I grew up in Port Jervis, New York, a country town (pop. 9000) in the upper Delaware Valley during the years following World War II and spent a good deal of my childhood on my great uncles’ chicken farm, which has since been developed into a swanky equestrian estate. Its 80 acres are about the same size as Cesar Chavez Park, which might explain why I feel so at home there. -more-

On Tuesday night the Berkeley City Council devoted more than two hours to listening to residents speculate on what "significant community benefits" must be provided by the lucky winners of the up-zoning variances which might be granted for a smallish number of extra-tall buildings downtown. This indecision left the Landmarks Preservation Commission in the dark about exactly what project at 2211 Harold Way they were supposed to be commenting on, so they chose to leave the question on the table for this month.

The distinction between mitigating detriments which such buildings create and providing new and better amenities for Berkeleyans as recompense for increased value was frequently blurred at the Council meeting. For example the very popular children's center Habitot, which would be demolished to make way for luxury apartments marketed as the “Residences at Berkeley Plaza" (RatBP), appealed for a $250,000 "benefit" as compensation for an expected $3,000,000 cost of replacement. Of the 87 people who spoke, perhaps 5 showed any real enthusiasm for the kind of projects under discussion. RatBP proponent (and ex-planner for the city of Berkeley) Mark Rhoades didn't say anything at the mike, but chatted with a couple of supporters in a back corner and at least one councilmember in the hall.

After the public comment period the councilmembers spent a half-hour discussing options. Councilmember Jesse Arreguin presented a full-blown roadmap for defining significant community benefits, complete with flow chart, which was praised by Councilmember Worthington as better than work the council usually gets from staff.

Worthington pointed out that the Council was not obligated to approve the first buildings which vied for the extra stories. He emphasized the need for accurate financial information from the would-be developer, verified by an independent consultant, since benefits by law must be proportional to the cost of the building. His own ballpark estimate was "tens of millions" to be spent for the public good, at least.

Max Anderson had stressed the same need at an earlier meeting. On Tuesday night he delivered one of his signature populist exhortations, highlighting his discomfort with the fact that men formerly employed by the city to make the zoning rules [Rhoades and Matt Taecker, who is promoting a hotel downtown and was present on Tuesday] were now trying to exploit those same rules on behalf of paying clients. He compared the situation to the often criticized "revolving door" in Washington, where retiring members of Congress and federal officials often re-emerge as corporate lobbyists. -more-

Op-ed: Berkeley deserves better than 2211 Harold Way

Kaiser Permanente is retaliating against the whistleblowers who brought much-needed scrutiny to the HMO's severely understaffed mental health services. -more-

Discussions of development in Berkeley involve a lot of complicated jargon. It is easy to become confused. As a public service, I've assembled some definitions for a few commonly used terms:

"Smart Growth": The proposal to build 1960s housing projects for a 1990s economy along streets where the 1950s imagined there'd be great public transportation by the 1970s. (See also, "real estate swindle".)

"Urban Density": The confinement of low wage workers to small ghettos and the restriction their regional travel options to those offered by anemic public transportation systems.

"Green Building": Building probably does not contain a coal or oil burning furnace in the basement.

"2020": The target year of many regional public policy initiatives, each of which will be clearly visible as terrible mistakes in hindsight from the perspective of the year 2020.

"Vibrant": An environment carefully arranged to hide any indication that poverty exists. Any environment purged of all social challenges the 1% might encounter.

"Mayor's Office": Winking name for a high-priced "escort" service serving UC Regents and other clients in the real estate speculation sector.

"West and South Berkeley": staging area for forced emigration of colored people.

"Real estate swindle": See "City Executive Staff".

"City Executive Staff": co-owner/overseers of "Mayor's Office" (c.f.) -more-

A new report by investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh, reveals that the Obama administration made a false account of the details surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden. Contrary to public assertions that Pakistan was unaware of the whereabouts of Bin Laden, top Pakistani military officials had full knowledge of his whereabouts and held him as a virtual prisoner at the Abbottabad compound since 2006. -more-

As luxury high-rise towers are proposed in Downtown Berkeley, it’s sensible to ask who will live there. Who are they being built to house?

The developer of 2211 Harold Way spoke to this question one of the first times he appeared at a Berkeley city meeting, around February of 2013. This was at the Design Review Committee.

A member of the Committee, a retired San Francisco planner, asked him who his market was? Who was he building these units to house? It wasn’t a confrontational question, just a genuinely curious one.

The developer replied, if I remember correctly, “People like you, and people who want to live in San Francisco but can't afford to."

This was a refreshing level of candor.

But let’s look at both those “markets”, whether they’re tenable, and what the impact would be on Berkeley if they are.

The “Empty Nester” Idea

By "people like you" the developer apparently meant prosperous empty nesters with houses in the Berkeley hills who might, as they age, want to sell a large home and move to a more manageable condo or apartment near BART.

For literally thirty years I’ve heard people predict this as a big coming housing market for Downtown Berkeley. In all that time, I have known or heard of only one person who actually did this—sold her house in the hills and moved to a downtown apartment.

She moved to “Library Gardens”. After some time she decided she didn’t like it. It was noisy, most of the other units were occupied by students who were too preoccupied and transient to be real neighbors, and the apartments weren’t as nice as she wanted. So she moved again, to flatlands El Cerrito.

Still, the empty nesters are at least a theoretical potential market. But there's another factor to consider here. -more-

The “Berkeley Cares” voucher program was launched in 1992. The vouchers came in designations of $.25 and theoretically could be used for grocery, laundry and transportation expenses. The purchase of alcohol and cigarettes was prohibited. The public was supposed to buy them at participating merchant stores or the Health and Human Services department and hand them to panhandlers instead of real money.

Except that lots of stores wouldn’t take them, redeeming them through the city was a pain, cash drawers and counters had no space for them or their explanatory displays, the vouchers themselves were flimsier than real money, tore easily, and were hard to manage since each one was only worth a quarter. Cities that adopted “Berkeley Cares” vouchers as a model have all ended their programs for the same reason Berkeley did; it didn’t work. -more-

Israel has elected the most right wing government in its history. This will surely accelerate the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The decades of peace efforts have been tossed into the dustbin of history. The government, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, rejected Palestinian statehood. His key ally, Jewish Home, openly advocates creating South African style, Palestinian Bantustans, which is sure to accelerate its global isolation and put it on a collision course with the United States. -more-

All companies give their employees vacation time so they can take a break from their daily routine. Why don't households give a similar break to mothers? Mother's day is every day. Buying mothers flowers or taking them to a restaurant is no substitute for helping lighten their chores every day. -more-

Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world, bereft of resources, fractured by tribal divisions and religious sectarianism, and plagued by civil war. And yet this small country tucked into the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula is shattering old alliances and spurring new and surprising ones. As Saudi Arabia continues its air assault on Houthis insurgents, supporters and opponents of the Riyadh monarchy are reconfiguring the political landscape in a way that is unlikely to vanish once the fighting is over. -more-

On April 29th, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced he’ll compete with Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Although anything can happen between now and the late July 2016 Democratic convention, it appears that Sanders’ intent is not to win the nomination but to influence Clinton on critical domestic policy issues – to move Hillary to the left. -more-

--from The Daffodils. William Wordsworth (1909-14.)

A new study suggests social isolation may harm physical health, even hasten death. People who lived alone were found to have a 32% higher risk of an early death than those who lived with another person. (What is meant by early is not defined, however.)

Lisa Jaremka, University of Delaware in Newark assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences, agrees. People have a very basic and fundamental need to feel connected to and cared for by other people… lonely people are lacking in this area. They aren't fulfilling this basic need, and thus, negative things happen as a result. -more-

Persons with mental illness are likely to have more visits with a general practitioner compared to mainstream people. The medications we have to take cause complications to physical health. Zyprexa and a number of other medications cause extreme weight gain and diabetes. -more-

Opens May 8 at the Elmwood

Note: Director Jon Pirozzi will be appearing at the 7:15PM screening on Saturday, May 9.

If, like most Americans, you remember Cambodia mostly as a sad land of civil war and mass-genocide, John Pirozzi's award-winning documentary, Don't Think I've Forgotten, will forever change that assessment. Pirozzi has resurrected some surprising history—but it wasn't easy. The task of finding evidence of "life before Pol Pot" was complicated by the Khmer Rouge's campaign to destroy every vestige of the popular culture that flourished before the advent of the Maoist-inspired "revolution."

In addition to killing an estimated 2 million Cambodians (starting with the artists and the intellectuals), Pol Pot did such a good job of eradicating the country's pop music remains that few people in the West would suspect that Cambodia once produced a rock-and-roll generation that included scores of popular singers who recorded scores of cassettes and vinyl albums.

-more-

Susan Lamb Cook, cello, and Gayle Blankenberg, piano--the Cook-Blankenberg Duo--will play four pieces in a program at 8 p. m. Tuesday May 12 at the Berkeley City Club: Beethoven's 1796 Sonata in G minor for Piano and Cello, Opus 5 no. 2; Manuel de Falla's Suite Populaire Espanole, seven folkloric "miniatures" originally for voice and piano; Ross Bauer's Five Pieces for Cello and Piano (2013; Bauer teaches composition at UC Davis) and Rachmaninoff's four movement Sonata in G minor, Opus 19. -more-

Berkeley's Inferno Theatre, which has staged their own productions locally and collaborated with Actors Ensemble for the summer shows in John Hinkle Park in the hills, will stage their second annual Diasporas Festival this weekend, May 8-10, starting tonight (Friday) at 8, continuing afternoons and evenings through Sunday in the historic South Berkeley Community Church, featuring a broad selection of little companies and independent performers working in all manner of physical and gestural theater in the Bay Area. Last year's inaugural festival proved one of the most interesting, diverting weekends in Bay Area theater. -more-

Over the weekend of May 1-3, Opera Parallèle offered four performances at San Francisco’s Z Space of Tarik O’Regan’s Heart of Darkness, which premiered in 2011 at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Based on the novella by Joseph Conrad, this opera, like its source, explores the inner darkness at the heart of western man, especially when he is confronted, as in Central Africa, with another realm of darkness, namely, the teeming life of the jungle and its natives. Around this set of issues, composer Tarik O’Regan weaves a florid orchestral score, dominated by piano, celesta, harpsichord, organ, harp, and both an acoustic guitar and an electric bass guitar. -more-