If the City Council gives its OK, the UC Berkeley College Republicans may have a parking space of their own on Shattuck Avenue on Wednesday afternoons, directly across the street from the Code Pink anti-war, anti-recruitment demonstrations in front of the Marine Recruiting Center 

“We are against them [Code Pink]—they are against the recruiters,” Kimberly Wagner, activism chair for the Berkeley College Republicans told the Planet Wednesday. 

“The permits given to Code Pink are not permits you can apply for,” she said, noting she had asked the mayor to help obtain permits, but he had refused.  

(The mayor did not return a Planet phone call before deadline.) 

She said she then went to Councilmember Kriss Worthington for help.  

On Jan. 29, the City Council voted to waive sound permit fees for Code Pink and allow them a parking space for six months to demonstrate Wednesdays from noon to 4 p.m. in front of 64 Shattuck Square. 

Worthington, who opposes the war, told the Planet he has no choice but to support the request, as it is a question of equity. 

But Zanne Joi of Code Pink told the Planet that, while she supports the College Republicans’ right to protest, Code Pink was accorded the parking space because the group is in sync with the city’s consistent pro-peace positions and because, without the parking space, the numerous Code Pink demonstrators would block the sidewalk. 

“The council determined we should have a parking space because this is a city of peace,” Joi said, “It’s not a city of war.” 

Moreover, she said, there are generally only two or three College Republicans who regularly come out to counter-demonstrate against Code Pink—not enough people to warrant the need for additional space for a demonstration. 

Wagner, a freshman from Fullerton studying political science, told the Planet Wednesday that the Young Republicans were going ahead with their request for a parking space. In an April 25 e-mail to Worthington, she had written that they wanted to circulate a petition asking the council “to remove Code Pink from within a one mile radius of the recruitment center, with the goal of alleviating the disturbances to the surrounding businesses.” 

The petition idea came about, she said, when they realized that by the time they had the permit it would be summer break: “Most of us would not be here.” But Wagner told the Planet that at this point “the petition is on hold.”

Members of the Housing Advisory Commission (HAC) on Thursday will look at efforts to rehabilitate the low-income housing building located just across the street from People’s Park. 

Affordable Housing Associates (AHA) owns the 18-unit building at 2500 Hillegass Ave., where two tenants have complained that their apartment was left without heating for more than two years. 

A recent visit to the building by a reporter also found evidence of mold growing beneath the first floor, and turned up complaints that gravel poured into hallways from the ceiling during rainstorms. 

AHA has owned the building since May, 2001, according to a report prepared for Thursday’s meeting by city Community Development Project Coordinator Lourdes Chang. 

The city spurred the acquisition, Chang reports, because the units “were at risk of converting to market rate.” 

The building provides a dozen units for tenants in the federally established very low- and low-income categories, with the remainder reserved for those in the moderate category. 

Federal policy defines very low-income as a household earning less than 50 percent of the area median income (AMI), with low-income pegged at 50 to 80 percent of AMI and moderate income set at between 80 and 115 percent of AMI. The income figures are calculated for each Statistical Area, a population cluster defined by the Census Bureau. 

Two long-time tenants, Grace Christie and Jill Hutchby, told HAC members they had been without heat for three years, despite repeated complaints to AHA. 

The problem turned out to be a switch inside the thermostat which had not been turned on. “They told us we couldn’t open the thermostat,” Hutchby said. 

“They sent their people here twice, and Pacific Gas and Electric came out twice, but it was only the last time they found the thermostat switch had been set at ‘off’,” she said. 

“We’d been sleeping in sleeping bags” because of the cold, Christie said. 

Christie said she was also concerned about the building’s security because the doors to balconies don’t have locks. 

In her report, Chang said AHA will be seeking money for the city’s Housing Trust Fund to conduct more extensive renovations at the Hillegass building. 

“To leverage city funds, AHA will apply for low-income housing tax credits, tax-exempt bond financing and other available housing funds,” she reported, with a goal of $400,000 to $800,000. AHA has already spent $300,000 on maintenance, upgrades and repairs. 

Because of tax credit rules, funding from that program won’t be available until late next year or early 2010. 

Proposed work includes an upgraded electrical system with solar panels to power the building’s common areas, renovations to the garage area, including additional laundry space, fire escape repairs, repair or replacement of fire escapes, new cabinetry and hardware where needed in kitchens and bathrooms, installation of electric baseboard heaters in all units, new tile for all apartments and any needed upgrades for disabled access. 

Thursday night’s meeting will also include possible action on a recommendation to the City Council seeking the transfer of $1 million in general fund revenues to the Housing Trust Fund, and discussions of city density bonus and condominium conversion ordinance proposals. 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. at Ashby Avenue.

An early Monday evening running gun battle left one man critically injured and police searching for a lime green car which had struck several cars during an exchange of gunfire with a pedestrian. 

The dramatic shootout happened on Whitney Street, between 59th and 60th Streets, and apparently concluded just doors away from the 59th Street home where a North Oakland man shot a burglar last week after he broke a front door window. 

Shattered bits of headlights and colored plastic littered Whitney Street, and a battered Honda Accord LX stood immobile on the street, bearing traces of the pale green paint left by the car used in the shooting. 

The neighborhood has seen a rash of violence in recent months, including two fatal shootings last fall and a fusillade of gunfire discharged into the air in the parking lot of a tavern on Shattuck Avenue just south of the 59th Street intersection two weeks ago, said one neighbor. 

In Tuesday night’s shooting, “the car hit several parked cars—including totaling the car of the owner of the house on Whitney that nearly burned down last Christmas,” reported one Whitney Street resident in an e-mail to neighbors. 

Another neighbor said that the suspect apparently tried to hide in yards in the neighborhood, finally ending up at the intersection of 59th and McCall streets, where he collapsed on the pavement. 

A third neighbor, who declined to speak for attribution, said Tuesday night’s incident was “really terrifying.” 

Police blocked off the street for an hour after the incident, and City Councilmember Jane Brunner came by to talk to neighbors, said Bob Brokl, a neighborhood resident. Brunner is facing opposition in her bid for reelection from 59th Street resident Patrick McCullough—who gained fame after he shot a 15-year-old in the arm three years ago. 

McCullough was not charged in that incident, in which he told police he had fired at the youth after he had been surrounded by 15 young men in his front yard who had been yelling “Kill the snitch” because of his campaign against neighborhood drug dealing. 

The council candidate said he had fired after the teenager told a companion, “Get me the pistol.” 

An Oakland Police spokesperson said he would contact the investigating officer and provide more information about the incident later.  

The earlier shooting, which happened April 22, occurred in the block west of Shattuck after a resident heard the sounds of breaking glass and found Nathan Cooper, 31, breaking in through the front door. 

Police said the resident told them he fired because he thought Cooper was attacking with a weapon. Cooper managed to stagger to the same parking lot where the shots had been fired a week earlier. 

He was taken to the hospital in serious condition, and later charged with burglary. 

The Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) at its meeting Thursday will hear a presentation on landmarked UC Berkeley campus projects which are in their planning phase. 

The university’s Principal Planner of Capital Projects-Facilities Services Jennifer McDougall will brief the board on several projects, including the Bowles Hall Renovation Study, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and the Hearst Gymnasium Historic Structure Report and Pending Programming Study. 

The university invited architects to submit applications to renovate the locally and nationally landmarked eight-story, 205-bed Bowles Hall, a male residence hall, in October. 

Located between the Greek Theatre and Rimway Road, east of the central UC Berkeley campus, the reinforced concrete building was built in 1928 in the style of Norman architecture. 

Although a report prepared by the university describes the building as structurally sound, it lists numerous deficiencies which need to be addressed. 

Major renovations include upgrading student living areas, correcting code deficiencies, including accessibility and fire and life safety, increasing security, reducing operating costs, addressing deferred maintenance issues—including roofing and waterproofing—and increasing revenue.  

Architect Toyo Ito’s conceptual plans for a new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at the northwest corner of Center and Oxford streets include a visual arts complex to house the university’s art and film collections, and a public gathering place to replace the existing seismically unsafe museum and film archive on Bancroft Way. 

The $145 million rectangular structure, with gently sloping angular walls and small patios, has received mixed reviews from the community, with some comparing it to “Tupperware” and others raving about its unique style. 

University officials are in the early phase of fundraising for the project, which is scheduled for completion in 2013. 

Both the film archive and the art museum on Bancroft Way will stay open during construction. 

Fidelity Savings building renovation 

The LPC will vote on whether to approve a use permit for plans to rehabilitate and alter the landmarked Fidelity Savings building on 2323 Shattuck Ave. 

The board will review a design approved by the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board in September, which proposes to preserve the existing 4,000-square-foot structure and convert the two-story bank space into a restaurant and a dwelling unit.  

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

The project proposal includes sidewalk seating and would eliminate the eight existing on-site parking spots.  

The project plan submitted by Prasad and Rani Lakireddy has been changed since the last zoning meeting to replace a mansard roof with a terra-cotta-tiled shed roof. The revised plan cannot appear before ZAB until it is approved by the landmarks commission. 

Revised historic resources map and footnotes for DAPAC Plan 

The LPC will also vote on whether to endorse a revised map and footnotes documenting “historic resources and opportunity sites” for the use of the Downtown Area Planning And Advisory Committee (DAPAC). 

The city’s planning department staff revised the map and narrative to make it consistent with a map created by independent planner John English to reflect decisions of the DAPAC-LPC Subcommittee which met last fall. 

If boardmembers approve the materials, they will be included in all future distributions of the draft Downtown Area Plan with DAPAC’s endorsement. 

Complaints about inconsistencies between the map originally submitted by city staff and DAPAC’s recommendations resulting in the staff’s working with English to correct the flaws. 

A survey of downtown historical resources will be conducted in the future to help clarify errors in the map. 

To view the LPC agenda visit: www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=13016 

For more information on the proposed UC Berkeley projects visit: 

www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2007-10-12/article/28203 

www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-03-21/article/29515 

For more information on 2323 Shattuck Ave. visit: 

www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2007-07-31/article/27639 

www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2007-08-14/article/27764 

The state Senate Environmental Quality Committee unanimously passed a resolution yesterday (Monday) calling for a moratorium on aerial spraying for the light brown apple moth (LBAM) until the state agriculture department “can demonstrate that the pheromone compound it intends to use is both safe to humans and effective at eradicating the light brown apple moth.” 

The resolution, SCR 87, authored by Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco and Marin County, next goes to the Senate Agriculture Committee. 

While the resolution is simply advisory to the governor, if eventually passed by both houses of the state legislature, “it becomes a tool for public pressure for people in power,” said Nan Wishner, chair of the Albany Integrated Pest Management Task Force, speaking to the Daily Planet today. 

“It will be harder for people in power to hide behind the furniture,” she added.  

Wishner said she was especially impressed by the testimony before the committee by Derrell Chambers, a retired U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist, who said he does not support the proposed spraying of the LBAM with a synthetic pheromone, aimed at disrupting mating behavior. The pheromone and other ingredients are put into microcapsules and dispersed by low-flying airplanes. 

“No eradication of a pest species with only mating disruption has ever been accomplished,” Chambers told the committee, quoted in a Pesticide Watch advisory. Chambers statement contradicts the California Department of Food and Agriculture position, which is that the aerial spraying of a pheromone can eradicate the moth. 

“Certainly, the public’s present feeling that they are being subjected to an unwarranted, unsafe, and untested procedure should be more thoroughly addressed than it so far has been,” Chambers told the committee. “I believe the LBAM project should be challenged on all these issues, but I am particularly concerned that the issue of efficacy has not been sufficiently questioned.” 

Aerial spraying was conducted in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in September and was to be resumed in June, however, a Santa Cruz Superior Court decision last week imposed a moratorium on the spraying in Santa Cruz until the environmental impacts are studied. (A similar lawsuit targeting the spraying in Monterey County will be heard May 8.) 

Cities calling for a moratorium on the spray include Monterey, Albany, Berkeley, Oakland, Fairfax, Santa Cruz, San Anselmo, Pacific Grove, Mill Valley, Emeryville, Corte Madera, Sausalito, Richmond, Seaside, San Rafael, San Francisco, Alameda, Tiburon, Larkspur, Piedmont.  

The East Bay Regional Parks District and the Berkeley Unified School District have also passed resolutions opposing the aerial spraying of the moth. 

Attorneys representing Oakland, Berkeley, Albany and some other cities have been meeting to discuss a possible lawsuit to stop the state from spraying, but no decision has yet been made. 

Posted Mon., April 28—Campus police are looking for two different groups of young men who harassed and sexually groped young women over the weekend. 

In the first incident, a band of seven or eight men in their late teens and early 20s approached two women, ages 18 and 19, as they were walking east on Channing Way near Bowditch Street at about 9:30 p.m. Friday. 

According to a UC Police Department bulletin, “One of the group members walked up to one of the victims and touched her inappropriately. A second group member walked up to another victim and also grabbed her inappropriately. Then the second suspect punched one of the victims on the left side of her face.” 

Neither woman was seriously injured during the incident, police said.  

The victims said their assailants were last seen walking northbound on Bowditch. 

An area search by campus police failed to turn up any sign of the suspects. Campus police conducted an area check but did not locate the suspect. 

In the second incident, a swarm of 14 young men harassed seven young women who had parked along Grizzly Peak Boulevard in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, campus police report. 

Police received word of the incident at 2:25 a.m., about an hour after the incident had occurred. 

The women told officers they had been parked near Signpost 15 near the rock wall when two vehicles pulled up, one of them a 1993 blue Ford van. 

At that point, the 14 males, all about 20 years old, poured out of the two vehicles and walked up to the women.  

After one of the males asked for a cigarette, the women refused and, they told police, decided to leave. 

But when they started to get into the cars, two of the women reported that they were sexually groped, and one of the males threatened to shoot the women. 

Campus police have asked anyone with information about either incident to call their office at 642-0472 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., or after hours at 642-6760.

Posted Mon., April 28—Three Bay Area marches on May Day—and an eight-hour shutdown of West Coast ports—will merge traditional calls for better pay and benefits with support for the rights of immigrants and a call to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  

Separate but coordinated Bay Area events are planned:  

• Oakland Sin Fronteras (Oakland Without Borders): Participants will gather at 3 p.m. at the Fruitvale BART Plaza, with speakers on the rights of immigrant workers; a march will go down International Boulevard to Oakland City Hall, where a second rally—with elected and union representativeswill be held at 6 p.m.  

• “No Peace—No Work” on May Day: Participants will meet at the ILWU Hall at Beach and Masonic in San Francisco and march along the Embarcadero to Justin Herman Plaza where there will be a noon rally; 

• Movement for Unconditional Amnesty: At 2 p.m. there will be a rally at Dolores Park in San Francisco followed by a march to Civic Center. At 5 p.m. there will be a rally and music at Civic Center. 

• Longshore workers plan to shut down West Coast ports all day. 

• A rally will be held in Berkeley at noon at Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley Campus to demand full and equal rights for all immigrants, an increase in under-represented minority student enrollment at UC-Berkeley, the right to financial aid for undocumented immigrants (Dream Act), and the end to the occupation of Iraq. 

“They say immigrants are stealing jobs, that the economy is going down because of us,” Manuel Depaz, spokesperson for Oakland Sin Fronteras, told the Planet on Monday. What is true, however, is that immigrants do jobs citizens don’t usually want, such as working in the fields or cleaning hotel rooms, he said. 

In Oakland, a number of labor unions have endorsed the march including the SEIU 1877, the Oakland Education Association, United HERE 2850 and AFSCME 3299. The Alameda County Central Labor Council, La Clinica de la Raza, Black Alliance for Justice for Immigrants, and others have also endorsed the march. 

Speaking for the immigrant rights march in San Francisco, Alex Franco told the Planet that undocumented immigrant workers pay into Social Security and pay their taxes, but get no benefits returned to them, as workers with documents do.  

“Immigrants are workers too,” Franco said, underscoring that the marches are calling for unconditional amnesty for undocumented workers. 

Retired Berkeley letter carrier and union activist Dave Welsh has been helping to publicize the marches. Speaking to the Planet, he underscored the cooperation among the sponsoring organizations.  

“They each have speakers at each other’s rallies,” he said. Two of them are Cindy Sheehan, anti-war activist and candidate for Congress, and Cynthia McKinney, Green Party presidential candidate. 

Endorsers of the ILWU march include the San Francisco and South Bay Central Labor Councils, the California Federation of Teachers, the National Association of Letter Carriers and Grandmothers Against the War and more. 

Depaz told the Planet this is a critical time to fight for immigrant rights, with recent raids on work places picking up workers who have lived in the U.S. and paid taxes here for as long as 20 years. When undocumented workers get hurt on the job, they can’t say how they got hurt, he added. 

Posted Mon., April 28—A power outage affecting some 300 AT&T phone customers interrupted phone service at a number of Berkeley offices this morning, according to Public Information Officer Mary Kay Clunies-Ross. By 2 p.m. all phones and services were back on line. 

Information Technology Department Director Donna LaSala told the Planet that AT&T had been especially responsive during this outage, which was reported by city staff at 8 a.m. “Once we started banging on their doors, we got updates every half hour,” she told the Planet. 

“Everybody still has a way to call 911 if there’s an emergency,” Clunies-Ross told the Planet during the outage. “Each location has an analog line.” Only the digital lines were affected, she said, adding that the fire stations have radio backup for emergency purposes. 

“It doesn’t have any effect on fire services,” Deputy Fire Chief Gill Dong told the Planet, noting that in addition to radio communication, each fire apparatus is equipped with a cellular phone. 

At locations where there are outages, the phone rings and is picked up by an answering device.  

Alan Bern of the Berkeley Public Library noted, however, that the library experienced particular problems. People cannot search the catalogues or reserve computers at the West, South and North branch libraries, functions that are done digitally. “It’s a problem,” he told the Planet. 

As of noon on Monday, the city offices impacted were: the Public Health Clinic on University Ave., the Animal Shelter on Second Street, the Fire Stations on Eighth and Russell streets and on Shattuck Ave., the police substation on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, the North and South Berkeley Senior Centers, and the West, South and North Branches of the library. 

David Lin, AT&T public relations manager, did not return calls for comment.  

Posted Mon., April 28—If Mayor Tom Bates and councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Dona Spring have their way, free evening parking in downtown Berkeley may be a luxury of the past. 

Despite negative reaction from downtown neighbors—and the Chamber of Commerce that objected to the idea the following day—the City Council voted last week 6-1-2 to have staff study expanding paid meter hours until 10 p.m. (Councilmember Betty Olds voted in opposition and councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Darryl Moore abstained.) 

The plan would apply uniquely to the city’s “pay and display” meters—the large multiple-space meters that take coins and credit cards—which can be set to charge different amounts for different times of the day and to allow people to park for an extended period of time.  

At present, meters cost $1.25 each hour. A recent 25 cent per hour hike was put in place to fund various services aimed at curbing inappropriate behavior of homeless or mentally ill people who hang out in commercial shopping areas.  

The proposal before the council did not include a specific amount of money to be raised and was imprecise about where the money would be spent: “A portion of the revenues [would be spent on] alternative transit modes and the arts,” said the proposal, signed by Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Dona Spring. 

On Friday Julie Sinai, Bates’ chief of staff told the Planet her office had no further precision to offer on where the funds might be spent.  

Capitelli, however, said there were a number of possible ways to spend the money, for example, creating a “free zone,” for AC transit buses, a section within the city where people could ride the bus without cost. The funds generated might also pay the salary of an arts coordinator, he said, underscoring, however, that what he wants immediately is information from the city manager on implementation: “I’m not ready to go ahead,” he said. 

Addressing the council before the vote on Tuesday, L.A. Woods, who lives near downtown, said he expects that with the advent of evening meter parking, his neighborhood would be inundated with spill-over parkers. 

The councilmembers’ statement provoked an argument about climate change issues: “Berkeley citizens made the bold decision to address climate change and reduce our community’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050,” the document says, noting that “gasoline and diesel consumption by automobiles within the Berkeley city limits accounts for about 47 percent of Berkeley’s total greenhouse gas emissions....”  

It goes on to quote Donald Shoup, author of “The High Cost of Parking,” saying “cruising for curb parking generates about 30 percent of the traffic in central business districts.” The proposal claims that higher costs for parking would result in more parking availability, and therefore, cut down on people cruising for parking—and the greenhouse gas emissions.  

Doug Buckwald addressed the council on the question, saying the “green” argument was specious. He accused the council of making “green” arguments “without making a direct connection” to the question at hand. 

While supporting the city manager' s study of the issue, Councilmember Max Anderson said that the revenue stream in Berkeley should not be addressed piecemeal. "We need to have a focused workshop on what we need to do to enhance revenue," he said, noting that the discussion should include business retention strategies. 

Councilmember Darryl Moore, who abstained on the question, said he opposed meter operations in the evening. “I believe it will have a negative impact on business downtown,” he said, noting that parking in Emeryville is just $1 for the evening. 

Arguing to the contrary, Councilmember Linda Maio said people don’t mind paying for parking. She noted that “lines to parking garages go down the street” in the evening. 

But in a letter to the council, Michael Katz responded to that notion. He said paying for parking at night might work for people spending $50 for a seat at the Berkeley Rep, but, he argued: “Removing free, casual parking keeps away patrons who might otherwise check out a club band, a low-cost theatrical performance, or another low-commitment event, just out of curiosity.” 

Bates supported the plan, noting that people use up the parking spaces around the downtown BART station to go to San Francisco. Spring said downtown residents park there overnight. 

In an April 25 letter to Bates, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ted Garrett blasted the proposal on several counts: allowing parking for various hours and charging different rates at different times of the day would confuse people; the occasional visitor who gets a hefty parking fine is unlikely to return; people will not use the parking lots in the evening because they feel unsafe; there’s no guarantee where the revenue will be spent and the policy will hurt the city’s efforts to attract and retain business. 

For more on this topic: 

• “Panel Recommends Raising Downtown Parking Fees” By Richard Brenneman (Sept. 22, 2006) www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2006-09-22/article/25128 

• Donald Shoup’s website: http://shoup.bol.ucla.edu/ 

In other actions Tuesday, the council: 

• Unanimously denied an appeal for the zoning board’s approval of a biodiesel fuel (used, processed cooking oil) station at 1441 Ashby Ave.;  

• Unanimously approved a recommendation that city staff collect data on sources of alcohol in alcohol-involved collisions and DUI arrests; 

• Voted to delay until May 6 a vote on a contract with Stockton Recycling Inc. and Zanker Road Resource Management to transport and recycle demolition materials. Councilmembers Betty Olds, Gordon Wozniak and Laurie Capitelli voted in opposition. 

• Unanimously voted to oppose the Runner Initiative on the June ballot that would increase funding for criminal justice programs by $500,000,000 annually. 

• Unanimously voted to sponsor the annual celebration of Berkeley Conscientious Objectors and War Resisters Day; 

• Voted 8-1 to increase the city manager’s authority to implement contracts up to $50,000 without council approval. (The present authority is up to $25,000.) Councilmember Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring voted in opposition.

Russell Street residents faced off Thursday against their neighbors at the Berkeley Thai Temple, charging them with running a commercial restaurant in a residential neighborhood, bringing litter and congestion to the area, every Sunday. 

More than 30 supporters of the temple, located at 1911 Russell St., turned up at Thursday’s Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) meeting to deny the charges and to request a permit to build a new Buddha shrine on the site and add four parking spaces on an adjacent vacant lot. 

Applicant Komson Thong also requested the board to approve 10 tables—three with parasols—which would be situated inside a Buddha garden on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

After listening to complaints from a few neighbors, the zoning board decided to postpone the issue to June 26 and asked city staff to investigate whether the temple was violating the zoning ordinance. 

It also asked members of the Thai temple to mediate with its neighbors about parking, hours of operation and other concerns. 

Some neighbors were angry that the temple started work as early as 5 a.m., since a 1993 zoning permit limits the use to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. The temple serves food to the public outdoors in the back of the property from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday. 

Piper Davis, who moved into the house abutting the Thai temple three years ago, complained that the noise of pots and pans clanging to prepare food woke her up early in the morning. 

“We want this large scale open air commercial restaurant moved to another location,” said her husband Tom Ruff. “It’s really under-described, and has inflicted significant harm on the community surrounding the Thai temple. We respect the spirit of their mission, but we respectfully object to a large scale commercial restaurant.” 

Another neighbor, John W. Taylor, said he had been unable to enjoy his driveway, which was blocked by cars belonging to visitors at the temple every week. 

“They need to construct more parking spaces,” he said. “Four parking spaces is like putting your finger in a dike.” 

Thong said members of the temple would address neighborhood concerns. 

Zoning staff said they had not received any nuisance complaints from neighbors over the last few years about the temple’s operations, but that they would investigate in light of recent concerns expressed at the meeting.  

According to the zoning staff report, the temple offers food to its visitors as typical of Thai customs, in return for which they ask for donations. 

1819 Fifth St. 

The zoning board also approved a 22-unit three story mixed-use project totaling 20,820 square feet at 1819 Fifth St. Thursday, despite opposition from its next-door neighbor, the East Bay Vivarium. 

Owen Maercks, who owns the Vivarium, said the proposed development—which provides 22 parking spaces—would push the business out of Berkeley. 

“When we came here 20 years ago, there was a parking problem,” Maercks said. “We have been losing business over the years but parking is worse than ever today. A 22-unit project will be the final straw.” 

Applicant Tim Rempel said the vivarium—housed in a 7,500 lot—should provide 15 to 20 parking spots for its customers, instead of the current 5. 

“I think it’s a valuable business, but it’s in a building difficult to have a business out of. Our project is modest and sustainable.” 

After the zoning board objected to the scale and density of the proposed mixed-use project last year, Rempel scaled it down to a height which met with approval from boardmembers Thursday. 

“The new project is much more compatible,” said board member Terry Doran. “The issue of parking is not going to go away, whether this particular project is prevented or not. Existing businesses will have to co-exist with new businesses.” 

Zoning vice-chair Bob Allen stressed the importance of the City Council and the planning department addressing neighborhood parking concerns. 

Berkeley Unified School District PTA members made their district proud when they formed the largest contingent at the “Flunk the Budget” California State PTA rally in Sacramento Thursday. 

More than 100 parents and community members took two buses and 10 cars to the state capital Thursday morning to protest against proposed state education budget cuts and lobby legislators to increase revenue. 

They were joined on the State Capitol steps by their peers from Riverside, San Diego, Los Angeles, Alameda and several other cities in sending the message “Flunk the Budget, Not our Children,” to legislators. 

“It was very inspirational,” said Berkeley PTA Council President Cathryn Bruno, who helped mobilize the Sacramento trip. “We urged legislators to increase tax revenue by reinstating the vehicle license fee, closing the Yacht Tax loophole and introducing a progressive tax. Education is the basis of democracy, people in Sacramento need to understand that.” 

California State PTA spokesperson Lindsay Shoemaker told the Planet that 400 people from 12 PTA districts statewide had joined in the rally. 

“California’s future depends on our governor and state legislators doing the right thing and investing more in our children, not less,” state PTA President Pam Brady said at the rally. 

Brady called on the governor and legislators to solve the state’s budget crisis with a balanced approach. 

The proposed state education budget cuts threaten to cut foster care programs, child welfare services, CalWORKS programs, children’s health care programs, Medi-Cal, early childhood education, and juvenile rehabilitation and crime prevention grants. 

Fifteen of the 18 school districts in Alameda County face negative certification as a result of the proposed cuts. 

Although Berkeley Unified was successful is rescinding the pink slips issued to 46 of 55 teachers, it still faces a $3.2 million budget cut—which would affect after school programs, among others. 

“What the rally shows is there is somewhat of a coalition, a united effort on the part of the school district, parents and unions to stop the cuts from happening,” School Board President John Selawsky told the Planet.  

Selawsky said he met with three Republican aides in Sacramento after the rally who had informed him Republican legislators had agreed not to suspend the former Prop. 98—a voter-approved statute that established a minimum level of funding for California schools—as the governor proposes. 

“If that’s true that’s very good,” said Selawsky. 

School districts across the state are getting ready for a bigger student rally in Sacramento on May 15 to protest the proposed cuts.

Oakland Police are investigating a Tuesday morning shooting in which neighbors say a North Oakland man shot an intruder breaking into his 59th Street home. 

The injured man, who had staggered up to Shattuck Avenue and collapsed near Dorsey’s Locker, a tavern at 5817 Shattuck Ave., was rushed to Highland Hospital for treatment of a serious gunshot wound, police said. 

The incident was first reported to police around 8 a.m. 

Oakland Police Sgt. Michael Polirier said the injured man, Nathan Cooper, 31, of Oakland, was on both probation and parole from previous convictions, including a narcotics arrest. 

“Burglary tools were found at the scene, and he was charged with burglary” as a result of the incident, Polirier said. 

The man who fired the shot, a resident of a home in the 600 block of 59th Street, was questioned by police investigators Tuesday, then released pending a review of the case by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. 

“Right now, we’re just trying to determine whether the shooting was justified or not justified,” said Officer John Koster Tuesday morning as he stood next to the police tape that had sealed off the block of 59th between Shattuck Avenue and Whitney Street. 

Bob Brokl, a neighbor, said the intruder “was shot at the door as he was breaking into the house.” 

Polirier, who is also the Oakland department’s chief of staff, said the resident of the home “heard a commotion on the front porch. He went and found that someone was trying to break in” and had smashed the window in the door. 

The resident “armed himself and shot the intruder, who fled,” Polirier said. 

Ron Butier, who owns the house, said he was at work at the time of the shooting and declined to discuss the specifics of the shooting, which was done by his housemate. 

“There have been a lot of crimes in this neighborhood and people are feeling on their own, and they’ve been talking about taking matters into their own hands.” 

Annie, a neighbor who lives a block south on 58th Street, said there was a fatal shooting on her block only three months ago. 

“He got shot in the middle of the block and staggered up to Shattuck before he collapsed and died,” she said. 

Sgt. Polirier said that police dispatchers received two calls at nearly the same time, one reporting that a man had collapsed on the street in the 5900 block of Shattuck and the second from the resident of the 59th Street home, “who said he had just shot a burglar.” 

The 59th Street resident told police he had fired because he thought the intruder was brandishing a weapon. 

Annie said she knew the neighbor who had shot the intruder. “He’s a real nice guy. He has some nice things, and this isn’t the first time they’ve tried to break into his house. There are lots of break-ins in the neighborhood, and all the neighbors are trying to help. We’re all single people in studio apartments,” she said. 

“There are shootings all the time,” Butier said. “We hear gunshots all the time.” 

The scene of Tuesday morning’s shooting was just four doors down the street from the home of another North Oakland resident who figured in the shooting of a suspected criminal in 2005. 

Patrick McCullough shot a 15-year-old in the arm in the neighborhood where he had been waging a campaign against drug dealers that neighbors said had been plaguing the neighborhood. 

McCullough, who is now running for the North Oakland City Council seat against three-term incumbent Jane Brunner, told officers he had been surrounded by 15 young men in his front yard, who had yelled “Kill the snitch.” 

McCullough told police he shot the youth after another young man had told his companion, “Give me the pistol.” 

The Alameda County District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute McCullough at the urging of police. No charges were filed in that incident.

The courts and the governor took independent actions Thursday that resulted—at least temporarily—in stopping the planned aerial and ground spraying for the light brown apple moth. 

The court ruling came at around 10:30 a.m. in Santa Cruz Superior Court, where Judge Paul Burdick ruled that the state must prepare an environmental impact report on the danger of the moth before spraying can be carried out in Santa Cruz County.  

Also on Thursday Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger met with Marin County officials and anti-spray advocate Paul Schramski of Pesticide Watch and promised that the spraying won’t take place until a battery of tests has been completed. 

Lori Ciosfi, of California Alliance to Stop the Spray in Santa Cruz, told the Planet in a phone interview from the courtroom Thursday that the judge ruled that, given there was no crop loss resulting from the moth, the moth had not created a state of emergency. 

The California Department of Food and Agriculture argued that it has the right to spray without an EIR because the moth presents potential crop devastation and should be considered an emergency.  

“The judge made the decision right there, after hearing arguments from both sides, to stop the ground and aerial spray,” Ciosfi said. “It was really exciting.” 

Ciosfi said the judge ruled that the supposition that there might be crop loss was insufficient to declare an emergency. There has been no actual crop loss. 

The ruling applies only to Santa Cruz County and was brought by Santa Cruz County against the California Department of Food and Agriculture. 

The ruling will likely delay a planned aerial spraying in Santa Cruz County that had been slated to begin June 1.  

In a prepared statement CDFA Secretary A. G. Kawamura promised to appeal: “My department will aggressively seek an expedited appeal of this ruling, which threatens the safety of our agriculture, environment, and economy. The light brown apple moth is a serious threat not just to Santa Cruz but to the entire state, and the method we are using is the safest, most progressive eradication program available.” 

A similar lawsuit demanding an EIR before spraying, brought by Helping Our Peninsula’s Environment (HOPE) and targeting Monterey County, will be heard May 8.  

Both Santa Cruz and Monterey counties were sprayed in September with Checkmate, a pesticide that consists of a synthetic pheromone, intended to disrupt the LBAM’s mating behavior and other known and unknown chemicals. It is dispersed aerially in microcapsules.  

Many spray opponents say the chemicals in the spray and the microcapsules themselves caused health problems after the September spray. 

Asked how the ruling might impact the state’s plan to spray Bay Area cities in August to disrupt the mating patterns of the moth, Oakland attorney Steve Volker said that while he has yet to read the judge’s ruling, it is his belief that the lawsuit’s likely to have little impact on the Bay Area cities set to be sprayed in August.  

That is because the state has begun an EIR and will likely complete it by the time it plans to spray the Bay Area in August, he said. He further noted that that the EIR is likely to be similar to previous studies coming from the state, such as a health report that denied the 600 health complaints after the September spraying in the Santa Cruz area were related to the spraying.  

The CDFA “attempts to snow the public,” Volker said. 

Volker intends to file a lawsuit in federal district court in about a month, naming the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency as defendants as well as naming the CDFA as defendant in California Superior Court.  

He said he will argue that the moth has been misclassified as a pest, given the likelihood—according to Jim Casey, an entomologist at UC Davis—that the moth has been established in California for 30 to 50 years without causing crop damage. The lawsuits will be filed on behalf of the North Coast Rivers Alliance and other nonprofit organizations, he said. 

While a number of cities, including Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, El Cerrito and Oakland, have talked about suing the state over the LBAM spray, none have asked to join this lawsuit. 

Volker said he believes the sudden excitement around the LBAM may have been artificially created by the makers of the pesticide used to eradicate the moth—Suterra of Bend, Oregon.  

As for the governor’s move to delay spraying by testing first, Nan Wishner, chair of Albany’s Integrated Pest Management Task Force, e-mailed the Planet: “Looks to me like the safety testing is all acute tests, meaning 30-minute exposure, so this would be no more testng than was done of the pesticide sprayed last fall—i.e., it would still mean there would be no long-term human exposure testing only short-term acute exposure. And it is not clear whether the tests ... would be only of the active ingredient ... or of the whole formula of the pesticide.” 

In a prepared statement, the governor said, “I am confident that the additional tests will reassure Californians that we are taking the safest, most progressive approach to ridding our state of this very real threat to our agriculture, environment and economy.”

The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to postpone the public hearing on the Berkeley city attorney’s draft sunshine ordinance—which promises greater access to local government—to October and granted a 90-day extension to complete their work to the citizens’ group working on an alternate draft. 

The citizens’ group had requested a postponement of the public hearing at the council’s agenda committee meeting last week, but the committee refused the request at the time. However, the full council agreed this week to a motion by councilmember Laurie Capitelli to grant the postponement. 

At Tuesday’s meeting, Bates said he felt the need to clarify his position on the ordinance drafting process. 

Community members and some council members had complained the city was rushing to establish an ordinance because it was campaign season, and the mayor wanted to list the sunshine ordinance under his accomplishments. 

“The issue of a sunshine ordinance has been in front of the City Council since 2001, since before I was even in office,” Bates said. “There are some accusations that I asked the public to form a committee to draft a sunshine ordinance and that now I am preventing them from completing their work.” 

The city has been working on a sunshine ordinance since 2001, when at the request of Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the City Council asked the city manager’s office to look into improving the city’s sunshine policies, including the adoption of an ordinance.  

A review of the council’s March 20 work session records, Bates said, confirmed that the council had discussed various options to address legitimate concerns and differences of opinion raised by the four workshop panelists—Californians Aware General Counsel Terry Francke, Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville League of Women Voters President Jinky Gardner, American Civil Liberties Union Police Practices Policy Director Mark Schlosberg and Northern California Society of Professional Journalists member and Planet staff reporter Judith Scherr. 

According to Bates, the ideas included asking Francke and Schlosberg to work with the city attorney to develop a list of policy issues and options for council consideration, forming a citizen subcommittee to help them, and asking the League to sponsor a committee forum on a Saturday or Sunday. 

“None of these suggestions were moved or passed,” Bates said. “The final approved motion was to table the sunshine ordinance for action and have the city manager and mayor return with a process for moving forward.” 

A review of the March 20 council meeting recording by the Planet revealed that Scherr had stressed the importance of having an expert such as Francke involved in drafting an ordinance—something the mayor agreed with but did not formally make a motion about at the end of the work session. 

The city manager returned to council on May 8, Bates said, with the recommendation to develop a matrix of policy issues and recommendations and to post it online for public comment. 

A matrix identifying issues raised by Francke, Schlosberg, Scherr, SuperBOLD and councilmember Kriss Worthington had been posted online by the city attorney in October 2007, he said. The matrix can be viewed on the city’s website. 

“The city attorney provided this document to the above-mentioned people and received no comment from them,” Bates said. “The document remained open for public comment on the city's website through March 2008.” 

Bates said the city attorney’s office contacted Francke in late March to inform him that the sunshine ordinance had been posted online for the last six months and that comments on it would be presented to Council on April 22. 

“In that call—made in March of this year—the assistant city attorney [Sarah Reynoso] learned from Mr. Francke that there was a group of people working on an alternative ordinance and that he was not at liberty to tell her who they were,” he said. “Mr. Francke told her that he did not represent the group and therefore could not give her comments on what was posted on the web. This group is self-appointed since neither I nor the council ever decided to set up a citizen group to write an alternative ordinance without the involvement of our city staff.” 

Bates said that on April 2, the group sent him and the council a letter asking for a delay so they could complete their more extensive sunshine ordinance proposal.  

“Instead of this group providing comments and talking with staff to work out the issues, they printed their issues in the local paper today,” Bates said, referring to the April 22 publication of a commentary article the citizens’ group sent the Daily Planet. “Not much advance notice for any of us.” 

In the commentary, the citizens’ group stated that “sunshine-obstructionists, led by Mayor Bates,” were promoting “a weak, so-called sunshine ordinance in an effort to preempt” the group’s proposal. “In reality, their bill is more of a sunset ordinance—an ineffective proposal with no enforcement provisions, only masquerading as sunshine,” the commentary said. 

Bates said at the meeting that he wanted to see a list of the disputed policy issues and options the council could consider. 

“I appreciate the commitment and the time this group has devoted to this issue over the years,” he said. 

Dean Metzger, who spoke on behalf of the citizens’ group, said he had been under the impression that the mayor had asked the League of Women Voters to form a group. 

“We met because the League sent out an e-mail,” he said. “We didn’t do anything in secret. We thought you had asked to form a group.” 

Capitelli’s motion—which was unanimously approved by council—asked the citizens’ group to get its final draft together by the end of July, before council breaks for summer. 

“I am going to call it the Ad Hoc Sunshine Committee, since their members are probably secret,” he said, at which around 10 members from the citizens’ group promptly stood up to prove him wrong. 

The six-week summer recess, Capitelli said, would provide council adequate time to review the document. He added that alternate perspectives from the citizens’ group and city staff on the draft ordinance should be presented.

Berkeley voters are more likely to approve a bond measure on the November ballot that supports watershed management and clean stormwater issues, but few would be willing to shell out their hard-earned dollars for a new skate park. And they’d be more willing to add a $50 item to their tax burden than a $150 item. 

That’s some of what the City Council learned from a voter survey taken mid-April by David Binder Research of San Francisco. Councilmembers discussed the survey at a workshop on Tuesday. 

All the tax measures that would appear on the ballot, because they are designated for specific purposes, would have to receive a two-thirds vote. 

Councilmember Darryl Moore, whose Southwest Berkeley district floods when it rains hard, told the Planet Thursday that he was pleased that it looked like people would vote for the watershed bond. 

"Water rolls downhill – businesses have been flooded," he said, promising to "fight vigorously" for the measure’s passage. 

Shannon Alper of Binder Research said a vigorous campaign could raise the affirmative vote by as much as 10 percent. He added, however, that "in the November election, it’s tough to get the voters’ attention." 

When the 600 people surveyed were asked whether they would vote for a measure to increase the city parcel tax by $50 per year to improve flood control and water quality and repair deteriorated storm drainage systems, 59 percent of the respondents said they would and 6 percent said they were undecided, but "leaned" toward "yes."  

Jo An Cook of One Warm Pool was less celebratory. The survey revealed that, asked whether they would support a bond to rebuild the therapeutic warm pool and renovate three existing pools at a cost of $30 per year for the average homeowner—one with a 1,900-square-foot home assessed at $300,000—only 43 percent said yes, with another 7 percent leaning toward the affirmative. 

"I know that the survey doesn’t look good," she told the Planet on Thursday. On the bright side, however, she pointed to a separate survey question, which asked what people thought about constructing a heated therapy pool: 72 percent said they approved, if one includes the 24 percent that "slightly" agreed, she said. 

Cook, 73, further conceded that mounting a vigorous campaign would be a challenge to the elderly and disabled warm-pool users. They would need the help of the advocates for neighborhood pool repair, she said. She said she continues to hope that the council will place the issue on the ballot. 

The survey pointed to other issues important to voters: library renovations, improving disaster preparedness, emergency medical services, pedestrian safety, youth workforce training and eliminating rotating fire station closures. The survey showed, however, that two-thirds of the voters polled were not prepared to support any of them. 

The council asked staff to come back May 6 with a proposal for a second survey that would give the council more information on what the community would be willing to support. "If we put on two measures, that’s all" the voters will pass, Councilmember Betty Olds said. 

Staff had wanted council to be prepared May 6 to vote on which measures they want to place on the ballot, but several councilmembers indicated that they would want more time. 

Councilmembers said they fear that if too many issues appear before the voters, the electorate will choose none. 

Four years ago, voters shot down bond measures after a vigorous campaign by the anti-tax group BASTA (Berkeleyans Against Soaring Taxes). Barbara Gilbert, who works with BASTA and the Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations, told the Planet Thursday that people do not want more taxes. 

"I feel the city wastes money," she said, noting a 14 percent salary increase recently given police and fire over the next four-year period.  

"There have been terrible land-use decisions," she added. "The city has subsidized developers." Gilbert added that many of the existing taxes include an automatic 2 percent yearly increase. 

Alper told the council that the survey further indicated that combining various items into an omnibus measure is not advisable.

The City Council adoption Tuesday around midnight of an ordinance that would add open-space and parking regulations in all commercial-area development, a preemptive strike against possible fallout from the passage of Proposition 98, was a disappointment to some West Berkeley residents who hoped to see the passage of a competing ordinance—one that would have limited building heights along San Pablo Avenue. 

While the adoption of a competing ordinance would have meant the possibility of limiting heights to three stories (plus a bonus story) along San Pablo Avenue, the approved staff-written ordinance keeps heights along San Pablo as they are now zoned, allowing four stories plus one bonus story according to Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman. Poschman noted that in other commercial areas, heights are already restricted to three stories plus one bonus story. 

Adoption of the staff version of the ordinance is a loss for the community, Housing Advisory Commission Chair Jesse Arreguin told the Planet Wednesday. “It really was a battle over the livability of West Berkeley,” Arreguin said, referring to the height issue. 

Prop. 98 will appear on the June 3 ballot. Initiated by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, it is described as preventing government from using the power of eminent domain to take private property in many instances and as prohibiting other government actions that could reduce the value of property to its owners. Critics say the proposition is vague, as many of its tenets will face interpretation by the courts.  

If voters approve Prop. 98, it will likely to become more difficult or impossible to change zoning regulations. That is why the density bonus issue came to council on Tuesday rather than in the fall, as the Planning Commission had projected. 

In an 8-1 vote, with Councilmember Betty Olds voting in opposition, the council approved an ordinance, written by Planning Department staff, intended to regulate projects that are built under California’s density bonus law, a law that allows developers to increase the size of their project in return for a public benefit, such as including affordable housing units in a project. 

If Prop. 98 passes, the courts may interpret the law to say that limitations placed on developers, including the regulation of zoning, constitute a “taking” of private property. The council passed the staff-drafted ordinance—and will have a special meeting May 1 for its second reading—in order to have new development rules in place before the possible adoption of the proposition. 

A competing ordinance, written almost two years ago by a subcommittee made up of members of the Planning, Housing and Zoning commissions, was defeated 2-1-6, with Councilmembers Dona Spring and Kriss Worthingon voting in favor of the measure. They said the staff-written ordinance does not go far enough in protecting neighborhoods adjacent to commercial corridors. Mayor Tom Bates opposed the joint-subcommittee ordinance. Others abstained. The proposal failed since it did not win the necessary five votes. 

Arguing for the joint subcommittee ordinance, Councilmember Dona Spring said, “This gives us more flexibility; it gives us more options.” 

If Prop. 98 fails, the ordinance will sunset and the Planning Commission will present a new draft ordinance to the council in the fall. 

“This matter needs a lot more discussion,” commented Councilmember Linda Maio. 

Precisely how Prop. 98, if it passes, will affect developers using the state’s density bonus laws and the city’s ability to regulate zoning will likely become clear only after the courts have ruled on specific cases. Opponents have fielded a much simpler measure, Proposition 99, which supporters say limits the use of eminent domain against single family homes but does little else. 

The subcommittee ordinance would have allowed only three stories, which could be exceeded with a use permit.  

“I think the staff recommendation will result in big boxes,” West Berkeley resident Toni Mester told the council, calling for support of the committee’s recommendation.  

Speaking for Wareham Development, a large landowner/developer in Emeryville and West Berkeley, some of whose undeveloped property fronts on San Pablo Avenue, Chris Barlow faulted the subcommittee’s ordinance for the increased need of use permits and for “uncertainty.”  

He also said he disliked the regulations in the staff ordinance, but called them the “lesser of two evils.” Developer Ali Kashani of Memar Properties, which is proposing a large development at the corner of Ashby and San Pablo, called on the council to approve neither option, as did Erin Rhoades, chair of Liveable Berkeley and the wife of Kashani’s partner Mark Rhoades, until recently the city of Berkeley’s Director of Current Planning. 

Requirements in the approved ordinance that will impact all the commercial corridor development include: 

• transition setbacks—a minimum of 10 feet where a development on a commercial corridor abuts a residential district; 

• setbacks on upper stories—first and second stories will be 10 feet from an abutting residence, the second and third floors would be set back a minimum of 15 feet and the fourth story set back 30 feet from an abutting residence; 

• open space—75 percent of the required open space can be on the roof; 

• parking—10 percent of the required parking spaces must be at grade. (This amended the original staff version that said 25 percent must be at grade.)

Community members turned the heat up a notch on Pacific Steel Casting Tuesday when Berkeley lawyer Tim Rumberger filed a class-action nuisance lawsuit against the foundry on behalf of thousands of West Berkeley neighbors. 

The lawsuit—filed in the Superior Court of Alameda County—names Pacific Steel neighbor Rosie Lee Evans as the lead plaintiff. It seeks an injunction requiring the foundry to reduce “off-site toxic emissions impact to safe levels or relocate from this neighborhood,” and demands a compensation to “the thousands of neighbors affected daily by the noxious odors and toxins.”  

Pacific Steel spokesperson Elizabeth Jewel of Aroner Jewel and Ellis, the public relations firm representing Pacific Steel, refused comment on the lawsuit. 

“It will proceed and we will go to court and that’s about it,” she said Tuesday. 

The class-action complaints against the foundry include negligence, trespass, public and private nuisance, intentional misrepresentation and unlawful business practices. 

“Rosie lives in the shadow of the plant,” Rumberger told the Planet. “She has been poisoned with toxic fumes and hazardous materials from Pacific Steel for a long time.” 

He added Evans was a good representation of the neighbors who had lived in the downwind homes surrounding the three industrial plants off Second Street in Berkeley for a six-month period during the last three years, as mandated by law to qualify as part of the class. 

Evans, who has lived in the neighborhood for 47 years, said she has smelt burnt copper for a long time. 

“It was something stinky, sometimes it’s hard to describe the smell,” she said. “But it made me cough really bad. It was only when I talked to my other neighbors that I believed it was coming from Pacific Steel.” 

Evans said she believed her husband’s dry cough and her grandchild’s asthma have been caused by fumes from Pacific Steel 

“I don’t know how many residents make up the class,” Rumberger said. “I have been consulting with many of the neighbors for almost a year now and doing research. We wanted to get the science right. For a long time people have believed they were being poisoned but the plant denies it and has said the emissions are from the freeway. But the neighbors are ready to fight it. It’s our burden to prove that the chemicals are coming from Pacific Steel.” 

The lawsuit provides scientific air sampling data collected over a six-month period from near the Second Street-based foundry by Global Community Monitoring under a grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. 

The test results show evidence of manganese and nickel concentrations hundreds of times higher than deemed safe by the World Health Organization. 

Jewel told the Planet in an earlier interview it was impossible to tie the outcome of the test to one source. 

A recent report by Global Community Monitor on grassroots action monitoring toxic pollution names Berkeley as one of the worst polluted cities in the world based on the Pacific Steel air monitoring project case study. 

“The city and the air district have failed the people miserably in West Berkeley and have caved in to the threats of Pacific Steel Casting again,” said Denny Larson of Global Community Monitor. “So it’s time to take the issue to court and to the streets to seek justice until the health of the neighbors is really protected.” 

Several hundred Pacific Steel workers turned up at a Berkeley City Council meeting in February to protest Councilmember Linda Maio’s proposal to declare the West Berkeley-based foundry a “public nuisance” and refer it to the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board for odor abatement.  

The council voted unanimously to enter into an agreement with Pacific Steel to cut odor and emissions within a specific timeline. 

Pacific Steel Casting’s appeal of a small claims court decision which went against the company in November and awarded $35,000 in damages to a group of West Berkeley neighbors who sued the foundry for loss of use and enjoyment of their property and mental distress began last week . 

Rumberger’s class action lawsuit also charges Pacific Steel for emotional distress and fear of adverse health consequences caused by what it claims to be “exposure to harmful and offensive emissions or odors, fumes and articulate matter,” caused by the foundry’s negligent conduct. 

The lawsuit asks the court to mandate that Pacific Steel to maintain records of all complaints, claims or emission reports and to install and maintain continuous 24-hour fence line monitors which would transmit emissions to a public web site. 

It also urges the formation of an independent Pacific Steel neighborhood organization to address resident concerns. 

Pacific Steel agreed in a settlement of a lawsuit by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to install a $2 million carbon absorption unit on Plant 3 to reduce emissions and odor last year.  

It also settled a suit from Communities for a Better Environment by agreeing to install an air filtration system.  

A 21-year-old Emeryville man died and two people were injured in a spectacular crash on Interstate 80 at Ashby Avenue early Wednesday. 

California Highway Patrol Officer Sam Morgan said the accident happened about 12:07 a.m. when a 1993 BMW 525 lost control as it headed eastbound on the freeway. 

“The car hydroplaned across the lanes,” said the officer, and was struck on the  

driver’s side by a 2003 Toyota Tacoma pickup driven by a 34-year-old El Cerrito  

man, which caused it to spin in a clockwise direction. 

The BMW was then struck on the passenger side by a 2006 Ford, driven by a 49-year-old Alameda man, and his car was rear-ended, in turn, by a 2003 Acura driven by a 28-year-old Richmond woman. 

Berkeley Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong said firefighters had to use mechanical equipment to remove the injured passenger from the BMW, 21-year-old Eric Anthony Fernandez, who was later pronounced dead at Highland Hospital. 

Berkeley paramedics transported three people to Highland. The driver of the BMW was also hospitalized for treatment of moderate injuries, Morgan said, and the driver of the Acura was treated at the hospital for minor injuries. 

“All of them were wearing their belt restraints,” Morgan said.  

The cause of the accident is still under investigation, he said, though rain and wind may have been contributory factors.

The Daily Planet sat down with the four candidates in the California Assembly District 14 race recently and asked their views on various issues. The Daily Planet will reproduce portions of their responses in upcoming issues, beginning this week with the issue of health care.  

Last year, two different pieces of legislation were introduced in Sacramento to change California’s health insurance system. One was a packet of legislation by Senator Sheila Kuehl of Santa Moncia, SB840/SB1014, the so-called single-payer packet, in which California would have set up a system of universal health care, similar to what is present in Canada and the United Kingdom. 

The second was the coalition package (AB8/ABX) that originally began with an alliance between Senate President Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, eventually including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Perata ultimately withdrew his support from it after the projected budget deficits were announced. 

The AD14 candidates were asked how they would have voted on both of these legislative packages, as well as what their own health care legislative goals would be if they won the Democratic nomination in June and were elected to the legislature next November. 

Phil Polakoff, Berkeley physician 

I want to quote what I heard last night, listening to Barack Obama, “the urgency of now.” What I want to do in California is the “urgency of now,” what is needed now, and what is needed to do a structural overhaul of the entire health care delivery system. It’s not just saying we need single payer, we need to reform health care completely. We need to have the conversation. And we have to have all the stakeholders at the table. We can’t just have a bill that’s run by the California Nurses Association and blocked by everybody else. Everyone’s going to have to be at the table. And it’s going to have to be both parties. It can’t be just Republicans or Democrats. 

If I can accomplish four things, I’d be very satisfied that I made a contribution to the state.  

If I can, one, raise the level of involvement of all parties in disease prevention, health promotion, that’ll be a plus. To take on the issue of the rampant nutritional issues that are leading to the increase in obesity and diabetes. To take on the problems of air quality resulting in instances of very elevated rates of asthma. Two, if I could make sure that we legislate that no person is denied health care because of pre-existing condition. That’s doable. Three, if I could deal with the fact that people are having their health insurance taken away after they have catastrophic illness. That would be a success. Four, if I could make the state better prepared for any sort of emergency, so if there’s an earthquake, or if there’s a pandemic flu, that we’re better prepared.  

We’re not going to solve all these problems, but if we can make the people of California healthier, better prepared from a major assault, whether it’s deliberate or non-deliberate. The emergency rooms are ill-prepared to take on a major problem. Those are the four major things.  

There’s no lack of energy put into the reform effort last year. It just wasn’t done correctly. You can have a lot of action, but last year I don’t think the action was in a way that would get specific goals accomplished. All we have now is an incredibly complex, convoluted, inefficient, frightfully expensive delivery mechanism. If you have the access, and you know where to go, you can get the best treatment in the world. But if you don’t know where to go, you don’t have the access, you don’t have the knowledge, it’s frankly scary to people involved in the process, at any age. I would like to be the point person in reigniting the dialogue, and the conversation. 

When I was in the legislature [in the 1980s Polakoff worked as a consultant to the state senate's industrial relations committee on workers’ compensation issues] there was always good politics and good policy that everyone could end up being proud of. AB32, the global warming solution, that’s something I think people are proud about. AB12, childhood nutrition, I think that’s something people are proud about. I don’t think anyone really is proud about AB8, ABX, or these other similar bills as they went through the process. I think people worked very hard. I think there was some positive movement. So if you ask me if I’d be happier if we had accomplished something, yes. It would have been incremental, but we would have made some forward movement. And it could have been amended, and we could have learned from it. Now there’s a demoralization. The forces up there don’t know where the leadership’s coming from. There’s those that believe we can redo SB840, single payer. History hasn’t played well on that. And we don’t have the resources, right now, to do a complete re-do of the entire health system. So we need to work on more incremental steps, with pilot projects. 

Nancy Skinner, East Bay Regional Park Director  

The current state of health care is that the haves have it, and more than the have-nots do not. And when I say more than the have-nots, I mean that there are many people working 40 hour per week jobs, skilled people, trained people, doing high-quality 40 hour per week jobs, who have no health care. Because their job doesn’t provide it, or they are self-employed and the insurance companies won’t give it to them, either because of pre-existing conditions or because of some other problem. So basically you have this incredible crisis in health care in California. You have up to 7 million without any health care. And then you have a whole separate category of people with, really, inadequate because either their deductible is too high, because it doesn’t cover lots of basic medical needs, or it doesn’t cover dental, for example. So health care is in a complete crisis, and we’ve got to fix it. It’s embarrassing. I don’t even want to use that phrase. It’s immoral, to be the seventh largest economy in the world and to not provide basic human rights.  

Single payer is the most efficient method to provide health care for everyone. We should treat it like other basic services. Like fire protection. Like safety and police protection. We pool our resources, we put the funds together, and we provide the service. We should do the same with health care. And that’s basically what single payer is. And we have single payer now in the form of MediCal and MediCare. They still use private doctors and hospitals, so it’s not that you have to have the government run the delivery system. What single payer is, is a mechanism for paying the resources and having employers contribute, employees contribute, state income tax contribute, to provide health care for everyone in the state. 

As far as the Perata-Nuñez-Schwarzenegger effort, after it was written, my concern about that bill was that it didn’t go far enough in the process to get the kind of amendments that would have made it acceptable. It could have had the impact of creating a circumstance where employers who now provide health care benefits might drop theirs, because the mechanism that was being put in that bill might have made it cheaper but might not have covered adequately. So then people who otherwise had a pretty decent health care package with their employer might have lost that coverage. My understanding of the bill was that it would have still had some level of coverage, but it might not have been adequate. So there were a lot of aspects of that bill that really, before I could have supported it, would have needed a lot of amendments. And that discussion didn’t really take place, because it got basically pulled. So single payer, basically, is the way to go. It pools resources and provides for everybody. 

Clearly, more organizing and development of more support needs to occur to get the political will to enact what is the most cost-effective system. In the meantime, there are other programs that we can expand. In the Healthy Families program, we can raise that so people of a higher income level can qualify. And we can create some mandates on employers to provide health care coverage. It’s still a worthwhile step, if we take some of our largest employers, like WalMart. The fact that they do not provide health benefits is a huge cost to the state. The state is, in effect, then subsidizing WalMart for the fact that they do not provide health benefits for their employees. So mandates like that. And negotiating with the pharmaceutical companies to put caps on the price of those medicines. California could do that. 

Tony Thurmond, Richmond City Councilmember 

As you know, 7 million Californians are without health insurance. And that is just wrong in a state that has the wealth and resources that we do. We can fix health care. I support single payer. I passed a resolution in our City Council supporting SB840. I work on health care on some basis with youth in Alameda County who are transitioning out of foster care. We provide a clinic for them and we provide some referrals to mental health services. Many of the youth have MediCal, which is awfully underfunded. So the governor wanting to cut the budget in critical areas like MediCal, for a clinic like mine, what we get back for our reimbursement rate is something really low. Probably 30 percent of the actual cost that we put out. We raise grants and contracts. We have contracts with the Alameda County Social Services Agency.  

So the governor’s cut threats to social services has a threat not just to MediCal but to the youth population that we serve, who don’t have insurance. Many of them are over 21. After 21, they are no longer eligible for even MediCal. So I think we need a system like single payer. I’ll advocate for that in the legislature. I think we need a system that puts patients over costs. Every dollar that we spend on health care, a big chunk of that money, maybe a third, is going to overhead and administrative costs. I’m going to advocate for a single payer system, and if we need to work towards incremental systems while we’re getting there, getting to a larger system, I will always place emphasis on reducing costs, so that we’re focusing on those who need care.  

As far as the Perata-Nuñez bill, I want to preface my remarks that I would have pushed for single payer. That’s from a policy perspective and a personal perspective. My brother, who was 35, passed away in 2004. He lost his job. He lost his insurance. He stopped taking care of himself. He later was diagnosed with a liver disorder that he never knew he had. A very rare liver disorder. I believe that if he had insurance, he would have taken care of himself, and he might still be here today. There’s no guarantee. But I know from experience that people make choices sometimes and not take care of themselves when they’re not sure how to pay for it.  

I read a study about cancer. It’s on the rise in the African-American community, where people aren’t going to a doctor because they weren’t sure how they were going to pay for it. That’s why I have the preference for single payer, because I think that when people start making sacrifices that are going to impact their health, we’ve got it all twisted. Having said that, if it’s going to take hard work and long term advocacy to get to single payer, and we need to do this incrementally, I could have supported the Perata-Nuñez bill if it placed emphasis on containing costs. I’ve been an employer and a supervisor for 15 years. And I’ve seen that it is important that employers provide health care for their employees. And I think there should be a greater emphasis on asking the employers to provide health insurance to their employees. 

Kriss Worthington, Berkeley City Councilmember  

In a country and a state which is supposedly one of the richest and wealthiest countries and states in the world, we have incredible millions of people uninsured. And even ones who are insured are not adequately covered to take care of any kind of serious emergency. So I think many people would say that the health care system is in a state of crisis.  

In the long-term, I support a single payer system to totally change the whole structure on the state and national level, for that matter. I guess one of the differences between me and what some of the other candidates say is I am realistic, and even though many moderate Democrats voted for SB840, that doesn’t actually mean that they support single payer and will fight to make it happen. At some of the candidate meetings, some of the candidates talk about SB840 like, oh, we’ve got that, we just need to get a new governor.  

Sheila Kuehl is brilliant, having talked the Democrats into voting for it, and making Arnold Schwarzenegger the bad guy to veto it, but in reality, a lot of the Democrats didn’t actually support the companion bill [SB1014] which would have actually made it possible for SB840 to be implemented. 

The difference between the two bills (SB840 and SB1014) is sort of like the difference between a proclamation from the City Council saying, “Wow, wow, wow, we think you’re great,” versus an ordinance or legislation actually funding something. So SB840, saying “we like single payer”, got approved. SB1014, the bill that would have actually made it happen, didn’t go anywhere. And there are a lot of Democrats who were against it, which isn’t surprising, given how much money the health care corporations and insurance companies pumped into state assembly and senate campaigns. It’s not shocking. The amazing thing is that [Kuehl’s] such a brilliant organizer that she was able to talk them into voting for the part that she did. But you can’t go to Sacramento in January thinking, well, we’ve got the Democrats on board, we’ve just got to get a new governor and we’ve got to push through single payer, and the public supports us.  

The polls actually show that the public wants reform, but when the corporate interests spend their fortunes, as they did on SB2, the Burton one--- The polls show that the public supported that bill, which put more pressure on employers to provide more insurance. Once it got referended--the corporate interests spent enough money to put it on the ballot and referend it--it got voted down. And that wasn’t anything near as ambitious as single payer. So it’s awfully more complicated than some of the candidates let on. 

As for the Perata-Nuñez bill, I would have aggressively tried to amend it. I think the state labor federation laid out some of the flaws remaining. In a way, I think my position would have been similar to theirs, in that I would have supported it if was amended. One of the flaws was that you were forcing some of these people to get insurance, but you were not making it so that they could afford the insurance. If you have a law that you have to have insurance and it takes up 50 percent of your income, what good is that law? There weren’t sufficient restrictions built into it. This has to do with the whole nature of how Democrats relate to Schwarzenegger. They cave in to him. But when Democrats have shown a backbone and stood up to Schwarzenegger, they’ve been able to defeat him.  

When somebody wants to get something done, you push them to get something decent so that you can vote for it, but not have horrible, unintended consequences. If I were going to be the deciding vote on whether or not AB8 won, I could not have voted against it and made it lose, but I would have been fighting much more aggressively to try to get a series of amendments to it. 

The Berkeley Board of Education voted Wednesday to proceed with the South of Bancroft Plan—which calls for the demolition of the nationally landmarked Old Gym to make room for a stadium and 15 new classrooms, with the option of relocating the warm-water pool located inside it to a site on Milvia Street—and approved $1.4 million for Baker Vilar Architects to design the new facilities. 

The board had discussed the outcome of a charrette held last month to settle a lawsuit against the Berkeley Unified School District at its April 9 meeting but had not taken any action. Friends Protecting Berkeley’s Resources sued the school district last year for what it called an inadequate environmental impact report on the demolition of the gymnasium and warm-water pool.  

The charrette results illustrated adaptive reuse of the Old Gym to meet the school’s academic and physical education needs as identified in the master plan. The district’s Director of Facilities Lew Jones praised charrette participants for their ideas and commitment to Berkeley schools and included their three basic schemes for rehabilitation in his staff report. 

The first concept proposed classrooms on the second floor and added a basement to a portion of the Old Gym. The second concept—suggested by community members concerned about maintaining a league-sized football field at the high school—would demolish a part of the building to accommodate the field and convert the north pool into a warm-water pool. The third plan calls for the demolition of the Donahue Gym, constructing classrooms on the first floor and converting the north pool into the warm-water pool.  

According to the staff report, although none of the groups focused on preserving the 1936 Chace retrofit—historically the most important concept identified by the district—a majority of it could be preserved in a retrofit. 

Warm-water pool users encouraged the board to preserve the Old Gym and the warm pool, citing a recently released city tax survey which shows that voters do not favor a $23 million Pool Improvement bond measure to build a warm water pool, renovate the city’s three existing pools and add youth water play recreational activities. 

“A bond is not very encouraging in the present economic time,” said warm pool user Richard Moore. 

One Warm Pool Advocacy Group Co-Chair JoAnn Cook waited until the end of the meeting to hear the board’s decision on the master plan. 

“Your assistance and advocacy is more important than ever after the disappointing results of the bond survey,” she said. 

Board member Joaquin Rivera asked Jones about future plans for the relocation of the warm water pool. 

Jones told the board the relocation to the Milvia Street tennis courts, as outlined in the master plan, had not been discussed in great detail. 

“It’s not just a district issue,” Rivera said. “We need to talk to the city. We need to make sure before we demolish the Old Gym there is something else.” 

The Old Gym is scheduled for demolition around or after spring 2010, district officials said. 

School board president John Selawsky mentioned the downtown YMCA and West Campus as alternate locations to the Milvia Street site. 

“We need to figure out what’s feasible because it doesn’t seem too promising with the bond,” Rivera said. 

The mayor’s office is also exploring ways to convert the Milvia Street tennis courts into a warm pool but have not yet reached an agreement with Berkeley Unified about its use.  

The district currently has funding to demolish the Old Gym and to plan the new building, but no money to build it. 

Jones said that funding options included state resources or bond measures. 

School board opposes aerial spray 

The board unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday to oppose the aerial spraying of the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM). District officials said the spray zone includes Berkeley public schools and facilities. 

A group of parents, teachers and students turned up to speak against the aerial spraying and quoted research about its possible adverse health effects.  

“Something about this does not smell right,” said one parent. 

The state Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) plan to carry out an aerial spraying program to eradicate the LBAM in nine California counties, including Alameda County, starting this summer. 

Native to Australia, the pest can reportedly impact more than 2,000 plant species. 

Complaints against the aerial spraying of CheckMate—an encapsulated artificial pheromone product—have been lodged by the cities of Albany, Berkeley and Oakland. The three cities have also adopted resolutions opposing it. 

Santa Cruz won its lawsuit against the CDFA for a similar aerial spraying Thursday. 

Additionally, five different State Assembly bills—including one from Assemblymember Loni Hancock which lost in committee— would either ban, limit or require additional reviews or authorization before the spraying occurs, especially around urban and residential areas. 

The Berkeley Unified School District was able to bring back all its “pink-slipped” classroom teachers Wednesday, after the district rescinded potential layoff notices for 11 multiple-credentialed teachers. 

The total number of pink-slipped teachers now stands at nine, a big drop from the 55 who received notices last month in face of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed $4.8 billion budget cuts. 

Last week, 35 teachers were brought back from possible termination. 

“It’s great news,” said Berkeley Federation of Teachers Cathy Campbell. “It’s very exciting to know that all these great recently trained teachers can remain. But we are concerned about the nine art teachers and counselors who are still on the lay-off list. We hope they come back soon.” 

The nine teachers who still face possible termination include four art teachers—two at Berkeley High School, one at Willard Middle School and a part-time teacher at Berkeley Arts Magnet—and five counselors, four at the high school and one at Longfellow Middle School. 

“It’s important to remember the district still faces a $3.2 million budget cut,” Campbell said. “It means that other things from our schools will be cut.” 

Thirty classified employees will receive layoff notices or have their hours of employment reduced in the coming weeks, according to a resolution passed by the Berkeley Board of Education Wednesday. 

The district’s Assistant Superintendent Lisa Udell could not be reached for comment. 

The list of positions affected by the cuts includes instructional specialists, a school safety officer, a district sous chef and a parent liaison. 

District Superintendent Bill Huyett said Wednesday that the district hoped to bring back as many classified employees as possible in the coming months.

Planning commissioners voted Wednesday night to extend the comment period on the draft environmental impact report (DEIR) for Berkeley’s long-delayed Southside Plan. 

Their action followed complaints from south-of-campus residents who complained that the review failed to adequately address area changes in the years since the plan was first drafted. 

By the time the session had ended, commissioners had added a 45-day extension to the public comment period on the DEIR, which was prepared by LSA Associates, an Irvine-based consulting firm with offices in Berkeley. 

The Southside Plan has been slow in coming, crafted after more than 35 public meetings and drafting sessions between 1997 and 2003. 

Though the scoping session for the DEIR was conducted in November 2004, the report was only released this month—a point that raised concerns among some of the neighbors who attended Wednesday night’s hearing. 

The first speaker, retired planner and long-time Southside resident John English, opened with a plea to continue the hearing until the commission’s next meeting then immediately faulted the DEIR for failing to consider a significant range of development alternatives. 

English said he was also skeptical of the DEIR’s contention that the plan wouldn’t have any significant impacts on the neighborhood, which parallels the southern border of the main UC Berkeley campus and extends to the southern side of Dwight Way. 

English said he was also concerned that the document may not have adequately addressed the impacts of the state’s density bonus law, which allows developers to exceed local zoning limits if their projects offer affordable units for lower-income tenants or buyers. 

Michael Katz, an area resident who participated in the planning process, said he “would be very grateful” if language addressing major transportation changes stemming from the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), dedicated bus lanes and changes of two existing streets from one-way to two-way were removed from the document. 

Katz, who is also active in Berkeleyans for Better Transportation Options, said he was especially concerned because BRT wasn’t on the table when the plan was drafted. 

BRT, a plan by AC Transit to create dedicated bus lanes along Telegraph Avenue as part of a transit scheme connecting Berkeley to San Leandro, has generated strong opposition from Telegraph Avenue merchants and residents of nearby neighborhoods, while drawing strong support from mass transit activists. 

Roland Peterson, speaking on behalf of the Telegraph Avenue Business Improvement District, said he was strongly opposed to plans to transform Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue into two-way streets, as he opposed BRT-related suggestions to close the upper end of Telegraph to car traffic. 

He called proposed mitigations to offset the impacts of transforming the one-way streets “utopian” and “divorced from reality.” 

“Keep the streets as they are currently configured,” he urged. 

Martha Jones, a veteran of 35 planning sessions, said she has lived on the Southside since 1947, the same year “some idiot in government decided to take these streets and change them to one-way streets.” 

Making them two-way streets again, she said, would ease traffic on congested neighborhood streets. 

“Please, let’s go back to when we all had brains,” she urged. 

“Superficial and negligent,” said Doris Willingham, who charged that the review didn’t adequately address the impacts of major development projects by UC Berkeley. 

Sharon Hudson said she was concerned that responsibility for the plan had been given to a newly hired planner, Elizabeth Greene. “It would be nice to be able to talk to somebody at the planning department who has been around for a while,” she said. 

It was Hudson who first raised the issue of extending the comment period. She said she was especially concerned about the potential impact of the density bonus on the plan’s projections of future growth. 

“Something’s really wrong here,” said Doug Buckwald, another area resident, who called the DEIR “a leftover piece of chaff, an obsolete document which should be discarded.” 

“I’m practically in tears,” said Janice Thomas, who lives on Panoramic Hill above the Southside Plan area. She cited a list of major changes that have come down since the plan was created, including those outlined in UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan 2020 (LRDP) and the stadium-area Southeast Campus Integrated Projects (SCIP) as well as BRT. 

“At the very least, I hope you will ask for an extension of the public comment period,” she said. 

It was commissioner Susan Wengraf who moved to extend the comment period, receiving a second from Gene Poschman. 

City Planning and Development Director Dan Marks said the issue for the commission was whether or not the plan’s DEIR adequately evaluated its impacts, adding that discussion of the DEIR was not the same as discussing the plan itself. 

“How can we evaluate the EIR when things have happened since that didn’t exist in the plan?” asked Commission Chair James Samuels? 

But Marks said the DEIR did take into account the impacts of the new university projects, BRT and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s recently issued LRDP. 

“The EIR evaluated everything mentioned this evening,” he said, adding that one reason preparation took so long was because of the lengthy time AC Transit spent coming up with a BRT proposal. 

Commissioner Larry Gurley said he was concerned that the plan itself didn’t address subsequently changed conditions, but Judith Malamut, the LSA principal in charge of preparing the DEIR, said the document did take into account “all the individual developments since the plan was prepared.” 

Marks said commissioners had the option of deciding whether the DEIR was adequately prepared, and then if they chose to change the plan itself, “we will have to decide whether the EIR adequately addresses” the changes. 

In the end, commissioners voted unanimously to add 45 days to the public comment period. 

Marks said the planning department would make computer CD versions of the DEIR available for $5 or free for those who couldn’t afford them. 

The document is posted online along with the plan itself at www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=420. 

Downtown Plan 

Because of the late hour, commissioners voted to delay deliberations on the proposed economic development section of the Downtown Area Plan, though planner Matt Taecker was given time to discuss how the staff had revised the document prepared by the citizen Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). 

The new plan, mandated in a legal settlement between the city and UC Berkeley, defines the parameters of growth and change in an expanded downtown area. 

While Taecker said most of the changes were made to clarify language and eliminate redundancies, at least two DAPAC members who also serve on the Planning Commission were shaking their heads well before he finished.

Proposed revisions to Berkeley’s wireless ordinance ran into opposition Wednesday night both from neighbors, who branded the proposals as weak, and from phone companies, which said they were too strict. 

The proposed revisions were up for a public hearing before the Planning Commission, which ultimately decided to continue the deliberations and take more comment during a second hearing on May 28. 

“There’s not an urgent need to adopt” the revisions Wednesday night, said Deputy Planning Director Wendy Cosin at the hearing’s start. 

Cosin said the revisions before the commission didn’t stem from a legal challenge to the current ordinance. 

But the subject of that litigation, the placement of cell-phone antennas on the UC Storage building at 2721 Shattuck Ave., was very much on the minds of many of those who spoke Wednesday. 

Verizon Wireless sued the city in U.S. District Court in Oakland in August, charging that the Berkeley City Council and Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) violated the Telecommunications Act of 1996 by denying Verizon permits to mount their antennas on top of the building, which is the tallest in the neighborhood. 

The city knuckled under in November, granting Verizon the permits, but the following month Councilmembers directed city staff to prepare revisions to the municipal wireless ordinance. 

While federal law specifically bars state and local governments from imposed regulations based on concerns about potential health impacts of electromagnetic radiation from cell antennas, the proposed ordinance would require that companies pay a fee for independent monitoring of the strength of radio frequency emissions from their installations. 

Cosin’s written staff report described the changes as “non-substantive,” requiring “minor modifications and aesthetic upgrades to reduce a facility’s size or visibility,” and allowing an over-the-counter administrative use permit for antenna sites in the C-2, M and MM zones (commercial and manufacturing). 

The proposal would also eliminate the city’s ability to require cell companies to site their antennas in clusters with those of other companies, eliminate criminal sanctions for violations and end the City Council’s ability to remand appeals of use permits to ZAB. 

Cosin said the goal of the revisions was “to ensure an aesthetically pleasing environment and protect the character” of residential neighborhoods while minimizing regulations for areas where installations don’t impact neighborhood character. 

The revisions also eliminate references to historical and archaeological resources, which Cosin said are already covered by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. 

But that wasn’t enough to satisfy Steve Ledoux, an attorney for wireless carrier T-Mobile, which, he said, “doesn’t have a horse in this race.” 

Nor was it enough for Paul Albritton, the lawyer for Verizon, who said the revised ordinance “seems to have all the defects” and “red tape” pre-empted by federal law. 

Michael Barglow of the Berkeley Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union said neighbors want a moratorium on new antenna installations so that a new ordinance can be carefully drafted, a process he said has begun in Irvine and other cities around the state. 

He called the proposal before the commission, drafted by Acting City Attorney Zach Cowan, “unacceptable” because it didn’t consider alternatives now being considered in other cities. 

To avoid emissions from powerful antennas, he said, the city should look for lower-wattage installations more generally distributed throughout the city, declaring that high-wattage emitters are concentrated in low-income communities. 

Commissioner Susan Wengraf asked Barglow if federal law allowed communities to regulate antenna output. He acknowledged that he wasn’t sure whether ordinances could be so specific, and said he didn’t want to suggest that he was asking that all antennas be low-wattage installations. 

Kate Bernier said she was concerned because cell antenna emissions were part of a larger array of radiation sources, including microwave ovens and WiFi installations that provide wireless Internet service. 

Steve Martinot, a neighbor of the French Hotel on North Shattuck, where another antenna installation is planned, urged the city to adopt a moratorium and, “to whatever extent we can,” to follow the precautionary principle, in which possible sources of adverse impacts must be proved harmless before they can be approved. 

As an alternative, he said, the city should opt for more, lower-wattage antennas. 

“You guys should always be concerned about the equity issue,” said Sharon Hudson, who also criticized the ordinance for allowing easier permits for commercial areas that house the city’s larger apartment buildings. 

Concerns about impacts on single family homes paled in comparison to the larger potential exposures to apartment dwellers, she said. 

Verizon lawyer Albritton encouraged commissioners to continue the discussion but argued against a moratorium. He said the difference in impacts between different wattage installations was small, and called the city’s revised ordinance “overly burdensome. The ordinance needs more work, and I urge you to continue to let it happen.” 

Albritton cited a Danish study, which he said showed no increased rate of cancer among cell phone users and which examined 450,000 people over a 20-year period. He told commissioners that federal law requires that they rely on the conclusions of “dedicated federal researchers.” 

“So the reality is that the federal government is telling us not to be concerned about health issues?” asked commission Chair James Samuels. 

Yes, said Albritton, just as the city doesn’t regulate safety standards for airplanes that fly over the city. 

“Yet!” quipped Commissioner Gene Poschman, evoking laughter from the audience. 

“Certain areas of the law are taken as a matter of national interest,” said Albritton, who also stressed that a number of customers are giving up wired phones and opting for wireless alone. 

Albritton said phone companies look to lower-power, more closely clustered antenna placement as the number of users increased, and said companies don’t site installations in poor neighborhoods “to serve rich people who live somewhere else.” 

Instead he said, companies like to place antennas near the users, which is why many of the first installations locally were along the freeway. 

In response to a question from commissioner Patti Dacey, Albritton said the reason there weren’t installations in the Berkeley hills was because of city zoning issues, not because companies didn’t want them there. 

But from his seat in the audience, Harvey Sherback remained skeptical: “The cell companies are asking for absolution from legal problems from their radiation. This tells me that the cell-phone companies know something.” 

In the end, the commissioners voted to put the issue on hold, at least until May 28.

A private company founded by the head of one of two UC Berkeley programs created to turn plants into fuels for planes, trains and automobiles is launching a commercial venture to turn sugar cane into diesel fuel. 

That marks a major shift for the company created by a UC Berkeley scientist who said he wasn’t interest in turning food crops into fuels. 

Amyris Technologies, a company founded by UC Berkeley bioengineer Jay Keasling, announced the move Wednesday on PR Newswire, a commercial service companies use to issue press releases. 

Amyris is now headed by John Melo, a former executive of the British oil company BP plc., which is sponsoring the $500 million Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), currently housed on the UC Berkeley campus. 

Melo was hired at the same time UC Berkeley was applying for the BP grant. 

Keasling heads the Joint BioEnergy Institute, based in Emeryville and funded with a $135 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Amyris is headquartered two stories below in the same building. 

Keasling and EBI director Chris Somerville, who has developed genetically engineered crops for agroindustrial giant Monsanto, have said on several occasions that their programs weren’t focused on converting crops used for human consumption into fuels. 

However Amyris, which gained worldwide attention after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded their program for creating an antimalarial drug with genetically engineered microbes, is now embarked, with Brazilian ethanol producer Crystalsev, on a biodiesel program that he hopes to have running commercially within two years, Melo said in the PR Newswire press release.

Posted Thurs., April 24—The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to postpone the public hearing on the Berkeley city attorney’s draft sunshine ordinance—which promises greater access to local government—to October and granted the citizens’ group working on an alternate draft a 90-day extension to complete their work. 

The citizens’ group had requested a postponement of the public hearing at the council’s agenda committee meeting last week, but the committee refused the request at the time. However, the full council this week agreed to a motion by councilmember Laurie Capitelli to grant the postponement. 

At Tuesday’s meeting, Bates said he felt the need to clarify his position on the ordinance drafting process. 

Community members and some council members had complained the city was rushing to establish an ordinance because it was campaign season, and the mayor wanted to list the sunshine ordinance under his accomplishments. 

“The issue of a sunshine ordinance has been in front of the City Council since 2001, since before I was even in office,” Bates said. “There are some accusations that I asked the public to form a committee to draft a sunshine ordinance and that now I am preventing them from completing their work.” 

The city has been working on a sunshine ordinance since 2001, when at the request of Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the City Council asked the city manager’s office to look into improving the city’s sunshine policies, including the adoption of an ordinance.  

A review of council’s March 20 work session records, Bates said, confirmed that council had discussed various options to address legitimate concerns and differences of opinion raised by the four workshop panelists—Californians Aware General Counsel Terry Francke, Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville League of Women Voters President Jinky Gardner, American Civil Liberties Union Police Practices Policy Director Mark Schlosberg and Northern California Society of Professional Journalists member and Planet staff reporter Judith Scherr. 

According to Bates, the ideas included asking Francke and Schlosberg to work with the city attorney to develop a list of policy issues and options for council consideration, forming a citizen subcommittee to help them, and asking the League to sponsor a committee forum on a Saturday or Sunday. 

“None of these suggestions were moved or passed,” Bates said. “The final approved motion was to table the sunshine ordinance for action and have the city manager and mayor return with a process for moving forward.” 

A review of the March 20 workshop recording by the Planet revealed that Scherr had stressed the importance of having an expert such as Francke involved in drafting an ordinance—something the mayor had agreed with—but did not formally make a motion on at the end of the work session. 

The city manager returned to council on May 8, Bates said, with the recommendation to develop a matrix of policy issues and recommendations and to post it online for public comment. 

A matrix identifying issues raised by Francke, Schlosberg, Scherr, SuperBOLD and councilmember Kriss Worthington had been posted online by the city attorney in October 2007, he said. The matrix can be viewed on the city’s website. 

“The city attorney provided this document to the above-mentioned people and received no comment from them,” Bates said. “The document remained open for public comment on the city's website through March 2008.” 

Bates said the city attorney’s office contacted Francke in late March to inform him that the sunshine ordinance had been posted online for the last six months and that comments on it would be presented to Council on April 22. 

“In that call—made in March of this year—the assistant city attorney [Sarah Reynoso] learned from Mr. Francke that there was a group of people working on an alternative ordinance and that he was not at liberty to tell her who they were,” he said. “Mr. Franck told her that he did not represent the group and therefore could not give her comments on what was posted on the web. This group is self-appointed since neither I nor the council ever decided to set up a citizen group to write an alternative ordinance without the involvement our city staff.” 

Bates said that on April 2, the group sent him and the council a letter asking for a delay so they could complete their more extensive sunshine ordinance proposal.  

“Instead of this group providing comments and talking with staff to work out the issues, they printed their issues in the local paper today,” Bates said, referring to the April 22 publication of a commentary article the citizens’ group sent the Daily Planet. “Not much advance notice for any of us.” 

In the commentary, the citizens’ group stated that “sunshine-obstructionists, led by Mayor Bates,” were promoting “a weak, so called sunshine ordinance in an effort to preempt” the group’s proposal. “In reality, their bill is more of a sunset ordinance—an ineffective proposal with no enforcement provisions, only masquerading as sunshine,” the commentary said. 

Bates said at the meeting that he wanted to see a list of the disputed policy issues and options the council could consider. 

“I appreciate the commitment and the time this group has devoted to this issue over the years,” he said. 

Dean Metzger, who spoke on behalf of the citizens’ group, said he had been under the impression that the mayor had asked the League of Women Voters to form a group. 

“We met because the League sent out an e-mail,” he said. “We didn’t do anything in secret. We thought you had asked to form a group.” 

Capitelli’s motion—which was unanimously approved by council—asked the citizens’ group to get its final draft together by the end of July, before council breaks for summer. 

“I am going to call it the Ad Hoc Sunshine Committee, since their members are probably secret,” he said, at which around 10 members from the citizens’ group promptly stood up to prove him wrong. 

The six week summer recess, Capitelli said, would provide council adequate time to review the document. He added that alternate perspectives from the citizens’ group and city staff on the draft ordinance should be presented. 

Posted Tue., April 22—Oakland Police are investigating a Tuesday morning shooting in which neighbors say a North Oakland man shot an intruder breaking into his 59th Street home. 

The injured man, who had staggered up to Shattuck Avenue and collapsed near Dorsey’s Locker, a tavern at 5817 Shattuck Ave., was rushed to the Highland Hospital for treatment of a serious gunshot wound, police said. 

The man who fired the shot, a resident of a home in the 600 block of 59th Street, was being questioned by police investigators by late morning. 

“Right now, we’re just trying to determine whether the shooting was justified or not justified,” said Officer John Koster as he stood next to the police tape, which had sealed off the block of 59th between Shattuck Avenue and Whitney Street. 

Bob Brokl, a neighbor, said the intruder “was shot at the door as he was breaking into the house.” 

Ron Butier, who owns the house, said he was at work at the time of the shooting and declined to discuss the specifics of the shooting, which was done by his housemate. 

“There have been a lot of crimes in this neighborhood and people are feeling on their own, and they’ve been talking about taking matters into their own hands,” he said. 

Annie, a neighbor who lives a block south on 58th Street, said there was a fatal shooting on her block only three months ago. 

“He got shot in the middle of the block and staggered up to Shattuck before he collapsed and died,” she said. 

Annie said she knew the neighbor who had shot the intruder. “He’s a real nice guy. He has some nice things, and this isn’t the first time they’ve tried to break into his house. There are lots of break-ins in the neighborhood, and all the neighbors are trying to help. We’re all single people in studio apartments,” she said. 

“There are shootings all the time,” Butier said. “We hear gunshots all the time.” 

The scene of Tuesday morning’s shooting was just four doors down the street from the home of another North Oakland resident who figured in the shooting of a suspected criminal in 2005. 

Patrick McCullough shot a 15-year-old in the arm in the neighborhood where McCullough had been waging a campaign against drug dealers who neighbors said had been plaguing the neighborhood. 

McCullough, who is now running for the North Oakland City Council seat against three-term incumbent Jane Brunner, had told officers he had been surrounded by 15 young men in his front yard, who had yelled “Kill the snitch.” 

McCullough told police he shot the youth after another young man had told his companion, “Give me the pistol.” 

The Alameda County District Attorney’s office decline to prosecute McCullough at the urging of police. No charges were filed in that incident. 

Dona Spring dreams of visiting Point Reyes, something the 55-year-old Berkeley councilmember has never done before. After rheumatoid arthritis left Spring wheelchair bound in 1972, weekend getaways have been few and far between. 

That could change with today’s (Tuesday) launch of AccessMobile—the nation’s first wheelchair-accessible car share van—by Bay Area-based non-profit City CarShare at the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center. 

The new van will be shared by city employees and disabled City CarShare members Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and available to all City CarShare members on evenings and weekends. 

The specially designed fuel-efficient AccessMobile Dodge Grand Caravan—which can carry six seated passengers and one wheelchair comes with a $50,000 price tag. 

Berkeley used $25,000 in award money from winning the 2007 National Organization on Disability’s Accessible American contest to split the cost with City CarShare, which matched the amount. 

“It just made sense,” City CarShare CEO Rick Hutchinson said. “We were looking at how to expand our services to senior centers, low-income and moderate income families, and this seemed like a great first step. But we don’t want to compete with public transportation. Before people jump into any of our cars, we make sure they have explored other alternatives, such as biking, walking or the bus.” 

Disabled residents who don’t have a driver’s license will also be able to register as members, as long as they have a family member or an attendant to drive them around, Hutchinson said. 

City CarShare spokesperson Anita Daley said that disabled members of the community would not be subject to a screening process or required to have any prerequisites. 

A disabled City CarShare member will have to pay $6.50 per hour to use the AccessMobile—which includes gas, insurance and maintenance, Hutchinson said. 

“Anything that includes the disabled is good but this just seems a bit elitist,” said Dan McMullan of Disabled People Outside, who gets around Berkeley on a wheelchair. “I would like to see the city use the money to reign in on the services they already have, such as the Taxi Scrip and discount fares for BART and buses.” 

The city’s Paratransit Services manager Angellique DeCoud said she revised the Taxi Scrip program in 2005 to make it more available to disabled residents. 

DeCoud sends out $120-vouchers every four months to seniors and wheel chair-bound people, which they can use to pay for taxi rides. 

“Some people take rides which cost $5 and others travel further, which costs more money,” she said. “Once the amount on your free voucher is up, you have to pay out of your own pocket.” 

When no City CarShare spots are available behind the Civic Center at 2180 Milvia St. to park the van, Spring has given permission for the van to use her personal parking spot. 

Spring also worked on the design, making sure the rear of the van could be accessed by wheelchairs.  

“I am so excited about the possibility of a day trip to Point Reyes,” she said smiling. “Oh, to just be able to go down by the beach.” 

Spring uses access-friendly taxi cabs, which she said were efficient but expensive. 

“It costs $15 to just go to the doctor, and nearly $100 to go to Fort Mason in San Francisco,” she said. “I can’t use Para Transit, it just involves too much driving around and waiting. This van will be more accessible for 85 percent of Berkeley’s disabled population, who need their own van only 85 percent of the time. It’s very liberating.” 

CarShare for Berkeley 

The city got rid of its fleet of 10 cars in 2004 and replaced it with hybrid City CarShare vehicles. The cars are used by councilmembers, the city’s Public Health nurses, traffic engineers and Environmental Health and Housing staff. 

More than 180 City of Berkeley employees are enrolled in the city’s CarShare program, said the city’s transportation planner Matthew Nichols. 

The city, which pays the standard CarShare rate of $5 per hour and 40 cents per mile for the service, has saved a significant amount of money from the program, about $50,000 per year, he said. 

“Not only does the program reduce fleet costs, but it also saves in personal mileage reimbursement costs, and it frees up public parking in the downtown, which supports economic vitality for our merchants,” he said. “The city doesn’t have to pay for gas, insurance, cleaning or maintenance, so we haven’t had to pay for the recent rise in gas prices. Of course, the program also reduces air pollution and Berkeley’s ‘population explosion’ of car ownership.” 

To attend the launch, show up at the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center, 2180 Milvia St., in the back parking lot today (Tuesday) at 1 p.m. 

For more information on the Taxi Scrip program visit: 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=3992 or call 981-7269. 

To become a member of City Carshare visit: www.citycarshare.org or call 352-0323. 

In a crowded field in which candidates are trying to distinguish themselves from one other—such as in the current four member June 3 Democratic primary to succeed Loni Hancock as California Assemblymember from the 14th Assembly District—individual and group endorsements can be a key factor in victory or defeat. 

If the backing of the local assemblymembers is one of the most important of those endorsements, East Bay Regional Park District Director and former Berkeley City Councilmember Nancy Skinner and Richmond City Councilmember Tony Thurmond have hit the biggest prize. 

Skinner has won the trifecta, with endorsements from Hancock herself as well as the past two 14th District assemblymembers whom Hancock succeeded in office: Hancock’s husband, current Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, and Dion Aroner, who ran Bates’ Sacramento office for many years before term limits required him to step down. 

But Thurmond has won the endorsement of first-termer Sandré Swanson from the adjoining 16th Assembly District. 

Meanwhile, in a district that favors environmental issues, Skinner and Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington are splitting the important environmental organization endorsements. Skinner, Thurmond, and Worthington are splitting the labor organization endorsements. Thurmond is running away with the public safety employee organization endorsements, while Berkeley physician Phil Polakoff has gotten the individual endorsements of the two local county sheriffs.  

With announcement of the Metropolitan Greater Oakland Democratic Club still pending, and the El Cerrito and Wellstone Democratic clubs unable to decide on an endorsement, Worthington has swept the three local Democratic clubs that have decided on a nominee to back. 

Meanwhile Polakoff, the only non-elected official in the Democratic primary race, trails his three opponents in endorsements by elected officials, and lists only two organizational endorsements. 

Below are key individual endorsements either from inside District 14 itself or important statewide organizations, based on the four candidates’ campaign websites.  

ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENTS 

Business 

Thurmond and Worthington have split the two business-oriented endorsements, with Skinner getting the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, and Worthington getting the East Bay Small Business Council PAC. 

Environmental 

Skinner and Worthington have split the environmental organization endorsements, Skinner getting the California League of Conservation Voters and the two candidates sharing the Sierra Club endorsement (the Sierra Club endorsement comes under the one heading of the organization, but is made up of the votes of several Sierra Club groups). 

Labor 

Endorsements by various labor organizations are spread out among all the candidates, the most diverse of all the endorsement categories. Skinner and Thurmond both list six labor endorsements, Worthington lists four, and Polakoff one.  

Skinner: SEIU State Council (dual-endorsed with Worthington), California Federation of Teachers, California Nurses Association, Contra Costa County Labor Council (dual-endorsed with Thurmond), AFSCME Local 2428, Teamsters Local 7;  

Thurmond: AFSCME AFL-CIO California, Contra Costa County Labor Council (dual-endorsed with Skinner), AFSCME Local 3299, Alameda County Laborers Local 304, Operating Engineers Local 3, Teamsters Local 70);  

Worthington: SEIU State Council (dual-endorsed with Skinner), AFSCME Local 3299 (dual-endorsed with Thurmond), International Association of Machinists Local 1546, Teamsters Joint Council 7 (dual-endorsed with Polakoff);  

Polakoff: Teamsters Joint Council 7 (dual-endorsed with Worthington). 

Political 

Worthington lists three political organizations among his endorsements (Cal Berkeley Democrats, East Bay LGBT Democratic Club, and Progressive Democrats of the East Bay), while Thurmond lists one (Black American Political Action Committee). 

Professional 

Worthington and Thurmond split the only two professional organization endorsements. 

Worthington: Engineers and Scientists of California Local 20;  

Thurmond: Contractors Alliance of Richmond 

Public Safety 

With five endorsements from public safety employee organizations, Thurmond has by far the largest number of endorsements in this category. The three other candidates have one public safety employee organization endorsement apiece.  

Thurmond: Berkeley Police Association, Contra Costa Deputy Sheriffs Association, Peace Officers Research Association of California, Richmond Firefighters Local 188, Richmond Police Officers Association;  

Polakoff: IAFF Local 55, Oakland Firefighters;  

Skinner: United Professional Firefighters of Contra Costa County IAFF Local 1230; 

Worthington: Berkeley Firefighters Association Local 1227. 

Miscellaneous Organizations 

Thurmond: Black American Political Action Committee; 

Worthington: Equality California, PAC devoted to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens. 

Newspapers 

Worthington: Berkeley Daily Planet. 

INDIVIDUAL ENDORSEMENTS 

AC Transit Board 

Skinner three endorsements (Board President Chris Peeples, Rocky Fernandez, Greg Harper), Thurmond one endorsement (Joe Wallace), Worthington one endorsement (Elsa Ortiz). 

Albany City Council 

Skinner four endorsements (Mayor Bob Lieber [dual with Worthington], Marge Atkinson [dual with Worthington], Jewel Okawachi, Joanne Wile). Worthington three endorsements (Bob Lieber [dual with Skinner], Marge Atkinson [dual with Skinner], Farid Javandel). 

BART Board of Directors 

Skinner one (Gail Murray). Thurmond one (Lynette Sweet). 

Berkeley City Council 

Skinner four (Mayor Tom Bates, Laurie Capitelli, Linda Maio, Max Anderson [dual with Worthington], Darryl Moore [dual with Worthington]). Worthington three (Dona Spring, Max Anderson [dual with Skinner], Darryl Moore [dual with Worthington]). 

Berkeley School Board 

Worthington two (John Selawsky, Rio Bauce). Skinner two (Karen Hemphill, Nancy Riddle). 

California State Assemblymembers 

Thurmond six (Amina Wilmer Carter, Mark DeSaulnier [dual with Skinner], Mervyn Dymally, Fiona Ma, Sandré Swanson, Alberto Torrico). Skinner four (Speaker Pro Tempore Sally Lieber, Mark DeSaulnier [dual with Thurmond], Lonnie Hancock, Mary Hyashi [dual with Worthington]. Worthington two (Mary Hyashi [dual with Skinner], Mark Leno). 

California State Senate 

Skinner two (Sheila Kuehl, Tom Torlakson). Thurmond one (Mark Ridley-Thomas). 

East Bay Regional Park Board 

Skinner five (Beverly Lane, Ted Radke, Doug Siden, John Sutter, Ayn Wieskamp). 

EBMUD Board of Directors 

Skinner two (Katy Foulkes, Andy Katz [dual with Worthington]). Worthington two (Doug Linney, Andy Katz [dual with Skinner]). 

El Cerrito City Council 

Skinner four (Mayor Bill Jones, Janet Abelson, Jan Bridges, Sandi Potter). Worthington one (Ruth Skinner). 

Emeryville School Board 

Skinner two (Joshua Simon, Cheryl Webb). Thurmond one (Miguel Dwin). 

Emeryville City Council 

Skinner three (Vice Mayor Ruth Atkin [dual with Worthington], Nora Davis, John Fricke). Worthington two (Mayor Ken Bukowski, Vice Mayor Ruth Atkin [dual with Skinner]). 

Oakland City Council 

Worthington two [President Ignacio De La Fuente, Larry Reid [dual with Thurmond]). Skinner one (Pat Kernighan). Thurmond one (Larry Reid [dual with Worthington]). 

Oakland School Board 

Skinner two (President David Kakishiba, Kerry Hamill). Thurmond one (Greg Hodge). 

Peralta Community College District Board 

Skinner two (Board President Cy Gulassa, Nicky Gonzalez Yuen). Thurmond one (Abel Guillen). 

Richmond City Council 

Thurmond six (Nat Bates, Tom Butt, Ludmyma Lopez, John Marquez, Harpreet Sanhu, Maria Viramontes). 

San Pablo City Council 

Thurmond one (Genoveva Garcia-Calloway). 

County Sheriffs 

Polakoff two (Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern, Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren Rupf). 

West Contra Costa School Board 

Thurmond two (Dave Brown, Audrey Miles). Skinner one (Madeline Kronenberg). 

Individual endorsements in the AD14 campaign can be found on the candidates’ website endorsement pages: 

Polakoff  

Thurmond  

Skinner  

Worthington

The Berkeley City Council will meet today (Tuesday) with a busy agenda, including putting tax measures on the ballot, the city’s proposed sunshine ordinance, competing density bonus provisions, its position on spraying to thwart the Light Brown Apple Moth and a proposal to charge for evening street parking downtown. 

Special meeting on tax measures 

The council is scheduled to hold a special meeting to discuss the Ballot Measure Voter Survey Results at 5 p.m. at Council Chambers at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

The city manager’s office hired San Francisco-based David Binder Research a couple of weeks ago to conduct a 15-minute telephone survey of 600 Berkeley voters about potential ballot measures for the November elections. 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz told the Planet Monday that the results showed voters did not want large dollar amounts on bond or tax measures. 

“It clearly shows that the lower the dollar threshold is, the better chance the bond or tax measure has of passing,” he said. “The appetite for new taxes is not great. People are more in favor of taxes in the $50 to $75 range.” 

Kamlarz said the council would decide on what ballot measures to put on the ballot at the May 6 council meeting.  

Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna told the Planet the results would help council decide what issues took precedence for the ballot. 

“It’s a preliminary survey about the ideas council has expressed,” Caronna said. “The city would like to get the perspective of the citizenry on what issues they might value.” 

The majority of the issues surveyed—including library and recreational improvements, the construction of a warm water pool and storm water upgrades—failed to receive a 66 percent voter approval rate, the amount required for a bond to pass on the ballot. 

“It doesn’t look good for taxes at all from the results,” said Councilmember Dona Spring. 

The split survey used cross tabulation techniques, at times asking two different sets of questions to groups of voters. 

“This was done to get a sense of what voters’ response would be to stand-alone measures, such as the warm water pool, as opposed to a bigger bond on recreation, which includes the warm water pool and other public pool improvements,” Caronna said. 

For instance, voters were split at 41 percent on a $47 million library and recreation seismic facilities omnibus bond measure that would cost $70 per year for an average homeowner for seismic safety and improved access for the disabled at Berkeley libraries, as well as increased recreational opportunities such as rehabilitation of three swimming pools, recreation centers and the skate park, including the construction of a new warm water pool. 

“That’s probably dead already,” Spring said. “The library didn’t like it. It didn’t want to be tied to the pools.” 

Further down the list, a $26 million stand-alone bond measure that would improve Berkeley’s public libraries by improving seismic safety and disabled access received a 58 percent voter approval, with 35 percent opposing it. 

A $23 million stand-alone bond measure to build a warm water pool, which would cost $30 annually for an average homeowner, received a 43 percent approval, with 41 percent saying no to new taxes. 

Sunshine Ordinance 

The council is also scheduled to hold a public hearing on the Berkeley city attorney’s draft sunshine ordinance—designed to provide citizens with greater access to local government—at its regular session. 

A group of citizens who have been working on an alternative draft ordinance requested the City Council Agenda Committee last week to postpone the public hearing and provide them with a 90-day extension to finish the draft. 

Julie Sinai, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bates, told the Planet Wednesday that although the mayor had not supported the postponement of the public hearing, he had agreed to hold off the first reading of an ordinance until June 10.  

Sinai said that Bates had refused to delay the public hearing since the council had been discussing the ordinance for a number of years.  

The city has been working on a sunshine ordinance since 2001, when at the request of Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the City Council asked Kamlarz and then-City Clerk Sherry Kelly to look into improving the city’s sunshine policies, including the adoption of an ordinance.  

Density bonus 

Two different versions of a proposed municipal density bonus are on the council’s agenda, one recommended by the Planning Commission and the other by the city planning staff. 

The regulations would govern the size and shape of multi-story mixed-use housing projects of the sort now being built along the city’s major traffic arteries. 

The commission is urging the city to pass an ordinance that will take effect before the June 3 general election to offset the possible impacts of Proposition 98. 

That measure, billed as an initiative to bar the use of eminent domain for the benefit of private developers, could—critics contend—seriously limit the ability of state and local governments to control development. 

The measure would also phase out the last vestiges of rent control in the state, generating large contributions from landlords. 

The Planning Commission said their version—based on nearly two years’ work by a panel drawn from three city commissions—would give the city more options than the staff proposal. 

Mayor Tom Bates had successfully urged the agenda committee to keep both proposals off the agenda, but he retracted his position at the urging of Councilmember Linda Maio. Bates now appears as a sponsor, along with Maio and Darryl Moore. 

Whichever—if either—measure is adopted, the ordinance would be automatically repealed should Proposition 98 fail at the ballot box. 

The proposed ordinance originated with concerns from members of the Zoning Adjustments Board, which felt that current city policies allowed them too little control over projects that could have major impacts on adjacent residential neighborhoods. 

The council adopted the staff version once before, when Proposition 90, another eminent domain measure, appeared on the November 2006 ballot. The law died when the proposition was rejected by California voters. 

Another measure now working its way through the state legislature could also render the need for a density bonus ordinance moot. 

Assembly Bill 2280, backed by Berkeley Assemblymember Loni Hancock and the League of California Cities, would exempt cities which already have inclusionary ordinances from the state density bonus law. 

Berkeley has an inclusionary ordinance, which requires developers of buildings with five or more living units to set aside 20 percent of the total for rent or sale to those otherwise unable to afford them—or to pay an “in lieu” fee to the city to fund affordable housing projects. 

Livable Berkeley chair Erin Rhoades has called on members to oppose the Planning Commission version, while other activists, including Merrilee Mitchell, are calling for support. 

Light Brown Apple Moth Resolution 

The council will also vote on whether to pass a resolution to oppose the aerial spraying of the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) on the grounds that exposure to the chemicals sprayed is detrimental to health. 

The council will vote on whether to accept wording changes introduced by Councilmember Gordon Wozniak. 

Councilmember Spring told the Planet that she would introduce a separate motion to ask the City of Berkeley to step up its legal strategy to stop the spraying before August. 

“We should follow Santa Cruz and take this to court,” she said. “We need to be aggressive about it. This will damage the tourist industry in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. I know I wouldn’t want to be in an area which is sprayed by these chemicals. We can’t afford to have people boycott the Bay Area ... A large part of our revenue comes from tourism.” 

Parking meter extensions 

The council will vote on whether to approve a proposal by Mayor Tom Bates and councilmembers Spring and Laurie Capitelli to offer extended parking times from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. and multiple hours of parking at night to drivers who park at Berkeley’s pay-and-display parking meters. 

The proposal aims to help the city meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 80 percent over the next 42 years. 

The plan would also help to develop the city’s arts scene and launch alternate forms of transportation, city officials said. 

The city’s current parking meters—which accept cash or credit cards—charge drivers from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.  

To view the Ballot Measure Voter Survey Results, see www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=18772. 

Planet staff writer Richard Brenneman contributed to this report. 

Foreclosures nationwide soared 57 percent in March, and rates may be running even higher in Oakland as East Bay cities are caught in the turmoil of the subprime mortgage disaster. 

Figures for Berkeley are harder to come by, although Realtytrac.com, a site cited as accurate by a well-placed industry official, reports that 88 Berkeley homes have been repossessed by banks, another 31 are slated for public auction and 103 are in the process of foreclosure—though owners could still pay off arrears and retain title. 

Other sites, considered less authoritative, list different numbers. Patrick.net, a site that tracks the housing bubble, cites a report that 61 percent of Berkeley homes for sale—156 out of 255—are foreclosures, with the comparable figures for Oakland as high as 73 percent, compared to 59 percent in Los Angeles, and 57 percent in San Diego and 30 percent in San Francisco. Bargain.com claims 91 homes are in pre-foreclosure status, with 44 in foreclosure, while AOL’s real estate pages cite 131 foreclosures. 

The numbers came as a surprise to two local real estate brokers, City Councilmember Laurie Capitelli of Red Oak and Gloria Polanski of Marvin Gardens. 

“I’ve only heard of a handful, and most of those are in southwest Berkeley,” Polanski said. 

“I haven’t heard of many,” said Capitelli. 

One industry official said Berkeley remains something of an island in a troubled market. “People are always going to want to live here,” he said. 

Whatever the current totals, the future remains clouded, with the Pew Center on the States predicting in a study released last week that 1 in 20 California homes will be foreclosed in the near future, most in the next two years. California is ranked third among the states, with Nevada’s 1 in 11 leading the list, followed by Arizona with 1 in 18. 

Nationwide, the anticipated foreclosure rate is 1 in 33 homes. 

Polanski said that after a quick search of the multiple listing service (MLS), she could find only two bank-owned houses and two short sales, while there were reports of troubles with two others. 

She said one West Berkeley home that sold for $705,000 last year was foreclosed and is currently on the market for $475,000. 

The Berkeley picture contrasts sharply with Richmond, she said, “where almost everything on the MLS has been foreclosed.” 

An industry official who declined to be identified said that generally Southern California is much worse off that Northern California. However, a recent 60 Minutes broadcast listed Stockton as the site of some of the worst foreclosure numbers in the country. 

DataQuick, another service relied on by the real estate industry, reports that default notices for Alameda County had jumped 119.4 percent between the fourth quarters of 2006 and 2007, compared to 151.8 percent in Contra Costa County and 93.1 percent for San Francisco. 

Home sales in the Bay Area are at a two-decade low, the company reported. 

Lender collapse 

Meanwhile, since the last months of 2006, 251 major U.S. lenders have collapsed or faced major restructuring, according to Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, a website that tracks lender failures (see ml-implode.com). 

The problem comes when subprime loans convert to significantly higher fixed rates at the same time that housing values plunge with the collapse of the housing bubble, though one industry official was quick to point out that 80 to 90 percent of subprime loans are currently being paid on time. 

One major lender heavily hit is Wachovia Corp., which last year bought World Savings, then an Oakland-based, conservatively run and family-owned lender. Wachovia recorded a $393 million first quarter loss for 2008 and officials said $8.3 billion in loans are “non-performing,” meaning payments aren’t being made. 

Don Truslow, Wachovia’s chief risk officer, told investors in a conference call last week that “when a borrower crosses the 100 percent loan to value, somewhere north of that and they presumably run into some sort of cash flow bump ... (and) their propensity to just default and stop paying their mortgage rises dramatically and I mean really accelerates up” regardless of credit scores and past history. 

Foreclosure sales nationwide leaped 70 percent in the year’s first quarter, according to Foreclosures.com, a site that tracks trends. California leads the list with a total of 120,064. 

In California, many—and often most—homes for sale in regional markets are foreclosures. 

With economists like Paul Stiglitz openly declaring that the nation is headed into an economic downtown of a scale unseen since the Great Depression that followed the 1929 Wall Street crash, just what the downturn means to the city remains unclear. 

Berkeley collects a real estate transfer fee on property sales, and a downturn in prices combined with a declining number of sales could pose problems for an already strapped city budget. City Manager Phil Kamlarz did not returned a call for comment. 

While 24 percent of California’s homeowners hold their properties free and clear, according to a just-released study by the National Association of Realtors, 65 percent hold loans at standard, or prime, rates, and one percent hold federally backed FHA and VA loans, that leaves 10 percent holding the troubled subprime loans. 

And it’s subprime loans which comprise the lion’s share—65 percent—of the 2.2 percent of loans currently in foreclosure. 

Missing papers 

Another potential problem is just who may be actually holding the loan papers on any given mortgage. Reports that some sales have been stymied because of lost papers didn’t surprise Polanski, who said that during one sale, she started out dealing with the German lender Deutsche Bank, then the domestic Washington Mutual, only to wind up again with the German bank. 

Banks typically sell large blocks of loans on the secondary mortgage market, and paperwork often shows that loans are held by investor pools, and shared among groups of small lenders, she said. 

During the 1980s, the Davis-based Farmers savings rose to become one of the nation’s ten largest players on the secondary market, only to collapse in such disarray that the bank had lost track of its mortgages and was feeding back the federal government’s own data to the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (now merged with the FDIC) because it couldn’t find the paperwork. 

The International Monetary Fund reported earlier this month that total losses in the U.S. from mortgage failures may near $1 trillion, with $232 billion already written off. And the crisis has spread globally, impacting other areas of the economy. 

Renters 

While most of the focus has been on single family homes, Berkeley Housing Advisory Chair Jesse Arreguin said he’s concerned about renters who may be caught in a bind when their landlords default.  

“We’ve heard about a lot of problems in Oakland and Richmond and threats of foreclosure,” he said. “And a number of tenants here have contacted the rent board with reports that their landlords were saying they were threatened with foreclosure. We’ve been concerned that they may be using that as a way to increase rents.” 

He said the City Council passed a resolution in December directing City Manager Phil Kamlarz to prepare a report on foreclosures and what the city could do to help owners and tenants. “It hasn’t come yet,” he said, “but at some point there will be a report.” 

Meanwhile, he said, the Rent Board is developing information for tenants, and at some point will likely send out a mailing. 

Scattered news reports document apartment building foreclosures, and Las Vegas has spawned a blog devoted to apartment foreclosures—especially near the Strip—as investment opportunities. But stories about apartments place in comparison to the vastly more frequent accounts of home foreclosures. 

One reason may be that apartments are traditionally held longer than single family homes. 

Arreguin said the Berkeley City Council will consider a resolution tonight (Tuesday) on supporting Assembly Bill 2586, now pending before the state legislature, which would establish protections for tenants of foreclosed properties, including provisions allowing them to deduct utility bills from their rent if they had taken them into their own names after the landlord stopped making payments. 

Ripples spread 

The ripples of the subprime crisis are spreading through the economy. 

Reuters reported April 4 that strip mall vacancies have hit levels not seen since 1996, with major mall vacancies running at post-9/11 rates, while the list of major retailers in various forms of bankruptcy or restructuring continues to grow. 

Office vacancy rates nationally are also rising, according to Grubb & Ellis, and Dave Colgren of the California Society of CPAs, e-mailed reporters to say that with corporate earnings falling in the first quarter, “companies are looking for ways to cut expenses and increase profitability. Staffing is one area becoming increasingly under review.” 

A Berkeley peace activist, thwarted in one suicide attempt, apparently succeeded in another, more dramatic bid to end his life Friday. 

Jasper Summer, 46, died in a one-car, high-speed accident near the intersection of The Alameda and Yolo Avenue moments before 2 a.m. 

Summers described himself as a landscaper in his campaign contributions to the Democratic Party. He was also a donor to presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, and posted comments on peace sites and on sites questioning the official account of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. 

Police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss told Bay City News the chain of events that ended in a crash that one nearby resident likened to an earthquake began at about 1:50 a.m. 

A homeless man riding a bicycle flagged down a police sergeant and told her he saw a man sitting in a silver Subaru parked near the intersection of Bancroft Way and Fulton Street. 

The homeless man said a piece of black plastic tubing was attached to the tailpipe of the vehicle and looped into one of the vehicle's windows, according to Kusmiss. He had pulled the tubing from the tailpipe and tried to talk to the man inside the vehicle, saying, “You don't want to do this,” Kusmiss said. 

The police sergeant was led to the vehicle, parked in a commercial area, and asked the man inside to roll down his window. The man refused, so the sergeant tried to break the window as the air inside began looking hazy, according to Kusmiss. 

The man suddenly drove off and the police sergeant followed him as he swerved through various lanes of traffic and ran stop signals, Kusmiss said. 

Officers following the man backed off due to his erratic driving, and last spotted him at about 1:55 a.m. driving northbound on Martin Luther King Jr. Way crossing University Avenue at a high rate of speed, Kusmiss said. 

Two minutes later, police dispatch was flooded with 911 calls from residents who heard a loud collision. 

Arriving officers discovered a crash scene on The Alameda just south of Yolo Avenue, with the Subaru resting upside down on the hood of a Ford pickup truck, according to Kusmiss. 

“This was a very dramatic collision,” she said. 

Summer was removed with the help of metal-cutting machines and pronounced dead on the scene, Kusmiss said. 

Investigators determined Summer had been driving northbound on The Alameda between 80 mph and 100 mph when his vehicle crossed into the southbound lanes, hitting a parked green BMW. 

The Subaru then hit a parked Dodge Shadow, pushing the Dodge into a tree and causing it to spin into the middle of the road, according to Kusmiss. 

The impact also caused the Subaru to become airborne, sending it crashing upside down onto the roof of the Ford pickup truck, Kusmiss said. 

Debris from the accident was spread about 246 feet down the roadway, and an investigation and cleanup kept the street closed for about 6.5 hours, Kusmiss said. 

There were no eyewitnesses, and investigators may never know if the fatal crash was intentional.

Berkeley planning commissioners will holding hearings Wednesday on the Southside Plan’s draft environmental impact report (EIR) and proposed amendments to the city’s wireless ordinance. 

Commissioners will also dissect the economic development chapter of the Downtown Area Plan as they continue to work on their own suggested revisions to the draft prepared by the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). 

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

The Southside Plan has been revived after five years on the back burner while city staff and UC Berkeley officials worked on revisions sought by the university. 

The plan would create new higher density residential zones and allow denser development along Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way. 

The plan also calls for converting the currently one-way Dana and Ellsworth streets to two-way traffic, and for consideration of doing the same to Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue, with restricting through traffic on Telegraph Avenue. 

The draft EIR predicts construction of 472 new housing units with 1,038 residents, along with construction of 638,290 square feet of new commercial development that would provide an additional 2,130 jobs. 

Wednesday’s hearing will focus on the issue of whether or not the proposed EIR adequately addresses the impacts of the ensuing changes. 

The complete document is available for $30 at the city Planning and Development Department offices at 2120 Milvia St. or free online at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=17998. 

Revisions to the city’s wireless telecommunications facilities ordinance, which regulates the installation of cell phone antennae in the city must comply with federal law. 

With the federal law pre-empting most avenues to regulate wireless antennae, in December the City Council directed staff to find areas where the city could legally exert some control without provoking costly lawsuits by carriers. 

The package before the commission would require cell providers to pay a fee to monitor the signal strength of broadcast radiation—a health concern to many neighbors of cell towers. 

The ordinances would require an over-the-counter administrative use permit for new wireless antennae in the downtown commercial district and in manufacturing districts, and full use permits—complete with public hearings—for new installations in all other city zoning districts. 

And for all installations outside the downtown and West Berkeley manufacturing districts, cell providers couldn’t add antennae with proof they are needed to fill service gaps. 

However, the revised ordinances would also end the city’s ability to require that antennae be clustered at single sites as a way to limit the number of radiation sources and end the City Council’s ability to remand use permit appeals to Zoning Adjustments Board. 

The changes would also end the city’s ability to seek criminal sanctions for violations of the ordinances. 

According to a report by Deputy Planning Director Wendy Cosin, the city has approved 52 wireless broadcasters at 28 sites, most on rooftops or on building facades. 

While the main concerns voiced by neighbors have centered on the possible health impacts from the radiation frequencies that carry cellular phone signals, the 1996 federal Telecommunications Act forbids state and local governments from using radiation as a basis for denying permits to locate cellular antennae. 

“The city attorney developed the proposed amendments to maximize the city’s ability to accomplish its expressed regulatory goals within the confines of federal regulations and related court decisions,” Cosin reported.

Pacific Steel Casting’s appeal of a small claims court decision which went against the company in November began last week and is expected to go on for the next two months, a spokesperson for the steel foundry told the Planet Friday.  

On Monday Berkeley attorney Timothy Rumberger announced plans to file a class action lawsuit against the company. 

The west Berkeley-based steel foundry filed an appeal on Dec. 6 in Alameda County Superior Court against a judgment which awarded $35,000 in damages to a group of West Berkeley neighbors who sued Pacific Steel Casting for loss of use and enjoyment of their property and mental distress. 

“The company disagreed with the decisions made by the judge,” said Elisabeth Jewel of Aroner, Jewel and Ellis, the public relations firm representing Pacific Steel. “They will be appealing all of the judgments in each of the small claims cases.” 

Judge Dawn Girard ruled at the November hearing that nine of the 19 plaintiffs who filed the small claims case in August 2006 would each get between $2,100 and $5,100 because of the “private nuisance created by Pacific Steel,” and “a real and appreciable invasion of the plaintiffs’ interests.” 

A majority of the plaintiffs had complained of a burnt copper-like smell which they believed could be toxic. 

Lead plaintiff Tom McGuire had called the judgment “a victory for the small guys” after the November hearing. 

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn Tabor heard only McGuire’s case Wednesday, to determine how the remaining eight cases would proceed. 

“I think PSC is grasping at straws, sucker punching, anything to put up the facade of a case to wipe the toxic egg off their face,” McGuire told the Planet. 

“There is so much evidence that foul odors and noxious emissions are and have been emanating from their smokestacks that to deny it or try to defend it is folly.” 

Since the defendants’ expert witness in small claims would not be available for the trial, McGuire said the group had brought in local activist LA Wood. 

“We’re going to have to win this case based on our own strong and compelling testimony,” he said. 

Judge Tabor is retired and is returning to court only for this particular case. The hearing will take longer than usual since she will be working on the case only on Wednesdays, Jewel said. 

Berkeley-based attorney Tim Rumberger intends to file a class action lawsuit against Pacific Steel today (Tuesday) on behalf of “thousands of neighbors,” according to a press release his office faxed to the Planet late Monday afternoon. 

The lawsuit will seek an injunction to require the foundry to “reduce its off-site toxic emissions impact to safe levels or relocate from this neighborhood,” and demands a “compensation to the thousands of neighbors affected daily by the noxious odors and toxins.” 

Calls to the Aroner, Jewel and Ellis firm for comment on Monday were not returned by press time. 

Pacific Steel settled a lawsuit with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and installed a $2 million carbon absorption unit on Plant 3 to reduce emissions and odor last year. 

It also settled a lawsuit with Communities for a Better Environment which required it to install an air filtration system. 

We were standing on the corner in front of Rice’s Barbershop. There were about six of us between the ages of 18 and 21, African American males who had grown up together in the same West Philadelphia neighborhood. A black Chevy slowly approached and someone from inside the car rolled down the window leaned out the passenger side and shouted, “The Republicans are paying $75, go to the Overbrook High gym; the Republicans are paying $75!”  

Last week I saw a headline in the Oakland Tribune (April 12, 2008), “‘Street money’ dispute threatens Obama.” The article was about the dispensing of “street money,” a long-standing Philadelphia ritual in which candidates deliver cash to foot soldiers and loyalists, who make up the party’s workforce, for getting out the vote. 

When I was a teenager Rice’s Barbershop was our local polling place, and my first foray into politics was as a foot soldier for the neighborhood ward boss. Our task included putting up signs, taking down opponents’ signs, escorting senior citizens, handing out literature and greeting people in front of polling places. One of our favorite assignments was riding around slowly through the streets on election day talking through a loud speaker or megaphone, “Vote for so and so,” or “Vote yes on no!”  

In our neighborhood we were used to people coming through yelling or sing-songing about whatever they were promoting. There was the Watermelon Man—“I got red ripe, red ripe watermelon.” The fruit vendor—“We got freestone, freestone peaches.” And people from the blind center selling their handmade products—“Broom man, broom man, we got brooms we got baskets!” I can’t imagine this being accepted in Berkeley today as it would probably violate some local ordinance regarding noise pollution or someone complaining that they work nights and need to sleep during the day! 

In the Oakland Tribune article it stated that “ward leaders see Obama airing millions of dollars worth of television ads in the city—money that benefits station owners … and people wonder why Obama isn’t sharing the largess with field workers trying to get him elected … hardscrabble neighborhoods across Philadelphia have come to depend on street money as a welcome payday for knocking on doors, handing out leaflets and speaking to voters … People are astute. They know the Obama campaign has raised lots of money.”  

This is true! There were two events that my friends and I looked forward to every year to make some legal money on the side—snowstorms and elections. Unlike cutting grass in the summer, which is mostly cosmetic, shoveling snow off people’s sidewalks and digging their cars out of snow mounds was a necessity and some hard-working person could easily make $100 a day. However, working on election day would pay at least $50 without working hard.  

Almost everyone in my old Philly neighborhood was a registered Democrat with one notable exception, my father. When I asked him why he said, “The Democrats take my vote for granted while the Republicans take me out to dinner. Besides, in the privacy of the voting booth I’m going to vote my conscience anyway!” He liked getting paid too. I must admit when I first got involved with local elections and political campaigns in Berkeley I wondered what happened to good old political wards with bosses that paid in cash! I kept looking for that familiar brown envelope with money in it or the handshake with a $20 bill in the palm, but no one ever offered me a dime. And on top of that candidates wanted me to give money to them! How backwards I thought.  

So going back to the day we were approached to defect to the Republicans, I was sorely tempted to take the $75 over the $50 we were getting paid by the Democrats. Some of my buddies took off immediately, most of us were too young to vote anyhow, but I stayed because this election was different. There was a neighborhood guy running for office, a black man with an Africanized name, which made this a historic event for us. Chaka Fattah won, and is now serving his seventh term in the U.S. House of Representatives. With his victory we knew we had political power and a say-so in our local community. The Philadelphia political machine is still running strong, and it’s still fueled with cash. Si, Se Puede!

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds,” Aldo Leopold wrote long before the first Earth Day. He was thinking about land abuse in the Southwest, but his words have a much broader resonance.  

Maybe we’re not quite so alone anymore. The bad news is better known: more of us are aware that we’re losing chinook salmon and delta smelt, whitebark pines and coast live oaks, polar bears and Tasmanian devils, bats, frogs, shorebirds, reef-builders, pollinators. It would be simpler to take stock of what we’re not losing. 

Last fall, while volunteering at the International Bird Rescue Research Center after the Cosco Busan spill, we met a veterinarian named Greg Massey who had previously worked in an endangered-bird program in Hawai’i, trying to save native songbirds from the effects of habitat destruction and exotic diseases. Massey told us he had watched the po’o-uli, a small brown bird endemic to Maui, go extinct. The population kept dwindling and was finally reduced to a male and a female, in separate territories. Efforts were made to get them together, but they didn’t hit it off. Then they were gone. 

The recent wave of bird extinctions in Hawaii is the second act of an old drama. When the Polynesians spread out across the South Pacific, on island after island-not just the Hawaiian chain, but New Zealand and others-they found unique communities of large flightless birds. And ate them.  

Mind you, these were people whose creation chant, the Kumulipo, shows a profound understanding of the connectedness of human and non-human life, and who had an enviable ethic of watershed management. What they didn’t have was a sense of limits. Why reject the gifts of the gods? Who knew that the next island wouldn’t have its own big slow tasty birds? 

The myth of the inexhaustible resource runs deep. Some of the Plains Indians believed the missing bison had taken refuge underground. Other Americans refused to credit the extinction of the passenger pigeon: maybe they had flown to Cuba, or to the moon. The cornucopia would never be empty. 

Now we know better. Or should. But collectively, we still act as if the bounty of the oceans will never be depleted; as if there will always be enough tropical forest to supply disposable chopsticks; as if there’s no conflict between runaway population growth and the survival of whole ecosystems. 

That’s why Earth Day, for all its compromises (I’m old enough to remember when it was attacked as a distraction from the Revolutionary Struggle), serves a purpose. We need to be reminded that we can push natural systems only so far before they collapse. If, as some have opined, environmentalism is dead, then we’re all in trouble. 

Of all our offenses against the earth, the conscious obliteration of other species may be the worst. Those of a religious bent may see it as annulling an act of creation; the rest of us, as destroying a product of eons of natural selection. Either way, it brings us closer to the future another naturalist, Archie Carr, invoked, contemplating the loss of the great beasts of Africa: “The rest of non-human nature will surely follow. And we shall head out into the rest of our time, masters of creation at last, and alone forever.” 

For anyone who has been ignoring the news as of late food is an enormous issue this year. Prices are up 83 percent since 2005, sparking riots in countries around the globe including Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. In Haiti the unrest has even led to deaths and the fall of the government.  

Big rice producers like China, India, and Vietnam are becoming worried about their own supplies and are moving to restrict their exports further fueling food insecurities. Through this all our policymakers at the World Bank and the IMF are calling for more of the same practices that got us into this mess. The question that confronts us is: how has this come about and what can we do to begin to address the problem? 

Food prices are up for a number of factors and most analysts agree that they are probably not going to decrease significantly anytime soon. Increasing consumption of meat (which requires vast quantities of feed to produce), bad weather, hoarding, and demand for biofuels (which use land that could be used to produce food) have all done their part to dramatically boost food prices.  

While some of these factors may become less influential in the future the fact remains that demand is going to continue to grow at a strong pace. The world’s billion plus people that subsist on less than a dollar a day are not going to enjoy affordable food anytime soon. 

In order to address this grave problem the officials at the World Bank have proposed an “action plan,” which includes emergency food aid and more loans to farmers, so they can increase their productivity with pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and genetically modified seeds. While this may sound reasonable at first, it is in fact precisely the same policy, which the Bank and massive agricultural corporations (who not so coincidentally sell pesticides, fertilizers, and seeds) have promoted over the past few decades, and a large part of the reason that we are in this mess.  

Food aid, while obviously needed in the short-term, does nothing to address the actual reasons why people cannot buy food or grow their own. We cannot allow ourselves to think that we are solving hunger by handing out some free bread. Actually tackling the issue requires a deeper examination of the problem. 

The fact is that hundreds of millions of people in the world face malnutrition and hunger because of policy failure. We have encouraged small farmers to take out loans to buy chemicals, fertilizers, etc. in order to boost their productivity; meanwhile when their crop fails or soil becomes infertile due to these same products we sold them and they lose their land, we tell them to just go to the city. 

So the displaced farmers go in great numbers to the mushrooming slums where there are far too few jobs to sustain them. Their options are mostly limited to subsisting on handouts or migrating to a richer country. Ten years ago this was a huge problem; now it has been greatly exacerbated by the massive hike in food prices.  

If we are to do something other than business as usual what should be our course? We need to start with policies that allow small farmers to stay on their land, and thus can continue feeding themselves and their neighbors far into the future. The first step in this direction would be to encourage agriculture that does not require expensive inputs and machinery, so farmers can avoid getting caught in a cycle of debt. Part of this will mean spending more money on agricultural research, which utilizes this low input model. An actual worthwhile foreign aid project would be helping finance land reform and training for those individuals that receive plots of land. This would ease the number of people moving to cities, which are then unable to support themselves. We could pay for this by slashing the billions of dollars in subsidies we give to our own agricultural giants here in the U.S. This would have the added benefit of strengthening small farmers against unfair (i.e. subsidized) competition from corporations.  

If more small farmers stay in business and on their land then they can in turn take advantage of the high food prices, and the profits they make from these sales they naturally spend in their local community boosting their neighbors’ wages and business opportunities. Instead of starvation and food riots we could have a dynamic and sustainable rural economy based upon small farmers. 

The sudden rise in food prices has dramatized the issue of food security throughout the world, but this has been a serious concern for years. We can allow our government (through the World Bank, agricultural subsidies, etc.) to continue the same policies, which have not worked over the past few decades, or we can force it to deal with the actual problem: hundreds of millions of small farmers who are unable to continue growing their own food. The rioting, poverty, and dislocation brought on by food’s increasing cost is only going to get worse if our policies do not change. 

Christopher McCourt is a UC Berkeley student

As a graduating Berkeley student majoring in the biological sciences, a left leaning member of the San Francisco Bay Area and a voter wishing to make informed decisions, not a day goes by that I don't hear something on campus or in the news about biofuels. Biofuels are the controversial topic of conversation today, and with politicians voicing their support and violent food riots occurring in Haiti, perhaps it is time to seriously question the merits of biofuels and take some time for self reflection.  

The first time I began to really hear people discuss biofuels was during the recent financial agreement my university made with British Petroleum to the tune of $500 million dollars. This money was to go toward the research and development of alternative energy solutions, primarily biofuels. This deal was immediately met with student, faculty and public outcry concerning the ability of Berkeley to maintain its academic integrity and whether biofuels should have such heavy funding over other types of alternative energy.  

After all, biofuels promote the use of controversial GMO crops, and actually increase greenhouse gases when conversion of natural ecosystems to biofuel production land is taken into account. Not only that, but even if all of America's corn and soybean farms were converted to biofuel production, only 12 percent of our gasoline and 6 percent of our diesel needs would be met. Some people may suggest that this unmet need could be an opportunity for farmers in third world countries. However, these opportunities manifest themselves only through environmental degradation, and the displacement and starvation of the worlds most impoverished. 

As developing countries create momentum for biofuel production, the intensified industrial farming practices and rapid expansion of agricultural frontiers into ecosystems results in regions of soil degradation, poor water quality, and strained water tables. More than 91 million acres of rainforest and grassland have already been cleared in South America for soybean production, with an addition 143 million needed to meet world demand.  

Along with a damaged environment, farmers are pushed off their land so that biofuels can be grown in place of food crops to meet the energy demands of the United States. These practices have put the food security of many countries at risk. Recent weeks have seen food riots and unrest in Egypt, the Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Haiti. World food staple prices have risen by 83 percent in the past three years and threaten to put 100 million of the world's most impoverished people deeper into poverty. Specifically, corn tortillas prices in Mexico have gone up 400 percent. Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk for starvation and the recent rise demand for biofuels is no coincidence. When starving people are weighed against filling up a 25 gallon tank with ethanol that could have feed a person for a year, perhaps other solutions to our energy problems should be examined. 

Yet my left leaning colleagues, politicians and government energy policies continue to push for biofuels. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama support further research in biofuels and government energy programs believe that biofuels are the key to fixing our energy dependence problems and meeting the quotas we have set for ourselves regarding sustainable energy. 

Not only do politicians fail to see the problems mentioned above, but they fail to recognize that biofuels are only a band-aid to our energy consumption and transportation system problems. They allow us the illusion that we are doing our part for the environment and foreign policy troubles, while still affording us the luxury of driving everywhere to meet our most basic needs.  

If we are to truly try to reduce our energy consumption, we must rethink the built environments that we live in and recognize that our dependency on other countries for oil, and soon for biofuels, is due to most people's complete dependency on their cars. How do we fix this problem? Living in high density, mixed use areas or Transit Oriented Developments and opting to walk, ride bikes and take public transportation are much larger steps of progress than the millions of dollars going into the production of GMO seeds for biofuels. This is not a problem that is easily fixed by buying a different type of fuel for our SUVs. It is one that requires a commitment toward changes in our lifestyles. 

At the end of the day, we must realize that biofuels help neither the environment, nor our energy dependence and start to look more closely at the ways in which we live our lives to find the solutions that researchers, politicians, and my university are struggling to find. 

Elizabeth Jean Dow is a UC Berkeley  

student.

Like every other Left-of-David-Brooks opinion writer in the country, I’m longing to lay into television journalism in general, ABC’s in particular, and especially George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson for the travesty of an interview show that was wrongly labelled as a presidential primary debate last week.  

Bill Ayers? Bill Ayers! Give me a break.  

Poor Barack Obama knows so little about the guy that he thinks he’s an English prof, when in fact he’s a Distinguished Professor of Education (that’s a title at his school.) For you younger kids like Barack who don’t remember Bill, he’s the big brother of Rick Ayers, who was a popular Berkeley high teacher for many years. When Bill was even younger than you are today, he was a foolish revolutionary, but he’s been so over that for such a long time.  

(Once a long time ago I met Bill Ayers at a party. Someone handed him a smelly cigarette, but before he could inhale another guy slapped it out of his hand, saying “Don’t you know that stuff’s illegal?” Bill just smiled. A cool head, as we used to say. Never saw him again, but I guess I won’t try to run for president with that story in my past.) 

It gets harder and harder to have an intelligent conversation about politics in this country, and the networks formerly known as major are no help. Or at least I think that’s true, since our TV died a while back and we haven’t felt the need to get a new one. We must move in rarefied circles, since when we asked around for a place to watch the recent “debate” no one we asked had broadcast TV. Finally someone told me it was possible to use the computer and see it online from the Philadelphia ABC outlet. I’m part of the sandwich generation, disgusted with the old media, but not yet up to speed on the new. 

But on Tuesday, election day in Pennsylvania, I even did the split screen thing, watching both MSNBC.com for election returns and the streaming video of the Berkeley City Council. From time to time, I checked nytimes.com and dailykos.com for high-level interpretations of what was happening in the voting booths.  

Kos was right from the beginning, predicting the spread within a fraction of a point. The Times reported on election night that HC had made it into the double digits, but backed down the next day to 9-point-something.  

The spin doctor wannabees had been attaching big significance to the number of digits, but when the results came up on the cusp that line of analysis was dropped. Watching them in action on the screen got pretty boring pretty quickly. 

The meeting of the Berkeley City Council was more appalling than boring. I’m not enough of a masochist to watch the action there very often, and I’m always sorry when I do. If I hadn’t been sitting in front of the computer anyhow, I would certainly have found better things to do. 

The council is now officially launched on its annual round of slam-bam-thank-you-ma’m. Here’s how it works.  

For most of the year, they indulge themselves by holding infrequent meetings, seldom just a week apart. They take long, long recesses, and they try to hurry home as early as possible, sometimes after meeting for less than three hours of an evening. But between the end of April and the middle of July their agenda is crammed with all the unfinished business they didn’t get to earlier in year. 

The more important a topic is, the more likely it is to be discussed late at night and in a hurry. And when it is discussed it’s rare for anyone but Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring to understand what’s going on.  

The history of the long-postponed Sunshine Ordinance is a prime example. I have on my computer the .jpg file of a lovely poster announcing a meeting of anyone interested in getting a sunshine ordinance for Berkeley. The date? September 21, 2002. Back in the olden golden B.P. (before planet) era, when I had time for worthwhile civic pursuits like that.  

Now, more than five years and one newspaper later, the city of Berkeley still hasn’t gotten around to doing anything about enacting a sunshine ordinance. And judging by their performance on Tuesday, they might never get around to it.  

It’s been a full year since it was brought before the council with much fanfare, part of last year’s mad rush to judgement. When I heard that Mayor Bates had claimed at the recent pre-council agenda meeting that no one had ever asked the citizens’ committee to go forward with drafting an ordinance, I looked at the on-line videos of those ancient meetings, and saw the same kind of confused and disorganized process that happened again on Tuesday. The predictable result is that the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing, so the city attorney’s office was drafting away in blissful ignorance of the citizen effort.  

By the time of Tuesday’s council meeting, the mayor’s handlers had realized that his announced plan of bulling ahead with the staff draft regardless of what the public wanted was impolitic, and they’d given him a prepared statement backing off. He read it this time (badly), so that he wouldnn’t mess up again.  

But he and Councilmember Capitelli still managed to imply that the citizen’s committee had been meeting behind closed doors (at the League of Women Voter’s office!) in order to keep their deliberations a secret. If that’s the case, it’s strange that all year they’ve been emailing reams and reams of in-progress drafts to a long list of recipients, including the Planet.  

The very difficult technical issue of how to write an ordinance to deal with anomalies in the way the city of Berkeley’s zoning intersects with the state’s grant of bonuses for dense construction was subjected to similar slapdash proceedings on Tuesday, this time very late in a long evening. It was clear to the viewer that the council, again excepting Spring and Worthington, had absolutely no idea of what they were voting on, or else that they were being remarkably disingenuous.  

Capitelli and Maio shed a few crocodile tears about the plight of those whose small homes on small streets back up to big condos on big streets (think Trader Joe), but then they voted for the plan which didn’t protect those same little guys. Olds introduced the stronger committee-drafted version of the ordinance which the Planning Commission supports, but then proceeded to vote against it, possibly by mistake. All in all, it was not an edifying spectacle.  

I learned a few lessons from my viewing experiences of the last week. Broadcast television, even the once-respectable ABC, is now all about sensationalism, not about real news, so there’s little point in watching it. On-line reporting has the potential for being better, but, as in the Pennsylvania primary, too many interpreters are often chasing too little data.  

And everyone who can stand it should observe a few council meetings between now and the July start of their long summer vacation. This can be done in many ways. Watch on-line, streaming live or afterwards as videos. Listen to broadcasts on KPFB, 89.3 FM. Watch on cable TV, Channel 33, live or recorded for later viewing. Or even attend in person. 

If you do that, you’ll soon conclude that Berkeley needs a new City Council made up of people who are willing to meet each and every week to plug away with all deliberate speed at actually getting the people’s business competently accomplished. Where such heros would come from, of course, is another matter for another day. 

Today is the 38th anniversary of the first Earth Day, a media event created in the United States with the sponsorship of a senator, Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. In other countries around the world, Earth Days coincide with the vernal equinox, around March 20, but in this country it’s been April 22 since it started. (The DAR once spread the scurrilous rumor that the date was chosen because April 22, 1969, was the centennial of Lenin’s birth.)  

From the left flank, so to speak, Earth Day is occasionally attacked for trivializing the serious. From a website from the World Changing organization: “The biggest problem with Earth Day is that it has become a ritual of sympathy for the idea of environmental sanity. Small steps, we’re told, ignoring the fact that most of the steps most frequently promoted (returning your bottles, bringing your own bag, turning off the water while you brush your teeth) are of such minor impact (compared to our ecological footprints) that they are essentially meaningless without larger, systemic action as well.” 

Well, yes. After all these years of schlepping paper bags, we’re now told to bring our own bags, but those among us who wonder what good that will do are not totally out to lunch. Little drops of water, little grains of sand, said the poet, make a mighty ocean, and a pleasant land. Or not. Maybe just a flood or a desert.  

Still, we wonder what more we can do, at what level, to Make a Difference. In the five years we’ve been running this paper, we’ve already taken the small steps. We’ve printed with soy ink on recycled paper, the only local paper to do so, and we’ve scrupulously recycled back issues. (The practice of some too-energetic community members of recycling bundles of Planets before anyone has read them is not good, however.) 

During the same period, more and more citizens seem to be getting more and more of their news from the Internet. We’ve had many requests to improve our website, to make it easier to use and to report more news more often, and we’ve been working on that. But our resources are limited, and it’s hard to be all things to all people all the time. 

After a lot of discussion, we’ve decided that the best course of action would be to print and distribute only one issue a week, instead of the current two, on Thursdays instead of the current Tuesdays and Fridays. This would have obvious environmental advantages: less paper and less gasoline consumed. We’re going to increase the number of pages in an issue, along with the number of copies distributed, so the savings aren’t as much as they might seem to be, but they’re not insubstantial.  

To keep our readers happy and well-informed, we’re going to shift gears and make sure that breaking news appears promptly on our website, along with new features, columns and opinion every weekday, with special postings over the weekend if anything big happens. Most of this material will show up in the Thursday print issue too, so readers without computers won’t miss much.  

Often readers tell us that they haven’t had a chance to read everything in one issue before a new one is on the stands. Others say that if they miss their regular pickup day, they’ve missed a whole issue. A paper that’s around for a full week will help with that problem. 

Thursday publication will also benefit those who use our arts and entertainment section and our calendars to plan their weekends. Friday is too late for many people to decide what they’re going to do on Friday night or even on Saturday and Sunday. 

We’re going to be able to provide extra web-only content, since space there is effectively free. We do have some entertaining new ideas we’ll roll out in the weeks to come. 

A good example of what we’ll be able to do: Recently UC teachers have been assigning students to write opinion essays for the Planet. We’re flattered to be taken so seriously, but it’s hard to find print space in one issue for six excellent commentaries on the dangers of biofuels. We could print just one, and have the rest on the web, or we might print excerpts from each and run them all in full on the web. You can see in today’s paper which we chose this time. 

For our loyal advertisers, weekly publication will probably be beneficial. If an issue remains on their prospective customer’s coffee table for a full week, the ads will probably be noticed more. And on the Internet, we’re planning to help our advertisers make full use of the searching benefits of computer technology by starting online directory pages with very low cost basic ads for businesses which can’t afford print display ads.  

And finally, we would not be truthful if we left you with the impression that our motives for making this change were 100 percent altruistic. We’re all five years older since the Planet was revived, and so are our children and grandchildren. The managing editor is now the proud parent of an active 2-year-old. The new schedule with one fewer major deadline will allow all of us to manage our time in more harmonious ways.  

This is our last Tuesday issue. We’ll have a Friday issue this week, and then the next one will come out on Thursday, May 1. To celebrate, we’re inviting all and sundry to attend our fifth anniversary open house that day, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Planet office, 3023A Shattuck Ave.  

One more thing: Our basic principle, which has kept us in business for these five years, is that in a democracy if people know what’s going on they’ll make the right decisions. Making sure that everything that happens in local government is exposed to the full light of day is central to what we’re trying to do here. We were part of the effort to get a decent Sunshine Ordinance in Berkeley even before we took over the Planet.  

No one—no one, prog or mod—who has followed the antics of Berkeley’s city government in the last five years is fooled by Manuela Albuquerque’s faux sunshine ordinance, which will be on the Berkeley City Council agenda again tonight (Tuesday). It’s what’s sometimes called a tin fiddle: looks like a fiddle, but sounds awful. If the councilmembers have any sense, they’ll reject it one more time, and give the multi-partisan citizens’ committee version a fair hearing in a month or so. The alternative is a citizen initiative, but that’s expensive and time-consuming. 

We look forward to the day that the inner workings of government are so open that news media will be able to wither away...well, not really. We’re aware that even with the best intentions on the part of officials both elected and hired, someone will always have to shine a light on their activities. We hope to be here to do that for a while longer.

Posted Mon., April 28 

• 

BRT, WE ARE TOLD, IS A ‘DONE DEAL’ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a recent letter Alan Tobey argues “BRT was approved by the City Council in 2001. Top bureaucrats, advocacy organizations and city policy endorse it. It’s a done deal. Stop raising questions.” 

In 2001 there was no design. I am sure everyone imagined something better than the rather crude scheme which AC began circulating in 2005. City “policy,” co-authored by outspoken automobile-denying zealot citizens, endorses BRT sight-unseen. BRT is not a concept that may be endorsed in principle, like recycling. It is infrastructure. Its design is a vital consideration. 

In 2005 AC Transit energetically showed early plans to whoever would pay attention. Concerned about its potentially devastating impact on the downtown pedestrian environment, a local landscape architect sat down with tracing paper, scale and plans of downtown. In a few hours he produced several alternate deployment schemes for downtown. These showed exciting possibilities, none of embodied are contained in AC’s plans. They also demonstrated that AC’s “design” is nothing more than a concept diagram. This was the origin of my conviction and my activism on this issue. At the time, Berkeley city officials admitted off the record, “yeah, the city needs to do that stuff.” But the city hasn’t. 

And if we say “whatever you wish” to these plans as Mr. Tobey urges—giving cover to the City Council to “approve”—there is no incentive for the city to do it. 

AC Transit planners are engineers, not designers, as they frankly declare. Moreover, AC Transit has never attempted the design of a mass transit system, with dedicated lanes, stations and platforms. AC Transit is not a landscape architecture firm. It has no smarts about preserving viability of local business. Its computer models to predict what will happen to the cars cannot fully predict human adaptive behavior. AC Transit needs help with this. And the help has to originate in each locale even though the cities don’t have AC Transit’s design budget. AC Transit can’t help but thrash round clumsily in our downtown and on our Telegraph Avenue. It needs to partner with design consultants who are working for and accountable to Berkeley. In collaboration, AC Transit and our people need to author schemes which preserve the downtown pedestrian environment, avoids killing off Telegraph and Shattuck Avenue businesses, and adequately provides for car and bicycle traffic on Telegraph. Omitting this vital step is unthinkable. 

Do you think it will happen if we are silent, giving it premature endorsement? 

Bruce Wicinas 

Berkeley citizen 

• 

LET’S NOT BE FOOLED BY RAPID BUS PLUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Opponents of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) for Telegraph Avenue and downtown have been proposing an alternative they claim to be “just as good, cheaper, and without the negative impacts” of BRT. They call this “Rapid Bus Plus,” and propose it as an improvement on today’s “regular” 1R Rapid Bus service through the addition of a proof-of-payment (POP) ticketing system and “bulbouts” (sidewalk widenings) at the stops. “Rapid Bus Plus” stops short of BRT by omitting dedicated lanes for the service, a feature which is critical to creating a transit system that can compete with the private automobile in speed, efficiency, and reliability. 

The term “Rapid Bus Plus” is an ad hoc term created by Berkeleyans for Better Transit Options (BBTOP), a citizens’ group opposed to BRT with dedicated lanes on Telegraph Avenue. A Google search for “Rapid Bus Plus” comes up with links to Berkeley or the AC Transit BRT proposal - and nothing else. 

This confirms the truth: Rapid Bus Plus is a diversion created by BRT opponents and is never among the well-studied options considered by transit professionals. In contrast, more than 25 US cities have already implemented or are in the process of implementing a full BRT project that includes dedicated lanes to keep buses from being entangled in ordinary traffic. 

If any city anywhere is implementing Rapid Bus Plus, we would welcome the information so that we can all learn from the experience. 

Len Conly 

Friends of BRT 

• 

A PROPOSAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I think the proposal to generate additional revenue by charging for parking at meters in downtown Berkeley during nighttime hours is very short sighted. First of all, this will be the death knoll for many downtown businesses, including restaurants and movie theaters. It is already difficult to park in downtown Berkeley. I, as well as many people I know, avoid this area “like a plague", whenever possible, when there are so many other options for restaurant dining and movie viewing, that have free and accessible parking nearby. This is also a negative way to generate revenue. It will make people angry, will reduce the nighttime visitors to this area, and have a negative impact on businesses that stay open during evening hours. 

Instead, why not put a positive spin on gaining additional income by making it fun as well as profitable? For example, how about creating the first ever annual Traffic Circle Design Contest? The city could ask local businesses to donate prizes such as a dinner for two, or a pair of movie tickets to downtown businesses. 

Prizes could run the gamut from:  

1. Best Dressed Traffic Circle. 

2. Most Creative Design. 

3. Most Imaginative. 

4. Most Colorful. 

5. Greenest. 

6. And so forth. 

You could charge individuals and block associations, let’s say, $10, per category, per submission, and encourage them to submit as many ideas and or existing designs or photos for each category to be included in the competition. 

This will be followed up by the judging of the ideas and designs and then the first ever, Traffic Circle Annual Awards Ceremony, to be held in MLK Park, on a Saturday afternoon, next to the Farmers Market. 

Now, wouldn’t that be fun? and generate revenue? and make people excited about donating money to the City of Berkeley? 

Chandra Hauptman 

• 

IN DEFENSE OF BICYCLE TRAILERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What a difference in perspective! Amanda Duisman (Letters, April 22) wants to ban bicycle trailers because she thinks they are unsafe for small children, while I bought one, in part, because I thought it would be safer than carrying a child on the back of my bike. I will not try to convince her of this here, as I am afraid she will then just want to ban both. 

If we ban activities for people’s own good, where do we stop? Baby strollers? Kids on bikes? Pedestrians? 

Do we ignore social justice? Not everybody owns a car. What about the health aspects of exercise? Driven everywhere, our kids become obese, and are prone to early onset diabetes and heart problems. 

Most motor vehicles have safety systems, but nonetheless, 87 percent of people killed by motor vehicles are occupants of the vehicles themselves, while less than 2 percent of those killed are cyclists. Increasing the number of cyclists (or even pedestrians) by a little bit will increase their exposure to cars, but if you increase their number enough to significantly decrease vehicular traffic it should actually reduce the total number of fatalities. 

I have saved the perhaps most significant issue for last. Motor vehicles are major contributors to global climate change. What value is the supposed safety of transporting our children by car if by doing so we destroy the future for their children? 

Robert Clear 

• 

ALSO IN DEFENSE OF BICYCLE TRAILERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Dear me. Let me see if I get this straight. Having a child wear a helmet, or putting a flag on your bike trailer, proves that you know it’s dangerous to take the kid with you. By this logic, shouldn’t those of us who used child seats before the law required them have kept our children out of cars altogether, since we evidently were aware of the risks? One in 100 Americans dies in an auto accident, but no one suggests that children should not be transported in cars. 

What the odds are for a child in a bike cart is hard to determine, since there aren’t that many out there as yet, but I imagine parents bike more carefully than most people, which is to say that they probably have fewer accidents than average. (Could be that’s also true of parents driving cars.) 

Like the writers, I am old enough to be a grandmother, though so far not lucky enough. Over 25 years ago, I was hauling my kids by bicycle cart, and we all lived to tell the tale. They said they enjoyed riding with me on errands and to daycare. If they were traumatized, it’s had an odd result—both are bike riders, and our daughter is a part owner of Pedal Express, Berkeley’s bike messenger service. Should she ever bless us with a descendent, I hope and expect she’ll bring it to visit us by bicycle. 

I don’t mean to minimize the danger to children from cars. But that danger peaks when, inevitably, they get old enough to walk, bike, and eventually drive, without adult supervision. The way to improve their odds is to crack down on speeding, red light running, and violations of pedestrian right-of-way. 

Ann Sieck 

• 

STILL MORE IN DEFENSE OF BICYCLE TRAILERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I just wanted to comment on the child safety concerns raised about bicycle trailers. A previous letter objected to these trailers and favored child seats that can be mounted on the bicycle. While there isn’t a perfect, 100 percent risk-proof way to carry a child with you on a bicycle ride (any more than in a car), I believe that under most circumstances a trailer is safer than a mounted seat. 

When a seat is mounted on the bike, it affects the center of gravity of the bike, and makes it less stable and more difficult to control. If the worst happens, and the bicycle falls over, the child will go with it—and have no protection from the road, or other obstacles he or she might fall into. 

A trailer, on the other hand, is stable independent of the bike. It doesn’t affect the center of gravity, and minimally affects the handling of the bike. If the bicycle and rider fall over, many trailers will not—they are attached by a pivot specifically to guard against flipping over. They also have a seatbelt and a structure that protect the child if anything does hit the trailer. 

For this reason, I have felt comfortable taking my four-month-old with us on bicycle outings in his trailer. Because he’s so little, to give him added protection and to make sure his head doesn’t get jostled too much, I have used his car seat inside the trailer. We don’t take him into heavy traffic: most of Shattuck Avenue is definitely not a very safe route for bikes with kid trailers, just because there are so many cars—but there are lots of “bicycle boulevards” and less-crowded roads to use instead. 

Bad things can happen to kids, no doubt about that, but he’s safer in that trailer than he would be out of it. 

Gabriella Raymond 

• 

CHANGE IN FORMAT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The newspaper business is failing as I well know from personal experience. I had a management position at the largest chain around here that ended a year ago. Frankly, the great majority of newspapers do not deserve to survive. They all take their editorial cues from the gray New York Times, now in serious trouble itself. You can predict their views on everything from guns to climate change with your eyes closed. 

Which brings me to the Berkeley Daily Planet’s alleged reason for cutting back. Let’s drop all the greening nonsense. By that logic no one should ever publish anything because that would save all the trees. No one should ever use any resources because that is interfering with our “limited” supply ! That these resources sat unused for thousands of years while people were starving to death goes unmentioned. The liberal left has become a giant nanny scold crying “Doom !” all the time. Every pleasure from drinking to smoking to hunting to driving is now the enemy and we should all wear a hairshirt in perpetuity for “nature” and the backward regions of the planet. 

I bet the Daily Planet is cutting back for financial reasons. Now if anyone can verify the rumor that KPFA is cutting airtime 50 percent to lessen airwaves pollution that would be nice. 

Michael P. Hardesty 

Oakland 

• 

APPLE MOTH SPRAYING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Now that the powers that be (a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge and the Schwarzenegger Administration) have agreed to temporarily suspend the threatened aerial spraying of pesticide gas over much of the Bay Area in an attempt to sexually harass a small brown moth, we need to force a complete and final end to this insane plan. 

The incompetent Bush administration has been wrong about almost everything in the last seven years; why 

does anyone in their right mind possibly think that they would be right about a supposed big threat posed by the presence of the light brown apple moth (Epiphyas postvittana)? 

American apple growers originally lobbied the federal United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to classify this small moth as a big threat to their crops as a way of cutting down on competition from New Zealand apple exporters. It worked for a few years, and forced the New Zealand apple growers to undertake unnecessary and toxic sprayings of their orchards. This moth has been living in New Zealand for about a century and is considered to be a minor agricultural pest there. 

This moth, a native to Australia, has also lived in New Caledonia, Hawai’i and England for many years. These areas are still green and agriculturally productive. The residents and the farmers of Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Hawai’i and England have managed to co-exist with this moth without having to resort to the aerial pesticide 

spraying of entire cities and towns. 

But now that this moth has been discovered in California, other countries can and are demanding that this state take steps to eliminate the presence of the moth. So the discovered presence of the Apple Moth is a threat to the potential export profits of American apple growing corporations, it is not an actual threat to the growing of the apples. Hoisted on their own petard! Just agribusiness corporate greed coming home to roost, so to speak. 

A quick search of the Internet will reveal that the supposed presence of agricultural insect pests is the basis of many ongoing trade battles and trade wars between different food-producing countries and food-consuming nations. This brown apple moth brouhaha is just the latest conflict to appear recently in our California news media as a major story. Our apple farmers and our state and federal agricultural experts need to consult with apple growers in New Zealand and Australia and find some low-key biological controls as a remedy for the presence of the moth. The USDA should rejoin the real world and immediately downgrade this bogus threat level posed by the presence of this moth. 

Please write letters to your City Council representatives, your County supervisors, your State representatives and your Federal representatives and tell them “no” to any aerial spraying of pesticides or any other poison gases in the Bay Area. 

James K. Sayre 

Oakland 

• 

FRANKENNEGGER HAIKU 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

i shall close your schools; 

then you invent more machines 

to teach your children. 

Arnie Passman 

• 

ABU GHRAIB: FOUR YEARS AND NOTHING HAS CHANGED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It has been four years since we learned of the torture at Abu Ghraib and our government still has not acted to restore America’s honor by unequivocally banning torture and other forms of cruel treatment. 

I encourage anyone who does not believe that the Bush Administration did not orchestrate the torture techniques to read Philip Zimbardo’s “The Lucifer Effect.” Zimbardo did an experiment back in 1971 with Stanford students that emulated what happens when they are divided up into prisoners and guards and given very little guidance. The result: what he calls a “ ‘perfect storm’ which leads good people to engage in evil actions.” 

Zimbardo testified at one of the court-martials that it is the system of vague rules, implicit approval and assured immunity that led to the abuse of prisoners. (His testimony was later dismissed.) While the actual acts were perpetrated by individuals, the authority structure was intentionally designed to allow such abuses to occur. The resulting abuse has been not only harmful to the prisoners but also the guards has led us “moral” outsiders to erroneously characterize them both as “monsters.” 

This complete disregard for a person’s humanity, that of the prisoner as well as our troops acting as guards, goes against treating humans with dignity and respect. We have flouted the Geneva Convention to the detriment of our own captured troops, but also to our souls as human beings. 

Mr. Bush has all but left the car on cruise control as he speeds his way to whatever is next for him after his term is over. It’s up to the next president to restore America’s moral authority. The next president must swear off the use of torture by any and all U.S. agencies, order a complete investigation into this system of abuse, and establish clear guidelines of interrogation. We will not only be attempting to restore the humanity of those we incarcerate, but also our own humanity. 

Both are at stake. 

Evans McGowan 

San Anselmo 

• 

RODEOS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Red Bluff Round-up dodged a serious bullet on April 20 when a rodeo bull, “Blue Steel,” jumped an eight-foot fence into the audience, injuring six people in the process, three of them children. It’s a miracle that no one was killed. The story made the national news. 

But simply to say that this was an unavoidable “fluke” begs the issue, and rodeos around the country are setting themselves up for tragedies and lawsuits if they don’t do something to prevent such occurrences in the future. I’m reminded of the recent incident at the San Francisco Zoo when a tiger jumped a 15-foot moat and wall, and killed a zoo visitor. That, too, could be considered a “fluke,” yet zoos around the country, indeed world, immediately took a hard look at their public and animal safety policies and requirements, and changes were made. 

The rodeo community needs to follow suit for the protection of both the fans and the animals. Is there any sort of national standard for rodeo arenas? Should there be a 9-foot minimum fence requirement at all arenas, for instance? It’s time for various state legislatures to take a look at this issue. 

All California legislators may be written in care of the State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814. 

Eric Mills, coordinator 

Action for Animals 

Oakland 

• 

SOFT TOUCH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My advice to Dorothy Snodgrass (Letters, April 25): Don’t be a soft touch. I also hate finding more address labels in my mail. My response: I refuse to give money to any organization that sends me labels or offers any kind of “free prize” in return for my donation. And I tell them so by sending a note in their return envelope, pointing out that they’re wasting money that should be going to their cause, and further that the adhesive labels cannot be recycled like other paper. 

Jerry Landis 

• 

MEDIA AND THE ELECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am really angry at both the Democratic and Republican parties for allowing the media to select our presidential candidates. Where is their spine? How dare they allow the media to decide who to include and exclude in the debates, and to set up the questions and the formats! The parties should have acted to prevent this. And I think this is not the first election that this has happened—the media chose Kerry last time. 

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe that there are a lot of corrupt people out there who will to anything to attain power. They will corrupt our voting machines (Ohio), corrupt voter lists (Florida), corrupt the caucus process (Iowa), and corrupt media coverage (think Edwards and Kucinich).  

Who is protecting the democratic process? Maybe we need foreign observers like other countries? A U.N. presence? We certainly live in strange times. 

Margot Smith 

• 

HEAL THE ANGER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I wonder if we can find a way to heal the anger of students who scrawl graffiti on school walls. I know the students feel frustrated. Some of the frustration comes from the discipline necessary in any place of education. But some of the frustration comes from a curriculum which is not adapted for low achievers. The curriculum for low achievers should develop those skills which can make students economically self-sufficient. At the same time teachers and counselors should be encouraged to identify non-academic talents of students which are worthy of praise. 

We may need to find new learning streams for low achievers. So that their frustration doesn’t keep mounting. 

Romila Khanna 

Albany

ALTERNATIVE TO BRT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Not long after the environmental laws were passed a court concluded that “a search for alternatives need not be exhaustive.” Seems that is the way the Bus Rapid Transit study is going, even with all the ideas expressed in letters to the Daily Planet. It’s another take-it-or-leave-it study with the preferred alternative a variation of a central theme. 

Robert C, Chioino 

• 

NAME CALLING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Choosing Clinton over Obama does not make me a racist. Choosing Obama over Clinton does not make me a misogynist. Choosing McCain over either does not make me a fascist. 

It is a shame that some of us resort to argumentum ad hominem to discourage those with opposing viewpoints from participating in the political process, as if one person’s opinion matters more than the next. 

Matthew Mitschang 

• 

THE MONEY BEHIND BRT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Charles Siegel asks in his April 22 letter about Bus Rapid Transit, “[W]hy is BRT with exclusive bus lanes being used or proposed in 25 cities cross the United States?” The answer is very simple. Bus Rapid Transit is being pushed by the Bush administration, and funding is therefore available for it. 

An Oakland Tribune article of June 4, 2007 quoted AC Transit Board member Chris Peeples, “There’s been (Bush) administration support for these things, and we managed to get into the latest authorization of the latest transportation bill.” This enabled AC Transit to tap into a Department of Transportation program called New Starts, usually reserved for rail projects, for $75 million for BRT. 

Information about BRT myths and about federal policies can be found at www.lightrailnow.org. BRT is all about money from Washington, and not about good transportation service. 

Casey Silva 

• 

CAPITELLI’S VISION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If Councilmember Laurie Capitelli seeks a dialogue with the community about improvements in the North Shattuck shopping district, why does he continue to push his own personal vision for the area in the face of the overwhelming opposition of residents and merchants? 

He has tried several times to push his views upon the community, but they have been rejected each time. His latest attempt is to sneak his North Shattuck Plaza idea into the Berkeley Pedestrian Master Plan. Doesn’t he know that 1,136 people have signed a petition against the plaza, and 32 merchants in the Shattuck-Vine-Rose area have signed a petition against it as well? 

Is this a Councilmember who is listening to his constituent’s? 

Art Goldberg 

• 

CHILD SAFETY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Please thank Amanda Duisman for her April 22 letter of concern about the orange-tented innocents who are being transported via bicycles on city streets behind their presumably oblivious parents. I have never understood what appears to be a pretty cavalier attitude that runs rampant among a demographic that exudes political correctness and environmental sensitivity, not to mention promoting a more liberal, child-friendly society. 

Back in the day—as it were—we strapped our children into seats that rested on the bike’s back bumper and with equal nonchalance rode in town. I am now a grandmother and even I realize in retrospect that this introduction to the “streets” was equally as insane. However, at least automobile exhaust fumes, large tire treads and the limited vision of heavily trafficked street intersections wasn’t at the face level of babies! 

Perhaps adults should be required to climb into something equally fragile and potentially dangerous while being driven along Shattuck Avenue? Are we so out of touch with reality that putting our children at risk has become a sort of political finger to people who drive cars? And, are people who are old enough to be grandparents, so hopelessly intimidated by a younger generation of parents that we are afraid to publicly comment on something that appears so lacking in common sense? 

I would very much like to hear from parents on this subject, particularly those that opt for whatever these transports are called. Please help me understand! 

Julie Weeks 

• 

ANOTHER SECRET DEAL 

WITH UC? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is a rumor going around town that Mayor Bates has reached a secret agreement with UC Berkeley to drop the city’s lawsuit challenging the massive university construction projects planned for the Memorial Stadium area—the so-called Southeast Campus Integrated Projects. Why do so many believe this rumor? For starters, that is exactly what Mayor Bates did in 2005 regarding the city’s lawsuit over serious flaws in UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). At that time, Mayor Bates entered into secret talks with Chancellor Birgeneau and caved in to UC’s misguided expansion plans—without getting a single mitigation to help neighborhoods deal with the many problems caused by UC’s continued growth. And that secret agreement was being negotiated at the same time that Bates was telling the public he would make no deal without full disclosure to the public ahead of time, and full citizen participation in discussing the merits of any such proposal. Berkeley residents were betrayed. 

The fact that the city had to sue the university again almost immediately after that secret deal shows how bad the agreement was, and how poorly Bates represented the city’s interests. In short, we got taken. And we are still paying the price today. The current lawsuits against the university—including the city’s lawsuit—stem directly from shortcomings in the LRDP that Bates left unchallenged.  

It is my hope that the members of the City Council have learned their lesson, and they will not turn their backs on the public and approve another secret deal with the university. This situation also points out how valuable public participation is in a democracy. To be blunt: If citizens had been allowed at the table, we would not have approved such a bad deal.  

It also points out how much we need an effective Sunshine Ordinance in Berkeley, which would prevent all such secret backroom deals in the first place. For now, all we can do is let the Mayor and the Council members know that we are watching them very closely regarding this issue, and there will be serious repercussions if they betray us again. “Recall” is the word I have heard passing from some lips. But I have to admit, at this point that is simply a rumor. 

Doug Buckwald  

• 

TREE SIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With the revelation of irregularities in the re-hiring of Victoria Harrison, the arrests at the Oak Grove Tree Sit become even more suspect than they already were. Victoria Harrison and Nathan Bromstrom’s claim lays heavily on the false premise that the situation at the grove is so out of control, so dangerous, that they didn’t have time to look for someone else, Vicky was re-hired in an emergency situation. 

That type of fake scenario is hard to paint when working with peaceful protesters, so the best option the cops have is to just arrest people for wishy-washy reasons, then trump up the accusations. There have been a series of unprovoked arrests at the Tree Sit. In some cases people have been arrested for merely speaking to the trees. One of the bigger lies the cops concocted was a tale of chemical warfare; cops allegedly at death’s door from an unknown chemical agent spread by a violent domestic terrorist. In less than two weeks the bogus story fell apart, and the cops had to redact it quietly. For Vicky and Bromstrom to get way with their little scandal, they need to make the tree sit look spooky by any means necessary. Certainly now the public and the media is going to question further any press releases and any tales of woe by Vicky and the cops. 

Nate Pitts 

Friend of the Tree Sit 

• 

CAMPAIGN THEATER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Three serious contenders are left in the wasteful marathon to determine who will be our next president. In order to win the Oval Office each must act as if he or she is already there and do so with such skill that the electorate perceives the pretense as a preview. In this regard, candidates bear a burden more daunting than the toughest roles for stage or screen; their performance is in fact so demanding that they require the assistance of a multitude of advisors, “stage hands” ever ready on five minutes notice, day or night, to prompt the candidate with special bits of information. 

Let’s face it. This country is too big for one person to run, whether it be McCain, Clinton or Obama; there’re too many problems and there’s too much complexity—crisis in mortgages, recession, medical care, environmental care, torture of detainees, foreign policy, chaos in Iraq, resurging Taliban in Afghanistan, and dozens more including at least one as yet unknown. The immensity of problems and issues requires the candidate to retain dozens of knowledgeable advisors, including a team to deal with distractions and detractions.  

How well or poorly the next occupant of the Oval Office will handle the nation’s many problems is any one’s guess. It is, unfortunately, more than likely that little will change. Why? Because all three aspirants choose their entourage of advisors from the same pool: scholars, former advisors, retired elected, appointed and military officers, pundits, and academic specialists of all stripes.  

Let’s be serious. No matter who becomes the 44th president he or she will be little more than a stand-in for an ensemble of several dozen close advisors. Perhaps we should revise our national motto and change its subject: e pluribus unus (una). 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

ENOUGH ALREADY! 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I believe I can claim in all honesty that I hold the world’s record for acquiring more address labels than anyone else on this planet! They arrive with alarming frequency. When going down for my mail each day, I utter a silent prayer to the Almighty, “Please, please—let there be no more address labels!” 

My prayer goes unheeded. There’s always a new batch. 

Mind you, I must admit these labels represent very worthwhile charities and legitimate organizations. To name only a few: Aids Foundation, Alzheimer’s, American Diabetes Association, American Lung Association, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Disabled American Veterans, Easter Seals, Human Rights Watch, March of Dimes, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, National Foundation for Cancer Research, Nature Conservancy, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Project Open Hand, Sierra Club, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and UNICEF. All deserving of contributions, but where, oh where, to draw the line? 

This may be a slight exaggeration, but at the moment I have enough address labels to paper my apartment, form a path the entire length of Telegraph Avenue from Berkeley to Oakland; decorate the Golden Gate Bridge, and scale the top of Mount Diablo. In desperation, I sort through the stack piled high on my dining room table, happily tossing out those labels that misspell my name or show an incorrect apartment number. 

I won’t pretend that I donate to all these charities and organizations, but I give considerable thought to which ones I’ll select. While I’m puzzled that Disabled American Veterans and Paralyzed Veterans of America both ask for contributions, how can I ignore appeals from either of these organizations benefiting soldiers who’ve served in both Vietnam and Iraq? Likewise, I can’t dismiss the Aids Foundation and Alzheimer Research seeking ways to wipe out the scourge of this century. So, after carefully selecting those organizations that serve such vital roles in our society, I get out my check book and send modest donations, fully aware that brand new labels will arrive in the mail, adding to strong guilt feelings if I don’t divvy up! 

Dorothy Snodgrass 

Laurie Capitelli begins his April 18 Daily Planet commentary standing at Vine looking south “down a vibrant Shattuck Avenue thronging with pedestrians…spilling out across traffic to claim and use the grass median strip.” What he does not say, is that this thronging mass of pedestrians does not continue down Shattuck Avenue or continue into the real downtown of Berkeley.  

When I disembark at the downtown BART station and walk home via Shattuck Avenue to North Berkeley I see a more complete picture. Getting off the train, it is hard not to notice that downtown is shabby and worn and needs to be revitalized. The buildings that have recently been built downtown lack inspiration and have done little to reinvigorate the area with the positive energy we would like in a city center. As I cross University Avenue and walk north, I notice that blocks of new five- story buildings, painted artificially Tuscan to cover their inherent blandness and lack of character, stand like cloned soldiers on the east side of Shattuck Avenue. Apartments are apparently on the top floors of the buildings and offices on the ground floor. Many of these ground floor offices are empty or perhaps not even completed. There are few people walking the sidewalks in this area. As I cross Delaware, I walk into what I call my neighborhood. The one- or two-story buildings are more human scale, the architecture more interesting, and the area more friendly with people busily walking the streets. The shops and restaurants are busy because they are local businesses in tune with the local populace. I feel lucky to call this part of Berkeley my home.  

It is predominately an area of owner-occupied homes. The area is dotted with parks to provide tranquility in an urban environment. There are walking paths that crisscross the area leading to other commercial areas or to other neighborhoods within the area. I like the sense of place, the personality and the community I have found in this part of Berkeley. I like the quality of life that the local, the small, and the individualistic produce. Apparently, others feel the same way, because even though there are some things that can be improved, the North Berkeley area essentially works.  

Before any improvements in this area are planned, it would be wise to ponder what makes the “gourmet ghetto” one of the most vital parts of Berkeley, for it is very easy to kill what we love in North Berkeley. The Vision Committee, a subgroup of LOCCNA, set upon this task when we wrote our Vision Statement in response to David Stoloff’s plan. Although there was some disagreement within LOCCNA (as stated in the Fred Dodsworth article), we united around the concepts behind the Vision Statement. It was endorsed at a well attended meeting of LOCCNA members and it was endorsed by the Northside Neighborhood Association. It would be well for Laurie Capitelli to respond to the issues contained within that document and answer truthfully the fear of many North Berkeley residents: Is this movement to enhance North Berkeley with green and pedestrian space only a ruse or a prelude to building the dead architecture and high rise apartments that are now creeping up Shattuck Avenue? I question the sincerity of Capitelli’s statement that we should work together with a “shared commitment to bring improvement to our neighborhood.” When I am on Vine looking south on Shattuck, I like what I see up to Delaware, but looking further south on Shattuck I dread what might be coming north. 

Linda Trujillo Bargmeyer is a Berkeley resident.

Posted Mon., April 28—From the beginning, the idea of converting an industrial property in the middle of our manufacturing district to recreational fields and a skate park, was pure folly.  

Like the lie that requires another to cover up its dishonesty, the planning and rezoning of the park complex have led to a series of outrageous decisions, and of course, more of our tax dollars being spent to “fix” a multitude of mistakes. 

It should surprise no one that the consequences of such an extreme shift in the area’s zoning are never-ending. The latest round of bad news from the skate complex is a request for its complete replacement, despite being only five years old. The city’s staff, whose bungling has squandered nearly a million local tax dollars, is now proposing a skate park bond for two million more. 

Undoubtedly, none of the city’s so-called professional staff or council who signed off on the ill-fated sports complex ever thought their decisions would come back to bite them. Had this project been a private construction, many on the planning team would have been fired. From its opening days in 2003 when the complex was abruptly closed because of toxic groundwater seepage, Harrison skate park has been a gnarly ride for Berkeley. Now it appears to be in an irreversible backslide and headed for a wipeout. 

Make it work at any cost 

The first cracks in the skate park project were not seen in the concrete bowls, but in the planning process itself. This breakdown started a decade ago when Berkeley began negotiating with the University of California for the contaminated property at Fourth and Harrison streets. It was then that the city began meeting privately with Berkeley resident, Doug Fielding, and a former City Council member, Fred Collignon, who is also an associate professor of city and regional planning at Cal. 

These two insiders were also responsible for organizing the very vocal special interest group of soccer parents and skateboarders that pressured the City of Berkeley to build recreational fields at the current location. Few elected officials were willing to voice any opposition to the project and thereby run the risk of becoming a political target. 

Since that time, former council member Diane Woolley has offered some insight into the process. “Fielding was heavy-handed, overbearing, single-minded, and shortsighted during the entire process.” She also has stated, “It was understood by the council members that this project was to be approved quickly and questions about health hazards were swept away in the rush.” 

As political pressures over the creation of the Harrison sports park mounted, the soccer lobby sought the special support of city manager Weldon Rucker. His “make-it-work-at-any-cost” stance quickly silenced all staff opposition. Rucker’s office even authorized funding for Doug Fielding to oversee the development of a site plan, months before the council had approved the project’s use permit. The city manager apparently also worked out a plan to forego a public bidding process for this municipal development. Instead, the contract was awarded to Fielding’s new group, Association of Sports Field Users (ASFU). 

The city didn’t seem to care that this non-profit was barely a year old and had no track record. Further evidence of its influence was the fact that council enacted a special ordinance allowing ASFU to manage the project, with a ceiling of two million dollars! The council’s extraordinary action was the source of many problems and much confusion, forcing the city’s planning team to spend numerous extra hours in aiding ASFU’s development of the site. 

A “comedy” of errors 

Despite what Fielding has recently stated, the city did little to conduct an honest site investigation, including its failure to even complete a Phase One Study. Such a review would have looked at off-site problems that could potentially affect the project. This is why the toxic Hexavalent Chromium (Chromium-6) was not encountered earlier. 

Another reason for this toxic surprise may be found in Berkeley’s own Toxics Department. The record reflects that our staff environmental expert, Dr. Al-Hadithy, was obviously aware of the Chromium-6 groundwater plume, but simply failed to speak up. This in turn allowed the excavation of the skate bowls to play out like the opening of an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies, only this time, instead of oil, “up through the ground came a-bubbling Chrome-6.” It was a very costly mistake that project proponents seem to have forgotten. 

In the aftermath of the Chromium-6 crisis, the skateboard site was forced to undergo a redesign. During the initial review in 2000, Parks’ Director Lisa Carrona was publicly told that the new skate park plan was underestimating the challenge to isolate the toxic groundwater. Questions were also raised about site soils and the structure’s stability. 

“When a swimming pool-like concrete structure, such as the skate facility, is built in a flood-zone area, long-term problems with the stability of the structure can be expected. No subsurface structures should be allowed at this location, especially the skate bowls.” 

Today Carrona continues to be a cheerleader for the skate park. Even the Toxics Director Dr. Al-Hadithy has been quoted recently, saying that the cracks in the bowls are not due to the groundwater. This is absolute nonsense. His unqualified opinion is apparently an attempt to refocus liability costs onto the project’s subcontractors. 

Air quality monitoring 

The recent public pronouncements from ASFU’s founder, Doug Fielding, conveniently revise the air quality history of the site as well. Perhaps Mr. Fielding doesn’t remember calling the air monitoring stupid, or that because of that study certain members of the city’s staff should be fired. Nor does he seem to remember the many vicious attacks on those in the public who dared to call the site’s air quality into serious question. 

For the record, the final monitoring report revealed that the air quality at the site was twice as bad as downtown San Jose. Playing at the soccer fields is comparable to playing in heavy traffic. More than one hundred times a year, the site exceeds the state’s PM-10 particulate standards. In fact, the air monitoring study forced the city to post warning signs and required parents to sign an environmental wavier acknowledging these conditions prior to their children being allowed to use the soccer fields. 

Today there is no question that the site’s air quality is much worse than was found in the 2003 year-long study. It was noted that even during that period of testing, there was a noticeable increase in particulate levels, most of which is probably coming from the city’s own operations at the Second Street Transfer Station. 

Last year the community monitored the air around the skate park for metal particulates emitted by Pacific Steel Casting, a foundry within a quarter mile of the sports complex. The Berkeley Air Monitors study showed unhealthy levels of nickel and manganese have also been impacting this municipal park. 

Putting good money after bad 

Even the city’s attorney’s office has got into the spin game over Harrison Park. They stated that perhaps their office made some “missteps,” but that they were in no way connected to the influence exerted by the soccer lobby or city council. The city has threatened to look into the possible liability of the subcontractors. This is very unlikely. The city knows full well that a real investigation of the Harrison site would only daylight the project’s ongoing problems and the city’s culpability in the skate park debacle. 

From its conception, Berkeley’s skate park has had a history of bad government and poor choices, perhaps all made for the right reasons. However, good intentions can’t justify abridging our planning practices or ignoring the checks and balances of our zoning ordinances. Having a viable skate park could be a great asset for our city, but at this ill-chosen location, it is, and always will be, a serious health and financial liability. 

L A Wood is a Berkeley resident and runs the civic watchdog website www.berkeleycitizen.org. 

Posted Mon., April 28—Over the past week top Pentagon officials have upped the Bush regime’s verbal attacks against Iran in what may be a prelude to actual military attacks.  

On April 21, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates delivered a speech at the West Point military academy where he accused Iran of being a rogue nation that supports “terrorism; that is a destabilizing force throughout the Middle East and Southwest Asia and, in my judgment, is hellbent on acquiring nuclear weapons.” He went on to say, “Another war in the Middle East is the last thing we need. And in fact, I believe it would be disastrous on a number of levels. But the military option must be kept on the table, given the destabilizing policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future Iranian nuclear threat – either directly or through nuclear proliferation.” Gates and all other top Bush administration officials, including the president, continually emphasize that the military option is always on the table in regard to Iran. 

On April 25, in an indication of how real the “military option” is, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, stated, “I have no expectations that we’re going to get into a conflict with Iran in the immediate future,”but he emphasized the U.S. military has reserve capability, particularly in the Navy and Air Force and based in other regions. “So it would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability.” 

Mullen did not define what he meant by “immediate future,” but he went on to say he is “increasingly concerned about Iran’s activity, not just in Iraq, but throughout the region. I believe recent events, especially the Basra operation, have revealed just how much and just how far Iran is reaching into Iraq to foment instability. Their support to criminal groups in the form of munitions and training, as well as other assistance they are providing and the attacks they are encouraging continues to kill coalition and Iraqi personnel.” Mullen said that General David Petraeus is preparing a briefing that details these activities and that the report is expected in the next couple of weeks. The report is expected to detail the discovery in Iraq of weapons that were very recently manufactured in Iran, according to Mullen. 

We can expect that this latest Petraeus report will be used as further justification for a possible future attack on Iran by the White House. In the midst of the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is frightening to think of a third war being launched by the Bush regime, but given the administration’s record it is a very real possibility. 

The same day Mullen was launching his verbal attack at Iran, a U.S. Navy official reported that a U.S. military contracted cargo ship on Thursday fired several “warning” shots at two boats that approached it off the Iranian coast. This is similar to other incidents in Iranian coastal waters. Will such an incident be used as the “trigger” to justify war against Iran in the future? It is not beyond the realm of possibility if we remember the alleged incident in the Tonkin Gulf which led to Congress approving war against Vietnam. 

These recent verbal assaults are a continuation of previous rhetoric aimed at Iran by the Bush regime. They do not necessarily mean that war is imminent, but we should not be lulled into thinking the Bush regime will remain content to only fire verbal shots at Iran. The White House and its military machine have done everything possible to keep tensions high in the region and will continue to do so. The Bush administration regularly links Iran to terrorism and accuses it of supplying weapons and training to those fighting U.S. forces in Iraq. In addition, the accusation that Iran is attempting to obtain nukes has been levied by just about every top official in the Bush regime. 

Keep in mind that similar charges were made by the Bush regime before it invaded Iraq. Because of this, we can not afford to be complacent in the face of this latest round of attacks. The only guarantee that the Bush administration will not be able to launch another war that will be devastating to the people of the world is if we drive the regime from power. As long as Bush and his henchmen and women remain in the White House, they are a threat to not only the Iranian people, but to all of the world. 

Kenneth J. Theisen is an organizer with the World Can’t Wait! Drive out the Bush Regime! and an Oakland resident.

With respect to the North Shattuck Plaza, a proposal which recently resurfaced in the city’s Master Pedestrian Plan, and whose “comment period” has recently ended, I write concerning both the issue and the process. To the issue of the plaza as proposed I stand opposed. The process to which I refer is that of government imposition of such plans (to which I stand opposed) without the active and informed participation in their formulation by those who will be effected by them. A “comment period” does not constitute participation. 

We who have been active against the plaza for over a year now, since the first attempt to impose such a plan, feel that the majority of people in the North Shattuck neighborhood oppose a plaza, while a few people support it. We have gathered a petition of approximately 1,000 signatures of people who oppose the plaza, which has been submitted to the appropriate city offices. There is also a petition of merchants from the two blocks along Shattuck Avenue in question, including Safeway and Andronicos, opposing the plaza. Since the issue has re-emerged, there has been extensive discussion on mailing lists and among neighbors concerning this proposal, both for and against. If all this takes the form and the aura of a protest movement and a neighborhood association, what the existence of such a movement proves is that the avenues of democratic participation are insufficient. Those speaking for both sides, for the plaza and against it, are in form calling for better than a “comment period.” We are all calling for participation, which means the establishment of regular channels of discussion, planning, and decision.  

The major empirical reasons for opposing the plaza are the following. The plaza’s construction period will mark the death knell of a number of important and desirable businesses in the area, whose margin of operation will not withstand the disruption. While the plan will move around a few parking spaces, it will neither beautify nor provide new greenery; it will replace concrete with more concrete. There is already a beautiful park, one block north. To beautify the “plaza” area would mean approaching what now exists like a canvas on which to paint, with an aesthetic in hand, and not a jackhammer. Blocking off the Shattuck service road that services the Vine-to-Rose businesses will not correct the major traffic problem in the area, which is on Rose Street itself, where west-bound traffic turns left into Long’s parking lot. In fact, it will make it worse because it will increase the traffic through that parking lot. To dig up concrete in order to lay down more concrete in a different configuration will constitute neither progress, nor beautification, nor a positive change. 

The political reasons for opposing this plaza are more important. We live in a moment when some serious and far-reaching changes are being proposed at the corporate and government administrative levels, as well as those of this city. The modus operandi of such projects has too often been to present them as accomplished fact to those people who will be effected by them on a daily level. Those levels of political administration, including those of this city, are getting more and more distant from us as citizens. I need but mention the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), and the Bay Area Council (a business association), both having the ability and the power to make decisions without consulting the people effected by those decisions. This marks the growth of an anti-democratic tendency in our forms of governance. In response, similar neighborhood associations to that of the North Shattuck area have come into existence around the city, and around similar issues. 

When neighborhood associations emerge, seeking to have a say in what happens, in the face of such administrative apparatuses, they appear as protests. This is itself an injustice. The channels for discussion, planning, and decision making by those to be effected by those decisions should already be in place. The proposed North Shattuck plaza, as an issue around which there is already an aroused citizenry, is a perfect place to start figuring out how to structure just such citizen participation. Rather than simply modify the proposal in accord with an amorphous “comment period,” the city should strike the proposal from its plans altogether, and begin a process of developing such channels in the North Shattuck neighborhood, as a pilot project for the rest of the city. 

Steve Martinot is a Berkeley resident.

The Daily Planet had a headline article regarding concrete cracking at the skate park. Mixed in with this was my name, as well as eight-year-old comments about environmental issues from someone on the Disability Commission. There is no connection here. 

Concrete cracking is the result of poor construction or poor design. All of the design/engineering/environmental work on the skate park was done by people selected by Friends of the Berkeley Skate Park in conjunction with the City of Berkeley Parks Department. The Parks Department used the non-profit I chair, the Association of Sports Field Users (ASFU), as a conduit for funds to pay some of these groups- most notably Mike McIntyre of Site Design who was told to design a skate park that could be built for $225,000. 

The design that emerged was brave new world revolutionary and resulted in a skate park that was ranked as the best outdoor skate park in Northern California when it was completed. From a design perspective (ignoring the fact that the park designed was way over what was budgeted), Friends of a Berkeley Skate Park and the City of Berkeley Parks Department did an excellent job. 

As for the construction, contractors managed by ASFU did the site demolition and the initial earthwork shaping the bowls. However this work was stopped when chromium 6 was discovered in the water being pumped from underneath the deepest bowl. ASFU pulled off the job, the skate park was redesigned without any ASFU involvement and the city took on the role of construction manager. There is no connection between the concrete cracking and anything ASFU or I had to do with the project. 

Next up are the environmental issues that, as the City of Berkeley’s chief environmental officer states, “The cracking has nothing to do with the (environmental issues of) ground water.” 

Environmental concerns were one of the central political issues in the development of Harrison Park. The issues were both broad- we shouldn’t be building a park in an industrial neighborhood- and detailed- long-term air quality site studies should be done. 

Without going into a detailed rehashing of all the issues several points should be made. The University of California (which owned the land) and the City of Berkeley did extensive environmental work on the site, including groundwater, air and soils testing. All of this environmental work was reviewed by the City of Berkeley’s environmental office and it was determined that the site was suitable for use as a public park. 

At the time Harrison Park was being contemplated, there were two playing fields as well as 700 units of UC housing for families, many with small children, right next to the site. In ten years of experience the athletic community had more problems with asthma attacks, a proxy for air quality, at King Field due to the dust of the cinder track than at the playing fields adjacent to Harrison. UC considered the air quality a non-issue. 

LA Wood and others took the position that the air quality at Harrison was not ideal. The field user and skater community accepted this but took the position that there was no perfect site and that having the skate park and the playing fields was far better than not having them. This would still be the sentiment today. 

Finally we have the “Ah ha, we told you so!” chromium 6 that delayed the construction of the skate park. Prior to construction it was understood that the 9’ deep bowl desired by the skaters would get very close to the underground water table, particularly during the winter months when the tides were up. The solution to this problem was a deep vault where two pumps would be located to pump out the ground water to prevent it from entering the bowl. 

During construction the pumps were operating and it was not uncommon to come to the site and see a hose trickle of water going into the storm sewer. The City of Berkeley was having this water tested on a regular basis. About the time the earthen bowls for the skate park were being finished, chromium 6 was detected in the water, meaning it could no longer be put into the storm sewer. 

This discovery called a halt to the job because if the chromium 6-tainted water couldn’t be put in the storm sewer, it would have to be put into tanker trucks and hauled away at a cost that was prohibitive. It was theorized that the source of the chromium 6 was a site about a block away from the skate park and that the pumping of the water drew a plume of the chemical from the site. 

The City of Berkeley was aware of and monitoring the site but in reviewing the designs for the skate park, made no connection between the fact that the design called for continued pumping of the groundwater and that this continued pumping might result in contamination. But even with what happened, it’s important to remember that this mildly contaminated water was being taken away from underneath the construction site. It was not in drinking water and public exposure was virtually non-existent. 

After the park was redesigned in the winter months, there would be minute traces of the chemical in the seams of the concrete and the City of Berkeley took the extraordinarily conservative approach to close the skate park to prevent any possibility of human contact. After a couple of years, this problem went away and the skate park is now open 12 months a year. 

Harrison Park with its playing fields, community meeting building and skate park continues to be one of the busiest parks in the entire Bay area and I have absolutely no regrets about being involved in its development. It’s a great city asset. 

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

The city is considering placing a bond measure on the ballot to rebuild our public pools. Pools built nearly half a century ago, in cooperation between the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) and the city, have reached their life expectancy. Crumbling infrastructure makes these pools increasingly expensive to maintain and keep viable financially and operationally. As a result, two of the three outdoor neighborhood public pools in Berkeley are closed most of the year, with West Campus pool closed even on summer weekends. Only King pool serves its North Berkeley neighborhood year around. Additionally, the city’s Warm Water Pool, housed in Berkeley Highs Old Gym, must be relocated and rebuilt. Now is the time to look at alternative scenarios. Now is the time to explore facilities that can support existing programs and act as a springboard to launch new, exciting, aquatic programs. 

The city is considering a $30 million dollar price tag to rebuild what we have. However, what we have are pools and an aquatic program that reaches comparatively few, with diminishing utilization over the past years. The BUSD, forced to focus on No Child Left Behind and its own budget woes, has elected to align funding with academics, resulting in insufficient funding to maintain and operate the pools for school-based swim programs. What we have now is a system of pools that are owned by the schools and run by the city, that are inefficient, and require large financial subsidies for operation and for programming. 

Our pools don’t serve families with young children very well. Many children from minority families, and economically disadvantaged families, are not learning to swim. There are few and limited family swim slots and there are few programs specifically designed for teenagers. In addition, the pools are designed to old safety standards and do not accommodate deep-water activities or competitive swimming. Finally, the old engineering, lack of enclosure, and Berkeley winters, cause these facilities to be high-energy consumers and unattractive to all but the most hardy residents during the colder months. At this historical moment, we should consider the future and we should consider the needs, not only of current pool users, but all those constituents that are not currently being served by existing aquatic facilities. 

A number of us have engaged and considered these issues, weighing the pros and cons of several pool options. Using the best information available we feel that a new, multi-use, aquatic complex can be built for the same or less money than is currently being proposed for rehabilitating and replacing existing facilities. Such a complex would include a new indoor, warm water, therapeutic pool. Other elements of the complex would allow for recreation, amusement, and competition. Such a complex could potentially provide a community center for families, seniors, youth and the disabled that includes meeting rooms that can also used for birthday parties and city camps, a food concession, and opportunities for unique activities of interest to the community. 

We have seen what other cities have done both in the Bay Area and afar. For example, the Silliman Aquatic Center in Newark is enormously popular with its residents. They maintain long hours, provide joyful youth recreation, such as a tot water park and slides, have a very low subsidy per swim, and are helping teach all the children and adults of Newark to swim. We have also learned that Carson Valley Swim Center in Nevada has the best warm water therapy program of any public pool in the West, as well as many aquatic exercise programs. They also provide opportunities for competitive swimming, scuba, water polo, recreational swimming and diving. 

Our goal has been to develop a sustainable long-term pool solution for all of Berkeley’s residents, a vision of aquatics that serves the most citizens with cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency. With the need to address the crumbling infrastructure of existing facilities, now is the time to begin developing a new aquatics infrastructure and program that will serve all of Berkeley well into the future with a world-class facility. 

This commentary was written on behalf of Berkeley Aquatics for All: Charles Altekruse , James Cisney, Bill Hamilton, David Mayer, Dan McGarry, Thom Opal, Stephen Swanson, Zasa Swanson. 

Remember Joseph Heller’s Catch 22? “All the enlisted men and officers on combat duty had to sign a loyalty oath to get their maps from the intelligence tent, a second loyalty oath to receive their parachutes from the parachute tent, a third loyalty oath, etc.…Every time they turned around there was another loyalty oath to be signed…To anyone who questioned the effectiveness of loyalty oaths, [Captain Black] replied that people who were loyal would not mind signing all the loyalty oaths they had to. To anyone who questioned the effectiveness of the loyalty oaths, he said people who really owed allegiance to their country would be proud to pledge it as often as required.…The more loyalty oaths a person signed, the more loyal he was.” 

Now consider the following e-mail sent by an El Cerrito staffer to 30 Contra Costa and Alameda city clerks at 8:15 a.m., Tuesday March 4: 

“Good Morning: The Oath of Office has never been administered to commissioners in El Cerrito. At my previous job I must’ve sworn in 800 commissioners over the years without any issues. Would each of you kindly inform me as to whether the Oath of Office is administered to commissioners in your City?” 

There were 20 responses: Walnut Creek “Absolutely—all are sworn in, in fact tonight I’m doing it to our newbie’s….” Livermore, “’…they bring their family along for photo-ops.” San Leandro, “…if they put up any kind of resistance or ask why bother, point out that State Law requires it.” Newark and Concord responded that only Planning Commissioners were sworn in. In Berkeley all 350 commissioners sign.  

El Cerrito History: The Loyalty Oath first emerged as an issue at our May 2007 Parks and Recreation Commission meeting when (from the minutes) “Commissioner Rosemary Loubal questioned the need for an Oath and requested further discussion…Chair Greg Lyman reported not finding any documents in the Commissioner’s handbook…and will put the item on the next agenda for further discussion.” The minutes didn’t report that none of the commissioners signed. I was aghast at such a bald evasion of council responsibility, sending a staffer to enforce a very serious matter, without discussion, explanation or council mandate 

There was no follow up until March 2008, when the oath, with no accompanying explanation, was scheduled as a “ceremonial item” for the next Parks and Rec meeting. By sugar coating the term as a “ceremonial item” council and staff probably thought they could slip the oath to commissioners without uncomfortable discussion or acknowledgment of endorsement. 

At the next council meeting, I told the Ccouncil it was abdicating its responsibility to citizens by leaving such important matters to non-elected staff. I requested that the council agendize and discuss this issue first. I asked “why, if you favor oaths, you don’t simply vote for mandatory loyalty oaths?” Why hide behind a staffer? I also offered to tell the council what I found out about the issue from ACLU and a local Law School dean—if my three minutes were extended. Instead, the council only asked for the city attorney’s opinion. He read part of the state law, which seemed to require all commissioners to take the oath. “So it’s the state’s decision,” said the mayor.  

Actually, the code shows that only decision making bodies must take the oath, but advisory ones do not. It is up to the council, not the attorney, to extend the oath to all commissions. 

Since then, at its most recent meeting, while I was abroad, four of seven Parks and Rec commissioners signed the oath, and asked the council to set a policy on what would happen to those who decline to sign. In the meanwhile, El Cerrito started to routinely include the oath in forms that must be filled out by all new board, commission and committee applicants.  

There were e-mails between city staffers on this issue: “I have not had to swear anyone in before. I don’t even know what to have them say.” Response: “You just ask them to raise their right hand and repeat after you. The oath has a natural rhythm for pauses. Practice on me if you’d like.”  

I again, at the April 21 council meeting, requested that the oath issue be agendized, so it is council members rather than staff who will decide whether all, or just bodies with some judicial power (like Planning Commissioners) must sign.  

I asked many people “Why do you think the El Cerrito City Council won’t agendize and vote for loyalty oaths for all volunteers?” Folks reply that El Cerrito is supposedly a liberal town, council members fear that voters wouldn’t like council members to vote for loyalty oaths. So they hide behind staff, as if it wasn’t up to them to determine policy. 

An easy “way out” would have been for the council to claim that it doesn’t wish to set up a two-tier system of “advisory” vs. “decision-making” commissions. However, its earlier singling out of Parks and Rec for oath enforcement suggests that the whole issue may not be “just a formality.” 

The Parks and Recreation Commission while supportive of El Cerrito recreational policies and expenditures, did occasionally follow my suggestions as Parks and Rec commissioner and criticized deficiencies in park plans and maintenance. The “paper trail” may show that rather than a routine bureaucratic catch-up, the loyalty oath could be a means to “bring to heel” vocal dissidents seen as lacking team spirit. 

The City Council will have to decide whether it wants to open up the issue for serious discussion. This may bring out folks who see the loyalty oaths as an attempt at “coercive harmony”—in line with UCB Professor Laura Nader’s definition. 

“What’s going on in El Cerrito? Is it under attack?” was a typical comment from a prominent California Judge. And the answer is, “Yes, it is certainly acts like it is, but not by Al Qaeda. The real enemy is citizen apathy!” 

Rosemary Loubal signed the loyalty oath many years ago to become a naturalized citizen.

City officials are considering a panoply of new tax measures for the November 2008 ballot. The measures under discussion include the following projects, either separately or bundled in some fashion: public safety-police; public safety-fire; public safety-youth violence prevention; watershed management; warm water pool; (the forgoing are referred to herein as “the city measures”); and a very big general parks and recreation measure, including all pools, several playing fields, a new skate park, and more. Additionally, the library and BUSD are each very interested in substantial capital improvement measures ($25 million for the library), but appear to have made a deal to hold off until the city gets a first crack at the voters this coming November. Note that there will also likely be some regional and state revenue measures, as well as some potential changes (to extract more dollars) in the way that the State of California taxes property owners.  

The city measures alone (excluding library, BUSD, and the bundled parks and recreation measure), taken together, would add at least $360 to the average homeowners annual property tax bill (average is defined as 1,900 square feet and assessed value of $330,500) and substantially more for the many newer homeowners with higher assessed values. At this time, no final decisions have been made as to the final scope and shape of the measures for the November ballot. 

In 2004, the numerous tax measures on the city wish list fell far short of the required votes. The Real Property Transfer Tax for Youth Services, Library Tax Increase, and Paramedic Tax Increase each required a two-thirds majority, but received, respectively, 54.3 percent, 51 percent, and 45.4 percent. The Utility Users Tax Increase required 50 percent plus 1 vote, but received only 37.4 percent. Note that the UUT is the only tax burden that would have been shouldered by the entire Berkeley population, not just property owners, and it failed the most miserably! So, this time around, city officials are shunning any measure that would ask students and renters to help shoulder the burden of increasing local government, and these officials are clearly counting on increased voter turnout of non-property-owners, lured by the national election, to vote in higher local homeowner taxes. 

Following are some considerations for Berkeley residents with respect to new Berkeley taxes. 

• There undoubtedly is a limitless menu of worthy services that could be provided by the city, the library, and BUSD. Are they all necessary, affordable, and properly prioritized? Has the city properly spent its $300 million in total annual revenue? Has BUSD done likewise with its $113 million budget? Are there other ways to generate revenue that have not been properly explored or implemented? Should the approximately 45 percent or so of Berkeley property-owning households be asked to exclusively pay, in addition to the general taxes and fees imposed on all residents, almost 40 percent of the entire city General Fund?  

• In this time of collapsing real estate and asset values (including homeowner retirement assets), skyrocketing health care costs, employment insecurity, and municipal near-bankruptcies, is it appropriate or wise to further burden Berkeley homeowners? What is the “ability to pay” of the average Berkeley homeowning household, whose average income is approximately $100,000?  

• The City of Berkeley’s revenues have risen exponentially since 2000 due to the exploding real estate market that produced vastly increased assessments and transfer tax revenue, and to utility tax revenue increases due to rising PG&E and utility bills. Without any new real property taxation, local real property revenues will continue to increase by millions of dollars annually due to built-in inflators to the ad valorem and special local taxes. 

• The city has not prepared a proper and complete analysis of the local tax burden relative to other cities, as requested by various citizen groups. Although figures were given for Oakland and Albany indicating near parity with respect to real property based taxes, these figures are actually quite misleading. Generally, Berkeley uses (and should use) a 10-city comparison, which would add the cities of Alameda, El Cerrito, Fremont, Hayward, Mountain View, San Leandro, and Vallejo to the chart. Further, Berkeley imposes many unique local taxes and fees that add substantially to the local tax burden and should properly be part of a true comparison chart. These include the real property transfer tax of 1.5 percent, Berkeley sales tax, Berkeley utility users tax (on all utilities, and quite a city windfall given steeply rising utility prices), a hefty sewer service fee (billed for City by EBMUD), and refuse collection and disposal fees (now set to be raised, but probably will be delayed until after the November election!). Many Berkeley citizens who follow city tax and budget issues are convinced that the local tax burden, taken as a whole, is among the highest, if not the highest, in the state. This was shown to be true in 2004 and there is no reason to believe that much has changed.  

Another important area for analysis would be the Berkeley homeowners “ability to pay.” The median annual household income in Berkeley is about $44,500 and the median annual household income for Berkeley homeowners is about $100,000. Compare this to Marin County where the median household income is well over $200,000. In interesting analysis would be to compare, for high-taxing jurisdictions, the local tax burden with local income, the idea being that there should be a reasonable correspondence between the two. 

Remember that California has a steeply progressive state income tax, so higher-income Berkeleyans do get to pay a fair share, and a goodly portion of this state money does come back to the city and BUSD. 

Residents are entitled to a “taxpayer impact report” that would cover these matters, as well as the long term detriments of and the alternatives to more local taxation. Too, our City Council should be privy to and mindful of such information before deciding on ballot measures, rather than focusing on voter opinion surveys that are often designed to mislead respondents and elicit preordained positive responses. Four years ago we had a Citizens Budget Review Commission that made some sensible recommendations to Council on budget and tax matters. This commission is the only one of the 45 city commissions to ever be disbanded! 

For the last few years, even before the recent drastic downturn in the economy, City Manager Phil Kamlarz was strongly advocating for 0 percent compensation increases to city employees through 2010. Nevertheless, the city recently entered into city labor contracts providing approximately 15 percent increases over the next three to four years. Be assured that city employees are very fairly compensated, have good working conditions and total job security, and are blessed with a guaranteed retirement income and generous lifetime city subsidy for health insurance. 

Property taxation is disproportionately weighted toward homeowner as compared to commercial and industrial property owners. This is due to the ability of commercial/industrial property transfers to occur sub rosa and without a reassessment, by means of intercorporate maneuvers. A ballot measure to simply change the commercial/industrial tax rate for existing taxes could raise substantial dollars without hurting homeowners.  

Following are but a few examples out of many of poor city spending decisions, missed revenue opportunities, and bad community relations:  

• The expensive new city labor contracts. 

• $30M subsidy plus lost economic development opportunity in connection with the Downtown Oxford/Brower Center. This prime piece of city-owned land, valued at about $8M and perfect for retail/commercial development, was sold for $1 to the developer. 

• Failure to implement a workable condominium conversion scheme that would bring in millions of dollars in new real estate tax revenues and create housing ownership opportunities at a relatively affordable level. 

• Failure to achieve any viable economic development that would bring in millions of dollars in new sales tax revenues and generate vitality in our commercial areas. Sales tax revenues have fallen precipitously, and this decline started well before the current economic downturn.  

• In-your-face land use decisions promoting high-density unattractive development that negatively impacts neighboring homeowners and neighborhoods, and subsidizes developers with “free” zoning upgrades, cash, loans, and fee waivers. 

• Failure to properly manage sensitive policy decisions, such as the Marine Recruitment Center and the homeless outreach initiative, to minimize wasteful spending and the damage to the city’s reputation and economic development potential. 

• Construction of a failing and contaminated $800,000 skate park only six years ago, failure to timely pursue litigation against the property sellers and contractors, and the chutzpah to discuss a $2.2 million rebuild before litigation is completed. 

• Collusion with BUSD in its plans to demolish the existing Nationally-Landmarked and adaptively-reusable gym/warm water pool building in connection with a $45M scheme for all brand new facilities, to be paid for by local taxpayers. Many residents and design professionals are convinced that this National Landmark structure can and should be saved, renovated, and accommodated to most BUSD facility needs, and that this can be accomplished at far less than $45 million and paid for with outside funds available to National Landmarks along with the $3.2 million warm water bond measure already approved by Berkeley voters in 2000. 

Our city officials and all Berkeley residents, whether or not they pay real property taxes and whether or not they stand to directly benefit from the various tax measures, need to have and consider all of the facts and ramifications of increased local taxation at this difficult time.  

Barbara Gilbert is active in several Berkeley civic organizations and closely follows local government.  

In the printed edition of “Fight Against Moth Spray Gains Boots on the Ground” by Judith Scherr on April 8, the event our collective organized for Thursday, April 10, from 7-9 p.m. at the Berkeley Ecology Center was mistakenly credited to Pesticide Action Network (PAN). We are not affiliated with them, nor do we wish to be confused with them, because our organizations have very different approaches to anti-pesticide action. We advocate no compromise about chemical substances that harm human and environmental health, while they refuse to take a complete no toxics stand.  

Their position on the light brown apple moth(LBAM) is that they are opposed to aerial spraying, but are encouraging the use of other toxic pesticides, such as synthetic “pheromone” twist ties and ground applications of bacillus thuringiensis, the latter of which has made hundreds of people in New Zealand ill.  

Their usual work is largely focused on crafting and lobbying for legislation such as the Healthy Schools Act, which specifically leaves the door wide open for the continued pesticide use which we see with most school districts in the state. They say kids are safer. We say kids are further endangered because their parents have been led to believe that significant change has occurred, when in most cases it has not, and therefore they are pacified into taking neither precautions, nor actions to make real change.  

While well-established nonprofits like PAN get donations from people assuming their money contributes to anti-pesticide action, in fact, PAN, like most funded pesticide-related nonprofits, specifically sticks to a “reduce use” line, which has absolutely no clear legal consequence, and is probably why they are welcomed by many politicians. The same is true for the Sierra Club and National Resource Defense Council, both of which oppose only the aerial component of the LBAM pesticide program, but even that they are ready to support under certain conditions.  

In fact, after the passage of the Healthy Schools Act, at a meeting at the Alameda County Agricultural offices in Hayward, one of our members witnessed the facilitating Ag. representative chuckling that this bill had next to no demands and that no one was being held responsible at all. “Certainly not us,” he laughed. “No one seems to be responsible.” Not one of the pesticide applicators or school representatives present at the meeting expressed any interest in getting off their toxic treadmills, and a representative of one of the local schools admonished others there to avoid allowing parents onto any safety committees, referring to concerned parents as a hassle. All they wanted to know was how to continue using pesticides as usual without getting sued.  

Is this the sort of legislation you want passed in response to the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Light brown apple moth pesticide program?  

In order to distinguish between Pesticide Action Network and us, East Bay Pesticide Alert, known as Don’t Spray California on statewide issues, please do some research on our website at EastBayPesticideAlert.org, where you’ll find information about rampant pesticide use throughout the Bay Area where you least expect it, truly non-toxic alternatives, and how to protect yourself and your community.  

Maxina Ventura writes on behalf of East Bay Pesticide Alert / Don’t Spray California. 

Barack Obama’s political faux pas at the Marin county fundraiser is certainly something he could have done without, especially in light of the fact that his poll numbers were beginning to look good in Pennsylvania against his opponent. We don’t know if he was being candid or he merely misspoke. But whatever his intention was, this is exactly the sort of ammunition you don’t want to provide your opponents in this age of information where news propagates like wildfire click by click. Even though if you read his statement in full and not out of context, the last sentence of that statement doesn’t sound as bad as his opponents may like the voters to realize. But for McCain and Hillary to call him elitist is not only laughable but just plain disingenuous. 

I was quite appalled when Hillary said that Obama was out of touch, and he didn’t connect with the average folks in small town U.S.A. But when she further tried to identify herself with the plight of the common worker with this unabashed statement, “That has not been my experience,” I nearly fell out of my chair. This is from a candidate whose household has made $109 million since leaving the White House, and this is from someone who has not seen a day of poverty in her life, or hobnobbed with working class folks except for campaign appearances and photo ops? This is the sort of unsavory politics which renders me gastro intestinally ill at ease. But I wonder if the voters will see through this charade considering the substandard media that is fed to them incessantly. 

I know McCain’s campaign has been trying to find any chink in Obama’s armor because they already expect him to be the opponent, but they would rather take it up against Hillary who is probably more beatable in the general election. Naturally, they have joined the choir here, and are now expressing their phony outrage over his statement along with the Republican Party who smells some blood. But McCain is no commoner either; born in a family of admirals (both his father and grandfather) he didn’t see much of the common man’s diurnal dilemma. But he became even wealthier after his marriage to Cindy Hensley McCain, whose family has fortunes from Hensley & Co. , the exclusive distributor of Anheuser-Busch beer in Arizona. Hensley & Co. is the nation’s fifth largest beer distributor. 

I wonder if the voters of Pennsylvania and the remaining primary voters will find out about the hypocrisy of the two candidates, and about their fortunes, and their elite social statuses. The pots are calling the kettle black, but Obama doesn’t even qualify as kettle in terms of wealth and background. 

Rizwan A. Rahmani is an Oakland resident.

Beware: The United States Department of Agriculture plans to drop bombs of pesticides over the Bay Area this summer. We can thank a former UC Berkeley professor for that. 

After all, he discovered the culprit, the light brown apple moth (LBAM), in his back yard last March. Since then, LBAM (a native to Australia) has been reported in 11 counties throughout California. The damage of LBAM is unknown, but according to the USDA, the moth is a detriment to California’s agriculture and the nation’s economy.  

We can thank industrial agriculture for that. Agribusinesses are heavily dependent on monocropping, the mass production of one single crop, which is risky when vulnerable to pests and dependent on pesticides.  

We can thank globalization for that. Free trade has opened our doors to the constant exchange of cheap goods. Not to mention drugs, pollution, human rights violations, the list goes on. And all of that can be summed up in the criminal charges brought to Chiquita Banana, the U.S.-based corporation that imports our favorite yellow fruit from Central American plantations. Mix that with climate change and there’s no doubt that invasive species are frequenting this golden state. 

All of this hype is about making the big buck, not the little pest. Decades ago, the United States added the light brown apple moth to NAFTA’s list of quarantine pests, meaning there would be zero tolerance for any good detected LBAM. According to agroecologist and UC Berkeley professor, Miguel Altieri, the U.S. did so in order to exclude foreign competitors. Now that the U.S. faces exclusion, the moth is a big deal.  

Lucky for Stewart Resnick, the owner of the multi-billion dollar agri-corporation, Roll International, which controls Paramount Farms, the world’s largest producers of almonds, pistachios and citrus fruits. Resnick and his company will supply and make record profit from the chemicals intended for aerial spray. 

Have we forgotten that pests like LBAM have always existed? Feeding on leaves of trees and plants, nectar and pollen of flowers, the light brown apple moth is nothing new of nature. 

Organic farmers who’ve witnessed LBAM in action can attest to this. Rob Schultz, vineyard manager and farmer of Napa’s Oakville Ranch said that he sees the moth on a daily basis and it’s no big shock. They’re part of the natural process, Schultz said.  

The problem is that we are being deceived to believe that LBAM is a huge threat, and that aerial spraying will alleviate the problem. In reality, spraying will only cause more problems. Over four hundred health reports were cited in Santa Cruz and Monterey County, where spraying began last year. There’s a huge cost to spraying, and we will pay for it not only with our wallets. 

Mayor and registered nurse Robert Lieber of Albany calls the government’s spraying “weapons of mass destruction.” Altieri confirmed those sentiments when he stated that the government’s current plan to eradicate LBAM is like the “9-11 terrorist policy applied to agriculture.”  

Don’t be fooled by the “greenwashing” of the term “organic,” which the California Department of Food and Agriculture calls CheckMate-F, the pesticide that will be sprayed as part of the government’s LBAM eradication plan. There’s nothing organic about chemicals.  

There are better alternatives. First, we need to pass AB 2892, Assembly member Sandré Swanson’s bill that protects public rights by mandating spraying be done with consent of affected peoples, not that of big businesses who profit off the selling of pesticides and pesticide-sprayed foods, which accumulate for most of the human diet. 

Instead of spending millions on another pesticide that will profit another multi-million dollar corporation, we should follow in the footsteps of Aussies who have kept the minor pest in control for more than 100 years through integrative pest management. Such alternatives incorporate research, traps and using natural predators like the non-stinging wasp. Maintaining diversity throughout plants and species in our environment will provide healthy soils and predators that naturally manage LBAM. 

Research should also address why the moth is on the quarantine list. Solutions shouldn’t follow the one-solution-fits-all method of big businesses and instead adopt a system of biological farming (natural farming) that reduces farmers’ dependence on pesticides and the threat of future pests.  

If there’s one thing to thank the emeritus professor of entomology, Dr. Jerry Powell, who made the public discovery of LBAM, it’s for opening the door to discussing the connections between our government and globalization, and how the two are the real pests to our agriculture.  

Connie Chung is a Peace and Conflict Studies and Public Policy student at UC Berkeley. 

In 1903, Wisconsin’s “Fighting” Bob La Follette organized the first primaries in the U.S. La Follette hated boss-controlled conventions. The aim of the primaries, he once said, is to remove the nomination from the hands of professionals. 

There were no superdelegates prior to the 1980s, when Walter Mondale, one of the early architects of the superdelegate system, repudiated La Follette’s democratic philosophy. 

With the explicit aim of preventing voter insurgencies, Mondale helped to create a block of unelected kingmakers drawn from the Washington establishment. Mondale was quite frank about his aims. In an editorial subtitled “Party Leaders, Not Voters, Should Do the Nominating,” Mondale wrote (New York Times, February 26, 1992): 

“The election is the business of the people. But the nomination is more properly the business of the Parties....The problem lies in the reforms that were supposed to open the nominating process. Party leaders have lost the power to screen candidates and select a nominee. The solution is to reduce the influence of the primaries and boost the influence of the party leaders....The superdelegate category established within the Democratic Party after 1984 allows some opportunity for this, but should be strengthened.” 

Should superdelegates overrule the majority will of the voters? That is the question that confronts the Democratic Party today. 

Independent Judgment 

Recently Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi said that superdelegates should respect the voters’ choice. In contrast, Senator Clinton argued that superdelegates should exercise “independent judgment.” 

What does Clinton mean by “independent judgment”? Consider, for a moment, judicial standards for determining an individual’s capacity for objectivity. Any prospective juror who has any dealings with a plaintiff or defendant is automatically disqualified from jury duty. A person who makes financial contributions to a judge in the midst of a trial commits a felony. 

The exchange of votes and favors is ongoing in politics. Over the years, like Senator Obama, Senator Clinton contributed thousands of dollars to members of the House and Senate, who are now superdelegates. Some delegates are close friends of the candidates. Clinton has organized dozens of lavish fund-raising parties for her allies in Washington, D.C. As her biographer, Sally Bedell Smith, wrote: “Hillary’s efforts...earned the gratitude of countless influential Democrats who could help with her political ambitions.” 

To be sure, many Democrats commend Hillary Clinton for her fund-raising, her indefatigable work in Washington. No one claims she is lazy. But to portray superdelegate beneficiaries as “independent” judges in the nominating process strains our credulity. Few politicians have the moral courage to be called a “Judas” in public. 

Superdelegates, in short, rarely exercise genuine independent judgment in the selection of a presidential nominee. What, after all, makes Washington incumbents wiser than the voters themselves? 

Ethical Issues around Superdelegates 

Finally, there are ethical issues regarding the Clinton position on superdelgate power. At every rally, at every major event, she appeals to voters as if their votes will become the deciding factor in the nomination. She does not tell them that superdelegates are—in her opinion—wiser than the cooks, taxi drivers, lawyers, technicians, nurses, and humble Americans to whom she appeals. Is it really ethical to appeal to Americans to vote, while making appeals behind the scenes to superdelegates to nullify those voters if they choose your opponent? 

To be sure, Senator Clinton certainly has a right to take Mondale’s elitist position on the role of superdelegates in the nominating process. Fine. But doesn’t she have an obligation to inform voters that their debates, their activism, their hopes and idealism—their participation in the primaries—may all be in vain? Why not just cancel the primaries, let superdelegates pick the nominee, and spare us the humiliation of yet another election overturned? 

Superdelegates chose Mondale in 1984, and Mondale was trounced. They chose a tank-riding Dukakis in 1988, and he too lost the election. 

A democratic nomination, based on the principles of Bob La Follette, is a precondition to victory in November. 

Paul Rockwell is a writer in Oakland. 

THE MAYOR’S  

SUNSET ORDINANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was present at the March 17 Agenda Committee meeting when Mayor Bates brought up his “Sunshine Ordinance” by calling it a “Sunset Ordinance.” He did not catch his error until the numerous chuckles gave him pause. 

My reaction at the time was that it was a perfect Freudian slip, and nothing has occurred since to change my mind. The mayor’s ordinance would do a good job of keeping us right where he wants us—totally in the dark. 

Gale Garcia 

• 

LOW-INCOME HOUSING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Berkeley City Council has over $4 million to go to low-income housing but we must request what we want and people must speak and e-mail. 

Berkeley allows landlords to shamelessly overcharge Section 8 rents (way over HUD’s fair market rents). Above this fair rent, HUD will not pay, so Berkeley charges about $100 extra per month to the very people who have no way of paying it: the disabled (including veterans), the elderly and the very poor. According to Berkeley’s housing ordinances and state and federal law, this is against the law, and the overcharges are Berkeley’s responsibility. People can no longer move, as there are very few Section 8 places left anywhere. Because of fee waivers granted for two-bedroom and above, it is the Section 8 tenants in studios and one bedrooms who are at risk of homelessness now, but it could change back at any time. Come to the meeting, ask City Manager Phil Kamlarz and the City Council for equal treatment under the law, including disability law, and give them a chance to staunch the flow of homelessness on to Berkeley’s streets. If you’re not at the meeting, you know the developers and property owners will be. The Berkeley City Council is asking people to come to the April 22 meeting at 7 p.m. at Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way and send e-mails to kslee@ci.berkeley.ca.us and tstroshane@ci.berkeley.ca.us. You are also asked to call 981-5422 with any ideas or comments.  

P. Smith 

Berkeley Citizens for Fair Housing 

• 

CLINTON’S TITANIC FAILURE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In retrospect, Hillary Clinton’s campaign probably hit its iceberg when it started spreading the vicious innuendo that Barack Obama, as a black candidate, was unelectable. Race is, after all, the quintessential American issue that is still 10 percent visible and 90 percent below the surface. Now, Clinton’s problem is more clinical: She has a hearing problem. In her head, she still hears the band striking up “Hail to the Chief”—but the sounds really are just her loyal musicians playing on deck as the ship sinks, realizing the futility of the situation but knowing that it would be pointless to tell the captain. In fierce denial, she seems determined to go down with the ship. One question remains: Is the Democratic Party one of the passengers on it? 

Doug Buckwald 

• 

STIMULUS PACKAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Are you wondering what you’re going to do with that generous “stimulus package” check from the government? 

Why not use it to create a “Moral Stimulus Package” by donating to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is one of the most vigorous defenders of human rights in the United States? They are actively working to bring back habeas corpus and to press for criminal prosecutions of Bush administration officials. And not only the ones they have already admitted to on national television.  

Don’t you think a return to the rule of law and the protection of human rights will look much better on America than a new pair of shoes or a flat screen TV? 

If you can afford to turn your “stimulus package” check into a “Moral Stimulus Package” for humanity, then please consider donating to the Center for Constitutional Rights.  

For more information on the Center for Constitutional Rights visit www.ccrjustice.org. 

Bryan Bowman 

• 

BAD BICYCLE BABY BUGGIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a native Berkeleyan, I am alarmed at the number of parents riding bicycles on the public roads, towing their small children behind them in little nylon trailers. These little trailers are about wheel-high, maybe three feet off the ground. They come in one- and two-child carrying sizes. 

I often see them on Ashby Avenue or Gilman or on the designated bicycle boulevards.  

Parents must be aware there is danger since I often see children in little bicycle helmets or orange flags attached to the tops of the trailers themselves. I think these protective measures are woefully inadequate. I believe that these bicycle baby trailers are a tragic accident just waiting to happen. A car taking a corner too fast or simply misjudging the distance could easily kill the children contained in the baby trailer. 

I don’t understand why it is illegal to drive with your toddler in the car absent car seat but it is legal to put your kid in a tiny little tent on wheels and trundle off down the road on a bike dragging them behind. 

The Berkeley City Council should pass a law to protect these children by ruling that these types of bicycle trailers are only appropriate for park and trail like settings. They should be barred from the public roads. 

Amanda Duisman 

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A recent opinion piece claims that today’s Bus Rapid Transit opponents are like the Berkeley activists of a half century ago who wanted BART to be underground rather than elevated, so it would have less impact on Berkeley. 

But there is an obvious difference. Elevated or underground, BART would be separated from traffic and would provide the same level of service to riders. But without bus-only lanes, BRT would get stuck in traffic and would provide worse service to riders. 

For a real analogy to today’s BRT opponents, imagine that there were Berkeley activists a half century ago who wanted BART to run on surface streets in lanes that trains shared with other traffic, so BART trains would be delayed whenever traffic was congested. Under this absurd scenario, the unreliability of BART service in Berkeley would jam up the entire BART system. Likewise, without exclusive bus lanes in Berkeley, unreliability of service would jam up the entire BRT system. 

BRT opponents claim that their RapidBus Plus proposal would give most advantages of BRT at less cost. If that is true, then why is BRT with exclusive bus lanes being used or proposed in 25 cities across the United States? Why did New York’s plan for congestion pricing rely on BRT with exclusive bus lanes as its main means of extending transit service? The answer is obvious: because transportation planners around the country know that buses with exclusive lanes gives faster, more reliable service than buses that are stuck in traffic. 

If BRT opponents really know better, if they really have evidence that RapidBus Plus is as good as BRT, they should not confine their efforts to Berkeley. They should publish their findings in professional journals that have wide circulation, so they can enlighten the world’s transportation planners by sharing their superior knowledge. 

Charles Siegel 

• 

DEDICATED-LANE BRT IS  

CURRENT CITY POLICY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While some impassioned southside neighborhood activists continue to spread their worst fears about Bus Rapid Transit on Telegraph, it’s worth noting that the city already has an official opinion on the issue. On July 10, 2001, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution setting forth the city’s position on how AC Transit should orient its “major investment study” for improving bus service to downtown. That resolution, still in force today, noted that Berkeley has a “Transit-first policy that supports the use of exclusive transit lanes,” and affirmed that the “preferred alignment will be Telegraph Avenue and the preferred mode will be bus rapid transit.” 

Voting for this initiative were current councilmembers Maio, Olds and Worthington—along with then-mayor Shirley Dean, now a leader of the opposition. (I’m sure Ms. Dean has a perfectly good explanation as to why she voted for BRT before she was against it.) 

This resolution shows the context in which the current “controversy” (the Planet’s favorite headline word) should be placed—it’s a tempest in a teapot. Whenever the project is looked at in its full scope there is widespread support for BRT—including recent recommendations in three new city plan documents (the Climate Action Plan, the Downtown Area Plan and the Southside Plan). 

Once more facts-based information comes out in months to come, support for BRT will continue to grow. Bus Rapid Transit is good for Berkeley, good for the environment, and even good for the southside. 

Alan Tobey 

• 

BRT OR DEDICATED  

LANE CORRIDOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I think this is another horrible idea for getting people out of their cars. (And this is again coming from someone who is dedicated to not using his car; the same cyclist who in 2003 panned the idea of adding bicycle lanes on Telegraph Avenue in downtown Oakland because of the congestion and safety issues.) 

I am all for getting people out of their cars. But I would not promote the use of AC Transit’s buses until they become much freer of the personal safety/harassment issues than is currently the case. Do not go about “putting the cart in front of the horse”! 

Michael Sachs 

Oakland 

• 

ISRAEL-PALESTINE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Gertz’s April 15 letter is an explicit endorsement of war crimes against the captive people of Gaza. The claim that Israel is no longer occupying Gaza and has no responsibility for the Gazans welfare is bogus. Although Israel redeployed its illegal colonial settlers from Gaza to the West Bank, it continued to control and enforce a land, sea and air blockade. Even the border with Egypt is under Israeli control and Egypt is treaty bound not to interfere. I know, I was a member of an American delegation to observe the Palestinian elections in January 2006 and our delegation was stranded on the Egyptian-Gaza Rafah crossing for 24 hours waiting for Israeli approval. Former President Carter who is now visiting Israel-Palestine stated this week that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is a “crime and atrocity” and noted that Gazans were being “starved to death.” 

Israel atrocities and systematic abuse and liquidation of Palestinians led Professor Richard Falk (professor emeritus of international law and practice at Princeton University) to, I am sure painfully for an American Jew, describe the abuse as a Palestinian holocaust. Falk also writes that compared to Darfur “Gaza is morally far worse.” 

Shifting the blame to Hamas is also fraudulent. As documented by Israeli historian Ilan Pape, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine started in 1947 and continues to this day. That is, it started 40 years before the 1987 founding of Hamas. One of many examples is the massacre of Deir Yassin when European Jewish gangs (later incorporated into the Israeli army) massacred between 107 and 120 native villagers. That massacre took place on April 9, 1948, not only long before Hamas was founded but also weeks before the initiation of hostilities with neighboring Arab States. Readers should note that Deir Yassin village is located in West Jerusalem far from the area intended for the Jewish state by the UN partition plan. This exposes another frequent lie that Israelis only attack in self defense.  

Everyone knows Hamas is not in control of the West Bank and that no rockets are fired from this occupied territory. Yet, just as in Gaza, a reign of terror is inflicted by the Israeli army on West Bank Palestinians daily and is documented in the UK newspaper The Independent. 

That American media is silent on Israeli atrocities and that, like John Gertz, many American Zionists (Jews as well as Christians) feel duty bound to justify and even cheer Israeli crimes is shameful. 

Hassan Fouda 

Kensington 

(The author serves on the Board of Directors of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHDUSA.org). Opinions expressed here are his own.) 

• 

THE REAL NEWS  

ABOUT PEOPLE’S PARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If you ask people what’s happening in People’s Park lately, they might tell you about the mass resignation of the pave-the-park faction of the advisory board, or the uppity consultant group that refused to submit a clear, permanent redesign proposal, or the refusal of the university to support a public design contest for a newly configured park.  

The probability of anyone mentioning the SLAPP-suit would be low.  

Only a few people remember that the University of California attached a $100,000 price tag to the free speech of a few People’s Park advocates in 1992, hoping to silence the entire community. The silence about the SLAPP-suit sixteen years later is strong evidence that Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation are very effective.  

Imagine waking up to a voice machine message from a UC lawyer letting you know you were expected in Superior Court the following day to answer charges that you were the nexus of a violent conspiracy with people whose names you’d never heard before.  

Imagine scrambling down to the courtroom to find out you’d been accused of creating cardboard stage props and carrying roses, and that the sixth largest nuclear weapons manufacturer in the world was arguing that you therefore constituted a public danger, for which they needed a temporary restraining order, followed by a permanent injunction.  

Imagine that the injunction including digging in People’s Park, an activity you had enjoyed since the park’s creation as a part of years of working in the community garden.  

It should be obvious that none of the 50 Jane and John Does included in the still current injunction could possibly feel free to attend public meetings and express opinions about the park, since those very activities were the charges against them in the SLAPP-suit. Those who still do are risking another $100,000 gauntlet through Superior Court, another five years of their lives.  

People’s Park may need a few repairs, some weeding, and better drainage during the rains. But the most important repair is the one they won’t let anyone discuss; dropping the SLAPP-suit so that all of us can share equally in any discussion about the park’s future. 

Carol Denney 

• 

THE OIL MEN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Was gas $4 a gallon when oil men Bush and Cheney took office seven years ago? Did you vote for Bush twice? Are you happy with the return? Sky-high gas, food, and housing prices. Was it costing $50, $70, $100 to fill up when Oil Ministers Bush and Cheney arrived on the scene? Did anyone think to ask the president and VP, wedded to the oil industries as they are, what might be the results of their energy policy seven years down the road? Have you heard either of these Republicans explain away the excessive and obscene profits Corporate Oil continues to make? 

The one bright spot might be that the environment and nature are taking a breather as gas prices continue to rise and people drive less and less. 

Ron Lowe 

Grass Valley 

Most of us hold an unshakable belief that an informed citizenry is the very heart of democracy. Motivated by this belief, our citizens group is drafting a Sunshine Ordinance intended to make the workings of our local government transparent. Similar ordinances have already been adopted by several Bay Area cities, but the effort has been repeatedly delayed here. Who in Berkeley could possibly oppose this idea? Not surprisingly, officials who benefit from keeping the public ill-informed have for years resisted shedding light on City business. Now, however, these sunshine-obstructionists, led by Mayor Bates, have sprung into action; they are promoting a weak, so-called “Sunshine Ordinance” in an effort to preempt our proposal.  

In reality, their bill is more of a sunset ordinance—an ineffective proposal with no enforcement provisions, only masquerading as sunshine. It’s based on a skeleton draft prepared by former City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque before she left office. It’s on today’s (April 22) council agenda, because the Agenda Committee refused to postpone the matter long enough to hear a presentation from our citizens’ group, which has, for over a year, worked on its own open-government measure that provides real sunshine for Berkeley residents. 

So, why is Mayor Bates suddenly in such a rush? Maybe it’s because this is an election year, and he’d like credit for passing a sunshine ordinance, no matter how ineffective it is. Maybe he really prefers Albuquerque’s weaker version to the one written by citizens, for citizens. Her draft is based on a resolution passed by the council nearly five years ago, but never implemented. It’s loaded with discretionary language allowing officials and bureaucrats (rather than citizens) to determine how much open government the public will be allowed. Put bluntly, the mayor’s proposal is empty rhetoric. It does nothing to expand existing law; it would, in fact, allow the city to continue current practices, which shut the public out of the decision-making process. 

Yet, it was the mayor who convened a Sunshine Workshop in March of 2007, to which four distinguished panelists were invited to give their views; they were Terry Francke of Californians Aware, Jinky Gardner of the League of Women Voters, Mark Schlosberg of the ACLU, and Judith Scherr of the Society of Professional Journalists. All petitioned the mayor in a hand-delivered letter, dated April 2, to postpone voting on the Albuquerque proposal until citizen alternatives have been heard; none favored the mayor’s proposal. So why, after having solicited their opinions, is the mayor prepared to ignore their advice? There is only one answer—Mayor Bates and his allies want to keep the current system with its built-in barriers to open government—barriers like these: 

• Present practice is to publish the City Council’s agenda on the Thursday before each Tuesday meeting, leaving only two to three business days for interested parties to study the items, obtain information, and respond. This leaves almost no chance for councilmembers to receive and consider dissenting opinions. 

• Key documents relating to agenda items are sometimes posted on Thursday, but are often listed as “to be delivered.” In these cases, neither the public nor councilmembers see the documents until the beginning of the meeting; there is no time to seek background information, let alone prepare a reasonable response. 

• Published documents are often sanitized to include only arguments supporting staff recommendations; key internal staff memos stating contrary possibilities never see the light of day. 

• Members of the public are typically given no more than two minutes each to state their case—and often are allowed only one minute to speak. Once public comment is received, the floor is closed to citizens, while staff and Councilmembers are allowed to discuss the issues among themselves. There is no procedure by which the public may correct misstatements before councilmembers vote. 

• The public has the right, under state law, to examine documents that were not revealed prior to the debate, but the city typically delays its response to such requests—and when it does reply, it often claims that these documents are “privileged” or “confidential.” Usually, the city refuses to produce any draft memoranda or preliminary studies exchanged among staff and elected officials. 

Given all of the above, it’s no surprise that staff recommendations are usually adopted word-for-word. Where staff is overruled, it’s because of behind-the-scenes lobbying, rather than as the result of public debate. The Albuquerque/Bates draft does nothing to address the above issues. In fact, it perpetuates Berkeley’s practice of government-by-stealth, and it ignores the hard truth, that when the city acts outside of the public good, citizens may only learn about it too late to react.  

The people who have signed this commentary are members of a citizens’ Sunshine Committee, which has written a Sunshine Ordinance that lives up to its name. The meetings are open to everyone and include people who call themselves “progressive” and people who call themselves “moderate.” Some may like the mayor, and others may not. What unites us all is a concern that the council has routinely made policy without full disclosure to the public and without its valuable input.  

Berkeley is in desperate need of a strong Sunshine Ordinance. The mayor’s proposal is nothing of the sort and is only another sad example of how important matters are decided in the dark. It should be rejected until the public has had a chance to consider the strong Sunshine Ordinance written by Berkeley citizens, for Berkeley citizens. Then a public hearing should be held, and only after that, should the City Council take action. This is what good government is all about.  

Jim Fisher  

Jane Welford 

Gene Bernardi 

Al Wasserman 

Patti Dacey 

David Wilson 

Dean Metzger 

Doug Buckwald 

Judith Epstein 

Judith Scherr 

Marie Bowman 

Zelda Bronstein 

Martha Nicoloff 

Shirley Dean 

The Berkeley Sunshine Committee meets weekly and welcomes new members. Write to drm1a2@sbcglobal.net or contact the League of Women Voters for more information.

Chelsea Clinton recently forwarded me an article by New York feminist Robin Morgan in support of her mother’s candidacy. Though Chelsea and I have never met, I somehow ended up on one of her thousands of listserves. Morgan’s piece listed contemptible misogynistic behaviors practiced in various locations around the world and in different periods of history. By way of somewhat questionable logic, she bundled them all together as proof that Hillary is the best candidate, and angrily denouncing naysayers, fired it off. 

I would like to support Hillary. I am a feminist and Hillary’s candidacy represents the chance to witness the shattering of the last glass ceiling. Like many of my ilk, Hillary represents our unrealized or postponed opportunities, and for our mothers and grandmothers, the never-dared-to-dream dreams of roads untraveled. I would like to support Hillary, but I can’t. 

It’s not the acerbic, attack-dog demeanor of her campaign. It’s not her discomforting air of entitlement or her unfortunate lack of charm. I’m not much of a charmer myself. It isn’t even her embarrassingly childish proclamations such as, “I’m ready to lead!” or the “red phone” fairy tale. After all, her campaign rhetoric fits the Checkers speech mode established by Richard Nixon in 1952 and which, according to George Packer, still dominates our elections. 

I can’t support Hillary because I don’t know who she is and I don’t think she does either. I followed a trail of clues in search of this woman and found myself at the feet of a political party hack whose core values are—and have been for a long time—a liquid gas poised to morph into anybody or anything it takes to win. 

Hillary’s friend, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, was active and at her side in all the photo-ops at the start of her campaign. Hillary was apparently completely comfortable with Madeline’s part in Bill Clinton’s policy of the seven year sanctions against Iraq which caused the deaths of 567,000 children (the lowest approximation), comfortable with Madeline’s statement when asked about these numbers: “The price was worth it.” She was comfortable until a lot of 2008 voters let her know they were unhappy about the whole Iraq affair, including her vote to attack the country. She was comfortable with Madeline until hordes of young people and new Democrats came rushing in to support Barrack Obama. From one day to the next Hillary switched horses and Madeline disappeared. 

From the start, Hillary not only proudly assumed credit for everything that happened when her husband was the President, but absurdly added her years as First Lady to her political resume. We knew that her actual “experience” started with her position as a U.S. senator, but, like the plumber’s wife who talks handily about clogged toilets even though she has never wielded a plunger, we overlooked it. It was close enough. She could have been the president if she’d had the chance. However, when she came up against real, live disgruntled Pennsylvania voters who had lost their jobs offshore, she switched horses, telling us she hadn’t agreed with the NAFTA pact pushed through by her husband, anyway. 

Hillary and Bill have always openly supported “free trade” agreements. Hillary was highly comfortable with the fact that Bill and Mark Penn, her chief campaign strategist, were aggressively working to seal the trade agreement deal with Colombia. Lori Wallach of Global Trade Watch expressed dismay with Bill’s “chummy relationship” with a Colombian president whose administration is “under a cloud” for association with paramilitaries, assassinations of hundreds of labor unionists, and the forced displacement of thousands of Afro-Colombians. On the campaign trail Hillary learned that dealing with Colombia was considered not so cool. She switched horses again, and Penn disappeared. The fact that Bill is—and will be in the future—Hillary’s closest advisor in this and other matters, Ms Wallach found to be “extremely disconcerting.” As do I. 

I’m afraid that Hillary’s calculated lie about being under sniper attack in Bosnia—which she and Bill continue to write off as a late night memory lapse but which obviously wasn’t because she repeated it three different times at different times of the day—made me cringe. A mother would never willingly take her daughter into a war zone. Even the fuzziest of brains would fade in Chelsea and fade out snipers on the way to the vocal chords. Calculated lying may be endemic to politics and certainly George W. Bush has perfected the art form, but frankly I need (and I think we need) something better. 

The sad and hollow Hillary Clinton-as-feminist myth came into purview when I learned that she had served for six years on the Wal-Mart Board of Directors while she was the wife of the governor of Arkansas. A feminist, even a Republican feminist, wouldn’t serve on the Wal-Mart Board of Directors. Wal-Mart is not only anti-worker and anti-union, but it is anti-woman. Two thirds of the Wal-Mart employees are women, ten percent are managers. A gender bias class action suit against Wal-Mart on behalf of one million women is pending. 

There will be a woman president. She may even be Hillary, but I hope not. We can do better. A woman of integrity will step forward. She’ll use “we” instead of “I” when she thinks about the country and when she addresses voters. She won’t be married to an ex-president or carry the burdens or reap the political rewards of his reign. She’ll be more thoughtful, more truthful and more comfortable in her own skin. She won’t lean on or spout the old male-driven military solutions to the country’s problems. She’ll have a political vision, an inspirational, redemptive, feminine vision of peace and social justice that will tap so deeply into our national pulse that we’ll sweep her into office and we’ll all go to work again reinventing our democracy. 

In the meantime, we have a highly promising young male alternative.  

Laura Santina is an Oakland resident.

Dear Christopher Edley Jr., Dean of UC Berkeley Law School: 

If a mathematics professor would suddenly proclaim that one plus one equals three, the mathematics department would have some concerns about the ability of that professor to continue as a teacher of students. If a history professor were to teach his students that Columbus first landed in the Americas at Times Square, Manhattan, in 1992, the history department would likewise wonder about whether that professor should teach at UC. So why, when a law professor gets the law wrong and says that torture of prisoners is legal, should “academic freedom” protect his right to teach law? And is that still true when the law professor advises criminal activity that is then carried out? 

Professor John Yoo not only has taught, but has advised the present Bush administration that it is legally permissible to torture prisoners. In one exchange in 2002, he stated that there was no legal reason why the president could not crush a prisoner’s child’s testicles if the president deemed it necessary. That’s not something enshrined in the Constitution. The U.S. Constitution does not contain any provision which would allow a president to ignore the Constitution when the president finds its restrictions inconvenient. Our constitution isn’t a mere suggestion. Nor is the Constitution a document which invites the president to comply with the parts he likes and forget about the rest.  

Article Six of the Constitution provides that it is “the supreme Law of the Land.” Despite Professor Yoo’s memos, I haven’t found anything in the Constitution that says George W. Bush is the supremer law of the land. The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution—part of the Bill of Rights—provides that “cruel and unusual” punishments shall not be inflicted. The words in the Constitution which set forth that it is the supreme law and which prohibit cruel and unusual punishments are put in simple, declarative statements. The drafters of the Constitution didn’t use any weasel words there. The Supremacy Clause and the Eighth Amendment embody some of the fundamental principles upon which this nation was founded. Governments before the Bush administration may have governed badly, but until the Bush administration, no government has come close to contending that it could just ignore the U.S. Constitution whenever it felt like it. 

For this alarming position taken by the government, we can thank John Yoo. He is the person who told the Bush-Cheney administration that it was legal to ignore the Constitution of the United States and torture prisoners who have no recourse to contest either their imprisonment or their treatment. 

The drafters of the Constitution carefully put together a document which placed limits on executive power. They did this because they had lived under, declared independence, and fought for independence from an English sovereign who had abused his power in his treatment of the American colonies. The drafters did not want an American president to repeat these abuses. Thus the drafters of the Constitution placed strong barriers in the way of unchecked executive power. 

What UC Berkeley Professor Yoo has advised is simply and demonstrably wrong under the law. One would hope that a professor at a major law school would at least believe in the rule of the law. That should be a requirement to teach law—it’s basic to the discipline. But Professor Yoo believes in a government not subject to law, but to the whim of an executive, and worse, has advised the government to that it is free to ignore what the laws plainly say. 

Professor Yoo has advised the administration that despite the limitations of the constitution, laws, and treaties the United States has entered into, it is legal to inflict extreme pain on prisoners. Yoo knew that his advice would result in real prisoners being tortured. His memos were not theoretical constructions. Yoo wrote them as a high-level employee of the Justice Department in order to give permission for the administration to go out and torture prisoners. Apparently Yoo is a smart guy. He was not ignorant of the fact that real consequences would result from his actions. 

According to UC Law Professor Yoo, torture is really not torture unless it causes organ failure, impairment of bodily function or death. And, according to Yoo, even that isn’t torture if the person inflicting it says it was a mistake. In short, he told the administration that it could commit crimes against humanity and that they were not really crimes. Unlike the imaginary math and history professors I used in my examples above, Law Professor Yoo’s perversion and denial of the Constitution’s provisions—as well as his repudiation of U.S.-ratified treaties such as the Geneva Convention and the Convention Against Torture—has had ugly and horrendous consequences. 

For some reason, Dean Edley, you seem to believe that Professor Yoo’s responsibility for the criminal acts he authorized the government to commit is of a lesser culpability than the responsibility incurred by those who read his memos and ordered those criminal acts. Your point is that advising the government that it is legally permissible to torture actual prisoners it holds is in the same realm of academic disagreements among colleagues as are disputes about the commerce clause, quorum requirements of the Senate, or the taking of the census. Apparently because Professor Yoo is intelligent, speaks civilly, wears a suit when appropriate, blends in well at faculty gatherings and has good table manners, he should not be held responsible for the natural and probable consequences of his own actions. 

I dispute your contention that the responsibility incurred by those who advise horrific actions, knowing they will be carried out, is of any lesser degree of culpability than the responsibility incurred by those who acted on that advice. This administration has committed war crimes. That fact cannot honestly be disputed. The Bush administration has done the same things to prisoners that the United States claimed were crimes when committed against U.S. prisoners of war during World War II. The United States executed Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American prisoners. Put in simple terms, John Yoo is a co-conspirator in war crimes. 

Yet Professor Yoo has given the Bush administration the aura of respectability, of legality, for these crimes. Professor Yoo has consciously and intentionally given this administration pseudo-legal cover to violate all minimal civilized standards of behavior. He has shamed this nation and undermined its standing in the world. I strongly advise you to view the film Judgment at Nuremberg. That movie was not about the trial of the top Nazis who ordered war crimes. The film instead dealt with a later and lesser known trial of those in the legal profession who, while they would never have committed war crimes themselves, had, through their learning and prestige, provided a veneer of legality to the crimes of the Nazi government. I cannot see the difference between ordering torture and giving wrongful legal permission to order torture when one knows that the permission will be used to justify the later wrongful act. 

And the worst thing, from the standpoint of Boalt Hall, is that the Bush administration can justify itself by contending that it only acted upon the advice of a professor at the esteemed UC Berkeley School of Law who is still in good standing as a faculty member at that law school. In continuing to employ Professor Yoo, UC Berkeley is lending its name and legal backing to Yoo’s incompetent, immoral and unlawful advice to the Bush administration. Further, UC Berkeley School of Law is ratifying those wrongful acts every day it employs to teach its students about the law a man who advised the commission of war crimes.  

If Yoo’s actions are not a crime that will be prosecuted, this is only because he acted as an employee of the same Justice Department which is charged with the prosecution of such crimes. The Justice Department itself was complicit at the highest level. John Ashcroft, Yoo’s then boss, participated in a meeting which planned in detail the torture of prisoners. 

Don’t claim academic freedom. Thirty-six years ago I was denied entrance to Boalt Hall as a law student because a faculty member did not like my political views and vetoed my admission. Somehow academic freedom at Boalt seems to favor those who praise, enable and advise the very powerful. I am not upset that I didn’t go to Boalt. I went to another fine school and have been practicing law since 1975. I am, in fact, very thankful that I do not have to explain the complicity of my law school in bringing about this era of shame to our nation. 

While the employment of Professor Yoo has not stained the law school I did attend, what all of us cannot easily wash out is the stain that John Yoo and the UC. Berkeley School of Law have put on the entire legal profession in this country. 

Paul Glusman is an attorney practicing in Berkeley, about five blocks away from Boalt Hall. He attended Golden Gate Univiersity School of Law.

House Democrats’ decision to delay consideration of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until the next administration represents a move to protect the rights of the Colombian indigenous communities and U.S. national security interests. The decision comes after President Bush sent the controversial trade agreement to the House, which under presidential “fast track authority” requires an up or down legislative vote after ninety days. “Free trade” has most recently been a thorny topic, especially among Democrats, with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s recent dismissal of a top advisor, Mark Penn, for his work on the Colombia deal. Although the White House claims that the trade pact will “enhance national security” by “strengthening a key democratic ally” in the region and “bring economic gains to both sides,” the reality of the situation is quite another matter.  

So what do indigenous rights in Colombia have to do with U.S. national security? A great deal. I argue that the two are more connected than one would have thought. In Colombia, agriculture is the third most important sector, employing more than twice as many as the industrial sector. However, since the passage of the Andean trade preference program in 1991, the trend has been to export food rather than to provide for local markets. In 2006, 40 percent of Colombia’s population was food insecure. Under the U.S.- Colombia Free Trade agreement, Colombia will be forced to open its markets to U.S. agricultural goods, which are highly subsidized thanks to aggressive U.S. farm policy. Colombian agricultural products, especially from small- and medium-sized farms, cannot compete with the heavily subsidized U.S. agricultural goods such as corn and rice. And who owns and works these small to medium farms? Typically women, indigenous and Afro-Colombians: all members of the population that historically have been marginalized. The competitiveness of U.S. agriculture will drive these farmers from their land as they no longer find market access for their goods. In 2005, the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs concluded in a report that full liberalization would lead to a 35 percent decrease in employment.  

Decreased employment in small and medium farms means those farmers will seek employment in other sectors, threatening food sovereignty and increasing internal displacement. Colombia has the world’s second largest internally displaced populations (IDPs) of 38 million, second only to Sudan. However, this displacement is not only due to paramilitary violence, but also expropriations from large landholding elites and unemployment on small and medium farms. Many of the displaced will work on the very plantations that displaced them: large agro-business plantations, often environmentally and socially destructive. Others will seek employment in the more profitable coca plantations, exacerbating the cocaine drug trade. One contributor to the Washington Post opinion page said it best when they stated, “If farmers can’t grow rice, they are more likely to grow coca.” (Feb. 17, 2006)  

Even more yet will migrate to the cities in search of manufacturing jobs, where the destitution and isolation will put them at risk for joining left or right wing paramilitary groups. The Washington Office on Latin America, a Washington based NGO, contends, “that there is not a national security rationale for passing the trade agreement with Colombia and that a strong argument to the contrary can be made.” It is the cycle of economic liberalization, displacement, inequality and drug production that reinforces the proliferation of the paramilitary groups. The Colombian Minister of Agriculture even admitted the prevalence of this vicious cycle in 2004 when he stated, that the FTA would give small farmers little choice “but migration to the cities or other countries (especially the United States), working in drug cultivation zones, or affiliating with illegal armed groups.”  

The strength and pervasiveness of these terrorist organizations threaten democratic institutions in Colombia, regional stability and thus U.S. security interests in the Andes. U.S. agriculture and trade policies only serve to entrench the inequality and poverty in the Colombian countryside. Developing nations, such as Colombia, should not be subject to the same economic principles as the United States. Inherent inequalities in Colombia’s economy and political institutions create a situation in which liberalization would only serve to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of the economic elites. Our government must learn from its mistakes (i.e. NAFTA) in order to stop the perpetuation of blow-back, the unintended consequences of U.S. foreign policy.  

House Democrats should be applauded for their strong stance against the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.  

Natalie Danielle Camastra is a student of political economy at UC Berkeley.

Posted Mon., April 28—In the six weeks between the Mississippi and Pennsylvania primaries, the campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination deteriorated into trench warfare. When the dust cleared, Hillary Clinton won a nine-point victory in Pennsylvania, one that moved her no closer to securing the nomination. And the struggle between Clinton and Obama left a trail of bitterness. 

A recent Pennsylvania Quinnipiac poll found that 25 percent of likely Clinton voters said, “they will vote for Republican Sen. John McCain in November if Obama is the Democratic candidate.” This mirrors an earlier national Gallup poll that found 28 percent of Clinton voters avowed to support McCain. Given that Clinton and Obama have virtually identical positions on most issues, why would a supporter of liberal Clinton switch to conservative McCain—a reprise of George Bush? 

Some of this shift is attributable to racism—voters who don’t want to see a black man as president, but a substantial component may due to the angry feelings of female Clinton backers. When I talked with women who supported Clinton, I found their complaints fell into three categories: 

Hillary Clinton has been subjected to gender bias.  

All the women felt the press has been prejudiced against Sen. Clinton because she is an assertive female. They believed Senator Obama has garnered uncritical acceptance—at least until he made his infamous “bitter” comments. They noted the apparent glee with which the press—particularly MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews—greeted news of Clinton’s eminent demise in the New Hampshire primary. The consensus was that the male members of the press don’t like Hillary and root for her to fail. 

In a January New York Times Op-Ed Gloria Steinem noted “Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life.” The women I interviewed shared this sentiment and noted that while it would be groundbreaking for a black man to be president, it would be even more momentous for a woman to enter the oval office. They also observed that women are more likely than men to vote—in 2004, 54 percent of all voters were women and the percentage is expected to go up—while African-Americans are approximately 11 percent of the electorate. 

My contacts described Hillary Clinton as smart, experienced, and hardworking. They believed that if she were a man she would have already secured the nomination, but because of gender bias, she will now likely lose it. They noted that while Clinton is an effective speaker and has unusual command of the facts—and Obama can be a halting speaker with a distant, professorial tone—the press often describes her as shrill and condescending, while they reserve none of these descriptors for Obama. (Indeed, research on gender bias indicates successful female managers are often characterized as “more deceitful, pushy, selfish, and abrasive” than their male counterparts.) 

The nomination rules are prejudiced.  

Several women opined the rules for the Democratic primaries are unfair and, therefore, have disadvantaged Sen. Clinton. They said the rules allocating delegates for the states are so complicated few understand them and that’s why Clinton won the popular vote in the Texas primary but Obama received more delegates. They observed that Clinton usually won primaries while Obama generally won caucuses because the caucus process is arcane. All were outraged that the votes of Michigan and Florida voters were not counted; from their perspective, the male leaders of the Democratic Party disallowed these results because they favored Obama. They felt women and “women’s issues” have been marginalized in the Democratic Party and women rarely have power within the Party itself. 

The women I interviewed noted that at the end of March, senior Democrats—all men—called for Sen. Clinton to withdraw. They felt that if it had been Sen. Obama who was behind, rather than Clinton, there would not have been this rush to prematurely end the competition. 

There’s no likely female Presidential candidate in the wings.  

The most common complaint was the most poignant: Women have waited 88 years for a female President and, if Sen. Clinton loses the competition for the 2008 presidential nomination, they may have to wait many more years. The women I interviewed observed that Hillary Clinton is by far the strongest female candidate to emerge in their lifetimes and they do not expect another comparable female contender to emerge in the near term. 

In summary, the women I talked to are upset: they see Hillary Clinton as the best chance to have a female president in their lifetime; and the feel the Democratic leadership has disenfranchised them. Some of them are angry enough to consider voting for John McCain. They are bitter. 

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

The recent victory of Fernando Lugo in Paraguay’s presidential election not only broke the right-wing Colorado Party’s 61-year monopoly on power, according to journalist and author Richard Gott, it signals “that the new mood in Latin America is not just a creation of a competent economist in Ecuador, a charismatic colonel in Venezuela, or a couple of union leaders in Brazil and Bolivia, but the result of a heartfelt and deep-rooted desire for change.” 

But the “pink tide” that has swept leftists and reformers into power throughout the region is hardly going unnoticed in Washington. Journalist and researcher Raul Zibechi, a member of the Editorial Council of the weekly Brecha de Montevideo, says the United States has stepped up destabilization efforts in Venezuela and, according to a recent study by the Brazilian magazine, Military Power Review, is turning the Bush administration’s last reliable ally in South America, Colombia, into a military juggernaut.  

Lugo’s decisive win against Colorado Party candidate Blanca Ovelar and former general Lino Oviedo will, says Paraguayan farmer union leader Tomas Zayas, “open a door for more change for the future, but that’s all. We will take what we can get.” 

Certainly Lugo is no leftist in the mold of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez or Bolivia’s Evo Morales. Indeed, he describes himself as a “centrist.” But in the context of Paraguay’s long history of military dictatorships and savage repression, Lugo—a former Catholic Bishop—represents a sea change for the landlocked country of 6.7 million people. 

Heading up a 10-party coalition of unions, rural farmers, liberal reformers, socialists and leftists called the Patriotic Alliance for Change, Lugo ran on a platform of land reform, reducing poverty, investing in education, and ending corruption. The new president also plans to renegotiate energy agreements with Brazil and Argentina for a bigger piece of the hydroelectric energy pie. 

More than a third of Paraguayans live on less than $2 a day, and in recent years, enormous agribusiness corporations and Brazilian soy giants have turned the country into the fourth largest exporter of soybeans in the world. Huge companies, like Monsanto, Cargill, Pioneer, Syngenta, Dupont, Archer Daniels Midland, and Bunge are producing soy, corn, wheat, sunflower and rapeseed at industrial levels. 

The losers in all this have been small farmers and indigenous people forced off their land though a campaign of intimidation, violence, and chemical warfare. According to the United Nation’s Committee of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, “The expansion of the cultivation of soy has brought with it the indiscriminate use of toxic pesticides, provoking death and sickness in children and adults, contamination of water, disappearance of ecosystems and damage to the traditional nutritional resources of the communities.” 

Benjamin Dangl and April Howard of “Upside Down World” say that, in the four departments where soy cultivation is the highest, “78 percent of families in rural communities” had health problems from the frequent spraying of crops. 

Much of Lugo’s base is among these small farmers and rural communities where he has championed the plight of the poor and landless. “There are too many differences between the small group of 500 families who live with a first-world standard of living while the great majority live in a poverty that borders on misery,” he says. Every Paraguayan “has the right to be settled on his own land.” 

But what that means in practice is by no means clear, particularly given that his opposition will not only be Paraguay’s traditional elites, but the multinationals as well. 

Lugo has pledged to increase his country’s slice of the energy pie. Brazil currently pays Paraguay $100 million for energy from Italpu Dam, which is jointly owned by both countries. But the electricity is worth 10 times that amount. Brazil says it won’t renegotiate the 1973 energy treaty, and Lugo is threatening to take the issue before the World Court.  

Argentina also has a below-market agreement for electricity generated by the Yaycreta Dam, which it jointly owns with Paraguay. 

At the same time, Lugo is hardly spoiling for a fight with Brazil and Argentina. Like them, he is critical of free trade agreements with the United States and says he would rather work through South America’s MERCOSUR, the continent’s common market.  

The southern trade bloc includes Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru are associate members. 

Zibechi argues that the first stage of the U.S. counter stroke against the growth of South American independence was Plan Colombia. While the plan has long been sold as a drug interdiction strategy, much of the program’s $5 billion in aid has in fact gone toward beefing up Bogota’s military.  

In stage two, Colombia began spilling its civil war into neighboring countries. Finally, on Mar. 1, Colombia launched a “pre-emptive” strike against FARC insurgents in Ecuador. In the aftermath of the raid, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe accused Venezuela of supporting of supporting FARC, a charge the Chavez government denies. 

Plan Colombia has certainly turned Bogota into the big dog on the block. Colombia has 210,000 soldiers compared to 190,000 in Brazil, which has four times Colombia’s population and seven times its territory. At 6.5 percent of its Gross Domestic Product, Colombia now has the highest military spending on the continent. In comparison, U.S. military spending is 4 percent of its GDP, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization 2 percent, and the rest of South America 1.5 to 2 percent. 

Added to Colombia’s 210,000 army troops are 60,000 other uniformed forces, plus 142,000 police. The United States has supplied Black Hawk helicopters, and Bogotá just purchased fighter planes from Israel and Brazil. 

According to Zibechi, U.S. strategy is aimed at “altering the military balance in the region,” with Venezuelan and Ecuadorian oil “in the crosshairs.” A subsidiary goal is to check the emergence of Brazil as a regional power. 

Venezuela currently supplies 15 percent of the United States’ oil needs. Colombia also ships oil to the U.S. but its estimated reserves of 20 billion barrels are dwarfed by Venezuela’s 240 billion. 

According to Venezuelan Senator Julio Garcia Jarpa, rightwing Colombian paramilitaries are infiltrating Tachira, Apure, Zulia, and Merida states, where most of Venezuela’s oil is located. Garcia, who represents Tachira, says the paramilitaries are not only intimidating local communities, they are active in supporting a plan for the four states--an area constituting one-third of Venezuela--to succeed.  

The breakaway plot is similar to one by right wingers in Bolivia who are trying to break off the gas-rich eastern provinces of Santa Cruz and Tarija from the central government 

Brazil and Venezuela have joined hands to counter some of these moves. Both have proposed a South American Defense Council, similar to NATO, to coordinate defense policies and deal with internal conflicts. Venezuela has been pushing for such a body for some time, but Colombia’s recent attack on Ecuador appears to have crystallized the idea. 

Ecuador’s Defense Minister, Javier Ponce, endorsed the plan on April 17. 

According to journalist Cyril Mychalejko, Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim reportedly told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley that the United States “should keep its distance” from the organization. Speaking in Caracas on April 21, Jobim said “This is a South American council and we have no obligation to ask for a license from the United States to do it.” 

Indeed the winds of change are blowing through the Southern Cone these days, but armies of the night, and their patrons in Washington, are likewise on the move.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been engaging in a political-difference dialogue with one of the candidates for Oakland City Council At Large, Charles Pine. I’m not going to go into the details of that dialogue; it’s all on-line, and you can look it up, if you haven’t been following it. I only raise it because I hope this serves as an example of how political dialogue ought to take place. Mr. Pine put his political positions out on his campaign website, following that up with public statements at a candidates forum. I wrote my criticisms in my column about those positions, signing my name to the criticisms. Mr. Pine answered those criticisms in a letter to the editor of my newspaper and liked his answers so much, apparently, that he posted them as well on his campaign website under the link “Exchange With Columnist About Law And Order.” 

In this discussion, I believe, Mr. Pine and I have had a fair exchange of ideas, out in the open, which the public can look up, if you’re interested, and make up your own mind about who is right, who is wrong, and who made the better argument. And that’s how political debate and political campaigns ought to work. 

Unfortunately, everybody doesn’t operate that way. 

A new political tactic has surfaced in Oakland in another local race. Sleazy. Reprehensible. One of the worst campaign tactics I’ve ever seen. It ought to be denounced, by everyone, and never allowed to gain any kind of traction in our area. 

Sometime in that past several days--I have no idea how long it’s been up--an anonymous website has been posted at http://oaklandcitycrook.wordpress.com/ slamming the candidacy of 5th District City Council candidate Mario Juarez, who is running against longtime incumbent Council President Ignacio De La Fuente. 

Under the front page title “The Oakland Swindler” with a picture of Juarez labeled “Corrupt Crook,” the website’s front page reads: “All the statements made in these pages can be verified through Public records. If you love Oakland, half as much as we do, you will look further into Mario Juarez’s background and make an informed decision. Don’t give Mario Juarez the opportunity to BANKRUPT our city, DESTROY our hopes and STEAL our hard earned tax payer dollars! Aside from being a crook, liar, dead beat father, etc., Mario R. Juarez has NO POLITICAL EXPERIENCE! He is a real estate agent, for crying out loud and a shady agent that sells illegal properties to innocent buyers! Mario R. Juarez can’t even manage his own business and his personal life is a disaster. How can we expect him to handle the many problems facing our city? MARIO JUAREZ is ROTTEN TO THE CORE but don’t take our word for it…” 

The “Oakland Swindler” website then provides links to various pages, including “Fraud & Breach Of Contract,” “City Sues Mario,” “Bankruptcy,” “Under Investigation,” “Family Life,” and “Verify Facts,” all of which contain various allegations about Mr. Juarez, some of which are supposedly backed up by court docket numbers or police report numbers. 

It would seem that with allegations so serious--libelous, in fact, if they are not true--those making the allegations would back them up by giving their own names. 

They don’t, friends. The “Oakland Swindler” allegations against Mr. Juarez are all posted anonymously. 

On the “About Us” link where the information about the website operators would normally be posted, the following paragraph is present: “We, the authors of this site, are a group of Fruitvale residents and merchants that have been lied to, stolen from, extorted, threatened and/or cheated by Mario Juarez. We may individually have our own different opinions about who should be council person for District 5 of Oakland, but there is one thing we all agree on: It SHOULD NOT be Mario Juarez. Everyone in the real estate industry in Oakland knows that Mario R. Juarez is ‘shady’. Everyone on International Boulevard, where some of us do business, know he is corrupt. We know if our identity is known, Mario will try to retaliate against us. He has threatened many of us. He has a dark heart and no conscience. We list sources of information where any of you can do your own investigation.” 

But what if you want to start your investigation into who put up the money, gathered the information, and organized the “Oakland Swindler” website? 

Well, that’s a bit more difficult. We can only take the “word” of the website organizers that they are actually Fruitvale merchants and residents who are so frightened of Mr. Juarez, they dare not take him on publicly. 

The “Oakland Swindler” website backlinks to a website called “Oakland Council Elections 8.6.3” at http://cityofoakland.blogspot.com/. That website lists the five contested Oakland City Council races in the June 3rd election, recommending Patrick McCullough in District One over incumbent Jane Brunner, Sean Sullivan in District Three over incumbent Nancy Nadel and challenger Greg Hodge, De La Fuente in District 5, incumbent Larry Reid over challenger Clifford Gilmore in District 7, and Charles Pine in the At Large race where incumbent Henry Chang chose not to run. 

The “View My Complete Profile” link on the “Oakland Council Elections 8.6.3” page takes you to a standard blog page at http://www.blogger.com/profile/02417238313152900550 that has no information about the blogger himself, herself, or themselves. There is a link to a separate blog page entitled “Mario Juarez. 100% Crook” that links back to the “Oakland Swindler” website, as well as contains the statement “Do not vote for this scumbag or Clint Killian” (Mr. Killian is a candidate in the At Large City Council race).  

The “Oakland Council Elections 8.6.3” website also has includes a line on how these people intend to operate: “If you have info or dirt on candidates, such as Clinton Killian, let us know.” 

So that they can post it anonymously, one supposes. How courageous. 

Tips from unnamed sources--either from people who are truly anonymous, or from people who you know but who pass on a bit of information but ask that their names be kept out of it--are common in the news business, and every journalist is familiar with them. Some of journalism’s best stories come from such tips. The normal procedure is to follow up the suggestions with a review of public documents, if any, and with interviews with people willing to go on the record. Sometimes this leads to real stories. Sometimes it leads to dead ends. 

And so, because of the explosiveness of the nature of the charges against Mr. Juareaz on the “Oakland Swindler” website, there may be something of a temptation to ignore the method in which the information came, and to follow up to see if any of the allegations are true. At the very least, I could contact the Juarez campaign for comment, and contact the De La Fuente campaign to see if they know anything about it. 

But under these circumstances, I am going to resist that temptation. This is different from the usual “tip” from an unnamed source. In those situations, the “tip” is made to the journalist, and it is up to the journalist and the journalist’s media outlet to decide whether or not the information should be followed up on, and published. In this case, the unverified, unsourced “tips” have already been disseminated, on the anonymous website. 

Some other journalist in town, probably, will take the bait and follow up on the allegations themselves, but it won’t be me. 

The reason is, I think this type of anonymous dissemination of unverified slander--on anybody--should not be encouraged. Instead it should be denounced as the slimey, low-lifed, cowardly, and underhanded tactic that it is. These tactics have no place here. 

There is also an argument to be made that by publicizing the website in this column, it will lead people to look at the website who otherwise might not, therefore spreading the ugly venom I say I am trying to prevent. Unfortunately, that is one of the traps that the anonymous “Oakland Swindler” website puts us in. Denouncing it gives it publicity. But in my opinion, ignoring it is worse. 

Back to the issue of the allegation by the “Oakland Swindler” website organizers that they are afraid of retaliation from Mr. Juarez if they let their names be known. Retaliation can be a real fear, especially if you go after the powerful. But Mr. Juarez hardly seems to fit the category of someone people in Oakland need to be afraid of. Even in the worst of the charges against him on the “Oakland Swindler” website, there do not appear to be any charges that his enemies or opponents have been shot at, or their businesses burned. Oakland has a history of open criticism of some of the most powerful politicians in the state or the area, politicians who have been known to retaliate: State Senate President Don Perata, or former Oakland mayor, and now California Attorney General Jerry Brown, Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente. Although I don’t agree with many of those criticisms, the people who have been criticizing Mayor Ron Dellums since Mr. Dellums’ election in 2006 have been willing to do so publicly and openly, putting their names and their charges out for everybody to see. Should our hearts now pump Kool-Aide (to use the popular street term) because of fear that someone like Mario Juarez might get angry about being criticized? Sorry, friends, but that has the ring of self-serving bogus to it, a way to hide identity behind another, anonymous charge. 

If the charges against Mr. Juarez contained anonymously and in such a cowardly way in the “Oakland Swindler” website are actually true, let the organizers of the website reveal their names, reveal their funding sources, and stand behind their words, as the rest of us do. Otherwise, they should be denounced by all in Oakland--regardless of our political differences and our various positions on the issues--who agree that those differences should best be aired honestly and openly, giving people who are attacked a fair chance to respond. 

If the “Oakland Swindler” organizers can’t abide the revealing light of the sun, they ought to go back to the shadow from whence they crawled. Oakland doesn’t need this. 

If your house disappears from zillow.com, does that mean it no longer exists? Because that’s exactly what happened last month.  

My house became N/A. Not Applicable. I was pretty sure it was still there, given that I was living in it, but still, it gave me pause. For one thing, I had already watched its value drop precipitously from $1,025,000 to $644,000 inside of two weeks, sometime around the end of last year. But to disappear altogether, like the hundred plus years it’s been here mean nothing? That’s harsh. 

At first I thought maybe it had been removed from their algorithm because it’s an anomaly—there are few other 3800 square foot bunga-mansions in my Fruitvale neighborhood. But this week it suddenly reappeared, now sporting a value of $723,000. All is right with the world. 

For those who have not dabbled in the various forms of real estate porn, zillow.com is a website that will give you a value for your house, your neighbor’s house, your employer’s house, or any other house you have an address for.  

The number is pretty much meaningless, since the only way to really determine the value of your house is to sell it. A price agreed upon by a willing seller and a willing buyer (and these days, a willing lender) is the market value. Of course you could have an appraisal done, but an appraisal is essentially a well-educated guess, and also it’s not free, unlike Zillow. So Zillow is mostly for amusement purposes, although it vaguely shows price trends. 

The problem with Zillow here in the East Bay is that the housing stock varies greatly, unlike newer tract homes in the suburbs where lots of houses were built at the same time that are the same size, floor plan, etc. Nor does it allow much for upgrades that may have been done, or the fact that one house has been maintained and the other is falling apart.  

And like any computer program, it’s garbage in-garbage out, so if the data from public records isn’t up to date, it’s not really based in reality. Nor does it know the things that real estate agents and people in the neighborhood know—that this is the one good block on an otherwise questionable street, or that a huge condo project has just been approved that will cut off all privacy in a particular house’s backyard, or that a new neighborhood amenity is about to open. (All real estate ads in my neighborhood now seem to announce, “Close to Farmer Joe’s!”)  

Just to get an average, I tried a couple of other sites besides Zillow. At cyberhomes.com, my house was valued at $905,256. Makes it seem like it must be really accurate, that $256. Over at eppraisal.com, I got a range of prices, from $1,241,667 at the low end, $1,460,875 in the middle, and $1,679,902 at the top. This site actually gives you the addresses and values for the comps they used. That the comps were all in Crocker Highlands, Montclair, and Piedmont didn’t surprise me—my house, as I said, is an anomaly, hard to find comparables for. But all the comps were from eight months ago—things have changed rather a lot since then.  

Does any of this matter? Well, yes, to the extent that people accept Zillow’s figures as reflecting reality. Though I think most people take it all with a large grain of salt, some people whose Zillow values have dropped are up in arms, threatening to report them to the Better Business Bureau and such. Maybe I should go after them—after all, eppraisal says my house is worth $1.6 million.  

Jane Powell is available for restoration consulting at hsedressng@aol.com, because her house isn’t really worth $1.6 million and she still has to work. 

I’m sure there’s a reasonable rationale behind it but to a posyhugger, the stretch of road leading into Sunol-Ohlone Regional Park is an instrument of torture. All along the roadcut on your right, if you’re on time for it, you’ll see a fine display of paintbrush, the occasional blue dicks and bindweed, and the first flush of Calochortus albus, the subtly gorgeous white fairy-lantern, much of it conveniently near eye-level as you pass.  

All this is liberally interspersed with a stiff procession of “NO PARKING” and “NO STOPPING” signs. They haven’t thought to add “NO CREEPING” so you can take it slow. Hard to photograph, though.  

If the lanterns are blooming along the road they’ll also be blooming inside the park proper, fortunately. Less fortunately to those of us in our creaky years, you have to hike almost to Little Yosemite to see them. Then you have to hunker in the dust and burrs to get a close-up, unless it’s dry enough to stand in the roadside ditch where they grow on the hillside.  

On the way you can see an active red-shouldered hawks’ nest, singing house wrens, goldfinches, titmice, nuthatches, bluebirds, acorn and Nuttall’s woodpeckers, rufous-crowned sparrows, black-headed grosbeaks, ash-throated flycatchers, and if you’re lucky, a western screech-owl blinking at the sun from a sycamore hollow. 

Flowers? Paintbrush, Ithuriel’s spear, several lupines, violets, clematis, blazing star, blue dicks, fiddlenecks, yarrow, monkeyflower, mule ears, blue-eyed grass, gilia, lots of poppies, and of course that fairy lantern. And those magnificent oaks, bays, and sycamores. 

Better get there soon; grasses are ripening and browning already, and the season’s likely to be short this year. This weekend would be good, for the tag end of a nearby Earth Day party. 

When you exit 680 onto Calaveras Road, just past the intersection with the northbound offramp, there’s Lisa Arnold Nursery. Over the years that’s been wholesale and/or retail at irregular intervals. It’s retail now, and owner Lisa Arnold (surprise) says it’ll stay that way “if we do well this year.” 

She’s celebrating Earth Week with refreshments and 171 free gallon-size coast live oak seedlings, festivities centered on a clever arrangement of gallon-can plants in front of the office as a simple Western Hemisphere map.  

Part of the celebration is off-site: planting the first of 171 donated trees in front of Fremont’s John F. Kennedy High School on Tuesday April 22, official Earth Day. Arnold gave the school district a tree for every home run the A’s got in 2007.  

The nursery has reasonably-priced Japanese maples, seriously striking rhododendrons and azaleas, palms, tree ferns (inexpensive!), dogwoods, tropicals, flower and foliage color, and lots of trees. Rhodies include some with yellow or deep-claret flowers.  

New to me: a bright-yellow-leafed smoketree; a small single dahlia with dark maroon foliage and lemon-yellow blooms.  

You couldn’t ask for better conditioning than on that hot open lot, if you’re planting east of the hills or in full sun. It’s loud during rush hour, so grab your rock-n-roll earplugs. Worth it! 

Lisa Arnold Nursery Sales 

9950 Calaveras Road, Sunol 

(925) 862-9009 

Lisa Arnold Nurseries 

Spring/summer hours: 

Monday Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Sunday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

If you get to know anyone well enough, you’ll eventually find out which super-power they have. Most super-powers are fairly innocuous while a few are more apparent and seemingly heroic. My ex-girlfriend could find a parking place in front of coliseum Rock & Roll events. Right smack in front. Stunning. Clearly a super-power. Some people know just when to buy the 24 pack of toilet paper and never run out. For some, this is inconceivable. Some can find the screw they dropped in the grass, while I’ve been forced to leave many behind. Next time you pass some little balding guy on the street, remember, he has a super power. See if you can guess which one he has. It might be a doozy. 

My super power works some of the time, sort of like those TV cop-show psychics. I’m getting it. I’m getting it. I see a bolt, a wire. No, it’s gone cold. I’ve lost it. My super power is X-ray vision but, like I said, it’s very spotty. Too bad because I need it in my job and I really needed it the other day.  

As has often occurred, I was looking at a house wherein the basement had been fully finished out and there were big questions about the work that been done in the development of the space. 

With walls finished off and a fresh coat of paint on the surfaces, it gets very hard to say what’s behind the walls. One tries to peek as much as possible but, often, the views are scant and cryptic. As I’ve previously suggested, a set of photos, digital or otherwise, make all the difference. If you’re doing work of this sort (inaccessible once completed), please take a hundred pictures. Drawings and permits are also useful but they require acceptance of the notion that these are reflective of the what was actually done and this is, too often, not truly the case, even when city inspectors have signed the card. 

Let me tell you about what we didn’t know on this particular day:  

Basements are places where we often get our best views of plumbing, mechanical (gas piping and appliances), electrical wiring, structural elements and connections including the foundation and damage done by water and pests. I may spend half of an inspection in a basement, they (basements) being so rich in data. So it’s very frustrating when they’ve been occluded in this manner. This particular one also added the concern that comes of a below-ground space having been changed from a storage and utility space into a living space. 

Basements sometimes get damp or even a little wet and some get really wet when they’re well below ground level. For the lawn mower or the washing machine, this is probably not a big deal but this doesn’t work out so well for a bedroom or even a home office. The truth is (as they say on TV), your own result may vary. In short, it’s very hard to predict, but if X-ray vision is good for anything, it’s good for telling you where to look with your actual eyes. If you’re suspicious, you pull back the carpet, move the pile of storage and take a close look for whitish precipitates (efflorescence), stains and signs of that the bottoms of things were getting wet. The bottoms of furnaces get rusty and the bottoms of wooden crates will show stains that creep up from the bottom. Sometimes evidence is lean but you take what you’ve got. Sometimes you end up next door asking the neighbor if their basement gets wet. 

With electrical and plumbing, it can be very frustrating. You have to look at all the other parts of those system as well as those places where these systems display themselves in the basement in order to make good guesses. See if you can find other contemporary work (was it the same electrician?) and gauge its quality. Often, other parts of the house were remodeled at the same time and these other places can give valuable clues. Sometimes not. 

Basement remodels also present a very important set of conundra to those of us in seismically active areas. The way in which walls are bolted and braced between the foundation and the floor above are critical in how houses perform during earthquakes, and when basement get finished out, as I’ve described, these essential views are largely blocked from view. The X-ray views come in all cloudy and green. I grab my head like Kate Blanchet in The Gift. Nothing. But wait. Several small pieces of plywood bracing can be seen in the garage (same level) and the laundry room (opposite end). 

The manner of attachment, the thickness of plywood and their placement were, at least partially, visible. These small pieces of information provided critically important information as to the quality of the seismic reinforcement that had been done. Without more information and with so much unseen, we could not draw definitive conclusions but much could be said. We could not know, for example, whether there was enough decay in these “cripple walls” to affect the strength of these walls or whether the framing had been altered in ways that would result in localized failures. 

In an effort to capitalize on every square inch of possible living space, many of us have turned attics, basements, laundry rooms and garages into offices, dens and bedrooms. 

While this can be done well and in compliance with building standards (not that the codes are the end-all and be-all of sensible construction), it’s important to also think about some of what gets covered up. I’d rather see mistakes made in a place where access could be found for future repairs than in a basement where there is neither access nor the view (but for your X-ray vision) to know that something needs addressing. 

If you’re looking at houses, stop and ask yourself what a given space might have been used as or built for in the past (this is, of course, the real X-ray vision). If it is a basement, was this a space that has stayed bone dry? If it is an attic, was the floor framed for human habitation or is it too springy and weak? Is that back bedroom really a laundry room addition that’s sitting on a couple of pier blocks and destined to land in the side yard when the fault-line slips. Using your X-ray vision (deduction) you may be able to, at least, start asking relevant questions. You may end up feeling O.K. about the basement or the attic but you’ll be better off for having gone through this game of questioning. 

So if you’re shopping for houses remember to use your super-powers. But be careful and considerate. X-ray vision should not be used on people (unless you’re a doctor) and that thing where you set things on fire? Best not. 

Ben Bernanke has a lot in common with the next president. The pinnacle of his career will mostly involve cleaning up someone else’s mess. When he took over as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank in 2006, Bernanke stepped into a quagmire so deep and wide that he sometimes has that stunned, wide-eyed look of a drowning man.  

Meanwhile his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, is telling anyone who will listen that it’s not his fault that the economy might slide into a crippling recession and that the nation’s financial system is teetering on the edge of systemic failure. Greenspan is worried about his place in history and the yet-to-be-written books that will trash his record as America’s economic steward.  

Even Paul Volcker, the stern and widely revered Fed chairman who preceded Greenspan and wrestled inflation to a standstill in the 1980s, has lately been wagging his finger at Bernanke for orchestrating the rescue of Bear Stearns and at Greenspan for his Wall Street boosterism that helped to get us in this mess. Recently, Volcker told the Economic Club of New York that our “bright new financial system” had failed the test of the marketplace.  

It was lost on no one that Greenspan had played midwife to the birth of that new system and for years had defended it against criticism and calls for regulation by many in Congress. That of course made Greenspan a hero on Wall Street, and so long as the good times kept rolling he was feted by the media as a financial god. Well, the good times have stopped rolling.  

“We have moved from a commercial bank-centered, highly regulated financial system, to an enormously more complicated and highly engineered system,” Volcker told his audience. Much of today’s financial activities “takes place in markets beyond effective official oversight and supervision, all enveloped in unknown trillions of derivative instruments,” he added. “The sheer complexity, opaqueness and systemic risks embedded in the new markets—complexities and risks little understood by even most of those with management responsibilities—have enormously complicated both official and private responses to this the mother of all crises.”  

Well, that sure doesn’t sound good. How bad are things? If you listened to Bernanke’s testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, you heard him say, “Clearly, the U.S. economy is going through a very difficult period. But among the great strengths of our economy is its ability to adapt and respond to diverse challenges. Much necessary economic and financial adjustments have already taken place, and monetary and fiscal policies are in train that should support a return to growth in the second half of this year and next year.”  

But minutes of the Fed March 18 policy meeting were recently released, and they paint a decidedly darker picture. Some of the policy committee members were predicting a continuation of the drop in housing prices and possibly “a prolonged and severe economic downturn.” In March alone the U.S. economy lost 80,000 jobs, the biggest drop in five years, and the losses are spreading beyond the housing and finance sectors to a wide cross-section of industries. In all likelihood, we are already in a recession. What isn’t known is how long it will last and how deep will it cut.  

The frustration and fearfulness of the Fed rate cutters is nearly palpable. Usually they speak in nearly indecipherable jargon about economic growth, inflation, and what they’re planning on doing with the short-term rates they use to control the flow of money into the economy. Now the Fed is warning that there’s only so much a central bank can do: “Monetary policy alone could not address fully the underlying problems in the housing market and in financial markets.” That is the Fed’s way of introducing the new guiding principle of our economy: Have high hopes, but low expectations. Last week the International Monetary Fund added to those low expectations when it announced that the global banking and financial system would suffer losses of about $1 trillion due to the mortgage crisis and that “systemic risks have risen sharply.”  

In other words, the possibility of a worldwide financial meltdown has increased and despite the current calm we are still deep in the woods. If the IMF estimate is even close to correct, this will make our current problems the most expensive financial crisis in history, according to the Financial Times. The IMF puts the chances of our borrowing binge ending in a worldwide recession at one in four. Some economists are arguing that the losses will be a minimum of $1 trillion and are likely to exceed that if there are unforeseen shocks to the system: Say, for example, a major international bank collapses or the U.S. military attacks Iran or one of the world’s current riots over escalating food prices seriously destabilizes an important country such as Egypt. If you think gasoline is expensive now, you don’t want to think about what $150 a barrel oil will do to the world.  

But even if we leave aside those dire possibilities, there are many current realities that suggest we may soon find ourselves caught up in a rough cycle of financial crises followed by deeper economic downturns. You’ve heard of that fabled “soft landing” of our falling economy? Well, there are a lot of reasons we could lose altitude in a hurry. Consider these sobering facts: Oil now costs $117 a barrel and commodity prices across the board are hitting new highs. Meanwhile, the dollar continues its steady downward retreat. The severe credit crunch in mortgages is now spreading to other segments of the consumer credit market, for example, credit cards and car loans. Without government intervention, nearly two million homes will face foreclosure over the next two years. Most option ARM loans—those adjustable rate mortgages that have low teaser rates and let you pay less than you owe—have not yet adjusted upward. When those loans adjust up to the new higher rates and the lenders demand full payment each month, the other shoe in the mortgage crisis will begin to fall. 

Remember, our high household debt ratio—136 percent of income—means tens of thousands of households are barely able to shoulder the monthly payments even when rates are low. The U.S. economy has lost at least 230,000 jobs since the start of this year. Meanwhile the number of people who stopped looking for jobs because they didn’t think there were any out there rose to 401,000 in March. Consumer spending, the engine of our boomtime growth, is dropping fast.  

It’s enough to keep you awake at night. Unless you’re Alan Greenspan. Mr. Greenspan—who in fairness is not responsible for everything that has gone wrong, just a whole lot of it—recently told the Wall Street Journal that he doesn’t regret a single decision he made while he was chairman of the Fed. Let’s hope that Ben Bernanke isn’t quite so sure of himself.

On April 8, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker told the Senate the president’s Iraq surge strategy has “worked” and, therefore, current troop levels should be maintained. The hearings came at a time when public attention has shifted from the occupation to the economy. Given the looming recession, why should Americans care how long our troops stay in Iraq? 

On Jan. 10, 2007, President Bush announced the troop surge and additional forces started showing up in March. Nonetheless, media coverage of Iraq diminished. A March Pew Research poll found “the percentage of news stories devoted to the war dropped from an average of 15 percent of all stories last July to just 3 percent in February of this year.” 

In the face of the prospect that nothing will change in Iraq until a new president takes office, why should Americans care what happens over the next 10 months? There are three critical considerations that demand our attention. 

The United States does not have unlimited resources 

At the heart of the Bush ideology lurks the belief that America can pursue a neo-conservative foreign policy agenda without negatively impacting lives of average Americans. The Bush administration has disdained the notion of sacrifice and repeatedly suggested that the occupation of Iraq has no impact on the economy. After five years of war, most Americans don’t believe this. At the April 8 hearing, Ohio Republican Senator George Voinovich observed: “We've kind of bankrupted this country” and “The American people have had it up to here.”  

The continued occupation has not made America safer 

When the Bush administration deigns to discuss the cost of the occupation—either in lives or dollars—they use the argument that no matter what the cost, it is worth it because it is better to fight terrorists in the streets of Iraq than in the streets of the United States. Continuing the occupation for as long as it takes is the centerpiece of Sen. McCain’s foreign policy; he asserts that if the United States were to “abandon” Iraq, it would destabilize the entire Middle East. However, most Americans no longer buy the Bush-McCain argument. At the April 8 hearing, Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner asked, “Is all this sacrifice [in Iraq] bringing about a more secure America?” While General Petraeus hedged, Democrats, and many Congressional Republicans, believe the occupation has not made America safer and is damaging our military. 

In parallel with the Petraeus-Crocker hearings, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody told a congressional committee “how troops and their families are being taxed by long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Appearing on Good Morning America, former Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed similar concerns about the health of the military. 

Rather than make the United States safer, the occupation has weakened the military and homeland security, emboldened terrorists, and diverted attention from the pursuit of al Qaeda leaders in northwest Pakistan. 

The occupation has no clear objective and, therefore, no predictable endpoint 

President Bush, General Petraeus, and Ambassador Crocker conflate security and political progress. There was never any question that if the U.S. Army decided to become Iraq’s police force, the level of violence would subside. The key question is not about security; it is whether the Iraqis have the wherewithal to achieve political reconciliation. Unless they develop the capacity to form a stable state, the civil war will continue. 

Last year, when President Bush announced the surge, he also stated “America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced.” (In August 2006, the White House and the Iraqi government headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed to 18 key benchmarks.) In January of this year, The Center for American Progress reviewed Iraqi political progress using the same benchmarks. Of the 18 only three had been fully accomplished; five were viewed as partially accomplished; and 10 were seen as not accomplished. The last set included critical elements such as holding provincial elections, passing legislation to distribute oil revenues, and disarming militias. (This agreed with the Sept. 4 GAO assessment.)  

Nonetheless, since January 2007, President Bush has minimized the importance of these benchmarks and they were downplayed during the most recent Petraeus-Crocker testimony. Thus, the role of U.S. forces in Iraq has shifted from “nation building” to “keeping the peace.” 

While Americans are distracted by the recession, we must pay more attention to the occupation of Iraq: America doesn’t have unlimited resources and can’t afford to extend the occupation indefinitely. Not only has the occupation made the U.S. less safe, it is hurting our troops. And, while U.S. troops serve as Iraq’s national police force, the Iraqis have done little to develop a stable government.  

Lyndon Johnson famously observed, “No matter how hard you try, you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shit.” The Bush administration is trying to sell Americans “chicken salad.” Hopefully, we’ll recognize what we’re actually being offered. 

Last week’s column gave an overview of expansion plans by the University of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, including two huge new buildings in Strawberry Canyon: the Computation Research and Theoretical Facility (CRT) and the Helios Facility. A group called Save Strawberry Canyon is fighting the expansion for a whole litany of reasons: earthquake and fire risks; impacts on air and water quality and greenhouse gas emissions; damage to a significant cultural landscape; procedural flaws in the lab’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP); and, not least, endangered species issues. 

These folks could really use a web designer. If you’re interested, email Phila Rogers (philajane6@yahoo.com). 

UC concedes that the development sites are known or potential habitat for several protected or sensitive animals and plants. Some of these species get only a cursory mention in the LRDP, CRT and Helios EIRs. But UC has developed plans for dealing with the federally threatened Alameda whipsnake (Masticophis lateralis euryxanthus), the bane of East Bay developers. Whether those plans are anywhere near adequate is another question. 

My only encounter with a whipsnake took place in Briones Regional Park a few years ago. A ripple in the grass resolved from a black-and-yellow blur into a four-foot-long snake. It stopped and looked back at me, head raised like a cobra’s, neck weaving back and forth. It had large eyes for a snake, and a jet-black tongue that flickered in and out. Then it turned, and in an instant was gone in the nearby brush before I even thought to reach for my camera. 

Whipsnakes are active by day, waiting out the night in rodent burrows. When the morning sun has raised its body temperature to the optimum level, a whipsnake goes on the prowl, hunting by sight, not smell or thermal cues like many other snakes. Its primary quarry is the western fence lizard. If you’ve ever tried to catch a fence lizard, you can appreciate what the snake is up against; they’re fast and skilled in evasive maneuvers. But the whipsnake chases them down, pinning them and swallowing them alive and thrashing. It wastes no time on constriction. 

For a whipsnake, prime real estate has tall enough grass to conceal it from its own predators, patchy shrub cover to let the sun in, and rock outcroppings where lizards bask. Females also require grassland for egg-laying. This mosaic of microhabitats has become increasingly rare. Freeways and housing developments have fragmented the snake’s range, isolating remnant populations and obstructing gene flow among them. 

The Alameda whipsnake, found only in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Joaquin Counties, was state-listed in 1971 and federally listed in 1997. A suit by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Christians Caring for Creation forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FSW) to identify 400,000 acres as critical habitat. That was set aside after litigation by the Home Builder’s Association of Northern California, claiming the habitat criteria were too broad.  

FWS’s second critical habitat designation in 2005, under the aegis of Interior Department hatchetwoman Julie MacDonald, cut the protected area by over 62 percent. Last November CBD declared its intent to go back to court on this and other endangered-species determinations. See their website for details: www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/reptiles/Alameda_whipsnake. For now, critical habitat officially includes the eastern portion of the Lawrence Lab’s territory, although not the CRT or Helios sites.  

Surveys by contract biologist Karen Swaim have not detected Alameda whipsnakes in the portion of Strawberry Canyon targeted for the next round of development. However, both the CRT and Helios project sites were designated as “highly suitable potential habitat” for the snake. In the case of a creature that hibernates for a good part of the year and is very good at not being seen, the old adage “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” would seem to apply. 

According to the UC EIRs, any whipsnakes encountered during pre-construction site surveys would be dealt with in accordance with the Alameda Whipsnake Relocation Plan. Although this phrase has a reassuring solidity, there does not appear to be an actual plan, at least not in writing. 

UC also goes into detail about efforts to minimize incidental take (a semantic cousin of “collateral damage”) of the whipsnake, which would include hiring a Whipsnake Monitor for the construction sites, whipsnake awareness training for the crews, and building snakeproof fences once a site has been cleared.  

But the fate of individual snakes isn’t really the issue here. It’s how the CRT and Helios projects, and whatever follows them—the buildings, the parking lots, the roads, the vegetation management—would fragment existing habitat. Without connectivity between suitable patches, any Strawberry Canyon whipsnake population would be doomed to extirpation. 

Rumors that UC has retained Samuel L. Jackson as a consultant could not be confirmed. 

Next week: the harvestman paradox.

FRIDAY, APRIL 25 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Uncle Vanya” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., through May 17. Tickets are $10-$12.. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org  

Aurora Theatre “The Trojan Women” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through May 11. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822.  

Berkeley High School “Grease” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m., through May 3 at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, BHS Campus. Dance contest at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5-$15. hypedrama@aol.com 

California Conservatory Theatre “The Turn of the Screw” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at 999 East 14th St., San Leandro City Hall Complex, near BART, through April 27. Tickets are $20-$22. 632-8850. 

Contra Costa Cvic Theater “Foxfire” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave. at Moeser, El Cerrito, through May 11. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Masquers Playhouse “Tartuffe” Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., at 105 Park Place, Pt. Richmond, through April 26. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

“Refugee Nation” Stories of Laotian refugees and their descendants, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Shotgun Players “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” by George Bernard Shaw. Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m., through April 27, at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $17-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Theatre de la Jeune Lune “Figaro” through June 8 at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $13.50-$69. 647-2949. 

TheatreFirst “Future Me” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through May 3. Tickets are $23-$28. 436-5085. www.theatrefirst.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

El Cerrito Art Association Annual Art Show, featuring “How I See Emotion” and “Art from Scrap.” Reception at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Community Center at 7007 Moeser Lane, El Cerrito. Exhibition open Sat. from 1o a.m to 5 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  

Works by Lori-Marie Jenkins, assemblage, collage and sculpture. Opening reception st 7 p.m. at Eclectix Gallery, 7523 Farimount Ave, El Cerrito. www.eclectixgallery.com 

FILM 

“Mad Hot Ballroom” at 3:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Folowed by “Boogie in the Books” dance lessons in the library on Sun. April 27 from 4 to 6 p.m. 981-6241. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lynne Knight, Nina Lindsay, Murray Silverstein and Helen Wickes read their poems for National Poetry month at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Garrett Murphy and Steve Martinot read their poetry, followed by open mic at 7 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. www.expressionsgallery.org 

Steven Greenhouse describes “The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker” at noon at UC Berkeley Labor Center, 2521 Channing Way. 642-6371. 

Kevin Phillips describes “Bad Money: Wreckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way at Dana. Free. 559-9500.  

Bill Soto-Castellanos reads from “16th & Bryant: My Life and Education with the San Francisco Seals” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bay Area Classical Harmonies with Donne Di Mezze at 7:30 p.m. at The Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$18. 868-0695.  

Berkeley Dance Project 2008 Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$14. 642-8827. theater.berkeley.edu 

Ramblin Jack Elliott and Country Joe McDonald An evening of song, stories and more at 7:30 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $40. 843-0662. 

David Berkman New Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373.  

Daria & Her Trio with Frank Martin at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

The Uptones and a Shakin’ Dance Contest at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. 

The Cowlicks at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Tracy Grammer at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

DJ Fflood, rare vinyl remixes and mashups, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Pulling Teeth, Conquest for Death Circles at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $8. 525-9926. 

The P-PL at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Raya Nova, alt rock and latin, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 26 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Colibri, songs from Latin America at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5 for adults, $4 for children. 849-2568.  

Active Arts Theatre, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $14-$18. www.activeartstheatre.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“In the Midst of Things: Street Photography 1988 - 2008” Black and white photographs by Ilona Sturm. Opening reception at 5 p.m. at Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Exhibit runs through May 17. Gallery hours Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat. 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. 644-1400. 

THEATER 

San Leandro Players “Redwood Curtain” Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at San Leandro Museum Auditorium, Casa Peralta, 320 W. Estudillo Ave., through May 4. Tickets are $10-$15. 895-2573. www.sanleandroplayers.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

National Poetry Month Reading Celebrating the Bicentennial of the Birth of John Greenleaf Whittier, at 2 p.m. in the Poetry Garden, Berkeley Arts Magnet/Whittier School, Milvia and Lincoln. Open Mic follows, children and their poems especially welcome. 

2nd Annual Bay Area JazzPoetry Festival at 7 p.m. at Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $20. 848-3227. www.hillsideclub.org 

Poems Here and There, featuring readings by Jeff T. Johnson, Kaya Oakes, Claire Donato, Jesse Nathan, Jared Hawkley, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Jared Bernstein reads from “Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)” at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Sparking Art with Soul: A Workshop for Arts Educators from noon to 4 p.m. at John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley Business Center, 2956 San Pablo Ave. Free, but registration required. www.jfku.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chelle and Friends “The Queens of New Orleans” at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15, children under 12 free. 228-3218. 

Benefit Concert for AIDS/Lifecycle with GQ Wang, tenor, Gemini Soul, jazz quartet, members of Oakland Youth Orchestra and others at 7:30 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Donation $15-$25. 449-4402. 

Heidi Hau, piano, performs works of Debussy, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Cost is $8-$12. 549-3864.  

Korean-American Annual Cultural Show at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $5. 

Ramblin Jack Elliott and Country Joe McDonald An evening of song, stories and more at 7:30 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz. Tickets are $40. 843-0662. 

Kitka: Nostalgic Cafe Songs from Bosnia, Croatia and Beyond at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $18-$25. 444-0323. 

University Chorus at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-4864.  

Lady Bianca Blues Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Baba Ken & the Afro-Groove Connexion at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $10-$15. 525-5054. 

Duck Baker at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

“Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi in Three Cantos” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Zoe Ellis Group, jazz, blues, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Big Lion, folk-rock, at 9:45 p.m. at Beckett’s, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Moment’s Notice Improvised music, dance and theater at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 Eighth St. Tickets are $8-$15. 

Space Heater at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Guttermouth, United Defiance, Pour Habit at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Mingus Big Band at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200.  

SUNDAY, APRIL 27 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Berkeley, A City of Firsts” Exhibition opening from 3 to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Historical Society, Vterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St The exhibit runs to September 27. Regular hours are Thurs.-Sat. 1- 4 p.m. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Caroline Murphy reads from “Murder of a Medici Princess” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MATRIX/REDUX A conversation with Peter Doig and Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

“Pearls from the Sea: Music & Dance of Tahiti” Lecture and video at 3 p.m. at Expressions Gallery 2035 Ashby Ave. www.expressionsgallery.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Community Orchestra “The Mozart Requiem” at 4:30 p.m. at St. Joseph The Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free, donations appreciated. 

California Bach Society Cantatas by Buxtehude and Bach at 4 p.m. atSt. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way, at Ellsworth. Tickets are $10-$25. 415-262-0272.  

Balkan Cabaret Sevdah Singing Workshop with Mary Sherhart from 3 to 5 p.m. at First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $20. 444-0323.  

Qui, Emerald Bay, hip-hop cypher for the whole family at 8 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cos tis $5.  

University Wind Ensemble at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Salvadora Galan, flamenco, at 7 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Dima Birich & Calvin Keys at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Tribute to Vibraphonist Cal Tjader at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Patty Larkin with Peter Mulvey at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

The Estranged, Spectres, Stiff Jeans at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, APRIL 28 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Subterranean Shakespeare Intensive staged reading of “Cymbeline” at 7:30 p.m. at The Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, Fireside Room, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Tickets are $5. 276-3871. 

Art, Technology and Culture Colloquium “The Medium is not the Message” with Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, at 7:30 p.m. at 160 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. 643-9565.  

Steven Farmer and Steve Dickison, poets, with music by John Schott, at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express “Favorite Poems Night” for National Poetry Month at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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: Johannes Brahms’ 175th Birthday Celebration at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $6.50-$7.50. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Cowboy Junkies at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, APRIL 29 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Berkeley, A City of Firsts” Opening reception from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc 

“Interplay” Works by David Kwan, Nora Pauwels, Bartosz Posacki, and Steve Reich. Gallery talk with the artists at 7 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Paintings around Practice: Unflattening Kano Eitoku’s Landscape Paintings at Jukoin” with Prof.Gregory Levine, Art History, UC Berkeley at 5 p.m. at Jodo Shinshu Center, 2140 Durant Ave. 809-1444.  

Rabih Alameddine reads from “The Hakawati,” a novel at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

T-Broussard and the Zydeco Steppers at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Singers’ Open Mic with Kelly Park at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Randy Craig Trio at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Led Kaapana & Mike Kaawa at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 

CHILDREN 

Pee Wee Mariachi Children’s games and music from Mexico at 6 p.m. at West Branch, 1125 University Ave. Free, but arrive ealry as space is limited.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Eric Dyson describes “Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Death and How It Changed America” at 6:30 p.m. at East Bay Church of Religious Science, 41st St. and Telegraph, Oakland.  

Rachel Sontag reads from “The House Rules” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with Javanese Gamelan at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Icarus Junior in concert at 2 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Free. 559-6910. 

Rivka Amando at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. www.lebateauivre.net 

UC Jazz and SF Jazz All-star Combo at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Kurt Ribak Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Rick Udler at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Benny Velverde y su Super Combo at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, MAY 1 

THEATER 

Eastenders Repertory Company “Three Vanek Plays” by Vaclev Havel, Thurs. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at JCC East Bay. Tickets are $15-$20. 800-838-3006. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems Student readings at 12:10 p.m. at Morrison Library, Doe Library. 642-0137. lunchpoems.berkeley.edu 

Lytle Shaw, Holloway Lecturer in the Practice of Poetry, reads at 6:30 p.m. at 315 Wheeler Hall, The Maude Fife Room, UC Campus. 642-3467. http://holloway.english.berkeley.edu 

Chana Bloch, poet, reads at 7 p.m., followed by open mic, at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. Albany. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Akademie Ensemble with Kent Nagano and Stuart Chanin at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $20-$60. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

Icarus Ensemble, contemporary music group from Italy, in concert at noon at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Free. 559-6910. 

Kleptograss at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Over the Edge Guitar/violin and vocals at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Mauricio Diaz El Hueso and Fernandito Ferrer, young singer-songwriters from Mexico and Puerto Rico, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

John Seabury at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Rachelle Ferrell at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $26-$30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

If I’d had a normal life, I could’ve been a Schopenhauer or a Dostoyevsky!” Funny, awkward explosions like that are rare but significant moments in Chekhov’s plays, which—as one spectator at the Actors Ensemble of Berkeley production of Uncle Vanya put it—seem to run on the rhythms of “the comedy of everyday life.” 

The blend of comedy and tragedy, as director Stanley Spenger (who also plays Vanya) put it in his notes, links Chekhov to Pirandello and Beckett as a predecessor to the “Theatre of the Absurd.” 

Even a generation ago, this analysis would have been met with blank stares by many theatergoers and theater folk themselves. Stanislavsky, whose Mos-cow Art Theatre gained its enduring reputation through premiering Chekhov’s new kind of drama—in which nothing seems to happen but everything is somehow communicated—canonized an interpretation, over the objections of the playwright, which emphasized the more pathetic, emotional aspects rather than the humor that conditions them. (Elia Kazan did something similar with the often Chaplinesque plays of Tennessee Williams.) 

Chekhov’s characters are grotesques in something of the way Sherwood Anderson meant the term to be used. A commercially successful writer of short stories and humorous vaudeville sketches, Chekhov carried over the comic style innovatively into his longer plays, in which a character will even comment on one mood, act out another, then self-consciously comment on that, circling back into a spiral of repeated assertions and mannerisms fitted and refitted together, a real-life stylization of a comic or clown’s routine. 

(In fact, V.S. Meyerhold, the great Soviet director, who said “the grotesque is the triumph of form over content” and who insisted that the poetry in Chekhov was in the rhythm of the lines, may have realized his notion of “attractions,” staging a play in units reminiscent of a circus or sideshow, partly through his understanding of Chekhov’s vaudevillian form. 

Meyerhold initiated several Chekhov roles under Stanislavsky’s direction, was close to the playwright, directing his plays and corresponding with him before Chekhov’s death at 40. The playwright never realized his announced intention to write more stylized works.)  

A rough synopsis of Uncle Vanya sounds like a pathetically funny melodrama, a social farce in a way. Vanya and Sonya, the daughter of his dead beloved sister, work hard managing the family’s country estate to support the urban life and intellectual activities of Sonia’s father, the Professor, who’s remarried a younger woman. The couple has recently moved to the estate, throwing its quiet life topsy-turvy. Vanya and the district’s doctor (loved unrequitedly by Sonya) have both fallen in love with the Professor’s demure young wife, and Vanya has lost faith with the Professor’s genius (though his aged mother’s still under his spell), thinking of him as epitomizing what Kierkegaard meant when he called a certain type of brilliant-seeming intellectual go-round a “scintillating inactivity.” The pot’s heated up, and soon boils over. 

The directorial troika has assembled a very sympathetic cast: besides Spenger, Scott Alexander Ayres, Maureen Coyne, Jose Garcia, Martha Luermann, Sarah Meyeroff, Aaron Murphy, Jennifer Rice and Jerome Solberg. 

On opening night, they hadn’t quite gelled into an ensemble, with the best work by Luermann throughout, and increasingly better work by Rice, Ayres, Garcia and Murphy as the evening went on and the play opened up. Spenger himself was showing Vanya’s more pathetic, acerbic and self-pitying side over both his underlying, idealized stoicism and caricaturized Romanticism. But a second night spectator reported that problems seemed to be no more than opening night jitters.  

Spenger directed a very credible Hedda Gabler last year for Actors Ensemble, and now Chekhov: They aren’t afraid of the most difficult modern classics. And with a surprising Barefoot in the Park, directed by Barkan with Carlson’s assistance, Actors Ensemble shows it can do the most sparkling entertainment as well. Rose Anne Raphael’s flexible set design and Helen Slomowitz’s usual excellence in costuming, on a shoestring budget no doubt, add to the can-do sense of Vanya and Actors Ensemble’s recent productions—another reason we’re lucky with our local community theaters. 

UNCLE VANYA 

Presented by Actors Ensemble at 8 p.m.  

Fridays and Saturdays through May 17 at  

Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Av. $10-$12.  

649-5999. UNCLE VANYA Tickets 

Guitarist John Schott will join poet Steve Dickison in an unusual “back and forth, call and response” poetry and music improvisation as part of this coming Monday At Moe’s reading series, 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books on Telegraph Ave. Admission is free. 

Poet Steve Farmer will also read. 

Owen Hill, who coordinates the reading series at Moe’s, explained how the show got put together after Dickison’s book Disposed (Post-Apollo Press) was published last year. The book earned him the Poet to Watch distinction from Independent Bookstores Awards, for which Hill was a reader. 

“It’s rare for him to publish,” Hill said. “He’s better known for being the director of the Poetry Center at San Francisco State and for his work with Small Press Distribution. He’s a regular customer at Moe’s, so it was easy to convince him to read. He chose Steve Farmer as co-reader, and I thought of John Schott playing as an interesting combination with Steve’s poems, which are jazzy. John’s playing is all over the map, but I think of him as a jazz guitarist. And I didn’t know they knew each other. So they’ve worked something out to perform together, besides a solo set each.” 

Dickison said he has known Schott since the days that Yoshi’s was open on Claremont, before the club moved to Jack London Square. 

“Going ’way back to the days Yoshi’s was on Claremont near College, when he and Ben Goldberg worked in tandem a lot, in bands like Junk Genius, which played a lot of Monk and other bop-inspired work with sidemen who’ve since moved to New York,” Dickson said. “And I miss the old Beanbenders series on Shattuck, that musician-run thing that was done really out of pocket. You knew every Sunday you could walk downtown to the old bank and hear really amazing music. John played there a lot.” 

Dickison went on: “When I got to know John better and went over to his house, I found he was a deep reader of poetry. At his ’Round Midnight concert recently—he called it a midrash!—he had a table out with books, not just about Monk, but also Alfred Lord on the oral tradition in epic poetry.” 

Schott and Dickison are both Berkeley residents, “right around the corner from each other. I’m on Blake, which really was named after William Blake, and John’s on Parker. I like to think it was named after Charlie Parker!” 

Dickison even took guitar lessons from Schott a few years back. “I found out John’s been reading my book, so suggested we trade off in the call-and-response tradition,” he said. “What he plays will dictate what I read, and so on.” 

Steve Farmer, who lives in the Danville area, has put out books of poetry that include Medieval (Krupskaya, 1999) and Coracle (1988).

If your house disappears from zillow.com, does that mean it no longer exists? Because that’s exactly what happened last month.  

My house became N/A. Not Applicable. I was pretty sure it was still there, given that I was living in it, but still, it gave me pause. For one thing, I had already watched its value drop precipitously from $1,025,000 to $644,000 inside of two weeks, sometime around the end of last year. But to disappear altogether, like the hundred plus years it’s been here mean nothing? That’s harsh. 

At first I thought maybe it had been removed from their algorithm because it’s an anomaly—there are few other 3800 square foot bunga-mansions in my Fruitvale neighborhood. But this week it suddenly reappeared, now sporting a value of $723,000. All is right with the world. 

For those who have not dabbled in the various forms of real estate porn, zillow.com is a website that will give you a value for your house, your neighbor’s house, your employer’s house, or any other house you have an address for.  

The number is pretty much meaningless, since the only way to really determine the value of your house is to sell it. A price agreed upon by a willing seller and a willing buyer (and these days, a willing lender) is the market value. Of course you could have an appraisal done, but an appraisal is essentially a well-educated guess, and also it’s not free, unlike Zillow. So Zillow is mostly for amusement purposes, although it vaguely shows price trends. 

The problem with Zillow here in the East Bay is that the housing stock varies greatly, unlike newer tract homes in the suburbs where lots of houses were built at the same time that are the same size, floor plan, etc. Nor does it allow much for upgrades that may have been done, or the fact that one house has been maintained and the other is falling apart.  

And like any computer program, it’s garbage in-garbage out, so if the data from public records isn’t up to date, it’s not really based in reality. Nor does it know the things that real estate agents and people in the neighborhood know—that this is the one good block on an otherwise questionable street, or that a huge condo project has just been approved that will cut off all privacy in a particular house’s backyard, or that a new neighborhood amenity is about to open. (All real estate ads in my neighborhood now seem to announce, “Close to Farmer Joe’s!”)  

Just to get an average, I tried a couple of other sites besides Zillow. At cyberhomes.com, my house was valued at $905,256. Makes it seem like it must be really accurate, that $256. Over at eppraisal.com, I got a range of prices, from $1,241,667 at the low end, $1,460,875 in the middle, and $1,679,902 at the top. This site actually gives you the addresses and values for the comps they used. That the comps were all in Crocker Highlands, Montclair, and Piedmont didn’t surprise me—my house, as I said, is an anomaly, hard to find comparables for. But all the comps were from eight months ago—things have changed rather a lot since then.  

Does any of this matter? Well, yes, to the extent that people accept Zillow’s figures as reflecting reality. Though I think most people take it all with a large grain of salt, some people whose Zillow values have dropped are up in arms, threatening to report them to the Better Business Bureau and such. Maybe I should go after them—after all, eppraisal says my house is worth $1.6 million.  

Jane Powell is available for restoration consulting at hsedressng@aol.com, because her house isn’t really worth $1.6 million and she still has to work. 

I’m sure there’s a reasonable rationale behind it but to a posyhugger, the stretch of road leading into Sunol-Ohlone Regional Park is an instrument of torture. All along the roadcut on your right, if you’re on time for it, you’ll see a fine display of paintbrush, the occasional blue dicks and bindweed, and the first flush of Calochortus albus, the subtly gorgeous white fairy-lantern, much of it conveniently near eye-level as you pass.  

All this is liberally interspersed with a stiff procession of “NO PARKING” and “NO STOPPING” signs. They haven’t thought to add “NO CREEPING” so you can take it slow. Hard to photograph, though.  

If the lanterns are blooming along the road they’ll also be blooming inside the park proper, fortunately. Less fortunately to those of us in our creaky years, you have to hike almost to Little Yosemite to see them. Then you have to hunker in the dust and burrs to get a close-up, unless it’s dry enough to stand in the roadside ditch where they grow on the hillside.  

On the way you can see an active red-shouldered hawks’ nest, singing house wrens, goldfinches, titmice, nuthatches, bluebirds, acorn and Nuttall’s woodpeckers, rufous-crowned sparrows, black-headed grosbeaks, ash-throated flycatchers, and if you’re lucky, a western screech-owl blinking at the sun from a sycamore hollow. 

Flowers? Paintbrush, Ithuriel’s spear, several lupines, violets, clematis, blazing star, blue dicks, fiddlenecks, yarrow, monkeyflower, mule ears, blue-eyed grass, gilia, lots of poppies, and of course that fairy lantern. And those magnificent oaks, bays, and sycamores. 

Better get there soon; grasses are ripening and browning already, and the season’s likely to be short this year. This weekend would be good, for the tag end of a nearby Earth Day party. 

When you exit 680 onto Calaveras Road, just past the intersection with the northbound offramp, there’s Lisa Arnold Nursery. Over the years that’s been wholesale and/or retail at irregular intervals. It’s retail now, and owner Lisa Arnold (surprise) says it’ll stay that way “if we do well this year.” 

She’s celebrating Earth Week with refreshments and 171 free gallon-size coast live oak seedlings, festivities centered on a clever arrangement of gallon-can plants in front of the office as a simple Western Hemisphere map.  

Part of the celebration is off-site: planting the first of 171 donated trees in front of Fremont’s John F. Kennedy High School on Tuesday April 22, official Earth Day. Arnold gave the school district a tree for every home run the A’s got in 2007.  

The nursery has reasonably-priced Japanese maples, seriously striking rhododendrons and azaleas, palms, tree ferns (inexpensive!), dogwoods, tropicals, flower and foliage color, and lots of trees. Rhodies include some with yellow or deep-claret flowers.  

New to me: a bright-yellow-leafed smoketree; a small single dahlia with dark maroon foliage and lemon-yellow blooms.  

You couldn’t ask for better conditioning than on that hot open lot, if you’re planting east of the hills or in full sun. It’s loud during rush hour, so grab your rock-n-roll earplugs. Worth it! 

Lisa Arnold Nursery Sales 

9950 Calaveras Road, Sunol 

(925) 862-9009 

Lisa Arnold Nurseries 

Spring/summer hours: 

Monday Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Sunday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

If you get to know anyone well enough, you’ll eventually find out which super-power they have. Most super-powers are fairly innocuous while a few are more apparent and seemingly heroic. My ex-girlfriend could find a parking place in front of coliseum Rock & Roll events. Right smack in front. Stunning. Clearly a super-power. Some people know just when to buy the 24 pack of toilet paper and never run out. For some, this is inconceivable. Some can find the screw they dropped in the grass, while I’ve been forced to leave many behind. Next time you pass some little balding guy on the street, remember, he has a super power. See if you can guess which one he has. It might be a doozy. 

My super power works some of the time, sort of like those TV cop-show psychics. I’m getting it. I’m getting it. I see a bolt, a wire. No, it’s gone cold. I’ve lost it. My super power is X-ray vision but, like I said, it’s very spotty. Too bad because I need it in my job and I really needed it the other day.  

As has often occurred, I was looking at a house wherein the basement had been fully finished out and there were big questions about the work that been done in the development of the space. 

With walls finished off and a fresh coat of paint on the surfaces, it gets very hard to say what’s behind the walls. One tries to peek as much as possible but, often, the views are scant and cryptic. As I’ve previously suggested, a set of photos, digital or otherwise, make all the difference. If you’re doing work of this sort (inaccessible once completed), please take a hundred pictures. Drawings and permits are also useful but they require acceptance of the notion that these are reflective of the what was actually done and this is, too often, not truly the case, even when city inspectors have signed the card. 

Let me tell you about what we didn’t know on this particular day:  

Basements are places where we often get our best views of plumbing, mechanical (gas piping and appliances), electrical wiring, structural elements and connections including the foundation and damage done by water and pests. I may spend half of an inspection in a basement, they (basements) being so rich in data. So it’s very frustrating when they’ve been occluded in this manner. This particular one also added the concern that comes of a below-ground space having been changed from a storage and utility space into a living space. 

Basements sometimes get damp or even a little wet and some get really wet when they’re well below ground level. For the lawn mower or the washing machine, this is probably not a big deal but this doesn’t work out so well for a bedroom or even a home office. The truth is (as they say on TV), your own result may vary. In short, it’s very hard to predict, but if X-ray vision is good for anything, it’s good for telling you where to look with your actual eyes. If you’re suspicious, you pull back the carpet, move the pile of storage and take a close look for whitish precipitates (efflorescence), stains and signs of that the bottoms of things were getting wet. The bottoms of furnaces get rusty and the bottoms of wooden crates will show stains that creep up from the bottom. Sometimes evidence is lean but you take what you’ve got. Sometimes you end up next door asking the neighbor if their basement gets wet. 

With electrical and plumbing, it can be very frustrating. You have to look at all the other parts of those system as well as those places where these systems display themselves in the basement in order to make good guesses. See if you can find other contemporary work (was it the same electrician?) and gauge its quality. Often, other parts of the house were remodeled at the same time and these other places can give valuable clues. Sometimes not. 

Basement remodels also present a very important set of conundra to those of us in seismically active areas. The way in which walls are bolted and braced between the foundation and the floor above are critical in how houses perform during earthquakes, and when basement get finished out, as I’ve described, these essential views are largely blocked from view. The X-ray views come in all cloudy and green. I grab my head like Kate Blanchet in The Gift. Nothing. But wait. Several small pieces of plywood bracing can be seen in the garage (same level) and the laundry room (opposite end). 

The manner of attachment, the thickness of plywood and their placement were, at least partially, visible. These small pieces of information provided critically important information as to the quality of the seismic reinforcement that had been done. Without more information and with so much unseen, we could not draw definitive conclusions but much could be said. We could not know, for example, whether there was enough decay in these “cripple walls” to affect the strength of these walls or whether the framing had been altered in ways that would result in localized failures. 

In an effort to capitalize on every square inch of possible living space, many of us have turned attics, basements, laundry rooms and garages into offices, dens and bedrooms. 

While this can be done well and in compliance with building standards (not that the codes are the end-all and be-all of sensible construction), it’s important to also think about some of what gets covered up. I’d rather see mistakes made in a place where access could be found for future repairs than in a basement where there is neither access nor the view (but for your X-ray vision) to know that something needs addressing. 

If you’re looking at houses, stop and ask yourself what a given space might have been used as or built for in the past (this is, of course, the real X-ray vision). If it is a basement, was this a space that has stayed bone dry? If it is an attic, was the floor framed for human habitation or is it too springy and weak? Is that back bedroom really a laundry room addition that’s sitting on a couple of pier blocks and destined to land in the side yard when the fault-line slips. Using your X-ray vision (deduction) you may be able to, at least, start asking relevant questions. You may end up feeling O.K. about the basement or the attic but you’ll be better off for having gone through this game of questioning. 

So if you’re shopping for houses remember to use your super-powers. But be careful and considerate. X-ray vision should not be used on people (unless you’re a doctor) and that thing where you set things on fire? Best not. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 25 

“Saying No to Torture” with Fr. Louie Vitale, at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Free, donations appreciated. Sponsored by Pace e Bene and Bay Area Religious Campaign Against Torture. 499-0537. 

“On Our Watch: The Urban Small Schools Symposium” Fri. and Sat. at EXCEL High School, 2607 Myrtle St., Oakland. For information see www.bayces.org 

Legacies of War and Center for Lao Studies Benefit performance of Refugee Nation and reception at 8 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568.  

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Margaret Conkey, Prof. of Anthropology, on “The Human Engagement with Art: Going Back to the Caves.” 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 524-7468.  

“The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker” with author Steven Greenhouse at noon at UC Berkeley Labor Center, 2521 Channing Way. 642-6371. 

“The Narrow Path” A film on the lifestyle of non-violence of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and Oscar Romero at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church Sacramento & Cedar. www.berkeleyfriendschurch.org  

“The Real Dirt on Farmer John” A film on Growing food in our neighborhoods at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar St at Bonita, a block east of MLK Jr Wy. Discussion follows. 540-1975 www.bfuu.org 

“Waiting to Inhale” A documentary on marijuana, medicine and the law at 6:30 p.m. at Wheeler Hall, UC Campus.  

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, APRIL 26 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “The Elmwood: or “I Ain’t Gona Work on Kelsey’s Farm No More” from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. For reservations call 848-0181. 

Berkeley Friends Church Annual Quaker Heritage Day “Quaker Testimonies in our Time Living the Quaker Question Now” from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Donation $15-$20. Reservations required. 524-4112. www.berkeleyfriendschurch.org 

Cerrito Creek Restoration Help Friends of Five Creeks on their resotation project, from 9 a.m. to noon at Creekside Park, south end of Santa Clara Ave., El Cerrito. Wear clothes that can get dirty, and shoes with good traction. BBQ for volunteers follows. 848-9358.  

Secret Garden Tour Benefit for the Park Day School, Oakland, on Sat. and Sun. For information call 653-6250. 

Vegetarian Cooking Class on Hearty Homestyle Italian from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $49 plus $5 materials fee. Wheelchair accessible. Regsisration required. 531-COOK. www.compassionatecooks.com  

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Native Plant Garden Tour “Meet the Designers” A self-guided tour of gardens in Oakland and Berkeley, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Cost is $30. To register see www.bringinbackthenatives.net 

Spanish Language CPR Training for Berkeley residents, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Berkeley Adult School auditorium, 1701 San Pablo Ave. Lunch and childcare will be provided. To register call 848-9092, ext. 314. 

International Family Fair with a variety of live entertainment, games and activities for children, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at New School of Berkeley, Bonita St. at Cedar. 548-9165. newschoolofberkeley.org 

Asian Food and Cultural Fair “Not an Asian Ghetto: More than Just Take Out” from noon to 3 p.m. on Telegraph Ave., between Channing and Durant. Sponsored by UC Berkeley Asian Pacific American Coalition and the Telegraph BID.  

UC Botanical Garden Spring Plant Sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Introduction to Homeopathy and Open House from 1 to 3 p.m. at Ohlone Herbal Center, 1654 University Ave. RSVP to health@homeopathy-academy.org  

Casino Royale Nite Benefit for Mercy Retirement & Care Center, with live music performed by Jazz 4U, food, raffle prizes, and games of chance, from 7 to 11 p.m. at St. Paschal’s Parish, 3700 Dorisa Ave., Oakland. Cost is $60. 534-8540, ext. 322 

Sparking Art with Soul: A Workshop for Arts Educators from noon to 4 p.m. at John F. Kennedy University Berkeley Campus, Berkeley Business Center, 2956 San Pablo Ave. Free, but registration required. www.jfku.edu 

Liturgical Praise Celebration in Dance at 3 p.m. at St. Paul AME Church, 2024 Ashby Ave. 848-2050.  

Ancestral DNA Testing Workshop from noon to 3 p.m. at the College of Alameda. Follow-up workshop to discuss results on May 17. Cost is $150. To register call 748-2352.  

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

SUNDAY, APRIL 27 

Berkeley City College Open House Noon to 5 p.m. at 2050 Center St., with games, tours, films, interactive workshops and more. 981-2852. www.berkeleycitycollege.edu  

People’s Park 39th Anniversary Celebration from noon to 6 p.m. with music and poetry, clowns and activities for children. 658-9178. 

“Berkeley and Military Recruiting: What is all the Fuss?” A town hall meeting at 4 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. info@codepink.org 

“Environmental Heroes: Past, Present, and Future” An afternoon fundraising cruise on the San Francisco Bay, from 2-6 p.m., departing from the Berkeley Marina. Benefit for Shorebird Nature Center. Tickets are $65 per person; $75 for one adult and one child; $100 for two adults. Sponsored by Berkeley Partners for Parks at www.bpfp.org 

Meadow Meander Hike Join a five-mile hike to see the flowers, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Inspiration Point, Tilden Park. Bring layers and lunch. 525-2233. 

Bay-Friendly Garden Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. throughout Alameda County. Tour is free, but registration is required. www.BayFriendly.org 

Native Plant Garden Tour Meet designer Gary Schneider on a self-guided tour of gardens in Berkeley, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost is $30. To register see www.bringinbackthenatives.net 

The Friends of Sausal Creek Plant Sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Joaquin Miller Native Plant Nursery, with a demonstration garden of local native plants and a propagation talk at noon. 928-6675. www.sausalcreek.org 

Berkeley Citizens Action Endorsement Meeting for candidates running for the 14th Assembly District and 9th Senate District. Also hear presentations on Props. 98 and 99. From 4 to 6 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, MLK and Hearst. 

El Cerrito Historical Society meets at 1 p.m. at the El Cerrito Senior Center, behind the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7507. www.elcerritowire.com/history 

“Boogie in the Books” meringue dance lessons with Gale Robinson followed by dancing, at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6241. 

Oakland Community for Imigrant Rights Meeting for businesses and community members to defend against criminalization at 3 p.m. at Cesar Chavez Educational Center, 2825 International Blvd., Oakland. 535-1909. 

“Organic Gardening 101” Learn basics to get started growing your own food, herbs and flowers, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Oakland. Cost is $20-$25 sliding scale. www.sparkybeegirl.com/iuh.html 

“Creating Your Ecological House” Learn about natural building materials, solar design and alternative construction methods, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $85. RSVP to 525-7610. 

Berkeley City Club Tour of the “Little Castle” designed by Julia Morgan at 1:15, 2:15 and 3:15 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. 883-9710. 

Paddle Demonstration Day at the San Pablo Reservoir, from 10 a.m. to noon for REI members, noon to 3 p.m. for all. Free. Children under 18 must be accompanied by a parent/legal guardian. For information see www.rei.com/paddle 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Class on safety inpsections at 10 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

4th Annual Circus for Arts in the Schools at 1 and 4 p.m. at Kofman Auditorium, 2200 Central Ave, Alameda. Tickets are $10-$15. 800-838-3006. www.circusforarts.org 

“The Internet and the Truth” with salon.com writer Farhad Manjoo, Wikipedia Foundation general counsel Mike Godwin, and blogger Zo Spencer at 4 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $15. Sponsored by Berkeley Cybersalon. www.sylviapaull.com 

“Women Philosophers: Nancy Cartwright” A lecture by H.D. Moe at 11 a.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712.  

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Sun. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “Experiments in Awareness: Going Deeper than Our Stories” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000. 

MONDAY, APRIL 28 

“Environmental Impact: The New Deal and Berkeley’s Environment” with Gray Brechin at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, central meeting room, 2090 Kittredge.  

Kensington Library Book Club meets to discuss “Blindness” by Jose Saramago at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group, for people 60 years and over, meets at 9:45 a.m. at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave, Albany. Cost is $3. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Dragonboating Year round classes at the Berkeley Marina, Dock M. Meets Mon, Wed., Thurs. at 6 p.m. Sat. at 10:30 a.m. www.dragonmax.org.  

TUESDAY, APRIL 29 

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

“Berkeley, A City of Firsts” Opening reception at 3 p.m. at Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

“The Meaning of Worship in Islam” with Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Ayoub, retired professor of Islamic studies and comparative religion at Temple University at 11:10 a.m. at Pacific School of Religion Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. 

“Living into Leadership” A lecture by author Buzz McCoy at 4:30 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. For information call 849-8253.  

CalPERS Retirement Planning Fair from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at California State University East Bay Oakland Center, 1000 Broadway, Oakland. 916-795-3991. 

“Fibromyalgia: Holistic Approach to Chronic Pain and Fatigue” at 7 p.m. at Piedmont Adult School, 800 Magnolia St. Cost is $23. Registration required. 594-2655.  

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 

Street Level Cycles Community Bike Program Come use our tools as well as receive help with performing repairs free of charge. Youth classes available. Tues., Thurs., and Sat. from 2 to 6 p.m. at at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.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. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

Sing-A-Long Group from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masoni Ave., Albany. 524-9122. 

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 

State Legislature Candidates Forum with candidates for the 14th Assembly District and 9th State Sentate District at 5:30 p.m. at Spengers Fresh Fish Grotto, 1919 Fourth St. Sponsored by the Berkeley, Emeryville and Richmond Chambers of Commerce. Cost is $10. Register on line at www.berkeleychamber.com 

“A History of Misunderstandings?” with Wen-hsin Yeh, Prof. of History, U.C. Berkeley in a keynote talk for the May 1 seminar on "A Beijing Olympics Primer: Place, Performance, and Performative Space" at 6 p.m. at 150 University Hall, UC Campus. Cost is $10. 642-2809. ieas.berkeley.edu 

“No End in Sight” A documentary on failed US policies, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

“Julia Robinson and Hilbert’s Tenth Problem” A film by George Csicsery at 7 p.m. at the Chan Shun Auditorium in Rm. 2050 Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Campus. 642-0143. www.msri.org  

“Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation” with Prof. Dale Martin, Yale Univ. at 6:30 p.m. at the Badé Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. For information call 849-8253.  

Small Business Loan Application Night Information from Lenders for Community Development which provides loans and business consulting to low-income business owners who cannot qualify for bank loans at 5:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 1-866-299-8173. www.L4CD.com 

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

Theraputic Recreation at the Berkeley Warm Pool, Wed. at 3:30 p.m. and Sat. at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley Warm Pool, 2245 Milvia St. Cost is $4-$5. Bring a towel. 632-9369. 

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 

Teen Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

Morning Meditation Every Mon., Wed., and Fri. at 7:45 a.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. 486-8700. 

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.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon., April 14, April 28, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900.  

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., April 28, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5158.

TUESDAY, APRIL 22 

CHILDREN 

First Stage Children’s Theatre “Inside/Outside Blues” at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $7, children under 12, $5.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Christina Gillis discusses her new “Writing on Stone: Scenes from a Maine Island Life” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com 

Garrett Caples on the poems of John Hoffman and Philip Lamantia at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Jen Sorensen discusses “ Slowpoke: One Nation, Oh My God!” book-length collection from the cartoonist at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tri Tip Trio 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.  

Matt Morrish with Beep at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

The Return of the Mo’Rockin Project at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200.  

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Diversity in Play” Paintings by Rita Sklar. Reception at 3 p.m. at Dimond Cafe, 3430 Fruitvale Ave., Oakland. www.ritasklar.com 

FILM 

“Daughters of the Dust” at 3 p.m. at “Society of the Spectacle” 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 

Bernard Maybeck: An Arts and Crafts Architect in California Lecture by Sissel Hamre Dagsland at 8 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. $15 at the door. 

Melanie Abrams reads from her debut novel, Playin” at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

College of Alameda Creative Writing Faculty, staff and studetns share their writings at noon at College of Alameda Library, first floor, L Building, 555 Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parkway, Alameda. 748-2213. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with Keynotes, exploring the interface between early and modern keyboard music at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

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

Ed Neff and Friends, bluegrass, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. www.lebateauivre.net 

Rebecca Riots, Melanie DeMore, Betsy Rose and Kelly Takunda-Orphan in a benefit concert for Code Pink at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$20. 849-2568. 

The Adrian Xavier Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Green films for Earth Day at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $5-$8, free before 9 p.m. 525-5054.  

La Verdad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa dance lessons at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Regina Pontillo, songs from the 20s, 30s, and 40s, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Mike Seeger at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz Project at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, APRIL 24 

EXHIBITIONS 

Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia Guided tour at 12:15 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Grandmothers Against the War Book Discussion at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library North Branch, 1170 The Alameda. 981-6250. 

June Jordan’s Poetry for the People featuring Francisco X. Alarcón at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ariana Reines and Angie Yuan read as part of The Holloway Series in Poetry at 6:30 p.m. in 315 Wheeler Hall, The Maude Fife Room UC Berkeley Campus. 642-3467. http://holloway.english.berkeley.edu  

James Howard Kunstler describes “World Made By Hand” at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak describe “Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Four Bitchin’ Babes: Saly Fingerett, Debi Smith, Nancy Moran & Dierdre Flint at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761.  

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

Tamra Engle at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Speak the Music, beatboxing performances, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Akousa Mireku, Ghanaian-American folk-singer, at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Mingus Big Band at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200.  

FRIDAY, APRIL 25 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Uncle Vanya” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., through May 17. Tickets are $10-$12.. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org  

Aurora Theatre “The Trojan Women” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through May 11. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822.  

Berkeley High School “Grease” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m., through May 3 at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, BHS Campus. Dance contest at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5-$15. hypedrama@aol.com 

California Conservatory Theatre “The Turn of the Screw” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at 999 East 14th St., San Leandro City Hall Complex, near BART, through April 27. Tickets are $20-$22. 632-8850. 

Contra Costa Cvic Theater “Foxfire” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave. at Moeser, El Cerrito, through May 11. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Masquers Playhouse “Tartuffe” Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., at 105 Park Place, Pt. Richmond, through April 26. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

“Refugee Nation” Stories of Laotian refugees and their descendants, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Shotgun Players “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” by George Bernard Shaw. Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m., through April 27, at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $17-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Theatre de la Jeune Lune “Figaro” through June 8 at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $13.50-$69. 647-2949. 

TheatreFirst “Future Me” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through May 3. Tickets are $23-$28. 436-5085. www.theatrefirst.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

El Cerrito Art Association Annual Art Show, featuring “How I See Emotion” and “Art from Scrap.” Reception at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Community Center at 7007 Moeser Lane, El Cerrito. Exhibition open Sat. from 1o a.m to 5 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  

Works by Lori-Marie Jenkins, assemblage, collage and sculpture. Opening reception st 7 p.m. at Eclectix Gallery, 7523 Farimount Ave, El Cerrito. www.eclectixgallery.com 

FILM 

“Mad Hot Ballroom” at 3:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Folowed by “Boogie in the Books” dance lessons in the library on Sun. April 27 from 4 to 6 p.m. 981-6241. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lynne Knight, Nina Lindsay, Murray Silverstein and Helen Wickes read their poems for National Poetry month at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Garrett Murphy and Steve Martinot read their poetry, followed by open mic at 7 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. www.expressionsgallery.org 

Steven Greenhouse describes “The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker” at noon at UC Berkeley Labor Center, 2521 Channing Way. 642-6371. 

Kevin Phillips describes “Bad Money: Wreckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way at Dana. Free. 559-9500.  

Bill Soto-Castellanos reads from “16th & Bryant: My Life and Education with the San Francisco Seals” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bay Area Classical Harmonies with Donne Di Mezze at 7:30 p.m. at The Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$18. 868-0695.  

Berkeley Dance Project 2008 Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$14. 642-8827. theater.berkeley.edu 

Ramblin Jack Elliott and Country Joe McDonald An evening of song, stories and more at 7:30 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $40. 843-0662. 

David Berkman New Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373.  

Daria & Her Trio with Frank Martin at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

The Uptones and a Shakin’ Dance Contest at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. 

The Cowlicks at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Tracy Grammer at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

DJ Fflood, rare vinyl remixes and mashups, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Pulling Teeth, Conquest for Death Circles at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $8. 525-9926. 

The P-PL at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Raya Nova, alt rock and latin, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 26 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Colibri, songs from Latin America at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5 for adults, $4 for children. 849-2568.  

Active Arts Theatre, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $14-$18. www.activeartstheatre.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“In the Midst of Things: Street Photography 1988 - 2008” Black and white photographs by Ilona Sturm. Opening reception at 5 p.m. at Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Exhibit runs through May 17. Gallery hours Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat. 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. 644-1400. 

THEATER 

San Leandro Players “Redwood Curtain” Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at San Leandro Museum Auditorium, Casa Peralta, 320 W. Estudillo Ave., through May 4. Tickets are $10-$15. 895-2573. www.sanleandroplayers.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

National Poetry Month Reading Celebrating the Bicentennial of the Birth of John Greenleaf Whittier, at 2 p.m. in the Poetry Garden, Berkeley Arts Magnet/Whittier School, Milvia and Lincoln. Open Mic follows, children and their poems especially welcome. 

2nd Annual Bay Area JazzPoetry Festival at 7 p.m. at Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $20. 848-3227. www.hillsideclub.org 

Poems Here and There, featuring readings by Jeff T. Johnson, Kaya Oakes, Claire Donato, Jesse Nathan, Jared Hawkley, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Jared Bernstein reads from “Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)” at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Sparking Art with Soul: A Workshop for Arts Educators from noon to 4 p.m. at John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley Business Center, 2956 San Pablo Ave. Free, but registration required. www.jfku.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chelle and Friends “The Queens of New Orleans” at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15, children under 12 free. 228-3218. 

Benefit Concert for AIDS/Lifecycle with GQ Wang, tenor, Gemini Soul, jazz quartet, members of Oakland Youth Orchestra and others at 7:30 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Donation $15-$25. 449-4402. 

Heidi Hau, piano, performs works of Debussy, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Cost is $8-$12. 549-3864.  

Korean-American Annual Cultural Show at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $5. 

Ramblin Jack Elliott and Country Joe McDonald An evening of song, stories and more at 7:30 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz. Tickets are $40. 843-0662. 

Kitka: Nostalgic Cafe Songs from Bosnia, Croatia and Beyond at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $18-$25. 444-0323. 

University Chorus at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-4864.  

Lady Bianca Blues Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Baba Ken & the Afro-Groove Connexion at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $10-$15. 525-5054. 

Duck Baker at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

“Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi in Three Cantos” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Zoe Ellis Group, jazz, blues, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Big Lion, folk-rock, at 9:45 p.m. at Beckett’s, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Moment’s Notice Improvised music, dance and theater at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 Eighth St. Tickets are $8-$15. 

Space Heater at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Guttermouth, United Defiance, Pour Habit at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Mingus Big Band at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200.  

SUNDAY, APRIL 27 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Berkeley, A City of Firsts” Exhibition opening from 3 to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Historical Society, Vterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St The exhibit runs to September 27. Regular hours are Thurs.-Sat. 1- 4 p.m. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Caroline Murphy reads from “Murder of a Medici Princess” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MATRIX/REDUX A conversation with Peter Doig and Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

“Pearls from the Sea: Music & Dance of Tahiti” Lecture and video at 3 p.m. at Expressions Gallery 2035 Ashby Ave. www.expressionsgallery.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Community Orchestra “The Mozart Requiem” at 4:30 p..m at St. Joseph The Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free, donations appreciated. 

California Bach Society Cantatas by Buxtehude and Bach at 4 p.m. atSt. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way, at Ellsworth. Tickets are $10-$25. 415-262-0272.  

Balkan Cabaret Sevdah Singing Workshop with Mary Sherhart from 3 to 5 p.m. at First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $20. 444-0323.  

Qui, Emerald Bay, hip-hop cypher for the whole family at 8 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cos tis $5.  

University Wind Ensemble at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Salvadora Galan, flamenco, at 7 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Dima Birich & Calvin Keys at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Tribute to Vibraphonist Cal Tjader at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Patty Larkin with Peter Mulvey at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

The Estranged, Spectres, Stiff Jeans at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, APRIL 28 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Subterranean Shakespeare Intensive staged reading of “Cymbeline” at 7:30 p.m. at The Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, Fireside Room, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Tickets are $5. 276-3871. 

Art, Technology and Culture Colloquium “The Medium is not the Message” with Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, at 7:30 p.m. at 160 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. 643-9565.  

Steven Farmer and Steve Dickison, poets, with music by John Schott, at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express “Favorite Poems Night” for National Poetry Month at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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: Johannes Brahms’ 175th Birthday Celebration at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $6.50-$7.50. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Cowboy Junkies at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $30 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

What the eye don’t see, the heart don’t grieve.” Foxfire, now onstage at Contra Costa Civic Theatre in El Cerrito, is about the grieving of a vernacular culture for what’s gone, whether it’s seen or not. 

Aunt Annie Nations (portrayed splendidly by Pat Parker) has lived on the farm at Stony Lonesome in the Appalachian country, Rabun County, Georgia, “since I got married.” It’s all she’s looked at in her no-nonsense manner for a long while. 

Her husband, Hector (another sterling performance by T. Louis Weltz, showing a man both diffident and occasionally ebullient), who inherited the farm from his father and worked it all his life, died five years before the curtain goes up, buried in the orchard offstage. But Annie still sees him, talks to him, listens to him and argues with his jealously framed scriptural quotations, all designed by this matter-of-fact phantom to keep her there, on the land, tending to him in death as well as life. 

The neighbors have been selling out, moving on—or into trailers with TVs. Nearby Ruby Ridge is all development. Prince Carpenter (wryly played by Joe Fitzgerald) shows up, a realtor, trying to buy the farm from Annie, who instead gets him to pop out the eyes in a sow’s head for cooking and gather apples in the orchard. 

Prince mistakes Dillard (Malcolm Rodgers in a dead-on portrayal of a simple man grown complicated), Annie’s musician son visiting with a sack of oranges, for a rival developer from Florida. Dillard, touring for his career, wants Annie to move in with him, away from the mountains, and help care for her grandchildren, but resents the intrusion of the hick realtor, turning farmland into tract homes. 

“What is troubling you, Dillard?” “Nothin’. Just livin’” Rodgers’ Dillard shows the glib smile from town and honkytonk that is covered over the deadpan of the hills. Yet there is a mournful twinge to his grin, the same catch heard in his songs. 

When his mother finally consents to see a show of his, her first, the pretty schoolmarm who accompanies her, Holly Burrell (Jennifer Antonacci), later tells Dillard she doesn’t like him so much as an entertainer, a professional hillbilly, dressed up “like an ice cream soda” and talking about his old neighbors so they sound like they are “out of L’il Abner.” She preferred his amateur style, “just your voice and guitar.” “It wouldn’t pay the rent,” Dillard dryly replies. 

On Eugene DeChristopher’s set, rough-hewn wood structures above fog-shrouded valleys and distant ridges, where a picnic table serves in memory as the site both of a birth and of laying out the dead, a great deal unfolds in scenes from the past and present.  

There are some particularly fine moments: Wendy Welch as the young Annie, ecstatically stepdancing, when Matt Davis’ young Hector comes to awkwardly ask her hand, after pocketing a red cob of corn at the shucking so he could kiss the prettiest girl; Holly as a student, recording the Nations family’s stories, being put on and charmed by Hector as Dillard listens, amused, later singing “Sweet-Talkin’ Man”; fine repartees between the living and the dead over duty and steadfastness, and equally fine soliloquies delivered straight to the audience, which amount to Hector’s show-within-a-show, revealing both his hard life and not-so-stern humor at times. 

And throughout, from before the lights go down to the curtain call, there’s lots of good, well-played, well-sung country music, written by Jonathan Holtzman for the original show, directed for CCCT by Alan Spector, and performed by Rodgers, Chuck Ervin on bass, Polly Frizzell and Tony Phillips on fiddle and George Martin on banjo, with a few airs sung rough by other members of the cast. 

Foxfire’s a good entertainment that never quite becomes either a play or cabaret, not that its value as entertainment is compromised. The different modes of presentation, all enjoyable in themselves, sprawl rather than coalesce. The character of Holly seems important at first, then fades away. And the part of ghostly Hector, obviously a vehicle for coauthor (with Susan Cooper) Hume Cronyn for a star turn, ends out of proportion with how it began. 

But director Mark LaRiviere gets a lot of juice from his cast of nine (including Roger Craig and Zak Filler), making the contradictions of a homecoming yet leavetaking play that both goes against and plays off the hillbilly stereotype seem natural enough, and regretfully over too soon. CCCT has a hit with this one, in which simple folk, who seem to have the consolation Hector enunciates: “Maybe we’re lucky—we got no choices,” find out they have a few simple, difficult choices to make, after all. 

FOXFIRE 

8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through May 11 at Contra Costa Civic Theatre 

951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. $11-$18.  

524-9132, www.ccct.org.

Last week’s column gave an overview of expansion plans by the University of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, including two huge new buildings in Strawberry Canyon: the Computation Research and Theoretical Facility (CRT) and the Helios Facility. A group called Save Strawberry Canyon is fighting the expansion for a whole litany of reasons: earthquake and fire risks; impacts on air and water quality and greenhouse gas emissions; damage to a significant cultural landscape; procedural flaws in the lab’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP); and, not least, endangered species issues. 

These folks could really use a web designer. If you’re interested, email Phila Rogers (philajane6@yahoo.com). 

UC concedes that the development sites are known or potential habitat for several protected or sensitive animals and plants. Some of these species get only a cursory mention in the LRDP, CRT and Helios EIRs. But UC has developed plans for dealing with the federally threatened Alameda whipsnake (Masticophis lateralis euryxanthus), the bane of East Bay developers. Whether those plans are anywhere near adequate is another question. 

My only encounter with a whipsnake took place in Briones Regional Park a few years ago. A ripple in the grass resolved from a black-and-yellow blur into a four-foot-long snake. It stopped and looked back at me, head raised like a cobra’s, neck weaving back and forth. It had large eyes for a snake, and a jet-black tongue that flickered in and out. Then it turned, and in an instant was gone in the nearby brush before I even thought to reach for my camera. 

Whipsnakes are active by day, waiting out the night in rodent burrows. When the morning sun has raised its body temperature to the optimum level, a whipsnake goes on the prowl, hunting by sight, not smell or thermal cues like many other snakes. Its primary quarry is the western fence lizard. If you’ve ever tried to catch a fence lizard, you can appreciate what the snake is up against; they’re fast and skilled in evasive maneuvers. But the whipsnake chases them down, pinning them and swallowing them alive and thrashing. It wastes no time on constriction. 

For a whipsnake, prime real estate has tall enough grass to conceal it from its own predators, patchy shrub cover to let the sun in, and rock outcroppings where lizards bask. Females also require grassland for egg-laying. This mosaic of microhabitats has become increasingly rare. Freeways and housing developments have fragmented the snake’s range, isolating remnant populations and obstructing gene flow among them. 

The Alameda whipsnake, found only in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Joaquin Counties, was state-listed in 1971 and federally listed in 1997. A suit by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Christians Caring for Creation forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FSW) to identify 400,000 acres as critical habitat. That was set aside after litigation by the Home Builder’s Association of Northern California, claiming the habitat criteria were too broad.  

FWS’s second critical habitat designation in 2005, under the aegis of Interior Department hatchetwoman Julie MacDonald, cut the protected area by over 62 percent. Last November CBD declared its intent to go back to court on this and other endangered-species determinations. See their website for details: www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/reptiles/Alameda_whipsnake. For now, critical habitat officially includes the eastern portion of the Lawrence Lab’s territory, although not the CRT or Helios sites.  

Surveys by contract biologist Karen Swaim have not detected Alameda whipsnakes in the portion of Strawberry Canyon targeted for the next round of development. However, both the CRT and Helios project sites were designated as “highly suitable potential habitat” for the snake. In the case of a creature that hibernates for a good part of the year and is very good at not being seen, the old adage “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” would seem to apply. 

According to the UC EIRs, any whipsnakes encountered during pre-construction site surveys would be dealt with in accordance with the Alameda Whipsnake Relocation Plan. Although this phrase has a reassuring solidity, there does not appear to be an actual plan, at least not in writing. 

UC also goes into detail about efforts to minimize incidental take (a semantic cousin of “collateral damage”) of the whipsnake, which would include hiring a Whipsnake Monitor for the construction sites, whipsnake awareness training for the crews, and building snakeproof fences once a site has been cleared.  

But the fate of individual snakes isn’t really the issue here. It’s how the CRT and Helios projects, and whatever follows them—the buildings, the parking lots, the roads, the vegetation management—would fragment existing habitat. Without connectivity between suitable patches, any Strawberry Canyon whipsnake population would be doomed to extirpation. 

Rumors that UC has retained Samuel L. Jackson as a consultant could not be confirmed. 

Next week: the harvestman paradox.

TUESDAY, APRIL 22 

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

“The Costs of War: The U.S. in Iraq” with Prof. Samera Esmeir, Porf. Ramon Grosfoguel, at 6 p.m. at 145 Dwinelle, UC Campus. costofwar@gmail.com 

“Texts We Wish Were Not In the Bible” with Aaron Brody, associate professor of Bible and archaeology and director of Badé Museum, at 11:10 a.m. at Pacific School of Religion Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. 

Berkeley High School Governance Council meets at 4:15 p.m. in the Comunity Theater Lobby, Berkeley High. 644-4803. 

Berkeley PC Users Group meets at 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St. MelDancing@aol.com 

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 

Street Level Cycles Community Bike Program Come use our tools as well as receive help with performing repairs free of charge. Youth classes available. Tues., Thurs., and Sat. from 2 to 6 p.m. at at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.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. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Teen Playreaders meets to read and discuss plays at 4:30 p.m. at Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue. 981-6121. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

Sing-A-Long Group from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave., Albany. 524-9122. 

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll look for signs of spring, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

“Waking from the California Dream: How Our History Affects Your Future” with Gray Brechin and Jan Spencer at 6:30 p.m. at Cocina Poblana, Jack London Square, Oakland. to register see www.EWcoNowUSA.org 

Berkeley Gray Panthers with Jim Soper of the Voting Rights Task Force on electronic voting and Julia Cato on Prop. 98 at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst, corner MLK. 

“The Art of Being Present” A lecture and demonstration with Denise Berezonsky at 7 p.m. at Three Stone Hearth, 1 Bolivar Drive at Addison. Threestoneheath.com 

“With God on Our Side” A documentary tracing the roots of the Christian Right movement at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

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. 

Theraputic Recreation at the Berkeley Warm Pool, Wed. at 3:30 p.m. and Sat. at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley Warm Pool, 2245 Milvia St. Cost is $4-$5. Bring a towel. 632-9369. 

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 

Teen Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

Morning Meditation Every Mon., Wed., and Fri. at 7:45 a.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. 486-8700. 

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, APRIL 24 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll look for signs of spring, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds. We will learn about plants from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m.. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Are Peace and Impeachment Possible? Strategies to end the war, stop war on Iran, save our constitution and economy with David Swanson of afterdowningstreet.org; Daniel Ellsberg; Cindy Sheehan; Medea Benjamin, and others at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $8-$10 at independent bookstores.  

“Grandmothers Against the War” book party at 6 p.m. at North Branch, Berkeley Public Library. 981-6250. 

“Darfur Now” documentary screening at 6 p.m. at VLSB 2050, UC Campus. For more information see www.Darfurnowtour.com 

“American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau” with Paul Hawken at 7:30 p.m. at 2121 Bonar St., Studio A. RSVP required. 540-4800. 

Creative Movement and Sign Language for ages 5-10 at 3:30 p.. at Elephant, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200.  

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

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

FRIDAY, APRIL 25 

“Saying No to Torture” with Fr. Louie Vitale, at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Free, donations appreciated. Sponsored by Pace e Bene and Bay Area Religious Campaign Against Torture. 499-0537. 

“On Our Watch: The Urban Small Schools Symposium” Fri. and Sat. at EXCEL High School, 2607 Myrtle St., Oakland. For information see www.bayces.org 

Legacies of War and Center for Lao Studies Benefit performance of Refugee Nation and reception at 8 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Margaret Conkey, Prof. of Anthropology, on “The Human Engagement with Art: Going Back to the Caves.” 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 524-7468.  

“The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker” with author Steven Greenhouse at noon at UC Berkeley Labor Center, 2521 Channing Way. 642-6371. 

“The Narrow Path” A film on the lifestyle of non-violence of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and Oscar Romero at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church Sacramento & Cedar. www.berkeleyfriendschurch.org  

“The Real Dirt on Farmer John” A film on Growing food in our neighborhoods at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar St at Bonita, a block east of MLK Jr Wy. Discussion follows. 540-1975 www.bfuu.org 

“Waiting to Inhale” A documentary on marijuana, medicine and the law at 6:30 p.m. at Wheeler Hall, UC Campus.  

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, APRIL 26 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “The Elmwood: or “I Ain’t Gona Work on Kelsey’s Farm No More” from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. For reservations call 848-0181. 

Berkeley Friends Church Annual Quaker Heritage Day “Quaker Testimonies in our Time Living the Quaker Question Now” from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Donation $15-$20. Reservations required. 524-4112. www.berkeleyfriendschurch.org 

Cerrito Creek Restoration Help Friends of Five Creeks on their resotation project, from 9 a.m. to noon at Creekside Park, south end of Santa Clara Ave., El Cerrito. Wear clothes that can get dirty, and shoes with good traction. BBQ for volunteers follows. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

Secret Garden Tour Benefit for the Park Day School, Oakland, on Sat. and Sun. For information call 653-6250. 

Vegetarian Cooking Class on Hearty Homestyle Italian from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $49 plus $5 materials fee. Wheelchair accessible. Regsisration required. 531-COOK. www.compassionatecooks.com  

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Native Plant Garden Tour “Meet the Designers” A self-guided tour of gardens in Oakland and Berkeley, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Cost is $30. To register see www.bringinbackthenatives.net 

International Family Fair with a variety of live entertainment, games and activities for children, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at New School of Berkeley, Bonita St. at Cedar. 548-9165. newschoolofberkeley.org 

Asian Food and Cultural Fair “Not an Asian Ghetto: More than Just Take Out” from noon to 3 p.m. on Telegraph Ave., between Channing and Durant. Sponsored by UC Berkeley Asian Pacific American Coalition and the Telegraph BID.  

UC Botanical Garden Spring Plant Sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Introduction to Homeopathy and Open House from 1 to 3 p.m. at Ohlone Herbal Center, 1654 University Ave. RSVP to health@homeopathy-academy.org  

Casino Royale Nite Benefit for Mercy Retirement & Care Center, with live music performed by Jazz 4U, food, raffle prizes, and games of chance, from 7 to 11 p.m. at St. Paschal’s Parish, 3700 Dorisa Ave., Oakland. Cost is $60. 534-8540, ext. 322 

Sparking Art with Soul: A Workshop for Arts Educators from noon to 4 p.m. at John F. Kennedy University Berkeley Campus, Berkeley Business Center, 2956 San Pablo Ave. Free, but registration required. www.jfku.edu 

Liturgical Praise Celebration in Dance at 3 p.m. at St. Paul AME Church, 2024 Ashby Ave. 848-2050.  

Ancestral DNA Testing Workshop from noon to 3 p.m. at the College of Alameda. Follow-up workshop to discuss results on May 17. Cost is $150. To register call 748-2352.  

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.  

SUNDAY, APRIL 27 

Berkeley City College Open House Noon to 5 p.m. at 2050 Center St., with games, tours, films, interactive workshops and more. 981-2852. www.berkeleycitycollege.edu  

People’s Park 39th Anniversary Celebration from noon to 6 p.m. with music and poetry, clowns and activities for children. 658-9178. 

“Berkeley and Military Recruiting: What is all the Fuss?” A town hall meeting at 4 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. info@codepink.org 

“Environmental Heroes: Past, Present, and Future” An afternoon fundraising cruise on the San Francisco Bay, from 2-6 p.m., departing from the Berkeley Marina. Benefit for Shorebird Nature Center. Tickets are $65 per person; $75 for one adult and one child; $100 for two adults. Sponsored by Berkeley Partners for Parks at www.bpfp.org 

Meadow Meander Hike Join a five-mile hike to see the flowers, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Inspiration Point, Tilden Park. Bring layers and lunch. 525-2233. 

Bay-Friendly Garden Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. throughout Alameda County. Tour is free, but registration is required. www.BayFriendly.org 

Native Plant Garden Tour Meet designer Gary Schneider on a self-guided tour of gardens in Berkeley, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost is $30. To register see www.bringinbackthenatives.net 

The Friends of Sausal Creek Plant Sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Joaquin Miller Native Plant Nursery, with a demonstration garden of local native plants and a propagation talk at noon. 928-6675. www.sausalcreek.org 

Berkeley Citizens Action Endorsement Meeting for candidates running for the 14th Assembly District and 9th Senate District. Also hear presentations on Props. 98 and 99. From 4 to 6 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, MLK and Hearst. 

El Cerrito Historical Society meets at 1 p.m. at the El Cerrito Senior Center, behind the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7507. www.elcerritowire.com/history 

“Boogie in the Books” meringue dance lessons with Gale Robinson followed by dancing, at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6241. 

Oakland Community for Imigrant Rights Meeting for businesses and community members to defend against criminalization at 3 p.m. at Cesar Chavez Educational Center, 2825 International Blvd., Oakland. 535-1909. 

“Organic Gardening 101” Learn basics to get started growing your own food, herbs and flowers, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Oakland. Cost is $20-$25 sliding scale. www.sparkybeegirl.com/iuh.html 

“Creating Your Ecological House” Learn about natural building materials, solar design and alternative construction methods, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $85. RSVP to 525-7610. 

Berkeley City Club Tour of the “Little Castle” designed by Julia Morgan at 1:15, 2:15 and 3:15 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. 883-9710. 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Class on safety inpsections at 10 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Paddle Demonstration Day at the San Pablo Reservoir, from 10 a.m. to noon for REI members, noon to 3 p.m. for all. Free. Children under 18 must be accompanied by a parent/legal guardian. For information see www.rei.com/paddle 

4th Annual Circus for Arts in the Schools at 1 and 4 p.m. at Kofman Auditorium, 2200 Central Ave, Alameda. Tickets are $10-$15. 800-838-3006. www.circusforarts.org 

“The Internet and the Truth” with salon.com writer Farhad Manjoo, Wikipedia Foundation general counsel Mike Godwin, and blogger Zo Spencer at 4 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $15. Sponsored by Berkeley Cybersalon. www.sylviapaull.com 

“Women Philosophers: Nancy Cartwright” A lecture by H.D. Moe at 11 a.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712.  

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Sun. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “Experiments in Awareness: Going Deeper than Our Stories” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000. 

MONDAY, APRIL 28 

“Environmental Impact: The New Deal and Berkeley’s Environment” with Gray Brechin at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, central meeting room, 2090 Kittredge.  

Kensington Library Book Club meets to discuss “Blindness” by Jose Saramago at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group, for people 60 years and over, meets at 9:45 a.m. at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave, Albany. Cost is $3. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. 548-0425. 

Dragonboating Year round classes at the Berkeley Marina, Dock M. Meets Mon, Wed., Thurs. at 6 p.m. Sat. at 10:30 a.m. www.dragonmax.org 

Free Boatbuilding Classes for Youth Mon.-Wed. from 3 to 7 p.m. at Berkeley Boathouse, 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Classes cover woodworking, boatbuilding, and boat repair. 644-2577.  

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., April 22, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900.  

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., April 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7533.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., April 23, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5434.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., April 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484. 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., April 23, at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.  

Mental Health Commission meets Thurs., April 24, at 6:30 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. 981-5213. 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., April 24, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. 981-7410.