Despite objections from several students, faculty and the Albany City Council, a University of California committee Wednesday approved UC Berkeley’s plan to demolish some of its most affordable housing and uproot one of the area’s last vestiges of farmland. 

However, the fight over University Village—a 77-acre plot just over the Berkeley border along San Pablo Avenue with apartments for graduate student families and 10 acres of agricultural research land—might be far from over.  

Residents of the 412 units of condemned housing have promised a legal challenge to the university’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and one Albany official hinted at doing the same. 

“It’s a possibility,” said City Councilmember Alan Maris. “Their EIR says traffic impacts are insignificant. They haven’t proven that to us.” 

The $268 million project, in the works since 1998, will come in two parts. Starting in early fall, the university will demolish and replace a row of 1960s-era graduate student housing. Two bedroom apartments that currently rent at $786 per month will nearly double to $1,302 to pay off the bonds floated by UC. 

Then in 2006, the university plans to move two little league fields to the agricultural land known as the Gill Tract, restore Cordornices Creek near where the baseball fields currently sit, and build roughly 800 new units of housing for faculty and mostly single graduate students. Some of that new housing would be on San Pablo Avenue above 72,000 square feet of new retail space that would include a mid-sized supermarket. 

The second phase of the project, which still requires official approval from the regents’ buildings and maintenance committee, was scheduled to begin this year, but UC Berkeley Assistant Vice Chancellor Tom Lollini said the university had floated too many construction bonds at other building sites to start the project at the present time. 

Also, Lollini said, UC has dismissed the Memphis, Tenn.-based private developer Allen & O’Hara and will likely develop the retail space itself through public financing. 

Agricultural researchers—who would probably be displaced to an East Bay Municipal Utilities District site in Pinole—and UC graduate students have opposed the plan from the start. The city of Albany, however, is a recent convert to the opposition camp. 

The Albany City Council supports relocating the ballfields to the Gill Tract, building the supermarket and replacing the housing, which is susceptible to mold, but has balked at UC’s refusal to pay development fees and mitigate costs for services to the proposed village, which is expected to house nearly one out of every four Albany residents. 

Environmental Planning Systems, Inc., the same consulting firm Berkeley hired to determine the cost of the university’s exemption from local taxes and assessments, found that the project would result in a net deficit of $713,000 to Albany’s general fund. 

“Right now the way things are heading the university wouldn’t be paying its fair share,” said Albany Planning Manager Dave Dowswell. Although Albany, with a population of just 17,000, didn’t have a budget deficit this year, Dowswell said the city “wasn’t flush enough to be put in that position.” 

Most egregious, said city officials, was UC’s refusal to compensate Albany for increased fire services. Not only could expansion at University Village result in a 41 percent to 83 percent increase in calls for service, according to a city study, but the five story buildings considered for San Pablo Avenue would require a ladder truck, which the Albany Fire Department lacks. Currently Albany depends on Berkeley to supply such equipment in case of emergencies. 

Councilmember Maris said UC’s original plans never contemplated five-story buildings. “It is shocking that UC would build up to five stories on San Pablo when our zoning code set height limits at 38 feet,” he said. 

Assistant Vice Chancellor Harry Le Grande told the UC Regents that UC Berkeley “does not typically pay for fire services in the community where we are,” and that “the university does not provide for all local services.”  

Lollini, who oversees university planning, highlighted a number of benefits Albany would gain from the development, including the new ballfields, restored creek, an infant/toddler center, a community center, and a redesigned street system for the village. He also said the development would net the city about $250,000 in sales tax revenue, although Albany City Administrator Beth Pollard estimated the revenues at significantly less: $16,000. Further negotiations between the city and university are planned before the second phase of the project begins. 

The regents’ committee asked tough questions of Lollini, but voted unanimously to approve with only Student Regent Matt Murray abstaining. Regent Joanne Kozberg complimented the campus on “a really good plan....The materials were very clear and it will make a contribution to the East Bay and university,” she said. 

But before UC can start construction, it will likely have to fend off a lawsuit from displaced graduate students. The Village Residents Association Committee for Affordable Housing has retained Stuart Flashman, an Oakland-based attorney, to challenge the university’s EIR. Flashman said if negotiations failed he would seek an injunction to block construction and argued UC had failed to address the impacts of displacing low income students. 

Although the prices for the new units will nearly double to $1,302 per month, Le Grande, who oversees residential housing, said they would still be about 23 percent below market rate, which he estimated at $1,709. “I think we’re being as responsive as we can given the cost of construction in the area,” he said. 

Longs Drugs is apparently coming to downtown Berkeley and checking its beer and wine selection at the door. 

The chain drug store retailer had threatened to pull out of a deal, nearly two years in the making, to bring an outlet to 2300 Shattuck Ave. at the corner of Bancroft Way, when the Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB) granted it a use permit that forbade the sale of alcohol. 

Had the deal fallen through, Longs would have been the fourth chain retailer this year to reject downtown Berkeley, which is ailing from an abundance of vacant storefronts. Already Gateway Computers, Eddie Bauer, and See’s Candies have closed shop.  

Last month, the City Council voted 5-4 to set a public hearing for later this month to see if it could salvage a deal for Longs. A five member council majority wanted to exact concessions from Longs in return for allowing it to sell alcoholic beverages just 700 feet away from Berkeley High school. 

However, in a letter sent to the city last week, Longs informed city officials that it was dropping its appeal of the ZAB ruling for the 15,500 square foot retail space at 2300 Shattuck, which has sat empty since 2001. 

Longs officials didn’t respond to telephone calls for this story. Jim Novosel, the project’s architect, said he received an e-mail from Longs executive David Greensfelder saying, “We plan to pursue our store without a liquor license as it is presently entitled (per ZAB).” Longs gave no explanation for its change of heart, Novosel said.  

Previously Longs had demanded an alcohol permit to preserve a standard product line. A company representative also said the expected sales tax revenue generated for the city would be less than the $100,000 previously reported. 

The plan to carry beer and wine ran into opposition from the Berkeley Unified School District and the Berkeley Police Department. Police Chief Roy Meisner wrote to the State Department of Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) and the city’s planning department that alcohol sales at Longs would increase crime in the area that already experienced rates of police calls for drugs or alcohol 97 percent above the city average. 

Usually ABC grants alcohol licenses, but since the census tract where Longs will reside had already reached its quota, the city needed to agree to a waiver. 

School Board President John Selawsky, who engineered a board resolution opposing Longs, hailed the company’s retreat as “great news. The sale of alcohol so close to a school doesn’t make sense,” he said. “As long as there’s no alcohol I’m happy.” 

But Bonnie Hughes, a downtown resident who also opposed Longs, still wishes the retailer wasn’t coming to the city center. Although she’s happy the store won’t include alcohol, Hughes doesn’t think her neighborhood needs a chain drug store, especially with a Walgreens just three blocks away. 

“What the downtown needs are more interesting shops and Longs doesn’t fit that bill,” she said. 

Hughes, like many of her neighbors, is hoping for a produce store or public market to move downtown. 

Longs had offered to include a produce section as a concession in return for an alcohol permit. However, city officials don’t know if the company will proceed with that component of the store now that it has agreed not to sell alcoholic beverages. 

A grocery store has been one of the top requests from downtown residents, said Ted Burton of the city’s office of economic development. While a produce store is planned for the David Brower Center at Oxford and Kittredge streets, finding one for Shattuck has been difficult, he said, because supermarkets tend to demand parking and pay lower rents than downtown properties demand. 

Novosel didn’t have a timetable for when Longs would open its store. He said the building, owned by the Lakireddy family, needed considerable structural repairs and that Longs wouldn’t be able to begin its own building modifications for at least a year.›

The Fine Arts Cinema is officially dead, and Patrick Kennedy, the owner of the massive apartment and commercial complex rising on its former site, doesn’t hold out much hope for a new theater on the site—spelling the end of repertory cinema in the city t hat first raised it to an art form. 

“We’re advertising the space, and we’ll see what happens,” said Kennedy, “but there doesn’t seem to be much demand for single-screen theaters these days.” 

Kennedy said Keith Arnold, the theater’s last operator, had no tified him that he’s given up on reopening the Fine Arts Cinema in the building that bears its name. 

For serious cineastes—as the more erudite movie buffs often style themselves—a nondescript little theater at 2451 Shattuck Ave. was the Mother Church, th e creation of the founder of repertory cinema and the intended showplace of America’s premiere film critic. 

From the exterior, without the marquee, the Fine Arts Theater could have been anything: a discount outlet, an ice cream plant, a restaurant—some o f its various incarnations since the building first opened in 1923. 

But the building entered the realm of legend when Ed Landberg and his then-spouse Pauline Kael—considered by many cinematic aficionados to be the greatest critic in the history of Americ an film—saw its theatrical potential. 

In 1951, Landberg had opened the Cinema Guild and Studio in a small storefront at 2436 Telegraph Ave. Two years later he met and married fellow film fanatic Kael, then a single mother struggling to make her mark in c riticism. 

The Cinema Guild became America’s first repertory theater, showcasing foreign films with a much sharper edge than the cinematic treacle being dished out by American filmmakers caught in the paranoid grip of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his Red-b aiting goon squads. 

Their movie house, coupled with their incisive essays in program notes handed out at the theater and mailed to an eventual audience 50,000, sparked a revolution, elevating the tastes of American audiences and inspiring young directors to reach beyond the narrow confines of Hollywood commercialism. 

Repertory houses sprung up across the country, turning directors like Akiro Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman into icons for a new generation. 

Frustrated by the limited space and poor sight-line s at their Telegraph Avenue theater, Kael and Landberg first gave serious consideration to the Shattuck Avenue building in 1957, on the closing of Glady’s, the restaurant which had occupied the site for the previous six years. 

By Nov. 3, 1961, when the building opened after a radical renovation and conversion to theatrical space, Landberg and Kael had divorced, but the traditions forged at the Cinema Guild were transplanted intact into a new setting much friendlier to viewers and films. 

The interior of the new Cinema Theater—which later became the Fine Arts Cinema—was far more spectacular than the relatively nondescript exterior, an Art Deco extravaganza featuring walls of glass, wrap-around mosaic panels, cathedral ceilings, six massive oak chairs desi gned by renowned Berkeley architect Bernard Maybeck, and a large bronze Tiffany chandelier in the lobby. 

According to the petition filed a year-and-a-half ago to landmark the building, the Cinema Theater was the first structure built in America expressly to showcase repertory films. 

In addition to Landberg’s usual revival repertory fare, the Cinema Theater also showed first-run films. 

Landberg’s most memorable offering at the Shattuck Avenue theater came in 1967, when for 41 straight weeks the screen g limmered with the haunting Japanese epic Chushingura, the longest art film run in the history of American cinema.  

That same year, Landberg’s lease ran out on the Telegraph theater, where he had continued to screen repertory fare. Abandoning that locati on, Landberg branched out to San Francisco, creating the Gateway Cinema in the Golden Gate Condominium Complex, which opened the next year. 

In 1970, Landberg’s cinematic empire-in-the-making collapsed in the wake of his second divorce, when he handed ove r the Cinema Theater lease to his ex, who—after failing to turn a profit—subleased the property four years later to the Mitchell brothers, San Francisco porn kings. 

The Mitchells offered hard core fare until 1978, when the building fell into disuse. 

Ala n Michaan of the Landmark Theater chain finally leased the structure, renaming it the Fine Arts Cinema and screening first-run art films for four years, until declining attendance led him to abandon the property. 

For five years starting in 1990, the buil ding became the Bombay Cinema, offering Hindi films to Berkeley’s sizable Indian population. 

Abandoned for another three years, the theater was reopened in 1998 by Keith Arnold and Josephine Scherer, who turned the ailing property into a financial and cultural success. 

The beginning of the end came in 2001, when developer Patrick Kennedy bought the Fine Arts and two adjacent structures. 

The controversial developer unveiled plans to tear down the buildings and replace them with the Fine Arts Building, a massive Disneyesque pseudo-Art Deco structure which would incorporate housing, a restaurant, an art gallery, and a two-screen theater so that Arnold and Scherer could continue to screen their art and repertory fare. 

There was only one catch: The two op erators would have to pay for fitting out the theaters, with costs estimated at $800,000 or more. 

Landberg’s daughter Leslie, born the year the Shattuck Avenue theater opened, enlisted the support of cineastes both from the Bay Area—most notably Lawrence Ferlinghetti—and from across the country in a drive to save the Fine Arts. But their efforts came too late, and they filed for landmark status only after Kennedy had already obtained his demolition permit from the city. 

The final blow came on March 3, 2003, when the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted five-to-three against Landberg’s proposal. 

The way was clear for demolition, and the walls came tumbling down on March 30, marking the demise of a remarkable era in the history of the American cinema. 

Patrick Kennedy, the Berkeley developer whose phantasmagorical 100-unit apartment and retail complex stands near completion on the site of the Fine Arts Cinema, offers a before and after comparison on his Panoramic Interests website. 

At www.panoramicin terests.com/projects/finearts.html, web surfers will find an architect’s rendering of Kennedy’s complex, poised directly above a photograph of the old theater. 

Of all the possible pictures of the building during its varied incarnations, Kennedy’s website offers only one—from the four years of the Mitchell Brothers’ tenure, featuring a marquee for a double feature: Captain Lust (the first XXX swashbuckler) and Hand Full of Diamonds. 

At the time the theater was demolished, Kennedy said the Fine Arts would be reborn in spacious quarters in his new building—but that plan has vanished because operator Keith Arnold couldn’t raise the $800,000 to $1.2 million it would have cost him to outfit the unfinished space Kennedy offered. 

“Anyone who crunched the numbe rs would’ve realized that it wouldn’t work. The theater simply can’t make that kind of money,” Landberg said. “It’s the same thing that happened with the Shotgun Players and the Gaia Building. Kennedy just uses these people for PR, then puts them over a b arrel to say ‘this is a done deal.’ But somehow it never is.” 

Landberg said she tried to talk to the Fine Arts operators before the demolition was approved, but Arnold only insisted she not try to prevent the demolition. 

“If I’d known about it six or ei ght months earlier, I think I could have stopped the demolition,” Landberg said. 

After the demolition Landberg said she thought of trying to run the theater herself. “The only way it could make it is if you ran it as a restaurant with a banquet room adap ted for showing films. I talked to exhibitors and figured I could make a go of it—but I’m a writer and visual artist, and I realized that it wouldn’t be healthy to take myself away form my art. [But] I’d love to see somebody else do it.”  

In San Francisc o, where most of the city’s venerable single screen theaters have already been closed and many demolished, voters may be offered a chance to spare eight of the survivors through funds from a mandated share of hotel room occupancy taxes, thanks to the efforts of Save Our Theaters, a group headed by media specialist Greg Stephens. 

Stephens has been gathering petitions for a November ballot measure, which would also give independent filmmakers a large return from the theaters in return for agreeing to film a third of their next feature in the city across the Bay. 

When Kennedy’s newest building opens—“We’re shooting for next month,” Kennedy said—the theater space will stand vacant like much of the other first floor cultural and retail space in the developer’s other downtown buildings—leaving Berkeley cineastes to mourn the loss of the city’s last repertory showcase. 

“It makes me angry,” said Elliot Cohen, a longtime habitue of the Fine Arts. “We lost an important cultural amenity.”P

Summit Health, the parent company for Alta Bates Summit medical center, was the target of a lawsuit filed in Federal court Wednesday that alleges the company overcharges uninsured patients and does not fulfill its obligations as a non-profit entity under U.S. tax law. 

The case was filed on behalf of Berkeley resident Duane Darr, an uninsured patient who was charged $4,600 for X-rays and other basic care after he slipped and fell in a supermarket last May. As part of the case, lawyers are seeking class action status for others facing what they say is similar treatment. 

According to the complaint, Sutter Health, which operates more than 20 hospitals, “has engaged, and continues to engage, in a pattern and practice of charging unfair, unreasonable and inflated prices for medical care to its uninsured patients who are generally the least able to pay these inflated and unreasonable charges.” 

The complaint also alleges that Sutter uses aggressive collection techniques when they go after the uninsured. 

Additionally, the complaint says Sutter Health does not provide the kind of charity care it should as a not-for-profit business. 

“Sutter has amassed and hoarded billions of dollars in cash and marketable securities which otherwise should be available to provide charity care to the uninsured whose care was contemplated by the provision of the tax exemption,” the complaint states. 

It goes on to charge that Sutter Health has more than $4.4 billion in assets and hauled in more than half a billion dollars in profit in the past two years, but only spent 0.6 percent of its revenue on charity care, or 40 percent less than the statewide average for other private hospitals. 

“I think it is surprising for many to learn that a hospital that enjoys a tax exempt status in fact makes almost half a million dollars in profits and dedicates little to charity and the people who are most vulnerable in our society,” said Kelly Dermody, of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and the attorney who filed the case. 

Karen Garner, a spokesperson for Sutter Health, defended the company’s bill collection policies saying the company has an obligation to “collect payment from the patients who can pay all or part of their bill,” so the company can “keep its doors open.”  

When asked why the company made a half a billion dollar profit but still filed lawsuits or made negative credit reports against patients who hadn’t paid, Garner said she “could not speak to that,” and that “those are things that will be addressed at the appropriate time.” According to a report cited in the lawsuit, Sutter sued close to 300 patients for collections in Sacramento in 2003, and since 2002 has sued 134 patients in San Francisco.  

Garner did point out that the company prohibits wage garnishment, bench warrants and property foreclosures. She said Sutter Health has a number of community programs including their charity contributions to county indigent funds, support for community clinics, and a policy that allows low-income and the uninsured to apply for discounts or write-offs for their bills. 

“We have a long history of addressing community needs and our commitments are measured by more than charity dollars,” she said. 

Still, said Dermody, Sutter Health charges the uninsured 100 percent of what they call the “sticker” price for hospital bills, while they give private insurance companies and government third party payers (such as Medicare and Medicaid) significant discounts. 

“There are a number of major institutions in the health care industry that have bargaining power and can negotiate prices,” she said. “What is known in the hospital world is that no one pays the sticker price. The price itself is unreasonable. Unfortunately [the uninsured] don’t benefit from that. We believe those prices are illegal and discriminatory and bear no relationship to the cost.”  



Nothing can stop a group of determined Berkeley volunteers this summer, not even engine failure, monsoon season, or long hours in the hot, humid, sun. Not when the election is on the line. 

Stand Up! Florida (SUP), an East Bay group of 15 or 20 volunteers, many from Berkeley, are kicking off a summer campaign to ensure voters in Northern Florida do not suffer through the same kind of treatment that left thousands disenfranchised in the 2000 election. 

A federally registered political action committee, SUP has spent the past weeks sitting in front of community stores and going door to door, mostly in towns of 4,000-6,000 people, to register and educate voters about their rights in an important swing state that may once again play a critical role in an evenly divided presidential election. 

SUP representatives say they have chosen Florida towns and counties with large African American populations because it was black Florida voters who were most severely affected in 2000 during purges when thousands were turned away—or kept away—from the polls. SUP representatives will be in these communities all summer, until Oct. 4, the last day to register to vote. Some will be back for the November election. 

“We said, we are going to put our money where our mouth is and make sure [2000] doesn’t happen again,” said Aaron Rosenfield, an Oakland resident. 

For the past three weeks, group members said it’s been a rollercoaster of success and failure. After raising $2,500 dollars last weekend at a Berkeley fundraiser, SUP had to sink almost all of it into one of their cars in Florida because the engine blew up. At the same time, members said that almost every day they are able to register several people or help convince others about the importance of the election. 

“There are a lot of people who don’t trust the system,” said Erin Brandt, a peace and conflict resolution major at UC Berkeley and a Florida native. “They have other problems to deal with and it’s hard for them to make this a priority. They don’t trust the system because of the last election.” 

Co-founded by Rosenfield and Jeremy Bled, Stand Up! Florida was tossed around as an idea for a couple of years following the 2000 election, but came to fruition when Rosenfield and Bled were joined by other volunteers who agreed that targeting Florida for voter registration and education was one of the most direct ways to ensure a fair election. 

Kimia Mizany, who signed on a couple of months ago, said she became involved because she knew California will probably go to the Democrats, and voter initiative groups are in abundance. 

“[SUP] saw Florida as a unique place to operate, they thought it was very likely to be in the spotlight again,” said Mizany. “They wanted to operate in the place where they could be most effective, get your biggest bang for your buck.” 

Besides voter education and registration, SUP is also part of fight to challenge the state’s felon list, which many say was used to purge the voter rolls in the 2000 election. Investigations have shown that large numbers of citizens—mostly African American—were illegally kept from voting because they were mistakenly put on the list, which is 47,000 people long. 

“The felon’s list works in that you are guilty until proven innocent,” said Rosenfield. “If you are on the list you have to go to the supervisor of elections and prove your innocence. You should not have to prove your innocence in this country, but [in Florida] you do.” 

Pair Strongarms Victim’s Cash 

Two men approached a pedestrian walking along Bancroft Way near Ellsworth Street shortly before 6 p.m. Monday and strongarmed him into handing over his cash. 

Probationer Flashes Privates and Blade 

Police arrested a 31-year-old Berkeley man in Civic Center Park at 7:14 a.m. Tuesday on charges of indecent exposure, brandishing a deadly weapon, and probation violation after a woman called to report that he’d exposed himself to her, then flashed a blade. 

Toothbrush-Chewing Bandit Foiled By Karate Kick 

While a mob of fans was thronging the intersection of Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street Tuesday in hopes of obtaining an autograph from a former president, a short, rotund felon wearing a three-quarter-length black leather duster and chewing on a toothbrush attempted a strongarm robbery of one of the crowd. 

The would-be victim told officers he warded off the bandit with a well-placed karate kick, said police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

Pursesnatchers Land in Juvie 

A trio of young robbers landed in juvenile hall after they relieved a woman of her purse near the corner of Parker and Ellsworth a few minutes after 7 o’clock Tuesday evening. 

Police captured the youths and escorted them to new quarters in Juvenile Hall. 

Duo Nabs Victim’s Keys 

Two juvenile strongarm types relieved a man of his keys in the parking lot of the University Avenue Andronico’s Park & Shop shortly before 9 o’clock Tuesday evening. ›

Berkeley Police expect 40,000 spectators for the city’s annual Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza on the Berkeley Marina this weekend, according to police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

The show—scheduled to commence about 9:30 p.m.—will trigger temporary changes in city traffic flow, with access to I-80 blocked at University Avenue and Gillman Street throughout the 30 minutes of pyrotechnics. 

Police will close off access to the fishing pier at 5 p.m., and will close the marina itself to traffic when the parking lots are filled, which typically happens about two hours later, Okies said. 

Marina vehicular traffic will be closed from 45 to 90 minutes after the show to allow pedestrians safe passage out of the area. 

Okies said the surest ways to attend the event will be on foot and via bicycle. 

Neither alcohol nor so-called “safe and sane” privately fired fireworks will be allowed—the latter are banned throughout the city at any time—and plenty of Berkeley’s finest will be on hand to make sure the rules are followed. 

—Richard Brenneman›

The media chatter about Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 comes down to three basic issues: 

• Is the film 100 percent accurate, or is it fundamentally misleading?  

• Can it sway the undecideds and thereby affect the election itself, or will only partisans fork out their money for a ticket? 

• Is this a legitimate use of a medium whose role is to entertain us, not ridicule the government or lecture the populace? 

Those three media preoccupations largely miss the point, however. Moore’s brilliant political achievement—whether intended or not—doesn’t happen directly on the screen, and it’s not likely to show up in weekend polls.  

This is not an electorate easily swayed by reasoned discourse. If it were, the war on Iraq might never have been initiated. The winning formula for this election won’t be convincing the formerly hostile; it will be mobilizing the already convinced. 

Moore may conceivably nudge a few undecideds, but his real accomplishment may be firing up his own partisans, especially the cynical young and the economically ignored. By legitimizing their anger and alienation, he may motivate them to participate in what otherwise seems to many of them a futile electoral exercise.  

Not only will this be an election campaign to mobilize the partisans; it will also be a tug of war to define the subject matter. Is it the economy, stupid? Is it wounded pride and feel-good patriotism? Is it fear of terrorism? The war on evil? Iraq? Torture? Education? Abortion and gay marriage? Civil liberties? The Ten Commandments? 

We’ve all grown accustomed to manipulation by carefully posed photos, orchestrated “messages of the day” and focus-grouped slogans for which candidates pay consultants exorbitant fees. They’re the essence of contemporary American politics, but no one would maintain that they are exercises in reasoned debate. Rather, they are attempts to stake out territory as one’s own, with little or no regard for policy content.  

“The Education President,” for example, makes no pretense of telling the voter what the candidate would do for education—only that he’s a guy who really, really cares a whole lot more than his opponent about that issue. For instance, here he is reading to a grade-school class. 

The key to those “messages of the day” is to grab the initiative; to make sure that the contest is fought in your home stadium. And that’s where Michael Moore has thrown his monkey wrench into George Bush’s finely tuned campaign machine. For no matter what you think of Moore’s arguments, no matter what you think of his film’s persuasiveness, no matter what you think of his factual assumptions...Michael Moore has rewritten the agenda. He has seized home-field advantage. 

No doubt the disintegration in Iraq softened the opposition for Moore. But both in his film and in the buzz surrounding it, he has brashly commandeered attention. The press, the public and especially the Bush White House, normally so adept at guiding the media discourse, must deal with Moore’s images and his issues, and that can only work to John Kerry’s advantage. 

A White House that stage manages every single photo op to the tiniest detail (and a press corps that compliantly retails those images) is now forced to contend with unscripted, real-world images—sometimes as goofy as the official photos are saccharine. 

Moore’s issues, too, are in the national spotlight, driven partly by attempts to suppress them or challenge them. Did the president’s negligence or his loyalty to the Saudis or the bin Laden family distort his response to 9/11? The answer is debatable, but the focus now, belatedly, is on the question itself. Was the war in Iraq all about the poor being cajoled into risking their lives on behalf of oil plutocrats, ideologues and defense contractors? Once again, Moore’s answer is not as significant as the fact that the question is being asked—and heard. 

If the White House had its way, this campaign would not be waged on issues like the undue influence of Saudi potentates or greedy defense contractors...or on economic equity...or whether the president was on autopilot while New York and Washington burned.  

But for the past week (and, with its unprecedented box-office popularity, for the foreseeable future), those have indeed become issues in this campaign, whether John Kerry raised them or not—and whether or not Michael Moore has every last one of his facts right. What’s more, the issues are being addressed not in Washington code talk but in language and images familiar to the average dude. 

That is Michael Moore’s great achievement. He got the White House and its allies to lunge for his bait. It’s rather like an animal trap—the more aggressively the prey fights back, the more tightly bound it becomes.  

Brilliant. 

Peter Sussman is a Bay Area writer and editor currently working on a book of the letters of another great American provocateur, Jessica Mitford.›

The Berkeley Unified School District passed a $46 million budget for its general fund Wednesday, its first balanced budget in three years. 

If the Alameda County’s Office of Education certifies the budget, which it has rejected every year since 2001, Ber keley will have to meet fewer bureaucratic reporting requirements, Superintendent Michele Lawrence said. 

The district has approved about $14 million in cuts and budget shifts over the last three years to balance its books. However, it still lacks the req uired three percent rainy day reserve requirement. 

Unlike past years when cuts meant rising class sizes and diminished programs, this year’s budget was relatively controversy free, since the district managed to trim about $6 million through savings, cost shifts and cuts mostly affecting classified employees. 

Class sizes will remain the same next year at ratios of 20 students per teacher for kindergarten through grade three, 30:1 for grades four and five, 32:1 for grades six through eight, and 33:1 for t he high school. 

Last week the board placed an $8.3 million tax measure on the ballot for November that would lower class sizes and restore some of the programs cut in recent years. 

Lawrence, who is touting a new round of financial planning, warned that although the district appeared on sound fiscal ground for the next two years, structural deficits would return in fiscal year 2007. 

“Unless we get more revenue, we’ll be in the same position we were two years ago,” she said. 

›

Alameda County’s almost 1,500 General Assistance welfare recipients were issued a temporary reprieve, at least for this year, after the County Board of Supervisors voted last Friday to maintain the program even in the face of severe budget cuts.  

The decision will ensure that General Assistance recipients will receive their monthly stipend year-round instead of having it cut off after nine months. The decision, say advocates, is extremely important for many on the GA rolls who are teetering on homelessness but able to stay housed and fed because of the small monthly stipend. 

However, the decision by the board and the Alameda County Social Services Agency, which administers the money, puts the county in a difficult position because it is now betting on future money to pay for the still existing $5.2 million deficit that was to be filled by the cuts. 

According to Sylvia Myles, the public information officer for the Alameda County Social Services Agency, the county is hoping to receive waivers pending on the federal level that will provide savings in other program areas and in turn allow the county to divert that money to GA. 

“We have taken quite a risk,” said Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, adding that “I don’t think there was any disagreement that it was the right thing to do.” 

Advocates and recipients alike said they were relieved but still concerned that they could be facing similar cuts next year. So in the meantime they have agreed to convene a task force along with the Social Services Agency to evaluate GA. 

“I’m relieved, deeply relieved,” said Patricia Wall, executive director of the Homeless Action Center, a Berkeley-based advocacy law firm. “I don’t think anybody honestly wanted to make the cuts, I’m glad we came to the right conclusion.” 

›

Imagine lunch hour at a Berkeley middle school: Eighth graders tossing salad side by side with cafeteria workers, seventh graders eating the chard they grew in the school garden while receiving a geography lesson, sixth graders sorting seeds to plant for the next harvest.  

Every morsel is organic, locally grown and guaranteed not to plunge Berkeley Unified into bankruptcy. 

For 15 years that has been the dream of Chez Panisse owner Alice Waters, and now, after revolutionizing American cuisine, the Berkeley chef is fronting millions to turn her dream into reality for Berkeley students. 

In an agreement signed Wednesday, Waters—through the Chez Panisse Foundation—committed herself to raise nearly $4 million over the next three years and an undetermined sum through 2014 to reinvent the school lunch at Berkeley Unified, and she hopes, ultimately, across the country. 

“The intention is to teach school lunch as a course,” she said. Waters, a former Montessori teacher who chose not to send her child to Berkeley public schools, envisions Berkeley students from kindergartners through high school seniors taking an active role in their school lunch. Students would plant seeds, raise crops, cook food, learn about sustainable ecosystems, and—as they advance—study nutrition as part of their classroom curriculum. 

The program will start at Martin Luther King Middle School, where Waters has funded the school’s edible school yard program for nine years and starting in 2005 will help run its new dining commons. By 2007, the district plans to expand the program to two elementary schools.  

LeConte, one of the first schools to have a garden, has been selected as the first elementary school for the Waters program, Superintendent Michele Lawrence said. Meanwhile, Waters, the Center for Ecoliteracy, Children’s Hospital of Oakland, and Berkeley Unified teachers and staff will devise a nutrition curriculum throughout the district. 

Waters has not only guaranteed the money to furnish the King cafeteria and edible school yard, she will pay for the curriculum development team and provide more than $800,000 to cover the projected operating deficits for moving to locally produced, freshly prepared organic food. 

When the program is complete, every school in Berkeley will have its own garden and full service cafeteria where students can play a leading role in providing for their nutritional needs. 

“The plan is to engage every single solitary kid,” Waters said. “This seems like the one permanent solution for the obesity epidemic in our country.” 

The Center for Disease Control reported that the U.S. spent $75 billion in 2003 treating obesity-related health problems, and although Berkeley might be a far cry from Houston, the fattest city in America three years running according to Men’s Fitness magazine, Berkeley’s youth are not immune to the national trend. 

About 15 percent of Berkeley youth are obese, roughly equal to the national average, according to Kate Clayton, the city’s Chronic disease Prevention Program Manager. “Unfortunately, some of the uniqueness that we have here is not reflected in better health and nutrition,” she said.  

Results from the 2001 California Physical Fitness Test found that students in Assemblymember Loni Hancock’s district, which all of Berkeley and 12 other East Bay cities, are only slightly fitter than the state average. Twenty four percent of students in Hancock’s district were deemed overweight compared to 27 percent across the state. African American and Latino children were more than twice as likely to be overweight than white children, according to the report. 

Superintendent Lawrence hoped that if after 10 years of private funding the Berkeley program showed improved levels of student fitness, the district would receive state and federal funds to continue it. The agreement signed Wednesday didn’t include measurable standards for determining fitness. 

While never the paragon of culinary excellence, school lunches have deteriorated nationwide. Many cash-strapped districts have fallen prey to stingy federal and state school lunch programs that act as subsidies for large corporate food processors to provide food that offers little flavor or nutritional value. Such has been the case in Berkeley, where students at King and the elementary schools have been eating re-heated, pre cooked meals for years.  

The food at Berkeley Unified has been slowly improving, but lunchroom finances continue to suffer. This year the school’s cafeteria fund is $300,000 in the red, after the deficit topped $600,000 last year. 

To make freshly-prepared organic food a financially viable option for a district that loses money selling a lot of cheap prepackaged lunches, Waters estimates she will have to raises “tens of millions” over the next 10 years. 

She listed philanthropists Robert Wood Johnson and the Kellogg Foundation as possible contributors, and said she has spoken with a United States Senator who offered to seek federal funding. 

The foundation has raised around $400,000 a year for the King cafeteria and others projects in Northern California, but Waters is confident her concern over obesity will make the fundraising drive a success. 

“My plan is that in three years we’ll have millions to fund the entire program,” Waters said. “If not, I’ll have to sell my home.” 

›

BERLIN—In electric transition, the multicultural capital of Germany is now home to a gay mayor, almost as much sushi as strudel, and more Jews than anyone has seen since Adolph Hitler.  

Six decades after the Holocaust, Germany has Europe’s only expanding Jewish population and has surpassed Israel as the chosen destination of Jewish refugees. While France reels from anti-Semitic violence and a new Moscow Human Rights study predicts that Russia’s 50,000 skinheads could double within the next two years, Jews are settling in nearly every corner of the birthplace of Nazism.  

In an existential twist of history, these Jews—predominantly from states of the former Soviet Union—receive rent, health care, higher education, unemployment benefits, and German language classes. Germany feels safer than Israel to them and has a more relaxed attitude than the Jewish state toward mixed marriages.  

It’s been 13 years since Germany made this commitment to rebuild a Jewish community, and most Germans appear to support official hopes that the country can regain the part of its national identity lost in the gas chambers. But that identity is certain to be as different from the pre-war German Jew’s as Goethe was from Tolstoy. Forging it will be up to people like Tamara and Lion Chamilov and their 23-year-old son, Alexander. 

At 49, Tamara speaks perfect English. Her 50-year-old husband is a violinist and Alexander has been studying clothing design. Before the Russian Mafia strong-armed her husband and his father out of their leather and fur business, they had what Tamara calls a “very good life” in Naltchik, near Chechnya. Tamara taught school with a five-year, post-graduate degree. Unlike most of Germany’s new Jews, Tamara and her family are religious. Known as “mountain Jews,” who originated in Persia, they practiced their religion in a Jewish district alongside observant Muslims and Christians.  

At first, the family of four (one son died in an auto accident) received shelter and the equivalent of $1,200 per month from the government. Today, they live near Berlin in Potsdam in a three-story apartment building with 27 other immigrant families. The state covers their $327-a-month, three-room apartment with one bath. Tamara and her husband each receive about $360 a month in unemployment benefits when out of work, which is most of the time. During their first five years, health care was free; it remains affordable at the equivalent of $10 a quarter. 

With German unemployment at about 10 percent and Russian Jewish unemployment at 40 percent, Tamara lucked out several years ago when she landed a contract job tutoring at a nearby boarding school. But the contract ended, and except for looking after two small children three hours a week for $150 a month, she has been unsuccessful at working in her profession. Lion had no work for four years, then played with a Berlin orchestra on a contract that ended last May. Unable to afford his salary, the orchestra turned to social services, which provided it. Like 75 percent of their counterparts, the highly educated Chamilovs have to accept German welfare to survive. 

“If social services stops giving us money, we cannot live,” says Tamara.  

Her dream is to get permission from the German minister of education to tutor English. Then, the family would petition to move to Berlin, close to Lion’s father and greater job opportunity. Aware that the United States is not accepting Jewish refugees from Russia in the numbers it welcomed when the Soviet Union first collapsed, Tamara still dreams of joining close family in Kentucky.  

“I visited Louisville once,” she says, “Oy vey, Louisville! So beautiful and so much opportunity!” 

Before Hitler, about 560,000 Jews lived in Germany, connected emotionally and materially to its cultural life. Afterwards, 15,000 Jews remained. Today, there are about 190,000 Russian Jews in Germany, only 70,000 of whom are involved in the official Jewish community. They watch Russian television, tune in to Russian radio, and intermingle with Russian cultural groups. The dwindling German Jewish population chafes at the overwhelmingly secular Russian complexion of the state-supported Jewish community. 

“This is not paradise for Russian Jews,” says Judith Kessler, sociologist and editor of the monthly magazine, Jewish Berlin. “They are safe and they are not starving. But they sit in their flats, strangers in Germany. After anti-Semitism and a secular state, they can’t be expected to cross a border and suddenly want religion. I’ve been telling them for over a decade—without success—to lower their career expectations. Only the future will tell if they will create a new Jewish community or break off by themselves.” 

Hilary Abramson is a San Francisco journalist and contributing editor to Pacific News Service.›

Since drama in real life does not come with a sound track—nor promos to get you in the proper frame of mind to interpret what is to come—its true import is often lost on us in the fleeting moments of the actual experience. That is even more true in these days of Internet blogs and 24-hour cable, where a gaggle of honkers following the parade rushes to interpret—the latecomers helpfully providing interpretations of the initial interpretation—so that we come away with our common sense numbed, all remnants of our own initial impressions irretrievably lost. 

And so it was this week with that brief, but telling, Baghdad minuet, America returning sovereignty to the Iraqis, with Mr. Bremer bustled out the door and onto the plane, coattails a-flapping, all before the last, sad sound of the summer band had cleared our ears. 

So let us take note of the moment, quickly, before it is lost to memory. 

What we witnessed behind the Green Line this week was a defeat—a resounding, embarrassing full-frontal defeat—for the administration of George W. Bush. And any attempt to label it otherwise is pure spin. 

For the Bushites, the Gulf War, the Sequel, was fought in anticipation of two historic moments…some cynics might call them “photo opportunities.” The first anticipated moment was actually a collection of victory visions—American tanks rolling unimpeded along the Tigris River roads, drivers grinning, all thumbs-up; the cheering crowds greeting U.S. soldiers along the way as town after town fell to our advance; the triumphant entry into Baghdad itself; the toppling of the statue of Hussein-the-dictator’s humbling capture in the spider hole—all culminating in the fighter-jet flight, the pilot suit, the strut across the deck of the Lincoln, hurrahs from the thousand sailor throats, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED waving from the battlements. 

The second anticipated moment for the Bush administration was to be the transfer of power to a free Iraq. Here the United States was to show it was a world power unlike all other world powers—dynastic Egypt, imperial Rome, and colonial Europe never gave up their territories without a struggle, and absent insistent demand. But the United States would be different and in one telegenic moment—Marines at attention, U.S. and Iraqi flags snapping side-by-side, and with a simple, symbolic handshake the powerful U.S. envoy passing over to the new Iraqi president the reigns of power. Here, our little brown brothers. Join us in the circle of freedom. A photograph for the ages, for both political posters and history books. 

In calling this an anticipated photo op, I do not mean to be disparaging. It is in such encapsulated moments—some merely symbolic—that humans mark our history. While the soldiers on each side had their own personal memories, for most Americans the end of the U.S. Civil War is marked in two recorded events: Lee bending over the little table in the Appomattox Courthouse study, putting pen to the papers of surrender—and, only a few days earlier, Lincoln walking amidst cheering crowds of former African captives through a fallen Richmond down to the Confederate capitol building, setting himself, just to see how it fit, in the chair where Jefferson Davis had so recently ruled. Little John-John saluting at the funeral of his president father. The flag-raising at Iwo Jima. The firehoses and police dogs at Birmingham, the horses and police-clubbings at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The last helicopter rising above the roof of the embassy at Saigon. King thundering at the Washington Monument. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin seated at Yalta, the Last Great Alliance of East and West. Snapshots of recorded history. How humans mark our way through time. 

But some of these events come with no anticipatory fanfare and so we were all initially caught off guard, when the moment of transfer actually came. I was flipping channels while I cleared old files off the computer—not really paying much attention to what was happening on the television screen—and for a little bit I was not quite sure of the headline crawling below the talking head. “U.S. Transfers Power To Iraq.” “While the scheduled date for this transfer was actually two days from now,” the on-the-scene reporter was explaining, “the new Iraqi government was already in place, and so the Bush administration decided there was no need to delay. One of the considerations was that—in moving up the transfer of power two days early—the administration would thwart the anticipated buildup violence leading up to that event.” 

The transfer itself was not broadcast live for security reasons, we were told, and reporters were put under a shroud of military-imposed silence, forbidden to announce the event until Ambassador Paul Bremer, administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, had the chance to flee the country. 

And so we have lived long enough to see the ignominy of the official representative of the United States—the pre-eminent military power of our time—ducking and running for cover from those whom the president continues to call, dismissively, “thugs.” And all the Marines and Tomahawk Missiles and fighter bombers were not, apparently, enough to protect him. 

It is all only symbolism, of course. Though the non-Christian “heathen” rage in Fallujah and Najarif and the suburbs of Baghdad, they have no power to cross the so-called Green Line. Unlike Vietnam in the days of Tet, there is no room-to-room fighting along the polished hallways of the American Embassy. The danger was never that violence would interrupt the ceremony of the torch-passing itself, but that the violence outside would overshadow it…that it would be the horrific rather than the handshake that the networks would cover. And so, with a growing pan-Arabic, pan-Muslim insurgency spreading like burning oil across the sands of Iraq, the Bush administration decided to cut it short, hustling to the airport lest the plane take off without us, tossing the keys over the counter on our way out of the hotel. 

It is only symbolism, of course. 

But a potent, powerful symbolism, nonetheless—an encapsulated moment of the American experience in Iraq. And it did not go nearly the way the Bush administration had planned. 



As the “energy crisis” rolls on and the environmentally oblivious continue to waste gas on SUVs, Hummers and RVs, the most critical dissent one hears in the broader public forum is a mild protest with respect to the price at the pump (Democrats love to jump on this bandwagon). What a revolutionary cry! As if releasing federal reserves and reigning in the power of the oil corporations slightly were enough to bring back the good ol’ days of American prosperity and that nostalgic heyday of the car culture. Meanwhile, the American public is carefully guarded from knowledge about the real costs of petroleum (economic, political, social, medical, environmental, military, etc.) and the indisputable geological truth of the finiteness of a resource we continue to splurge as if there were no tomorrow. And the inevitable consequences this will have to our geopolitical status are woefully ignored and swept under the rug by all quadrants of the political spectrum. 

In contrast, I would like to submit that not only is it whimsical and ecologically destructive to waste oil on such non-essential and/or inefficient uses of oil, such as the private automobile, air travel and excessive reliance on electricity, but that this waste is actually a security threat and, therefore, effectively unpatriotic—even subversive! Yes, the American life-style is most definitely and undeniably a threat to ecological integrity (what there is left of it!). But there is—in a very myopic American sense—something even more pressing to consider. The common sense fact that our national defense relies on the use (and therefore supply) of oil seems to escape everyone in the discussion of the pros and cons of wars for oil. As if it were a luxury to get oil from Saudi Arabia and we could really do without it, if we wanted to. This is no trivial matter. And it is no coincidence that our international strategy has revolved around this fact, ever since the end of World War II. Every president since FDR, Democrat or Republican, has recognized the significance of securing the oil supply. It is a seldom observed fact that Germany and Japan lost the war largely because they did not have their own supply of oil and were unable to secure it through conquest (of Azerbaijan by Germany and the Dutch East Indies by Japan). Just think what might have been, if Hitler had lived in Saudi Arabia! 

This does not mean, of course, that I am trying to defend the occupation of Iraq. But consider this: “The United States … is currently [2001] producing oil at the rate of about 2.8 billion barrels per year; if that rate is maintained in the years ahead and no new deposits of oil are discovered, U.S. reserves—estimated at 28.6 billion barrels in 2000—will be fully depleted by 2010.” (Michael Klare, Resource Wars) That pretty much means that six years from now (2004) we will be fully dependent on foreign oil. Is there anyone out there who really believes we can convert our technology to alternative, sustainable sources in the next six years—even if we wanted to? So what will our options be then? Realistically speaking we will need to somehow procure foreign oil or turn to nuclear power (which is clearly not a desirable—and perhaps not even feasible—option). Otherwise, in six years, whoever is in control of oil in the Middle East (if not us) will pretty much be able to roll right over us. This sounds to me like squandering oil now is somewhat anti-American! Maybe the oil companies are really a communist conspiracy! And their pro-car and sprawl culture, speed-worshipping propaganda is meant to blind us to our own ill fate.  

Instead, I believe we should be saving every bit of oil we can get our hands on (especially our own supplies), put it in the reserves and protect it with our life’s blood because we are bound to need it to protect our lives! And given the trend of increasing anti-American sentiments worldwide, growing by leaps and bounds with each passing day thanks to our current president and his neo-con lackeys, we are going to need every bit of it. This is a frightening prospect considering the nonchalance of our attitude about using oil for any frivolous reason.  

So the next time you see a Hummer or an RV racing down the highway, feel free to roll down the window and yell out: “You anti-American, unpatriotic swine! Don’t you know there’s a war on terrorism going on? If you want to waste gas, why don’t you go and live with the Arabs? You’re going to get us all killed!” 

Berkeley can eliminate its budget deficit and provide better governance by shifting some of the government functions to community associations. A voluntary civic association would be formed in each council district. The association would be able to raise revenue for civic services without being bound by state laws that have put local governments in straitjackets. 

The root of the fiscal crisis in California is that the state constitution, especially Proposition 13, has cut off the natural source of local public revenue, the land value generated by civic services. Public services such as streets, parks, schools, security, and fire protection make the area a better place in which to live and work. This raises rents and land values. It is both efficient and equitable to finance city services from the land values it generates. 

The property tax prior to Prop. 13 was bad in taxing both the value of buildings and other improvements along with the land value. But instead of just exempting buildings, Prop. 13 capped the property tax. The state later added to the problem by taking away some of the property tax revenues from the cities and counties. 

But voluntary neighborhood associations are not bound by such fiscal shackles. Residential associations are free to raise their revenues as they wish. A community association may tap local land values to raise revenues for its neighborhood services. Shifting some city services to neighborhood civic associations would also bring government closer to the people and empower the local communities to provide more effective security and public works. 

A community association would be created in each council district in Berkeley. Each association would have a board of directors, which could also be called the community council. Each resident, including tenants, would have one vote, and also, each owner of a house or business property would have one vote. So an owner-occupant would have two votes, one as resident and one as owner. 

The city would then transfer authority and funding for some services to the community association. These could include street maintenance, some policing functions, and some zoning decisions. For example, a public hearing for new construction, if it is not a major project, could be done by the association, since this mostly affects the neighborhood. This would not only save the city some revenue, but also reduce the time obligations of the city council. The community association would also enable more Berkeley residents to be active in civic affairs. 

Some residents would choose to not join the association. The city would therefore create a partnership with the associations to represent non-members and share the financing and decision-making between members and non-members of the community associations. Non-members would be subject to extra city charges to help pay for the community services jointly financed by the city and the community association.  

The funding difference would be that city taxes penalize enterprise and community development, whereas association assessments could enhance jobs and housing. Berkeley's taxes on real estate fall on improvements rather than land value, so they punish developments that provide housing and jobs. In contrast, if the members of a district wish to encourage housing and employment, it would be able to tap its local land values instead of imposing added costs on construction and improvements. 

Proposition 13 has disempowered local public finance, but community associations can once again empower cities and neighborhoods. Berkeley can lead the way to better public finance and more community spirit by empowering the neighborhoods.  

Berkeley resident Fred Foldvary teaches economics at Santa Clara University. 

›

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am pleased to read the letters and article in the Daily Planet about the Rent Board. It is telling that the reasoned arguments are the ones critical of the behavior of this city agency. 

It is truly unfortunate that so much antagonistic law has been codified. Rent control, on the face of it, does make a certain sense. Creating an expensive bureaucracy that criminalizes the business of landlords does not. Rental Ordinance rules are designed to entrap landlords, and opportunistically levy unusually high penalties too feed a bloated city agency. They are not an honest result of “progressive” thinking. They are more like a war conducted by people who started out resenting paying rent and just never grew out of it.  

The logic ignores the real costs of owning property and rent control as an economic force itself. No sensible property owner can afford to rent a vacant unit at anything but the very top of the market precisely because, once it is rented, the rent is then fixed until the next vacancy comes along. If the rent is too good a deal, that may never happen. Good deals are, unfortunately, serious traps for Berkeley landlords to avoid. That is why prices in Berkeley stay at their highest during periods in which there is a glut of rentals on the market.  

Property ownership, particularly of smaller properties, is often a family owned business. It is a way to have an investment in the future while raising children. It is a way to fund their college. In some cases, it is a way to continue working in the non-profit sector or, for example, as an adjunct faculty at a state university, where there are no job protections. For some people, it allows for a socially beneficial and/or artistic career without having to ignore one’s personal responsibilities. For immigrants, it is the primary mechanism to become empowered in a society, economically and politically, and it is that for all low-income people. 

Ideologues frequently like to describe the world in the most simplistic terms. For them, it is a “my way or the highway” situation, because to them the world is essentially harsh, and lacking in subtleties. Personally, I find this the most destructive impulse among many of those who describe themselves as progressive. They have heroes and villains and that’s it! In the world described by the Berkeley Rental Ordinance, it is painfully obvious that the Rent Board sees itself as the champion of the always-victimized tenant against the always-greedy landlord. Real life, of course, does not toe this version of a line in the sand. 

You have to wonder then, about the wisdom of appointing teenagers to the Rent Board. However, there is a possibility for a greater wisdom here. How about starting an initiative to the voters to redirect the rental registration fees that fund this multi-million dollar agency and pour them right into our public schools. This would solve the school districts budget crisis, allow for improvement, and greatly improve access to quality public education for all. Since education is the best route to social justice and a better life, everyone would benefit. Let’s stop wasting money and preserve the quality of our schools!  

Tom Ferentz  

A FEW POINTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A few points I would like to make: 

1. The U.S. has moral and legal responsibility to finance humanitarian relief and economic reconstruction, and must involve and employ Iraqis in the reconstruction process.  

2. The U.S. must take full responsibility for abuses of Iraqi prisoners. Senior officials must be held accountable and systemic problems must be recognized and remedied.  

3. A recent State Department terrorism report shows that in 2003, worldwide terrorist attacks were at a 20-year high.  

4. War has increased anti-American sentiment and destroyed international norms and laws regarding preemption and torture.  

5. According to the 9/11 Commission, Iraq and Al Qaeda have no connection.  

Warren W. Wright 

Oakland 

• 

BIG UGLY BUILDINGS 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Big ugly buildings (BUBs) seem to be sprouting like weeds all over Berkeley. I suggest the City Council pass at least a one-year moratorium on the approval of new BUBs. That way we can take a good look at the BUBs already in the pipeline and see if we want more. I’m afraid if we don’t do this we’ll wake up one day and find that all our thoroughfares have become urban canyons and most of what’s left of Berkeley’s small town character will be lost forever. 

Michael Fullerton 

• 

TELEGRAPH T-SHIRTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have to agree with the recent letter writer who was outraged by the Telegraph Avenue t-shirt vendor who is selling shirts that poke fun at Native Americans. Surely the vendor in question knows by now that only white males are allowed to be the butt of the joke in politically correct Berkeley. And I was doubly offended by the vendor’s latest insensitive t-shirt: a parody of the “Cal” logo, substituting “Hell” for “Cal” (in resplendent gold-and-blue Golden Bear colors no less). As a Satanist-American, I feel that comparing Cal to Hell perpetuates negative and demeaning stereotypes about the netherworld. 

Ace Backwords 

• 

PENSION CONTRACTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors acted totally irresponsibly and illegally without approval of the property owners when it approved pension contracts allowing employees to retire at age 50 with full pension. 

With that one stroke, they ensured that half the county employees would be retired on pensions and not providing any needed county services. 

It also ensured that county services would have to be cut back and that property owners, who had already paid for those services, would have the right to sue the county to recover those services and void the union contracts that now hold them in involuntary servitude to pay for pensions they never approved. 

You can’t tax property owners to pay for pensions. It is inherently unconstitutional. You have to pay the employees first and let them pay for their pensions. 

When the Alameda County Board of Supervisors sides with labor unions to pay back political contributions and does this at the expense of residents and property owners, this is massive political abuse and they deserve to be sued. 

Stephen Jory 

• 

TWENTY OPINIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

1. Mr. Sukoff (Daily Planet, June 29-July 2) rattles off 20 opinions (not observations). One main theme is that Berkeley does not truly tolerate opinions varying from the progressive left. Did Mr. Sukoff fail to notice that his article got published? 

2. I have found that Berkeley is a community with very strong morals and values. They aren’t the same morals and values held in, say, Crawford TX, but they’re held just as strongly. If Mr. Sukoff is intimidated by this, he should work up the courage to challenge them instead of simply saying that nothing can change in Berkeley. 

3. Berkeley activist population is certainly larger than Mr. Sukoff’s guess of 1,000, if the enormous crowd that showed up at Fahrenheit 9-11 is any indication. Going to that movie is activism, voting is activism, talking with your neighbor is activism. Sukoff shouldn’t undermine the power of the small good acts we all do with his own cynicism. 

4. He thinks politics in Berkeley is bad? I lived and worked in DC for three years. Politics is blood sport. In the words of Harry S. Truman: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” 

5. I’m really glad that Berkeley city employees are not overworked, are well-paid, not constantly threatened with firing and assured a comfortable retirement. We should all be so lucky. 

Anita Sarah Jackson 

P.S.: I don’t hate Emeryville. 

• 

FAHRENHEIT 9/11 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I agree with Andrew Sarris’ conclusion in his middle-of-the-road review of Fahrenheit 9/11 (Daily Planet, June 29-July 2) that the documentary is “one of the most thought-provoking releases of the year.”  

Among the thoughts provoked in me is Moore’s astounding feat of portraying how a totally American coup took place while still on-going; and that the coup took place with the complicity of every single Democratic senator.  

I was also astonished to see the courage and persistence the Black Congressional Caucus demonstrated trying to get redress for 40,000 disenfranchised African American Floridians whose nullified votes gave Bush his Electoral College majority. I hadn’t read or seen before any mainstream coverage of what they did and what they said.  

Their integrity, however, couldn’t overcome the post-1968 policy decision of the Democratic Leadership Council not to fight for civil rights any more. This decision, as it turned out, delivered Bush unto us.  

I was also struck by Bush’s lack of affect upon hearing the news of the second plane attack on the World Trade Center. He showed neither sadness, nor anger, nor resolve. Instead, I thought he looked shifty or maybe guilty.  

Moore’s achievement, driven by his authentic patriotism, is also a unique milestone in that just going to see it is a political action in itself.  

Now that these truths are outing into collective consciousness in wide waves, the next dot to connect is what to do about/with them, given present political options.  

The left has now boosted Kerry’s chances and perhaps generated some leverage to nudge him from his comfy center-right perch. Can we get Kerry to repudiate the Patriot Act? It’s the least he could do for us.  

Maris Arnold  

• 

CLEVER PROPAGANDA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s nice we’re all so jolly and jizzed over Michael Moore’s new movie. 

But is anyone else uneasy that a self-important filmmaker who’s been a little lax when it comes to intellectual discipline is having so much influence on the debate about this war? 

Didn’t you find those record-breaking lines at local theaters somewhat embarrassing? After all, we do read around here, we don’t need great big pictures.  

Alarms should go off when we find ourselves getting all tingly over Moore’s divining of motives or conjuring up perfect connections between ambiguous facts. He himself has backpedaled some from claims he made during the pre-release promo tour. 

Moore is more just a clever propagandist, a fantasist, than a real documentarian. That’s fine, but I hope we and our children remember the difference. 

James Day 

• 

MORE OBSERVATIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Since I have known Albert Sukoff for at least 30 of his 40 years in Berkeley and since he and I both have planning degrees from UC, I have to offer a couple of observations about his op-ed piece. First, Berkeley may indeed have a bloated city bureaucracy, but the fact that “Hayward is six times larger [in area] than Berkeley...” probably simplifies rather than expands the need for city administrators. Berkeley zoning staff, traffic engineers, and police spend a lot of time trying to sort out the problems caused by congestion in a city with no place to grow. Second, I suspect, without checking the statistics, that Berkeley has lost population because of the decline in household size, caused by gentrification of historically low-income neighborhoods and the move of some families to the suburbs in search of “better” (or at least whiter) schools. The number of households and cars belonging to households has not declined. In saying that “those who might otherwise live here must drive here...” Albert seems to buy without question the university’s inferences that the increase in faculty and staff commuters is the result of city’s policies. The problem is that the free market, that Albert so much worships, has placed the cost of Berkeley housing beyond the reach of most who live on university salaries. If the city is at fault it is because among the reasons affluent buyers push up the price of housing are that the NPO and Berkeley zoning and traffic controls, while sometimes annoying, have made so much of the city a nice place to live. 

Christopher Adams 

• 

SOLANO AVENUE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to Peter Klatt’s letter, following mine (Daily Planet, June 29-July 2), I hope I made it clear that we welcome La Farine, but oppose the granting of another food service permit, which their proposed tables would require. 

I heartily agree with him that to solve Berkeley’s budget problems we must increase retail trade. Berkeley residents probably spend tens of millions of dollars each year in Emeryville and El Cerrito, because that’s where the stores are. Big stores. And Berkeley derives no revenue from that outflow of money.  

The most obvious solution to this problem lies at the foot of Gilman, where everything west of Seventh Street is a wasteland of scrapyards and shanties. This freeway exit could become a bustling hub of commerce. 

To those who dream of the emergence of light industry there, I have a wake-up call. Light industry has gone south of the border or half way around the world. 

Jerry Landis  

• 

TAKING ON THE BIG U 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for your splendid editorial (“The Local Press Takes on the Big U,” Daily Planet, June 18-21) that addressed Chris Thompson’s hysterical journalism regarding UC’s expansion plans (East Bay Express, June 16), which includes building faculty housing in Strawberry Canyon. We wish to point out that Thompson’s ranting reproval of Berkeley residents’, and especially the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste’s (CMTW’s), tactics in opposing UC management, has no basis in fact. In particular, his statement that CMTW members “carp about Lawrence Berkeley Lab-not to get anything done, but merely to hear themselves squawk”, shows a total ignorance (ie., lack of journalistic research) of the fact that the CMTW was founded in the early 1990s to fight the university’s plan to build a replacement facility for the storage of all it’s Berkeley Campus laboratories’ toxic and radioactive waste in Strawberry Canyon just catty-corner from the Haas swimming pools. 

This first battle was won by the CMTW and was followed several years later by another victory, the closing, Dec. 31, 2001, of the Cal-managed Lawrence Berkeley Lab National Tritium Labeling Facility, who’s legacy waste remains in the soil, groundwater and vegetation of the Strawberry Creek watershed. So much for our “tactics,” and, for those interested, check out our fact sheets and the “Contamination Chronicle” on LBNL.  

Gene Bernardi  

Co-Chair Emeritus 

Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste,  

• 

IN NEED OF AN EDITOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the June 29 issue, Albert Sukoff offers 20 observations after 40 years in Berkeley. He needs an editor, or he needs my unified field theory of Berkeley ethnography that explains everything, even our struggles over questions like “you want coffee?” or “who lives, who dies and whose deck view has monetary value?” 

For more than a hundred years, eager students from across the U.S. and the world have completed their studies at UC Berkeley. All were blessed. Some never left. Rather than just basking in the rarified air of western imperial education and then going out in the world or back home to make it a better place, these ingrate graduates, seduced by the climate no doubt, bought real estate and settled down to the great and good goal of making Berkeley heaven on earth, with excellent property values. 

Attending a City Council meeting is like going to an experts convention. The guy on your left is a PhD, the woman on his left is an “alternative realtor,” the next concerned citizen over is a doctor, next speaker is a lawyer, a government rep, a university rep, a technician from the Lab, and yes, a lot of activists making themselves useful. But contrary to Mr. Sukoff’s observations, it’s not always how hard your butt to sit past midnight, it’s also how thick your wallet and it’s not just a bunch of dilettante activists, Berkeley includes plenty of wannabe town burghers. 

The town suffers from the opposite of a brain drain—just too many darn smart citizens for good order. So, I’m suggesting a repatriation campaign. I will offer 10 dollars to the first Berkeley graduate still on the voter rolls after 20 years who goes forth, back to Iowa or Hillsborough or Bali or wherever in the provinces you came from to perform Berkeley’s good works where they’re needed.  

Then maybe this place built for the university can get back to its real job of gouging students. 

Hank Chapot 

Central Campus Gardener 

• 

WASTEFUL SPENDING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

BUSD claims to be short on money. Yet, BUSD continues wasteful spending. 

Three to four years ago, BUSD put in a covered eating area with benches and tables at Willard. Now, BUSD plans to rip out those tables and replace them with nothing. BUSD will be ripping out some of the gorgeous roses in front of Willard to plant new ones. Why? 

In schools, our kids are taught about California, its special climate and the benefits of our native plants. Yet, BUSD insists on planting more and more lawns. In the last year, BUSD planted a new lawn at the high school, a new lawn at King, and now this summer, a new lawn is in the works for the front of Willard. Grass is water-wasteful. (Just ask EBMUD.) BUSD mows its lawns with gas lawn mowers and weed whackers. The U.S. is in our second Middle East war in 12 years because of oil. And the prediction is that scarce water in the parched west will be the basis of new wars. Water and gas cost money, and gas powered tools emit greenhouse gasses. So why is BUSD planting more lawns? BUSD should consider drought tolerant and beautiful native California bunch grasses, which don’t need to be watered and don’t need to be mowed. 

We’ve had an energy crisis for several years. Yet, the brand new building at Berkeley High uses as much electricity as the entire rest of the campus. That new building has increased the high school’s power bill by 100 percent. What happened to energy conservation? 

Willard was allocated $465,000 for this round of improvements to the grounds. Then Willard was told there was only $362,000 to spend on actual work. What happened to the other $103,000? Rumor has it, BUSD spent $103,000 (25 percent) of Willard’s allocated funds for consultants and architects. Why? 

BUSD doesn’t seem broke the way it’s spending money. Maybe, BUSD should practice what it teaches our kids: the four Rs. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot. Reduce through conservation precious resources such as gas and water, Reduce what’s spent on consultants so there’s more money for teachers and students. Reuse materials and supplies we already have, don’t tear out benches, seats and existing plants which are perfectly functional. Recycle and rot. Every year in June, dumpsters arrive at each school. Hundreds of dollars worth of stuff is thrown away, which three months later, is replaced with new stuff. We can only dream that some day schools will really reduce, reuse and recycle and all the cafeteria waste will be composted rather than ending up in the landfill. 

More of us need to speak out against the waste in our schools. And BUSD needs to take active steps to wisely use the resources and money we have already given you. 

Dan Peven 

?

For three hours on midday Tuesday, a seemingly endless chain of book-clutching fans threaded their way up Haste Street toward Telegraph Avenue in hopes of receiving an ink scrawl and a handshake from the man on the second floor of Cody’s Books. 

William Jefferson Clinton had come once more to Berkeley, this time to promote the sale of My Life, the autobiography that’s already set a slew of records in its first week of release. 

Clinton’s first-day sales of 400,000 set an all-time record for a non-fiction hardback—though the numbers still pale in comparison with the five million first-day sales of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. 

David and April Dumas came from Pinole—David in a wheelchair. “We came because we missed his presidency,” he said. “We’re kind of fond of peace and prosperity.” 

They were among the lucky ones who’d received a ticket guaranteeing them a good chance and an autograph, a handshake and the famed Clinton smile. 

But those in the second, parallel line of non-ticketholders we re less fortunate, even though scores had camped out overnight—making for that rare occasion when people with homes outnumbered the homeless in the Telegraph Avenue sleeping bag count. 

Michael Bono, a semi-retired San Francisco cabbie, arrived by BART Tu esday morning and joined the line at 6:45 am. “I was thinking of camping out, but I didn’t,” he said. “I’d already tried to get an autograph in the city, where he was doing a signing at Book Passage, but they were already sold out.”  

Berkeley native Alaina Slothers had staked out her spot on the sidewalk Monday night, and 16 hours later she was still unsure about whether she was going to get in. 

“I’m going to be a little bitter if I don’t,” she said, adding that if she did make into the store, she’d be fine and forget all about her grogginess and general discomfort. 

Darnette Sheard-Collins and her 6-year-old son Dunavin brought along a chair from their home in San Ramon. They sat and waited, Dunavin slumped in his mother’s lap, exhausted and somber.  

They’d found their spot at 1 a.m., hoping to get an autographed volume for Sheard-Collins’ husband, who’d been deployed to Iraq earlier this month. 

Others came to protest—though from the left, unlike so many of Clinton’s more familiar adversaries. Some, like Dan Ashby, Jennifer Kidder and Herb Behrstock, had come to recruit phone bank workers for the Kerry campaign. 

“We’ve never seen anything like this, nothing of this magnitude,” said Andy Ross, the owner of Cody’s. “It’s been the biggest challenge and largest event in the history of the store.” 

After arriving in a motorcade, surrounded by Secret Service, Clinton’s first sight as he stepped out of his limousine to the cheers of the throng was a Nader For President sign.  

The ex-president signed 1,200-1,300 books, Ross said. The store recorded sales almost as large when Jimmy Carter and Muhammad Ali came to sign their autobiographies, but with Clinton, “we could have sold 5,000 if he’d stayed longer.” 

Ross said his two stores fielded about 20,000 pho ne calls concerning the event in the days before Clinton’s appearance. 

Because the Secret Service refused to allow the ubiquitous Berkeley backpacks inside the store, Ross rented a Hertz truck and equipped it with shelves so his staff could check bags, p acks and parcels.  

Inside the store, the signings went down with assemblyline efficiency. Bookholders were subjected to an intimate sweep by metal-detecting wands in the hands of gimlet-eyed Secret Service agents. 

Store employees then escorted the lucky ticket-holders upstairs, where one staffer took the customer’s book and opened it to the title page, then passed it on to a second staffer, who handed the book on to a third, who slid the book onto the table in front of the former president—where a man held the front cover down while a smiling Clinton deftly scrawled out his signature, then offered the grin-and-grip—a radiant smile and a genteel handshake—before the cover-holder slid the now-signed book to yet another staffer who passed it back to the n ow-beaming buyer. 

“The Secret Service told us that ours was the most successful signing they’d ever seen,” Ross said. “They told us we’d set a new standard.” 

Those who left with autographed books could immediately turn a handsome profit, with buyers ou tside willing to fork over $300 a copy for resale over the Internet. 

Petra Creer, who usually sells the Street Spirit newspaper, had been hired by Darryl Randol, who runs SwissLuxury.com, to buy signed books so Randol could turn around and sell them on h is website for $600. Randol was going to give Petra $40 for every book that she convinced someone to sell. 

When last seen, Randol was trying to entice a pre-teen boy into selling him his book. 

It was when the Secret Service finally told Clinton it was t ime to depart that he proved himself a real mensch, said Ross. 

“He insisted on going outside to see all the people who hadn’t been able to get in, and for about a half hour he was out there, shaking hands,” Ross said. 

One of those he greeted, the friend of a Daily Planet reporter, had been camped out all night. Her adventure ended up not being in vain. The former president signed her book. 

o

I had dinner with Bill Clinton this week, a good friend for the last 36 years—though he’s always been better than me about keeping in touch. 

When he lost his fight for re-election after his first term as governor of Arkansas, he paid me a visit here in Berkeley—and while we were hanging out, he showed me the apartment building on Derby near College Avenue where he stayed one summer. 

He sent me a whole lot of Beethoven when I passed my Ph.D. orals at UC, and later, he invited me to his first presidential inauguration. He was a great help when my father was dying. 

During his terms in the White House, I wrote him a lot of long letters. He’d write back within a week (a short letter, half of it typed, half a P.S. in longhand). Over those eight years, a group of us old friends would get together with him whenever he’d be in town. 

The man’s got a great heart, and it really bothers me when his critics say he’s insincere, that he really doesn’t care about people. I’ve never known anyone who cares so much about people…and he’s been that way since I first met him in 1968 when we were Rhodes Scholars in the same class at Oxford. 

His political gift is like a great singer’s—it’s a talent, a gift for people. He wasn’t a radical in the ‘60s, nor later. Basically, he’s a Fullbright-style progressive populist, born of rural America. 

The tradition starts with Andrew Jackson and it’s Southern. Elvis is an artist in that tradition. What Bill had, and still has is that earthy, humble-folks emotional penetration. He really gets it how people feel, how groups of people feel, and why their leaders take the positions they do. 

One of the first things I noticed at Oxford was the way someone he’d just met would suddenly be telling him the most important things in their lives. People were always saying, “You know, I never told anyone that before!” 

I discovered someone who’s powerfully intuitive and hugely intelligent—he reads as much as any intellectual, but he’s really a man of action. The thing that’s hard to believe is how much energy he has—all kinds of energy, stamina like an ox—but most of all, his heart is big and generous, and people respond to him in kind. 

I saw it Tuesday outside Cody’s Books where Bill was signing books here in Berkeley. A young man walked up the sidewalk holding a copy of “the book” in his hand. A woman approached him who seemed agitated, disturbed. It was obvious she wanted the book. 

And he just smiled and gave it to her. 

That kind of thing happens a lot around Bill. 

He used all that when he was in the White House. He worked hard to understand how the Israelis feel, and how the Palestinians feel, and then worked to help them understand a little about each other. 

All that said, it’s somewhat maddening and somewhat just plain weird, knowing someone as famous as he—for one thing, the Secret Service makes it so nobody knows exactly what a former POTUS (that’s president of the U.S.) is going to be doing, not exactly—not even people who’ve been invited to see him. 

So I got a call at 4:30 Monday afternoon saying there was a chance I’d get to see him if I came to the San Francisco Ferry Building at 7 p.m., where he was signing copies of his autobiography at Book Passage. That’s ALL they’d divulge. 

When I got there, I learned the store had vastly oversold him—instead of the 2,000 he’d been scheduled to sign, the store had handed out 4,000 tickets, maybe more. When I got there at 7, I ran into my friend Jeremy—whom I know from swing dancing (the guy can go down into the splits and rise back up, no hands involved)—and he had ticket number 3,723, and Bill had already signed it. 

But he hadn’t been able to sign them all and there were hundreds, maybe a thousand people around the side of the waterfront building chanting “Sign our books, Sign our books, Sign our books, Bill, Sign our books.” 

The Secret Service took about six of us who’ve known him since way back to some picnic tables by Hog Island Oysters, where Hog Island and Slanted Door fed us more protein than I’ve had in years. 

We’d all known him since forever. There was Susan Mase, a recently-retired San Francisco schoolteacher who’d gone to kindergarten with him; Abby Ginzberg, a documentary filmmaker who’d been at the London School of Economics at the same time we were at Oxford; Martha Whetstone, an old friend from Arkansas who now runs the San Francisco Bar Association, and Dan, who works with Martha. 

Willie and Linda Fletcher sent their regrets—it was their thirty-fifth anniversary, and they went where they were sure to be fed, to Chez Panisse. Willie was another Rhodes Scholar from our class who’s now a Berkeley resident serving on the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and holding a professorship at Boalt Law School. The Justice Fletcher and Ms. Whetstone had run Clinton’s Northern California campaign back in 1992. 

Bill was in great form. We talked about seeing him on television, how he’d done on Oprah, on Rather, on Larry King.  

He’s always been good company, but it wouldn’t be politic to go into any specifics of our dinner. He’d never forgive me, and neither would any good Democrat.  

I can tell you that at the end, he turned to me and asked, “You want a book, Paul?” 

I hadn’t arrived in time to buy a copy, so I was glad when he hauled one out and signed it. I took it with some trepidation. 

“You’re in it, Paul,” he’d told me this when I saw him last summer in New York—which made waiting for his memoirs to hit the stands a little like waiting for a tidal wave, both for me and most probably thousands of other FOBs—“FOB” meaning “Friend of Bill.” 

When Clinton began his run for the White House back in 1991—running full tilt, that is—journalists coined the phrase to describe people like me who seemed to be showing up all over the place. The FOBs were really a journalistic artifact. 

Reporters needed to talk to people who knew him when, since Clinton was “new” on the national scene and the reporters who covered presidential politics were caught with a candidate quite unlike Gephart or Harkin or the other usual suspects already familiar to them.  

They already knew that Clinton talked a great game, but could he be trusted? We said yes, and the FOBs saved him in the New Hampshire primary. 

Journalists continued digging us up, and one after another, we vouched for him whenever they came with questions like, “Do you trust him?” or “Did he inhale?” I answered that second one by saying that if you know anything about marijuana and you’d inhaled yourself, you weren’t likely to remember what anybody else had done. 

When 1991 came round and the only issue on which he was really vulnerable seemed to be Vietnam and the draft, a lot of journalists started calling—even one particularly hostile hack who staked me out in hopes of getting some detail that could get blown up into a federal case against him. 

Since he’d written a letter to my draft board in 1969 vouching that if he’d ever seen a true conscientious objector, I was one. I was a natural for them. 

If you were of draft age during the Vietnam War and had to decide what you’d do when the time came when they called you—or if you can imagine it—you should know what a dilemma we faced. It was simultaneously an academic question and a life-or-death decision. 

Since most of us came from very patriotic families, we cared how they felt about our decisions. 

Bill’s Oxford roommate Frank Aller, whose father was a career civil servant, became a draft resister in protest against the war, and a few years later he shot himself. My own anxieties about the war made me so depressed that I ended up hospitalized for a while. 

It’s a subject only Dostoyevsky could do justice to; when I read The Idiot some years later, I was reminded uncannily of my time at Oxford. 

So when Bill told me I was in his memoirs, I wasn’t looking forward to reliving those times and being flooded with all those feelings. 

That said, Dostoyevsky didn’t write Bill Clinton’s memoirs. The book isn’t “deep”—but is good; it’s penetrating, in fact, it’s gripping. He’s a political animal, and his account of 1968 has a sweep worthy of a fine historical novelist. (Read from his father’s death, p. 112, through p. 145.) It’s as good as The Year of the French, if not on a par with The Red and the Black. 

For those of us who knew him, Bill’s My Life is like a look into a fourth dimensional mirror—a weird angle on your own life, seen from a perspective that’s amazingly consistent and informed by an analysis that is sane and refreshing and impressive. 

Paul Parish, dance critic for San Francisco magazine, has lived in Berkeley since 1973. He covered the first Clinton Inaugural Ball for the New Yorker and Ballet Review. He also teaches dance history at Berkeley Ballet Theater, and tends bar at the Faculty Club. 

Does anybody know a nice sophisticated term to substitute for “Wow!”? Aurora Theatre’s current production of Harold Pinter’s play Betrayal deserves the best: the very best. The most frequently performed of all the famous British playwright’s works, it’s hard to imagine a more effective presentation than the one we have right here in Berkeley.  

Producing Director Tom Ross has guided a top-notch cast through a sterling production of Pinter’s backward-told tale of a marital affair. It’s a seemingly straigh tforward narrative of the seven-year relationship between Jerry and Emma, his best friend’s wife. It’s told, however, from the end to the beginning. The play opens with the couple meeting in a pub two years after their affair has ended and works its way back to the drunken pass which started the whole thing off. 

It’s a “seemingly straight-forward narrative” only because you may well find yourself engaged in vigorous debate after the play is over about what was really happening with these people. Just as in life, in this drama things don’t always add up quite the way people say they are.  

For example, both couples have children, which appears to be the unspoken rationale for the fact that Jerry and Emma don’t even discuss divorcing their spouses and marr ying each other. Curiously, though, the point is really made only by the stage setting; the production is opened by a background video showing little kids at play. But the most effective, as well as poignant, reminder of the affair’s potential damage is probably the assortment of children’s toys dangling from the center of the staging area.  

Carrie Paff and Christopher Marshall play the two lovers, and Charles Shaw Robinson is Robert, the cuckolded husband. (Jerry’s wife, Judith—who never appears in the play—is dismissed as irrelevant on the basis that she is a physician and “absorbed in her work and the children.”) Another factor in the situation is the concern the couple would presumably have felt toward Robert. Whatever his wife may feel about their m arriage—it’s not awfully clear—he and Jerry have been closest friends for decades with an intimate professional relationship. For such articulate people, it seems surprising that there is almost no soul-searching and neither Emma nor Jerry show any reluct ance to enter into the affair.  

In all fairness, it should be pointed out that these people are supposed to be middle-class Britishers, a group not much known for throwing their emotions about in public. (The accents are so well done that you could spend significant time prowling through the biographies in the program in a fruitless effort to determine which side of the Atlantic the actors themselves come from.) 

Jerry seems to have harbored strong feelings for Emma for a very long time, which come out o nly when he gets drunk at a party. It’s Emma’s willingness to respond to his drunken pass—since she is played as apparently sober and quite surprised by his behavior—that ultimately leaves her the most unknown character among the three. What is her motiva tion? Is she actually in love with Jerry? Or has she simply grabbed at a chance to enrich an emotional life grown stale from familiarity? 

You could even argue (and “argue” is the operative word) that Jerry, the best friend, expresses far more concern for Robert than does Emma, Robert’s wife. When Robert confronts Jerry (and Robert’s pain is evident), at one point Jerry quietly acknowledges, “And I was your best friend.”  

No heroics. No drama. And the closeness between them appears to be based on a very real compatability; even at this horrendous moment, Jerry catches himself trying to get Robert’s opinion about another writer. 

But what about Emma? Does she lie to Jerry about when she told Robert about the affair? Why does her marriage end two years aft er she has broken it off? 

This apparently simple and very human drama—albeit extremely well written and performed—becomes increasingly complex as you think about it. 

It’s definitely worth seeing. 

›

FRIDAY, JULY 2. 

CHILDREN 

Celebrate Independence Day with a reading of “F is for Flag and L is for Liberty” at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-3635. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Henry Navarro, contemporary Cuban artist, solo exhibition opens at La Peña and runs to August 2. www.lapena.org 

Works by Ellen Russell opens at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

FILM 

The Invention of the Western Film: “The Big Trail” at 7 p.m. and “The Last Outlaw” at 9:40 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Betrayal,” by Harold Pinter, directed by Tom Ross, at 8 p.m. and runs through July 25. Tickets are $34-$36. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org  

Berkeley Rep “Master Class” with Rita Moreno at The Roda Theater. Runs through July 18. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Rep, “21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com” Thurs., Sun. at 7:30 p.m. and Fri. and Sat. at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $25-$35. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Shotgun Players, “Quills” by Doug Wright at the Julia Morgan Theater. Runs Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through July 3. Free, donations accepted. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Johnny Talbot & De Thangs, blues band, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Kaki King at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Flair, Mojo Apostles, Collisionville, Jules Worsley at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Angel Spit at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Marcus Selby Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Jason Broome and Emaline Delapaix at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Off Minor, Strong Intention, Amanda Woodard, Navies at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Mood Food at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Elemnop at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

SATURDAY, JULY 3 

CHILDREN 

“Wild About Books” storytime with singer/songwriter Bonnie Lockhart at 10:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6223. 

FILM 

Bergman on a Summer Night: “The Magic Flute” at 6 and 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

West Coast Live with Kerry Getz and The Palm Wine Boys at 10 a.m. at the Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15 in advance, $18 at the door. 415-664-9500. www.ticketweb.com 

Anthony Brown’s Asian American Orchestra at 2 p.m. at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. Free, reservations recommended. 637-0455. www.oacc.cc 

Samantha Raven at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Cascada de Flores, Cuban and Mexican traditional music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761.  

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Wadi Gad, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Rich McCully Band, Dylan Thomas Vance at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Maria Marquez Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Kurt Ribak Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Beth Waters, Buchanan, Scribe at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Drop Dead, Lights Out, Look Back and Laugh, Desperate Measures at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JULY 4 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pansy Division, The Quails, Veronica Lipgloss & The Evil Eyes at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Americana Unplugged: The Earl Bros. at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Mal Sharpe’s Big Money in Jazz Band at 2 and 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $5. 238-9200.  

MONDAY, JULY 5 

THEATER 

Shotgun Theater Lab “Four Echoes” at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Free, donations welcome. 841-6500.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Actors Reading Writers “Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace,” stories by Heidi Julavits and David Sedaris, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Poetry Express featuring Stephanie Manning, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bill Bell Quintet “The Jazz Connection” at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, JULY 6 

THEATER 

Shotgun Theater Lab “Four Echoes” at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Free, sugggested donation up to $15. 841-6500.  

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Tabitha Soren, “Recalling Democracy: A Snapshot of History,” color photographs, opens at The Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Exhibition runs to Aug. 14. 644-1400. www.photolaboratory.com 

“Within Small See Large” rocks in Chinese painting opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Korean Potter” opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

FILM 

Time’s Shadow: “Lyrical Nitrate” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Kirk J. Schneider introduces “Rediscovery of Awe: Splendor, Mystery, and the Fluid Center of Life” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jazzschool Faculty at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Jazz House Jam hosted by Darrell Green and Geechy Taylor at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. www.thejazz- 

house.com 

Edessa, Balkan/Turkish music at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson with Ahmet Luleci at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Veretski Pass, traditional Eastern European Jewish music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Black Box Series of Creative Music at 8 p.m. at the Oakland Box, 1928 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $7. 451-1932. www.oaklandbox.com  

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Fire Arts Festival opens at The Crucible, 1260 7th St., Oakland. with fire and light artworks, workshops and lectures, through July 11. For details see www.thecrucible.org 

FILM 

Exploit-O-Scope: “The Mask” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

JoAnn Levy reads from “Unsettling the West: Eliza Farnham and Georgiana Bruce Kirby in Frontier California” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with Nazelah Jamison and Karen Ladson at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Roy Tyler sings gospel music at noon at Oakland City Center at the 12th St. BART. www.oaklandcitycenter.com 

Club Tecknoir at 10 p.m. at the Oakland Box, 1928 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $4. 451-1932. www.oaklandbox.com  

DP & The Rhythm Riders at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson with Pattie Whitehurst at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mike Marshall and Choro Famoso, Brazilian fusion, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Improvised Composition Experiment, open jam session for out and experimental sounds, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $5 to play or listen. www.thejazzhouse.com 

The Devotion at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8.  

848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

Jules Broussard, Ned Boynton and Bing Nathan at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. www.downtownrestaurant.com 

Blowout, modern jazz, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Fred Randoph Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, JULY 8 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Sacred Spaces,” an exhibition of installation works by Seyed Alavi, Taraneh Hemami, Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman, Rhoda London, and Rene Yung. Curators walk-through at 7 p.m. Exhibit runs through August 7 at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut Street in Live Oak Park Gallery hours are Wed. - Sun. noon to 5 pm. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: “Love is a Treasure” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tawni O’Dell reads from her new novel “Coal Run” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured readers Paradise and Charselle, followed by an open mic, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. For information call 526-5985.  

MUSIC AND DANCE  

Summer Noon Concert with Capoeira Arts Café at the Berkeley BART. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association. 

Hot Buttered Rum String Band, bluegrass, at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ducksan Distones, featuring Donald “Duck” Bailey on piano, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $8-$15 sliding scale. www.thejazzhouse.com 

The Latrelles, Bump at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Rushad Eggleston’s Wild Band of Snee at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Spyro Gyra at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Through Sun. Cost is $15-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Megan Skalard at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Leo King, guitar, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Da Cipher, hip hop, at 9 p.m. at the Oakland Box, 1928 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $10. 451-1932. www.oaklandbox.com ›

Buckwheat is not a cereal. The word cereal comes from the name of the goddess of wheat, Ceres. Buckwheat is not related to wheat. Edible buckwheat, Fagopyrum esculentum, is not in the family of grasses, Graminae, from which spring all our cereals, including corn, rye and barley. It is not even in the same order, Poales. Rather, it is part of the rhubarb and sorrel family, Polygonaceae, order Polygonales, as is the wild buckwheat, genus Eriogonum, whose flowers ornament our gardens. 

What has taxonomy to do with growing our own food? Well, some people have great difficulty in digesting cereals, especially wheat. What can they substitute in order to receive the same satisfied feeling, the same energy, that a chunk of bread provides? Buckwheat might be the answer. 

Fagopyrum esculentum, a cultivar (that is to say, a cultivated variety bred by humans) grows globally in cool temperate climates, making it ideal for Berkeley, filling the gap between early potatoes lifted in June, and fava beans which are sown in October. Raw buckwheat seeds from an organic food store germinate in a week, and flower within a month. The plants are fragile-looking, with heart-shaped leaves, totally unlike a cereal. Tiny pink buds open into small, five-petalled flowers. Seeds are surprisingly large, like plump pyramids, resembling those of the beech tree, called mast. The common name is said to derive from this, and the Latin (Polygonaceae) also obviously refers to the shape of its seeds.  

Growing one’s own cereal substitute in relatively little space is a satisfying experiment for the home gardener. Temperamentally serene, buckwheat does well in a large pot, looks pretty, and does not seem to mind being crowded. If the crop fails, as crops do from time to time, Berkeley’s own Natural Grocery on Gilman Street carries in bulk both raw and toasted organically-grown seeds, which in spite of their size are softer than other whole grains, and can be easily ground into flour in a coffee grinder. 

Nutritionally, buckwheat compares favorably with the cereals, and is a superior source of fiber, having four times the amount found in wheat. When it comes time to cook, think Russian. 

›

Buckwheat 

Pancakes 

Grind the seeds and mix to a paste with water. Make the batter a little thinner than for regular pancakes. Pour into a well-seasoned, lightly-oiled pan. If the batter is thin enough, the edges will be lacy. Cover with a lid and cook over a medium to brisk flame for at least three minutes. Turn and cook for two more minutes, lid on. Remove the lid and finish cooking if necessary, turning the pancake until it is crispy and browned on both sides. It will still be soft inside. 

Buckwheat pancakes take all kinds of treatment, from a small amount of salt and butter, to jam or honey, and of course sour cream or yogurt. They are sturdy enough to accommodate more substantial fillings, such as spicy potatoes or sauteed mushrooms. Roll up and serve these with home-made tomato sauce. Or top the pancake while it is still in the pan with well-cooked ground beef, sauteed separately with salt, ground allspice and black pepper. For those who fear mad-cow disease, Andronico’s lean ground sirloin is inspected twice. Sprinkle the top with chopped red onion and add a splash of tahini to complete the dish. 

Buckwheat may not be a true cereal, but as a substitute, it has been serendipitously named. As for the fiber—that’s real. 

›

FRIDAY, JULY 2 

West Coast Contact Improvisation Dance Festival, with five days of classes, discussions and jams at 8th St. Studios. Cost is $350 for a 5-day pass, or $75 per day. 415-789-7677. www.wccif.com 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 7:15 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Players at all levels are welcome. 652-5324. 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. wibberkeley@yahoo.com 548-6310, 845-1143. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. People of all traditions are welcome to join us. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

Overeaters Anonymous meets every Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. Parking is free and is handicapped accessible. 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, JULY 3 

Sick Plant Clinic The first Sat. of every month, UC plant apthologist Dr. Robert Raabe, UC entomologist Dr. Nick Mills, and their team of experts will diagnose what ails your plants. From 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Free. 643-2755. 

It’s the Bees Knees (and Other Parts) Look at bumblebees and other native Hymenoptera - we'll catch and release! Learn their importance in our local, and urban, ecosystem. This is a drop in program; no registration is required. From 10 a.m. to noon in Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Putting Pollen in its Place Wind, water, bugs, birds and bats all play roles in setting seeds. See a slide show about their work and then visit some flowers yourself on our trails. This is a drop in program; no registration is required. From 2 to 4 p.m. in Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Bake Back the White House A neighborhood bake sale and parking lot cafe to promote a sustainable society and a politics of peace. All proceeds to Moveon PAC. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Berkeley Cohousing Community, 2220 Sacramento St. 

Walking Tour of Jack London Waterfront Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/wallkingtours 

Circus Chimera a family-friendly circus performs on the grounds of Portola Middle School, on Moeser Lane El Cerrito. Tickets are $6 in advance, $10 at the gate; free for children under 2 years old. The schedule is July 3, 4:30 & 7:30 p.m.; July 4, 11 a.m., 2 and 6 p.m.; July 5, 12:30, 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Advance ticket sales will benefit efforts to renovate the historic Cerrito Theater, an Art Deco-era movie house. Tickets are available from Jenny K, 6927 Stockton Avenue, El Cerrito. 734-3194; Leena’s Café, 10833 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, 237-7409; Albertson's, 1000 El Cerrito Plaza (customer service desk).  

Yoga for Seniors at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., on Saturdays from 10 to 11 a.m. Open to non-members of the club for $8 per class. 848-7800. 

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, JULY 4 

Fourth of July at the Berkeley Marina from noon to 9:30 p.m. A free-admission, alcohol-free event, with two stages of music, arts & crafts, and activities for children. Fireworks at 9:30 p.m. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley. 548-5335. 

The Fourth in People’s Park with five metal/punk bands and four standup comics, from noon to 6 p.m. http://geocities.com/ 

july4thconcert 

“Military Families Speak Out” a special 10:30 a.m. service with the parents of Sgt. Evan Ashcroft killed in Iraq on July 23, 2003, at 10:30 a.m. in Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita.  

“Palestine and Israel 2004” Karen and Craig Scott describe their visit to the Middle East at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Road, Kensington. 525-0302.  

Free Sailboat Rides between 1 and 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club in the Berkeley Marina. Bring warm waterproof clothes. www.cal-sailing.org 

Tibetan Buddhism, with Sylvia Gretchen on “Freeing Emotional Energy” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, JULY 5 

Interdependence Day Hike This is a drop in program; no registration is required. From 10 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

The Oakland/East Bay Chapter of the National Organization for Women meets at 6 p.m. the first Monday of each month at the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St., Oakland. The executive director of Medical Students for Choice will be the speaker at our July meeting. 287-8948. 

Baby Yoga at 11 a.m. and Yoga and Meditation for Children at 2:45 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Fitness for 55+ A total body workout including aerobics, stretching and strengthening at 1:15 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5170. 

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. 

TUESDAY, JULY 6 

“Local Transportation Concerns” with Peter Hillier, Transportation Dept., City of Berkeley, at 5:30 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Bring your list of issues, and food to share. Sponsored by Berkeley Ecological & Safe Transportation Coalition. 

Bamboo Building Strong as steel in tension, timber bamboo can grow three feet in a day, be sustainably harvested every year and uses a small fraction of the land required by trees. We will cover proper tool usage and joinery as well as design ideas that avoid the more difficult, time-consuming joints. From 7 to 10 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $35. 525-7610. 

Adventure Racing 101 Learn about mountain biking, running, paddling and the equipment and skills involved, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“The Fourth World War“ A film about a war without end and of those who resist with powerful images from movements in Argentina, Mexico, Genoa, Iraq, New York, Palestine, Quebec City, South Africa and Korea. Benefit for SOUL/ 

Just Cause. At 9:15 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $7. vjmWest@yahoo.com  

American Red Cross Blood Services is holding a volunteer orientation from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave. Volunteers are needed to support the more than 40 blood drives held each month. Advance sign-up needed. 594-5165. 

Organic Produce at low prices sold at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon Streets every Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. This is a project of BOSS Urban Gardening Institute and Spiral Gardens. 843-1307. 

Phone Banking to ReDefeat Bush on Tuesdays from 6 to 9 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Bring your cell phones. Please RSVP if you can join us. 415-336 8736. dan@redefeatbush.com 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your 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. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers We are a few slowpoke seniors who walk between a mile or two each Tuesday, meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Farm parking lot. To join us, call 215-7672.  

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7 

Twilight Garden Tour “Don't Water the Natives!” Debunk the “Don't Water the Natives!” and other myths about gardening with California native plants, at 5:30 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $12-$17. To register, call 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday, rain or shine, at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes, sunscreen and a hat. 548-9840. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around Preservation Park to see Victorian architecture. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of Preservation Park at 13th St. and MLK, Jr. Way. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/wallkingtours 

“The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas” an assemblage of orginal and borrowed film footage telling the events of the Zapatista uprising on Jan. 1, 1994, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St. in downtown Oakland. 654-9587. 

“A Greener Middle East” Meet Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian students who are participating in environmental internships in the Bay Area, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237, ext. 112. 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7:15 a.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 524-3765. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Fun with Acting Class at 11 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Free, all are welcome, no experience necessary.  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JULY 8 

“GMO Free Alameda County” a discussion of genetically-modified organisms and how to keep them out of Alameda County’s ecosystems, with Anuradha Mittal, at 6 p.m. at Café de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $15 and includes a GMO-free dinner. Reservations can be made by calling 843-0662. 

Dahr Jamail, “Direct from Baghdad” at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$15 sliding scale. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Pocohontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur and Diplomat” with Paula unn Allen at 7 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Berkeley Farmer’s Market with all organic produce at Elephant Pharmacy parking lot, 1607 Shattuck Ave., at Cedar from 3 to 7 p.m. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers, a group dedicated to furthering the noble sport of fly fishing through education and conservation, invites you to its monthly meeting at 7 p.m at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Av. in Kensington. 547-8629. 

East Bay Mac User Group meets the 2nd Thursday of every month, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Expression Center for New Media, 6601 Shellmound St. www.expression.edu 

Tea Dancing and Dance Lessons with Barbara and Jerry August from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Cost is $5, includes refreshments. 925-376-6345. 

ONGOING 

Vista College Study Abroad in Mexico Live with a family and learn language skill in a two-week session in July in Guadalajara. For information please call 981-2917 or visit www.peralta.cc.ca.us/interntl/studyabr.htm. 

Berkeley Video and Film Festival is calling for entries. The deadline for last call is July 10. For information please call 843-3699. www.berkeleyvideofilmfest.org 

Luna Kids Dance Summer Camp for ages 9 - 13, from July 12 - 16. For information call 644-3629. www.lunakidsdance.com 

Interesting Backyards Do you have a really cool backyard project or unusual sustainable living practice that you’d like to share with others in the East Bay? Consider becoming a stop on the 5th annual Urban Sustainability Bike Tour on Saturday, July 31. Past sites have included features such as graywater systems, chicken coops, bee hives, solar installations and permaculture gardens. For information call Beck at 548-2220, ext. 233. 

www.ecologycenter.org 

Summer Reading Games at the Albany Public Library, through August 14th. For information call 526-3700. 

Medical Care for Your Pet at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society low-cost veterinary clinic. 2700 Ninth St. For appointments call 845-3633. www.berkeleyhumane.org  

Radio Summer Camp, four day sessions through Sept. 6. Learn how to build and operate a community radio station. Sponsored by Radio Free Berkeley. 625-0314. www.freeradio.org 

“Searching Within” A free 9-week course starts on Thursday July 15, 6:30 to 8 p.m. at 2015 Center St. To make reservations call 652-1583. www.mysticweb.org 

Introductory Storytelling Classes for Adults offered by Stagebridge from June 29 through August on Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to noon at Arts First Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., at 27th St. near Lake Merritt. For information call 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Tues. July 6, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., July 7, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruby Primus, 981-5106. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Thurs. July 8, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Commission on Early Childhood Education meets Thurs., July 8, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/earlychildhoodeducation  

Community Health Commission meets Thurs, July 8, at 6:45 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. William Rogers, 981-5344. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/health 

Two-by-Two Meeting of elected City and School officials to dicuss common concerns, Thurs., July 8, at 8:30 a.m., in the Redwood Room, 6th floor, 2180 Milvia St. 644-6147, 981-7000. 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thurs., July 8, at 7 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7520. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/westberkeley  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., July 8, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning ª

As Michael Moore’s new film Fahrenheit 9/11 set attendance records across the country, Berkeley notched one of its own when the California Landmark Theater recorded the highest opening-night profit numbers for any movie theater screening the film nationwide. Crowds also helped sell out every afternoon and evening screening but one, from Friday through Sunday, grossing tens of thousands of dollars for the theater. A spokesperson for the theater declined to give the exact dollar figure for Landmark’s gross take. 

According to published reports, Fahrenheit 9/11 grossed $21.8 million nationwide in its first weekend, outgunning the documentary gross record held by Moore’s previous film, Bowling for Columbine. In total, Fahrenheit 9/11 brought in $21.96 million in gross receipts over the weekend. 

In Berkeley, crowds packed the sidewalk and streets—with lines reaching halfway around the block—waiting to fill the 600-seat theater. Those determined to get good seats bought their tickets days in advance and waited in line for up to an hour and a half. Even the unannounced, unadvertised Thursday night preview drew almost 400 people. 

Those who stopped to comment (others said they were too shell-shocked to talk) said they were impressed with several parts of the film, but in particular liked the way Moore was able to encapsulate a mountain of information. They said he made it digestible, forcing them to re-confront 9/11, the reign of Bush, and the ongoing war and occupation in Iraq. 

Several already had the future on their minds, commenting that they hoped the film would be able to fulfill its potential and have some kind of effect on the election. 

“Is this preaching to the choir or are hundreds of thousands of men and women going to turn around and say we are being duped?” asked Dinah Hager, a native of London but now a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Oakland. “I know how tired people get at the end of the day. Everywhere you go you are being dumbed down. Everywhere tolerance for suffering is being destroyed. I hope that different parts of [the film] will spark different things in people.” 

Hager compared the movie to the anti-war marches that were held shortly before the United States and Britain invaded Iraq. She said even though she marched with millions in the streets on London, her country still went to war. In turn, she asked, will the movie win the election for Kerry? Probably not. But it “is going to have an impact, in small steps,” she said. 

Like others, Hager said she would be glued to the papers to see what the reaction is across the rest of the country. 

The Greenfield family, which brought nine members (spanning three generations) to the movie, might be an indication. While most of the family is from Oakland, they also brought Ida Greenfield, 86, the grandmother from Minnesota. 

Unlike some, Greenfield said she knew of Michael Moore, but not much. She came, she said, because she was intrigued by the controversy. 

“I like controversial figures. They think,” she said. “Those old men in the Bush administration, they don’t think.” 

“It’s haunting,” was her response after the film. “How sad this whole thing is,” Greenfield said while shaking her head. 

Like other Berkeley political events, those promoting their own political causes worked the crowds outside, passing out fliers to those in line or moviegoers filing out. Others, like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, stood outside for up to eight hours with voter registration forms. 

The event was also not without dissenters. Some who were not standing in line for the movie but instead merely passing by in front of the theater let their criticism of filmmaker Moore be known. 

“I think Michael Moore is a sad, subversive, hateful, bitter, painfully embarrassing excuse for a pundit who makes millions maligning the country that got him here,” said Christian Harstock, a young man from Oakland. 

Nonetheless, like Greenfield, Harstock said he was eventually going to buy a ticket and see the film because he was curious. 

ª

A 27-year employee is back on the job at the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center after close to the entire hospital staff—with the exception of only the doctors—threatened to walk off the job for one day unless she was reinstated. 

Beverly Griffith, who works in the environmental services department at the Summit campus, had been suspended for three weeks after an altercation with an Alta Bates Summit security guard. According to union representatives from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 250, Griffith had intervened when she observed the guard attempting to prevent a union organizer from passing out union flyers. 

Alta Bates Summit would not comment other than to say, “Any employee who does not follow the guidelines of conduct is definitely going to have a suspension, and that’s exactly what happened.” 

Representatives from the union said Alta-Bates Summit’s decision to hire Griffith back was clearly a reaction to the threatened strike. Employees, they said, originally voted by an overwhelming majority to support Griffith by holding the one-day walk out.  

Currently, SEIU Local 250 represents about 1,300 licensed vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants and food service workers. They were joined by almost 1,700 registered nurses represented by the California Nursing Association and about 230 radiology technicians, respiratory therapists, and operating room technicians represented by the California Healthcare employees in the threatened strike. 

“It was really overwhelming for my co-workers to stand up and say hands off our union,” said Griffith. 

Local 250 employees have been bargaining with the hospital since their old contract expired April 30. Little progress has been made since then, with both sides accusing the other of inferior contract offers. 

According to Griffith, her suspension was only supposed to last one week, but when she showed up back to work, she was told that she was still under investigation. Alta Bates Summit drew out her suspension, she said, because hospital administrators knew she was a leader in the union and wanted to scare other employees from speaking up. 

Carolyn Kemp, a spokesperson for Alta Bates Summit, disputes the claim that Griffith’s suspension was intentionally extended because of Griffith’s union activities. Kemp also disputed the claim that the threatened strike forced the hospital to reinstate Griffith. 

“[The hospital] decided that a 27-year employee who probably had some misdirection from her union representative deserved a second chance,” Kemp said.ª

What a difference a year makes.  

Thirteen months ago Berkeley High appeared as unmanageable as ever. Freshly appointed Principal Patricia Christa, the school’s sixth since 2000, resigned after one month on the job; the school year hadn’t even started yet.  

Like her many predecessors, she fled from the prospect of dysfunctional administrative systems, cynical students, unsafe hallways, and demanding parents who fall on all sides of the debate over how to improve academic standards while solving the gap in academic achievement among racial groups at the school. 

In Christa’s stead arrived Jim Slemp, a tranquil deputy superintendent from Eugene, Oregon who in short order has instilled a semblance of structure and good cheer not seen in recent memory at the 2,750-student campus.  

Parents have received notices on time, staff is more available and visible to students, Berkeley police report that campus violence is down, and the school even had a spring dance.  

Slemp’s impact has not gone unnoticed by students. At the commencement ceremony two weeks ago, graduating seniors, never shy about unleashing a Bronx cheer, gave Slemp a standing ovation. 

“That was just unbelievable,” said Steve Brick, the parent of a senior. “Whoever heard of Berkeley High students giving such a warm reception?” 

Slemp has dispensed plenty of warmth to students this year and proved it doesn’t take a taskmaster to get a handle on Berkeley High.  

He was a visible presence in hallways and classrooms, learning names and making eye contact with the students he met. On occasion, Slemp even commandeered the public address system to tell students how “awesome” they are. 

“We felt we were getting more respect and that made us willing to listen to what he had to say,” said Baily Hopkins, a graduating senior. 

“Past administrations were intimidated by students,” said Michael Miller, a Berkeley High parent and member of Parents of Children of African Descent. “Kids believe he’s there for them. It’s nice to have a principal who engages all kids.” 

So how has he done it? Lounging on his Aeron chair, flanked by a shelf of books that included titles such as High School on a Human Scale and Warriors Don’t Cry, the six-foot, seven-inch Slemp said it was equal doses of good will and good management. 

“I try to treat people with dignity and respect,” he said. “I thought if I focus on the positive things and worked to change the culture, people would see hope.” 

At Berkeley High, hope starts when students arrive on the first day of school with complete six-class schedules, and warnings about failing grades arrive to parent’s homes before the end of the semester. 

“There were a number of things that weren’t working the way they ought to be,” Slemp said. Upon arriving at the school, Slemp said he asked the staff about how they made decisions and no one gave the same answer. “My sense is that there was a lot of top-down leadership. We’re trying to pull the pieces together and get people to talk,” he said. 

While no one argues that Slemp has made strides this year, Berkeley High remains a work in progress. Some families complain that classes aren’t challenging enough and the school is still trying to solve the achievement gap between higher scoring white and Asians and lower scoring African American and Latinos. 

The two goals aren’t mutually exclusive, but advocates for each agenda continue to butt heads, leaving Slemp in a precarious position. 

This year Slemp resisted a proposal from the school site council to place a diversity requirement on Academic Choice, a voluntary program in the school that promises tougher classes and attracts mostly white students. Critics of the program argue it further segregates the school without adding rigor to the curriculum. 

For the coming year nearly 50 percent of students—the vast majority of whom are said to be white—signed up for Academic Choice, a higher percentage than previous years. 

Slemp acknowledged that the swelling ranks of students flocking to the program raises questions about the quality of the school’s curriculum. 

“Some kids tell me teachers think that they treat them like they’re stupid,” Slemp said. “We need to make the curriculum rigorous and relevant and we need to have higher expectations.” 

To make classes more challenging, Slemp has pushed through two new Advanced Placement classes, which can count for college credit if students pass an exam. He wants all students to take at least one AP class, and plans to recruit minority students for the classes and offer them mentors. 

“The research is clear that kids—especially minorities—who take AP classes in high school do better in college,” he said. 

Slemp also assured that students at Berkeley High’s two small schools, neither of which offers AP classes, would have the option to take AP courses at the big school. 

As part of his plan to enroll more students in AP classes, 21 AP teachers are being trained to teach simultaneously to students at different levels. That is one facet of a summer teacher training drive that will send many Berkeley High instructors back to class. 

The school has also received a $450,000 grant to train algebra teachers. The subject has been a problem area for years at Berkeley High, which this year continued its policy of waiving algebra as a requirement for graduation. 

Another chronic problem has been the ninth grade academic program, especially the social studies component. 

Slemp opted to keep the ninth grade class focused on ethnic diversity, but he hired a consultant to overhaul the curriculum and has promised to review the merits of the class next year. 

Some students argued last year that the course, previously known as Identity and Ethnic Studies, worsened racial tensions and complained that keeping it would limit the number of electives available to students. 

With students now required to take four years of mandated social science classes, Berkeley High had to cut approximately seven history electives, Slemp said. He couldn’t give a list of the classes no longer offered, but said the school kept the popular Politics of Power and didn’t drop any sections from the African American Studies department. 

Berkeley High’s biggest project to address the achievement gap is placing half of the student body in ethnically diverse small schools by the fall of 2005. Two programs, Communication Arts Sciences (CAS) and the Community Partnership, have already achieved small school status.  

Two additional schools, one focusing on performing arts and the other on social justice and ecology, are in the planning stages, Slemp said. The focus of a fifth small school remains undetermined. 

In gearing up for the conversion to small schools, Slemp said the administration has already assigned the schools contiguous classroom space, their own stream of funding, and administrators who will share time between the small school and the main school. 

After working for a year to implement coherent systems at the high school, Slemp said he wasn’t concerned about handing over control of half the school to teacher-administrators running the small schools. 

“If I’m doing my job here it’s about diffusing power so ownership comes from the school,” he said. “That hasn’t happened in the past.” 

One of Slemp’s most ambitious and controversial reforms slated for this fall is a get tough attendance policy that connects attendance to grades. Five unexcused absences or 15 tardies will equal a full letter grade drop. 

Opponents have argued that the school lacks the technology to fairly implement a strict policy and that students with well-connected parents will be able to skirt the system, while other students will face stiffer consequences for tardiness and unexcused absences. 

Slemp said the new policy was part of an effort to place more importance on classroom lessons. 

“We had some kids, particularly white kids, doing just fine and not going to class,” he said. “We need a culture that says everyone needs to be in class to be successful.” 

To implement the system, Berkeley High has upgraded its automatic dialer, so parents will be told when their child was absent. In addition, the school has assigned a group of volunteers to call parents to inform them of unexcused absences. Having actual people call is pivotal, Slemp said, because many students, especially students from outside Berkeley, give fake telephone numbers, so parents are never alerted to attendance issues. 

If students arriving late to class has been a problem at Berkeley high, so has principals fleeing the school before leaving their mark. Slemp, however, promised he’ll be around for the long haul.  

“I’m not here for a quick fix,” he said. “I’ve only been around a year, but I love it.” 

ª

It’s clear that the proposed new Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) for UC Berkeley is a very growth-oriented plan. While its enrollment hike would be comparatively modest (from a two-semester average of 31,800 in 2001-2002 to a projected 33,450 in future), other stats are quite dramatic. Between now and 2020, total “academic and support” space could increase by 18 percent, or 2.2 million gross square feet. That’s about three times the 15-year increase that was foreseen when the present LRDP was adopted in 1990. Parking could swell by 30 percent, or 2,300 spaces. Housing could increase by 32 percent, or 2,600 beds. These are net amounts, representing new construction minus demolitions. And they’re over and above the changes resulting from still-uncompleted projects—like the big new Stanley Hall and the giant Underhill garage—that the regents have already approved. 

Not surprisingly, the LRDP and its DEIR (Draft Environmental Impact Report) drew numerous comments during the review period that ended on June 18. Among them was a massive, and basically scathing, critique by the City of Berkeley. 

Nature of the LRDP 

The planned growth evidently is driven less by enrollment pressure than by “research in the public interest.” UC expects outside funding for research to increase by 3.6 percent a year. 

Besides being growth-oriented, the proposed LRDP is quite generalized. It makes no commitment to specific developments. Instead, it sets a broad “strategic framework” for future projects. It does say that its growth totals couldn’t be substantially exceeded without a future amendment of the LRDP, but it doesn’t define “substantially.” The LRDP is also vague about locations. It divides the campus and its surroundings into a series of “zones”—including a Housing Zone that overlaps several of the other zones and extends far out into the community—and sets a maximum growth quota for each of them. But each zone is large, and the LRDP doesn’t say where construction should occur within it.  

The city comments seriously fault the LRDP for its vagueness. They even say it’s hard to imagine any likely future project that UC couldn’t construe as conforming to the plan. 

Impacts and Mitigation in General  

The DEIR claims that the LRDP would have only a few unavoidable significant effects. On topic after topic, it concludes that—at least with the envisioned mitigations—impact would be “less than significant.” For instance, it says that no significant impacts at all would result on aesthetics or land use. 

The DEIR does include a wide array of proposed mitigations. Many of them are highly generalized, though, and some have prominent qualifiers. For example, one of the proffered “continuing best practices” says that housing projects would meet municipal height and setback standards “as of July 2003” and “to the extent feasible.”  

The city comments that there really would be other significant impacts, and says that in general the impact assessment is insufficient. The city’s statement criticizes the DEIR for mitigation measures that are weakly stated and/or unproven. It alludes to the LRDP and DEIR as typified by “good sentiment, no commitment.” 

And the city fears that because the LRDP’s DEIR so sweepingly dismisses the potential for significant impacts, UC could in future routinely evade doing EIRs on specific projects that it would construe as fitting within the LRDP. 

Segmentation 

UC is planning several of its nearby major sites quite separately from the 2020 LRDP. They include University Village Albany and the Richmond Field Station. Then there’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which the university runs separately from “UC Berkeley” as such. UC still has under preparation a new LRDP and DEIR for the Lab itself. The university apparently expects that during that LRDP’s timeframe of 2004-2025, total floor space on the LBNL’s hill site could grow by 45 percent. 

The city comments that the hill site is a “donut hole” nearly surrounded by UC Berkeley, that the research missions of LBNL and some UC Berkeley departments are closely intertwined, and that both LRDPs will be voted on by the same lead agency: the Board of Regents. It complains that UC has separated impact analysis in ways that largely defy evaluation. The city concludes that both LRDPs should have been assessed by the same environmental document, and that the decision to “bifurcate” environmental review violated the spirit and letter of CEQA.  

Parking, Transit, and Traffic 

While one of the new LRDP’s policies is to “reduce demand for parking through incentives for alternate travel modes,” another is to “increase the supply of parking to accommodate existing unmet demand and future campus growth.” 

The city sees the former as being directly contradicted by the latter, especially by the latter’s reference to “existing unmet demand.” The city says that parking “demand” depends on factors like availability of substitute travel modes, and that UC should consider today’s actual travel behavior. It concludes that UC is dodging real commitment to a transit-first strategy, and that the LRDP’s proposed 2,300-space parking growth is unjustified. Furthermore, the city suggests that parking which has already been approved but not yet built should be regarded as new parking. 

The city also calls for UC to help pay the cost of enforcing the Residential Parking Permit program.  

According to the DEIR, the LRDP would unavoidably worsen traffic conditions on some segments of University Avenue, San Pablo, Dwight, Shattuck, and Ashby. As for intersections as such, the DEIR says congestion would or could significantly increase at two in West Berkeley, one north of the campus, three along the Derby/Warring/Piedmont corridor, one elsewhere on Bancroft, and three along Oxford. It proposes that as mitigation, traffic lights should be installed at those Derby/Warring/Piedmont, Bancroft, and Oxford intersections, and says that UC would contribute to their cost “on a fair share basis.” 

The city comments that “fair share” by itself is much too vague, and also that UC’s contribution should take into account its existing, “baseline” impact. 

Traffic volume evidently would increase along the beleaguered corridor that locals call the “Warring Freeway.” Both UC and the city may have forgotten the circa-1990 University Neighborhoods Circulation Study, a major concern of which was how to divert motorists from this corridor onto alternative routes such as four-lane Telegraph Avenue. And speaking of Telegraph, it’s odd that neither UC nor the city specifically addresses something that could happen to it and thereby substantially alter traffic patterns. The EIR now under preparation by AC Transit is considering a “bus rapid transit” alternative (presumably still preferred by that agency) which would reduce the number of auto lanes on Telegraph below Dwight from four to just two.  

Fiscal Impacts 

The LRDP says some of its planned housing construction would need to be on land that UC doesn’t now own. New academic and support space—and parking—would be built just “primarily” on presently owned land. 

For that and other reasons, one of the city’s biggest concerns about the LRDP is its fiscal impact. A city-commissioned study recently concluded that in fiscal terms, UC costs the city much more than it contributes.  

Downtown 

The proposed LRDP features a strong westward thrust. More than a third of its net growth in academic and support space—and more than half the parking growth—could occur in its so-called Adjacent Blocks West zone. That would include all Downtown blocks that lie between Shattuck and Oxford/Fulton (in addition to the blocks that contain the Tang Center, the Oxford Tract, and the state’s Health Services building). Furthermore, the LRDP’s Housing Zone would include virtually all of downtown Berkeley. 

The city says it’s very concerned that UC expansion could “fundamentally alter the balance” in downtown Berkeley, changing the area from its current “eclectic and diverse” character into a student district increasingly like Telegraph.  

Development Along Transit Corridors 

The new LRDP warmly embraces the theme of high-density housing along transit corridors. A map shows its Housing Zone as including prominent ribbons stretching up and down Shattuck and Adeline, down University Avenue into West Berkeley, down Telegraph into Oakland, and even intermittently along College Avenue.  

One pertinent issue is raised by the LRDP’s statement on housing projects’ conformance to municipal height and setback standards “as of July 2003.” Does this mean UC would disregard, for example, any tightened standards that the city may soon enact for University Avenue?  

Alternatives 

The DEIR includes a chapter that poses and discusses several broad alternatives. For instance, two of them are dubbed “lower enrollment and employment growth” and “no new parking and more transit incentives.” 

But the city views that chapter as fundamentally flawed. It criticizes UC for including “straw men” alternatives. It seems to suggest that a “real” option about parking could involve a smaller increment of spaces, with some of them being in satellite locations. And it says in general that the alternatives presented aren’t sufficiently assessed to allow meaningful comparison with the proposed LRDP.  

Process 

The city statement blasts UC for having essentially presented the LRDP “whole cloth” to the community, with no real chance for give-and-take. 

It nonetheless seems likely that UC staff will basically just proceed with a Final EIR for release this fall, in time for presumed LRDP adoption at the Board of Regents’ meeting in November. 

However, the city believes the DEIR itself should be significantly revised—and recirculated. 

John English is a planner by profession, a UC alumnus, and a longtime resident of Berkeley’s Southside. 



An Oakland woman’s quest to grow medical marijuana without fear of federal intervention is heading to the Supreme Court and could result in a new precedent in the resurgent battle over states’ rights, perhaps putting in danger Berkeley’s liberal medical pot laws. 

On Monday, the high court agreed to hear the Bush Administration’s appeal of a case it lost last year in the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

In 2-1 vote, an appeals court panel barred the Justice Department from raiding, arresting or prosecuting Angel Raich of Oakland and Diane Monson of Butte County, Calif. for growing physician-prescribed marijuana for personal consumption.  

Since neither plaintiff sold their plants or transported them over state lines, the court majority found that their activity rested outside federal authority. 

Intrastate, “non-commercial cultivation, possession and use of marijuana for health purposes” is protected by California law and not subject to the federal government’s power to regulate interstate commerce, Judge Harry Pregerson and Richard A. Paez argued in their opinion. 

In urging the Supreme Court to review the case, Solicitor General Theodore Olson argued the 1970 Controlled Substances Act empowers the Justice Department to oversee the manufacturing, possession and distribution of any drug on its list. 

“That goal cannot be achieved if the intrastate manufacturing possession and distribution of a drug may occur without any federal regulation,” Olson wrote. 

In 1996 California became the first of nine states—Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Maine and Vermont have followed—to pass laws permitting residents to grow and use marijuana with a doctor’s permission. Six of the states fall under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  

Although California’s medical marijuana law is not jeopardized by the case, should the high court reverse the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, federal agents would again be free to prosecute state residents who cultivate marijuana for personal medicinal consumption. A vote to uphold the ruling would likely bar the Justice Department from fully enforcing federal drug laws in any state that allows for medical marijuana. 

“There’s so much at stake,” said Angel Raich, a 38-year-old mother of two teenagers. “I’m nervous that if I go before the Supreme Court and lose, it could mean my life.”  

Raich says she suffers from an inoperable brain tumor and a myriad of other ailments and insists that without a daily supply of marijuana she would lose her appetite and could die from uncontrolled weight loss. “Cannabis is my lifeline,” she said. 

Federal agents never raided her home, but Raich filed suit as a preemptive measure, along with Monson, who lost her six cannabis plants in a 2002 federal sting. 

Monson said she would have preferred the Supreme Court to have refused to hear the government’s appeal. Had the court done so, the Ninth Circuit ruling would have remained law in California. 

Medical cannabis advocates have not fared well before the high court. In 2001 the court rejected the argument of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Club that the club was immune from federal interference because it was providing “a medical necessity.” 

Now medical cannabis advocates, often identified politically with the far left, are resting their hopes on recent precedents from the court’s conservative majority that have curtailed Congress’s ability to pass laws based its power to regulate commerce between states. 

After decades of taking a relatively broad view of Congressional power over items only slightly related to interstate commerce, the current court has narrowed Congress’ purview. 

In 1995, by a 5-4 vote, the court overturned a state law that forbade the possession of guns near school buildings. And in 2000, by an identical vote, the court overturned a 1994 state law that authorized the victims of gender-motivated violence to file suit against their aggressors for damages in federal court.  

“The Supreme Court will have to overturn its own precedents in 1995 and 2000 [to side with the Justice Department],” said Randy Barnett, a Boston University Law professor who is representing the two women on behalf of the Marijuana Policy Project. 

David Raich, Angel Raich’s husband and an attorney on her legal team, said he believed the court had opted to hear the case partly in deference to the request from the Justice Department and partly to clarify and strengthen its recent precedents. 

Hastings School of Law Professor Marsha Cohen, however, thought the high court’s decision didn’t bode well for medical cannabis advocates. 

“It’s going to be an uphill battle,” said Cohen, who specializes in pharmaceutical and medical cannabis law. “The court has given the Controlled Substance Act broad interstate reach and not allowed states to circumvent it.” 

Cohen said when it comes to regulating drugs like marijuana, federal courts have sided with the Justice Department because of the difficulty in regulating controlled substances nationally when states have weaker laws. 

It is unknown if the Supreme Court’s ruling will apply to cannabis dispensaries as well. Earlier this year a federal district court judge barred the Justice Department from raiding or prosecuting the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz after a 2002 raid. 

In Berkeley, licensed medical marijuana users are allowed to grow up to ten plants. An initiative on the November ballot would erase all plant limits for city residents and take the unprecedented step of requiring the city to dispense marijuana to patients if federal authorities cracked down on the city’s cooperative dispensaries.ª

A lawsuit recently filed in Federal Court in San Diego on behalf of nine male and female detainees in the now infamous Abu Ghraib prison has legal and political implications that extend far beyond allegations of torture in Iraq. The suit addresses one of the most important issues of contemporary governance: Are prison contractors, working for the U.S. government, beyond the reach of law?  

Filed on June 9 by a major New York civil rights organization and a prominent Philadelphia law firm, the suit and the questions it raises have become critical as larger and larger governmental functions are turned over to private contractors, including the incarceration of individuals and the use of force here in America. 

As irrational as it may sound, private companies, cloaked in the full authority of the United States government, are not subject to the same legal constraints as government personnel. In a 5-4 vote in Malesko v. Correctional Services Corporation, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999 specifically exempted government contractors from a substantial degree of liability.  

Justice Stevens, writing in the minority, prophetically noted that “ because a private prison corporation’s first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners’ rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.”  

The global scale of government contracting also requires new thinking about controlling contractor abuse. The prison “ interrogators” contracted in Abu Ghraib were primarily naturalized Americans of Arab origin, and one of the two contractor company defendants is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Dutch corporation. To deal with the special privileges afforded government contractors, the plaintiffs based their claims on the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 and the Geneva Conventions—causes of action in tort not generally available to U.S. citizens—as well as on the federal racketeering statute of 1970.  

The Abu Ghraib suit deals with the tip of an iceberg. There is a vastly larger class of alien prisoners incarcerated by American corporations. A recent study by the University of Houston Center for Immigration Research reveals that many of the issues raised by the Abu Ghraib lawsuit are also present in the network of immigrant prisons run by private companies and local governments under contract to the United States government. 

It is hard to determine the exact number of immigrants detained under various provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the basic body of U.S. immigration law. Approximately 202,000 aliens were detained during fiscal year 2002, the Congressional Research Service recently estimated. The average daily immigrant population in detention has increased from 6,785 in 1994 to 22,812 in 2004, largely because of the mandatory removal provisions of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. 

Almost certainly, a majority of detained immigrants are held under some form of contractual arrangement in contractor-managed facilities or in state and local jails. 

Privately run prison facilities vary widely in quality and in the services they provide. Consequently, the likelihood of abuse is considerable. In 1998, Human Rights Watch investigators documented extensive abuse in the large sample of facilities they visited. The report found, among other abuses, that the INS was placing its administrative detainees in jails with criminals, even though they were not serving criminal sentences. Those detained included asylum seekers and individuals picked up on the street or during workplace raids. 

“This practice violates international standards, and it must stop,” reported Human Rights Watch. 

Unfortunately, government reliance on third parties to manage immigrant prisons has increased. With the lack of oversight and accountability that accompanies government outsourcing, a corresponding growth in abuse is almost certain. 

In recent years, the privatization issue in American public policy was resolved—without serious public debate—in favor of greater government reliance on contractors. Today, will the question of government contractor liability for abuses occurring during incarceration be similarly resolved without serious consideration, and outside the democratic process? The fate of the Abu Ghraib prisoners and hundreds of thousands of detained immigrants may presage the shape of our own democratic institutions. 

Charles Munnell is a research associate at the University of Houston Center for Immigration Research and an immigration attorney. Nestor Rodriguez is professor of sociology, co-director of the Center for Immigration Research and chair of the sociology department at the University of Houston. He is co-author (with Cecilia Menjivar) of the forthcoming When States Kill: Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of Terror, to be published by the University of Texas Press.

After an unsuccessful attempt Friday to quell a cooking oil fire that soon got out of control, a Jones Street resident ran two blocks to the nearest fire station to report the blaze in person. 

“Fortunately, neighbors had already called it in before he got there,” said Berkeley Fire Department Deputy Chief David Orth. 

Unfortunately, however, firefighters arriving at the scene found the first floor to be impenetrable. 

“Every doorway, every window was completely packed, so we had to go in through a second-story window—which is not the best way to enter,” Orth said. 

Inside, they found the entire structure packed floor-to-ceiling with personal possessions. 

Once the flames were extinguished, the firefighters had to cut a hole in the wall of an unburned room to empty it of belonging, then chop a hole in a second wall to get at and remove the burned debris. 

“The one fortunate thing was that all that stuff kept the fire from spreading rapidly,” Orth said. 

The firefighter estimated damage to the house at $30,000, though he had no estimate on the contents. “He’s a collector, and it was all precious to him,” Orth said, adding that cluttered houses are one of the less-heralded hazards to flame-fighters. “We run into them every once in a while.”ª

Sunny skies, cool breezes, the sparkle of the bay, and an appreciative local crowd attended the Saturday, June 19, grand opening of a long-awaited new building at Berkeley’s Shorebird Park Nature Center.  

The structure at the Berkeley Marina is believed to be the first public straw bale building in the Bay Area and will provide increased space for nature education programs as well as an example of ecologically sound construction. 

“Where better than in Berkeley to have a ‘green’ building?” said Mark Seleznow, the city’s parks director, at the opening ceremonies. “The city took a risk here, to innovate.” 

From the building one can see to the south, beyond the Berkeley shoreline and across wind-ruffled water, to the glittering glass and steel corporate and residential towers of Emeryville, symbols of conventional development and modern design.  

In comparison, Berkeley’s Nature Center complex near the water’s edge—with trees, lawns, picnic tables, an Adventure Playground, children running about, and diminutive structures—looks a bit like Hobbiton. The new building’s asymmetrical profile, residential scale, deep-set windows and small tower with blue heron weathervane all reinforce the contrast and emphasize natural values and processes.  

At the opening, City Councilmember Dona Spring praised long-time city employee and nature center staffmember Patty Donald “for being the driving force behind this visionary project. Without you we’d probably just have another toxic building.” And, Spring added, “of course we have to thank the tax-payers who made it possible.” 

Donald was quick to share the credit with many others, including her co-worker Denise Brown, a naturalist at the center for the past decade, who wrote grants for the lengthy effort. Brown, Donald said, “had a baby during this project. He’s six and a half now.”  

An array of designers, contractors, consultants, and volunteers lined up in front of the crowd to receive additional plaudits. Van Mechelen Architects and Dan Smith and Associates led the design team for the building. 

The University of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Department of Energy got the project started with a $25,000 grant, the first of many public agency and private contributions, both cash and in-kind. Construction of the Shorebird Park building began in April, 2002 (see “A House Made Of Grain,” Berkeley Daily Planet, Aug. 24, 2002).  

Volunteer help was essential. At one point, Brown noted, “20-30 volunteers each day came and lifted those bales into place.” When the straw walls were up but not yet coated with stucco, children asked, “Are you keeping animals in there? Will they use the walls for food?” 

That wasn’t the purpose of using straw, of course. If designed and constructed properly, straw bale structures have high insulation value, behave well in earthquakes, and recycle resources. 

The straw comes from rice fields in the Sacramento Valley, where it would otherwise be burned, creating air pollution. A growing number of residential and commercial clients are now opting for straw bale designs. 

The official opening was simplicity itself. “Out with the old, in with the new!” proclaimed Donald as she snipped a ribbon strung across the doorway and let the crowd in to admire the bright, high-ceilinged interior. 

The building looks thoroughly new but features recycled and “green” materials throughout. Concrete mixed with recycled fly-ash forms the foundation. Recycled and salvaged wood was used for the framing. Recycled glass forms part of terrazzo counters and seats. 

Windows are fiberglass. A blue map of San Francisco Bay is set into the floor. Ship models, stuffed birds, and aquariums share space with racks of educational handouts. An outdoor terrace provides additional event space. There were, thankfully, no “Three Little Pigs” jokes during the ceremony. Besides, the building wouldn’t quite qualify as a porcine fairy tale home.  

The straw provides the bulk of the walls, literally and figuratively, but there’s a wood frame around the bales. And the tale does not report that the pigs installed active solar heating and power systems, which this building has. Nor, presumably, did the pigs use chain saws to cut the straw bales to size, and weed whackers to even the sides before they were coated with stucco. 

And here’s a final difference. Berkeley’s straw bale building will stand for a long time, its users hope. “Thank you for making this dream a reality,” said Brown. “We’ll use it to educate thousands of people for generations to come.” 

For further details on the building, how to get to it by bus or car, and ongoing educational events there, check the City of Berkeley’s Marina website, www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/marina/. 

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Armed Robber Confronts Driver, Jail 

A 35-year-old Berkeley man pulled a gun on a motorist at the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street shortly before dawn Saturday, but the only thing he got was a bunk in the city lockup. 

Walking up to the motorist, the bandit flashed his handgun and demanded money, then fled on foot before completing his crime. He was caught by police shortly thereafter. 

Strongarm Bandits Batter Young Victim 

A teenage robbery victim was beaten seriously enough to require hospitalization about 2 a.m. Sunday near the corner of Bonar Street and Allston way, said Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

No suspects have been arrested. ª

Last week I read in the paper about a mysterious murder that occurred in the upscale peninsula community of Hillsborough. According to the article, a 58-year-old woman was killed in a house break-in at 4:30 in the morning. Neighbors and authorities were shocked. Violent crime is almost unheard of in Hillsborough, said someone in the know. The last incident of a homicide occurred in 1998 when a woman was abducted and murdered by her house cleaner. The article went on to say that Hillsborough is one of the richest communities in the United States. The house where the incident occurred has seven bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, and was bought in 1994 for $1,125,000. The house across the street is currently on sale for $2.8 million. 

A neighbor was interviewed who said that the residents of the area do not socialize with each other. She went on to say that she doesn’t know the names of any of her neighbors, and that she has lived on the same street since 1986. “Sometimes nosy neighbors are good, but we don’t have that here,” she said. 

How sad I thought. In my neighborhood, I know many of my neighbors. We say hello to one another and occasionally help each other out. Just this past week I attended Mrs. Brown’s eightieth birthday party at the nearby North Oakland Senior Center. Mrs. Brown has lived in the same house on Dover Street for more than 40 years. She knows everyone on the block and many of us were there to celebrate her birthday. Teddy Franklin, who lives across the street from Mrs. Brown, acted as the master of ceremonies. He even brought his own mother, Mary Franklin, up from Ridgeland, Miss. to participate in the celebration. Teddy’s wife, Helen, helped with serving the food and arranged all the flowers. Dennis Payne and Eric Boykin, who has lived on the block since he was a baby, assisted with the clean-up. Mrs. Brown’s sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews flew in from Houston, Seattle and Los Angeles for the occasion. Teddy knew most of them already. He and Mrs. Brown had flown to Texas together once in order to visit her extended family. 

When my husband had a bicycling accident in 1994 and became a C-4 quadriplegic, unable to use his arms or legs, people in the neighborhood helped us. Mrs. Brown’s tenant, Mrs. Gerstine Scott, was the first to arrive, and she stuck around, through thick and thin, until her death in 2001. 

Many of the familiar faces on the street have changed since we moved here in 1992. Next door neighbors Yasmine and Tom left for Hawaii in 1996. Ruthie and Craig moved to Southern California last year. Bonnie went to Folsom in 1995, and Ron and Opal, who lived in the house across the street in which Opal grew up, retired to Sacramento in 2002. In their places others have settled in and we’ve gotten to know them all. If I want help with an electrical or plumbing problem I call on Teddy. When I’ve needed someone to look after Ralph while running an errand, Eric has come over and watched the ballgame with him. Once, when our elderly housemate Leroy was stuck on the downstairs couch and needed to be transferred upstairs. neighbors Githinji and Matt carried him up the stairs. I’ve loaned jumper cables and muffin pans to Jenna next door, run a couple errands for Mrs. Brown, hired Tyrone from down the street to paint my kitchen and bedrooms. Andrea, who once lived one block over with her mother, now lives with us and helps with Ralph’s care. 

Mrs. Brown stood up during her party and made a brief speech, thanking us for helping her celebrate her eightieth birthday. “We gotta stick together,” she said. I couldn’t agree more. Our neighborhood isn’t ideal, but we have something that electronic gates and burglar alarms can’t compete with, and for that I’m very grateful. 

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Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 should be carefully studied by John Kerry’s political advisers—not for its good taste, profundity or even originality, but for its sheer bulldog tenacity in laying waste to the patriotic mythology spun out of lies and half-truths in Karl Rove’s White House.  

As it happens, I attended the local anti-Bush revival meeting masquerading as an all-media screening of Fahrenheit 9/11 on a recent warm late-spring night in New York. Mr. Moore was on hand—in his patented green baseball cap—to acknowledge the plaudits of the glitterati. I couldn’t help thinking that he had every right to gloat after the rough treatment he’d received at the Oscars from many of the same people now imploring him to overthrow King George II, after having deemed Mr. Moore in bad taste for prematurely condemning Mr. Bush for the war in Iraq.  

Of course, gloating was the last thing on Mr. Moore’s mind, judging from his gracious and constructive remarks after the film. One could feel that he was still basking in the 20-minute standing ovation he’d received at this year’s Cannes Film Festival after his film won the Palme d’Or. Still, much of the anti-Americanism that fed the mostly European applause at the festival may have ignored the fact that it is difficult to imagine a filmmaker from any other country in the world daring to produce and exhibit a film so explicitly denouncing his own country’s political leaders.  

By contrast, the response after the showing in New York was generally enthusiastic, but hardly overwhelming. I detected some nervousness and uncertainty in the audience about the tactics Mr. Moore employed to discredit President Bush: How many of them were cheap shots, how many of them were legitimate, and how many were breathtakingly revelatory? Like all of Mr. Moore’s enterprises, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a mixed bag, and you take the bad with the good. In fact, you have to take the bad for the sake of the good.  

Mr. Moore begins his unbridled assault on the Bushites by reprising the charges of grand larceny and the stealing of a presidential election—footage of the media confusion over the results in Florida is intercut with shots of Jeb Bush looking taller, handsomer and more presidential than his brother, George, who was clearly not the family’s choice for heir apparent. Mr. Moore never stresses this point, preferring to reduce Jeb, the infamous Katherine Harris, and even the majority of members of the Supreme Court to hirelings of the Bush gang. Crude but effective.  

What was new to me was the spectacle of one African-American member of the House of Representatives after another parading before the Senate to block the certification of George W. Bush as president because of voting irregularities in Florida affecting African-American voters, and not being recognized due to the failure of a single Democratic Senator to sign their petitions. Mr. Moore takes dead aim at Vice President Al Gore as the presiding officer of this parliamentary travesty, in which the Democratic Party surrendered to the Republicans’ power grab without offering any resistance. Is history about to repeat itself this year through the efforts of Diebold (whose owner is a major contributor to the Bush campaign), a company that has manufactured new electronic-voting machines which don’t produce a paper trail, to be used by millions of voters in the 2004 elections? We also have the same Supreme Court that decided in Bush’s favor in 2000; Jeb Bush is still prepared to do his brother’s bidding in Florida; and the Republicans have more money to spread around in 2004 then they had in 2000. No wonder the audience seemed nervous. I am, too. Even before 2000, the Republicans displayed a flair for stealing elections—for example, in the Hayes-Tilden fiasco of 1876.  

But most of this is old stuff, and Mr. Moore doesn’t get into high gear until he zeroes in on 9/11 and its immediate aftermath, with the still-mysterious authorizations for airline flights to spirit bin Laden family members out of the United States and back to Saudi Arabia. I don’t believe the New York Times and the other media have ever done their homework on this issue, failing to connect the dots to uncover the Bush family’s compromising connections with the bin Laden family’s networks and sundry other Saudi-American financial dealings. There’s been no attempt to follow the money, as was done in the Watergate case.  

As for the war in Iraq and the alleged weapons of mass destruction therein, American journalists were so deeply embedded in the Bush administration that they fell sound asleep when questions of verification were raised. Here Mr. Moore trivializes his arguments by taking cheap shots at the unpopular members of the Bush team with Candid Camera–style footage of them primping for their television appearances. Neocon ideo-logue Paul Wolfowitz gets the biggest laughs when he salivates on his comb to smooth his hair, but this is a game of “gotcha” that you can play with any target, from the extreme left to the extreme right.  

Mr. Moore is on stronger ground when he returns to his populist roots in heavily unemployed Flint, Mich., a fertile ground for U.S. Army and Marine recruiters with their promises of a college education, to illustrate the fact that it is the poorest young men and women who are doing all the fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Moore does show some restraint in his showboating antics with Congressmen in front of the Capitol, as he asks them to send their sons and daughters to Iraq. He points out also that the president has slashed benefits for the troops and the veterans, while at the same time professing his love and appreciation for their sacrifices.  

Still, even in Mr. Moore’s footage, there are depressing shots of crowds of Bush supporters cheering for the president. As we sat in the Ziegfeld in more or less political and cultural harmony, we had to wonder who all those people in the red states (and all the red-state people in the blue states) were, and whether any of them would see Fahrenheit 9/11—and if they did, would it change any hearts and minds?  

The distribution of the film has already been penalized with a restrictive R rating for its allegedly graphic images of the horror of war and the sight of American amputees and Iraqi civilian casualties, neither of which are likely to have been officially sanctioned by the Pentagon. And the movie business pages are full of Harvey Weinstein’s agonizing struggles with the Disney organization, reportedly because of Jeb Bush (again!) and his ability to cause trouble for Disney’s theme-park holdings in Orlando, Fla.  

So Fahrenheit 9/11 emerges as yet another salvo in a holy war between the Bushites and the anti-Bushites, with no quarter given in what promises to be a long, hot summer. I urge readers to see the film and judge it for yourselves. It is, at the very least, one of the most thought-provoking releases of the year.  

Andrew Sarris is the film critic for the New York Observer, where this article first appeared. He is also the author of The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968. ?

NOBEL LAUREATES 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

The “We Support John Kerry” statement (“UC Professor Joins Laureates For Kerry,” Daily Planet, June 25-28) might have carried a little more weight if it had included the names of the 48 Nobel laureates. I look forward to that list so I can see if any of them have done anything meaningful in their fields within the last 40 years. I see that Professor Glaser’s major career achievement (according to the article) dates back to 1960. That’s 47 years for those readers who may only be acquainted with the “soft” sciences. I also find it humorous that Professor Glaser invokes Nancy Reagan’s name to support his diatribe against President Bush’s science policy, but then denounces (then president) Reagan near the end of the article. I’m not sure how Iraq, abortion, John Ashcroft, and the Patriot Act were relevant to a critique of Bush’s science policy, but then my mind doesn’t have the intellectual sweep of a Nobel laureate from Berkeley.  

Vince Swanson 

Oakland 

• 

CITY BUDGET 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Regarding your article on the Berkeley budget (“Council Squeezes Unions, Passes Budget,” Daily Planet, June 25-28), you wrote that six vacant police officer positions have been eliminated. Have all vacant city positions been eliminated? If not, which have not and why? Is there a hiring freeze in Berkeley? What sacrifices have non-union city employees made in terms of pay and benefit cuts? Have plans been made to trim the budget if the $8 million in tax increases that the council wants are not approved in November? You wrote that the council passed non-binding tax increases of $3.1 million and $4.9 million in new taxes. Berkeley has a $10.3 million deficit and the council wants a tax increase of $16 million. Can you explain the numbers?  

Michael P. Migal Kuchkovsky 

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AC TRANSIT PLAN 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

In his opinion piece (“AC Transit Evaluates Telegraph Avenue Alternatives,” Daily Planet, June 25-28), John Caner claims that virtually everyone agrees on the goal of getting more people to take public transit, but opinions differ on where and how. That’s true, but then he goes on about how the BRT or other new bus system on Telegraph will reduce available parking and increase traffic congestion. This misses a major point. 

To be effective, public transit has to offer a transportation alternative better than driving. Transit has to come first; it should not have to compete equally with car traffic. If the BRT project works properly, this should be a natural development: As more people use the buses, there will be less traffic and less need for parking. 

If the Telegraph neighbors and merchants really don’t expect people to drive less, then the proposed new bus system will indeed have a negative impact on traffic and parking. This is the prime issue—not the EIR, not computer models, not a transit mall. The issue is whether we’re serious about using the bus. 

The idea of the BRT started with the TDM study. The object is to have a mode-shift from driving personal cars to riding buses. Buses should not be regarded as obstacles to “normal” (i.e. car) transportation. In congested places like Telegraph, buses should be the normal transportation mode (as trolleys and trams once were). Cars come second. If this principle is not agreed, then we’re fools to carry on with the Telegraph BRT project. 

Buses should not be viewed a only social service for the car-less poor. Public transportation is to be used by everyone. We should not be concerned giving up parking, re-routing cars or a giving buses a dedicated lane. Buses come first because they provide public transit. Those who must drive cars should expect some inconvenience. 

So the EIR is a side issue. The real question is whether we really want to cut congestion and have first class public transit. 

Steve Geller 

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BIG TIME OBSCENITY 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Dick Cheney defended his obscenity against Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy on the Senate floor by saying that he felt the better for it.  

In fact, Cheney has plenty to feel good about: In 2002 and 2003, Halliburton was a money-losing venture, posting losses for two successive years. Now, as a result of its Iraq contracts (operation RIO), Halliburton earns a billion dollars a month. (It won’t reveal its current profit margin.) 

As a man with a sick heart living on borrowed time, he can also feel good that his place as the most influential vice president in history is already secured: He has held sway over the American imagination in an unprecedented way.  

In spite of the tragic consequences of our violent seizure of Iraq, millions of Americans will still clap him on the back for his bravura display of aggression on the senate floor, proud to join him in a resounding chorus for posterity, directed against all enemies real and imagined, and (following his example) with greatest passion against their fellow countrymen: ‘’Go f--- yourself!” 

Sheila Newbery 

• 

CHENEY’S ARROGANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

When Senator Patrick Leahy challenged the Vice President on the excessive no-bid contracts that the Bush-Cheney administration has given to Halliburton Corp., regardless of its history cheating and overcharging our government, Cheney told Leahy “Go f*** yourself.” Senator Leahy’s questions represent the concern of all of us taxpayers, since we’re the ones who pay for those contracts. Cheney’s arrogant blow-off disrespects all of us. 

Bruce Joffe 

• 

CREEKS ORDINANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

The Berkeley Creeks Ordinance (Chapter 17.08), currently under review by the City Council, has some extremely restrictive and troubling provisions. According to the city, more than 2,000 homeowners in Berkeley live within 30 feet of an open or culverted creek. How many know that the ordinance prevents them from expanding their existing buildings, even if the footprint of the structure is not enlarged? More alarming, how many know that the ordinance prohibits the replacement of any existing structure within the 30-foot setback following a disaster, even if there is no other buildable site on the property? 

We have been proud stewards of our Berkeley property, spending thousands to daylight our section of Capistrano Creek and naturalize its banks. We’ve even helped form our own local creek group. Yet, we’ve just learned of this creeks ordinance. Apparently, it’s been in the books since 1989, yet no one seems to know who authored the original provisions or if it even went through the City Planning Department. 

Is the purpose of this ordinance to encourage responsible management of Berkeley’s creeks, or is the unstated goal to establish creekside parkland and open space? In our neighborhood, the city had the chance to do just that back in the 1920s, but decided instead to sell the land to developers and beef up its property tax revenues. Now it wants to restore natural waterways, but nowhere does the ordinance address compensation to property owners if their development rights are denied. Regarding the disaster provision, does the city intend to purchase those rights following an earthquake or fire, or will it merely take them away? Perhaps the assumption is that homeowners will happily abandon their parcels, or donate them to the city? Fat chance, considering that most home owners in this area have their life savings wrapped up in their properties. If the ordinance remains as it is, you can bet there will eventually be a bevy of lawsuits filed by groups of angry taxpaying residents who feel that the city is trampling on their rights. 

On July 13, the Berkeley City Council is scheduled to review the ordinance and consider possible revisions and clarifications. We suggest that other citizens and property owners review this ordinance and urge their councilmembers to amend it to be workable and fair, before the next disaster strikes. 

Jeff Caton 

Member, Friends of Capistrano Creek 

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OFFENSIVE CARTOON 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

In your recent issue, the political cartoon shows a person being electrocuted. This isn’t funny. Are we the readers to assume the Daily Planet supports a violent response to injustice? 

Denny Riley 

• 

OFFENSIVE REPORTING 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

As a victim of a violent assault a number of years ago, I can assert with authority that it’s no laughing matter. Therefore, I find Richard Brenneman’s lighthearted and whimsical reporting of Berkeley crimes in the Police Blotter to be highly offensive and inappropriate. For instance in your June 22 issue, Brenneman describes a man forced off his bicycle, which was stolen, as turning “a cyclist into a pedestrian” as he was “relieved of his wheels.” In actuality, the cyclist likely suffered emotional trauma if not physical injuries in being forced off his bicycle. When I was attacked and robbed on the street, leaving me with a broken nose and two black eyes, there wasn’t anything humorous about it. Please ask him to reserve the creative flourishes for his next novel. 

Stacy Taylor 

El Cerrito 

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ELMWOOD DISTRICT 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

As a person who shops, dines and occasionally goes to the movies in the Elmwood District, I read with interest and some dismay the article about the restrictions on people who own businesses there.  

I for one am much more bothered by the empty stores than I am about the precise mix of merchants. Empty storefronts blight the neighborhood and send the wrong message. I’d rather have more restaurants, if that’s what the market will bear, rather than empty spaces. It would be nice to allocate shops as the current regulations apparently do among a wide variety of businesses. But restricting merchants who would otherwise occupy the empty stores is wrongheaded and smacks of the naivety of Berkeley in years gone by. Abolish the restrictions and bring more vitality to Elmwood. 

Jon Kaufman  

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JUVENILE SHOWOFFS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Great. Now we will be treated to the endless corporate mass media glorification of a few juvenile American showoffs in their private attempts to go into space. What a fine waste of time, money and effort by all concerned. Meanwhile, back here on planet Earth, we living in the U.S.A. still suffer from a lack of universal health care; our economy is in a shambles; our civil liberties are being shredded; we are busy destroying what’s left of our natural environment and we have an endless stupid war on Iraq run by a president who feels that God has given him the divine right of kings. Great.  

James K. Sayre 

• 

OSAMA VS. GEORGE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

1. How many innocent people did Osama Bin Laden kill? What has he accomplished? 

2. How many innocent people has George Bush killed? What has he accomplished? 

I wonder why I haven’t seen this discussed anywhere? 

Mike Vandeman 

Hayward 

• 

FLAG-DRAPED COFFINS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

The Bush administration prohibits the media from covering the more than 800 war dead hero’s flag-draped coffins returning in countless plane loads. They don’t want people thinking about the casualty count and the billions being spent on this ill conceived war instead of on our numerous domestic problems.  

Then Ronald Reagan died and his prior-to-9/11 funeral plans were implemented. The week long, non-stop media coverage included his flag-draped coffin being expensively schlepped, no doubt at taxpayer expense, from the mortuary to the Reagan Presidential Library, to the airport, to Washington, to the Capitol Rotunda, to the church, to the airport, back to California.  

Obviously he was loved by many. Yet the media seem to have amnesia regarding his real legacy of lasting damage to the economy; environment; poor, working class and people of color; those with HIV/AIDS and mental illness; etc. He was certainly no hero to millions here as well as in countries in Central and South America.  

Flaunting the over the top, war-time, funeral honors bestowed upon Reagan appeared inappropriate compared to the blackout on the returning war dead and an insulting slap in the face to their loved ones.  

Reagan was a wealthy old man who lived a long and full life. Contrasted with the wasted and lost young lives, the casualties of Bush’s war in Iraq and the disrespectful non-coverage afforded their flag-draped coffins speaks volumes about the sorry state of this country at this time.  

Carol Gesbeck DeWitt 



SB 744 (Dunn), now under consideration by the State Legislature, would allow “affordable housing” developers to leapfrog over the local land use decision-making process and appeal to the state (Department of Housing and Community Development) any local land use decisions that either deny their project or impose conditions that purportedly render the project financially infeasible. The state could then order the local agency to reverse its decision and the developer and its friends could enforce this state order in court. This is quite a club for affordable housing developers to wield during the local land use decision-making process. 

This bill is one more in a growing list of state efforts, including density bonus laws, second unit legislation, and Housing Element certification procedures, that have been instigated and promulgated by the affordable housing lobby and pushed by some legislators who have either bought into the mantra of smart growth or who simply do not understand the implications of the policies they are pursuing. Needless to say, the State Department of Housing and Community Development, like most bureaucracies, is not at all averse to expanding its power and influence and telling local jurisdictions, such as Berkeley, what they MUST build. 

The affordable housing lobby is an alliance of non-profit developers, tax-exempt developers, subsidized developers, low income housing advocacy groups, smart growth gurus, and many urban planning professionals—all of whom value high density development and intensified urban population growth over most other legitimate civic values such as neighborhood preservation, reasonably limited local population growth, urban quality of life, reasonable density, and local democracy and control of land uses. The affordable housing lobby wishes to impose its narrow vision of the future on entire communities whether they like it or not and whether or not the supply of affordable housing has substantially increased. In Berkeley, despite our current above-par success in meeting affordable housing goals and despite the high rental housing vacancy rate and substantial decline in rental rates, pressure from this lobby continues unabated. 

In many communities, and certainly in Berkeley until recently, the affordable housing lobby almost ran the show. In general, affordable housing developers had been “incentivized” to build bigger and uglier residential projects with the lure of fee waivers, design and amenity waivers, HAC subsidies, land cost write-downs, Section 8 vouchers, ABAG loan guarantees, political accolade (at least in some quarters), and almost guaranteed profits. Unfortunately for them, neighborhood and preservation activists occasionally managed to slow down their train. The City of Berkeley recently undertook a worthwhile civic exercise, the Permitting Task Force, which set the framework for a land use decision-making process that would allow all stakeholders a voice and expedite better development, neighborhood-friendly development, and more rapid development approvals. Further, in the context of the current “rezoning” of University Avenue, it has become very clear that the best development outcome will emerge when all voices are heard in a thoughtful venue.  

Zoning and land use issues are very complex and speak to our shared future. In Berkeley at least, most citizen activists are not opposed to development per se. Rather, they seek a fairer development playing field, more diverse and neighborhood-friendly development, less dense development, and development that improves the quality of life for all in the long run and enhances the city of the future.  

Unfortunately, while many local politicians and decisionmakers glibly blame state regulations for the sometimes unfortunate and unpopular local land use decisions, when the chance to oppose draconian state regulations arises, they remain quite mute. Is this because many local politicians and decisionmakers are in fact in collusion with the state and the affordable housing lobby and really love the club(s) with which the state is attempting to beat us into submission? I myself have repeatedly asked the Berkeley City Council to join the League of California Cities and numerous other jurisdictions in opposing SB 744 and similar measures, to no avail. 

Berkeley’s neighborhood, preservation, and civic groups should seriously consider opposing SB 744 and similar state land grab measures. For further information you may e-mail me at bgilbertca@aol.com. 

Barbara Gilbert is rumored to be a City Council candidate. 



Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Richmond City Council’s award of Point Molate’s exclusive development rights to Levine-Fricke is an outrage. It’s no wonder that developer James Levine wanted the Daily Planet to keep the story out of public view until after it’s a done deal; I hope that it’s possible to “un-done” it. The land should be preserved as a public park—all of it. Meanwhile, I’m wondering which constituency the councilmembers are working for; there’s muck to be raked in Richmond; the press has not done all that it could. I’m grateful that the Planet aimed a searchlight here and I hope for more “daylighting” of the Richmond government sausage factory. 

I invite readers to experience Point Molate for yourselves; driving, you take the last exit just before the San Rafael Bridge toll plaza and just meander to the north (the only way you can go). After you pass a small run-down city park on your left, you’ll find the old Navy fuel terminal area, Winehaven and other buildings, and the supporting village of abandoned Navy housing. The waterfront location is wooded, calm and peaceful; it’s a badly-needed respite from urban noise and reckless out-of-control developers and their casinos. If you continue onward, you may find a few people fishing quietly amidst bits of organic bayside surroundings, before you arrive at an industrial property. Beyond that area, there are signs that the East Bay Regional Park District has been at work. 

The area has seen spotty public use even while it was under U.S. Navy jurisdiction. The little park was a small snippet of Richmond city property carved out of the Navy’s terrain. A railroad museum was located here during the 70s and 80s, offering public rides on historic equipment; the collection of locomotives and cars was hosted on unused tracks on Navy property (the equipment is now located at the Niles Canyon Railway in Fremont, where you can still ride it). 

It is easy to forget that you’re so close to a city here, that you’re so close to heavy industry. In fact, the entire Chevron refinery is out-of-sight just over the ridge. It would have been very easy to pipe fuel onto military vessels during the war. But the fantasy is delightful to experience nonetheless—things don’t feel like the “oil biz” now—the deception is almost complete; life feels slow here and one can have an enjoyable, quiet picnic. 

If it is critical for the Richmond City Council to backfill their severe budget shortfall by this curious venture, why not put the entire enterprise where it won’t take precious waterfront land. There are vast empty tracts for all to see from Richmond Parkway in the vicinities of Parr Boulevard, Gertrude Avenue, Freethy Boulevard, Radiant Avenue, and the territory around the two railroad main lines. That’s a great amount of wasteland; I think that an entire casino-hotel enterprise would be easily absorbed in that vicinity. I could be wrong, but I don’t think that anyone would object. So, why not just transplant the entire shebang over there and have done with it. 

Richard Steinfeld›

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his article “ Regents miss the point of Cal project” (San Francisco Chronicle, June 10), John King takes the UC Regents to task for criticizing the design of the proposed Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies. 

King admits that “the regents are right to be vigilant: The building would be located along the north edge of the newish Memorial Glade, directly across from Doe Library, one of Cal’s truly revered landmarks. It’s a timeless location that deserves equally timeless architecture.”  

However, King believes that the architects selected, Todd Williams and Billie Tsien, are in themselves an unassailable guarantee of greatness, certain to give us “ a meticulous masterpiece—a subdued but fitting neighbor to Doe Library that glows with life and thought.”  

In summation, King offers “ Today’s architecture lesson: Don’t judge a building by how it looks on paper.”  

Very true. And don’t judge a building independently of its proposed site. 

Quite apart from the architectural considerations, the Tien Center project must be judged in the context of the surrounding historic, cultural, and natural resources in the UC campus central glade. 

Even the rosiest architectural renderings can’t hide the fact that Haviland Hall (John Galen Howard, 1924), which like the Doe Library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will be obscured from view, hemmed in, and trivialized when the Tien Center becomes its immediate neighbor. 

Placing the Tien Center next to Haviland Hall flouts Policy 3.1 in the Campus Architecture Strategic Goals: “ Projects within the Classical Core shall enhance the integrity of this ensemble, and complement rather than compete with existing historic buildings.” If the project goes forward as planned, the Tien Center will not only compete with Haviland Hall but overshadow it completely. 

Another key resource in the immediate area is the historic Observatory Hill, one of the best natural enclaves on campus. Large portions of the hill (including some of its most picturesque spots) are destined for extinction when the Tien Center is built. 

The Tien Center Library’s orientation at a 90-degree angle to Haviland Hall (instead of being oriented diagonally to it, conforming with the perimeter of the Haviland parking lot) would intrude unnecessarily into the southeastern part of Observatory Hill, where a number of mature specimen trees are to be found. The monumental plaza and steps planned for the east end of the Tien Library would destroy even more of the hill. Phase 2, if it is built as planned, would do away with almost the entire western flank of the hill—a tragic loss to the campus and to the Berkeley community. 

Everything about the design and the siting of the Tien Center flies in the face of CEQA and the stated goals of the campus New Century Plan. A site far more suitable for conserving natural resources would be the parking lot behind Dwinelle Hall, which is slated for in-fill in the 2020 LRDP. 

Since UC is determined to accord the Tien Center a prominent place in Memorial Glade, it might want to consider this suggestion: 

Sometimes, moving a department is preferable to the loss of key resources. If the School of Social Welfare (housed in Haviland Hall) were to move to another location (the parking lot behind Dwinelle Hall, for example, or the spaces at Durant and Dwinelle halls currently occupied by the Tien Center), Haviland Hall would make an excellent and prominent new home for the Tien Center. 

With Tien at Haviland, a smaller second building could be constructed on the Haviland parking lot. If this second building were to oriented not at 90 degrees to Haviland but at an angle conforming to the existing parking lot, and if its entrance were repositioned to eliminate the proposed monumental plaza and steps, Observatory Hill would go untouched, and Haviland Hall would retain the prominence it deserves. 

Daniella Thompson lives just north of the current boundary of the UC Berkeley campus. 

›

I came to Berkeley 40 years ago this month for graduate school at UC. I quickly noticed that the Bay Area was not predominantly flat and gray like my native New Jersey, an annoying land of two temperatures: too hot and too cold. I have ever since considered Berkeley my home, even during two years in Chile and one in Washington in the late 60s.  

I offered the Daily Planet 40 observations from my 40 years in the Peoples Republic. Too long, they said. Here then, for your consternation or amusement, scorn or praise, derision or agreement, are the top 20:  

1. Contrary to its reputation, Berkeley is no more tolerant than other communities. It just tolerates different things than mainstream America. Like anyplace else, it tolerates what it finds acceptable and condemns what it finds offensive. No? A Camel-smoking Bechtel VP moves to Berkeley with a bumper sticker proclaiming “Abortion is Murder” on one side of his 6,400-pound Hummer and on the other, let’s say “From My Cold Dead Hands.” Let’s add a Bush/Cheney sign in the window. If Berkeley had a welcome wagon, it’s be a ‘68 VW van and it would pass this guy right on by.  

2. Berkeley loves diversity; the city’s logo praises diversity—diversity of race and sexual orientation, diversity of income (but not the extremes), diversity of language, culture, and physical abilities. All good. Except the diversity of ideas. Take a letter to the editor in the San Francisco Chronicle from Berkeley, tell me the topic, and virtually every time I could tell you the position taken . There isn’t a community in the country as large as Berkeley where the views on controversial issues are more uniform.  

3. The Berkeley polity is dominated by maybe a thousand activists for whom politics is sport. The play politics in exactly the same way others play bridge or tennis. For them, politics is recreational. The activity is more important than the issue. 

4. If you are not one of these activists, you are unlikely to regularly participate in local politics. Ever zealous and often behaviorally challenged, these true-believers drive everyone else out of the process, even those with a predilection to participate. When challenged to get involved, non-activists will always come up with the same mantra: “Life is too short for Berkeley politics.” 

5. These activists do not care that many local government programs neither work as intended nor make any sense, or that they cost way too much or even if they are counter-productive. All that matters is that it feels right and addresses, however lamely, an issue near-and-dear to their collectivist heart. Rather than Do Good Politics, this is Feel Good Politics. 

6. Subscribers to the prevailing Berkeley mindset are obsessed with the distribution of wealth without regard to the generation of wealth. They neither appreciate nor care that wealth is created by human activity; it is not simply lying on the ground like some many gold nuggets to be gathered and distributed in manner that they believe is fair. 

7. This same municipal mindset equates profit with avarice and waste. It neither understands nor appreciates that profit is the driving force behind virtually all wealth and that, as a tool for organizing human activity, profit is way cheaper than bureaucracy. 

8. George Orwell allegedly posited that the problem with socialism is that it takes up too many weekday evenings. Decisions get made by those who are still in their chairs at midnight. To have an impact in Berkeley politics takes an inordinate amount of time. Too bad if you have work the next morning. 

9. Berkeley activists spend a whole lot of time talking to each other. One would think that their goal of social and political change would be better served if they took their signs and leaflets to Piedmont or Hillsborough; better yet, Dallas. 

10. Berkeley is not racist in that neither as a society nor as a polity, does it treat any race in an inferior manner to any other. It is, however, extremely race-conscious, thereby in its own way compensating for perceived racism elsewhere and at other times. This noble sentiment notwithstanding, the concomitant attitudes are paternalistic and patronizing toward the beneficiaries and result in policies that are unfair to others. 

11. Unique in the Bay Area, Berkeley has lost 15-20 percent of its population over the last few decades. This town may be denser than most California cities but Berkeley did not feel overly dense when it had 120,000 people and it doesn’t feel so now. Paradoxically, fewer residents has probably meant more cars on the streets as those who might otherwise live here must drive here.  

12. Berkeley is terribly wire-blighted. Drive up Forest Street from College Avenue and note the difference when the overhead wires disappear. Undergrounding Berkeley’s utility lines would make an immense improvement to the appearance of the community but as long as there is an army of city employees to pay and no Palestinian homeland, our resources and attention will likely remain elsewhere committed. 

13. The City of Berkeley is run by the bureaucrats for the bureaucrats. As labor, city employees get virtually everything the want. In the stale rhetoric of labor and capital, workers and bosses, the subjugated and their rulers, labor prevails uber alles. The City Council is constitutionally incapable of challenging labor, especially unionized labor. As a result, city employees are treated very well. This means not working them too hard, overpaying them, virtually never firing anyone and assuring them a comfortable retirement. 

14. Hayward is six times larger than Berkeley and has 40 percent more people. It has 900 employees: Berkeley has 1,600. What do all these extra people do at $100,000 each? With all this elective activity, dealing with the current budget crisis should be a snap.  

15. Berkeley has the worst drivers in California, probably because too many of them are from Boston, where no one knows how to drive, or New York, where people learn to drive at 30—far too old to garner the essential confidence, physical skills and instincts. 

16. I don’t know why BeTV, (Berkeley's open-access cable station,) can show bare breasts, full-frontal nudity and pretty explicit sexual activity while Howard Stern cannot. I guess one of the participants confined to a wheelchair makes it not pornography. I have no problem with this fare on late night television but I’m not sure such programming is a legitimate function of municipal government. 

17. Berkeley has the greatest concentration of Volvos this side of Scandinavia. They all apparently come with factory-installed leftish bumper stickers. “I’ll take the V-70 station wagon in maroon with air and a sun roof and, oh, maybe, ‘One Nuclear Bomb Can Ruin Your Whole Day’ on the bumper.” 

18. “A Nuclear Bomb is Pretty Bad but One Berkeley ‘Progressive’ Can Really Ruin Your Whole Day.” That’d be the bumper sticker on my well-scratched pickup. It is not on my car because I fear that some gentle, peace-loving, tolerant Berkeleyan would respond to my free expression of ideas by taking a key to my trunk. 

19. Everyone in Berkeley hates Emeryville. If Berkeley would accommodate its fair share of larger retailers, traffic would spread out more evenly up and down the bay. The choice here is not having or not having these market-pleasing businesses, but where they go. And, not insignificantly, who gets the substantial tax revenue they generate. 

20. The Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance of 197? has had a mixed impact at best. The initiative likely did prevent the loss of the many good buildings which likely would have been replaced with pretty bad buildings. It also, however, has prevented and continues to prevent the bad from being replaced with the good. Berkeley has plenty of crappy buildings which could and should be replaced. 

Albert Sukoff is an Oakland real estate developer and past president of the Berkeley Property Owners Association. 

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I was back in Arkansas last month, partly on family business, partly revisiting some favorite places in the Ozarks. Things have changed since I lived there. The great homogenizing forces of commerce and mass culture have been at work. You exit the freeway into outposts of Generica: Barnes & Noble, Old Navy, Starbucks. Krispy Kreme, having leapfrogged from the Southeast to the West Coast, is about to colonize Arkansas. There are signs of demographic shifts: more Mexican restaurants, and a couple of Vietnamese sandwich shops in Little Rock. 

The natural world has changed too. We never saw armadillos when I was a kid; now they seem to have displaced the possum as the dominant species of roadkill. My cousin Lillian up near the Missouri border has dillo divots in her lawn. Blame it on climate change, or creeping Texanization. 

And all the bird feeders I happened to watch during my stay had, along with the cardinals and chickadees, a steady stream of house finches. We never had house finches either; I saw my first here in California. Now they’re found all over the South, and through most of the eastern and central states. 

How they got there is an interesting story. Back when native birds had less legal protection, some species became popular as cagebirds. The attractive red plumage and vigorous song of the males made house finches a natural for the pet trade. Trapped in California, they were marketed as “Hollywood finches.” Inevitably, some escaped or were released. 

By the 1940s house finches of California origin were nesting on Long Island. They fanned out from there in all directions, adjusting to local climates and sustained in part by bird feeders. A lone pioneer reached Arkansas in 1971, two years after I arrived in California. Within 15 years they had been confirmed as breeding there, and now they’re as ubiquitous as Baptists. 

Sixty years is an eyeblink in the life of a species. Eastern house finches don’t show a lot of genetic variation, which may make them more vulnerable than native birds to infectious diseases. In the mid-90s, feeder observers began to notice sick house finches. They were suffering from conjunctivitis caused by the bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum, previously known only from domestic poultry. Infected birds either starved to death or succumbed to predators, and the eastern population dipped significantly. But the native purple finches and goldfinches appeared unaffected. 

I haven’t followed the Mycoplasma story in recent years, so I don’t know whether the eastern house finches are beginning to evolve a resistance. But it wouldn’t surprise me. According to a study by Jeremy Egbert and James Belthoff at Boise State University, they’re showing other microevolutionary changes, in both anatomy and behavior. 

In its western homeland, the house finch is a sedentary bird. But at least some eastern populations have begun to migrate. Migratory behavior in songbirds tends to be pretty inflexible (unlike geese, which learn—and can therefore unlearn—their migration routes). But you can see how the propensity could spread through a population. A finch that gets the hell out before snow blankets the ground is going to leave more descendants than one that freezes solid in a New England winter. 

It’s the apparent linkage between form and function that I find interesting, though. Egbert and Belthoff trapped house finches around Boise and at Ithaca, New York, and measured their wing dimensions and other vital statistics. The New York finches had wings that were thinner and more pointed than those of the Idaho birds. The primary feathers—the flight feathers between wrist and wingtip—were shorter near the wrist, longer at the tip. 

So? The authors point out that this thin-and-pointed shape is common in migratory birds, for good aerodynamic reasons: a pointed wingtip reduces drag in flight. This holds both between and within species. When a species has both sedentary and migratory populations, the migrants tend to have longer, pointier wings. 

What this means is that as the migratory habit has spread among eastern house finches, so has a wing shape that makes long-distance flight easier. Egbert and Belthoff, citing E. O. Wilson, the godfather of Sociobiology, think the behavior likely changed first, the physical structure second.  

This doesn’t mean the eastern birds are necessarily on their way to becoming a distinct species. California and New York finches could still interbreed and produce fertile offspring, if they ever got together. But it’s a great example of the routine workings of natural selection, the kind of fine-tuning Peter Grant discovered in his long-term study of the Darwin’s finches of the Galapagos Islands. As recounted by Jonathan Weiner in The Beak of the Finch, Grant found that the beak size and shape of his subjects tracked the availability of seeds of different sizes and hardnesses, which was in turn driven by El Niño events and other climatic shifts. Selection kept varying the mix to produce an adaptive optimum. 

It’s all about which physical or behavioral type leaves the most descendants. Sixty years equates to 60 house finch generations—not long enough to evolve, say, iridescent feathers, but long enough for adaptations to a different climate to show up. 

What happens when those selective pressures are relaxed, though? If global warming means milder winters in New York, will the Ithaca finches revert to the western norm? Stay tuned. 

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Spiral Gardens Community Food Security Project’s Urban Garden Center opened grandly on Sunday, June 27, at 2 p.m., with a stageful of song, rap, and inspirational speech, and food and plants for sale and for free. 

The garden is on Sacramento Street at Oregon—a conspicuous half out on Sacramento and a hidden half across Oregon behind the storefronts. The front half is what you’ve been wondering about for the last several months as you drive by: What’s he building in there? 

It is nursery tables, rigged up for potting and maintaining seedlings and aimed southward for solar gain. These are filling with plants for sale, herb and veggie starts including unusual stuff like oca and cardoon. There’s a garden shed and a spot sheltered by a trellis for gathering or just enjoying the green. The hidden section is beds in the ground with assorted useful plants, and some potted ornamentals being groomed for sale there and at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market. One of the storefronts housed Spiral Gardens’ office, as full of plants as it is of papers. 

Spiral Gardens has been around for years, starting as a guerrilla gardening movement to grow produce in community gardens on vacant lots. It allied with BOSS (Berkeley Oakland Support Services/Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency) as the BOSS Urban Gardening Institute (BUGI—aren’t acronyms fun?) and—with recent shifts in fundraising—is Spiral Gardens again. Daniel Miller and his allies plan to make the Sacramento Street complex serve its neighborhood in several ways. 

The back lot is being set up as a collective garden—not a traditional community garden with individuals’ plots, but a teaching and production spot where half of the harvest is divided among the gardeners who work it and half goes to the homeless and elderly, via several local facilities. 

The street-front nursery will specialize in “useful plants”—food, medicinals, and native plants for restoration sites. These sales will support the project. At the nursery gate, another part of the project happens on Tuesdays: a market for low-cost organic produce from local farmers. The neighborhood, like many urban places, lacks fresh produce stores. Miller and company surveyed the neighborhood door-to-door to find out what residents wanted most, and this is Spiral Gardens’ response. 

Plans for next steps include free classes in gardening, good eating, and community-building; and eventually, maybe, a well for irrigation. Miller says the site lies on ground with good water quality and a decently high water table. 

Volunteers are welcome; call or just drop by whenever you see anyone working in the garden.

Doris Moskowitz readily admits that she keeps one foot planted in the past while charting a new course for her business. She is the proprietor of Moe’s Books, a Berkeley landmark named after her father who was an icon in his own right. Upon the death of Morris “Moe” Moskowitz on April 1, 1997 at the age of 76, then Mayor Shirley Dean declared a “Moe’s Day,” closing the block on Telegraph Avenue where the store is located to allow people to come and pay tribute to its famous owner.  

Not much has changed visibly since Moe’s death, except perhaps the vivid new red awnings that invite customers in to peruse the store’s more than 150,000 volumes of used, new and antiquarian books. Black-and-white photos of the fun-loving, cigar-puffing founder still frame the walls.  

“My mission is to keep the store running according to Moe’s vision,” explained Moskowitz. “At the same time, I have to balance the challenges that face independent bookstores everywhere. Luckily, this store thrives on the goodwill of its employees and the community it serves,” she added.  

A Piece of History  

To understand how a bookstore engenders such loyalty is to understand Moe Moskowitz and the valuable business lessons he passed on to his daughter. The New York native moved to the Bay Area in the late 1950s. Out with friends one evening, he met the woman who later became his wife (and Doris’s mother). It didn’t matter that she was on a blind date with someone else—she was won over by the same charisma and spontaneity for which people remember him. Together, they opened the Paperback Bookshop on Shattuck, near University Avenue.  

In 1959, the bookstore outgrew its space and moved to Telegraph Avenue where it was renamed Moe’s Books. The store was at the epicenter of the politically-charged events of the 1960s, which suited Moe’s passionate and outspoken nature just fine. People from all over came to chat with Moe and revel in his larger-than-life persona. In the 1970s, when Berkeley banned smoking in public places, Moe was cited a number of times by police for continuing to smoke his cigars in his store.  

During these years, Doris worked in the store during summers and school holidays. Fourteen years ago, after graduating from Mills College with a degree in literature and music, she decided to join the store full-time. But it wasn’t that simple. “Moe despised nepotism,” Moskowitz recalled. “He had fired both of my sisters so I knew he wasn’t going to give me a break.”  

Thus it was not surprising that Moe had his daughter train as a book buyer for nearly seven years. Along the way he fired her a few times, too. But according to Moskowitz, “I just kept coming back.”  

Applying the Lessons of the Past  

These days, it’s tough to be an independent bookstore in the face of stiff competition from huge chains and Internet sites. Think of Meg Ryan’s character in the movie You’ve Got Mail, forced to close her shop when a big box moves into the neighborhood.  

But walk among the four floors that comprise Moe’s Books and you notice the diversity of its customers, which is reflective of a community unlike any other. The store serves book lovers of all types, from retirees who spend the entire day here to graduate students seeking inspiration for their dissertations.  

Indeed, where else can you find a $10,000 antique book and a 13-cent paperback in the same place?    

“Moe was adamant that books should be accessible to everyone,” noted Moskowitz. Against the recommendations of other retailers and business advisors, she continues Moe’s tradition of selling half-price mass-market pocketbooks alongside more expensive books. Three large walls—valuable real estate in a bookstore—are filled with these small books covering anything from the classics to science fiction.  

Moe was also one of the first book retailers to give out trade slips for people selling their used books. He was well-known for his generous price quotes, a reputation that Moskowitz has upheld.  

An astute book buyer herself, Moskowitz and her team add hundreds of used and out-of-print books to the store’s inventory daily. “In a way, Moe wanted his bookstore to be like a library…something everyone from all walks of life could enjoy and where they would want to come back,” said Moskowitz of her father.  

And like her father, Moskowitz is a well-respected manager. Many of the store’s 26 employees have been there for a decade or more, with the oldest employee completing his twenty-eighth year. Employees are hired for their knowledge and love of books, and many have specific experience in subjects as varied as design, architecture, photography, fashion and costume, European history and Asian art. Turnover is incredibly low because Moskowitz provides employees with full benefits—a rarity among bookstores of any size or type.  

Of her father’s management style, Moskowitz explained that “Moe gave people tremendous freedom and trusted them to do the right thing. He was a visionary, but he didn’t need to control every little detail. He could accept different perspectives and different ways of doing things.”  

Judging by the continued success of Moe’s Books, it is apparent that Moskowitz inherited the same qualities from her father. Moe, in turn, would surely be happy that he never succeeded in firing her.  

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TUESDAY, JUNE 29 

THEATER 

Shotgun Theater Lab “Four Echoes” at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Free, donations welcome. 841-6500.  

FILM 

Los Angeles Plays Itself: “The Decay of Fiction” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bill Clinton will sign copies of his memoir “My Life” at noon at Cody’s Books. Admission by ticket only. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Lee Stringer remembers his life at a school for children at risk in “Sleepaway School: Stories from a Boy’s Life” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poets Gone Wild, open mic, at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Balkan Folkdance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mimi Fox, solo guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

REV.99 and Andrew Hayleck at 8:30 p.m. at Oakland Box, 1923 Telegraph Ave. www.oaklandbox.com 

Jazz House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. www.thejazzhouse.com 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30 

FILM 

All-Comedy Shorts at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, Oakland. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 415-864-0660. www.microcinema.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ed Cray reads from his new biography, “Ramblin’ Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

www.codysbooks.com 

Kay Jones and Anthony Pan explain “Culture Shock! Beijing At Your Door” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam, contest with the winners performing at the AIDS Walk in San Francisco, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082 www.starryplough.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Potingue, contemporary flamenco-Latin ensemble, at the Crowden Music Center, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $6, free for children. 559-6910. www.thecrowdenschool.org 

Jules Broussard, Ned Boynton and Bing Nathan at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Gator Beat at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Key of Z: Experimental Instruments, and the Music They Make, with From Scratch, at 7:30 p.m.at the Pacific Film Archive. Sponsored by Amoeba Records. 642-0808. 

Whiskey Brothers, old time at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473.  

www.albatrosspub.com 

African Storytelling, Drumming and Dancing with Nigerian dancers and drummers from Aji-Tos Center for Art and Culture. At 7 p.m. at Pro Arts Gallery, Jack London Square, Oakland. Cost is $10. 763-4361. www.proartsgallery.org  

Jeb Brady Band, history of the blues, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Upsidedown, ‘80s meets ‘60s psychedelic synth-rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, JULY 1 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Tanaka Ryohei, “Japanese Etchings” opens at the Schurman Fine Art Gallery, 1659 San Pablo Ave. 524-0623. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Terry Ehret is the featured poet at the Albany Public Library at 7 p.m. at the Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Puerto Rican Obituary: A Tribute to Pedro Pietri at 7 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert with the Capoeira Arts Café at the Berkeley BART. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association. 

Art Maxwell and Tonal Gravity, jazz and world music fusion, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

George Pederson and His Pretty Good Band at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Tim Buckley’s Influx, avant-garde jazz, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $8-$15. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Kenny Rankin at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sat. Cost is $16-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, JULY 2. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Henry Navarro, contemporary Cuban artist, solo exhibition opens at La Peña and runs to August 2. www.lapena.org 

Works by Ellen Russell opens at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Betrayal,” by Harold Pinter, directed by Tom Ross, opens at 8 p.m. and runs through July 25. Tickets are $28-$36. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org  

Berkeley Rep “Master Class” with Rita Moreno at The Roda Theater. Runs through July 18. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Rep, “21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com” Thurs., Sun. at 7:30 p.m. and Fri. and Sat. at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $25-$35. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Shotgun Players, “Quills” by Doug Wright at the Julia Morgan Theater. Runs Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through July 3. Free, donations accepted. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Johnny Talbot & De Thangs, blues band, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Kaki King at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Flair, Mojo Apostles, Collisionville, Jules Worsley at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Angel Spit at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Marcus Selby Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Jason Broome and Emaline Delapaix at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Off Minor, Strong Intention, Amanda Woodard, Navies at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, JULY 3 

CHILDREN 

“Wild About Books” storytime with singer/songwriter Bonnie Lockhart at 10:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6223. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

West Coast Live with Kerry Getz and The Palm Wine Boys at 10 a.m. at the Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15 in advance, $18 at the door. 415-664-9500. www.ticketweb.com 

Anthony Brown’s Asian American Orchestra at 2 p.m. at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. Free, but reservations recommended. 637-0455. www.oacc.cc 

Samantha Raven at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Cascada de Flores, Cuban and Mexican traditional music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761.  

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Wadi Gad, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Rich McCully Band, Dylan Thomas Vance at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Maria Marquez Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Drop Dead, Lights Out, Look Back and Laugh, Desperate Measures at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JULY 4 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pansy Division, The Quails, Veronica Lipgloss & The Evil Eyes at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Mal Sharpe’s Big Money in Jazz Band at 2 and 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $5. 238-9200.  

MONDAY, JULY 5 

THEATER 

Shotgun Theater Lab “Four Echoes” at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Free, donations welcome. 841-6500.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Actors Reading Writers “Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace,” stories by Heidi Julavits and David Sedaris, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Poetry Express featuring Stephanie Manning, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bill Bell Quintet “The Jazz Connection” at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, JUNE 29 

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang explore Wildcat Canyon. Hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness, and fun are invited to join us on a series of monthly excursions exploring our Regional Parks. Meet at 10 a.m. at the staging area off of Park Ave. in Richmond. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Birding by Bicycle at the MLK Shoreline, Arrowhead Marsh. Now that the migrants are gone, see who stayed behind to raise their babies. We’ll look for Clapper Rails at the pier, then ride around the marsh to search for elusive owls. Bring your bike and a helmet. Meet at at 4 p.m. in the last parking lot, by the observation deck at the end of the driveway off Swan Way. Phone 525-2233 for information or to reserve binoculars. 

“Stop the War on the Black Community” at 7 p.m. at The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St. 393-5685. 

“Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948” with dissident Israeli author Tanya Reinhart at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph The Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Tickets are $20. Benefit for Jewish Voice for Peace and International Solidarity Movement. 465-1777. www.norcalism.org or www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org  

“Report from Israel” An evening with Marcia Freedman, former Knesset member and national president of Brit Tzedek V’Shalom, Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Co-sponsored with Brit Tzedek V’Shalom. Cost is $5. www.brjcc.org 

Organic Produce at low prices sold at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon Streets every Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. This is a project of BOSS Urban Gardening Institute and Spiral Gardens. 843-1307. 

Yosemite Day Hikes and Backpacking A slide presentation with Ann Marie Brown at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Phone Banking to ReDefeat Bush on Tuesdays from 6 to 9 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Bring your cell phones. Please RSVP if you can join us. 233-2144. dan@redefeatbush.com 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your 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. Mary Ellen Taylor from the FDA will speak on food safety. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers We are a few slowpoke seniors who walk between a mile or two each Tuesday, meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Farm parking lot. To join us, call 215-7672 for information or check our web page, http://home.comcast.net/~teachme99/tildenwalkers.html or email teachme99@comcast.net 

Families Dealing with Dementia A workshop offered by Mercy Retirement & Care Center at 5:30 p.m. at 3431 Foothill Boulevard in Oakland. 534-8547, ext. 660. www.mercyretirementcenter.org 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday, rain or shine, at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes, sunscreen and a hat. 548-9840. 

Walking Tour of Oakland Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/wallkingtours 

“Local Futures” films on globalization and theories of development, at 7 p.m. at the Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. 393-5685. 

Bayswater Book Club Monthly dinner meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Liu’s Kitchen, 1593 Solano Ave. We will discuss “The Jesus Mysteries” and “Jesus and the Lost Goddess.” 433-2911. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Fun with Acting Class every Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Free, all are welcome, no experience necessary.  

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

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JULY 1 

Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Restoration Program at 5:30 p.m. at the Planning Dept., 2118 Milvia St. 1st floor conference room. Dr. Iraj Javandel will present an update on the Lab’s soil and groundwater cleanup activities being done with the oversight of the California Dept. of Toxic Substances Control. For more information see www.lbl.gov/community 

Brower Day Habitat Restoration Come join us to celebrate David Brower’s birthday and restore vital Bay habitat. Restoration activities will include transplanting native plant seedlings in the Native Plant Nursery, non-native plant removal, site monitoring, and shoreline clean-up. No experience necessary. Families are welcome. RSVP is required. Due to the sensitive nature of the site, space is limited. From noon to 4 p.m. at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland. 452-9261, ext. 109. dshea@savesfbay.org, www.saveSFbay.org/getinvolved/restorewetland 

“Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory” with Maureen Musdock at 7 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Berkeley Farmer’s Market with all organic produce at Elephant Pharmacy parking lot, 1607 Shattuck Ave., at Cedar from 3 to 7 p.m. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Tea Dancing and Dance Lessons with Barbara and Jerry August from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Cost is $5, includes refreshments. 925-376-6345. 

FRIDAY, JULY 2 

West Coast Contact Improvisation Dance Festival, with five days of classes, discussions and jams at 8th St. Studios. Cost is $350 for a 5-day pass, or $75 per day. For information call 415-789-7677. www.wccif.com 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 7:15 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Players at all levels are welcome. 652-5324. 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. wibberkeley@yahoo.com 548-6310, 845-1143. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. People of all traditions are welcome to join us. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

Overeaters Anonymous meets every Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. Parking is free and is handicapped accessible. For information call Katherine, 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, JULY 3 

Sick Plant Clinic The first Sat. of every month, UC plant apthologist Dr. Robert Raabe, UC entomologist Dr. Nick Mills, and their team of experts will diagnose what ails your plants. From 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Free. 643-2755. 

It’s the Bees Knees (and Other Parts) Look at bumblebees and other native Hymenoptera - we'll catch and release! Learn their importance in our local, and urban, ecosystem. This is a drop in program; no registration is required. From 10 a.m. to noon in Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Putting Pollen in its Place Wind, water, bugs, birds and bats all play roles in setting seeds. See a slide show about their work and then visit some flowers yourself on our trails. This is a drop in program; no registration is required. From 2 to 4 p.m. in Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Bake Back the White House A neighborhood bake sale and parking lot cafe to promote a sustainable society and a politics of peace. All proceeds to Moveon PAC. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Berkeley Cohousing Community, 2220 Sacramento St. 

Walking Tour of Jack London Waterfront Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/wallkingtours 

Circus Chimera a family-friendly circus performs on the grounds of Portola Middle School, on Moeser Lane El Cerrito. Tickets are $6 in advance, $10 at the gate; free for children under 2 years old. The schedule is July 3, 4:30 & 7:30 p.m.; July 4, 11 a.m., 2 and 6 p.m.; July 5, 12:30, 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Advance ticket sales will benefit efforts to renovate the historic Cerrito Theater, an Art Deco-era movie house. Tickets are available from Jenny K, 6927 Stockton Avenue, El Cerrito. 734-3194; Leena’s Café, 10833 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, 237-7409; Albertson's, 1000 El Cerrito Plaza (customer service desk).  

Yoga for Seniors at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., on Saturdays from 10 to 11 a.m. The class is taught by Rosie Linsky, who at age 72, has practiced yoga for over 40 years. Open to non-members of the club for $8 per class. To register call 848-7800. 

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, JULY 4 

Fourth of July at the Berkeley Marina from noon to 9:30 p.m. A free-admission, alcohol-free event, with two stages of music, arts & crafts, and activities for children. Fireworks at 9:30 p.m. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley. 548-5335. 

The Fourth in People’s Park with five metal/punk bands and four standup comics, from noon to 6 p.m. http://geocities.com/ 

july4thconcert 

“Military Families Speak Out” a special 10:30 a.m. service with the parents of Sgt. Evan Ashcroft killed in Iraq on July 23, 2003, at 10:30 a.m. in Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita.  

“Palestine and Israel 2004” Karen and Craig Scott describe their visit to the Middle East at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Road, Kensington. 525-0302.  

Free Sailboat Rides between 1 and 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club in the Berkeley Marina. Bring warm waterproof clothes. www.cal-sailing.org 

Tibetan Buddhism, with Sylvia Gretchen on “Freeing Emotional Energy” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, JULY 5 

Interdependence Day Hike This is a drop in program; no registration is required. From 10 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

The Oakland/East Bay Chapter of the National Organization for Women meets at 6 p.m. the first Monday of each month at the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St., Oakland. The executive director of Medical Students for Choice will be the speaker at our July meeting. 287-8948. 

Baby Yoga at 11 a.m. and Yoga and Meditation for Children at 2:45 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Fitness for 55+ A total body workout including aerobics, stretching and strengthening at 1:15 p.m. every Monday at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5170. 

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. 

ONGOING 

Vista College Study Abroad in Mexico Live with a family and learn language skill in a two-week session in July in Guadalajara. For information please call 981-2917 or visit www.peralta.cc.ca.us/interntl/studyabr.htm. 

Berkeley Video and Film Festival is calling for entries. The deadline for last call is July 10. For information please call 843-3699. www.berkeleyvideofilmfest.org 

Luna Kids Dance Summer Camp for ages 9 - 13, from July 12 - 16. For information call 644-3629. www.lunakidsdance.com 

Interesting Backyards Do you have a really cool backyard project or unusual sustainable living practice that you’d like to share with others in the East Bay? Consider becoming a stop on the 5th annual Urban Sustainability Bike Tour on Saturday, July 31. Past sites have included features such as graywater systems, chicken coops, bee hives, solar installations and permaculture gardens. For information call Beck at 548-2220, ext. 233. 

www.ecologycenter.org 

Summer Reading Games at the Albany Public Library, through August 14th. For information call 526-3700. 

Medical Care for Your Pet at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society low-cost veterinary clinic. 2700 Ninth St. For appointments call 845-3633. www.berkeleyhumane.org  

Radio Summer Camp, four day sessions through Sept. 6. Learn how to build and operate a community radio station. Sponsored by Radio Free Berkeley. 625-0314. www.freeradio.org 

Introductory Storytelling Classes for Adults offered by Stagebridge from June 29 through August on Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to noon at Arts First Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., at 27th St. near Lake Merritt. For information call 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., July 1, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/environmentaladvisory 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., July 1, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/housing 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., July 1, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks

There have been a number of sideways glances in the liberal press (yes, there is a bit of a liberal press, still) at the rowdy proletarian gusto with which Michael Moore goes after his targets in Fahrenheit 9/11. I often count myself as one of the genteel middle-aged ladies in matters like this. Still, I can’t go along with Ellen Goodman’s call for more sweet reasonableness in the effort to change hearts and minds. Or rather, I’m afraid that only sweet reasonableness won’t do it. 

Now, you understand, I haven’t yet made it over to see F9/11. Among other things, I’m too old to stand in line for very long. So I’m relying on the opinion of My Daughter the Professor, who herself is now 40ish, but not yet too old to stand in line for a movie. She says that the most impressive thing about it was not the film itself, which is predictable, but the audience, composed, when she saw it, of 20-somethings, all excited and ready to do something.  

The “preaching to the choir” metaphor has been much employed by the movie’s critics on the left, but it misses the mark. This is America, after all, the last stand for religion, but for pluralistic religion, not state religion. We have the highest percentage of churchgoers in the modern world, but also the most different flavors of church. It’s the same way with politics, which is why we appear to have two parties, though many leftists will say we have only one. What we really have is at least 20 parties loosely grouped together most of the time into two, with the occasional third group. The Democratic Party has traditionally been the most heterogeneous, but there’s also a world of difference in the Republican Party between the Wall Street bankers and the Texas evangelicals, for example. In the next election, the principal challenge for Democrats will be to get everyone in all the congregations up out of their chairs and singing along. 

In the Bay Area we’ve probably got more political harmony than anywhere else in the country, and we’re itching to take our tunes elsewhere. So okay, you, a typical Bay Area person, have been to seen F9/11 by now. Maybe you stood in line to see or even touch Chairman Bill. So you’re energized, loaded for bear, ready to roll, jazzed up in fact. (Sorry, I don’t know the more youthful equivalents of those somewhat hairy expressions.) 

What can you do? There are many fine organizations ready to use your money and, even more important, your labor, for the noble endeavor of registering voters. MoveOn.org is organizing phone banks for July 11, to call people in swing states. DrivingVotes.org claims on their web site that registering voters in swing states is the single most effective way to defeat Bush. They give you everything needed to join voter registration drives in swing states, including connections for putting together road trip with your friends. They’ll even help you make new friends: Their web site boasts a terrific ride board where “tours” are orchestrated. If I got my act together, I could get on a trip out of San Francisco on July 7 to go to St. Louis, my birthplace, and have a nice family reunion with my cousins at the registration drive. There are also local voter registration drives sponsored by groups like the Wellstone Democratic Club and the NAACP, though we hope California is not a swing state.  

But after registration is over, then what? A friend who lives in a swing state called me up in the middle of the night last week because she’d had a flash of inspiration about what they really needed there. Registration is fine, she agreed, but what about election monitoring? So the Planet did a little checking. As usual, most of the early action is on the Internet, but there’s not much of it that we can detect. The non-partisan New York based Center for Democracy has monitored elections around the world, and seems ready to tackle the U.S. now. They started by tracking the Dade County Florida primaries in 2002, following up on the scandals of 2000. But is that enough? Are there other organizations working on this? Some, of course, are going after voting machine problems, which is certainly needed, but who’s checking up on the old-fashioned low-tech ways of cheating, like scaring off minority voters? 

The Democratic Party ought to be leading this effort, but if they are we haven’t heard about it. One F9/11 segment showed the Congressional Black Caucus trying to alert Congress and the country that Bush was stealing the 2000 election in Florida, while the other Democrats looked on as if they were stuffed. How can we be sure this won’t happen again? One project is described on page four of this issue. Tell us if you hear anything else useful.  

—Becky O’Malley›

The back page cartoon in a recent New Yorker showed a Kerry campaign rally. The candidate was standing at a flag-draped podium with Kerry banners above. In the foreground, also at the podium and looming large enough to dwarf the candidate, who was reduce d to peeking out from behind, was a grinning Bill Clinton. 

The triumphal Clinton book tour is scheduled to hit Berkeley today (Tuesday). Cody’s Books is being very coy about tickets, annoying a few patrons who have complained to us, not that we cut any i ce at Cody’s, which didn’t even advertise the event in the Planet. There’s a palpable aura of fond nostalgia for the Clinton era in Bay Area coverage to date. 

In Berkeley some people are indeed excited to think that the great man will be among us. Others are not. Berkeleyans are proud that we’re the home of MoveOn.org, one of the few sensible voices during Clinton’s impeachment melodrama. The basic MoveOn stance was that Clinton deserved censure, and after that the country needed to move on to other matt ers. No flash, no posturing, just get on with it.  

Many of us think “move on” is still a good way of dealing with Clinton and his legacy. We get edgy when we read that Kerry seems to be returning to the ineffectual politics of the Democratic Leadership C ouncil, which Clinton originally fronted for. For example, Robin Toner in the DLC’s favorite mouthpiece, the New York Times, said this in a front page article last week: “Bruce Reed, president of the Democratic Leadership Council and a longtime Clinton ai de, fretted openly during the heyday of Howard Dean last year that the party was moving to the left. Today, Mr. Reed describes Mr. Kerry approvingly as ‘a pragmatic centrist in the Clinton mode.’” 

In Berkeley, home of major support for Dean and even Kuci nich and (god forbid) Nader, this is not the good news. We held our collective nose during the impeachment proceedings because the alternative seemed worse, but in the long run we got a worse alternative anyway, George W. Bush. It doesn’t help that Al Gor e, the DLC’s anointed successor to Clinton, won the election but couldn’t manage to fight for the presidency, partly because his DLC-type supporters were muttering in the background that it’s dangerous to make waves.  

Still, Kerry is not Gore, and not Cl inton, and thank goodness. He’s probably as much of a stick as Gore, but those of us who remember both of them during the Vietnam War still admire Kerry’s stiff-necked courage. He denounced the government’s policy in a way that Gore, also a veteran who kn ew things were going wrong, never did.  

Kerry certainly lacks Clinton’s sex-tinged charisma, which in the current climate is no loss at all. The bad timing of Clinton’s book tour is a characteristically unattractive manifestation of the still insecure po orboy’s lust for attention, which (not sex) is really what got him into bed with Lewinsky and her predecessors in the first place. Lust for money—old-fashioned greed—might also play a part in his decision to tour now. We hope that perhaps Kerry doesn’t ne ed to be so greedy, given his enormous personal wealth, though wealth hasn’t prevented Bush and Cheney from wanting more. 

But really, how do we know who these men are, or what they stand for? Political commentary in America today is not a comparison of t he policy positions of would-be leaders, because it’s increasing difficult to know what they stand for, even after the fact. We’re reduced to amateur psychologizing with little data. Our images of candidates are little more than magic lantern slides, pict ures painted on glass and faintly projected on walls. About all we can do is evaluate the image of himself that Kerry chooses to display: an upright New England Yankee-Catholic, no nonsense, no fooling around. But at least that image, these days, contrast s favorably with the residual image of the loud, randy good-ol’-boy which is still the shadow Bill Clinton casts on the wall. It seems to have been too much to ask, but the country would have been better served if Clinton had been able to wait until after the election to do his self-promotion.  

—Becky O’Malley›