15. 642-2809. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sylvia Sellers-Garcia reads from her debut novel “When the Ground Turns in its Sleep” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Megan Lynch, bluegrass, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100. www.lebateauivre.net 

Musica ha Disconnesso, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Classical at the Freight with S.F. Chamber Orchestra at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $6.50-$7.50. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Kenny Durham Project co-led by Jules Rowell and Bill Belasco with Joel Dorham at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

As the swipe of hip-hop shifts gears into salsa, solo performer Danny Hoch stalks out on stage in character, under a banner for a festival, Williamsburg “Celebrate Your Community” day, spouting long, loopy lines in thick, nasal Brooklynese, cutting his imaginary friends out where the audience sits before the Berkeley Rep Thrust Stage, doing the dozens on down through the ethnicities—then the 49 other states, working hard on California—then shouting out, “All you American crackers, out of our neighborhood!” 

One hand jamming a mic up to his constantly moving lips, the other gesturing in big curves while dandling a beer bottle—“Everybody’s had a drink; I’m not the only one!”—his passive-aggressive, half threatening, half-apologetic diatribe burns with invective. He catches himself: “I cursed! Kids around here; I’m sorry ... I ain’t gonna hurt nobody. I’m a grad student. An Intellectual!” But continues to deliver the anti-gentrification message: “We survived the crack epidemic! Ronald Reagan was nicer to you than to us ... I can’t walk around like I’m floating on a French pastry, all carefree ...” 

And that sets the tone, the stage and the levels for Taking Over, Hoch’s parade of homeboys, homebodies and upscale interlopers, as the Big Apple sprawls over into Brooklyn, and property values soar, with fake French patisseries (just like in Tokyo—or Berkeley) flying in on the coattails. 

Hoch’s act consists of clever impersonations of a Parisian real estate salesman, working the dot-com homeseekers while urging a colleague across the pond to hurry over and buy! buy! buy! (subtitles provided); a revolutionary rapper in camoflage, declaring “We asked for better schools and they give us muffins! This’s unacceptable! Check it out!”; a dispatcher from the Dominican Republic working over his “hick” fellow Latino drivers over the radio: “I can take orders, that’s why I’m a dispatcher!”—then coos to his little girl in English; a yoga-ing developer asserting, “I love people! I should win the Nobel Prize for real estate!”; a middle-aged black mother remarking how she’s invisible to her new neighbors in line at the cafe to buy a $4 almond croissant. 

Some of the faces and voices announce themselves to be the children and grandchildren of Ralph Kramden. Others are from the next block over, another ethnic enclave, the settlement of whatever group Scorsese portrayed in Mean Streets—the real “Last Exit to,” the authentic “Only the Dead Know” Brooklyn. Hoch picks up on that territory, in those neighborhoods, as outsiders move in and stake claim to being locals, like the seraped, Andean-capped art school dropout from Michigan he plays, sitting on the sidewalk selling t-shirts and CDs, spouting in full Universal Valley Girl, “Who the hell wants to stay where they’re from?” 

The New American Dream of make-overs and meta-language sports a professional incomprehension to the sort of recalcitrance—or just recidivism—Hoch portrays. But it’s nothing new. A good deal of modern art begins with handwringing and gratuitous nostalgia over neighborhoods redeveloped and lost. The glories of childhood fled, a Romantic credo, got updated by the likes of Baudelaire, in poems like “The Swan,” contemplating the Second Empire streamlining of the French capital (in part to dislodge hotbeds of working class revolution):“Paris changes! but nothing in my melancholy has budged!”  

Hoch finally comes around to his own spiel, standing before a music stand and reciting his text, “coming clean” (like any real pro, a magician rolling up his sleeve) that he can’t perform his schtick at home, but makes his living any and everywhere else as “an exotic New Yorker ... You think I come here to take a walk in the hills? Or because Chez Panisse is really that good?” 

His act goes full circle. The drunk persona he started out with delivers the valediction, evoking 9/11 across the river, recalling when he spots an ex-girlfriend in the crowd “when the bodega started stocking soy milk, but not because you like it and we asked for it.” 

An accumulation of sketches, impressions of “types” and their accents and mannerisms, at times it seems like Central Casting gone wild. It’s a play on recognition, much of it from the movies and TV. Hoch is never cleverer or more apropo than when he portrays a neighborhood Latino just out of the joint, chumming up to a film crew p.a. for a job, any job:”I’ll do it for free—see, my mother’s watching from the window!”. 

Whatever the local equivalent of Hoch’s Brooklyn is, it couldn’t be rendered as a quick sketch. Bay Area solo acts that summon up past history and local types have to become full-fledged narratives or plays, no monologist’s dream witness Ron Jones or Brian Copeland. If someone did a routine onstage in a Bay Area idiom, they’d have to explain it first. “Back East, we got accents!” So “the Mission Mumble” in San Francisco gets pegged as Brooklynese. Small wonder, in a town where the most famous “local” of the postwar decades based his newspaper columnist’s persona over 40 years on being the New Kid in Town. 

TAKING OVER 

Through Feb. 10 at the Berkeley Rep 

2025 Addison St. 647-2949. 

www.berkeleyrep.org. 

I don’t know how old you have to be to think of Sunset magazine and early 1960s swimming-poolside dioramas whenever you see a Cordyline australis in its other vocation, as a plain old yard or streetside tree. It’s a classic, though, to complete the post-TK look that starts with a turquoise pool, maybe kidney-shaped, and a Weber kettle. Some of us get whiffs of vinyl, chlorine, and firestarter fluid from our subconscious every time.  

It wasn’t just aesthetic, that fad for “cabbage tree.” Certainly it fit that angular, minimalist, post-Thomas Church look. But its practical virtues include toughness—it won’t flinch from regular sloshing with chemical-laden pool water—and big sturdy leaves that don’t disintegrate and clog the pool filter and don’t get shed often anyway.  

That fibrous toughness has brought cordyline halfway ‘round the world: a few years back, I heard a member of a group of visiting Maori artists laughing about how seeing it and New Zealand flax all over the landscaping made her feel right at home.  

Cordyline has been around the block taxonomically speaking, too. In older books it’s a member of the Amaryllis family. The most recent Sunset Garden Book has it in the Agavaceae, as are the dracaenas. In fact it was at one point assigned to the genus Dracaena, along with the dragon tree and all those indoor plants. Now it’s not even in the same family. In the latest classification dracaenas share the family Ruscaceae with lilies-of-the-valley, Solomon’s-seals, and Sansevieria, the house plant variously known as snake plant, bowstring hemp, and mother-in-law’s-tongue. This week, cordylines—including the Hawai’ian ti plant, C. fruticosa—appear to be in the closely related family Laxmanniaceae.  

Plant taxonomy can be brutal—more so since the geneticists got into the act. They’ve really done a job on the monocots, the plant clade that includes lilies, palms, and grasses. The lily family has been shrunk radically, with all kinds of plants that used to be lilies spun off into their own families. True lilies (like tiger lilies and the showy Oriental types), tulips, fritillaries, and fawn lilies are still lilies, and that’s about it. 

One likely reason that agaves, yuccas, and cordylines were lumped together in the first place, apart from their pointy leaves, is that all three groups include woody species. In general, with the great exception of the palms, monocots don’t get woody. Monocot timber, according to Colin Tudge’s The Tree, is highly variable in structure, and not much like either conifer timber (pines and redwoods) or dicot timber (oaks, mahoganies, and other such broadleaf trees).  

Conifers and dicot trees share the phenomenon called secondary thickening, in which a complete cambium sheath, the live underskin of xylem and phloem just beneath the bark, allows a tree to get thicker and thicker, for years or centuries as it relinquishes its circulatory function and lignifies into supportive heartwood. Dragon trees and cabbage trees have reinvented this strategy, but somehow manage it without the cambium sheath. 

C. australis is tree enough to be included in the Collins Handguide to the Native Trees of New Zealand, where it grows in swampy areas and lower montane forests up to 2,000 feet. Just as cacti on the Galapagos Islands evolved tall tree-like forms under pressure from grazing giant tortoises, the cabbage tree may have been spurred to treehood by the moas, the giant flightless birds that took over the role of browsing mammals on those mammal-less (except for the bats, who don’t graze much) islands. 

When the Maori discovered New Zealand, they recognized the cabbage tree—which they called ti rakau, ti kouka, or whanake—as a potential food source. The pith of young stems was eaten raw, boiled, or baked in earth ovens; roots required longer cooking They must have been patient as well as adventurous, culinarily speaking. Ti kouka was a major dietary starch, along with fern roots. After intensive processing, cordyline roots yielded a juice that they used as a sweetener; other extracts made traditional medicines.  

The Maori also fashioned ropes from trunk and root material and used fiber from the leaves, along with those of another of our landscape favorites, New Zealand flax, Phormium tenax, to make clothing and sandals. There’s good evidence that they developed cultivars for different purposes.  

Early European missionaries were said to have “brewed a tolerable beer” from cordyline, although just what an early missionary would tolerate is an open question.  

As “mid-century modern” architecture—those Eichlers and the Thomas Church gardens that, if their owners are incredibly fortunate, accompany them—get dragged back into fashion, maybe we’ll be seeing even more cordylines in the landscape. Until then, just hail every one you see as an historical marker. Let’s refrain from any discussion of giving them landmark status just yet, though.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan. 

A streetside tree dreams poolside dreams: Cordyline australis. 

TUESDAY, JAN. 22 

Pacific School of Religion Earl Lectures on religion, environment and social justice, with Chandra Muzaffar, Karen Baker-Fletcher and others, Tues.-Thurs. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. For details see www.psr.edu 

“Exploring Mongolia: An American Journalist’s Perspective” A slide presentation with Michael Kohn at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Berkeley PC USers Group meets at 7 p.m. at 25 Dartmouth in the Hiller Highland area above the Claremont Hotel. 841-4411. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704.  

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 23 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Field Trip “Lake Merritt and Lakeside Park” with Hilary Powers. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at the large spherical cage near Nature Center at Perkins and Bellevue to look at wintering birds. 843-2222. 

BASIL Seed Library meeting to plan annual Garden Seed Swap and The Library’s future, at 6:30 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo. basil@ecologycenter.org 

“Reel Bad Arabs” A documentary on the degrading images of Arabs in cinematic history, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

“Who’s Putting the Heat on Barry Bonds ... And Why?” A dscussion at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. 

Early Voting Ballot Discussion with Berkeley Councilmember Kriss Worthington and AFT Local 2121 President Ed Murray, at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. Sponsored by the Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers. 

Let It Snow Day Make snow and conduct ice experiments. Storytelling at 11 a.m. at Habitot Children's Museum, 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111.  

Teen Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

“New Year Detox & Weight Loss” at 7 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 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 

After-School Program Homework help, drama and music for children ages 8 to 18, every Wed. from 4 to 7:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Cost is $5 per week. 845-6830. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, JAN. 24 

“Google and Sources of Information in a Global Age” Lecture by Douglas Merrill, Vice-President of Engineering at Google, at 7 p.m. in the International House Auditorium, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Cost is $5. 642-9460. 

NAACP Youth Council for Berkeley-Albany-Emeryville Kick-Off Mixer and Meeting at 7 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. at Alcatraz. 290-9702. baenaacpyouth@gmail.com 

Easy Does It Board of Directors’ Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. 845-5513. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from 10 to 11 a.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. 644-8833. 

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

FRIDAY, JAN. 25 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Robert E. Friend on “Permanency for Foster Youth” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

Friday Films for Teens at 3:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 3rd flr., 2090 Kittredge St. For details call 981-6121. 

Kol Hadash Humanistic Tu B’Shvat Seder at 7:30 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Details on what ritual food items to bring are posted at www.kolhadash.org 

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, JAN. 26 

Bird Rescuers’ Get-Together Celebrate the Bay and join in a thank-you get-together for everyone who helped after the November oil spill. We will see pictures from the spill, celebrate wildlife that was rescued, chat and hear about what others did, remember and reflect on plans to make it better next time, at 3 p.m. at Shorebird Park Nature Center, 160 University Ave. 981-6720. 

Help Plant Natives on Berkeley Paths Please join BPWA and Friends of Five Creeks planting natives and removing weeds on Covert Path, part of a long-term project creating demonstration plantings and an “interpretive trail” from hills to Bay in the Codornices Creek watershed. Meet at 10 a.m. at the top of Covert Path, downhill side of Keeler Ave. a short distance southeast of Twain Ave. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

Civil Rights Panel and Community Speak-Out with Kris Worthington, Berkeley City Council member, Osha Neumann, Attorney and former Police Review Commissioner, Melvin Dickson, Commemoration Committee for the Black Panther Party, Andrea Prichett, Copwatch, Subcommittee on Evidence Theft Issues, Mike Diehl, Activist and advocate for homeless rights, James Chanin, Attorney, former Police Review Commissioner, from noon to 2 p.m. at 1730 Oregon St. (below MLK Jr. Way. www.berkeleycopwatch.org  

Vegetarian Cooking Class “Healthful Resolutions: Lo-Cal, High Flavor” featuring kale and nori salad, Asian-inspired lettuce wraps, yellow split pea dal, hummus and fruit smoothies, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $55 plus $5 material fee. to register call 531-COOK. www.compassionatecooks.com 

Benefit for the Oak Grove Tree Sitters Legal Defense with music by The Funky Nixons, Hali Hammer, Rockin’ Solidarity Labor Heritage Chorus and others at 7 p.m. at Redwood Gardens Community Room, 2901 Derby St. 548-6310. 

Play Around the Bay Symposium on the disappearance of children’s play, and proposals for postitive change, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Doubletree Hotel, 200 Marina Blvd. Cost is $40-$55. 647-111 ext. 35. www.habitot.org  

Scalky Sleepers Learn how scales help animals weather the cold at 10:30 a.m. at the Oakland Zoo, 9777 Golf Links Rd. Cost is $7.50-$10. Registration required. 632-9525. www.oaklandzoo.org 

Kids Go Green Activities centered on ecology and climate change from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $9-$13. 336-7373.  

Preschool Storytime, for ages 3-5, at 11 a.m. at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

“The Music of Kurt Weill: September Songs” A film of staged and choreographed dramatizations of Brecht-Weill songs set in an old warehouse, at 5 p.m. at the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph at Alcatraz, Oakland. 527-9584. 

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 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Oakland Artisans Marketplace Sat. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Jack London Square. 238-4948. 

SUNDAY, JAN. 27 

“End the Occupation” A discussion with Max Elbaum, editor of War Times, at 11 a.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donations accepted. www.Humanist Hall.org 

Films for a Future: “The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil” at 2 p.m., followed by a discussion, at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

People’s Park Anniversary Planning Meeting at 5:30 p.m. at Cafe Med Telegraph, north of Dwight New people encouraged to come. 658-9178. 

“Elections: Not how Leaders are Chosen, Not how Decisions are made and Not how you can make a difference” with Larry Everest at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. www.revolutionbooks.org 

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 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 

Sew Your Own Open Studio Come learn to use our industrial and domestic machines, or work on your own projects, from 5 to 9 p.m. at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Cost is $3 per hour. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

MONDAY, JAN. 28 

“Exploring Jazz with Len Lyons” A course to explore the basic building blocks of this unique musical language Mon. from 6 to 8 p.m. through March 10. at 2199 Addison St. For information contact Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, a continuing education program for people 50 and over. 642-9934. olli.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

Dragonboating Year round classes at the Berkeley Marina, Dock M. Meets Mon, Wed., Thurs. at 6 p.m. Sat. at 10:30 a.m. For details see www.dragonmax.org 

ONGOING 

E-Waste Recycling St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County accepts electronic waste including computers, dvd players, cell phones, fax machines and many other ewaste products for disposal free of charge at many of its locations throughout Alameda County. Free bulk pick-up available. 638-7600. www.svdp-alameda.org 

Help a Newt Cross the Road Every year newts migrate across Hillside Drive to reach their breeding pools in Castro Creek. Volunteers prevent many of these creatures from being crushed by cars. We need volunteers every evening during January and February in El Sobrante. The newts are most active on rainy nights. annabelle11_3@yahoo.com 

Free Tax Help If your 2007 household income was less than $42,000, you are eligible for free tax preparation from United Way's Earn it! Keep It! Save It! Sites are open now through April 15 in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. To find a site near you, call 800-358-8832. www.EarnItKeepItSaveIt.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Tues, Jan. 22, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900. 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Tues., Jan. 22, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 981-7368.  

Civic Arts Commission meets Tues., Jan. 22 , at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7533.  

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Jan. 23, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7550.  

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Jan. 23, at 7 p.m., at 997 Cedar St. 981-5502.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., Jan. 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484.  

Police Review Commission meets Wed. Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950. 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Jan. 24, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5400.  

Mental Health Commission meets Thurs. Jan. 24, at 5 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. 981-5213.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Jan. 24, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. 981-7410.

FRIDAY, JAN. 18 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Barefoot in the Park” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through Feb. 16. Tickets are $10-$12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Altarena Playhouse “Wait Until Dark” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda, through Feb. 16. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Encore Theatre Company & Shotgun Players “The Shaker Chair” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m., at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Jan. 27. Tickets are $20-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Masquers Playhouse “Angel Street” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. through Feb. 23 at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Heart of the Matter” an exhibition by Laney College students. Sidewalk reception at 5 p.m. at Addison Street Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St. 981-7546. 

FILM 

“The 400 Blows” with Laura Truffaut in person at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Shelby Steele describes “A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

Kazue Sawai, Japanese koto master, lecture and demonstration at 4 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

MamaCoAtl, Steve Taylor-Ramírez and Alfredo Gomez “Songs of Love and Protest” at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Sam Adams Quartet with Jarrett Cherner, Hamir Atwal, Anthony Diamond at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

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

Native Elements with Dub Fix and Faya at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Pam & Jeri Show at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198. 

Phil Berkowitz & Louis’ Blues at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Calvin Weston and Monster Cock Rally, Slydini, Phillip Greenlief with Thomas Doyle at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Avengers, Pansy Division, R’N’R Adventure Kids at 7:30 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Oh-no Stonesthrow, Zeph & Azeem, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $12. 548-1159.  

Macabea at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Bobby Hutcherson with Russell Malone, Joe Gilman, Dwaybe Burno and Eddie Marshall at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun.. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, JAN. 19 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Abby and the Pipsqueaks at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5 for adults, $4 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Active Arts Theatre for Young Audiences “Little Women” Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m., through Feb. 3, at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $14-$18. 925-798-1300.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Trading Traditions: California’s New Cultures” opens at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St., Oakland. 238-2022. www.museumca.org 

“Oakland Cityscapes and Landscapes” Photographs by Richard Leon. Reception at 6 p.m. at Luka’s Lounge, 2221 Broadway, Oakland. 451-4677. 

“Art in Nature” Paintings by Mari Kearney. Reception at 1 p.m. at Piedmont Yarn & Apparel, 3966 Piedmont Ave., Oakland.  

THEATER 

San Francisco Theater Project “Aftermath of War: in their own words” Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$20. 925-798-1300.  

FILM 

“The Magic of George Melies” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Justin Frank talks about “Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dream Kitchen with John Schott, Marc Bolin and John Hanes at 8 p.m. at 2213 Shattuck Ave., at Allston Way. Tickets are $5-$10, children under 12, free. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Four Seasons Concerts Borealis Wind Quintet, and Leon Bates, pianist, at 7:30 p.m. at Regents Theater, Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $35-$40. 601-7919.  

Bach to Bachianas Brasileiras with The Wiley-Husbands Duo at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. 

Novella Quartet at 4 p.m. at a home in North Berkeley. Space is limited, please make reservations. 452-8202.  

Anatolian Rhythms with Yore and Collage Dance Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $15-$30. 647-2949.  

Jazz Fourtet at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Saoco, Latin Hip Hop, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568.  

Faye Carol & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Shimshai with Tina Malia, Jagadambe at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Moment’s Notice improvised music, dance & theater at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 8th St. Cost is $8-$15. 992-6295. 

Charming Hostess and Tsipi Gabbai at 8 p.m. at the JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $10-$12. 848-0237. 

High Diving Horses, Luther Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

Robert Gastelum Group at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Gandolph Murphy & the Slambovian Circus of Dreams at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Other Perspectives in Improvised Music at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Port, Melodic Jones, Jamie Jenkins at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Jeffree Star, Von Iva, Bob Weirdos at 7:30 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JAN. 20 

CHILDREN 

Asheba at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“3” Works by Diana Guerrero-Maciá, Kelsey Nicholson, Lena Wolff opens at Traywick Gallery, 895 Colusa Ave. 527-1214. www.traywick.com 

“Color, Color, Color” Paintings by Julie Ross at Poulet, 1685 Shattuck, though Jan. 

FILM 

“The Nibelungen Part 1: Siegfried’s Death” at 1 p.m. and “Part 2: Kriemhild’s Revenge” at 4 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“In the Name of Love” Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, Rhiannon and Terrance Kelly, Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Oakland Children’s Community Choir and Oaktown Jazz Workshop at 7:30 p.m. at Oakland Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Dr. Tickets are $6-$22. 800-838-3006. www.mlktribute.com 

Chamber Music Sundaes with musicians and friends from the San Francisco Symphony at 3 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $18-$22. 415-753-1792. 

Rebecca Riots in a family-friendly concert at 4:30 p.m. at Kehilla Community Synagogue,1300 Grand Ave., Piedmont. Tickets are $5-$15. 1-800-838-3006. www.BrownPaperTickets.com/event/24792 

Live Oak Concert with Temescal Trio, Karen Wells, clarinet, Madeleine Prager, viola, John Burke, piano at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center 1275 Walnut St. Tickets are $10. 644-6893. berkeleyartcenter.org 

Anna Carol Dudley, soprano, will celebrate her birthday by giving a free public recital at 2 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, Channing and Dana. 205-8826. 

Jazz at the Chimes with Bruce Forman, guitar, at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 228-3218. 

Gil Shaham, violin, and Akira Eguchi, piano, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $34-$62. 642-9988.  

Grupo Falso Baiano at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Mariospeedwagon at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Jazzschool Studio Band at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $25. 845-5373.  

MONDAY, JAN. 21 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Speeches of a Dream” Spoken word in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., from 2 to 5 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourde Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. 238-7219. 

PlayGround Six emerging playwrights debut new works at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St.Tickets are $18. 415-704-3177. 

Ann Wright and Daniel Ellsberg discuss “Dissent: Voices of Conscience” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

Ivan Arguelles and John M. Bennett read their poetry at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express on “Other People’s Poems” at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. Email poetryexpress@gmail.com for rules. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ellis Island Band, klezmer, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100.  

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

West Coast Songwriters Competition at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $5. 548-1761. 

Corey Harris and the 5x5 Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $16-$20. 238-9200.  

TUESDAY, JAN. 22 

CHILDREN 

Bill Nemoyten “The Hornman” for ages 3 and up at 6:30 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

FILM 

Experimental Documentaries “Milk n the Land: Ballad of an American Drink” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761.  

Gabor Gyukics, poet and translator, at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Charles Halpern introduces “Making Waves and Riding Currents: Activism and the Practice of Wisdom” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Courtableu at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Singers’ Open Mic with Kelly Park at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

David Lindley at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Bob Kenmotsu, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival, featuring Cyril Pahinui, Dennis Kamakahi & George Kahumoku at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$20. 238-9200.  

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 23 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Cycle of Life: Awakening” Works by Asian women artists, opens at the Institute of East Asian Studies, 2223 Fulton St., 6th flr. Exhibit runs to May 15. 642-2809. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Introduction to Film Language” with Prof. Marilyn Fabe at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Mona Sutphen and Nina Hachigian describe “The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Vikram Chandra reads from “Sacred Games” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Sue Miller reads from “The Senator’s Wife” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Writing Teachers Write at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

David Lindley at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Erik Jekabsen Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Balkan Folk Dance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

La Verdad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Code Name: Jonah at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Cyrus Chestnut at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, JAN. 24 

FILM 

African Film Festival “Bamako” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jacqueline Shea Murphy in Conversation with Hertha Dawn Sweet Wong on “The People Have Never Stopped Dancing: Native American Modern Dance Histories,” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com 

Hillary Gravendyk and Logan Ryan Smith, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Sudhir Venkatesh describes “Gang Leader for a Day” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Emam & Friends, Kirtan and world music, at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Kelly Joe Phelps at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Count Basie Tribute Orchestra Benefit at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Laura Zucker at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

The David Thom Band, Jacob Groopman and The Mountain Boys at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082  

Son de Madera at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$15.. 849-2568. g 

Cyrus Chestnut at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Planet Loop, electro-jazz, worldbeat, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

AFTERMATH OF WAR—IN THEIR OWN WORDS  

A well-staged, engagingly performed show by the San Francisco Theater Project runs this weekend at the Julia Morgan Center, 2640 College Ave. SF City College students recite and enact the words of American Iraq War campaigners. Less a play than a kind of performance pageant, it also draws sparingly from mothers and wives of G.I.s, including Cindy Sheehan. The occasional live music is good, including a rendition of Marty Balin’s “I Saw You.” Tickets $15-$20. Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7:30 p.m. (925) 798-1300.

ReOrient, the annual festival of short plays about the Middle East, a production of Golden Thread, founded by Torange Yeghiazarian of Oakland, this year features performances by Berkeley favorite Julian Lopez-Morillas and Danielle Levin of Oakland. 

It also features a play, 22 Minutes Remaining, by Filipino playwright and Oakland resident Ignacio Zulueta, directed by Evran Odcikin (also of Oakland), about the tense yet humorous dialogue that develops when an Israeli officer makes a “courtesy call” to a woman in a Lebanese village to inform her of its imminent bombing.  

The festival runs through Feb. 3 at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center. Info at (415) 626-4061 or goldenthread.org 

Golden Thread for years has produced plays and workshops at Berkeley venues like the Ashby Stage and at UC. This year’s offering of five plays is an unusually taut yet diverse pairing of themes and styles. 

It leads off with Zulueta’s piece, in which the young Israeli encounters a yenta, albeit a muslim one, he being the same age as the son from whom she waits by the phone in vain to hear.  

The program continues with an ambitious staging of Nobel nominee Simin Behbehani’s poem “I Sell Souls.” The ancient ghazal poetic form—perhaps best-known in the U.S. through Rumi’s lyrics—has been thematically expanded by Behbehani’s innovations, adding theatrical subjects and conversation. It includes projections of objects in nature and closeups of faces and feet walking, which play with scale against the forlorn figures of the players, including Lopez-Morillas. 

“The Monologist Suffers Her Monologue” features Sara Razavi (directed by Arlene Hood) in Yussef El Guindi’s acerbic and reflexive piece on Palestine and Palestinians, an ongoing monologue hindered from dialogue by its “nonexistence.”  

“Pistachio Tales,” by Lebanese American Laura Shamas (directed by Mark Routhier) is a humorous but bittersweet story-within-a-story about the Patriot Act, a perhaps misinterpreted gift of rare red pistachios--and the breakdown of friendly meeting and conversation with the threat of surveillence. 

The longest and most challenging piece is “Between This Breath and You,” contributed by MacArthur and Obie Prizewinner British political playwright Naomi Wallace. Lopez-Morrilas, Levin and a clownish Ali El-Gassier are the principals in a strange confrontation between a janitor and nurse in a West Jerusalem clinic closed for the evening and a patient (in every sense) from East Jerusalem who won’t leave the waiting room.  

Impressive performances mark a wayward, gamey allegory that keeps changing tack, from a catch phrase in an old Police hit song, to the tale about an organ donor, becoming the image of unwitting symbiosis, unsuspected familial relation. 

Jack Tucker of Richmond—theater critic, retired columnist for the Contra Costa Times, who the Guinness Book of Records named “Oldest Known Living Newspaper Columnist” in 2005—died Dec. 27, 93 years of age.  

A memorial gathering will be held Saturday from 3:30-5:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley (in Kensington). Information and directions are on Tucker’s website, where his reviews appeared after his retirement, www.clickjacktucker.com 

Tucker, the emeritus of the Bay Area theater critics scene, knew both sides of the proscenium, acting in many local productions over the years. Dory Ehrlich, Berkeley actress and publicist for the Masquers Playhouse in Pt. Richmond, recalled acting with Tucker in a production of A. R. Gurney’s Scenes from American Life at Contra Costa Civic Theatre in 2002. 

“It was a PlayMakers production, directed by Louis Flynn [founder of CCCT, also recently deceased, age 86], who hand-picked his cast, all of whom had worked at CCCT before—as Jack said in his column, ‘a sort of old-home week reunion for many, fittingly all together again as a stage family.’ Jack played a dance instructor, and I can picture him with his bow-tie and his stick, patiently tapping out the rhythm for the less than perfect dancers. As always, he was a gentleman, onstage and off.” 

Of his lively writing style, entertainment publicist Kim Taylor noted, “Jack had the kind of flair that could make any fellow writer jealous; there were times he made me downright pea-green with envy. He could always spin my submissions into wittier, tighter items. I’ve lost a friend and mentor and the theater community has lost one of its biggest supporters.” 

Born in Tennessee, Tucker wrote as society columnist for the Detroit Free Press and theater critic for the San Diego Tribune (now the Union). He’d mention as asides in conversation his presence at the surrender of Japanese troops in Korea at the end of World War II, or spotting Huey Long at the sidelines of a ballgame and engaging him in a chat.  

In recent years, he posted his Thurberesque cartoons on his website (and on mugs), appeared on a float in the How Berkeley Can You Be? parade and held annual Weird Food parties with his wife, horticulturalist Gail Morrison, in their pioneering sustainable and edible garden. Morrison noted that, despite his rich personal experience, the only person Tucker never covered in his columns was himself.  

For many years the Bay Area-based Sunset Magazine, self-described “magazine of Western living,” has been sponsoring “idea houses” in partnership with builders and manufacturers. 

Ranging from subdivision homes to country retreats, these structures are temporarily opened to the public to showcase their design concepts and fixtures.  

It’s a bit like a decorator show house, but with the architecture and building systems promoted as much as the décor. 

The latest Sunset project is in San Francisco’s Mission District. It’s their first Idea House on a solidly urban site, and incorporates a mass of “green” features and materials from a power-generating wind turbine to sustainably harvested wood paneling. 

Sunset’s literature describes it as “one of the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified residential remodels in the nation.” 

The curious can tour it for $20 per adult this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as well as Jan. 25, 26, and 27, after which it closes to the public for good.  

The house—not owned by Sunset—was originally scheduled to premier in August 2007 and close in October, but didn’t open until late November, accompanied by a cloud of rumor and speculation that’s detailed, denied, and discussed on local real estate blogs. 

The building has two units. The smaller one is described as 1,229 square feet. Sunset’s literature doesn’t give the size of the main house, but some on-line sources say it’s 3,600 square feet. 

Surrounding buildings are a mix of Victorian and Edwardian houses and apartment structures, some intact, others remodeled. 

The Idea House, on a corner lot, is resolutely modernist, an asymmetrically angular structure in trendy green hues, designed by San Francisco architect John Lum. 

It’s supposedly “transformed from a 1908 commercial structure,” but I couldn’t spot a visible stick or shred of anything earlier than the 21st century from the site. 

Let’s go inside and take a look. 

The saying “your home is your castle” certainly applies here. A barbarian with a battering train would find it hard to penetrate the fortress-like main entry where two enormous metal doors sandwich a vestibule.  

The ground floor of the main unit is dominated by one of those “endless swimming pools” in which a current allows you to swim in place, along with a sauna, spa room, and half-bath. 

The second floor contains the private living quarters, bisected lengthwise by the stair atrium and a walnut-walled corridor. A guest room and bath, children’s bedroom, and spaces described as “craft room” and children’s “powder room” line up along the street side. 

The craft room has a striking bay window at the corner of the house, with northwest views and a built-in window seat below a light sculpture. The opposite wall is a rather impressive sculptural composition made up of scores of wood scraps left over from the hallway paneling. 

Across the hall a laundry room connects through to the master closet, as big as the guest bedroom. The master bedroom has two floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the interior courtyard, and is divided from the adjacent master bath by an interesting pass-through storage wall. 

The bath features a walk-in glass-walled shower, opaque glass wall facing south, and sculptural concrete counter and sink. 

Rising through the building core, the main staircase emerges in the center of the top floor. Although the floor plate here is smaller than the lower levels, the space seems large since there are no partition walls, except those enclosing a half-bath tucked in a corner. 

A glass bridge across the stairwell allows uninterrupted circulation around the perimeter. An “L” shaped kitchen with long, concrete topped, island, a dining area, lounge area and an adjacent sitting area and wet bar occupy the four quadrants. 

A wrap around outdoor terrace surrounds much of this level and also provides a visual setback from the street below and buildings across the street. Huge doors (both solid wood, and sliding glass) and window-walls that fold back allow much of the floor to be opened up to the exterior. 

The roof sports plantings, photovoltaics, and solar water heaters. 

This top floor has a very comfortable feel with extensive views, lots of light and air, and ample outdoor space. We were there on a not-too-warm January day but it was quite mild inside, even with some of the window walls open. 

(Unfortunately, what a docent cited as “liability concerns” exclude visitors from the terrace. You can only peer through the windows at the outdoor spaces on this level). 

The main unit is filled with built-in and customized storage spaces. An unobtrusive elevator flanks a light well. The central stair is both functional and sculptural, with layered glass treads, glass landings, and balusters made out of tautly angled cables. 

The main unit has a ground level patio in the southeast corner of the lot with plantings, pavers, patio, and an “L” shaped pond. The metal column of the wind turbine rises from one corner. 

There’s a sculptural tower of succulents and strawberries, a recycled plastic deck, and that must-have feature of all Sunset projects, an outdoor “barbecue bar” with the heft and presence of a jet engine. 

Floor to ceiling windows and glass doors divide the patio from the indoor pool. A two-car garage, a mechanical room the size of some studio apartments, and a second exit to the street complete the patio perimeter. 

Sunk beneath the patio are water storage / collection tanks, fed by an artistic “rain chain” that drains the roof. 

In the corner behind the wind turbine two steel beams project from the wall, presumably supports for a future switchback outdoor staircase that the floor plans show descending from the third floor terrace to ground level. 

The smaller second unit, with its own street entrance, hugs the western street side of the building. The ground floor has a master bedroom with no exterior windows, a gigantic master bath, a much more modest second bath, and two spaces—one with a modern murphy bed unit—that can be partitioned off from the circulation core by huge wooden doors that roll on tracks. 

There are no conventional windows on this level, only thick, opaque, glass walls along the sidewalk. A narrow planting verge between building and sidewalk is filled with bamboo for a second layer of privacy screening. 

The upstairs level of the unit has a laundry closet, half-bath, open kitchen / dining / living area, and a nice outdoor patio on the roof of the garage. 

In this unit, look above the stairs for the fascinating photovoltaic sculpture / fan by Mark Malmberg that animates itself, and the small planted “green wall” facing the street from the roof deck. 

I left with these impressions:  

First, the pluses: The really livable open third floor of the main residence and the intelligent approach of putting the “living” areas on top and the bedrooms on the middle level. 

A good effort to provide functional and pleasant roof terraces; there should be more of these in San Francisco, with its many flat roofs. 

Solar systems for hot water heating and power. The jury is out on the urban advisability of the wind turbine. It wasn’t moving during our visit, but both a Sunset employee and a neighbor commented it was pretty audible when spinning. 

The water systems that make extensive use of rainwater and gray water, and also help reduce storm and sanitary sewer runoff. 

Lots of storage spaces, some too modern for my taste, but cleverly designed and fitted in throughout the building. 

The Minuses: Excess. Does any individual Bay Area home really need a luxury kitchen plus a built-in cooking station in the garden, elaborate suites for children, bedroom sized closets, three refrigerators, two bars, two dishwashers, seven sinks, and its own sauna, spa, and indoor swimming pool? 

This house incorporates so many high-end appliances, fixtures, finishes, and design features that it’s improbable the average homeowner could afford to replicate them, at least in this quantity, quality, and combination. 

In the second unit bathroom, for instance, a docent said that the alluring Lumicor divider panels made of “architectural resin” and encasing thousands of tiny pieces of bamboo, cost $13,000. To me, that’s eco-porn. 

This isn’t light or simple living. It’s luxuriousness, albeit with a smaller carbon footprint than a conventional McMansion would generate. 

Such an outcome is to be expected from a project where numerous manufacturers and appliance suppliers want to showcase their wares, but it doesn’t make the result any less unsettling. 

There’s also the size of the main unit. “Faux Density,” was the reaction of the designer who accompanied me. This is not the “smart growth” that urbanization advocates idealize; it’s suburban size in an urban shell. 

The development is lower density than most of the surrounding neighborhood. Each floor of the main residence alone has enough square footage to be a comfortably sized apartment or condo unit.  

There’s also a huge amount of technical complexity. It’s a “green” house where most of the window coverings appear to be moveable only with electric motors, where hundreds of cables coil within closets and cabinets, and where the “mechanical room” is the size of a small garage and sports more fixtures, pipes, and motors than some research wet labs. 

I counted more than 80 separate cables bundled in the back of one closet alone. Presumably a corps of service and repair technicians will be needed in future years until that inevitable day when someone says “can’t get parts for this old thing anymore,” and it all has to be taken out and redesigned. 

Maybe some day Sunset will sponsor an urban home that’s functional, modest, and enduring. Now that’s an Idea! 

The Sunset Idea House is open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. the next two weekends only, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, through Jan. 27. 

Sunset doesn’t publicize the street address, and encourages visitors to park or gather at the San Francisco General Hospital parking garage (2500 24th Street) and catch a free shuttle to the Mission District house. The last shuttle leaves the garage at 3:15 p.m. 

Visit the Sunset website www.sunset.com or call their recorded information line, 1-800-786-7375 for official details. 

$20 per person at the door of the main unit. $15 for seniors on Friday, no children under the age of 10. 

There are docents throughout and lots of wall labels describing spaces and features. 

Each visitor gets a glossy brochure that’s part description, part product advertising. The back of the brochure has useful floor plans that are slightly different from the as-built structure. 

A stop in the garage will yield a hefty armload of free product materials, brochures, and advertising for all of the various manufacturers and others partnering on the project. 

The house is not wheelchair accessible. Improbably, there are three concrete steps from the front door to the interior elevator.

My Quake Resolutions... 

My new year’s suggestion is to set a reasonable time table to do these things to make your family and your home safer: 

• If your home has a “crawl space,” have your retrofit checked 

• Make sure you have emergency kits at home, in the cars, at the office 

• Get an automatic gas shut-off valve installed at your gas meter 

• Secure all your tall/heavy furniture, your wall hangings, and your appliances 

If you have any questions about what to do, call or email me – my passion is earthquake preparedness and I’m happy to talk with you.  

Make your home secure and your family safe. 

Larry Guillot is the owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing and kit supply service. Contact him at 558-3299 or see www.quakeprepare.com to receive semi-monthly e-mails and safety reports.  

A few years ago, Joe and I got a tour of Garvan Woodland Gardens, a newish botanical garden in Hot Springs, Arkansas, courtesy of Uncle Leonard and Aunt Evelyn. We were all toted around in a golf cart, and a docent told us about the origins and current state of the garden, about the plants and other features we were seeing.  

After all these years, Eastern North America has come to seem somewhat exotic to me. I grew up in south-central Pennsylvania, in a biotic blend zone that I’ve come to appreciate only after learning more about the one I live in now. The Ozarks have a lot in common with that zone, being much farther south but more elevated. When I recognize a plant from either of those places, it’s as something I should have known but inexplicably didn’t.  

That half-familiarity attended me in the Hot Springs woodland too, strengthened by the newly familiar horticultural favorites scattered under the pines. Something about them gave me little “Hey, wait! What?” moments, more so than the Arkansas natives I’d encountered on visits to Joe’s home state over the years.  

We weren’t far from the home of Louisiana iris, for example, but I didn’t think I’d’ve been looking at the ‘Black Gamecock’ cultivar—one I like enough to have in a tub in our backyard—unless someone had put it in that little stream eddy down the hill. Those oakleaf hydrangeas scattered artfully through the understory, or the dogwoods: both natives, but disturbances in the leaf litter and mulch suggested they were newly planted.  

Here’s where my own gardening history was getting in the way. I came to gardening via the study of California native plants, and to that via California ecosystems, and to that via birding. I’ve always felt a certain tension between “natural” places and artifactual, even artistic settings.  

I can’t resist planting tropicals and oddities and scented plants and pretty flowers in my own patch, and played with all those as well as natives in the gardens I planted for clients, back in the day. But when I’m walking in the woods I have certain bone-deep expectations. I expect to be surprised by unmediated and unrepeatable experiences, by something foreign to my whole species, yet integral to our lives and souls. I suppose that’s what people mean by “Nature” or “the Wild.”  

Maybe it’s a matter of class, or a relict of a suburban childhood. In my neighborhood, there were yards—sometimes but not always “gardens”—and there was The Woods, also known as “Private Property” (pronounced “private propitty”) because it was thus posted. The Woods was a patch of wild, of sugar maple and violets and who-knows what else, less than a block in area and bordered by The Creek (“d’ Crick”).  

Private though it was, I thought it was natural. Maybe it was. Nothing had been dug (until I stole one of those violets to plant in our yard) or planted. It marked me with an expectation of refuge, unsocial, nonhuman, but mine.  

Still more, next week. 

http://www.garvangardens.org/ 

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.

FRIDAY, JAN. 18 

“Celebrate the Dream” Opening Ceremony, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King’s 79th Birthday, with a speech by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Frank Ogawa Plaza, 14th St. and Broadway, Oakland. 444-CITY. 

Iraq Moratorium Vigil to Protest the War from 2 to 4 p.m. at the corners of University and Acton. Sponsored by the Strawberry Creek Lodge Tenents Assoc. and the Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

Conscientious Projector Films “The Story of Stuff” and “The Timber Gap” documentaries on the resources of the planet at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar, at Bonita. Donations appreciated. No one turned away. 528-5403. 

Teen Playreaders meets to read “Hamlet” and other plays based on the classic, at 4 p.m. at Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue at Ashby. 981-6121. 

Friday Films for Teens at 3:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 3rd flr., 2090 Kittredge St. For details call 981-6121. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Mike Goldstein, Office of General Counsel, UCB on “The Tree Dwellers of UC Berkeley: The Univesity’s Perspective” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

SATURDAY, JAN. 19 

“Trading Traditions: California’s New Cultures” opens at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St., Oakland. 238-2022. www.museumca.org 

Weed Wrenchers Work Party From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Pt. Isabel, Rydin Rd, off Central Ave. near Costco, Richmond. Sponsored by Greens at Work. kyotousa@sbcglobal.net 

Solo Sierrans Bayshore Walk in El Cerrito Meet at 2 p.m. at small parking lot at Rydin St., off Central Ave. Bring binoculars to observe the many shore birds. Optional oriental dinner at Pacific East Mall. Wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 234-8949. 

California Writers Club with Charles Rubin, author of “Don’t Let Your Kids Kill You” at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. www.berkeleywritersclub.org 

Youth Rugby Clinic sponsored by Bay Area Rugby from 9 a.m. to noon at San Pablo Park, Oregon St. 599-8499. 

BANA Meeting at 10 a.m. in the Church Lounge, Westminster Hall, 1st Flr at First Pres. Church of Berkeley, 2407 Dana St. 

Preschool Storytime, for ages 3-5, at 11 a.m. at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Drawing Our Days A series of three free classes with Jan Wurm at 10:30 a.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Art and Music Dept., 2090 Kittredge St. Other classes are Jan. 26 and Feb. 2. 981-6100. 

Martin Luther King Day Potluck Dinner at 6 p.m. at Mormon Temple, 4770 Lincoln Ave., Oakland. Free. 925-458-1298. 

Techno Geek Art Challenge from 1 to 4 p.m. at Museum of Children’s Art, 528 9th St., Oakland. 465-8770. 

Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes Law, The East Bay Chapter will meet at 1 p.m. to plan to collect 700,000 signatures at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. arinkarolweitzman@yahoo.com  

“Enough Cancer! Nutrition to Stop This Plague” Learn about cancer protective food, culinary and medicinal herbs and dietary supplements at 10 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Teen Knitting Circle at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 4th floor, 2090 Kittredge St. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

SUNDAY, JAN. 20 

“Spiritual Peace Walks, Preservation of Sacred Sites” with Miwok Elder from Vallejo, Wounded Knee de Ocampo, at 10:30 a.m. at Unitarian Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. 548-3223. 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby and Stuart. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 526-7377. 

“Arrogant Humanism versus Respectful Humanism” with Sterling Bunnell at 11 a.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

MLK, Jr. Celebration: Faith in California from noon to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. Music, discussions, photography exhibit, and hands-on activities for the whole family. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Grandmothers for the Oaks Celebration Bring warm clothes to donate, hot food and songs of solidarity at 2 p.m. at Memorial Oak Grove. www.saveoaks.com 

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott Tribute Concert at 7:30 p.m. at Love Center Ministries, 10400 International Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $30-$40. 593-0805.  

“At the River I Stand” screening at 5 p.m. followed by a discussion, in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at Cerrito Speakeasy Theater, 10070 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito.  

“Crossing the Line: Multiracial Comedians” A documentary, followed by discussion, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568.  

Berkeley Cybersalon Explores the Next Spiritual Frontier with Steven Vedro, author of Digital Dharma: A User's Guide to Expanding Consciousness in the Age of the Infosphere at 4 p.m. at Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cos tis $15 at the door.  

“Trading Traditions: California’s New Cultures” A celebration of Faith in California at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St., Oakland. 238-2022.  

East Bay Atheists Gene Gordon and Larry Hicok will jointly speak about Materialism at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 3rd floor meeting room, 2090 Kittredge St. 222-7580. 

MONDAY, JAN. 21 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Bike Trip “Eastshore State Park” Meet at 9 a.m. at El Cerrito Del Norte BART. Bring lunch and bike helmet. 843-2222. 

Martin Luther King Day of Service to remove litter and non-native, invasive plants, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Arroyo Viejo Park, 7701 Krause Ave. or Knowland Park/Oakland Zoo, 9777 Golf Links Rd. For information call 655-3508. www.thewatershedproject.org 

Martin Luther King Day Volunteer Restoration Project from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at MLK, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Garretson Point at the end of Edgewater Drive, Oakland. 562-1373.  

“Make the Dream Real” Martin Luther King National Holiday Celebration from 10 a.m. to noon at Taylor Memorial Methodist Church, 1188 12th St., at Adeline, Oakland. 652-5530. 

CodePINK “Fierce Voter Pink Tea Party” from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. RSVP to 524-2776. 

“How Modern DNA Studies Inform our Understanding of the History and Pre-History of the Eastern Mediterranean” Lecture presentation by Roy King, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford University, at 3:30 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., Room 6, (entrance next to Chapel). 849-8218. www.psr.edu  

TUESDAY, JAN. 22 

Pacific School of Religion Earl Lectures on religion, environment and social justice, with Chandra Muzaffar, Karen Baker-Fletcher and others, Tues.-Thurs. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. For details see www.psr.edu 

“Exploring Mongolia: An American Journalist’s Perspective” A slide presentation with Michael Kohn at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Berkeley PC USers Group meets at 7 p.m. at 25 Dartmouth in the Hiller Highland area above the Claremont Hotel. 841-4411. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704.  

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 23 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Field Trip “Lake Merritt and Lakeside Park” with Hilary Powers. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at the large spherical cage near Nature Center at Perkins and Bellevue to look at wintering birds. 843-2222. 

BASIL Seed Library meeting to plan annual Garden Seed Swap and The Library’s future, at 6:30 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo. basil@ecologycenter.org 

Early Voting Ballot Discussion with Berkeley Councilmember Kriss Worthington and AFT Local 2121 President Ed Murray, at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. Sponsored by the Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers. 

“Reel Bad Arabs” A documentary on the degrading images of Arabs in cinematic history, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

“Who’s Putting the Heat on Barry Bonds ... And Why?” A dscussion at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. 

Let It Snow Day Make snow and conduct ice experiments. Storytelling at 11 a.m. at Habitot Children's Museum, 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111.  

Teen Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

“New Year Detox & Weight Loss” at 7 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 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 

After-School Program Homework help, drama and music for children ages 8 to 18, every Wed. from 4 to 7:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Cost is $5 per week. 845-6830. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, JAN. 24 

“Google and Sources of Information in a Global Age” Lecture by Douglas Merrill, Vice-President of Engineering at Google, at 7 p.m. in the International House Auditorium, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Cost is $5. 642-9460. 

Easy Does It Board of Directors’ Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. 845-5513. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from 10 to 11 a.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. 644-8833. 

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

ONGOING 

E-Waste Recycling St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County accepts electronic waste including computers, dvd players, cell phones, fax machines and many other ewaste products for disposal free of charge at many of its locations throughout Alameda County. Make a tax-deductible donation while disposing of your ewaste appropriately and helping those in need. Free bulk pick-up available. 638-7600. www.svdp-alameda.org 

Help a Newt Cross the Road Every year newts migrate across Hillside Drive to reach their breeding pools in Castro Creek. Volunteers prevent many of these creatures from being crushed by cars. We need volunteers every evening during January and February in El Sobrante. The newts are most active on rainy nights. annabelle11_3@yahoo.com 

Free Tax Help If your 2007 household income was less than $42,000, you are eligible for free tax preparation from United Way's Earn it! Keep It! Save It! Sites are open now through April 15 in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. To find a site near you, call 800-358-8832. www.EarnItKeepItSaveIt.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Tues, Jan. 22, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900. 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Tues., Jan. 22, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 981-7368.  

Civic Arts Commission meets Tues., Jan. 22 , at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7533.  

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Jan. 23, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7550.  

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Jan. 23, at 7 p.m., at 997 Cedar St. 981-5502.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., Jan. 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484.  

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Jan. 24, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5400.  

Mental Health Commission meets Thurs. Jan. 24, at 5 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. 981-5213.