Police Monday released the names of two suspects who were arrested Saturday after a fatal shooting in Berkeley that led to a vehicle pursuit and crash in Oakland that killed two bystanders.  

Anthony Price, a 24-year-old Oakland resident, and Stephon Anthony, a 22-year-old San Leandro resident, were arrested after the crash, Berkeley police spokesman Andrew Frankel said. Officers also recovered two assault weapons from their vehicle, according to Frankel. 

Two other suspects in the case remained outstanding as of this afternoon. 

The incident began shortly after 6:30 p.m. Saturday when a Berkeley police officer heard gunshots in the area of Allston Way and 10th Street in West Berkeley, police said. 

Officers responded and found a 25-year-old Berkeley man on Allston Way west of San Pablo Avenue. He had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. 

Frankel said investigators were not releasing his name this afternoon. 

As the officers were arriving, they saw a Cadillac occupied by four men fleeing the area. 

The officers pursued the Cadillac through Berkeley and into Oakland, where it crashed into a Mazda and a pedestrian at Aileen Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, police said. 

Both the pedestrian and the driver of the Mazda were killed. 

The driver of the Mazda has been identified as 27-year-old Brentwood resident Todd Perea, Frankel said. 

Police were not releasing the name of the pedestrian because the victim’s family has not yet been notified, Frankel said. 

After the crash, police arrested Price and Anthony, but the other two suspects managed to flee the area on foot. 

Berkeley and Oakland police searched the area using a helicopter and police dogs into the early morning hours, but didn’t find the two outstanding suspects.  

Frankel said they should both be considered armed and dangerous, but police were not releasing any description of them this afternoon. 

Frankel said the officers had followed protocol in the pursuit and were chasing suspects who were involved in a violent crime involving great bodily injury. 

“The pursuit was very much by the book,” Frankel said.

With a heavy majority of the Bay Area Rapid Transit directors now on record in favor of moving forward with its $550 million Oakland Airport Connector (OAC), proponents of an alternative rapid bus route are shifting their fight to a critical funding source for the proposed project: the Port of Oakland. 

The Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners is tentatively scheduled to take up consideration of $44 million in funding for the OAC when the board meets in June. The Port of Oakland operates the Oakland Airport. 

BART is seeking to run an elevated railway the 3.2 miles between the system’s Coliseum Station and the Oakland Airport, hoping to increase the number of riders who use the transit system to get to the airport. The proposed OAC would not be an extension of the existing BART line, such as the connection of the Daly City line to the San Francisco Airport, but would involve driverless elevated rail cars that BART riders would board from a separate station immediately adjacent to the existing Coliseum Station. 

At the board’s May 14 meeting, BART directors voted 7-1 (Joel Keller, Bob Franklin, Carole Ward Allen, John McPartland, Thomas Blalock, Lynette Sweet, James Fang yes, Tom Radulovich no, Gail Murray absent) to approve moving forward with the final financial piece of the proposed project, an application for not more than $150 million in low-interest loans through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program. 

The BART TIFIA vote does not mean a final go-ahead for the airport connector project, which BART is hoping to put out for bid in June. Higher-than-expected contractor bids or other financial variables—including the failure of the Port of Oakland to approve its $44 million share of the cost—could make the project financially untenable for the transit district and could cause it to turn to a less costly alternative. 

District 4 BART Director Carole Ward Allen, who represents the Coliseum Station area on the board and has been the board’s chief supporter of the airport connector, told board members at last week’s meeting that the OAC has had “lots of controversy” and “no doubt it’s a project that people can find many things wrong with, if you want to go there.” But Ward Allen said that she had been working on aspects of the connector for 30 years, many of them as a Port of Oakland Commissioner, and that “this is the first time we’ve been able to line up the port, the city (of Oakland), and BART going down the same track on this particular project. The project will look at ‘Buy America,’ and it will give an opportunity for young people from Oakland to work. I think it’s a solid project. Are we taking a chance? Yes. But it does provide a stimulus package, and that’s what the stimulus money is for, to get people back to work. I’m for what President Obama is for. You’ve got to spend some money to make some money.” 

Ward Allen said the project would particularly help minority and women contractors. 

But Marcia Lovelace, a member of Genesis, the faith-based social justice organizing network that is part of the coalition opposing OAC, said that the project was an example of what she called “institutional racism” that favored public transit systems that have predominantly white suburban riders over systems that have predominantly minority riders. “When you are talking about taking away some of the first money we’ve had [in years] from buses for people who can’t get to school, can’t get to the doctor, can’t get to work, [just] to make it more convenient for someone to get to an airport, that’s racism.” 

Last month, the BART board approved the receipt of $70 million in federal recovery act money for the airport connector project through the Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC), and another $50 million from MTC reassigned from BART’s Transbay Tube Seismic Retrofit Project. MTC had earlier approved assigning the recovery act money to BART over objections by some transit advocates that the money go instead to the ailing AC Transit and other local bus agencies. 

OAC would replace the AirBART vans that currently run between the Coliseum Station and the Oakland Airport along Hegenberger Avenue. Instead of the overhead rail OAC, a coalition of Bay Area transit advocates want BART to create a dedicated rapid bus shuttle running along the same route as AirBART, but using traffic signal coordination technologies and line-jumping that would allow the rapid bus to run considerably faster than AirBART. 

The transit advocates, who have been joined by unions representing BART workers, say that their rapid bus shuttle proposal would run almost as fast as reliably as the proposed airport connector rail line, at a fraction of the cost. 

The dual proposals have split the Bay Area labor committee down the middle, with members of the building trades unions supporting the airport construction and the jobs it would bring to construction workers and members of the transit unions and the Service Employees International Union in opposition. 

Three people are dead and a fourth in police custody after a violent Saturday night that began with a murder in Berkeley and ended with a collision in Oakland that killed a motorist and a pedestrian. 

The homicide in Berkeley triggered a police chase of the suspect's Cadillac around 6:40 p.m., Oakland police spokesman Jeff Thomason said today. 

Police followed the Cadillac into Oakland and were tailing the speeding car east on Aileen Street when the Cadillac failed to stop at a stop sign at Martin Luther King Jr. Way, according to Thomason. 

The Cadillac collided with a Mazda traveling south on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The Mazda was forced east across the street and into a pedestrian on the sidewalk in the 5600 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Thomason said. 

The Mazda then crashed into a building at 5640 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

The driver of the Mazda, a 26-year-old Sunnyvale man, was pronounced dead at the scene, Thomason said. 

The pedestrian, a 41-year-old Berkeley man, died at a local hospital. 

Meanwhile, the force of the collision with the Mazda sent the Cadillac into a Lexus traveling north on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Thomason said. 

The driver and passengers of the Lexus were transported to a local hospital with minor injuries. 

The driver of the Cadillac, a 22-year-old San Leandro resident, was apprehended by Berkeley police officers, Thomason said. 

All three deaths are being treated as homicides, according to police sources.

  There were many celebrities at the Berkeley Public Education Foundation’s “Seeding The Vision” spring luncheon Friday, but the real stars of the evening were less conspicuous. 

They were ordinary people—the teachers, administrators, volunteers and community members who make a difference in the lives of Berkeley’s children every day. 

The Berkeley Public Education Foundation (BPEF), now in its 26th year, honored three individuals and a cooperative whose hard work and compassion reflect the spirit of the 2020 Vision, a citywide initiative to close the achievement gap by taking the effort beyond the campus and into the community. 

The luncheon was held at Hs Lordships Restaurant on the Berkeley Marina. 

Among the honorees was Karen Meryash, founder and coordinator of Willard Elementary School’s Mathworks tutoring program, which pairs struggling middle-schoolers with Berkeley High students for tutoring and mentoring. 

An active parent volunteer who often dons bumble bee costumes to support important causes, Meryash’s background in biology inspired her to write grants for a science lab at her daughter's school, Emerson Elementary, in the mid-1990s. Meryash later became a teacher at Emerson. 

North Berkeley's Cheese Board Collective, which has donated food, funds and services to Berkeley classrooms since it opened in 1967, was named BPEF’s “distinguished partner,” receiving a standing ovation for its years of service and generosity to the community. 

The “distinguished educator” title went to Cheryl Chinn, principal at Malcolm X Elementary, and Berkeley High English teacher Susannah Bell. 

Bell spoke passionately about the success of her augmentation class, which prepares students for the Advanced Placement exam, while Chinn shared memories of triumphs and challenges at Malcolm X, including the recent swine flu scare, which shut the school down for two days. 

BPEF Executive Director Molly Fraker acknowledged in her welcome address that while the impact of their work could not “gloss over a broader persistence of troubling disparities in achievement,” it demonstrated creative ways of moving forward. 

In his speech, Berkeley Unified Superintendent Bill Huyett referred to a recent report which cites the district as having the largest achievement gap among all school districts in California. 

The report, prepared by San Francisco-based School Wise Press, took data from API scores reported by schools to the state Department of Education in November 2007 and calculated gaps between the highest and lowest APIs for ethnic groups alone. 

School districts in the Bay Area account for 17 of the 20 districts with the largest API gaps, the report said, explaining that this could be a reflection of the large gaps in household income typical of the region. 

Oakland Unified showed the third-highest achievement gap (280), San Francisco Unified was seventh (268), and Fremont Unified came in at number eight (265). Berkeley High’s API ethnicity gap topped the list at 286. 

“The difference between our highest-achieving students and lowest-achieving students is more than [those of] thousands of school districts in California,” Huyett said. “That’s why I came to Berkeley Unified School District. The achievement gap is due to the great diversity we have in our school district. It doesn’t mean we don’t work hard, it means we have a lot of challenges. We have to address the needs of all students, and the city needs to get involved.” 

Huyett said the district had come up with a five-point plan, which includes ways to improve curriculum development, parent involvement and student performance in pre-school, explaining that the acheivement gap is present even before kids reach kindergarten. 

“It’s a little embarrassing being number one,” Board Vice President Karen Hemphill told the Daily Planet. “The good news is we have a community that has made bridging the gap our number one priority.” 

Hemphill said that it was disturbing that on average the district’s black and Latino students were getting almost 300 points less than their white peers, who receive an API score of around 900. 

“It’s a class issue as much as anything else,” she said. “We have very well educated, affluent households sitting with less-educated, poor families. If you have a school district that is homogenous in terms of affluence, then there is less of a gap.” 

At a Berkeley Board of Education meeting last month, boardmembers approved an 18-month plan, as part of the five-point strategy, to help close the achievement gap for the current school year and the next, calling on 2020 Vision's citywide equity task force to establish long-range goals. 

Highlights of the plan include creating and implementing a comprehensive curriculum for pre-school through 12th grade; instruction and assessment which will embrace district-wide math assessments; increased support for English language learners; and intervention programs for students facing multiple suspensions or expulsions. Board Director John Selawsky called for a truancy policy in the district to address students who willfully cut school and sometimes commit daytime street crimes 

There are also plans to involve parents; hire and retain minority teachers; and conduct focus groups with African-American and Latino teachers to get an idea of what is lacking in the district. 

Hemphill said the district should look at creative ways to complete graduation requirements, calling the current approach “punitive.” 

For more information on the School Wise Press achievement gap report, click here. 

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered a ban on two controversial sprays used to battle the light brown apple moth (LBAM), ending a lawsuit filed by attorney Stephan Volker on behalf of environmental activists and the mayors of Albany and Richmond. 

A judicial order filed Wednesday, May 13, in U.S. District Court in Oakland ends the suit filed by the mayors, the North Coast Rivers Alliance and a group of citizens against the EPA and former agency administrator Steven L. Johnson. 

The lawsuit alleged that CheckMate LBAM-F caused “widespread, physical harm to infants, children, the elderly, and the chemically sensitive, as well as to seabirds, upland birds and other wild and domestic animals” during a three-month spraying program in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties in 2007. 

The local mayors became involved after the state Department of Food and Agricultural and the federal Department of Agriculture announced a plan to begin a similar spraying campaign in Alameda County. 

Among the plaintiffs were Air Force Major Timothy Wilcox and his then-infant son Jack, whom the suit alleged suffered severe, permanent injuries from exposure to CheckMate ORLF, a companion spray.  

Plaintiff Krista Marie Alongi Aron charged that her then-9-year-old daughter and co-plaintiff Nora Aron suffered acute, long-term respiratory injuries from exposure to LBAM-F. 

Other plaintiffs came from Marin, San Mateo, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. 

The Albany City Council passed a resolution opposing the spraying in January 2008, shortly after the joint state and federal Bay Area spraying campaign was announced. Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, a Green Party activist, also joined the lawsuit. 

Further complicating the issues raised by the introduction of a new spray into the state was the hefty weight of political contributions. 

Stewart and Lynda Resnick, a Los Angeles couple, had made a $144,600 donation to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign. They co-chair Roll International, a Los Angeles holding company with subsidiaries that include Paramount Agribusiness, Fiji Water, and Suterra Inc., the Oregon company that manufactures the pesticides. 

The chemical hadn’t been tested on humans, nor formally registered with the EPA, despite a $75 million federal grant for the spraying program, including a $497,500 contract for a private-sector public relations firm to sell the public on the safety of the sprays. 

Several scientists had also questioned the need for a wide-scale spraying program, contending that the pest was restricted by temperature and humidity factors to a very small range, an area much smaller than that targeted by spray advocates. 

The plaintiffs won a major victory when Lois Rossi, director of the EPA’s pesticide registration division, issued orders on April 16, revoking the emergency exemptions granted the two compounds on the grounds that an already-registered pesticide was available. 

Berkeley Unified School District sent pink slips to 10 classified employees Thursday, May 14, informing clerks, custodians and bus drivers that they would be losing their jobs at the end of the school year.  

The Berkeley Board of Education approved the layoffs at a public meeting the previous night, where more than a dozen members of the Berkeley Council of Classified Employees (BCCE) showed up to protest. 

Berkeley Unified is required by law to send layoff notices 45 days before the employees’ last day of work in the district. 

The reductions were in addition to 62 layoff notices mailed out to classified staff last month in light of state education budget cuts.  

More state budget cuts may be on the way. On May 14, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed slashing $800 million and $1.4 billion in the final month of the current school year and an additional $1.6 to $4.2 billion in 2009-10 to balance the state’s $15.4 billion budget deficit for the new fiscal year that starts July 1. This would be in addition to the more than $11 billion dollars cut from the education budget in February. 

Some BCCE members said they were concerned that layoff notices were not being given out properly. 

BCCE President Paula Phillips told the Planet after the meeting that the district was not keeping the seniority of employees in mind while laying them off, which she said was a violation of the state education code.  

“The employee who was hired in 2006 got a layoff notice,” she said. “But there were three employees hired in 2009, and one of them didn’t get a layoff notice. A bunch of them were hired in 2008 and they didn’t get layoff notices either. They say it’s based on cuts to site funds, but it’s not.”  

District Superintendent Bill Huyett told the Planet that he was aware of the union’s concerns. 

“I know about them, but the district uses the layoff list according to law,” he said. “There are lots of different classifications, so you go further up the seniority list than you would according to the classifications. There is a difference of opinion between the district and the union.” 

Some classified staff from the Berkeley Adult School were present at Wednesday’s meeting. The Adult School is facing a million-dollar shortfall in the new school year, forcing the district to cut back on some of its services. At least 11 classified employees have had their work hours reduced and two have been laid off completely, Phillips said. 

Ann Butts will be laid off in June after eight years helping Berkeley Adult School students with retraining and job placement. 

“In 2009, my employment with the Berkeley Unified School District will end,” Butts told the board. “Although I have eight years of experience, my job no longer has any value to my district. ... My problem is I am not being given any more choices. I think I deserve more respect. I think the Berkeley Adult School deserves more respect. It’s a great institution, and I wish it would get more support from the district and the community.” 

BCCE members make up 57 percent of the most recent layoffs, Phillips said, reminding the board that the district would be unable to function without the hard work and dedication of classified employees. 

“We want to be part of the planning process to help reduce the layoffs, and not a solution,” she said.” 

Huyett said the layoffs were a difficult decision for the administration and the board, and he hopes to rescind as many of the pink slips as possible. 

“I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart, I feel very badly about it,” he said. “These are difficult budget times. Classified staff does wonderful work and we need more, not less. But we are being pressured by low budgets not only in this district but all over California.” 

Huyett said that although the federal government had released some stimulus funds to the schools, he wasn’t sure the money would be enough to bring back laid-off workers. 

“We need to push the government to not make further cuts in education,” he said. ‘If [the governor] doesn’t make more cuts, we can rescind these layoffs.” 

Berkeley Unified is facing a $4.9 million budget shortfall in 2009-10. 

The district sent out 129 layoff notices to teachers in March, but was able to rescind most of them, bringing that number down to 25. 

Berkeley teachers may have come to terms with the school district over their 2008-09 and 2009-10 contracts. 

After months of deliberation with Berkeley Unified School District officials, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) struck a tentative deal Wednesday, May 13, which gives teachers a 1 percent pay increase for the current academic year, but leaves them without any raise for 2009-10.  

The contract will maintain current class sizes, improve maternity leave, and support National Board Certification, professional development for substitute teachers, and parent-teacher conferences in pre-school. 

Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Cathy Campbell said that while she was relieved that both parties had reached an agreement, teachers will “continue to bear the entire burden of the increase in health benefit programs.” 

District Superintendent Bill Huyett declined to comment on the agreement as it has not yet been approved by the union and the Berkeley Board of Education. 

BFT members will begin voting on the contract May 21. 

“The district’s agreement represents some significant gains for teachers’ living and working conditions,” Campbell said. “It has not been ratified yet, but it represents a significant gain. It is a realistic contract and reflects the times we live in.” 

Campbell said the fact that the agreement was reached more quickly than in the last round of negotiations, when the services of a state mediator were required, demonstrates improvement in labor relations with the school district. 

“Hopefully these improvements will lay the groundwork for successful future negotiations,” she said. 

Campbell said the contract is short-term and that union representatives would be negotiating a “successor agreement” for 2010-11 sometime around March of next year. 

Campbell said union members were disappointed that none of the contracts continued the revenue-sharing formula, which increases teacher salaries in accordance with the district’s revenue. She said the arrangement had been successful in the past. 

“A revenue-sharing formula is excellent for labor relations,” she said, but the union understood such an arrangement was not possible in the current economic climate. “We hope it will return in the next contract.”

State schools chief Jack O’Connell released the 2007-08 dropout and graduation rate report Tuesday, May 12, calling for comprehensive reform to address the large number of California students leaving high school before getting a diploma. 

Berkeley Unified School District’s dropout rate was significantly lower than both the county and the state dropout rates, but rates for the city’s minority students were still high. 

The report shows that 68.3 percent of public school students in California graduated in 2007-08, a slight increase from the 67.7 percent reported for 2006-07. The high school dropout rate declined from 21.1 percent to 20.1 percent for the same period. The remaining 11.8 percent of students in this year’s figures include those getting General Education De-grees outside the school setting, fifth-year seniors, those completing special education programs without graduating, and students who died.  

O’Connell told reporters at a press teleconference Tuesday that the data showed alarmingly high dropout rates among African American and Hispanic students. 

“There are long-term economic repercussions from not graduating, for the student, for their communities, and for our statewide economy,” O’Connell said. “These data provide even more evidence of the challenge and the moral imperative of closing the achievement gap, as well as increasing graduation rates among all students.” 

In 2007-08, 34.7 percent of the state’s African Americans dropped out of school compared with 35.8 percent the previous year—a 1.1 percent improvement that O’Connell characterized as “slightly encouraging.”  

He attributed the high dropout rates for African Americans—which he said included immigrant students from Africa—to the achievement gap, asking the state for more funds for qualified teachers and additional resources. 

“We need to build bridges to colleges and community colleges,” he said. “It’s no longer acceptable to say that some students are falling through the cracks.” 

The state Department of Education will start reporting middle school dropout rates from next year, O’Connell said, to help the public understand that dropouts are not only a high school problem. 

In 2007-08, 25.5 percent of Latino students quit school compared with 26.7 percent in 2006-07. Dropout rates for Asians declined from 9 to 8.4 percent while rates for white students declined from 13.3 percent to 12.2 percent. 

O’Connell said students were not dropping out because of stress over the California High School Exit Exam, which all students need to pass in order to obtain a high school diploma. The number of students citing the exam as a factor, he said, “was insignificant.” 

The Berkeley Unified School District’s overall dropout rate was 14.2 percent, lower than Alameda County (17.2 percent) and the state (20.1 percent). This includes students at Berkeley High and from a non-public, nonsectarian school that serves special education students, but does not include students at Berkeley Technology Academy, the public continuation school. 

The dropout rate for Berkeley High School for grades 9 through 12 was 11.1 percent, with a 2.8 percent “one-year dropout rate” for 2007-2008, both of which are lower than the state and county rates. The one-year rate is derived by adding up dropouts in all grades and dividing the sum by the total number of students enrolled. 

Berkeley Technology Academy did not receive its own separate four-year dropout rate calculation, which B-Tech Principal Victor Diaz attributed to the absence of a ninth grade in the continuation school. 

However, a 25.4 percent one-year dropout rate is listed for B-Tech—higher than the county (4.5 percent) and state (5.3 percent) rates and than Berkeley High’s rate—since no ninth grade data is required to calculate it. 

Fifty-three percent of Latino students and 19 percent of African Americans dropped out of B-Tech last year. Diaz acknowledged that the school was having a really difficult time retaining Latino students, especially boys.  

“We as a district are just coming up with materials that are bilingual,” he said. “The school governance council is just trying to reach out to bilingual families. We have had a lot of difficulty trying to hire bilingual staff who will work with the kids and their families. A lot of Latino students also need support outside school.” 

The school, which has about 160 students and an attendance rate of 77 to 80 percent, currently has only one Latino teacher. 

Berkeley High shows a graduation rate of 83 percent for 2007-08, higher than both the county (82.6 percent) and the state (79.7 percent) rates, while B-Tech’s graduation rate is 54.2 percent.  

“We are graduating more kids in terms of numbers every year,” Diaz said. But the fact that students often transfer from Berkeley High to B-Tech in April or May, at the end of the school year, affects the school’s statistics, he said. 

“If they don’t graduate, their non-graduation ends up in my book, even though they have been with Berkeley High for 3.8 years,” said Diaz. “Some people expect them to make up credits in those few months, but that is not always the case.” 

Diaz stressed that B-Tech’s goal was to get students to “some destination” after continuation school, but that it may not always be in the form of a high school diploma. 

This is the second year the state education department has collected and reported dropout rates based on individual student identification numbers, which state educators said increases accountability for districts to find students who stop coming to school. These numbers are used to track the students through their entire school career. 

After collecting two more years of student exit data, the state Department of Education will have four years of data for each individual student, which will produce more accurate student graduation and dropout rates at the school level. 

“The time has come for a national student identifier, which will help us to transfer records more quickly,” O’Connell said. 

For more information on school dropout and graduation rates, see dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest.

With Berkeley City Manager Phil Kamlarz saying that the city’s proposed fiscal year 2010 budget “is balanced and it looks pretty good,” Kamlarz’ office is already making preparations for what he calls “major problems” that are looming two years down the road. 

“That third year (fiscal year 2012) is hanging out there,” Berkeley Budget Manager Traci Veseley told the City Council last week as city staff gave the council its first look at the city’s proposed biennial budget for 2010 and 2011. “We’re going to have significant cost increases in 2012 that we need to recognize and prepare for now.” 

Kamlarz is projecting a $9.6 million city budget deficit in fiscal year 2012 alone, $.24 million more than he is projecting for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 combined. 

Fiscal year 2010 begins July 1 of this year and runs through June 30 of 2010. 

With revenues stagnating during the national economic recession, Kamlarz has submitted a General Fund proposed operating budget of $141.8 million in fiscal year 2010 and $144.1 million in fiscal year 2011 (up from $138 million in the current fiscal year) that closes a $9.36 million structural budget deficit over the next two years. Kamlarz proposes to balance the budget with $2.09 million in spending cuts over each of the next two fiscal years, an additional $1.53 million in spending cuts in fiscal year 2011, and some $2 million per year in revenue additions, the bulk of them coming from an across-the-board increase in city parking fine rates. 

In his cost-cutting strategies, Kamlarz has promised “no cuts to public safety front-line services, no cuts to community-based organization funding, [and] no cuts to youth services.” 

“Things [with the local, state and national economic situations] are changing by the day,” Kamlarz told councilmembers last week, “but we have cautious optimism [for Berkeley’s budget situation].” Kamlarz said that in his proposed two-year budget “we are projecting that the economy stabilizes for 2010, our [real estate] transfer tax revenue rebounds, our sales tax doesn’t decrease, and we have a modest growth in property tax revenue.” 

The city manager added that “some of the budget policies that the council has adopted have put us in fairly good stead for the upcoming proposed budget, especially as compared to some of our neighbor cities.” 

Although Kamlarz did not specify, it was clear that he was talking about neighboring Oakland, which is struggling to close an $83 million budget gap in the upcoming fiscal year. 

One of the adopted council budget policies Kamlarz specifically mentioned in his written budget message was a city hiring freeze implemented near the beginning of the 2009 fiscal year. Kamlarz said that the hiring freeze will continue through fiscal year 2011 at least. 

Even with the hiring freeze in place, however, Kamlarz is proposing the bulk of the expenditure cuts coming from the elimination of 32 vacant city staff positions and 34 filled staff positions over the next two years. In his budget message to the council, Kamlarz said that staff members in the 13 eliminated positions in 2010 “will be placed in available vacant positions so that no individual loses their job.” With 20 filled staff positions projected to be eliminated in fiscal year 2011, however, the city manager’s budget message didn’t promise that some current staff members wouldn’t lose Berkeley city employment that year. 

But while Kamlarz is confident that the city can close the fiscal year 2010 and 2011 budget deficits with relatively little pain, he calls the situation of fiscal year 2012 and beyond “an uncertain future.” “State budget actions and the depressed economy may worsen the biennial budget picture [in those years]”, Kamlarz wrote in his budget message. 

The big problem will be in city contributions to its employees’ retirement, made through the California Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). With the PERS investment portfolio tanking in the stock market collapse, city officials already know that city retirement expenses will rise beginning in fiscal year 2012. Staff is currently penciling in a $3 million per year General Fund cost increase by that year, while the actuary hired by the city is already forecasting that the yearly costs could be higher. With the city’s PERS costs taking a small but temporary drop in the current fiscal year—it takes several years for the PERS investment losses to show up in city costs—Kamlarz is recommending keeping the city PERS set-asides at its higher fiscal year 2009 level in order to build up a cushion for the hit the city will take two years from now.  

The council has scheduled two public hearings on the two-year budget during its regular meeting agenda for May 19 and again on June 9, with two community meetings currently scheduled for May 26 at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church on College Avenue and June 1 at 7 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church on the Alameda. Council adoption of the two-year budget is currently scheduled for the council’s regular June 23 meeting. 

Berkeley’s Board of Education voted unanimously April 29 to ask the school district to review classroom capacities and attendance zones to address overcrowded elementary schools. 

Although the Berkeley Unified School District’s student assignment plan has had minor adjustments and the number of schools has changed since the board approved the three elementary school zones—north, central and south—in 1994, their geographic boundaries have remained the same. 

District Director of Facilities Lew Jones stressed that the north zone, especially, could not accommodate any more students. 

“We are very pinched in that zone,” he said. “We would like the board to formally ask us to review projected student population and look at either increasing capacity or changing zones.” 

Some boardmembers attributed the overcrowding to the fact that the north zone currently has three elementary schools—Jefferson, Thousand Oaks and Rosa Parks—while the central and south zones have four each. 

The south zone includes Emerson, John Muir, LeConte and Malcolm X, and the central zone is home to Cragmont, Oxford, Berkeley Arts Magnet and Washington. 

“There are more students who want to go to the schools in the north zone,” Board Vice President Karen Hemphill said. “If we change the boundaries, choices would change in terms of choice of school. Or we could just increase the capacity by adding new classrooms.” 

Board member John Selawsky told the Daily Planet the board had discussed the zones in 2002, when the district closed down Franklin Elementary, which was in the north zone and had enrolled 150 to 175 students. Franklin’s closure, Selawsky said, may have led to the current lack of space in the north zone. 

Jones said the district would work over the summer to draw up a timeline for changing zones if necessary. A committee representing education services, student assignment and facilities will draw up a plan and present it to the board in August. 

“It’s possible that when we finish there will be no change, but we believe it is likely there will be change,” Jones told the board. He added it was important to study the K-5 population before looking at the middle schools because of the immediacy of space requirements in the north zone. 

“It’s really much better to look at elementary schools first. It makes it much easier to align middle schools after that,” said District Superintendent Bill Huyett, who has worked on this issue in other school districts. 

Board President Nancy Riddle made it clear that the board’s action would not open up the district’s whole student assignment plan for analysis. 

“It’s a much larger, more difficult process than looking at geographic zoning capacities,” she said. 

Boardmember Shirley Issel compared the task at hand to “opening up Pandora’s Box.” 

“To me it’s just a huge thing,” she said. 

“It will be complicated, but we have to do it,” Facilities Director Jones said. A review of zones and capacities, he said, would span several departments and raise questions about educational equity, facilities and attendance. 

“While it is not yet clear that an adjustment in school zones is required, that is one possible outcome,” Jones said in a report to the School Board. “Zone adjustments can have a large impact on citizens, and therefore public input is an important part of such a process. If zones are to change, sufficient advanced planning is needed to have time to inform the assignment process and to successfully implement the next lottery.” 

Superintendent Huyett said there will be ample time for public comment on the draft plan between mid-August and the end of September, following which a final plan will be developed. Huyett said any changes, if implemented, would occur in the 2010-2011 school year. 

Berkeley Unified currently has about 9,000 K-12 students, a third of which are elementary school students. 

Selawsky and Hemphill pushed for the re-examination of the three middle-school zones. 

Hemphill pointed out that there is a reason why Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School is more more crowded than Willard Middle School and Longfellow Magnet Middle School. 

“King has a new Dining Commons, while Longfellow has a basement cafeteria,” she said. “Compare the landscaping at King with the landscaping at Willard ... If you take pictures of King, Longfellow and Willard, parents who don’t have any idea of quality will want to send their children to King.” 

Hemphill told the Planet that although Longfellow has the highest test scores and the smallest achievement gap, it is also stuck with the poorest facilities and lacks a park and a track, features present at the two other schools. 

Longfellow, originally built as an elementary school, was converted to a middle school 14 years ago. The highlights of the school—which offers specialized curriculum and draws children from the entire city—is that it houses a theater, a dance studio and a computer lab. 

“My concern is, how can we have an equitable look at middle schools,” Hemphill said. “Good public relations is important. The community needs to know about all the wonderful things these schools have to offer. Additionally, the district needs to enhance some of these campuses.” 

UC Berkeley officials announced Friday, May 8, that Social Security numbers and other identification had been hacked from restricted university health services databases, putting students at risk of identity theft. 

The security breach, which campus officials said began in October last year, was discovered by university administrators during a routine maintenance check April 9, spurring a criminal investigation by UC police detectives and the FBI. 

Steve Lustig, UC Berkeley’s associate vice chancellor of health and human services, said a log entry had indicated the illegal access, but he added that the hackers had not stolen medical records, which are stored in a separate system unaffected by the crime. 

“We give the highest priority to medical records,” he said. “We have appointed a team to evaluate millions of log entries to see what has been breached and to contact people whose information has been stolen.” 

Lustig said that in some cases, students’ names had been directly associated with Social Security numbers. 

The electronic databases contained personal information belonging to some university health services clients and their parents or spouses. Additionally, campus officials said “the hackers may have stolen information related to students’ health insurance coverage and some of their non-treatment medical information, such as Hepatitis B immunization histories, health services medical record numbers, dates of visits or names of providers seen, or for participants in the Education Abroad Program, certain information from the self-reported health history.” 

He said that financial information, such as students’ bank account and credit card numbers, had not been affected. 

One hundred and sixty thousand students were alerted about the incident Friday morning, of which 97,000 had their Social Security numbers illegally accessed. 

“We sincerely regret and apologize for any difficulty that this theft may create for you,” Lustig and Shelton Waggener, the university’s associate vice chancellor and chief information officer, said in an e-mail sent to students at 9:43 a.m. Friday. “We have alerted campus police detectives and the FBI, and we are doing all that we can to investigate this crime. We are also dedicated to assisting you with information about the incident and services that can help prevent or minimize the impact this theft may have on you.” 

Waggener said the breach was confirmed April 21 and had “occurred as a result of hackers using the system very surreptitiously.” 

He said the data thefts began on Oct. 9, 2008, and continued until April 6. As soon as the first activity was detected by authorities three days later, all the exposed databases were immediately removed from service to prevent future attacks. 

In order to understand the nature of the security breach and to minimize the chances of a recurrence, Waggener said the university had hired technical experts and an internal auditor, Price Waterhouse Coopers, to help with the investigation. 

“With this incident, UC Berkeley has joined a fraternity of institutions that have been victims of criminal attack,” Waggener said. “This deviant act came from outside the campus. The attackers accessed a public website and bypassed additional secured databases stored on the same server.” 

As for why the breach had not been identified earlier, Waggener said it was something that could be identified only while checking a log entry. 

“There were telltale signs,” he said. “The hackers had left messages to system administrators taunting them. This sort of thing is very common.” 

Waggener said he didn’t know whether the messages—which the university is not releasing because of the ongoing investigation—can be traced. He said that the IP addresses of the hackers originated in Asia, one of them in China. 

“These types of crimes are now global in nature. It’s not being done by a teenager down the street,” he said. 

UC Berkeley has spent more than $5 million in the past to protect its servers from hackers, campus officials said. 

The university has set up a website, www.datatheft.berkeley.edu, to assist with contact information for key resources, and has established a 24-hour Data Theft Hotline (1-888-729-3301) to answer questions. The university advises those affected to place a fraud alert on their credit cards. 

Waggener said that, although lots of people were calling the hotline to get information, no one had yet identified themselves as a victim of identity theft.

The Big Tadoo Puppet Crew paid a visit to LeConte Elementary School Tuesday to teach students about traffic safety rules. 

Hired by Alameda County’s Safe Routes to School, the puppeteers are on a county-wide 28-school tour, LeConte being their 26th stop.  

A spate of pedestrian accidents this year—including one that led to the death of 5-year-old Zachary Cruz, a student at the school—led the Berkeley Unified School District to collaborate with Alameda County’s Safe Routes to School to launch a traffic safety campaign in its schools. 

Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Mary Kusmiss said police were still investigating the fatal collision that took place when Zachary was on his way to an after-school program in March. She said the BPD Traffic Bureau had shared the investigation with another traffic-reconstruction expert for his review. 

District spokesperson Mark Coplan said this was the first time the puppet show had come to LeConte, and that next year it would take place at more schools throughout the district. 

Kindergartners through fifth-graders watched in wonder as Granny, June Roll-a-Lot and Freda Walk-a-Ton showed them how to walk and bike to school and provided tips against littering. 

“They will show you how to keep yourself safe when you are walking on the street,” Principal Cheryl Wilson told the kindergartners as they took their seats inside the school auditorium. 

“Stop, look and listen before leaving the driveway,” June Roll-a-Lot told the students before driving off on his bike. 

“Stop everytime at the edge of the street, use your head before your feet, make sure you hear every sound, look left, right, left and all around,” rapped Freda Walk-a-Ton, making the children repeat the lines after her. 

“I like this puppet show, it’s very cool,” said Jeannie Gee, Zachary’s kindergarten teacher who had brought her class to see the performance. “I think the more we revisit safe routes to school with the kids the more it sticks with them.” 

Zachary’s friend Achive Thomas watched with rapt attention as the puppets walked up and down the stage singing and dancing, breaking into an applause as they took their final bows. 

“Please tell everybody I enjoyed the show a lot,” Eve Lyford, another kindergartner told Granny, played by Emily Butterfly, before returning to her class. 

Butterfly said the Big Tadoo Puppet Crew has been promoting walking and biking to school since 2007 through their shows and that their funding had recently been renewed for another two years. The Safe Routes to Schools Program is funded in part with a major grant from Measure B -- Alameda County's half cent transportation sales tax.

UC Berkeley’s search for a dean for its Graduate School of Journalism came to an end May 7 when it selected interim Dean Neil Henry for the position. 

The university’s last two attempts to fill the position proved futile, with the most recent one ending when all three finalists dropped out. 

Henry had not applied for the position, which campus officials said was a five-year appointment. 

An award-winning journalist, author and professor, Henry has filled in as dean of the school since Orville Schell left two years ago. 

A graduate of Princeton University, Henry earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1978. He has more than 16 years of experience as a metro, national and foreign correspondent for the Washington Post and was a staff writer for Newsweek magazine before joining the Berkeley faculty in 1993. 

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer during the announcement praised Henry’s “competence, dedication and skill,” which he said had been evident in the leadership Henry had shown since 2007 

“We are convinced more than ever that the finest possible dean for the Graduate School of Journalism, at this time and going forward, is the person who has led it through these past two years with such class and devotion,” he said. “These are incredibly challenging but exciting times in journalism, filled with possibility. Berkeley is determined to remain a world leader in educating the new generation while also envisioning the future of this most important calling.” 

Henry launched the first-ever collaboration between a journalism school and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation during his tenure as interim dean and has helped to raise more than $5 million for new projects in the past. 

A former John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, Henry, 55, is still involved in reporting, following developments in Darfur, former baseball player Barry Bonds and the portrayal of race in the news. 

He is married to Letitia Lawson, a senior lecturer in political science at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. The couple have one daughter. 

State officials announced Saturday, May 9, that the Berkeley Unified School District will receive $2.4 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. 

The money is part of the $2.56 billion allocated to California school districts toward state stabilization funds. An additional $1.1 billion will be available in the fall. 

Berkeley Unified Superintendent Bill Huyett said the district had applied for its share under directions from the state Department of Education in April. 

“It’s a formula-based amount,” he said. “The federal government sent it down to the state, which handed it down to the school districts on an equitable basis.” 

According to the state education department, the allocation was based on an amount equal to cuts made to each district’s funding in the February 2009 state budget. In about a month, additional stabilization funds will be calculated to restore cuts made to categorical programs from the same budget. 

The funds are in addition to $1.6 million in stimulus funds the district received for services related to disabled and low-income children for 2009-10. (See the Daily Planet’s May 7 story.) 

Huyett said the amount allocated to BUSD over the weekend would “reduce the impact of budget cuts” in the district. 

“The thing we don’t know is what will happen in the elections next week,” he said, explaining that if the six initiatives don’t pass in California’s special elections on May 19, Gov. Arnold Schwarz-enegger would make even deeper cuts to public education, estimated to amount to as much as $3.6 billion. 

“The money will certainly help in short-term improvements,” Huyett said. The purpose of the funds is to reduce staff layoffs, improve student performance and close the achievement gap.” 

Berkeley Unified was able to rescind the majority of its pink slips sent to teachers but is still planning to slash programs and lay off classified workers. 

Praising President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for their cooperation in distributing the funds, state Superintendent of Public Education Jack O’Connell said the funds would help the state education budget crisis. 

“These funds will have an immediate and noticeable impact on California’s K-12 and higher education systems by helping schools keep teachers and other important staff employed, by continuing our efforts to improve student achievement, and furthering our work to close the achievement gap,” O’Connell said. “While this is a brief respite for the education community, we should all recognize there are more tough times ahead.” 

To see how much state stabilization money a particular school district received, go to www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/ar.

The UC Board of Regents on May 8 approved a 9.3 percent student fee increase for the 2009-10 school year, despite criticism from students about the high cost of tuition. 

In a 17-4 vote, the regents approved UC President Mark Yudof’s proposal to raise undergraduate and graduate fees to balance the budget, with regents John Garamendi, Eddie Island, Odessa Johnson and D’Artagan Scorza voting against the increases. 

A statement from campus officials said that the increase—$662 for resident undergraduates—is consistent with the fee hike the state expected UC to carry out as part of the state budget adopted in February, which left UC with a $450 million budget shortfall. 

During a press conference in March, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau acknowledged that the fee hike would have a significant impact on middle-income students. 

He said the student fee increase was considered as a last resort and was just one of the actions the university and other UC campuses were taking in response to budget cuts. 

Yudof said in a statement that the university had created a robust scholarship program this year to help families in need. 

“While there is never a right time for a fee increase, especially during an economic downturn when families are facing hardships and uncertainty, I want to reassure our students that this year we will have an extraordinary amount of additional financial resources available to cover the higher fees,” he said, explaining that substantial increases in federal, state and university student aid and tax credits will ensure that “81 percent of UC undergraduates with incomes below $180,000 will have access to enough new resources to fully offset the fee increase.” 

For the Daily Planet’s earlier story on the fee increase, see the March 12 issue. 

More than 100 University of California Berkeley workers and students rallied on the steps of Sproul Plaza Wednesday, May 13, to protest the arrest of an undocumented immigrant worker by UC police last month. 

The crowd denounced what they said was the UC Police Department’s collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to turn U.C. custodial worker Jesus Gutierrez over to ICE officials, and they urged the university administration to turn UC Berkeley into a sanctuary campus. 

Calls and visits to UCPD Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya for comment were not returned by press time. 

AFSCME union members told the Planet that UCPD officers arrested Gutierrez from UC Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Dining Commons on April 29, charging that he had used someone else’s Social Security number to work. 

A press release from AFSCME Local 3299, which represents UC Berkeley workers, alleged that UC police “arrested Gutierrez and have charged him with felony identity theft, simply on the suspicion that he is an undocumented worker.” 

The statement said that UCPD had contacted ICE after arresting Gutierrez, who is now being held at Santa Rita Jail. It also said that UCPD had denied Gutierrez’s request to have his union representative or a lawyer present after he was arrested 

Although nobody from UCPD called the Planet back to confirm or deny AFSCME’s charges, Marie Felde, UC Berkeley’s executive director of media relations, told the paper that UCPD had responded to a call from Pasadena police who said that Gutierrez was suspected of using a Social Security number belonging to someone else. 

“Apparently a woman who was unable to get benefits for her child because she was told his Social Security number showed he was earning too much money to be eligible reported the misuse of his number to that city's PD,” Felde said in an e-mail. “Campus police interviewed the custodian who they say acknowledged using a false Social Security, and he was arrested for false impersonation on April 30. Immigration got involved afterwards; UCPD’s investigation was related to the question of using false stolen identification.” 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson Lori Haley told the Planet that ICE had not been involved in the arrest. 

“We did not have anything to do with it,” she said, explaining that Alameda County authorities had taken him into custody to prosecute him. “ICE has placed a hold on him, and if and when he is released he will be turned over to ICE.” 

At the rally, AFSCME organizer Maricruz Manzanarez said that the union was going to submit a complaint to the university’s labor relations department for a violation of the union’s contract. 

“They failed to notify the union that a federal agency wanted to investigate Gutierrez,” she said. “Every time a federal agency wants to interrogate or interview an employee they have to notify us either by phone or by letter. In this case, our member was arrested and nobody knew about it.” 

Manzanarez said the labor relations department had told the union that it had not know anything about the arrest. 

Felde told the Planet that she did not have information on the labor contract. 

Berkeley Councilmember Jesse Arre-guin, the city’s first Latino councilmember, said that he was appalled by the university’s actions. 

“We need to stand in solidarity for Jesus Gutierrez,” Arreguin, who was present at the rally, said. “As an alumnus of UC Berkeley I am offended that UC is doing this to a person who is fighting for justice.” 

Elena Vilchis, a sophomore at UC Berkeley, spoke out against the arrest. 

“It’s horrible that the university takes part in the demoralization of workers who maintain the university and without whom this place would not work,” she said. “It’s a harassment on workers’ rights.” 

Laura Rivas, a member of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said her organization supported the prompt release of Gutierrez. 

“It’s a violation of his rights as a worker and a resident of a city which is a sanctuary city regardless of his immigration status,” she said. “I think this incident also created a pressure point on why we need a comprehensive immigration reform that will include full labor and human rights protection.” 

Rally participants marched down Bancroft Way handing out flyers that asked people to turn up in support for Gutierrez’s hearing in Oakland on May 21. 

The Berkeley City Council is scheduled to take its first formal look at the city’s ambitious Downtown Area Plan (DAP) during a work session on the plan scheduled for Tuesday, May 19, at 5 p.m. 

The work session, which will precede the council’s regular 7 p.m. meeting, will be held in the Berkeley City Council chambers at Old City Hall on Martin Luther King Jr. Way in downtown Berkeley. 

Under the council’s work session procedure, a report on the plan will be given by city staff, the public will be able to comment, and councilmembers are free to ask questions, but no council action will be taken. 

The council has scheduled a June 2 hearing on the plan, with a follow-up public discussion on July 14. 

Details of the DAP are available online at http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

The Downtown Area Plan is a far-reaching proposal to set goals and policy guidelines for the city’s downtown area. The original plan was developed by the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee, with members appointed by the council. Since then, the city Planning Commission has completed a proposal of measures to implement the DAP recommendations. In its online report on the two proposals, the city Planning and Development Department said that “the Planning Commission differed with DAPAC on few substantive issues, but differences exist. Most notably seven out of nine of Planning Commissioners supported taller Downtown buildings than did a majority of DAPAC members, based on a development feasibility assessment that concluded taller buildings would be necessary to achieve higher density development and associated public benefits.” 

Both the original DAPAC proposal and the Planning Commission implementing procedures will be presented to the council and the public at Tuesday’s meeting. 

BART’s Board of Directors is scheduled to consider moving forward with a controversial plan for a BART line link between the Coliseum Station and the Oakland Airport when the board holds its regular meeting Thursday morning. 

The board meets at 9 a.m. Thursday, May 14, at BART headquarters, 344 20th Street in Oakland. 

On the agenda is a resolution for board approval of a request for $70 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds for the Oakland Airport Connector project, and a second resolution authorizing BART staff to seek another $150 million in U.S. Department of Transportation funds. Total cost for the Airport Connector is expected to be $522 million. 

An ad hoc coalition of local organizations—including transit advocates TransForm (formerly Transportation and Land Use Coalition), Urban Habitat, Genesis, Amalgamated Transportation Union (ATU) Local 1555, ATU Local 192, and Service Employees International Union Local 1021—are opposing the Airport Connector project, and instead are proposing a Bus Rapid Transit-style bus line called RapidBART between the Coliseum Station and the Airport. 

“This ultimately is a question of priorities by BART management,” ATU Local 1555 President Jesse Hunt said in a prepared release. “Will BART vote to take on further debt and make unsustainable expenditures for a project that’s already hundreds of millions of dollars over budget without even considering an alternative? We think the directors should stop the rush and consider a sensible, affordable alternative that will save BART patrons and Bay Area taxpayers nearly half a billion dollars.”  

Local 1555 represents more than 900 BART train operators, power support workers and station agents.  

BART passengers going to the Oakland Airport can currently take an AirBART shuttle bus that operates from the Coliseum Station. RapidBART advocates say that their alternative would be more reliable and faster than AirBART, while advocates for BART’s proposed Airport Connector say that the RapidBART system would still be subject to traffic delays that would make it less reliable and desirable than the connector. 

Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission came away with more questions than answers at the end of reviewing the environmental impact report for Wareham Development’s proposal to tear down the historic Copra Warehouse at 740 Heinz St. and construct a new four-story laboratory building.  

The report says that the demolition would have a significant impact on the city’s cultural resources and quality of life, the latter because of the traffic and noise it would cause. It will come up for public review and comment at the Zoning Adjustments Board meeting today (Thursday, May 14). The comment period ends on June 8, 2009. 

Wareham Development, which owns a large number of properties in West Berkeley, including the 1.4-acre Durkee property, where the proposed project is located, plans to build a 72-foot-high biotechnology laboratory including about 82,000 square feet for research and development, 10,000 square feet of storage and a 49-stall underground garage. 

The proposed project would demolish the existing vacant warehouse but retain its north and south brick facades, which the majority of the members on the landmarks commission said they did not view as preservation of an important element. 

Vice Chair Gary Parsons said that “retaining” would not be the correct way of characterizing what Wareham was doing to the facades because they would be changing their look entirely by constructing new windows. 

“The building will not be the same building any more,” Parsons told the Planet after the meeting.  

Commissioner Austene Hall contended that it was “not very green” to demolish a building, reminding the audience about all the energy that went into constructing it. 

A letter to the landmarks commission from the Temescal Business Center on 7th and Heinz, whose tenants include Berkeley Mills, and the Berkeley Industrial Artswork Complex on Heinz criticized the project, explaining that the conversion of a 10,000-square-foot landmarked warehouse into a huge life science building was “not a legitimate adaptive reuse project” with any sense of integrity for preservation. 

“Nothing meaningful of the existing structure will be preserved in the lab that will tell any kind of story of the Copra Warehouse in the future,” the letter said. “The proposed transformation does not leave future generations with any sense of what came before. The future will only see a tall brick facade that is part of a large life science building.” 

Wareham’s officials have said in the past that it would be economically unfeasible for them to preserve the building, urging the city to open the way for biotech research facilities, which they said were being scooped up by Emeryville. 

Wareham’s proposed height for the new building will require variances from the Zoning Adjustments Board. The current zoning laws allow up to only 45 feet in that area.  

Commission Chair Steve Winkel said that the EIR, prepared by consultants LSA Associates, did not include enough historic information about the evolution of the site until it was landmarked in 1985 and what took place following that. 

Commissioner Carrie Olson pointed out that the landmark application was missing from the document. When the site was landmarked, she said, there were eight buildings on it, of which five had “disappeared overnight.” 

“Just because five buildings have been taken down, it does not justify the taking of more,” she said. 

Olson later told the Planet that she wanted to see the landmark application to understand the history of the landmarked site better. 

“I wasn’t on the commission in 1985, I didn’t know what happened,” she said. “There were eight buildings back then, and now it’s down to three. If this one goes, it will be down to two. It’s just pretty shocking.” 

Parsons echoed Olson, stressing that it was important to know the history of the previous demolitions and the conditions under which they occurred. 

“It’s a loss of over 50 percent,” he told the Planet. “How is it that landmarked buildings in Berkeley disappeared? No one on the landmarks commission can remember approving those demolitions.” 

Olson said the landmarks commission was responsible for coming up with a finding that would explain why the Copra Warehouse should be demolished. 

Parsons said the building’s demolition would change the context of the other two remaining buildings on the site, the Durkee Building and the Spice Warehouse. 

“These three are the last remaining ensemble on that site,” he said after the meeting. “If the warehouse goes, that will take away a big part of the group.”  

The Zoning Adjustments Board meeting tonight (Thursday, May 14), which will take up the EIR for public review and comment, will take place at the Maudelle Shirek Building (Old City Hall), 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way at 7 p.m.

The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting that an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 3.0 struck near Berkeley Wednesday, May 13. 

According to the USGS, the earthquake occurred at 3:34 p.m. and had a depth of about 7.3 miles. It was centered about 2 miles east-southeast of Berkeley and 5 miles north of Oakland.  

A Berkeley police dispatcher said there were no immediate reports of damage.

The May 7 story “B-Tech Students on Their Way to College” incorrectly stated that the school has failed to get an Academic Performance Index score for the last several years due to poor participation rates. The school’s API has increased from 311 in 2005 to 596 in 2008, which Principal Victor Diaz said was the second highest API score among continuation schools in Alameda County. Berkeley High School has failed to get an API score for the last several years because of poor participation.  

The article should have said that, since the API score for Berkeley Technology Academy was based on fewer than 100 valid California standardized test (STAR) results in 2007, the alternative school did not receive a ranking among similar schools.

The Berkeley Police Department on May 8 released the name of the victim who died of gunshot wounds in southwest Berkeley earlier this week as 18-year-old Maurice Robertson. 

Berkeley police responded to a shooting at 1340 67th St. on May 4. Roberston, a Berkeley resident, died at the scene. 

BPD is asking for the community’s help with the investigation. Anyone with any information regarding this crime is urged to call the BPD Homicide Detail at 981-5741 or the 24-hour non-emergency dispatch line 981-5900 or the Bay Area Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

In 1974 I left New York behind to live in Berkeley. I also left behind a young husband, my family and friends, furniture, job and a great antique Chinese carpet. Why? It was the call of peace, the lifestyle, the freedom and possibly a touch of insanity. Nonetheless I arrived at a two-story Victorian house on Ashby looking for Doug, who had assured me on the phone that there was a place for me. “Doug’s gone,” a long-hair told me, “but there’s room for you anyway.”  

For the next six years there was always room for me somewhere, whether I had money or not, in some place in Berkeley. There was always fresh-baked zucchini bread cooling from the oven, a fragrant cup of Pete’s coffee, and a drumbeat that I could listen to or pound along with. 

I lost my taste for matching outfits and set hair and melded into the throngs of hippies disdaining war, severe politics and too much money. 

Times did change and I fell in love and followed a necessity train to central California where I birthed two children, opened stores selling non-handmade stuff, interviewed quilters and farmers and tried vainly to find a comfortable place in a corner of a conservative, unyielding city. It always hurt, still does. 

By a turn of luck—and I do believe in it—when I thought I was indentured to live and die in that hot-bovine-smelling place, my young son, through a combination of gene transfer and an innate dislike for his birthplace, and probably remembering the way my face lit up when I talked about the “Berkeley Days,” headed north for education. 

I come to visit him as often as I can and I’m careful to hear or feel an “Oh no, Mom again” sensation. It’s never there. My son seems to like sharing his new home with me, probably because I am always at my best in Berkeley, taking it all in so that I can live on the memories back in the Central Valley. 

The siren smell of Pete’s coffee still calls me, and I have embraced the New Organic Goat Cheese Pizza on Shattuck. 

My favorite place, still, is Telegraph Avenue. 

It is only here that time has stopped, or visually seems to. I keep thinking, “I know that hippy,” and silently wonder if we maybe had a love-in moment some 40 years ago. 

“Oh, look,” my mind fools me, “There’s Berthe, she makes the best yeast bread!” And as the woman passes me without more than a Berkeley smile, I think that we probably all looked so alike in those days, flowing hair and skirts, beatific smiles coming from way down in the stomach chakra, we all knew each other.

Walking home last Friday from the City Commons Club noon program, I thought how blessed I am to live so close to the Berkeley City Club, a California Historical Landmark. 

Known as the “Little Castle,” this lovely building, designed by Julia Morgan—who, of course, also built the famous Hearst Castle at San Simeon—is truly a Berkeley treasure. 

A native Californian, Julia Morgan was born in San Francisco in 1872 but raised in Oakland, graduating from Oakland High School and later earning a degree in civil engineering from the University of California. She then traveled to Paris, where she became the first woman accepted into the architecture section of the École des Beaux-Arts. After her studies, she returned to the Bay Area, collaborating with her mentor Bernard Maybeck on several buildings in Berkeley and Oakland. 

Formerly called the Berkeley Women’s City Club, this building has a rich and fascinating history. The property was purchased in January 1928 for $92,600. Selected as the architect in June of that year, Julia Morgan, who was 58 years old and California’s first female architect was paid the princely sum of $9,625! The building opened its doors November 20, 1930. Today it serves as a club, hotel, restaurant, and events and conference center. 

The City Club is admired for its steel-reinforced concrete walls and ceilings, leaded glass windows, interior courtyards and mosaic-tiled indoor swimming pool. The building is a blend of Romanesque and Moorish styles of architecture, with a magnificent fireplace in the Drawing Room and sun-and-flower-filled courtyards. For all of its nearly 80 years the “Little Castle” has hosted social events, weddings, Chamber Performances and theatrical programs, such as the Central Works Theatre. 

Once the site of the Aurora Theatre, the Club now offers the very popular “Actors Reading Writers” program, held the first Monday of the month. This delightful program, with free admission, directed by Rica Anderson and Thomas Lynch, features short stories read by Bay Area Actors. 

As a member of the UC Retirees Association, I’ve attended many luncheons and holiday parties in the elegant second-floor dining rooms. The buffet is both delectable and affordable. 

On Jan. 18, House Representative Barbara Lee honored the extraordinary life and accomplishments of Julia Morgan by inducting her into the California Hall of Fame. Rep. Lee noted that Morgan’s work shaped California’s architecture, and that her exquisite contributions, from internationally famed mansions (e.g., the Hearst Castle at San Simeon and Wyntoon, near Mount Shasta) and community facilities stand today as a testament to a woman of tremendous talent, vision, and brilliance. 

Julia Morgan passed away on Feb. 2, 1957, at the age of 85. This tiny woman with the steel-rimmed glasses is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland. Her work and her life are directly intertwined with the identity and rich heritage of California. We are indeed lucky to have this Berkeley Treasure in our community. 

A fellow who covered Berkeley city politics back in the day (in the 1990s) used to talk, not without a certain smirk, about the Berkeley 200. That would be that hardy little band of citizens who actually cared about what happened to the city and were willing to tolerate endless meetings in order to make sure that important issues were not just swept under the rug.  

In that period the hot topic was the city’s general plan. The then city manager, out of Tucson and with a very-Tucson esthetic, hired a consultant to draw up a draft which featured a downtown laced with many-storied pricey buildings and other features perceived at the time as outrageous, looking in fact a lot like Tucson at its worst. Some of the 200, supported by a progressive majority on the Planning Commission, managed to capture the discourse and eventually to spark a citizen-created general plan more in keeping with traditional Berkeley values like affordable housing, preservation of historic resources and open space.  

But citizens come and go, and city staff are paid to outlast them. No sooner was the plan completed than those who thought they knew better began scheming to outwit it.  

This point has been made abundantly clear with the production of a chummy little e-mail correspondence between two city planners, Aaron Sage and Steven Ross, and their former boss, Mark Rhoades, who exited city service through the proverbial revolving door and has emerged as a business partner of the developers he used to regulate. It was obtained pursuant to a public records act request by Steve Wollmer, a charter member of the current Berkeley 200. In private life, he’s staff at another public agency, but his outrage at the shenanigans accompanying the approval of the “Trader Joe’s” project near his home has turned him into a Berkeley planning gadfly. 

The topic at hand was a project on the corner of San Pablo and Ashby, proposed by Rhoades and his partners in CityCentric Investments, including longtime developer Ali Kashani. It was approved by the Zoning Adjustments Board, then appealed on technical grounds by Wollmer and also by another citizen for different reasons.  

At their last meeting, councilmembers declined to take up either appeal, but Councilmember Worthington read the documents obtained by Wollmer into the record, and the Planet got a copy. 

Reviewing the ten pages of e-mails, we couldn’t find anything illegal in the discussions, though Wollmer and his attorney may disagree if he pursues his appeal in the courts as he’s threatened to do. But it is the duty of public servants to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, and here the planning staffers seem to be on shaky ground. 

The tone of Rhoades’ letters is that he and the staff, as well as City Attorney Zach Cowan, are all on the same team trying to push his project to completion despite objections from citizens. For example, on January 15 he told Sage and Ross: “I…think we should meet as early as possible next week (maybe with Zach?) to walk through it and to make sure that we are all obn [sic] the same page.” And later the same day: “How quickly can we check with Zach on this particular issue? I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.” On February 11: “Let’s us chickens meet prior to your meeting with Zach next week (or I am happy to sit with Zach as well to strategize).”  

The role of staff should be to supply impartial information and advice to decision makers: to the Zoning Adjustments Board and if there’s an appeal, to the City Council. In these e-mails, Rhoades seems instead to be treating city staff, even the city attorney, like his own employees, not to mention “strategizing” with them inappropriately. When you add to the calculus that Rhoades is married to the chief lobbyist for building bigger buildings in Berkeley, Erin Rhoades of Livable Berkeley, everything looks even cozier.  

Here’s where the part about outwitting the general plan comes in. On January 15 he wrote: “Aaron and Steve…you should be prepared to remind the ZAB that Berkeley, as a charter City, is not required to be a consistency jurisdiction (Zoning/General Plan). In fact, pursuant to our General Plan, we are not a consistency jurisdiction by design.” 

Translated from plannerese, that means “we’ve set things up so that our zoning doesn’t have to follow what the general plan specifies if we don’t feel like it.” This attitude on the part of a former Planning Department honcho explains a lot about what’s been happening in Berkeley in the past 6 years—much more of what the development lobby wants, much less of what citizens wanted when they endured a lengthy public process to draft that general plan.  

But it’s still hard to squelch Berkeley citizens with blood in their eye. Two full years of free citizen labor on a blue-ribbon committee (DAPAC) produced a new Downtown Area Plan largely consistent with the general plan, though with more than ample compromises to mollify both the University of California and the bigger-is-better crowd. But since there’s no longer a progressive majority on the Berkeley City Council, the city’s Planning Commission has meanwhile been packed with players in the building industry, who have engineered a revision of the DAPAC draft that strongly favors the interests of the developers.  

DAPAC alumni are fighting back. The council is scheduled to take up both drafts on Tuesday, probably in a slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am fashion calculated to oblige the corporate patrons of its current non-progressive majority. Proceedings are supposed to start with a “work session” at 5 p.m., preceding the 7 p.m. council meeting, so that councilmembers can survey the territory out of the public eye. Nonetheless, knowledgeable members of the current cohort of the Berkeley 200, including DAPAC alumni, plan to be on hand to represent the public interest in the comment period beforehand. Anyone who cares about what Berkeley is becoming is urged to join them.  

—Becky O’Malley  

PROP. 1A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Paul Hogarth’s April 30 Public Eye column got it right suggesting why Proposition 1A on the May 19 special election ballot should be rejected by the voters. 

California’s budget process and finance system are broken, and every time voters go to the polls they are asked to approve changes that make matters worse. Proposition 1A is a prime example of that. 

We are being told that told that it is necessary because it will help the state solve its looming budget crisis, but there is not one dollar of additional money in Proposition 1A for the coming budget year. The Legislature has passed a budget for 2009-10 that contains temporary tax increases for the next two years, and Proposition 1A does not change that. It would extend those taxes for an additional one or two years, but those years would be better spent looking for better long-term solutions to California’s chronic budget problems. 

What Proposition 1A does do is impose a spending cap on future budgets so that state spending would be limited by a formula that would keep spending tied to current reduced levels of spending. Many vital public services, including education, health care and social services have been decimated at a time when the need for them is growing. Proposition 1A would make it difficult to revitalize those services, even when times improve. 

This measure also would give governors, without consulting the Legislature, increased power to make mid-year cuts to the budget and to cut cost of living adjustments (COLA) in state programs whenever the director of finance, an appointee of the governor, estimates that revenues will not reach predicted levels. 

Proposition 1A came out of meetings behind closed doors by the Governor and a handful of legislative leaders with no public discussion or review before it was rushed through the Legislature. It is no surprise that process produced a deeply flawed result. 

The League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville urges you to join us in voting no on Proposition 1A on May 19. 

Jean Safir 

League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville 

• 

AC TRANSIT BUSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What is it with these behemoth AC Transit buses, sometimes double-behemothic buses, which absurdly roar around in the twilight, afternoon and evening with no one in them? Years ago I wrote a letter to my AC Transit representative and said that in Europe they have mini-buses during the off hours (and peak hours) which save money by the tons. He said he agreed but couldn’t do anything about it. OK, during rush hours, fire up these frightening monsters since we bought them; but when ridership falls off, send in minibuses which are cheaper, quicker, faster, and prettier. Also, some investigative journalist might look into the questionable matter of why, when, how, and who profited from this travesty. 

Robert Blau 

• 

MOVEON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

MoveOn is a generally admirable activist organization. However, their ongoing campaign to mobilize support for a particular version of health insurance reform by contending that it could reduce premiums by 30 percent is deceptive. 

It is true that some private medical insurance companies have overhead costs (profits and paperwork) equal to 30 percent of the premiums they charge. But it is extremely unlikely that healthcare consumers would be able to pay that much less than they do currently for coverage under any of the health insurance plans which would become available under the reform proposal MoveOn favors. 

The proposal’s centerpiece—inclusion of a “public option” on a menu of insurance choices available to American healthcare consumers—would still entail substantial unnecessary paperwork costs because of the variety of different plans that healthcare providers would have to deal with. Also, the public option could easily become the dumping ground for the sickest consumers, raising its per capita cost and largely erasing the premium savings it could offer as a result of forgoing the profits that private insurers would insist upon. And continuing to finance healthcare through individual premiums would virtually guarantee that middle income Americans would not be able to afford decent coverage; subsidies would not be ample enough to help this group. 

What MoveOn has endorsed represents a premature capitulation to the corrupt political might of insurance companies. Single-payer proponents are right. Only by eliminating insurance companies from the financing and provision of health care and paying for healthcare with progressive taxes instead of insurance premiums can we control costs and provide to every American the comprehensive, high-quality health care they should have as a basic right. 

Randy Silverman 

• 

BERKELEY MEADOW  

MEMORIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Since Pete Najarian asked, I am happy to oblige with these memories of the waterfront meadow before it was fenced off “locking the public out.” 

The meadow, the north basin strip, and the brickyard, across the access road to the Marina, 174 acres of landfill, were once owned by Santa Fe (Catellus) Corporation but are now public property administered by the East Bay Regional Park District. 

In the early 1980s Santa Fe announced plans to build four million square feet of office, retail, and hotel development on the Berkeley waterfront, to which the city responded with a planning process to zone the area. Santa Fe did not participate but threatened to sue the city in federal court. The city hired renowned land use attorney E. Clement “Clem” Shute as a special advisor. 

A group of us Sierra Club members, in cooperation with Citizens for Eastshore Parks (CESP), advanced a plan that maximized open space, a campaign that culminated in November 1986 with the passing of measure Q zoning the waterfront. Santa Fe filed a federal case, but the U.S. Supreme Court rejected their suit. 

The baton was then passed to Tom Bates, who at the state level led a successful effort to fund the purchase of the land, which eventually came under the jurisdiction of the Park District. 

That’s the history in a nutshell. Now where were you Pete, during those years we were working to save a precious asset as public open space? Just consider the fate of your beloved meadow if Santa Fe had succeeded in their development scheme. You have a perfect right to criticize the policies of the Park District, but your attacks on CESP are unwarranted. CESP does not have authority in the administration of these lands. 

The citizens you denounce are heroes. For years they have been fighting inappropriate development and expanding public access to the East Bay shoreline. CESP deserves our gratitude and our tax deductible donations. 

Toni Mester 

• 

BERKELEY MEADOW  

AD NAUSEUM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Pete Najarian’s meanders through the Berkeley Meadow before its wildlife protections managed to miss about 50 off-leash dogs a day, mutilated carcasses of rabbits, snakes and birds left to rot by the dogs that chased them down, and the people who would bring tennis rackets to send balls high into the supposedly impenetrable brush for their pets to chase through nesting areas. 

Dogs are wondrous, loving companions, and doing what comes naturally takes a toll, as the local off-leash dog parks’ barren, dusty, and sometimes dangerous areas prove. I don’t speak for anyone but myself, but I wrote letters and photographed the destruction and mutilation over the years so that someday migratory wildlife and endangered species such as the burrowing owl could survive. 

Hey Pete, call me. See the photos, if that’s what it takes, and then join those of us who continue to try to encourage dog guardians who “forget” to bring a leash to play fair with the rest of us, including those who require wetlands to survive long migratory flights. 

Carol Denney 

• 

JUST DON’T GET IT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am not anti-Palestinian, just pro-Jewish. I am a fan of your newspaper, which I buy at the stand. I do wish for more equanimity in your coverage of Jews, and of Israel ... or have we already forgotten why it is there as a modern nation? 

Marion R. Steinkellner 

• 

NO ON PROP. 1A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Many of you have probably received mail from the California Teachers Association, festooned with pictures of cute children surrounded by cartoon life preservers. These mailers talk about how the public schools can’t afford any more cuts, which is true. They then urge a solution that makes the problem even worse: Voting for Prop.1A. 

What these mailers don’t tell you is that the schools, both K-12 and college can’t function effectively now, and that 1A makes it essentially impossible to ever improve this situation. Even in tough budget years, it would force additional cuts of more than $1 billion—an amount equal to about one-third of the University of California system’s budget. Proposition 1A would squeeze spending on crucial investments in colleges and healthcare, and it would prevent the state from restoring needed programs as the economy rebounds. It also would lock confusing, complicated, autopilot budget language into the state Constitution—making it harder, not easier, to adopt common-sense budgets. With complex formulas and linear regression models cemented into law, the already daunting task of budgeting would be that much harder. 

Prop.1A would also give the governor extraordinary new power over the budget, including more mid-year cuts, without checks and balances from the Legislature. The possibility of such cuts was temporarily included in this year’s budget. When the Governor made those cuts, it had disastrous results, forcing administrators and teachers to scramble and rewrite their schedules in midterm. If Prop. 1A were passed, this power would be given permanently to the governor, and could only be taken away by another referendum. When the governor tried to get this power as stand-alone proposition, it was decisively voted down. Now he is trying to smuggle that power in as a “poison pill” addition to 1A, while using the CTA’s endorsement as camouflage. 

If Proposition 1A is passed it seems impossible that the CSU system could function at all. Last term my employer, Sonoma State University, had so little money to pay for classes, that they actually had to tell many students who had paid tuition and were living in dorms that they couldn’t give them any classes. They managed to temporarily borrow some money to cover classes for the current term, and have no clear plans for how to replace it. Over the past few years, over a half billion dollars have already been cut from the CSU system, and tuition has more than doubled. It is scheduled to go up yet again this year. Thousands of qualified students will be turned away, forcing employers to go elsewhere for skilled workers, and thus seriously weakening the California economy. The money we have is simply not adequate for the CSU’s vital needs. “Business is usual” could mean putting the CSU out of business altogether. Further cuts would be even more disastrous. 

Teed Rockwell 

Philosophy Dept.,  

Sonoma State University 

• 

UTILTIES RATE INCREASES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I hope everyone will take a moment to write a note to the East Bay Municipal Utilities District (EBMUD) and complain about the proposed utility increases. These are appalling rate increases and EBMUD is making it extremely difficult to protest this hike. EBMUD is doing everything to block a response—no e-mails accepted, only letters—and they need 51 percent of the households to write in and object or this change will pass. How likely is that? Not very! This will increase utility bills dramatically.  

You need to write and vehemently protest the EBMUD overall non-drought rate increase of 7.5 percent in fiscal year 2010 and the proposed overall non-drought rate increase of 7.5 percent in fiscal year 2011, compared with the rate of 2010. You can write to EBMUD at ms 218, P.O. Box 24055, Oakland, 94623-1055. 

This means that this increase will be unfairly imposed on residential customers who will absorb an 8.7 percent increase compared to the 5 percent increase being proposed for commercial and industrial customers. 

The rate of inflation does not justify this proposed increase nor does the current bad economy! 

In addition we should all be outraged by the supplemental supply surcharge 14 percent that can be imposed virtually at any time. Why is it that EBMUD cannot estimate how many times per year they are likely to need water out of the Sacramento River? Instead EBMUD is asking carte blanche to impose this 14 percent surcharge at any time that they choose to do so. Again it just isn’t right. There should be no surcharge. Period. 

I realize it is unrealistic to expect a 51 percent writing campaign to stop this, but this is so infuriating. I cannot let it pass without an effort to block it from happening. Please if you agree write your letter. 

Barbara Hird 

• 

SPECIAL ELECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Once again Arnold has pushed a costly special election as a “solution” to the ongoing California budget crisis, instead of demanding that Republican obstructionists honor their oath of office to serve the majority of their constituents instead of their no-new-taxes pledge to Grover Norquist. 

In fact, we probably don’t need any new taxes. We just need to reinstate those taxes whose reduction or elimination has served the wealthy and corporations and damaged education, social services, and environmental and labor protections in California in recent decades. The state has never recovered from the consequences to local government inflicted by Prop. 13 and its terribly unjust redistribution of the property tax burden from the wealthy to new homebuyers. On top of the Prop. 13 cuts, we’ve suffered the consequences of termination of the top income tax rate and Arnold’s self-serving termination of the vehicle license tax, which further harmed city and county governments and residents up and down California. 

Prop.1A would have us work against our own best interests by capping the budget after the huge tax cuts that have destroyed California’s once-impressive educational system and basic social services and infrastructure. We need to demand that our legislature do better than this. 

Charlene M. Woodcock 

• 

‘ADOPT A BOOK’ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I can’t help wondering how a sensitive child might react to the alarm Ms. Handwerker sounds over the Berkeley Public Library’s fundraising motto. After all, the word “adopt” has many meanings and uses. It comes from the Latin for “to choose”—as wonderful and generous a root as anyone could hope for. I just used the word today in reference to transplanting a shrub that a friend wanted out of her garden. Can I no longer use “adopt” in this way? Do we need to rewrite our dictionaries? Language, like music and nature and human beings, is endlessly complex. Promoting engagement, broad knowledge, and tolerance in adopted children seems a wiser and kinder course of action than attempting to control their environment by edict. My own son was “learning disabled”—the official term—but understood that he was not disabled at all, that he had many talents, and that in any case, he had a life to live. A public outcry to censor “adopt” from the library’s motto—however well-intentioned—may well do more damage than it heals. 

B. J. Thorsnes 

El Cerrito 

• 

FREE SPEECH IN PEOPLE’S PARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Saturday morning, May 9, without prior notice to the volunteer activists who had painted the stage a month previously, a UC employee painted over some political slogans on the Free Speech Stage in People’s Park. Aside from completely disrespecting the notion of free speech, the worker was compelled to use Cal blue in order to deface the Free Speech Stage. 

I built that stage and have maintained it for many years now. I was given no notification that the University was planning on doing anything to the stage. The University does absolutely no maintenance on the stage; it has always been built and maintained by volunteers. I am understandably upset about yet another incursion into our civil rights by paid agents of the University. I was held in handcuffs for almost an hour this Sunday afternoon, May 10, while University police conferred with Devin Woolridge and Irene Hegarty as to whether I ought to be charged with vandalism for painting “DEMOCRATIZE THE UC REGENTS” on the Free Speech stage. The stage that I had completely repainted at no expense to the University a month previously. The stage that I have built and maintained at no expense to the University for many more years than either Devin or Irene have worked on the Park. 

Having People’s Park without Free Speech is like trying to make lemonade without lemons. If the UC doesn’t know what Free Speech is yet, what have they been doing for the last 44 years? If the University of California cannot respect the work of the volunteer activists who have built and maintained the Park, why does this community continue to employ them as the guardians of the Park? It’s somewhat like leaving your child alone with a convicted child molester. 

Arthur Fonseca 

• 

HEALTH CARE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In last week’s Senate finance committee hearings on health care, insurance companies were represented, but no advocates for single-payer health care were invited. When people who supported single-payer health care spoke up from the audience, they were ejected by the police. 

Single-payer is a system for ensuring that everyone has health care. The downside of single-payer is that medical corporations can’t make as much money. The upside is that everyone gets health care. 

Providing health care for all of us who need it is not rocket science. Canada has figured it out. Sweden has figured it out. Germany, Belgium have figured it out. The United States has even figured it out. Our taxes pay for health care for our armed forces and for those very senators who were declaring that single-payer was not an option. 

Sen. Max Baucus has declared that single-payer health care as an option is “off the table.” He doesn’t have the right to shut out this option for health care that so many Americans want. 

If Obama’s promise of health care is to come true, we all need to let our representatives know, single payer works. It may not work to keep medical companies wealthy, but it works to provide health care for everyone. 

Heather MacLeod 

Oakland 

• 

RESCIND MEASURE G 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the May 7 article, “Amended Climate Action Plan Moves Forward; Final Vote June 2,” the Daily Planet quotes Councilmember Gordon Wozniak: “[H]is hope was that the discussions and actions eventually surrounding the implementation of the CAP would spur “innovative ideas” on greenhouse gas reduction in the city that could be passed on and adopted by other communities. . .” and that “. . . our greatest value in this process is developing ideas that can affect the larger Bay Area and the nation.” 

Whoa! Just a minute! 

It may come as a surprise to some but Berkeley homeowners are not—and should not be—in the business of paying the city to subsidize the development of ideas for the “larger Bay Area and nation.” (Nor, in fact, Berkeley itself.) That is the job of private companies and entrepreneurs who take personal responsibility for providing funding by and for themselves and/or finding private funds, venture capitalists and banks to do so. As such, developers and their supporters reap the rewards when they succeed; they live with the consequences when they fail. Importantly, they do not work with forced funding robbed from taxpayers. 

Those who want to support energy-saving measures devised by private companies can do so via the stock market. They can buy and sell to their hearts’ content. Hopefully people will do so. But buying stock/bonds in energy-conservation companies is now—and should continue to be—a personal choice, not a forced confiscation, pure and simple robbery, of property owners’ capital. 

Those who want to support energy-saving measures and have the financial wherewithal to do so are already doing so. They may not be changing out beautiful, historical, unique leaded glass windows but they are making other attempts to reduce energy use —eg, heavy-duty drapes during the winter to keep out the cold; wearing long underwear beneath their clothing, donning heavy sweaters and scarves. In the summer, they draw those drapes to keep out the sun and wear less clothing. They open windows at night to let cool air inside. They purchase energy-saving appliances when they need to replace the old ones. They lower the thermostat in the winter. (Raise the thermostat in the summer? Who needs air conditioning in Berkeley?) 

Last I heard, Berkeley’s Office of Energy and Sustainability is staffed with six employees including a climate-control czar. Our taxes are now paying for super-generous salaries, super benefits, and super retirement. Why? Berkeley residents, property owners and residents are concerned about the environment and savvy enough to figure out climate/environmental saving measures for themselves. Those who can afford to do so have already made great strides. They do not need a money-draining fiefdom to rob them of their savings. 

Is it the intent of this City of Berkeley Office to sell said innovative ideas and turn enough of a profit to reimburse Berkeley taxpayers? I think not. Rescinding Measure G would go a long way to closing this department and provide Berkeley homeowners with significant tax savings. 

Enough! 

Barbara Witte 

• 

TOXICS DEFENDERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

City Council item number 46 (April 21), regarding applying for Obama administration stimulus funds for toxic clean-up of UC’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), which is located in beautiful Strawberry Canyon, was a citizen-inspired effort that Councilmember Jesse Arreguin agreed to place on the agenda. 

But Councilmember Linda Maio, once an employee at LBNL, wanted to amend or hold up this timely item. And so, with the agreement of Mayor Bates, five critical words—“to the highest standards available”—were eliminated after the word clean-up. 

This means that clean-up as usual will occur at the LBNL labs, i.e. which means minimal and limited. The labs will now likely get millions of stimulus dollars, and they can use the money for demolition and site preparation for more new buildings, instead of for environmental clean-up to the highest standards. 

The labs have plans to build 15 gigantic research laboratories within Strawberry Canyon, to be used for synthetic biology in manufacture of biofuels such as controversial cellulosic ethanol. See “GMO Research Dominates BP-UC Partnership,” by Richard Brenneman, in the March 6, 2007 edition of the Daily Planet. Also important to read: “Lab Workers Suffer Fallout,” by Betsy Mason in the July 1, 2007 edition of the West County Times, regarding lax safety conditions at LBNL and other California Laboratories under contract by the Department of Energy, where workers suffer high levels of cancer. 

Merrilie Mitchell 

• 

BACK TO BAR CODES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Libraries are a kind of sacred sanctuary—quiet, full of books and ideas to explore—their librarians the most helpful and pleasant of public institution staffs.  

So after reading the May 7 commentary on the Berkeley Public Library’s flawed checkout system I am reminded once again of the Orwellian nature of the current moment—in this case the enormous waste of resources that produce more problems than they solve.  

Yes, it’s true that the technology of security and “do it yourself” book checkout in the public libraries is very faulty. Sometimes the checkout apparatus works, often it doesn’t. I have given up on it and go directly to the line for manual checkout. In addition I sometimes get to chat with a human—about a music CD I am borrowing, or a book the librarian has read. A very pleasant and rewarding encounter. 

How did the BPL ever go so wrong with the installation of the mechanized checkout system that cost $643,000 plus interest plus maintenance plus weekly/monthly RFID tags (77 cents each) for the dozens and dozens of magazines and periodicals that must be tagged as they arrive? There was nothing wrong with the bar code stickers. Is this a sane system to save money on employees? 

Is this what we want to spend our library tax money on? How about buying books instead? What are our common sense priorities? Can we jump past our culture’s obsession with the newest gadgetry and get back to (cheaper) basics—please? 

Joan Levinson 

• 

LIVING NEAR BROWER CENTER  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I live in Oxford Plaza. My apartment overlooks the Oxford Plaza courtyard which, of course, is adjacent to the fairly small patio on the grounds of the David Brower Center. 

The David Brower Center has lots of event space and I am sure they hope to rent it for many larger events. They need to factor in their residential neighbors when they place music outdoors. 

The courtyard in my building works like an echo chamber. Sound is greatly amplified. If they are going to have loud music on that patio regularly, they are creating unacceptable environmental pollution. Noise is pollution. The Brower Center needs to get clear, right now, that they have hundreds of residential neighbors adjacent to their very small patio. They have to be considerate, good neighbors all the time. 

The Brower Center is being a bad neighbor, period. But the Brower Center might not have been thoughtful, might not have realized that blasting music out into the small patio would disturb many hundreds of neighbors. 

There are children in these homes. Babies trying to sleep and adults relaxing. 

When I went to an information session, just before I moved into Oxford Plaza, someone made a pretty speech about the ED of the David Brower Center, how she wanted to be a good neighbor. 

I went over to the Brower Center party to complain. I couldn’t hear the music on the inside, which suggests to me that the music was not really central to the party. People weren’t dancing or listening. The music was background noise on the patio. 

Every single time the Center has a party on the small patio, the Center will be having a party in my backyard and the backyard of hundreds of neighbors. I expect more thoughtfulness to how the Center’s behavior impacts the environment. This courtyard is my environment. This is my home. I have nowhere to go when my home is polluted with someone else’s unnecessary noise. 

What message is the Brower Center sending when they launched their grand opening weekend with abusive noise pollution? 

I am going to register a complaint about this environmental pollution everywhere I can think of. I have already sent a complaint to Berkeley’s Environmental department. They actually have a form for noise pollution. 

I would have expected a new envrionmental center to be a good neighbor. I never imagined that the people running that building could be so selfish and inconsiderate. I have noticed that in the Brower Center’s PR stuff related to the grand opening, they like to refer to the cool new apartment building next door so they have no excuse for ignoring their neighbors: they know people live here. 

I think the Brower Center should use the small outdoor patio space very carefully. I suggest they treat it as a quiet outdoor space, where people attending events in the indoor space might step outside and enjoy fresh air and a little quiet. I suggest that people who work in the building be able to use the small patio as quiet outdoor space. 

For the Center’s residential neighbors, this is our home. Please treat it more respectfully. 

It’s 9:45 p.m. This noise has been going for hours. How many hours of noise pollution do you think is reasonable? 

Imagine yourselves in your own homes, imaging an inconsiderate neighbor blasting their stereo for many hours with the hum of many, many conversations. Imagine how a few hours of that would feel like to you in your home. 

Tree Fitzpatrick 

• 

ISRAEL-PALESTINE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On May 5, Vice President Joseph Biden went before the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and urged that Israel move toward a “two-state solution” in Israel-Palestine. Since, in the United States, collective amnesia is basic to our culture, this created some news. No one remembers any prior U.S. president or vice president ever having supported such a radical idea as an independent Palestinian state.  

When the British withdrew from colonial Palestine in 1947 they were under fire by the Jewish paramilitaries (the Irgun, the Stern Gang, the Palmach) and of course they had no knowledge that the Jews would massacre civilians and declare an independent Jewish State in Palestine, for Lord Balfour’s Declaration of 1918 promising Palestine to the European Jews never happened. The Brits slid behind the curtain so that the United Nations might propose Europe’s plan for the partition of Palestine into two absurdly unworkable geographic entities to cover the deal. Of course—although dominated by the victorious Western Allied Powers—the UN wasn’t implying support for the paramilitaries’ ethnic cleansing terror effort (the Naqba) when they accepted Israel on its terms, were they? They were just playing map and board games; certainly they didn’t approve of the forced removal of 750,000 people. It just happened. 

Unfortunately, there are underlying reasons that 61 years after Israel’s self-declaration of a Jewish state in Palestine, the Palestinians remain homeless, stateless, non-citizens in their own lands. Those reasons have to do with geopolitical power and evolve from the superpower needs of the U.S. and Europe as well. Mr. Biden, representing Mr. Obama, was posturing as every U.S. government has postured since 1948—this bad joke to continue an absurd mythology that the U.S. and Israel are not the same player.  

There can be no successful Palestinian state that is not a puppet state, for a host of reasons. But the proof is that if anyone in power in the U.S. cared about that outcome when they bespoke it, the fact would have been imposed upon Israel long ago. The U.S. role is a total fraud and will remain that until the public realizes that the war against the Palestinians is an American war every bit as cruel and indecent as the Vietnam War and the Iraq occupation were/are American wars of aggression. Until then this nation’s superpower status will be used to support all efforts to try to subdue the natural human instinct of survival in the Palestinian people and to block a just solution, while imploring the Israelis to be reasonable. The greatest irony of all is that Obama, a black man, could end this travail by simply insisting on the world stage that Israel give all the Palestinians citizenship rights, the right to vote and the right to be treated equally, or face sanctions. But he won’t.  

Marc Sapir 

Berkeley residents may not know it, but over the next several weeks, the Berkeley City Council is poised to vote on competing visions and plans for Berkeley’s downtown. One is the compromise vision adopted by a community-based, multi-stakeholder committee, the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). This vision was crafted over an intensive two-year process, and included extensive expert testimony and presentations, constant public comment, numerous public hearings, ongoing subcommittee workgroups, and continual iterations and modifications to the final plan, to develop a thoughtful, careful compromise that could be acceptable to a wide range of citizen and community interests.  

This compromise plan— endorsed by the Sierra Club and a diverse set of Berkeley constituencies—promotes a green, vital, livable, and appropriately-scaled downtown. The plan provides a downtown vision and “package” that includes higher—but not unlimited—densities, stringent (required!) green building and site features for any new developments, green stormwater and flood control mechanisms, green streets, new urban open space, extensive pedestrian and biking enhancements, affordable housing requirements, a sane parking scheme, protection of historic resources, and a beautiful, pedestrian-only plaza for one block of Center Street. It is a plan which addresses climate change concerns in an elegant, yet aggressive manner, and helps the City to actively attain Measure G goals. Central to this vision and plan is the idea that any increased density or height only comes in exchange for up-front, tangible, contributions to a range of environmental, transit, and affordable housing improvements, thus ensuring that the robust “package” of improvements are actually implemented in the short-term—not in some possible, distant future.  

Ultimately, it is a community-driven vision which balances business interests, revitalization, and new development with Berkeley’s communities, history and environmental advocacy, to allow a future that is both progressive and livable. As true to all good compromises, not everyone got exactly what they wanted (and DAPAC members often had to give in on areas they didn’t agree with), but as a result, the final plan is one that a broad range of groups and interests promote and support, rather than opposing (no small feat in Berkeley!)—and where downtown revitalization will bring benefits to businesses and the community at large.  

The competing vision, favored by developers and business interests, is the downtown plan version just adopted by the Berkeley Planning Commission. In contrast to the DAPAC compromise plan, the Planning Commission version represents only several months of comments and meetings, during which the Commission was also looking at a whole host of broader Berkeley planning issues; this item was often one among four or five complex agenda items on any given night. Moreover, the Planning Commission members are a much smaller and more restricted set of appointees, and simply do not include the level of diversity that DAPAC appointees represented. The outcome of this constricted time frame and process—with limited public input and testimony—is a plan that guts the community-based vision and key elements of the DAPAC compromise, and instead, lets a much narrower constituency of developer and business interests drive our city vision. 

The Planning Commission version caters to developer demands and desires, recommending vast height increases in buildings, massive density increases, and no stringent requirements for any return features such as green building and site design, open space, affordable housing, and the like. It is a vision and plan driven by developer claims about “necessary profit thresholds” and “economic feasibility,” when in fact, inherent uncertainties and variability in the construction arena simply make these claims untenable, and in some cases, grossly overstated. 

The Planning Commission version rationalizes the need for multiple 14 to 18-story buildings (and higher!)—and almost unlimited densities—under the umbrella of “climate change mitigation,” yet it fails to include mandatory requirements that would implement stringent green building requirements for new developments, fund green streets, more open space, transit enhancements, and true pedestrianization. These features and contributions are simply “encouraged” or “for consideration,” not required—and in some cases, they are fully optional elements. 

As the City Council prepares to make its decision about Berkeley’s downtown, residents need to understand that the choice of plans is a critical one in terms of the environmental outcome for Berkeley, as well as its future livability and aesthetics. Will the Council support a comprehensive, citizen-based vision, crafted through a transparent and extensive process of compromise and careful discussion? Or will councilmembers cater to the wishes of a narrow set of stakeholders, and let those desires outweigh Berkeley’s broader, diverse constituencies? Will the City Council adopt a plan that resonates with diverse interest groups, and allows us to move in coordinated, and community-supported steps towards a livable, green city core? Or will the City Council vote for a plan that forces polarization and opposition, not the compromise that DAPAC worked so hard to achieve? 

This choice now rests in the City Council’s hands—and all Berkeley residents have a voice in this decision. Come out and speak up at City Council meetings over the next several weeks. The first one is this Tuesday, May 19, at 5 p.m. Urge counclimembers to approve the compromise DAPAC downtown plan—not the Planning Commission version. And e-mail, write, and phone your councilmembers as well—they need to hear your voices. This is our downtown, and our future. Now is the time to weigh in. 

Juliet Lamont is an environmental consultant and Mayor Bates’ appointee to DAPAC. 

On Tuesday, May 5, the Berkeley City Council unanimously approved its Climate Action Plan and consequently moved one step closer to becoming one the first governments in the country to address climate change by developing a more local, sustainable food system. 

The council’s Climate Action Plan outlines how Berkeley will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent below 2000 levels by 2050, as directed by Measure G, which was passed by 81 percent of Berkeley voters in 2006. Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan is primarily focused on transportation, building efficiency, and land-use planning changes, but also has proposals to build a more sustainable, local food system, and more recycling. The plan was developed through a two-year process that involved a broad community input process. 

The Ecology Center and the California Food and Justice Coalition successfully advocated for improvements in the plan’s food policies to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the food system. These policies include: supporting the development of community gardens; supporting the development of local food businesses; encouraging government agencies and contractors to purchase local food; encouraging and providing guidelines consistent with building codes for buildings to incorporate rooftop food gardens; and encouraging and providing trainings to residents to grow their own food. 

Scientific research indicates that food that is organic, locally grown, and contains less-packaging releases less greenhouse gases than more conventional foods. According to a WorldWatch Institute study, a typical meal bought from a conventional supermarket chain consumes four to 17 times more petroleum for transport than the same meal using local ingredients. A recent academic report by author Dr. Mae Wan Ho estimated that “organic, sustainable agriculture that localizes food systems has the potential to mitigate nearly thirty percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and save one-sixth of global energy use.” 

“Without food systems, a Climate Action Plan is missing a critical part of our emissions equation,” said Martin Bourque the Executive Director of the Ecology Center. “Reducing our carbon footprint by eating locally and producing our own food needs to be made easier by new policies and not just by individual choices of the deeply committed.” 

“As one of the most comprehensive city or county climate action plans in the nation, Berkeley’s climate action plan is serving as a model for other municipalities to learn from and replicate,” says the Director of the California Food & Justice Coalition, Shereen D’Souza. “The food policies included in Berkeley’s climate action plan should serve as an example for governments striving to tackle climate change across North America and beyond.” 

If humanity does not drastically reduce its current rate of greenhouse gas emissions, scientists predict that the food sector will be negatively impacted by the resultant increases in temperature. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the likelihood of crop productivity in all regions across the world undergoing decline increases dramatically with a temperature rise of 3.6 Farenheit, which will conequently increase hunger rates, particularly in developing countries. Regionally, if temperatures rise by 8 to 10.4 Farenheit, the Sierra Nevada snow pac is set to decline by up to 90 percent, which would dry up water supply to California’s agricultural sector, the nation’s breadbasket and a huge driver for California’s economy. 

Despite the link between climate change and the food system, very few governments have incorporated policies into climate action plans that support the development of local, organic, and sustainable food systems. California’s statewide plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 proposes to conduct research into the gashouse gas emissions saved through farmers planting trees on their land, and encourages—but does not mandate—farms to capture methane, a greenhouse gas, for energy production. 

Typically, climate action plans have prioritized reducing the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, reducing transportation, and increasing the energy efficiency of buildings. Given that these sectors release the bulk of GHG emissions it seems sensible for governments to prioritize these sectors, however, if the goal is to reduce GHG emissions by 80 percent by 2050 at a minimum, then GHG emissions from all major sectors in society, including food, must be reduced. 

Many governments are considering and developing policies and plans to respond to climate change. Nearly 30 percent of California cities have committed to reducing their GHG emissions by some amount, 32 states are implementing policies to address climate change, with many committing to hard GHG emission reductions, and the Obama administration has expressed interested in committing the United States to reducing its GHG emissions as well. It is expected that many more governments will implement climate action plans as the impacts of global warming worsen and the public’s demand for action escalates. 

Note: Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan is currently undergoing an environmental review and will return to the council for final adoption on June 2. 

A copy of Berkeley’s April 2009 Climate Action Plan is online at: www.berkeleyclimateaction.org. 

A copy of CFJC’s submission to Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan is online at: www.foodsecurity.org.

According to report in the May 8 New York Times, reporter M. Wald indicates that Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has claimed hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles will not be given federal funding, being too far down the road—obviously very far down the road without that funding.  

Further Wald reports that Secretary Chu has swallowed the “clean coal” fraud and will push money into that totally useless concept that has as many, if not more, problems than nuclear energy. The recently reported ash spillout in Tennessee points out a forever waste problem with coal almost as bad as the one with radioactive wastes from nuclear plants. The clean-up costs are now being estimated at close to a billion dollars with questions remaining concerning possible health effects to humans and the environment from the toxic metals in the ash now spread over several square miles and in a stream. Will the people living on the land or even near the land have toxic dust getting blown into their homes? Will cattle grazing or crops grown on the ash coated land develop unacceptable levels in food of one or more metals? 

To go with this, Dr. Chu appears unaware of several recent papers warning that we have an energy overload due to releasing the energy from trapped sources, namely fossil fuels and the atom. These papers warn that we need to be getting to recycling energy via windmills, solar energy collecting and, I add, hydrogen generated using sunlight by one of seven catalysts reported over the last two years. Getting the best catalyst for generating hydrogen is where federal money ought to go and not to the clean coal fraud, and Dr. Chu ought to check a report in the April 3 Science magazine, indicating a much improved non-precious metal catalyst for fuel cells. 

Dr. Chu seems unaware that the clean coal program will require much of the energy gotten from the coal be used to remove and then bury the carbon dioxide greatly increasing costs to consumers. The real problem is that many tons of quite toxic and very flammable trapping chemicals have to be used and recycled so that an escape may be disastrous. A large escape of compressed carbon dioxide can cause death by suffocation or freezing. And of course environmental spoiling and health hazards from mining will continue. 

If instead of clean coal that goes nowhere in controlling global warming or recycling energy, we need to develop hydrogen that will give us clean energy without ash waste problems, without releasing trapped energy, without environmental despoiling of land and water by mining, without mining health risks or fatalities, and without risks of escapes of toxic and flammable chemicals in complicated processes. If Dr. Chu does not recognize the shortcomings of clean coal, he has failed the public and ought to resign. 

James Singmaster III is a retired environmental toxicologist.

I share James McVaney’s enthusiasm for a Berkeley Ferry, but in his letter of May 5 I believe he has a few very important things wrong. 

While it is attractive to believe that ferry traffic will be good for nearby businesses and enhance marina lease revenue, there is actually no basis for this belief. In fact, other Bay Area examples (Larkspur Landing being the most relevant) have demonstrated just the opposite effect. Parking overflow, parking time limits and parking permit requirements all reduce access to nearby businesses, and patronage by ferry-riding commuters falls far short of offsetting these effects. The restaurant closest to the proposed terminal site opposes the project for good reason. 

James McVaney suggests parking along University Avenue, or in offsite lots with shuttle busses. Presumably the ferry passengers would be prevented from using the free parking areas much closer to the terminal by means of parking permits issued only to those with reasons to park there other than riding the ferry. But this leaves the vast majority of casual marina visitors with no access: Boat owners have guests, kids are brought to Adventure Playground, families picnic in Shorebird Park, people stop to check out sailing or kayak lessons at Cal Sailing Club or Cal Adventures. And a large number of people simply drive to the water to look out over the bay, or take a walk out on the fishing pier. 

James, do you really think this kind of access will not be significantly and negatively impacted if they all have to stop to get parking permits first? 

More to the point, it’s unlikely that remote parking and shuttle buses will ever be feasible from a ferry marketing point of view. That’s not what ferry passengers expect. The ferry is only viable for the majority of riders if they can park reasonably close to the boat. 

Yes, a true feeder bus system would be great. Not because it would work for most ferry commuters, but because it would improve access to the waterfront for everyone, even those who don’t take the ferry. And, because it would divert some of the funding from relatively wasteful ferry subsidies to much more useful local bus routes. I would love to see WETA include this as an integral part of their proposal, but so far they show no inclination to go in that direction. 

Now for the “emergency” part of Emergency Transportation. The Berkeley Marina is home port to five Hornblower excursion boats, some of them considerably larger in passenger capacity than the ferries proposed for this route. They routinely maneuver inside the marina with no particular hazard to navigation or to marina berthers. Hornblower has a basic but fully functional terminal facility already in place behind the Doubletree hotel. These vessels are in a perfect position to serve in an emergency, if appropriate agreements were in place. But if you download the emergency plan from the WETA website at www.watertransit.org, and search for the word “Hornblower” you will come up blank. Yet WETA uses “emergency transportation” to justify spending $20 million on a duplicate terminal. 

Finally, I need to correct some disinformation about the eelgrass near the racetrack sites. It all died. This was never an eelgrass habitat, and the test patch planted a few years ago as remediation for some eelgrass destruction near the Bay Bridge was a failure. There may be other good reasons for avoiding the racetrack sites (at least, there may have been at the time the decision was made—the status of the track is in flux) but eelgrass is not one of them. 

The way to make the Berkeley ferry work is to keep the scale of the service small, so the parking and traffic loads fit within the capacity of the existing infrastructure. This means a lighter schedule, higher ticket prices and less public subsidy. But level of service was never one of the variables in the various EIR alternatives, and that’s why they need to go back and start the process over. 

It’s frustrating, because I’d like to see the ferry start operation as soon as possible. But not if it turns our diverse and active waterfront into a single-purpose wasteland of parked cars. 

Paul Kamen is a naval architect.

The Berkeley Public Library’s two-year budget is on the trustees’ May 20 meeting agenda. This is an opportune time to inform the trustees of our dissatisfaction with, and the dysfunction of the radiofrequency (RFID) self-checkout system. 

Berkeleyans Organizing for Library Defense (SuperBOLD) will make reference at the trustees’ meeting to a quote we obtained from an established vendor for a bar code self-checkout and security system to replace the Berkeley Public Library’s (BPL) RFID system. The quote for this new bar code system, including training, shipping, installation and three years maintenance is $240,303. The library director indicated in a Nov. 10, 2008 memo to the Peace and Justice Commission that maintenance and replacement of aging RFID equipment by the 3M company would cost $70,000 for the first year and increasing in subsequent years. That means just maintaining and replacing RFID equipment for three years would cost about as much as a brand new, more reliable bar code self-checkout system; a system that would not be privacy invasive. For example, your movements can be tracked when you are carrying BPL books or media containing an RFID tag. 

The Peace and Justice Commission recommended in early January 2009 that the City Council deny the waiver, but the City Council, nevertheless, approved the waiver in its Jan. 27 resolution that allowed the library to contract with 3M (a company involved in the nuclear industry) to maintain the RFID system. The council rationalized that “contracting with this vendor ... will not violate the intent of the act as no equipment will be purchased from this vendor ... and no new software technologies will be produced by 3M.” The council limited the contract to two years, requiring the library to come up with an alternative to 3M by that time. A two-year contract at $56,305 per year, or $168,915, (enough for three years!) was signed with 3M effective March 15, 2009 through March 14, 2011, presumably for maintenance only and no equipment replacement or software upgrades. Does this make sense, considering that the director said money was needed for “certain important system components primarily equipment and software updates”? As taxpayers and concerned citizens do we want money to be spent to complete “a bridge to nowhere”? Why not buy new interoperable, more reliable equipment for a bar code self-checkout system, rather than spend money maintaining aging proprietary equipment nearing its life cycle end, equipment the City Council resolution forbids the library to replace? 

The time to replace the RFID system with a non-nuclear company’s bar code system is now, not two years from now! This will make it possible for the City Council to revoke the waiver of the Nuclear-Free Berkeley Act and for SuperBOLD to stop its legal challenge of the city for violating the act. 

The Board of Library Trustees will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 20 at Berkeley’s South Branch Library (Russell and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way). Please arrive early, sign up to speak and ask the trustees to replace the RFID system now! 

Gene Bernardi is a member of SuperBOLD.

Berkeley Public Library’s own records show persistent problems with its Checkpoint Systems, Inc. radio frequency identification (RFID) checkout and security system. 

The records reveal that the library’s security gates give false alarms, and the self-service checkout machines and associated unlocking devices for CD and DVD cases frequently don’t work. Additionally, we determined that the library’s problem tracking system contains incomplete information. 

On April 29 we asked the library for information about problems with the “self-service checkout machines and exit (security) gates at the central library and branches,” in the previous 18 months. These are public records that must be disclosed under the California Public Records Act. We were provided with 109 pages of problem tracking reports (“Work Orders”) from the library’s “Track-it” problem tracking system on May 4. 

The information we obtained shows the following: 

The problems with security gates and checkout machines occur over and over again, and in many cases after service was provided under the library’s maintenance contract with the vendor, and the equipment was reported fixed or replaced. 

Some of the problems, particularly with the security gates and media (DVD and CD) case unlockers, appear to be sporadic, causing difficulty applying a remedy. In a number of instances the work orders report that the technician came out and found the equipment working normally.  

Following are some of the problems noted on the library’s Work Orders (W.O.): 

• W.O. 9,256, Claremont Branch: “We are having multiple problems with our self check-out machines. Neither one will work for DVDs. Now the printer won’t work on the one placed on the high counter. These problems are wreaking havoc with our work flow….” The problem was entered March 14, 2009 and reported completed March 27, 2009, 13 days later.  

• W.O. 7938, West Branch: “One of the self checkout machines … doesn’t read library bar codes easily. Patrons have to try it several times before it works. Sometimes it doesn’t work at all. The last track-it [W.O.] got closed but the machine is still having problems…. Patrons are annoyed and starting to just not use it.” The date reported is May 2, 2008, completed May 12, 2008, 10 days later. 

• W.O. 7643: “The unlocking box at the self-checkout station … is once again unlocking any DVD box you push into it, regardless of whether you have checked out (or even scanned a library card). This was a problem, then it got fixed, now, it seems, the fix has undone itself. I opened the unlocking box and looked at the mechanism but I didn’t see anything I could do.” This problem was fixed 27 days after it was reported March 1, 2008, according to the W.O., by replacing the lock box.  

• W.O. 7,460, Central — Fourth Floor Children’s Department: “A lot of people seem to be having problems unlocking DVDs. In this past hour, every person who had DVDs had one DVD that the unlocking machine would not even take in. In other words, the patron puts the DVD into the unlocker, but nothing happens. The DVD doesn’t even go into the machine. The DVDs are showing on the screen as checked out.” Problem entered Jan. 25, 2008, completed Feb. 11, 2008, 17 days later. 

• W.O. 8,288, South Branch: “A patron walked in with a book from North Branch that was checked out…. The gate beeped. Another patron came in with a South DVD … that was due today and the gate beeped. The gates alarms are going off when checked out materials are being returned. This undermines our use of the gates as security deterrents.” This was shown completed Aug. 6, 2008, 27 days after being reported July 11, 2008 with a note, “Tested gates, could not duplicate problem.” A year earlier the same branch reported a similar problem: “The gates at South, especially the front one, keep going off after patrons have checked things out. This undermines the whole purpose of them and reflects badly on the library.” (W.O. 6,962, reported Nov. 1, 2007, reportedly completed Nov. 14, 2007.) 

We did not look specifically for back office problems with the library’s system, but equipment malfunctions there can also have impacts that are not obvious to patrons, such as problems with checking books in or delays in shelving time-sensitive material. For example: 

• W.O. 9,342, North Branch: “RFID computer programmer not working, high priority, we can not process magazines for last three weeks.” This was reported April 1, 2009 and reportedly completed April 2, 2009, one day later. 

Revealing as these work orders may be, the record of RFID problems they provide is incomplete. For example, we conducted a field test of self-check machines and security gates and found problems with this equipment at multiple locations (see “Library’s RFID System Dysfunctional,” Berkeley Daily Planet, May 7, 2009). But we found these problems were not documented in Work Orders, despite searching back nine months, with one possible exception: a media case unlocking device we observed marked “out of order” in late April 2009. Work order 8,901 (North Branch) reported “The unlockers are not working, they are cleaned, all the connections are ok, the cd’s and dvd’s get stuck inside the boxes.” The status was shown as “pending” when we got the record May 4, 2009. We should also have seen work orders for at least the problems found in the first of our two tests, including security gate malfunctions, because these tests occurred nearly one week before we made our information request. We attempted to ask library administrators questions about these records, but did not receive a response to multiple requests made by telephone, email, and personal visit. In another example of incomplete records, we could not find any work orders documenting self-checkout machines that we saw marked “out of order” on the central library main floor Jan. 23. 

The Checkpoint Systems, Inc. RFID checkout system was supposed to make checkout quicker and easier for library patrons and staff, and to improve the security of library materials. It cost $643,000 and interest on a five year loan, plus considerable labor, to install in 2004-2005. As the Board of Library Trustees (BOLT) considers its budget for the next two years, we think the system’s reliability should be reviewed intensively, with serious consideration given to its replacement with a much cheaper and much more widely used technology, the bar code system. 

Note: The library trustees will be discussing the biennial budget at their May 20 meeting. Now is the time for library users to express their opinions about, and suggest alternatives to, the existing RFID self-check-out system. 

Peter Warfield is executive eirector of Library Users Association.

Over the last year, I’ve written several commentaries about AC Transit’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) proposal, the dedication of lanes on Telegraph for the 1R bus. I predicted that AC Transit could not afford to operate BRT without impacting other bus routes, and that prediction has come true sooner than I expected. It is now painfully clear that AC Transit can’t even afford to operate the 1R bus without cutting service on other routes. 

In the November election, voters approved Measure VV, giving AC Transit $14 million every year in additional funding, specifically to avoid fare increases and service cuts. But even with this additional money, AC Transit is now preparing for both fare increases and service cuts. They are hosting community meetings seeking public input on which routes to cut, so I’ll make the rather obvious suggestion to discontinue the 1R bus. 

Looking at the 1R schedules, it is clear that at least 13 buses are required to be in operation during the week, and seven on weekends. Two shifts of drivers are required, and when vacations, holidays, and sick days are factored in, this works out to roughly 35 full-time AC Transit employees, just to drive the 1R buses. Then there is the cost of maintenance, fuel, and depreciation of the buses. Add all this up, and the 1R looks like it costs around $7 million a year to operate, money that is wasted because the 1R duplicates the service of the 1 bus. 

Since the service started in 2007, AC Transit has wasted an estimated $14 million, driving the big 1R buses up and down Telegraph Avenue, East 14th Street, and International Boulevard every 12 to 15 minutes. The money AC Transit wasted on the 1R in the last two years, added to the projected cost of the 1R for next year, almost exactly equals the $20 million in service cuts they are planning for other bus routes. While there is no way for them to get back the money they’ve already wasted on the 1R to help their deficit for next year, they can at least stop wasting another $7 million or so every year. I think its time for AC Transit to admit that the 1R/BRT experiment has failed, and to cut their losses and avoid inconveniencing their riders even more. The BRT project, as planned by AC Transit, isn’t going to happen anyway. San Leandro Mayor Tony Santos recently told me they have decided not to allow dedicated bus lanes in their city. If Berkeley or Oakland follows San Leandro’s lead, AC Transit could easily be left with a “BRT system” having only a few miles of dedicated lanes. Or possibly none at all. Such a system might not even qualify for federal funding, which would leave AC Transit with no way to build it. 

Discontinuing the 1R bus now will significantly reduce AC Transit’s carbon footprint, and will prevent about one third of the planned cuts to other routes. And if AC Transit ever stops focusing on BRT, they can start planning for some real improvements for their other routes. In the years since BRT was proposed, new technologies have become available that can help solve the problem of bus bunching, and AC Transit should aggressively pursue them. The current situation, with two or three buses tailgating each other along their route, wastes money and fuel, and inconveniences riders. Solving this problem can free up resources and prevent even more of the planned service cuts. If AC Transit isn’t up to the job of keeping buses evenly spaced, they are welcome to contact me. I’ll be happy to help them do that. 

If AC Transit chooses to keep running the unnecessary 1R buses, and cuts service on other badly needed routes instead, it will be the height of irresponsibility for them. Greg Harper, the AC Transit Board member for Berkeley, claims to dislike the planned service cuts, because 75 percent of the riders are living below the federal poverty line. Is this a real concern for him, or just lip service to try to avoid responsibility for his actions? We’ll find out when AC Transit makes the service cuts. They can choose to support their failed pet project, and continue running big empty 1R buses up and down Telegraph, or they can keep running the buses that carry low income riders to and from their jobs, schools, shopping, and doctor’s appointments. 

Russ Tilleman is a Berkeley resident.

If there was one simple thing you could do that would reduce greenhouse gases, make neighborhoods safer and more livable, ease congestion on the streets, reduce your stress and your cholesterol, get rid of unwanted flab, all while saving you money, would you do it? Would you leave your car at home and hop on a bike? 

Those of you who ride are already in on the secret: getting there by bike is a great way to go. It’s fun, it’s easy and it has improved my life in many ways. 

Here are some phrases I never have to use: “I have to go—my parking meter is about to run out;” “I’d like to go there, but it’s so hard to park...” and “Oy, those gas prices!” 

So, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of Bike to Work Day, I invite all of you who haven’t tried it yet to make bicycling part or all of your everyday transportation. If you haven’t been on a bike recently, Bike to Work Month (the month of May) is a great time to get started. You’ll have lots of company! More and more of us are making every day bike to work day.  

One of the biggest concerns that keeps people from riding is safety. I think most people have a mental picture of their car in traffic replaced by a bike. But bike travel is actually not like car travel: you don’t have to fight with the SUVs to get where you’re going. One of the great pleasures of bike travel is freedom from snarling car traffic. 

When I was new to riding, I rode my bike the way I knew to get around in a car and it was a bit stressful. The best route in a car is rarely the best way to go by bike. Cars like streets where lots of cars move through quickly. Bikes often do better on quieter streets where there’s more room to ride and traffic moves more slowly. Because traffic lights are timed for car speeds, bike travel can be faster on the secondary streets with fewer traffic controls. With a little research you can find routes where you won’t have to tangle with traffic. Berkeley, in particular, has done a great job of creating a connected network of safe bike routes that can take you to most parts of town. 

Here are a few tips for the beginner: 

1. Get a bike that fits you and make sure it’s properly adjusted. You will feel better and riding will be easier if your bike works for your size and riding style. 

2. Find a bike shop you like and develop a relationship. What I look for in a bike shop is one that I can bike to, that sells the kind of bikes I like to ride, and, most importantly, has knowledgeable and friendly staff. A good bike shop is worth its weight in gold for the good advice and assistance they will give you.  

3. Forget the car roads and find the bike roads. Try the routes recommended on the bike map for your area. 

4. Use transit as a back-up to your bike travels. If you get tired, hop on a bus or BART for part of the journey. If you can add a bicycle component to your commute, you will probably find yourself wanting to ride more and more over time. 

5. Ride with your friends. Friends can help you find the best bike routes, point out the potholes and be your cheerleader while you gain confidence on the road.  

Bicycling is the best way to get around Berkeley and beyond. This is a great time to come along for the ride! 

Laura McCamy is an Emeryville resident and was named Alameda County’s Bike Commuter of the Year for 2009.

The Green Party of Alameda County urges you to vote no on all items on the ballot in the May 19 special election. We are opposed, of course, to the cuts in transportation, education, social services, and the rest, that are part of the budget deal which led to this special election. We oppose this deal even though the politicians tell us that great hardship will result if they don’t get their rotten deal passed. And it may even be true. But we are even more opposed to the process which concluded by offering us the “choice” of being shot in the leg or shot in the arm but did not offer us the choice of using our collective wealth to meet human needs.  

Proposition 1A is a constitutional amendment which was part of the budget agreement but parts of it go far beyond the current agreement. Ironically, per the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the provisions of 1A have no effect on the current budget. Rather, bringing this measure before the voters was the price agreed to by the Democrats to get the Republican votes needed for the budget deal. 

Prop. 1A provides that “unanticipated revenues” (revenues in excess of the 10-year average) would be saved in a Budget Stabilization Fund (“rainy day fund”) for future years in which they could be spent for the Proposition 98 K-14 educational spending mandate or (if 1B fails, for example) to pay off various loans and bonds. Opponents say this measure is unclear, not transparent, doesn’t do what it claims to do, and creates new problems.  

Prop. 1A asks us to accept a permanent spending cap (a zero growth budget) as the price the legislature insists on to raise some taxes temporarily. If such a spending cap had been in effect this year, billions of dollars in additional cuts would have been mandated. 

State spending on education, health care, the safety net for low-income people, and other essential services has been inadequate up to now. So freezing the state budget (except for population growth and inflation) means that the inadequate spending levels could never be raised. In addition, population growth does not reflect the different needs that different people have. One example we all have come to understand is that children whose families recently immigrated to the US and who do not speak English at home require more spending on school services, at least for a few years. Another example would be that as California’s population ages, more per capita spending for health care and social services will be required. 

Although the budget battle was mainly portrayed by the mainstream media as Democrats (tax, cut, and borrow) vs Republicans (cut, cut, and cut), there were some parts of the deal that even some Democrats could not bring themselves to support. District 16 Assembly member Sandre Swanson, for example, voted against 1A (and several other budget cuts), and was stripped of a committee chairmanship by the Democratic Speaker of the Assembly, Karen Bass.  

For more on why we oppose all six measures, please see our Voter Guide, on our website at www.acgreens.org. 

Janet Arnold is an Oakland resident. 

Recently WBAI management did not pay their rent for four months and received a Three Day Notice to pay or be subject to eviction. This was not promptly communicated to the financial or executive management of Pacifica. WBAI has been losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for several years and currently owes Pacifica over $1,000,000.00 in back central services contributions. Each station contributes 20 percent of its listener-generated revenue to run the Foundation. When one station isn’t making its contribution the results are that the Foundation is short on money or the other stations have to pay more. This several year problem at WBAI and the current economic downturn has caused serious financial problems for Pacifica. The current Pacifica National Board (PNB), elected in January, gives hope for the survival of Pacifica. 

Why didn’t Pacifica correct this problem early on? There was collusion among some PNB members from various stations to allow WBAI to do what they wanted to do with no oversight or accountability to the Bylaws or the listener/subscribers. The major players in this collusion were from KPFA, WBAI and WPFW, with a vote or two from KPFK and KPFT and the affiliate Reps on the PNB. 

The Local Station Board (LSB) majorities at KPFA and WBAI generally elected three PNB members that supported this collusion and WPFW, until recently, often sent four. There are 22 members of the PNB, four from each station and two Affiliate Representatives. An LSB majority can elect three of the four PNB members for their station. With ten votes from KPFA, WBAI and WPFW it only takes three votes from the ten from the other two stations and affiliate reps to have a majority to control the PNB and continue this collusion. Until this last January the Colluders had the majority for several years. 

Who are the Colluders and why did they do this? Local tyrannical majorities wanted to run their stations without regard to the Bylaws and with no oversight from the Foundation. At KPFA the “KPFAForward” (2004) and “Concerned Listener” (CL) (2006 & 2007) slates represented the same management/staff faction and generally endorsed majorities that sent three PNB members who consistently voted to protect and continue the collusion. This group included William Walker, Sarv Randhawa, Rosalinda Palacios, Mary Berg, Sherry Gendelman, Bonnie Simmons and Andrea Turner. They consistently vote/voted with the Justice & Unity majority from WBAI and the WPFW majority. They generally sit together at the PNB meetings and are regularly seen privately caucusing together at lunch and before and after meetings sometimes, with GM Lemlem Rijio when in Berkeley. 

Prior to this year’s PNB, Bob Lederer was the Justice & Unity leader on the PNB. I have attended many PNB meetings and listened to most of the others on line. During those meetings if KPFA Colluder PNB members were not sure how to vote they often passed if Bob Lederer hadn’t voted or passed. When he voted they would follow. If you don’t believe me go to the archives of the meetings and listen. Rosalinda Palacios (2006) was especially consistent with following Lederer’s votes. 

Whenever there was a move to correct the problems at WBAI the KPFA Colluders always voted with the others to protect the LSB majority at WBAI. Patty Heffley, the minority PNB Rep from WBAI, made a motion to have the PNB order the WBAI LSB to do a performance review of the general manager (GM) and the program director . The Bylaws require these to be done annually. At WBAI they had never been done, despite complaints from the LSB minority. The PNB Colluder majority refused to order the WBAI LSB to follow the Bylaws. Many others complained about WBAI being out of control and losing money and the Colluder PNB majority did NOTHING as the red ink continued to flow. 

At KPFA the CL slate and the Rijio/Lilley management work together to make sure they maintain a majority on the LSB to elect three PNB members from their group. One of their methods was to have no election information on the air when the ballots went out and at the same time the CL sent a slate mailer. After the first time this happened I wrote a motion on the PNB Election Committee requiring election information to be on the air during the election. It passed out of the election committee by a 10-2 vote. The Colluder majority on the PNB voted it down. When they finally ran some candidate information they ran 22 candidate statements in a row, always with Sherry Gendelman first! At the April 2009 PNB meeting in Berkeley the new non-Colluder PNB majority passed a motion requiring broad election coverage on the air. 

The Colluder majority was consistently against transparency. The Bylaws and California law allow Directors, PNB members, the “absolute right” to inspect all documents and facilities at any reasonable time. For years the Colluders fought to stop or hinder Directors’ Inspections. When inspections were finally allowed due to potential lawsuits it was discovered that $65,000 worth of equipment had been sent to a WBAI former GM’s father’s house and was not accounted for. As recently as 2008 a Director was ordered out of WBAI in the middle of a lawful inspection without any justification. Who gave the order? Dan Siegel, interim Executive Director, hired by the Colluder majority. 

So when you hear Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Sherry Gendelman, Bonnie Simmons, Warren Mar or any of the CL allies complain about KPFA money going to shore up WBAI, they and their allies are responsible for this crisis for trading fiscal responsibility for their power to ignore the Bylaws, transparency and accountability. 

To save Pacifica we must vote out the CL Colluders in the next election so they will not be able to send three Colluders to the PNB to ignore the Bylaws and progressive principles in favor of uncontrolled tyranny of the local majorities. KPFA is a Commons that belong to all of us and it must be protected and preserved above the CL/Rijio group’s desire for unrestrained power.  

Richard Phelps is a former chair of KPFA’s Listener Station Board.  

For many Democrats, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter’s change of party affiliation was a mixed blessing. While the 79-year-old Specter is liberal on many social issues and probably gives Dems the 60th vote they need to reach cloture, his mercurial personality and increasingly erratic behavior are troubling, and many political observers see Specter’s actions as self-serving. However, Specter views this political move as an opportunity to cement his legacy: reining in presidential power and restoring the constitutional checks and balances destroyed by the Bush administration 

Despite 44 years in the Republican Party, after Specter voted for President Obama’s stimulus package, the GOP turned against him. Conservative former Congressman Pat Toomey announced he would run against Specter in the 2010 Pennsylvania Republican primary and took an early lead in the polls. Faced with a likely failure to secure his own party’s nomination for a sixth Senate term, Specter became a Democrat. 

Writing in the New York Review of Books, Specter declared, “In the seven and a half years since Sept. 11, the United States has witnessed one of the greatest expansions of executive authority in its history, at the expense of the constitutionally mandated separation of powers.” He promised to take three steps “to restrain the executive branch.” 

“First, I intend to introduce legislation that will mandate Supreme Court review of lower court decisions in suits brought by the ACLU and others that challenge the constitutionality of the warrantless wiretapping program authorized by President Bush after Sept. 11.” On Dec. 16, 2005, the New York Times revealed that the Bush administration had been illegally wiretapping millions of Americans’ digital communications. Specter and Sen. Patrick Leahy, then the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary committee, were deliberately excluded from administration briefings on the Terrorist Surveillance Program. When Specter scheduled hearings with the CEOs of AT&T, Verizon, and Bell South—phone companies complicit with the Bush wiretapping program—“Vice President Cheney went behind my back to persuade all of the other Republicans on the committee not to support the subpoena and to boycott the session I had called to discuss a possible private hearing.” Specter seeks a Supreme Court review of Bush’s wiretapping program. 

“Second, I will reintroduce legislation to keep the courts open to suits filed against several major telephone companies that allegedly facilitated the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.” After bemoaning the Bush administration’s treatment of detainees, Specter noted that it took seven years for U.S. courts to grant habeas corpus rights for Guantanamo Bay prisoners. He observed that few courts “have been willing to take a strong stand on the Terrorist Surveillance Program.” Specter seeks to expedite judicial review of important wiretapping cases and wants the complicit telephone companies held accountable. 

“Further, I will reintroduce my legislation from 2006 and 2007 (the Presidential Signing Statements Act) to prohibit courts from relying on, or deferring to, presidential signing statements when determining the meaning of any Act of Congress.” 

In April of 2006, the Boston Globe revealed, “President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office.” Specter wrote, “These signing statements are outrageous, intruding on the Constitution’s delegation of ‘all legislative powers’ to Congress. The legislation I introduced in 2006 would have given Congress standing to challenge the constitutionality of signing statements, but it has until now failed to muster the veto-proof majority it would surely require.” Specter’s legislation would have the support of President Obama and the new Democratic congressional majority. 

In his New York Review of Books article, Specter concluded, “These experiences have crystallized for me the need for Congress and the courts to reassert themselves in our system of checks and balances. The bills I have outlined are important steps in that process. Equally important is vigorous congressional oversight of the executive branch... I will continue the fight whatever happens.” 

If Arlen Specter had remained a Republican, it’s unlikely the GOP would have supported his battle for “vigorous congressional oversight of the executive branch.” Specter became a Democrat after extensive conversations with his friend Vice President Biden. That’s a positive indication that the Obama administration will support the positions that Specter expresses in his article. And sufficient reason to welcome Arlen Specter into the Democratic Party. 

The Bush administration expansion of presidential power threatened American democracy. Legal changes must be made to ensure this abuse of executive power isn’t repeated. Arlen Specter should lead congressional action to restore our historic system of checks and balances. Let that be his legacy.  

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

From time to time, when some of my blogging and columnizing friends want to dismiss my various writings about Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums without actually having to respond to my arguments, they resort to simply calling me a “Dellums defender.” 

I freely admit to the offense. I sometimes come to Mr. Dellums’ defense when I feel a defense is warranted. This is not so much for the sake of Mr. Dellums himself, who is able to defend his own self without my help, if he wishes, but more because I feel it is Dellums’ policies that are ultimately under attack, and I feel that Dellums’ policies—if not always Dellums’ practices, which I sometimes disagree with—are important for the future of Oakland and the folks who currently live here. 

It should be no mystery why Mr. Dellums is under relentless attack. For the people who had a fairly free hand in running Oakland in the years before Mr. Dellums return, the Dellums administration poses two specific threats. The first, to the Old Oakland Establishment, is that Mr. Dellums would stop (or significantly slow down) the economic looting of Oakland that has been going on, unchecked, since the decline of the city’s progressive movement sometime in the 1970s. The second threat, also to the Old Oakland Establishment, is that the Dellums administration would spark a revival of that progressive movement, restoring it as a major player in Oakland city life, and bringing back to power the idea that Oakland ought to exist for the benefit of Oaklanders and not for the outside interests who daily carry the city’s wealth and resources back to their home communities for their own enrichment. 

The progressive revival has not occurred under Mr. Dellums, in large part because—while the mayor is certainly not against progressives—reviving the city’s progressive movement does not appear to have been his particular purpose or plan. He has failed to take progressives into his full confidence—despite the fact that they formed the background of the electoral support that propelled him to victory in 2008—and most Oakland progressives don’t see their particular platform and goals reflected in Mr. Dellums’ actions. That has left many Oakland progressives dispirited, and regarding the Dellums administration as an outright failure or as moving in a direction that is far removed from their interests. Whether that is actually true or not, that is how many progressives currently feel. 

This weekend, I asked a longtime Oakland African-American progressive activist—someone who should be at the center of Mr. Dellums’ political base—if he would support Mr. Dellums if he chose to run for re-election. He shook his head, no, emphatically without even stopping to consider the question. Then I asked him if he would support Mr. Dellums if he were running against former state Sen. Don Perata. My progressive friend stopped, thought for a moment with a furrowed brow, and finally said, “God, you ask some tough questions.” To my progressive friend, Mr. Perata is something akin to the devil’s spawn, but he is so disappointed in the performance of Mr. Dellums, he does not see a second Dellums term as a desirable alternative. He is not alone. 

That’s a reflection on how much Mr. Dellums has neglected his political base and, as a consequence, how low his political standing in that base has fallen. 

But, of course, this progressive dispiritedness and lack of enthusiasm around the Dellums administration—the first or a prospective second—has not come in a vacuum. Mr. Dellums has been under media and blog attack virtually from the time the last votes were counted in the summer of 2008 and his victory was certified. 

Frankly, Mr. Dellums brought on a good deal of this criticism himself. 

While the mayor is one of the best communicators of our time, his time to be able to devote to public speaking and attending community meetings is understandably limited, and he has failed to develop a cadre within his staff to regularly and successfully promote his programs and ideas when he cannot be in attendance. In fact, while there are some excellent and loyal members of Mr. Dellums’ staff, the staff as a whole has not been put together in a way that would provide coherent and coordinated support for the mayor. 

Need an example? 

At last year’s National Night Out events, which I wrote about at the time in a column, I followed the mayor around to several block parties. A large group of staff members also accompanied the mayor in what I think I called an “entourage.” The mayor was excellent during the National Night Out events. His staff was not. I observed only two of them working while the mayor made brief speeches or walked around in the crowds to conduct one-on-one conversations—Executive Assistant Marisol Lopez, who kept by the mayor’s side to make sure he made all the rounds and spoke to everybody he was supposed to, and Re-Entry Specialist Isaac Taggart, who worked the crowd on his own, away from the mayor, passing out his cards and talking to people who might be eligible for his services. The rest of the staff did little or nothing of value to the mayor or to the events, but instead walked around aimlessly or stood chatting with each other, picking up plates of free food, or, at one of the events, shooting basketballs at the plastic hoops set up for the kids. 

Two things must be noted.  

The first is that not all of the mayor’s staff members were present for the National Night Out Events (I don’t remember seeing Chief of Staff David Chai, but perhaps he was there and I missed him).  

The second is that I know many of the mayor’s staff, and most of them—even the ones I tend to disagree with—are extremely hard-working, putting in long hours for mostly low pay. The problem at National Night Out last year was not that the mayor’s staff didn’t want to do anything, the problem was that there didn’t appear to be any plan for them to work on—to get contact names of individuals in attendance, for example, to hold their own talks with residents, to listen to the various discussions that occurred after the mayor moved on in order to assess how his message had been received, or to even to listen to the mayor’s discussions with people to write down—and later act on—any grievances that might have been brought up. In short, the mayor’s staff did not act like a staff, much less a team. They acted like an assemblage of spectators. 

This has been Mr. Dellums biggest downfall as mayor of Oakland: his failure to put together a staff that presents a united front to carry out the mayor’s programs. The public perception is that it is a staff at odds with itself, squabbling and fighting internally, some looking out more for themselves and their next job than for the mayor’s—much less the city’s—interest. Whether or not that is actually true—and I don’t sit in on staff meetings or walk through the offices during the day to know for sure—that is certainly the public perception and one very different, for example, than the one you encounter when dealing with the staffs of some of Mr. Dellums’ protégés, State Representative Sandré Swanson or Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, for example. 

It’s the mayor’s responsibility to put together his own staff, and nothing in this commentary should be construed to imply that I am attempting to seek to excuse Mr. Dellums on that account. 

But sadly, the Dellums staff disarray—and in some instances, perhaps, outright internal sabotage by people whose loyalties lie outside the Dellums camp—has made it so that much of the criticism of the Dellums program either goes poorly answered, or unanswered at all. Thus, I defend the Dellums administration from time to time because the Dellums administration is not doing a good enough job of defending itself. 

But even though much—maybe most—of the criticism of Mr. Dellums is well-deserved and honestly derived, much of that dissent has been fueled by people, organizations, and entities that have an interest in seeing Mr. Dellums fail. 

One of those individuals, of course, is former State Senator Don Perata, who has long made it plain that he would like to sit in the Oakland mayor’s seat currently occupied by Mr. Dellums, and would prefer that his 2010 mayoral race come against a weakened Mr. Dellums or against no Mr. Dellums at all. And if you don’t think that much of the media criticism of Dellums has been manufactured directly out of the Perata camp—which has an extensive collection of friends in the local media—then who’s being naive now, Kay? 

But there are other major interests with their own stake in Oakland’s direction. The big-pocket developers who made a killing when Jerry Brown was mayor and Mr. Perata held considerable “influence” over a majority of the votes on the Oakland City Council on key development issues. The leaders of the Oakland Police Officers Association police union, who raked in considerable perks and power and millions in overtime during the same period. These interests would certainly like to return to the days when Oakland was like an International Boulevard hooker ripe for their easy plucking, and so have helped direct and fuel an enduring media blitz that has left us with the false impression that Mr. Dellums is a doddering old fool, napping at his desk during the afternoons, and neglecting the business of the city. 

Like many, I assumed (and hoped) that Mr. Dellums would spark a progressive renaissance in Oakland. But of course, I also thought that Jerry Brown would spark an intellectual renaissance in the city, so I’m not always right. Mr. Dellums won’t block a progressive renaissance but he won’t lead one either, and if there is to be one, we progressives must develop and lead it ourselves. Meanwhile, I think that the legacy of Ron Dellums’ first term is that, mistakes and all, he will almost certainly leave the city infrastructure—public safety, budget and finance, and development—in better shape than when he found it and, if we choose to use it, provide a platform from which the city can rebound from its present troubles. If you think that makes me a Dellums “defender,” then I’ll just have to live with that.

Last week I explored some of the variations of siblicide, or cainism, in golden eagles and other birds, as described by zoologist Douglas Mock in More Than Kin and Less Than Kind: The Evolution of Family Conflict. As that subtitle implies, Mock has also studied less extreme forms of sibling competition, such as begging for parental attention. He’s also interested in the parents’ role in various degrees of domestic mayhem. 

Most parent birds, it seems, don’t try to referee conflicts between their offspring. They just watch the drama unfold. Mock says he expected to see some kind of intervention in his field work on great egrets, at least to see a parent call a timeout by sitting on the combatants. But that rarely happened. 

In some cases, parental favoritism is blatant. Magellanic penguins lay two eggs, starting incubation with the first so that one chick has a head start. Both typically hatch, but the parents feed only the first chick; the second starves to death. A relative, the royal penguin, lays a smaller egg first, then a larger one, whereupon it boots the first egg out of the nest. 

Overt infanticide seems rare among birds, unlike mammals. There’s one well-documented instance of a European black stork touching down at a nest, feeding the chicks, and then picking up the smallest and pitching it over the side, to its death. It’s not certain that the killer was a parent, but the circumstantial evidence is strong. 

Something similar also occurs in family groups of coots. The phenomenon was first described by Gordon W. Gullion, who observed American coots at Jewel Lake in Tilden Regional Park as Starker Leopold’s graduate student at UC Berkeley. (He went on to become a professor at the University of Minnesota and an authority on the ruffed grouse.) 

Coot chicks go through a dramatic transition as their mature. They hatch out as grotesque little creatures, but lose their orange head feathers and bald pates within three weeks. In an article published in The Auk in 1954, Gullion wrote: “Since the parents seem to recognize their brood by the color pattern of the majority, the oldest birds become subject to occasional attacks when they start turning light…Sometimes these parental attacks are quite severe, and it is conceivable that young might occasionally be killed by their parents during this transition period.” 

Thirty years later, William Horsfall reported similar behavior in the common coot of Eurasia, which he called “tousling.” That sounds innocuous enough, but involved the parent grabbing the chick’s head and shaking it vigorously, sometimes with fatal consequences. Tousling appears to be directed at the larger chicks 

in a brood, who would otherwise outcompete younger siblings for food. If not killed outright, the victims sometimes stop begging for parental handouts and waste away. 

Gullion’s Tilden Park observations seem to fit with the idea of parental intervention on behalf of younger chicks, which received support from an experimental field study by Bruce Lyon in British Columbia in the 1990s. In each of 21 coot broods, Lyon gave half the chicks a trim, sniping off their orange feather tips. He found that unclipped chicks were fed more, grew faster, and had better survival rates than their barbered siblings. Hatching order didn’t seem to affect the outcomes. 

Other biologists have speculated that the gaudy plumage of coot chicks may help parents decide where to make their investments. Maybe the color of the bald head somehow indicates the state of the chick’s health. Alternatively, the whole gaudy getup may be a chick’s way of competing for parental attention—a visual adjunct to begging. 

One study compared chick plumages and life histories for the whole rail family, which includes coots. Most species had plain chicks. Ornamentation tended to correlate with territoriality, large broods, aquatic habitats, and complex mating systems (some rallids go in for polyandry.) American and European coots exhibit the first three traits, but they’re monogamous, at least socially. I don’t know if anyone has done the indicated paternity tests. 

There’s another wrinkle, of course (there’s always another wrinkle): female coots, apparently “floaters” without a territory, often lay their eggs in other coots’ nests. Does chick coloration let parents identify their own offspring in a mixed brood? This doesn’t seem to be a factor: vigilant coots usually eject alien eggs or bury them in the floor of the nest, so very few actually hatch. 

You would not expect the lowly mudhen to have such a complicated set of behaviors. (My great-grandfather, a sometime duck hunter, once brought home what family legend remembers as a mudhen and asked my great-grandmother to cook it with the ducks. This was not a success. The presumed coot had to be discarded and the kitchen thoroughly aired out. The hunter never lived it down.)

Flushing toilets account for nearly 30 percent of our water usage and with water bills at an all-time high, I thought it might be time to talk about how to replace a toilet. (It’s also a VERY green thing to do, since the system that supplies water to our homes contributes greatly to CO emissions.) 

This is actually a fairly simple job but I’ll try to show you where the tricky parts are. Nonetheless, this is a much more manageable job than many plumbing chores, and not beyond the skill of a beginner if you pay attention and work thoughtfully. 

First, a single-piece toilet will be simpler to install than a two -piece, though they tend to be somewhat more expensive. With a single-piece, there will be almost no set-up. With a two-piece, you’ll have to put the two parts together using a rubber seal that sits between the two parts and two (sometime three) bolts that you’ll be installing to hold the two parts together. 

First, determine the distance from the center of the flange (that’s the ring that the toilet attaches to and represents the first part in the piping that leads to the sewer). This is simple because the two bolts that you can see on either side of the base of the toilet (or the white caps covering them) site just to the left and right of the center of the flange. So measure the distance from the center of the bolts (you can pop the caps off using either a narrow flat screwdriver or a firm putty knife. They snap on and pop off. Measure the distance from the center of the bolt to the wall (think about trims and other items that may come forward of the wall and account for them too). Measure the bolts on either side and average the two as these may be slightly off center (one more forward and one more backward).  

When you buy your new toilet, be sure that it will fit with that distance from the flange center. This is a great question for the purveyor of said toilet and a great reason not to shop at a big box store, as they are not likely to understand the questions (assuming you can even find someone to ask).  

A typical recommended distance is one foot but some toilets are closer to 11 inches, and it’s best to be sure that your new toilet will fit without a struggle. As a rule, newer toilets fit easily where older toilets has formerly resided. 

If you’ve bought a new two-piece, you’re going to want to follow the instructions carefully in putting it together. The bolts that hold the toilet parts together may already be installed on one side, but if they’re not, it’s very important to get the order of parts right. There must be a seal or rubber washer on the inside of the tank that goes onto the bolt before any other part. This keeps the toilet from leaking at the bolt. There will then be a washer and nut (usually) on the outside of the bottom of the tank. Once these are tightened to a fairly firm setting, the bolts can then be fed through the holes in the bowl and then tightened with the appropriate washers and a nut as per the instructions. Get these washers and nuts in the right order. It’s one of the tricky parts of this job. 

When your toilet is all together and ready to go, you can take the old toilet off. You’ll need to pop those caps off (if you have caps) and the use a small adjustable wrench to remove the nuts. Turn off the water at the shut-off valve next the toilet and use a cup to remove as much water as you can after you’ve flushed. The more water you are able to bail into sink, the less you get to mop up after you’ve started to remove the toilet. This is, nonetheless, a wet job. 

Remove the flexible connector from the bottom of the toilet. Some of these are actually fairly rigid and may not fully disconnect until you lift the toilet. 

It’s not a bad idea to get help with this part if you can, but a strong individual can lift a toilet off a flange and move it across the floor to a safe spot. 

I would always recommend installing a new flexible connector from the valve to the toilet. Be sure to take the old one to the store to get the size of the connection at the shutoff, though they are usually 3/8”. The other size will be a typical toilet connection and is standardized. Just buy a “toilet” connector (but they’re 7/8” just in case). 

The next part is the trickiest. You will need to remove and replace the old wax seal. This requires some study of the new toilet. Using a putty knife, remove as much of the old wax as you can. Now, I’m very old fashioned and I like the plain wax rings, but there are times when the new ones with plastic inserts can be helpful. But be cautious; the plastic insert doesn’t smoosh (yes, smoosh is a word!) into place the way wax does, so if the toilet fits to the flange very tightly, it may end up holding the base of the toilet up off the floor and may even cause a leak. I usually show up with at least one of each kind and look at it to decide what I want. If the flange sits well below the level of the finished floor (the tile or linoleum or whathaveyou), you may need two stacked one on top of another. This isn’t ideal but it usually works. There are special flange shimming devices but I’m not a fan. For me, more is less. So place your wax seal (or seals) so that they will stand higher than the point under the toilet where they will make contact. Excess wax will find its way out into the space under the toilet. Better a too much than too little but the ideal fit has you pushing the toilet down a bit. I tend to get on the seat facing the wall and sort of ride it down until it touches the floor. 

Now, backing up, before you put the toilet onto the flange you’ll be checking or replacing the toilet bolts. These are the ones that actually hold the toilet to the flange. These might be fine and can be left in place. If you’re not sure, they are not expensive. I tend to replace them as a matter of course but there’s always room for an exception. The toilet bolts fit into slots on either side of the center point of the flange. When you see the old ones in place, you’ll see just how to slide them out and slide the new ones into place. It’s a very cool system, but they seem to work best when there are an extra set of nuts and washers that hold the bolt to the flange so that they want to aim straight up to meet the holes in the toilet. Otherwise, it’s a bit floppier a situation and when you’re holding a toilet in the air over the flange, everything can be a little hard to align.  

So now you’re ready. Pick up the toilet by the sides of the bowl and gently find the bolts through the holes and slowly push it down until we meet the ground. It should feel snug and not slide easily from side to side. The wax should be gripping the toilet somewhat and the toilet should not rock. 

Finish by putting a new set of cap bases on (be sure to have them right side up. They have an up side stamped on most), then a washer and then a nut. Tighten the nut until it feels tight enough to keep the toilet from moving at all. That’s it. No tighter. It is china after all and can break off and that’s no fun at all. When you feel like the toilet is nice and tight. Install a cap over each cap base. Connect your new flexible water line nice and tight on both ends. Also be sure that the fill valve that sticks out of the bottom of the toilet is nice and tight too. Some come from the factory a bit loose and we don’t want a leak (or a flood). Building codes call for toilets to be sealed to the floor (usually done with a bead of caulk) but I have to confess that I am divided on this due to concern that a leak at the flange will not present itself for ready view on the floor but will instead act insidiously until the floor has rotted away. 

When you buy your new toilet, take the time to look at the ultra-low flow and dual flush models. These can greatly decrease your water usage and most now work quite well. This job may be able to pay for itself in under a year, given the high cost of water so what are you waiting for. And your husband says you never do anything nice for him! 

THURSDAY, MAY 14 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Our Art Show” Exhibition of works by the youth in the James Kenney programs at James Kenney Recreation Center, 1720 8th St. 981-6650. 

“Then and Now” Photographs by Sebastiåo Salgado. Reception and 6 p.m. at The Hazel Wolf Gallery in the David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way, at Oxford. 809-0900. 

“The Mud Wagon and More” A lecture on some of the iconic items in the museum’s History Gallery at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

FILM 

“An Evening with Barry Gifford, Sailor & Lula” Screening of David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” in celebration of the publication of Barry Gifford’s “The Imagination of the Heart” at 9 p.m. at The Cerrito Speakeasy Theater, 10070 San PAblo Ave., El Cerrito. Cost is $8. Sponsored by Pegasus Books. 649-1320. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Re:con-figure” Panel discussion by the artists, moderated by René de Guzman at 7 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 2990 San Pablo Ave. Exhibition runs to June 27. 841-7000. www.kala.org 

Sunaina Marr Maira discusses “Missing Youth, Citizenship, and Empire after 9/11” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com 

Nafisa Haji reads from “The Writing on My Forehead” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New Century Chamber Orchestra “Shadows and Light” with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $32-$54. 415-357-1111. www.ncco.org 

Marley’s Ghost at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Noam Lemish Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Boy in the Bubble, Farewell Typewriter, The Clarences at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Truth Be Told with Dynamic, hip-hop and spoken word at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Planet Loop at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Country Joe McDonald’s Open Mic and One Year Birthday Party at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar St, at Bonita. 841-4824. www.bfuu.org 

FRIDAY, MAY 15 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Luv” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through May 23. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Altarena Playhouse “A Streetcar Named Desire” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda, through June 7. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Berkeley Rep “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” at Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. through May 24. Tickets are $33-$71. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Rep “You, Nero” at 2025 Addison St., through June 28. Tickets are $13.50-$71. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Impact Theatre “Impact Briefs: Puberty” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through June 6. Tickets are $10-$17. impacttheatre.com 

“So Fresh and So Clean” with Joe Hernandez-Kolski and Joshua Silverstein at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

FILM 

“On Love & Other Difficulties” Six short videos by Antero Alli with the filmmaker in person, at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St., near Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $6-$10. 444-7263. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Eve Pell reads from “We Used to Own the Bronx” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Ballet Theater “The Seasons & Collage” Fri. at 7 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at The Julia Morgan, 2460 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$21. 830-9524. 

“Rhythms of Life - a Fusion of Dance, Music, Theater, Song & Fashion” by Berkeley High School’s African American Dance Program at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Community Theater Berkeley High Campus. Tickets are $3-$10. 644-6120. BrownPaperTickets.com 

Oakland East Bay Symphony “Show Boat in Concert” with Julie Adams, soprano, Ben Jones, tenor, and Debbie de Coudreaux, mezzo soprano, at 8 p.m. at the Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway in Oakland. Tickets are $25-$70. 800-745-3000. www.oebs.org 

West African Highlife Band at Utunes Coffe House at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$18. www.brownpapertickets.com 

Michael Smolens’ Earplay Jazzquintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Soja, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $18-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jen Shyu and Schumann’s Humanns at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

The Patrick Landeza Project at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Bottisini Project at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Anchor Down, Brickfight, Canadian Rifle, The Dopamines at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

WomenGig with Coyote Grace at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo. Donation $10-$15. 548-5198. 

The Green Machine at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

East Bay Soul & Funk Revue with BASSment, Stymie & The Pimp Jones Love Orchestra, Lord Loves a Working Man at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Sun House at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SATURDAY, MAY 16 

CHILDREN  

“Orca, The First Whale” A puppet show based on a tale from Native Americans in the Northwest, at 11 a.m., and 2 and 4 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Cost is $7. 452-2259. www.fairyland.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Co-Motion” Video installation about movement by Cheryl Calleri and Thekla Hammond. Opening reception at 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. info@berkeleyartcenter.org  

“Reflections of Me and My World” ArtEsteems 11th Annual Art Exhibition. Reception at 3 p.m. at Oliver Art Center, California College of the Arts, 5212 Broadway at College, Oakland. 652-5530. 

“The Many Faces of Buddhism” Photographs by Adrienne Miller opens at the Berkeley Public Library, Catalog Lobby, 2090 Kittredge St. and runs trough July 31. 981-6241. 

THEATER 

“Foibles Mench” performance, robots, fire and live music at 10 p.m., doors at 8 p.m., at NIMBY, 8410 Amelia St., Oakland. Tickets are $15-$20. www.brownpapertickets.com/event/63231 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

24th Bay Area Storytelling Festival Sat. and Sun. from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Kennedy Grove Recreation Area, featuring Jay O’Callahan, Antionio Rocha, Gayle Ross, Judith Black and Doug Elliott. Cost is $40-$80. registration required. 869-4969. www.bayareastorytelling.org 

International Day for Sharing Life Stories, honoring the birthday of Studs Terkel, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Charles Hobson, book artist, speaks at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Ballet Theater “The Seasons & Collage” Sat. at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at The Julia Morgan, 2460 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$21. 830-9524. 

The Women's Antique Vocal Ensemble 10th Anniversary Concert with selections from the WAVE archives of the past ten years including medieval works from Spain, England, and France at 7:30 p.m. at Montclair Presbyterian Church, 5701 Thornhill Dr., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. 233-1479. www.wavewomen.org 

California Baroque Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864.  

Contra Costa Chorale and Contra Costa College Chamber Singers “From Brahms to Bernstein” at 7:30 p.m. at St. Jerome Church, 308 Carmel Ave., El Cerrito.Cost $12-$15. www.ccchorale.org 

Lady Bianca Blues at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Haitian Flag Day Cutural Extravaganza with Sophis & Kalbass Kreyol, drum and dance performances at 10 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Kompa dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $10-415. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Euphonia at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

Pocket Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Kathy Kallick at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Ed Reed at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Kurt Ribak Jazz at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Reality Playthings improvisation with Frank Moore at 8 p.m. at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St., Oakland. fmoore@eroplay.com 

Roger Rocha and the Goldenhearts at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

77 El Deora, Misisipi Rider, Gayle Lynn and the Hired Hands at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

SUNDAY, MAY 17 

CHILDREN 

Kathy Kallick Show at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

Squeak Carnwath “Painting is no Ordinary Object” Docent tour at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

“Tempered Fragility” New work by Reem Rahim. Afternoon tea at 3 p.m. at The Compound Gallery, 6604 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. 655-9019. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Art and Constructs of Race: Casta Paintings and Contemporary Conversations about Identity” with Charlene Villaseñor Black at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

14th Annual Jazz on Fourth Street Festival with performances by Charles Hamilton Alumni Band, Tito y su son de Cuba, Johnny Nitro & the Doorslammers and the Berkeley High Jazz Orchestra and Combos, from noon to 5 p.m. on Fourth St., between Hearst and Virginia. 

Berkeley Ballet Theater “The Seasons & Collage” at 2 p.m. at The Julia Morgan, 2460 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$21. 830-9524. 

Golden Gate Boys Choir & Bellringers Spring Concert at 2 p.m. at Calvary Christian Center, 1516 Grand St, Alameda. Suggested donation $5-$10. 887-4311. www.ggbc.org 

Vukani Mawethu Choir Concert of gospel, spirituals, labor, and freedom songs of Southern Africa, at 2 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway, Oakland. Donations accepted. 444-3555. www.firstchurchoakland.org 

Kairos Youth Choir “The Pirates of Penzance” with local singers, ages 7 through 14, at 4 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $12-$17. kairostickets@gmail.com 

The Prometheus Symphony Orchestra at 3 p.m. at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. The concert is free and families and children are welcome. www.prometheussymphony.org 

Berkeley Akademie Ensemble, Kent Nagano, Artistic Director, at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $20-$60. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

Contra Costa Chorale and Contra Costa College Chamber Singers “From Brahms to Bernstein” at 3 p.m. at El Sobrante United Methodist Church, 670 Appian Way, El Sobrante. Tickets are $12-$15. www.ccchorale.org 

Crowden Alumni Concert with David McCarroll, violin, at 4 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Cost is $12, free for age 18 and under. 599-2941. 

Sacred & Profane performs works for a cappella women’s choir at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $15-$20. 

On Ensemble, taiko drumming, at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Martín Perna and Adrian Quesada at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

African Roots of Jazz at 7 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Americana Unplugged: Claudia Russel & The Folk Unlimited Orchestra at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

60s British Explosion Unplugged at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

MONDAY, MAY 18 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Subterranean Shakespeare Theater Company “Merchant of Venice” Staged reading at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Cost is $8. 276-3871. 

Russell Howze shows slides of artwork from his book “Stencil Nation: Graffiti, Community and Art” at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Norma Cole reads at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Laila Lalami reads from “Secret Son” at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 6050 El Cerrito Plaza. 524-0087. 

Poetry Express with Lummox Press author Todd Moore from Albuquerque and Lummox Press publisher Raindog from Los Angeles at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

West Coast Songwriters at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $5. 548-1761.  

TUESDAY, MAY 19 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Colson Whitehead on his new book “Sag Harbor” at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 3rd flr Community Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6107. 

Jewish Writers in the Bay Area Naomi Rose disusses “MotherWealth: The Feminine Path to Money” at 7:30 p.m. at the JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $10 - $20 sliding scale, and benefits the Aquarian Minyan. 528-6725. 

Neil Marcus and Petra Kuppers read from thier book “Cripple Politics” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Adorno Ensemble “Music 101: Linking Music and Mathmatics” for strings, piano, and percussion at 8 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Cost is $10-$20, high school students free. 525-5211. www.berkeleychamberperform.org 

Creole Belles at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Singers’ Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Classical at the Freight at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $8.50-$9.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20 

FILM 

Independent Filmmakers Screening Night Bring your 5 - 10 minute shorts & selects to screen every Wed. at 6:30 p.m. at Café of the Dead, 3208 Grand Ave., next to the Grand Lake Theater. Oakland. 931-7945. cafedeadscreening@gmail.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian talk about “Collateral Damage: America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians” at 7 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr., Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Tickets are $10-$15. Benefit for Middle East Children's Alliance, no one turned away for lack of funds. 548-0542. www.mecaforpeace.org 

Katie Hafner reads from “Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould’s Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087.. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Dry Branch Fire Squad at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

VW Brothers at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Los Bros & The Maracats at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Fishtank Ensemble and Eva Primaxk and Aurelia at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $TBA. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Black Olive Babes, Eastern European, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. www.lebateauivre.net 

Conjunto Rovira at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

James Whiton Duo at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

THURSDAY, MAY 21 

THEATER 

“Oedipus Tyrannos” by Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule at 8 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., uptown Oakland, between Telegraph and Broadway. www.HumanistHall.org 

FILM 

Berkeley Filmmakers Screening Series “Children of the Amazon” which follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the indigenous Surui and Negarote children she photographed fifteen years ago at 7 p.m. at Zaentz Media Center, 2600 Tenth St. Free, but reservations required. reservations@berkeleyfilmscreening.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Timothy Green and Joel Barraquiel Tan at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

“The Life and Art of Chiura Obata” with Kimi Kodani Hill, the granddaughter of Chiura Obata at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton St., El Cerrito. friendselcerritolibrary. 

wordpress.com 

“Memories and Dreams of the Twentieth Century” stories and songs performed by Michael D. Brown at noon at the Badè Museum, in the Hollbrook Building at the Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic. 848-0528. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Key Lime Pie and Gankmore at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

David Berkeley, Jeremy Dion at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Andy Mason, The Fancy Dan Band, Nomi and Hello, Harbinger at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Netta Brielle at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Whiskey Hill at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

FRIDAY, MAY 22 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Luv” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through May 23. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Altarena Playhouse “A Streetcar Named Desire” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda, through June 7. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Berkeley Rep “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” at Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. through May 24. Tickets are $33-$71. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Rep “You, Nero” at 2025 Addison St., through June 28. Tickets are $13.50-$71. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Central Works “Misanthrope” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through June 21. Tickets are $14-$25. 558-1381. centralworks.org 

Impact Theatre “Impact Briefs: Puberty” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through June 6. Tickets are $10-$17. impacttheatre.com 

Shotgun Players “Faust, Part 1” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. through June 28. Tickets are $18-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“id:ENTITY” Photographs by Linda Kramer, Lisa Levine, Peter Tonningsen, Jan Watten. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Autobody Fine Art, 1517 Park St., Alameda. Exhibition runs to June 28. 865-2608. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Catherine Mayo reads from “The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ranferi Aguilar & Hacedores de Lluvia, music inspired by the Mayan culture at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Wilcox/Brown/Bowman Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Skin & Bone, Bread & Rses benefit at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Montana Slim String Band, Chris Haugen’s Seahorse Rodeo and Tom Freund at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Flux, The Big Nasty at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Justin Ancheta at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Macabea, Brazilian ensemble, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SATURDAY, MAY 23 

CHILDREN  

Jacqueline Lynaugh as The Blue Fairy Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Cost is $7. 452-2259. www.fairyland.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

1st Annual Youth Arts Fair with displays of youth artwork, entertainment provided by local singers, dancers, musicians and poets, and information booths about youth-oriented organizations from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. Sponsored by the Berkeley Youth Commission. 

“The African Presence in Mexico” Curator-led tour at 2 p.m., followed by scholar discussion at 3 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

THEATER 

Adelina Anthony “LA Sad Girl” at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Round Belly Theatre Company “24 Hour Theatre” Plays are written, rehearsed and preformed within a 24 hour period. Writers will start writing plays at 8 p.m. Fri. Plays will be presented at 8 p.m. Sat. at the Subteranean Arthouse, 2170 Bancroft Way. Suggested donation $10. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Wanda McCaddon interviewed by Jane Schiffman at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 3rd flr Community Room, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck. 981-6241. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Kairos Youth Choir “The Pirates of Penzance” with local singers, ages 7 through 14 at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $12-$17. kairostickets@gmail.com 

Rhythm & Muse music and spoken word open mic featuring Susan Newman, poetry vocal improv, with Eliza Shefler, piano improv, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose sts. 644-6893. 

Anna de Leon & Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

West African Highlife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $10-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Grant Milliken Sextet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

LT3: The Luke Thomas Trio at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

The Zydepunks, Culann’s Hounds at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Harley White Jr. Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Classics of Love, The New Trust, Dirty Filthy Mugs at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, MAY 24 

CHILDREN 

Octopretzel at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

THEATER 

Sia Amma “In Search of Clitoris” at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chamber Music Sundaes, featuring members of The San Francisco Symphony and friends at 3 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets at the door are $20 to $25. 415-753-2792. www.chambermusicsundaes.org  

Adam Theis Group, honoring Miles Davis’ Birthday, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Americana Unplugged: Pete Madson at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Flamenco Open Stage at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Art Lande at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com

Internationally popular novelist, poet screenwriter—and Berkeley resident—Barry Gifford will be on hand at 9 p.m. tonight at the Cerrito Speakeasy for a celebration of the release of The Imagination of the Heart, the seventh of his Sailor and Lula book series. 

The event will also feature a screening of the 1990 movie of Wild at Heart, from the story that began the series, directed by David Lynch, with whom Gifford co-wrote the screenplay. The movie won the 1990 Palme D’Or at Cannes Festival. 

The evening is co-sponsored by Pegasus Books.  

“Joe Cristiano of Pegasus wanted me to do a reading there,” Gifford recounted, “and show Wild at Heart. Somewhere along the line, I made the suggestion: Why not go back to the Cerrito Speakeasy, which had shown a film of mine before, quite successfully, with Pegasus as the concessionaire for books? It was fun; I loved the place.” 

Gifford continued, “Joe suggested that actors read from the book. So I mentioned Anne Darragh, who played the mother in my play, Wyoming, when the Magic Theatre did it. Anne’s a superb actress, who was in the original cast of Angels in America in New York. I’ll do a Q & A. A little kind of event; easy on me. I get to listen for a change.” 

Gifford gave a glimpse into the latest installment: “In this one, Lula is 80 years old; the Sailor’s been dead for years. She takes a last road trip, with her best friend, Beany, to see their son, Pace, involved in rebuilding New Orleans following Katrina. There’s narrative from the diary she keeps, and dialogue with Beany and people they meet on the trip.” 

Next April, an omnibus volume will collect the seven stories under one cover, though the publisher will also keep the individual volumes in paperback.  

“This huge omnibus will be the culmination,” he said. “I’m very happy. There have been compilations before, with six of them in many countries, but not this one. Even in Russia it’s in omnibus, this way in France, in Spain. It’ll nice to have them all under one roof. And now the whole new thing is e-books, which will be out next April, too. Nobody knows exactly what will happen with them. But I like the idea of the Sailor and Lula on e-books as well as in print, introducing future generations to them as well.” 

Talking about the new electronic and online form of what was once exclusively print media, Gifford asked, “How many kids today think about going into the journalism business? Where is it? Online, some of it is good, most not. The dailies seem to be on their way out. But it has to come back in some form, just like in the record business, where CDs are phasing out—there won’t be any record stores—yet performers insist the recording companies put out vinyl editions of their work. But if no young people go into the news or magazine business, there’ll be nobody to replace the retirees.” 

Gifford mentioned he will be guest speaker in his daughter’s class in Hayward about “kids 11 to 12, on what will they do when they grow up—I’ll speak on my profession. But I’m more interested in what they’re thinking. We seem to be at the end of a very particular era. For somebody like myself, who cares how the word looks on the page, every word chosen after great deliberation, it’s sort of hard to take. And for someone who writes so much dialect, what can you expect from spell check? But I’m far from being a pessimist. New forms emerge; this is a very transformative time. We’ll see how this shakes out.” 

AN EVENING WITH BARRY GIFFORD 

Featuring a screening of Wild at Heart and readings from his work. 9 p.m. Thursday, May 14, at the Cerrito Theater, 10070 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. $8. 649-1320; www.cerritospeakeasy.com. Co-Sponsored by Pegasus Books.

Kent Nagano, in his next-to-last outing with the Berkeley Akademie before he steps down as Berkeley Symphony music director, will present Mozart’s Divertimento, K. 136; the premiere of Masques and Divertissements by Alexander Muno; and Johannes Brahms’ Serenade No. 1 in D Major. 7 p.m. Sunday, May 17, at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. $20-40. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org. 

New Century Orchestra, directed by Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, concludes their season by performing Shadow and Light at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 14, at First Congregational Church, featuring a new commissioned work by Clarice Assad, Dreamscape, and “night music” by Mozart, Borodin, Bernard Herrmann (Psycho Suite) and Strauss’ “Fleudermauss.” $32-54. (415) 357-1111. www.ncco.org. 

California Baroque Ensemble (soprano, harpsichord, flute, violin and cello) plays music by Corelli, Purcell, von Biber, de la Guerre, Bach and Handel. 8 p.m. Saturday, May 16, at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana. $8-12. 549-3864. www.trinitychapelconcerts.com.

The Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble (WAVE) will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a concert and party at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Montclair Presbyterian Church in Oakland. The 19 musical selections, all from performances over the past decade, include medieval works from Spain, England and France. The 14-member ensemble will be led by founder and director Cindy Beitman, and will feature special guests Joyce Johnson-Hamilton and Alta Sonora playing cornetto, sackbut, slide trumpet, dulcians and shawms. 

The program moves from anonymous compositions of the 13th and 14th centuries, to pieces of the 14th century composed by Johannes Ciconia and Guillaume Dufay, to 16th century pieces by Thoinot Arbeau, Andrea Gabrieli, Cipriano de Rore, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Claude Le Jeune, Jacques Arcadelt, Adrian Willaert, Orlando di Lasso and Alessandro Striggio. 

WAVE was founded in September 1999 as an outgrowth of a class under the aegis of the San Francisco Early Music Society, of which WAVE is now an affiliate. Cindy Beitmen, who had come to the Bay Area hoping to develop an early music ensemble after leaving her position as voice and diction teacher at Northern Arizona University (“After learning a viola de gamba with a few strings missing was the only early music instrument in town, I felt Flagstaff might not be the best place to start.”), recalled that a dozen women came to sing, “and at the end I popped the big question: who would like to keep going on with this and be part of such an ensemble?” 

Five current members of WAVE were part of that initial class. Dedicated to promoting and performing music of the medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods “in as authentic and skilled a manner as possible,” WAVE performs concerts in the greater Bay Area, as well as public service concerts and outreach programs for hospitals and senior citizens. Beitmen recalls singing the Vivaldi Gloria in February 2007, “accompanied by a full baroque orchestra for inmates at the Santa Rita Jail ... We were delighted that our music inspired them to dance on the gym bleachers.” 

After a recent interview with Berkeley pianist Sarah Cahill, best known for her interpretation of modern and avant-garde works, WAVE was invited by Cahill to participate in this year’s Winter Solistice program at Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes. 

“Most of us proudly refer to ourselves as ‘old chicks with glasses,’” Beitmen remarked, “But as with good wine, the women of WAVE only get better with age.” She referred to the concert as a celebration, “a concert of fine medieval and Renaissance music followed by a party where we will eat, drink and be merry!” 

WOMEN’S ANTIQUE VOCAL ENSEMBLE 

10th anniversary concert, 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Montclair Presbyterian Church, 5701 Thornhill Road, Oakland. $5-15.  

233-1479. www.wavewomen.org. 

The Oakland East Bay Symphony closes its 20th anniversary season Friday night with a concert version of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Showboat (1927), the first Broadway musical with an integrated cast (and the first to depict an interracial marriage).  

The performance is the third in the Symphony’s American Masterworks series, conducted by musical director Michael Morgan and featuring Julie Adams (soprano), Tami Dahbura (soprano), Debbie de Coudreaux (mezzo-soprano), Ben Jones (tenor), Robert Sims (lyric baritone) and the Oakland Symphony Chorus, directed by Lynne Morrow. 

The program will open with a selection of Kern’s standards: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” (Julie Adams), “Pick Yourself Up” (Robert Sims), “Yesterdays” (Debbie De Coudreaux), “I Won’t Dance” (Tami Dahbura), “Why was I Born” (Dahbura), “The way You Look Tonight” (de Coudreaux), “Long Ago and Far Away” (Ben Jones), “All the Things You Are” (Chorus) and “Look for the Silver Lining” (Chorus). 

Showboat in concert features about 45 minutes of the most famous songs from the original stage production, over three hours long. “I wanted to do more of the music than in the concert version,” said Michael Morgan, “but the estate won’t license more than the big numbers.” 

“Showboat was always on our list to do,” Morgan noted. “It changed the history thereafter, as the first musical to include race and gender issues. Everything’s in Showboat.” The 1927 musical proved groundbreaking in more ways than one. Based on Edna Ferber’s bestseller of the year before, Showboat is considered the first true American “musical play,” versus musical comedy, revue, operetta. Introducing serious themes in a story integral with the music and choreography, Showboat depicts characters on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River showboat, from 1880 to 1927: gamblers, actors, crew members, dock workers. The original production was produced by Flo Ziegfeld, of Follies fame, a departure from his usual fare.  

Showboat’s most famous number, “Ol’ Man River,” was originally written for Paul Robeson, though Robeson didn’t take up the role of Joe until a London run in 1928 (with Alberta Hunter as Queenie and Mabel Mercer in the black chorus). Robeson later starred in James Whale’s 1936 film version, with Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Helen Morgan and Hattie McDaniel) “Ol’ Man River,” with some changes in the lyrics, would become Robeson’s theme song both in concert halls and at political meetings and demonstrations. William Warfield took the role of Joe in the 1951 film (with Ava Gardner, Joe E. Brown and Agnes Moorehead) version. (Robert Sims sang in concert with Warfield and has performed tributes to both Robeson and Warfield.) In all, five versions of Showboat were on the screen between 1929 and 1989, when a live performance was taped for television. Orson Welles produced Ferber’s story as a non-musical radio play, broadcast on Campbell Playhouse in 1939 with Margaret Sullavan. 

Morgan commented on “the series of coincidences” that brought Showboat, Verdi’s Otello and a symposium on the social issues pertaining to both (held May 2) so soon after President Obama’s inauguration. “We could have done this at any time. The Bay Area is always interested in talking about these issues. Elsewhere, it might engender some controversy; nothing like that here. The panelists at the discussion were great—not that they would run out of things to talk about! And the film clips were incredible.” 

After Showboat, the symphony will “take a year off, to gear up for bigger things” in the American Masterworks series. Morgan mentioned for the future “there’s got to be a Sweeney Todd, and Street Scene, by Kurt Weill and Langston Hughes. And a full-on West Side Story. We can’t do a concert version; Bernstein forebade it, as the piece has no musical, only a dramatic ending.” 

SHOWBOAT IN CONCERT 

Presented by the Oakland East Bay Symphony at 8 p. m. Friday at the Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. $25-70.  

(800) 745-3000. www.oebs.org.

The 14th Annual Jazz on Fourth Festival, which benefits Berkeley High School performing arts program, takes place this Sunday, May 17. 

The festival will feature free live outdoor performances by the Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble and Combo, the Charles Hamilton Alumni Band (including past players from the BHS ensemble, led by their mentor), blues by Johnny Nitro & and the Doorslammers from North Beach, and salsa by Tito y su Son de Cuba, protegés of the Buena Vista Social Club. The event will fill Berkeley’s Fourth Street, between Hearst and Virginia, from noon to 5 p.m. 

During the festival, there will be a raffle to benefit the Berkeley High jazz programs, with prizes donated by the Fourth Street merchants, including the grand prize of a $1,000 gift certificate at Pave Fine Jewelry. 

Fourth Street and the plaza will be filled with local merchants with interactive displays, food, and children’s activities, including facepainting. There will be two beer gardens, a sake garden, and two stages where alternating bands will play, until the finale, from 4 to 5 p. m., by the cream of the Berkeley High jazz players.  

Charles Hamilton, described as “the glue that holds the BHS jazz program together,” has assembled a one-time only group of Berkeley High alumni: Josh Jones on drums; Michael Aaberg on piano; Ben Bail on alto sax; Miles Perkins on bass; Joshi Martin on tenor sax; Mark Wright on trumpet and Moshe Milon on percussion. Hamilton will be retiring after 25 years at Berkeley High. 

“It’s an extraordinary event,” said Jenny Bloomfield, parent coordinator along with Cherilyn Brunetti for the fundraising and support group for the jazz program. “They’ve been sponsoring us for 14 years; the truly extensive, three-tiered jazz program at Berkeley High is possible in good part because of their sponsoring.” 

The Charles Hamiltom Alumni Band, according to Bloomfield, has been putting together a CD of Hamilton’s own music, recording at Fantasy Studios. “Charles wrote these tunes for his own five children over the years,” she said. “We heard some of it on a recent KCSM broadcast. I think the band that’ll play Sunday was born out of that project.” 

Later this year, the program will send an ensemble of 27 students to the Montreux Festival in Switzerland. “We send groups to various competitions,” said Bloomfield. “We were just at the Next Generations Festival in Monterey.” 

Bllomfield spoke of Hamilton and the program: “In the years Charles has been there, the standard has been just constant. And every year, we get new players in who are really exceptional. And the support for the program is truly committed. Cheri Brunetti, whose son is a trombone player like Charles, is unvolved with a medical practice, running from cubicle to cubicle, yet finds the time to put in the work for the jazz program. What keeps the funding alive is people like her.” 

Flushing toilets account for nearly 30 percent of our water usage and with water bills at an all-time high, I thought it might be time to talk about how to replace a toilet. (It’s also a VERY green thing to do, since the system that supplies water to our homes contributes greatly to CO emissions.) 

This is actually a fairly simple job but I’ll try to show you where the tricky parts are. Nonetheless, this is a much more manageable job than many plumbing chores, and not beyond the skill of a beginner if you pay attention and work thoughtfully. 

First, a single-piece toilet will be simpler to install than a two -piece, though they tend to be somewhat more expensive. With a single-piece, there will be almost no set-up. With a two-piece, you’ll have to put the two parts together using a rubber seal that sits between the two parts and two (sometime three) bolts that you’ll be installing to hold the two parts together. 

First, determine the distance from the center of the flange (that’s the ring that the toilet attaches to and represents the first part in the piping that leads to the sewer). This is simple because the two bolts that you can see on either side of the base of the toilet (or the white caps covering them) site just to the left and right of the center of the flange. So measure the distance from the center of the bolts (you can pop the caps off using either a narrow flat screwdriver or a firm putty knife. They snap on and pop off. Measure the distance from the center of the bolt to the wall (think about trims and other items that may come forward of the wall and account for them too). Measure the bolts on either side and average the two as these may be slightly off center (one more forward and one more backward).  

When you buy your new toilet, be sure that it will fit with that distance from the flange center. This is a great question for the purveyor of said toilet and a great reason not to shop at a big box store, as they are not likely to understand the questions (assuming you can even find someone to ask).  

A typical recommended distance is one foot but some toilets are closer to 11 inches, and it’s best to be sure that your new toilet will fit without a struggle. As a rule, newer toilets fit easily where older toilets has formerly resided. 

If you’ve bought a new two-piece, you’re going to want to follow the instructions carefully in putting it together. The bolts that hold the toilet parts together may already be installed on one side, but if they’re not, it’s very important to get the order of parts right. There must be a seal or rubber washer on the inside of the tank that goes onto the bolt before any other part. This keeps the toilet from leaking at the bolt. There will then be a washer and nut (usually) on the outside of the bottom of the tank. Once these are tightened to a fairly firm setting, the bolts can then be fed through the holes in the bowl and then tightened with the appropriate washers and a nut as per the instructions. Get these washers and nuts in the right order. It’s one of the tricky parts of this job. 

When your toilet is all together and ready to go, you can take the old toilet off. You’ll need to pop those caps off (if you have caps) and the use a small adjustable wrench to remove the nuts. Turn off the water at the shut-off valve next the toilet and use a cup to remove as much water as you can after you’ve flushed. The more water you are able to bail into sink, the less you get to mop up after you’ve started to remove the toilet. This is, nonetheless, a wet job. 

Remove the flexible connector from the bottom of the toilet. Some of these are actually fairly rigid and may not fully disconnect until you lift the toilet. 

It’s not a bad idea to get help with this part if you can, but a strong individual can lift a toilet off a flange and move it across the floor to a safe spot. 

I would always recommend installing a new flexible connector from the valve to the toilet. Be sure to take the old one to the store to get the size of the connection at the shutoff, though they are usually 3/8”. The other size will be a typical toilet connection and is standardized. Just buy a “toilet” connector (but they’re 7/8” just in case). 

The next part is the trickiest. You will need to remove and replace the old wax seal. This requires some study of the new toilet. Using a putty knife, remove as much of the old wax as you can. Now, I’m very old fashioned and I like the plain wax rings, but there are times when the new ones with plastic inserts can be helpful. But be cautious; the plastic insert doesn’t smoosh (yes, smoosh is a word!) into place the way wax does, so if the toilet fits to the flange very tightly, it may end up holding the base of the toilet up off the floor and may even cause a leak. I usually show up with at least one of each kind and look at it to decide what I want. If the flange sits well below the level of the finished floor (the tile or linoleum or whathaveyou), you may need two stacked one on top of another. This isn’t ideal but it usually works. There are special flange shimming devices but I’m not a fan. For me, more is less. So place your wax seal (or seals) so that they will stand higher than the point under the toilet where they will make contact. Excess wax will find its way out into the space under the toilet. Better a too much than too little but the ideal fit has you pushing the toilet down a bit. I tend to get on the seat facing the wall and sort of ride it down until it touches the floor. 

Now, backing up, before you put the toilet onto the flange you’ll be checking or replacing the toilet bolts. These are the ones that actually hold the toilet to the flange. These might be fine and can be left in place. If you’re not sure, they are not expensive. I tend to replace them as a matter of course but there’s always room for an exception. The toilet bolts fit into slots on either side of the center point of the flange. When you see the old ones in place, you’ll see just how to slide them out and slide the new ones into place. It’s a very cool system, but they seem to work best when there are an extra set of nuts and washers that hold the bolt to the flange so that they want to aim straight up to meet the holes in the toilet. Otherwise, it’s a bit floppier a situation and when you’re holding a toilet in the air over the flange, everything can be a little hard to align.  

So now you’re ready. Pick up the toilet by the sides of the bowl and gently find the bolts through the holes and slowly push it down until we meet the ground. It should feel snug and not slide easily from side to side. The wax should be gripping the toilet somewhat and the toilet should not rock. 

Finish by putting a new set of cap bases on (be sure to have them right side up. They have an up side stamped on most), then a washer and then a nut. Tighten the nut until it feels tight enough to keep the toilet from moving at all. That’s it. No tighter. It is china after all and can break off and that’s no fun at all. When you feel like the toilet is nice and tight. Install a cap over each cap base. Connect your new flexible water line nice and tight on both ends. Also be sure that the fill valve that sticks out of the bottom of the toilet is nice and tight too. Some come from the factory a bit loose and we don’t want a leak (or a flood). Building codes call for toilets to be sealed to the floor (usually done with a bead of caulk) but I have to confess that I am divided on this due to concern that a leak at the flange will not present itself for ready view on the floor but will instead act insidiously until the floor has rotted away. 

When you buy your new toilet, take the time to look at the ultra-low flow and dual flush models. These can greatly decrease your water usage and most now work quite well. This job may be able to pay for itself in under a year, given the high cost of water so what are you waiting for. And your husband says you never do anything nice for him! 

THURSDAY, MAY 14 

Bike to Work or School Day Celebrate bicycling as a healthy, fun, and economical form of transportation. For more event details and locations of energizer stations, see bicycling.511.org 

“Richmond Riviera” Walk for Age 50+ Discover birds, parks, and WWII history along Richmond’s Bay shore on a level, paved, wheelchair-accessible walk. Meet at 9 a.m. at Shimada Friendship Park, S. end of Marina Bay Parkway, Richmond. Free, but numbers limited; register at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave., 524-9122. 

Book Bingo In celebration of Children’s Book Week, for ages 5 and up, at 3:30 p.m. at the Kensington library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043.  

East Bay Mac Users Group Meeting Learn about iLife 09- iMovie & iWeb at 7 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound Street, Emeryville. ebmug.org 

Guided Meditation with Patricia Ellesberg on “Mystery Made Manifest” works by Susan Duhan Felix at noon at the Badè Museum, in the Hollbrook Building at the Pacific School of Religion located at 1798 Scenic. 848-0528. 

“The Heart of Islam: Essentials of Islamic Religion and Spirituality” A four-week introductory course, open to the general public, Thurs. nights at 7 p.m. at Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, 1433 Madison St., Oakland. Cost is $25 for all classes. To register call 832-7600. www.iccnc.org 

Circle of Concern Vigil meets on West Lawn of UC campus across from Addison and Oxford, at noon to oppose UC weapons labs contracts. 848-8055. 

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Buddhist Class on Shikan Meditation at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Cedar at Bonita. http://caltendai.org 

FRIDAY, MAY 15 

Tommie Smith on “The 1968 Olympics” including a film “Return to Mexico City” at 9:30 a.m. at the Little Theater, Berkeley High School, 1980 Allston Way. 812-0121, 776-7451. 

International Conscientious Objectors Day and Berkeley CO and War Resisters Day. Peace flag raising ceremony at 11 a.m. at Civic Center Building, 2180 Milvia St., followed by flag rasing at the west end of Civic Center Park, 2151 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Prof. Richard A. Muller “Physics for Future Presidents” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $15, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 527-2173. www.citycommonsclub.org 

Volunteer at Berkeley Youth Alternative Gardens Tasks may include weeding, bed preparation, sowing, transplanting, composting and harvesting, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Berkeley Youth Alternatives Garden, Bancroft Way, between Bonar and West St. 647-0709.  

“Ecocities: An Environmentally Conscious Approach to Architecture” with Kirstin Miller on how ecocities can reverse sprawl development and create sustainable cities that promote walking, cycling and public transit, from noon to 1 p.m. at AIA East Bay Chapter Office, 1405 Clay St., Oakland. RSVP by email. events@aiaeb.org 

Why Be Jewish? at 6:15 p.m. at Jewish Gateways, 409 Liberty Street, El Cerrito. Cost is $7. RSVP required. 559-8140 . www.jewishgateways.org 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Fri. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

SATURDAY, MAY 16 

Himalayan Fair A market bazaar of the great mountain cultures of the Himalayas with food, arts and crafts and traditional music Sat from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Suggested donation $5. www.himalayanfair.net  

Prader-Willi Syndrome Walk An awareness and fund raising event at 10:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Marina. For more information call 310-372-5053. www.pwcf.org 

Berkeley Garden Club Plant Sale with CA natives, succulents, perennials and other wonderful plants locally grown at bargain prices, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 547 Grizzly Peak Blvd., top of Euclid. 524-7296. 

24th Bay Area Storytelling Festival Sat. and Sun. from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Kennedy Grove Recreation Area, featuring Jay O’Callahan, Antionio Rocha, Gayle Ross, Judith Black and Doug Elliott. Cost is $40-$80. registration required. 869-4969. www.bayareastorytelling.org 

Sudden Oak Death Blitz Training meeting for people wanting to take part in the documentation of SOD affected trees, from 10 a.m. to noon at Regional Park Botanic Garden, Wildcat Canyon Rd at S. Park Drive, Tilden Park. Sampling will continue on Sat. afternoon and Sun. Bring GPS units if you have them. 847-5482. 

Teens Touch the Earth Earn community service credit while working with others who care about the environment, for ages 13-19 from 9 a.m. to noon at Point Pinole Regional Shoreline. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

“Recycle, Restyle, Remake Your Clothes” A class on how to economize and stretch your wardrobe by remaking items that are already in your closet. Learn how old sweaters can be transformed into hats and arm warmers, sleeves can be shortened or removed, dresses can be turned into skirts. Bring those pieces still hanging in your closet that haven’t been worn in ages and restyle them into something new. From 4 to 7 p.m. at Waterside Workshops, 84 Bolivar Drive, at Berkeley’s Aquatic Park. Cost is $25. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

TransForm’s 12th Annual Summit The Summit will focus on the critical role of transportation and land use in the health of our economy, pocketbooks, and planet, and highlight solutions, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Laney College, 900 Fallon St. at 10th, Oakland. Cost is $20. To register call 740-3150. transformca.org 

Berkeley Buddhist Temple Satsuki Bazaar and Arts Festival with Japanese foods, crafts, children's games, silent auction and performances by Anthony Brown, storyteller, Brenda Wong-Aoki, Destiny Arts Center’s youth hip-hop group, Sat. from 4 to 9 p.m. and Sun. from noon to 7 p.m. at 2121 Channing Way. Free. 841-1356. www. 

berkeleysangha.org/ev/bazaar 

Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline Work-day Enter the park from Swan Way and follow the road to the end parking lot. Meet at 10 a.m. near the wooden observation platform adjacent to Arrowhead Marsh. Sponsored by Golden Gate Audubon Society. 843-2222. www.goldengateaudubon.org 

Fundraiser for New Oakland Farmers’ Market with art gallery, workshops, live music and dancing from from 5 p.m. at Oakland Noodle Factory, 1255 26th St., Oakland. Donations $5-$15, or work-trade. www.phatbeetsproduce.org 

On Hidden Pond Discover the life in this secret pond with naturalist Meg Platt from 2 to 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Bicycle Safety Day Cyclists of all ages and levels can drop in anytime to test their skills in a variety of obstacle courses, learn about basic bike maintenance, discover local bike resources, and talk with a police officer about the rules of the road, from noon to 4 p.m. at the DMV Parking Lot, 6400 Manila Ave, El Cerrito, behind the El Cerrito City Hall. There will be a BMX Stunt Team performing at 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.  

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Children’s Community Center Silent Auction at 7 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Tickets are $20-$40, sliding scale, at the door. www.cccpreschool.org 

California Writers Club with Janis Cooke Newman on “A Many-Sided Talent” (Talking About Writing) at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble Booksellers Event Loft, Jack London Square, 98 Broadway, Oakland. 272-0120. www.berkeleywritersclub.org 

Friends of the Albany Library Book Sale Sat and Sun. from 10 a.m .to 4 p.m. at the Albany Library and Community Center, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. To volunteer to help at the sale, call the Library at 526-3720 ext. 5. 

Homebuyer Seminar from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Alameda High School Cafeteria, 2200 Central Ave., Alameda. Free, but reservations required. 888-572-1222, ext.110.www.myhomegateway.com 

“Innerscape” A Day of Art, Play and Transformation For adults from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley Campus, 2956 San Pablo Ave., 2nd flr. Cost is $10, no one turned away for lack of funds. www.artplay.us/innerscape 

Free Sailboat Rides from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club, Berkeley Marina. Wear warm, waterproof clothing and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children 5 and over welcome with parent or guardian. www.cal-sailing.org 

Studio One Art Center’s Community Day with movement and art projects in various media for children ages 4 though teens from 12:30 to 4 p.m. at 36545th street off Broadway, North Oakland. Suggested donation $5. 597-5027. 

Otis School “Spring Fling” Fundraising Event with auction, Italian food and wine, at 6:30 p.m. at JC Cellars, 55 4th St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. 465-5900. 

Small Critter Adoption Day Check out pet rats, hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits, from 1 to 4 p.m. at RabbitEARS, 377 Colusa Ave, Kensington. 525-6155. 

Cartoon Weekend at Playland Watch hundreds of cartoons, meet a famous animator, enter our drawing contest and children in costume get in half off. Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 10979 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. Cost is $10-$15. 232-4264 ext. 25. www.playland-not-at-the-beach.org 

Beginning Internet Class “Health and Medical Information” at 10 a.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. Free, but call to sign up 526-7512. 

Ancient Tools for Successful Living One-day intensive workshops on Meditation Script Writing and Herukhuti (Ogun) Lunar Cycle at Ausar Auset Society, 2811 Adeline St., Oakland. Cost is $12.50-$25. RSVP to 536-5934, 253-8120. aas.westcoast@gmail.com 

Preschool Storytime, including crafts and finger plays at 11 a.m. at The Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720 ext. 16. 

Shabbat Celebration for Young Children at 10:30 a.m. at Jewish Gateways, 409 Liberty St., El Cerrito. Free for first-times, RSVP required. 559-8140. www.jewishgateways.org 

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.  

Lawn Bowling on the green at the corner of Acton St. and Bancroft Way every Wed. and Sat. at 10 a.m. for ages 12 and up. Wear flat soled shoes, no heels. Free lessons. 841-2174.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, MAY 17 

Himalayan Fair A market bazaar of the great mountain cultures of the Himalayas with food, arts and crafts and traditional music from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Suggested donation $5. www.himalayanfair.net  

Heritage Rose Show Celebration of Old Roses with a large display of roses, plus rosey items for sale including plants, jewelry, crafts, books, stationery and food, from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at El Cerrito Community Center, 7007 Moeser Lane, El Cerrito. Free.  

Green Albany Day Community event with climate action planning workshops, environmental workshops & information booths from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Albany Memorial Park, Veteran’s Building, 325 Portland Ave. www.albanyca.org/greenalbany 

Little Farm Goat Hike Join a short hike with the goats as we explore the historic connections between humans and our ungulate friends at 11 a.m. at the Little Farm, Tilden Park. For ages 6 and up. Children, please bring your adults along. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Mend Those Fences Learn how to do traditional carpentry with hand-tools and our muscles to put up new fencing from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. For ages 9 and up. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to repair a flat, from 11 a.m. to noon at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Bring your bike and tools. 527-4140. 

Learn How to Repair Your Clothes A introductory class on simple hand and machine sewing techniques for patching jeans, replacing zippers, hems, buttons, and more from noon to 2 p.m. at Waterside Workshops, 84 Bolivar Drive, at Berkeley's Aquatic Park. Cost is $20, sliding scale. 644-2577.  

The Institute of Urban Homesteading Open House Tour of garden, bees, rabbits and greywater features, and a bake and brew sale with homemade beer and soda and strawberry and raspberry shortcakes, from noon to 5 p.m. Please email for location. iuh@sparkybeegirl.com 

Family Explorations Day: Shadow Puppets from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

Oakland on Two Wheels A bike tour exploration of Oakland with docents from the Oakland Museum of California. Meet at 10 a.m. at the museum’s 10th St. entrance. www.museumca.org/tickets 

Bunny Maintenance 101 Everything you need to know about basic care of your bunny. Class includes a take-home first aid kit for bunnies. From 2 to 4 p.m. at RabbitEARS, 377 Colusa Ave, Kensington. 525-6155. 

Egyptology Lecture “Stairsteps to the Gods—Building the Great Pyramid at Giza” with Craig Smith, architectural engineer at 2:30 p.m. at Barrows Hall, Room 20, Barrow Lane and Bancroft Way, UC campus. 415-664-4767. 

“Bums Paradise” Screening of the film with dinner and raffle at 7:30 p.m. at Longhaul Infoshop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. at Woolsey. Cost is $10 at the door. 984-2316. 

East Bay Atheists with Dr. Eric Maisel on his new book, “The Atheist’s Way” at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 3rd flr meeting room. eastbayatheists.org 

Personal Theology Seminars with Tomyé Neal-Madison on “Reality on this side of my Journey” at 10 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

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

Tibetan Buddhism with Barr Rosenberg on “From Knowledge to Wisdom” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, MAY 18 

AC Transit Service Reduction Community Workshop The bus district seeks community input as it begins planning for service reductions, made necessary by looming deficit due to significant cut in state funding and other economic factors. Bus riders and the community are encouraged to attend 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Maple Hall Community Center, 13831 San Pablo Avenue, San Pablo. www.actransit.org 

Kensington Book Club meets to discuss “Disgrace” by j.m. Coetzee at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Alameda County EMS documentary “Level Zero” benefit for the families fo the four fallen Oakland police officers. Reception at 6:30 p.m., music at 7 p.m., screening at 9:15 p.m. at Alameda Theatre, 2317 Central Ave., Alameda. Tickets are $30. www.alamedatheatres.com 

Dog Training Workshop: Slow Down! Getting your dog to walk on leash without pulling, at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. Cost is $35. To register call 849-9323.  

Community Yoga Class 10 a.m. at James Kenney Parks and Rec. Center at Virginia and 8th. Seniors and beginners welcome. Cost is $6. 207-4501. 

Three Beats for Nothing South Mostly ancient part music for fun and practice meets every Mon. at 3 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, Ellis at Ashby. 655-8863. asiecker@sbcglobal 

East Bay Track Club for girls and boys ages 3-15 meets Mon. at 6 p.m. at Berkeley High School track field. Free. 776-7451. 

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. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

Dragonboating Year round classes at the Berkeley Marina, Dock M. Meets Mon, Wed., Thurs. at 6 p.m. Sat. at 10:30 a.m. For details see www.dragonmax.org 

Free Boatbuilding Classes for Youth from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Boathouse, 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Classes cover woodworking, boatbuilding, and boat repair. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

TUESDAY, MAY 19 

Special Berkeley City Council Meeting on the Future Plans for Downtown at 5 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 981-6900.  

AC Transit Service Reduction Community Workshop Bus district seeks community input as it begins planning for service reductions, made necessary by looming deficit due to significant cut in state funding and other economic factors. Bus riders and the community are encouraged to attend 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., AC Transit General Offices, 1600 Franklin St., Oakland. www.actransit.org 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline. Bring water, field guides, binoculars or scopes. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 544-3265.  

Over-the-Hills Gang for hikers age 55 and older interested in nature, history, fitness and fun. Today we will explore Sobrante Ridge Regional Preserve from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 525-2233. 

Tilden Mini-Rangers Hiking, conservation and nature-based activities for ages 8-12. Dress to ramble and get dirty. Bring a snack. From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Berkeley Garden Club with Jack Laws, naturalist and illustrator on “Celebrating the Sierra Nevada as an Artist, Naturalist and Steward” at 2 p.m. at United Methodist Church,1953 Hopkins St. 524-7296. 

Tips for Thru-hiking the John Muir Trail at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Auditions for Young People’s Symphony Orchestra for ages 13-21 from 4 to 9 p.m. Rehearsals Mon. at 6 p.m. at Crowden School in Berkeley. For audition application and appointment see www.ypsomusic.net 

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. 

Family Storytime for preschoolers and up at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

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., Sat. and Sun. from 2 to 6 p.m. at at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.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 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Ceramics Class Learn hand building techniques to make decorative and functional items, Tues. at 9:30 a.m. at St. John's Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Free, materials and firing charges only. 525-5497. 

Bridge for beginners from 12:30 to 2:15 p.m., all others 12:30 to 4 p.m. Sing-A-Long at 2:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20 

“Collateral Damage: America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians” with journalists Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian at 7 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr., Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Tickets $15; $10 students/low income. Benefit for Middle East Children’s Alliance, no one turned away for lack of funds. 548-0542. www.mecaforpeace.org 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland Uptown to the Lake to discover Art Deco landmarks. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Paramount Theater at 2025 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

“The Century of the Self—Episode Three: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed” by Adam Curtis at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., uptown Oakland, between Telegraph and Broadway. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.org 

“Starting A Vegan/Living Food Buying Club” Vegan potluck dinner and discussion at 6:30 p.m. at 2105 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., between Center & Addison. Sponsored by the Oakland Raw Food MeetUp. http://www.meetup.com/The-Oakland-Raw-Food-Meetup-Group 

“Housework getting you down? Maybe you have too much house!” Discussion on “Tiny Homes and Mobile Living” by Katherine McKay at 6:30 p.m. at the Claremont Library, 2940 Benvenue Ave.  

“Paws to Read” Help your child practice reading with a friendly dog at 2:45 and at 3:20 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. Dogs and handlers are from Therapy Pets volunteering for Paws to Read. Children in grades 1-5 may sign up for 25 minute sessions with tested therapy pets. To reserve a session call 526-3720, ext. 5.  

Free screening of “Bastards of the Party“ as part of the Radical Film Nite with free popcorn and post-film discussion, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul Infoshop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

Confused by Computers? Novice computer users can get one-on-one assistance from noon to 1:45 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. Sign up for an appointment at the reference desk or call 526-3720 ext. 5. 

“Changing Your Life in a Changing Economy” with presentations by real estate and financial planning advisors at 2:30 p.m. at Salem Lutheran Home, 2361 East 29th St., Oakland. Free. 434-2871. 

“Benefits of Meditation and Spiritual Lifestyle” with authorized speaker for Sant Baljit Singh at 7:30 p.m. at Fireside Room, upstairs, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1606 Bonita Ave. 290-3013. 

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 

Pain Relief Empowerment at 7:15 p.m. at Tian Gong International Foundation, 830 Bancroft Way, Lotus Room 114. 883-1920. tgif@tiangong.org 

Teen Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

Berkeley CopWatch Drop-in office hours from 6 to 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

THURSDAY, MAY 21 

Traffic Improvements on Upper Ashby Transportation Commission meeting to discuss the allocation of the $2 million for the Claremont Elmwood neighborhood from the settlement with CalTrans at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 981-7061.  

The LeConte Neighborhood Association meets at 7:30 p.m. at the LeConte School, Russell St. entrance to discuss Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan, Protection for our Traffic Circles, a Police update & Board Elections. karlreeh@aol.com  

“The Owl and the Woodpecker: Encounters With North America’s Most Iconic Birds” with Paul Bannick at 7:30 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, between Solano and Marin. Sponsored by Golden Gate Audubon Society. 843-2222. www.goldengateaudubon.org 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll explore the world of insects, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds. We will explore the world of insects from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m.. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

The Institute of Urban Homesteading Bee Clinic from 7 tp 9 p.m. for people already keeping bees to talk about their bees and get answers to current questions and concerns in organic and top bar beekeeping. Cost is $10. RSVP to iuh@sparkybeegirl.com 

“Children of the Amazon” a documentary which follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the indigenous Surui and Negarote children she photographed fifteen years ago at 7 p.m. at Zaentz Media Center, 2600 Tenth St. Free, but reservations required. reservations@berkeleyfilmscreening.com 

Auditions for Young People’s Symphony Orchestra for ages 13-21 from 4 to 9 p.m. Rehearsals Mon. at 6 p.m. at Crowden School in Berkeley. For audition application and appointment see www.ypsomusic.net 

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

Circle of Concern Vigil meets on West Lawn of UC campus across from Addison and Oxford, Thurs. at noon and Sun. at 1 p.m. to oppose UC weapons labs contracts. 848-8055. 

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Buddhist Class on Shikan Meditation at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Cedar at Bonita. http://caltendai.org 

FRIDAY, MAY 22 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll explore the world of insects, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Abe Smith, Internet security consultant on “What Everyone Should Know About Computer Security and How It Affects Your Life” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $15, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 527-2173. www.citycommonsclub.org 

Conscientious Projector Film Series “Taxi to the Dark Side” Documentary on Afghanistan by Alex Gibney at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donation appreciated. 841-4824. 

A Benefit for Rock Paper Scissors Collective Dinner and film screening of ”Maquilapolis” and artist talk with Julie Plasencia and director Sergio de la Torre from 6 to 9 p.m. at 2278 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $60-$100 sliding scale and partially tax-deductible. After 8:30pm tickets are $10-$20 for film only. www.rpscollective.com 

Demonstrate for Peace Bring your signs and determination from 2 to 4 p.m. at Acton and University aves. Sponsored by Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers, and Strawberry Creek Lodge Tenants Association. 

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. 

Mayan Culture Lecture “As Seen Through the Third Eye” with Master Tian Ying at 7 p.m. at 830 Bancroft Way, Lotus Room 114. Donations accepted. 883-1920. tgif@tiangong.org 

Three Beats for Nothing Mostly ancient part music for fun and practice meets every Fri. at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Hearst at MLK. 655-8863. asiecker@sbcglobal 

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Fri. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

SATURDAY, MAY 23 

Youth Arts Fair with displays of youth artwork, entertainment provided by local singers, dancers, musicians and poets, and information booths about youth-oriented organizations, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. Sponsored by the Berkeley Youth Commission. 

El Cerrito Citywide Garage Sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Shoppers can pick up the list of participating garage sales after noon on May 21 at the El Cerrito Recycling Center, the El Cerrito Community Center, or download the list from www.el-cerrito.org 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Presbyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Slugs and More Slugs: How Do They Do It?” with Dr. John Pearse at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

Brooks Island Voyage Paddle the rising tide across Richmond Harbor to Brooks Island to explore the island’s natural and cultural history. For experienced boaters who can provide their own kayak and safety gear. For ages 14+ with parents. Cost is $20-$22. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

Vegetarian Cooking Class: Burgers and Backyard Bites from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $55, plus $5 food and material fee. Advance registration required. 531-COOK. www.compassionatecooks.com 

Beginning Internet Class “Online Travel Sites” at 10 a.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. Free, but call to sign up 526-7512. 

Preschool Storytime, including crafts and finger plays at 11 a.m. at The Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720 ext. 16. 

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 

Lawn Bowling on the green at the corner of Acton St. and Bancroft Way every Wed. and Sat. at 10 a.m. for ages 12 and up. Wear flat soled shoes, no heels. Free lessons. 841-2174.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, MAY 24 

“Effects of Community Violence on Our Youth” A violence prevention workshop for the community. The workshop will address the root causes of violence, the dramatic effect of violence on children, violence prevention, and the available local mental health and family support resources in our community, from noon to 4 p.m. at St. Columba Catholic Church, Parish Hall, 6401 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. For more information email blovette@mail.cho.org  

Little Farm Goat Hike Join a short hike with the goats as we explore the historic connections between humans and our ungulate friends at 11 a.m. at the Little Farm, Tilden Park. For ages 6 and up. Children , please bring your adults along. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Backcountry Gourmet Learn the fundamentals of making your own backpacking food and trail snacks, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $10-$12. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

Making Herbal Medicine A five-session class from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sat. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $160-$175. 548-2220, ext. 239. 

Grande Vista’s Historical Gardens A four-mile hike to explore the remains of this old sanitaium in th ehill, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, Alvarado Staging Area. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Tour of the Berkeley City Club, designed by Julia Morgan, from 1 to 4 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. Sponsored by the Landmark Heritage Foundation. 848-7800. 

“Women Healing Women in India” with Rev. Lowell Brook at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Unitarian Universalist Hall, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donations accepted, no one turned away for lack of funds. 841-4824. www.bfuu.org 

Personal Theology Seminars with David Richarson on “Advanced Mandalas and Maps of the Spiritual World” at 10 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

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

Tibetan Buddhism with Robin Caton on “Meditation and Creativity” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Sew Your Own Open Studio Come learn to use our industrial and domestic machines, or work on your own projects, from 2 to 6 p.m. at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Also on Thurs. from 2 to 6 p.m. Cost is $5 per hour. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Commission on Early Childhood Education meets Thurs. May 14, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5428.  

Community Health Commission meets Thurs., May 14, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5356.  

Medical Cannabis Commission meets Thurs., May 14, at 1:30 p.m. at City Hall, Cypress R