The state of the City of Berkeley this year has been reflected in Mayor Tom Bates’ multiple State of the City addresses. The general public must pay for what they used to expect as free public services, or else wait around and pick up the leavings at a later time. 

Last Tuesday, the mayor held two daytime, pay-at-the-door State of the City addresses at two private Berkeley establishments: a $10 early morning affair at the downtown Capoeira Jazz Cafe, and a $25 Chamber of Commerce-sponsored luncheon at the Doubletree Hotel on the Marina. 

The mayor’s office announced that the general public would be able —for free—to hear him deliver the same information he addressed to this week’s paying crowds, but spread out over a series of already-planned community budget meetings to be held throughout the city during the month of May. 

Mayor’s State of the City addresses—both in Berkeley and in other cities—have traditionally been given before the City Council and a non-paying public audience, but the trend of local mayors to switch the speeches to paying business crowds has grown in recent years. Former Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean had to add a free City Council chamber State of the City address to her Chamber of Commerce State of the City speech after vocal protests from Berkeley residents. Under similar public pressure, current Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown switched plans from a single Chamber of Commerce speech and addressed both the Oakland Chamber of Commerce and a regular Oakland City Council meeting in separate speeches. 

Bates presently has announced no plans to give a State of the City speech to a Berkeley City Council meeting in the council chambers. 

In Tuesday’s 20-minute address at the cafe, Bates said that despite being in better shape than many of its neighbors, Berkeley remains mired in a fiscal crisis. “We have problems no doubt about it,” he said. 

On the budget deficit, Bates said he was moving forward with plans to close city hall one day a month at an annual savings of $1.3 million. The monthly closure appears more likely since city unions have so far opposed a city proposal to give back three percent of city contributions to employee pension funds. Despite recent calls from some residents to reopen union contracts, Bates made no mention Tuesday of asking for further union concessions. 

To plug the rest of the deficit, Bates said the city planned to eliminate 111 city positions over the next two years, more than two-thirds of which are already vacant, as well as proceed with a series of new fees and taxes. 

The biggest revenue generator, he said, would be a $1.50 to $2 surcharge on telephone landlines and cellular phones for operating the city’s 911 service that could generate up to $2 million. As far as taxes, Bates said he was pushing ahead with ballot measures calling for $1 million to maintain paramedic services and at least $800,000 to restore many of the youth programs slated for cuts in the upcoming budget. Tax revenue for paramedic services would come from increased property taxes, he said, while a hike in taxes on property transfers would likely pay for the youth programs. 

Bates said he wouldn’t support a tax measure to fund the city’s storm water drain program, which the city council is also considering. 

Declining sales tax revenues have exacerbated the city’s budget crunch, he said, especially in the downtown where several chain stores, including Eddie Bauer, See’s Candies and Gateway have either closed shop or announced plans to leave the city. Bates said See’s might be compelled to stay, but added that otherwise the city was working to attract more independent and culture-based shops that would fit better Berkeley’s retail niche.  

“We’re not just sitting back and saying everything is up to the market,” he said. “We’re trying to make things better.” 

As evidence of better times ahead for the downtown, Bates pointed to the UC hotel and conference center planned to rise at the current Bank of America branch at Shattuck Avenue and Center Street and the new Vista College campus being constructed one block west of the hotel site on Center. 

Bates also heralded recent federal and regional initiatives that will fund infrastructure projects throughout the city. A federal transportation bill that recently passed the House of Representatives, he said, would provide $1.5 million for improvements to the I-80 interchange at Gilman Street and $3 million for the Ed Roberts campus—a project to concentrate services for disabled residents at the Ashby Bart Station. 

Measure 2, a regional transportation measure passed by Bay Area voters in March, will supply much of the revenue for faster bus service along Telegraph Avenue within the next year, Bates said. 

He listed planning goals for the coming year to include rezoning University Avenue, improving the look of Telegraph Avenue and working on the long range development plan for UC Berkeley, which released its draft Environmental Impact Report Thursday. 

Bates’ few new initiatives centered around Berkeley’s youth. He said his office was launching a summer reading program that would match UC students and other residents with 650 Berkeley students in need of individual instruction. Also, he said he planned to hire a volunteer to coordinate the city’s mentoring programs for youth. 

In one of its last acts as manager of the recently-sold Claremont Hotel and Resort, former Claremont owner KSL Resorts has fired two workers whose charges of unfair labor practices against the resort were upheld by the National Labor Relations Board. 

KSL, the company that sold the Claremont to Orlando-based real estate investment trust CNL properties last February, learned this week that it is not being asked by CNL to stay on as the Claremont’s management company. Pat Peoples, a spokesperson for KSL, would not comment, other than to say that it “was under the terms of the sale.” Union officials cheered the news of the final severing of KSL’s final ties with the Claremont. 

Meanwhile the two dismissed workers, Meheret Fikre-Sellasie and Kathryn Fairbanks, both estheticians in the Claremont Hotel spa, are calling the firings a company reaction to the NLRB ruling, as well as a retaliation against them because they have both been outspoken union supporters during the two-year labor dispute that has plagued the resort. 

The union representing the workers, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) union Local 2850, supports the workers’ claims and is currently in the process of deciding whether to file another charge with the NLRB. 

Annie Appel, a spokesperson for the Claremont, refused to talk about the two employees’ firings, citing employee privacy concerns. 

“It’s pretty clear that these people were fired for supporting the union. We don’t know why [KSL is] doing this when they are on their way out of the hotel,” said Leslie Fitzgerald, an organizer with HERE Local 2850. “It’s retaliation, it’s really nasty.” 

The original NLRB complaint was issued at the end of March and found evidence to support a claim by Fikre-Sellasie and Fairbanks that the Claremont had violated their free speech rights last December. The complaint will now go to a hearing in front of an administrative law judge, who will decide whether to uphold or dismiss the complaint. 

Fairbanks filed the charge because she was suspended for a day after she complained to a manager and fellow worker about another manager. She said the suspension was a violation of her free speech because just days earlier, the union had challenged—and won—a rule issued by the Claremont that said workers could not speak negatively about their bosses at work.  

Fikre-Sellasie filed her part of the charge because she was written up for talking with another employee about the union, a protected right during a union organizing drive. She said the Claremont accused her of harassing the employee. 

A week after the NLRB ruling was issued, both Fikre-Sellasie and Fairbanks were suspended again for separate incidents. Fairbanks was suspended until Monday when she was called in and fired. Fikre-Sellasi was suspended until Tuesday when she was called in and fired. 

On Monday, before Fairbanks was fired, HERE Local 2850 led a delegation of community members, religious leaders and elected officials including Councilmember Kriss Worthington to meet with the Claremont management and demand charges be dropped against both workers.  

Both Fikre-Sellasie and Fairbanks say the most recent suspensions were based on ludicrous charges that support their claim of retaliation. Fairbanks said she showed up to a training meeting five minutes late along with several other employees. She was the only one suspended. 

Fikre-Sellasie was suspended for missing a client. She said the spa added the client in the middle of day, after she had checked her schedule, and failed to let her know.  

The charges against the workers were not the first for either one, but both said they had clean records before they started organizing for the union. Since they’ve been known as union supporters, both said they’ve been constantly targeted for minor infractions that management frequently lets other employees get away with. 

“They’re doing this to me because of the labor board case that we have taken to the Claremont about the violation of our speech,” said Fikre-Sellasie. “This termination does not justify the minor infraction.” 

“They are retaliating against our very strong position. I have no regrets for my union activity, I would do it again,” she said. 

The current complaint filed by the NLRB is not the first the Claremont has faced. According to Michael Leong, the assistant regional director for the Oakland office of the NLRB, the Claremont has had 22 charges filed against it. Of those 22, nine are currently in front of an administrative law judge because the NLRB issued a complaint. Other complaints by the NLRB might have also been filed but those cases have already been adjudicated and NLRB records could not be accessed by press time. 

Despite the city’s bohemian reputation, artists don’t have an easy time in Berkeley—especially when it comes to finding spaces to create, perform and display their works—and many fear the city may be losing its one sure creative haven. 

“Most of our artists are located in West Berkeley, because we’re protected by the West Berkeley Plan,” said Sharon Siskind, a visual artist who belongs to the 28-year-old Nexus collective based in the 2700 block of Eighth Street. 

What worries artists like Siskind is Councilmember Margaret Breland’s ouster of Planning Commissioner John Curl—a West Berkeley woodworker—by Tim Perry, who they regard as pro-developer. 

“We’re protected by the West Berkeley Plan, which requires developers to provide alternative space if they build on sites now occupied by artists,” Siskind said.  

“During 10 years under the plan, West Berkeley has only lost two light manufacturing jobs, which is what artists are considered. In the 10 years before that, over 2,000 jobs were lost, many of them artists. 

“But the plan is coming up for review next year and developers are lobbying the city to get rid of it. And with John Curl off the planning commission and a majority of the commission seen as pro-developer, we’re getting worried.” 

Nexus currently leases its space from the city Humane Society, which is struggling for funds. In a recent meeting with Mayor Tom Bates, Siskind said the mayor informed them that the cash-strapped society was thinking of selling their building. 

Curl, a custom woodworker, plies his craft in the landmarked Kawneer Building—aka the Sawtooth Building—on Eighth Street between Dwight Way and Parker Street, home to countless craftspeople, artists and performers. 

“The people of Berkeley organized and fought to get the West Berkeley Plan passed,” Curl said, “and the developers have never given up. They lobbied hard, so a lot of things called for in the plan never got implemented, or they were implemented in a faulty way, while we had just assumed they’d be implemented as spelled out in the plan.” 

Besty Strange, a West Berkeley painter who lives with her daughter in a live/work space in the Durkee Building, 2900 Fifth St. at Heinz Avenue, praised Curl for his help in organizing the Art Nouveau structure’s tenants to battle for cheap rents and guaranteed tenure after the building was sold in the mid-1980s. 

“The new owners tried to evict us, and the struggle lasted four years. But now the old tenants are covered by rent control and the newer ones are protected by the use permit, which insures modest rents,” she said. Another powerful support after the structure was landmarked. 

“It’s a great place,” Strange said, “and I’ve lived here since I graduated from Cal in 1978.” 

One thing promised in the West Berkeley plan but never delivered was a city-conducted inventory of art and industrial spaces in the area.  

“There’s no real inventory of arts space in Berkeley,” said Bonnie Hughes, a members of the Berkeley Civic Arts Commission. “There are a lot of spaces that are not very well known.” 

Part of the problem, she says is the city’s distinction between “people for whom art is a way of life and not a business and those for whom it’s a business. The ones for whom it’s a business get all the attention from the city, while it should be the role of the city to help everyone in the arts.” 

One of the city’s greatest needs is for venues for musical performance, especially one with a grand piano. “A lot of times people have to go to private homes. People use the house of one patron and another site. But they can’t be advertised. Jazz groups and pianists have to debut their works in houses here, while they’d be welcomed into public facilities in other cities. The Berkeley Arts festival had a space on Shattuck between Piedmont and Durant. We had some incredible performances. But we were using a borrowed piano, and when it was taken away, we had to close down.” 

The city’s largest new performance venue will be opened when the controversial nine-story Seagate building planned for the 2000 block of Center Street. 

While city zoning places a five-story limit on new downtown construction, exceptions are awarded for developers who provide dedicated apartments for low-income tenants and build dedicated public arts space. Two of the Seagate building’s extra floors were awarded for the inclusion of 11,000 square feet of arts space. 

While 2,000 feet were designated for a corridor with art displays on the walls, the other 9,000 consist of two theatrical spaces leased and controlled by the well-funded and politically connected Berkeley Rep theatrical company. Neither venue has acoustics suitable for music. 

Rob Woodworth, a drummer who serves as executive director of the Jazz House, a nonprofit learning and performance venue at 3192 Adeline St., said the difficulty of finding performance space has long been an issue in Berkeley. 

“I work a lot with kids, and it’s hard to find places for them to perform, either because the venues serve alcohol, or because they don’t want kids to perform. In general, there’s not only a shortage of performance space but of funding as well,” he said. 

Widely acclaimed in regional news media, Woodworth’s facility gives young musicians the chance to provide the opening acts for adult artists who perform there to help raise funds to keep the Jazz House afloat. 

“I wouldn’t say we’re successful, but we’ve managed to stay open for a year. But we still have a long way to go,” he said. 

Changing cultural conditions also shape the artist’s environment, particularly for musicians. 

“In some respects, the Beatles changed everything. Forty years ago, music was something of a rarified guild, but then the Beatles came along, and every teenager wanted to become a guitarist or a drummer,” said John Schott, a guitarist and the leader of John Schott’s Typical Orchestra. 

While once the Bay Area offered decent paying jobs to professional musicians, today most club performers earn no more than a single patron pays in cover charges, between $6 and $30, he said. 

“There are a lot of musicians in the Bay Area now, and most of them are willing to work for free,” he said. 

The days when the region formed one of the hotbeds of standup comedy are long gone, something Schott attributes to the dominant role of television. 

The bandleader singled out Bonnie Hughes for praise. “She’s been marvelous by finding all these vacant spaces downtown and turning them into performance spaces in between tenants. We’re been blessed by her create what amounts to guerilla performance spaces. People like here are very important to the cultural life of the city.”  

Gemma Whelan, Co-Founder and Director of “Wilde Irish Productions” which made a significant splash in Berkeley’s last theater season with their presentation of Beckett’s famous “Endgame” says the company will stage their next production in San Francisco. Whelan said she made the decision, in part, because the Berkeley City Club is so heavily booked by other companies that they “were able to get only one slot” for the entire year. 

LaVal’s Pizza Parlor’s tiny black basement on Euclid Avenue is continually booked by younger, experimental companies—but the size and the stairwell that audiences have to go down to the theater impose some obvious limitations. And other kinds of productions compete for space at the 8th Street Theatre. 

The City Club has served as a venue for numerous small theater companies. Central Works is in their 13th year at the club and others grab at it when they can.

After 12 years of playing the theatrical equivalent of musical chairs, Managing Director Patrick Dooley and his acclaimed Shotgun Players solved their performance space needs the old-fashioned way—the purchase of the Transparent Theater by a generous patron, who turned around and leased it to the theater company. 

“We’re thrilled,” Dooley announced Thursday. “It isn’t easy to find performance space in Berkeley. We know from experience.” He added that the building at 1901 Ashby Ave. was bought by a member of the company’s board of directors. Now renamed the Ashby Stage, the new theater will be the Shotgun Players’ permanent home, at least through the life of a 30-year lease. 

The Ashby Stage’s premier performance will be Dog Act by Liz Duffy Adams, which opens in Berkeley on Sept. 23 after an initial run at the Thick House in San Francisco. 

Financial troubles forced the closing of the three-year-old Transparent Theater troupe earlier this year. 

The Shotgun Players, recipients of multiple awards from the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle, has bounced from one location to another since their initial 1992 performance in the basement of La Val’s Pizza on Euclid Avenue. 

“It had cabaret seating for an audience of 60, with benches, chairs and tables,” Dooley said. “Then, at the end of the 1997 season, we got a call about the back of a print shop at 3280 Adeline St.” 

After installing bathrooms and other improvements, Shotgun Players launched into an extensive schedule, staging shows at the print shop (called the Odyssey), as well as at city parks, the Julia Morgan Theater and also in San Francisco. 

“We had eight productions that year, and one of them was three complete one-act plays,” the managing director said. “We had productions every weekend for 52 straight weeks, and at the end of the year the fire department drove by the print shop one evening about 10 o’clock and saw people from the audience gathered on the sidewalk during intermission. They came in and asked us what was going on, and when we told them, they shut us down. 

“The California codes are particularly tricky when it comes to what the law calls ‘assembly space.’ Because of earthquakes, there are special requirements for bring people into a dark room where they’re all seated together.” Not only must the building be specially reinforced and protected by a sprinkler system, Dooley explained, but other requirements dictate a more extensive and specialized ventilation system. “So a building that would be suitable for a chiropractic office or a print shop wouldn’t qualify for performances,” he said. 

From the print shop, the Shotgun shows moved three blocks to the South Berkeley Congregational Church at Fairview and Ellis streets. As part of the package, the players agreed to teach a Friday afternoon arts class for the church. 

When Dooley realized their heavy equipment was not suited for the old building, they headed back to La Val’s for three more performances, followed by four years when every production opened at a different stage, and the actors had to build their sets and set up their risers immediately before each performance, taking them down immediately afterward. 

“Casting decisions came down to, ‘Do you have back problems?’” Dooley said. 

Love of art, not love of lucre, fueled the performances. “For six weeks of rehearsals and a six-week run of the show, the actors would get $400, the directors a hundred more,” Dooley said. “We went up a hundred dollars a year over the next couple of years.” 

For a while, Dooley and his troupe thought they’d have a new home in the Gaia Building, after the Gaia Bookstore went belly up and developer Patrick Kennedy called the director. 

“We both got very excited, but neither one of us had any idea what it would cost,” Dooley said.” We drew up several letters of agreement, and [Kennedy] hired an architect who designed a gorgeous theater. But when he learned it would cost $1 million, he said ‘Hell no!’ 

“I don’t blame him. It was the city that gave him the extra height for providing the space, but there was nothing in the law that said he had to actually provide it.” 

With the Gaia plan in limbo, the troupe rented space from Berkeley Rep, and then the city allowed them to stage Medea at the vacant UC Movie Theater. “We put $7,000 into improvements, but the owner didn’t charge us any rent,” the director explained. “The play was a huge success for us.” 

When Kennedy finally squelched the Gaia/Shotgun deal, Dooley booked some of the old faithful space. “Now we’ve go this new theater, thanks in large part to the efforts of real estate broken Michael Korman and owner Tom Clyde. It’s a great space, a former church with great acoustics and great sight-lines, access to BART and nearby free parking.” 

For the Shotgun Players, it’s been pure drama—and with a happy ending to boot.  

SEPARATE THE BELOW BY A LINE OR A BOX... 

The Shotgun Players’ acclaimed production of Moliere’s The Miser will continue through May 2 at the Julia Morgan Theater, which is also the venue for the company’s June 5 through July 3 run of playwright Doug Wright’s Quills. 

Bertholt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle will play as planned July 11 through Aug. 29 in John Hinkel Park. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 16 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Morris Cleland, on “My Fun Family.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $12.50, talk at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For reservations call 526-2925.  

Benefit for Jeff “Free” Luers with the film “Green with a Vengeance” at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St. Oakland. Donation $5-$10. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

“Sacred Allegiances: Decentralized Development and the Rhythm of Community Religion in Cuba” with Adrian Hearn and Michael Spiro at 4 p.m. in the CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch St. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

The Knitting Hour Come and learn to knit or regain old skills and meet other knitters at 4:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, West Branch, 1125 University Ave. 981-6270. 

Berkeley Chess Club at 7:15 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 652-5324. 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 548-6310. 

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. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

Overeaters Anonymous meets at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 17 

Berkeley Bay Festival from noon to 5 p.m. at the Berkeley Marina. Tours of the new Nature Center, exhibits, vendors, food, music and free sailboat rides. 644-8623. www.cityofberkeley.info/marina/marinaexp/bayfest.html 

Berkeley Art Center Anniversary Party from 4 to 6 p.m. with a silent auction, music and refreshments, at 1275 Walnut St. Sliding scale $20 to $50. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:15 a.m. in the Sproul Room, St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 587-3257. www.berkeleycna.com 

Bake Back the White House with numerous bake sale locations, including corner of Sacramento and Woolsey Sts., 1701 Capistrano Ave., 2633 Benvenue, 1323 Santa Fe Ave. at Gilman, 913 Taylor St., Albany and many more. See http://action.moveonpac.org/bakesale/ 

Rhododendron Flower Show and Sale Hundreds of rhododendron flowers plus indoor garden of tropical rhododendrons. From noon to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland, in Lake Merritt Park. Free. 841-5402. www.calchapterars.com  

Tilden Park Plant Walk with Terri Compost. Meet at 12:50 p.m. at the Brazil Building in Tilden Park, or at 12:15 near the Berkeley BART, in front of Bank of America to catch the 67 AC Transit bus. Donation $5-$15, not including bus fare. 658-9178. 

Kids Garden Club Discover how bees are related to our garden and the world of plants. We will sample some honey also. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. For ages 7 - 12 years. Cost is $3, non-resident $4. Registration required, 525-2233. 

Conifers of California from 10 a.m. to noon at Regional Parks Botanic Garden. 525-2233. 

The Eucalyptus Tree A walk to see these naturalized forest citizens and learn their stories, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Permaculture Garden Design Learn to design your garden using permaculture principles. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Wildheart Gardens, 463 61st St., at Telegraph. Cost is $10-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Non-Toxic Solutions for Pests and Diseases at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Jr. Skywatchers Club Learn how the sun and planets affect the weather. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. For ages 8-11. Fee is $4-$6. Registration required. 525-2233. 

“Why We Joined the Green Party” with African-American activists Wilson Riles, Donna Warren and Henry Clark at 7 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. Free. 644-2293. 

Grassroots Activists from Three Continents with Fides Chade, Tanzania, Gloria Vilma Ortiz Núñez, El Salvador, and Che Lopez, from South Texas, at 6:30 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Cedar and Bonita. $5 donation requested.  

Free Emergency Preparedness Class in Basic Personal Preparedness from 9 to 11 a.m. at 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. To sign up call 981-5605. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/fire/oes.html 

Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College Open House from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 2550 Shattuck Ave. RSVP to Taj Moore 666-8248, ext. 108. 

“Touching Our Youth To Curb the Violence” a community outreach forum hosted by St. Paul AME, 2024 Ashby Ave. at 8:30 a.m. with Berkeley Homicide Inspector Lionel Dozier, Retired SF Police Chief Earl Sanders, Contra Costa Probation Supervisor Daryl Nunley and Michelle Milam, Field Representative, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock. 848-2050. 

Black Women of Essence Information Meeting at 2 p.m. at the Harriett Tubman Terrace Rec. Room, 2870 Adeline St. 338-5236. www.bwoe.org 

“Balancing Act: Feng Shui” with Erin Alexander from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Reservations required. 547-0964. 

“Manage Weight, Mood and Menopause” with Ed Bauman, founder of Bauman College, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200.  

Albany Senior Center Annual White Elephant Sale from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. with handmade crafts, baked goods, toys and great bargains. 846 Masonic Ave., Albany. 524-9122. 

Volunteer Information Fair for the El Cerrito community and beyond, from 12:30 to 4 p.m. at 6830 Stockton, near Richmond St., El Cerrito. 799-7819. 

California Writers Club meets at 10 a.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. Panel discussion with people who have transitioned to become full-time writers. 644-0861. 

California College of the Arts Spring Sale from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 5212 Broadway, Oakland. Ceramics, glass, jewelry, photography, textiles, drawings, paintings. 594-3666. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 18 

Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at the Willard Community Peace Labyrinth, on the blacktop next to the gardens at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby and Stuart. Free. Wheelchair accessible. Sponsored by the East Bay Labyrinth Project. 526-7377. 

“Birds, Blossoms, and Bicycles!” Aquatic Park EGRET hosts Open Garden Day at the park’s southern entrance from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Enjoy close-up views of bayshore birds and coastal wildflowers in a car-free setting. 549-0818 or egret@lmi.net 

Holocaust Memorial Day at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City Hall, 2180 Milvia St. Hear Holocaust survivors and supporters. 981-7170. 

Housing Rights, Inc. 25th Anniversary Celebration from 2 to 5 p.m at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Tickets are $10-$15, no one turned away. 474-2584. www.housingrights.org 

Berkeley Cybersalon meets at 6 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donation of $10 requested. 527-0450.  

“Bloodlines: A Medical Mission to Iloilo, Philippines” a documentary film about a medical mission to the Philippines, at 6:30 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $8-$15, proceeds help distribute the film. www.manja.org 

Klassic Kaiser Karz! classic and vintage Kaiser-Frazer automobiles from noon to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Golden State Model Railroad Museum open from noon to 5 p.m. Also open on Saturdays and Friday evenings from 7 to 10 p.m. in the Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline Park at 900-A Dornan Drive in Pt. Richmond. Admission is $2-$3. 234-4884. www.gsmrm.org 

“Modern Mystics: Dorothy Day” with Dody Donnelly, author and theologian, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd. Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Sacred Feminine Bookclub meets to discuss “Confessions of a Pagan Nun” by Kate Horsley, at 7 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. RSVP to 526-6454. 

“The Power of Now” the principles of Eckhart Tolle’s book with Jill Lebeau and Maureen Raytis at 3:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com  

“Eckhart Tolle Talks on Video,” gatherings at 6:30 p.m. to hear the words of the author of “The Power of Now” at the Feldenkrais Ctr., 830 Bancroft Way. Donation of $3 requested. Potluck afterwards so bring food/drink to share. Call Maitri 415-990-8977. mayahealer@yahoo.com 

Tibetan Nyingma Open House from 3 to 5 p.m. with prayer wheel and meditation garden tour, yoga demonstration, and information on classes, followed by a talk “The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind toward Dharma” at 6 p.m. at 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, APRIL 19 

Berkeley Schools Now! meets at 7 p.m. at the LeConte School library, on Ellsworth St., to discuss next steps and the BSEP process. For more information email info@BerkeleySchoolsNow.org 

“The Bush Presidency and the 2004 Election” with leading presidential scholars and White House reporters at 7 p.m. in 155 Dwinnelle Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center on Politics. http://politics.berkeley.edu 

Tea at Four Enjoy some of the best teas and learn their cultural and natural history, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Registration required. Cost is $5-$7. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. 

Same Sex Marriage Symposium from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Lipman Room, 8th floor, Barrows Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by Inst. of Governmental Studies and Inst. for the Study of Social Change. 642-1474.  

“Allergy Relief with Homeopathy” with Edi Mottershead, homeopath, at 1 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com  

Great Popular Fiction Bookgroup meets at 7 p.m. to discuss “Angels and Demons” by Dan Brown at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, APRIL 20 

Morning Birdwalk in Birones Regional Park to watch spring songsters. Meet at 7 a.m. at the Bear Creek Rd. entrance parking lot. 525-2233. 

Friends of Strawberry Creek Mike Vukman will present a slide show on the Streamside Management Program for Private Landowners in Contra Costa County, at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library 3rd floor Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St. caroleschem@hotmail.com  

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. 

Free Lead-Safe Painting and Remodeling Class Learn how to detect and remedy lead hazards and conduct lead-safe renovations for your home. At 6 p.m. at the Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue. 567-8280.  

Eco-Feminism and Environmental Racism Forum with Dr. Val Plumwood, Australian National University, at 7 p.m. at the GTU Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2560. 

“A Thousand Miles on the Appalachian Trail” A silde presentation with Peter Kirby at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

More Wildflowers of the East Bay Plant expert Glenn Keator will guide you in using plant keys to make positive identifications, using the Jepson Manual (available for purchase at first class), microscopes, and the resources of the UC Botanical Garden. Class meets Tuesdays April 20 - May 18, from 7 to 9 p.m. with field trips in May. Cost is $185, $165 for Garden Members. 200 Centennial Drive. To register call 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club General Membership meeting on “The Health Care Crisis and the 2004 Elections” at the First Congregational Church, 27th and Harrison, Oakland. Social hour and potluck at 6 p.m. Bring something to share. www.democraticrenewal.us 

“International Trade: The Great Debate” with Robert Reich, Bradford DeLong, Steven Vogel and Harley Shaiken at 6:30 p.m. in Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Bldg., UC Campus. Sponsored by the Undergraduate Political Science Assoc. www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~upsa/ 

East Bay Communities Against the War Video and discussion on “The Fourth World War” at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Neighborhood Center, 530 Lake Park Ave. Suggested donation $1. 658-8994. www.ebcaw.org 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave. Advance sign-up needed. 594-5165.  

“Communist Party in South Africa and Kerala” with Michelle Williams, UC Berkeley Ph.D. Candidate, Sociology, at 4 p.m. at 652 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for African Studies. 642-8338. 

“The Artist as Shaman/Mystic” a one-day workshop with iconographer Robert Lentz at University of Creation Spirituality, 2141 Broadway, Oakland. Cost is $50-$80. to register call 835-4827, ext. 19. 

“Dreams: Past, Present, and Future” with Brother Brendan Madden, lecturer from St. Mary’s College, at 7 p.m. in El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Brenda Becker will speak about geeting involved with classical music at 11 a.m. 845-6830. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

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, APRIL 21 

Public Forum on UC’s Management of the Dept. of Energy Labs at 7 p.m., at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave, at the corner of Bancroft. 643-0602. http://ga.berkeley. 

edu/academics/ucdoeforum/ 

“Chiapas Front” video and report on Montes Azules evictions at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Death on a Friendly Border,” a documentary on the deaths on the US-Mexico border, with director Rachel Antell, at 6:30 p.m. at Ellen Driscoll Theater, Frank Havens School, 325 Highland Ave., Piedmont. 835-9227. 

“Remembering Rwanda: Ten Years After the Genocide” with Sarah Freedman, Prof. of Education and Research Fellow, The Human Rights Center, Rangira S. Gallimore, Assoc. Prof. of French, Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, Harvey Weinstein, Clinical Prof., School of Public Health and Assoc. Dir., The Human Rights Center, at 3:30 p.m. at the Goldberg Room, Boalt Hall, UC Campus. 642-0965. www.hrcberkeley.org/ 

event_rwanda.html 

“Storm From the Mountain” a doumentary on the Zapatista caravan as it journeyed through twelve Mexican states visiting indigenous communities, at 7 p.m. at The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. 393-5685.  

“250 Great Hikes in California National Parks” with author Ann Marie Brown at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Nobel, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Sons In Retirement,Inc. East Bay Branch #2 invites all retired men to come to our regular luncheon meeting at The Galileo Club, 371 South 23rd St., Richmond. Social hour 11 a.m. followed by lunch for $12 and a speaker. Contact Dick Celestre 925-283-1635.  

“Hormone Replacement Therapy” Elizabeth Plourde, medical researcher, clarifies the controversy over hormone replacement therapy and reveals what types of hormones are actually beneficial for women. At 7 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com  

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets at 7:15 a.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 524-3765. 

Berkeley Stop the War Coalition meets at 7 p.m. in 255 Dwinelle, UC Campus. www.berkeleystopthewar.org  

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 

Prose Writers Workshop meets 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut, at Rose. 524-3034. 

Spring Crafts Fair sponsored by the UCB Clericals, from noon to 1 p.m. Dwinelle Ishi Court, UC Campus. berkeleycue@earthlink.net 

Berkeley CopWatch open office hours 7 to 9 p.m. Drop in to file complaints, assistance available. 548-0425. 

ONGOING 

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

Re-Create: Call for Student Artwork A recycled art competition and exhibition that is open to student artists (K-12) of Alameda County. Deadline for submissions is April 24. For more information call 465-8770, ext. 350 or visit www.mocha.org, www.stopwaste.org  

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon. Apr. 19, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon. Apr. 19, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche 644-6128 ext. 113.  

City Council meets Tues., Apr. 20, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., Apr. 20, at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/housingauthority 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Apr. 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., Apr. 21, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Apr. 21, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/labor 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., Apr. 21, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/welfare›

Berkeley police seek serial groper 

Berkeley police are seeking the public’s help in identifying a sexual predator who has assaulted at least two women on Bancroft Way near the UC campus, according to BPD sex crimes detective Keith DeBlasi. 

The first attack occurred at about 8 p.m. on April 2 near the intersection of Bancroft and Fulton Street. The second occurred exactly one week later, at 4 a.m., near Bancroft and Piedmont Avenue. 

Police have identified a suspect who matches witness descriptions of an African American man in his late thirties with graying hair and beard, standing 6’2” and weighing approximately 230 pounds. 

DeBlasi said the attacks appear to be escalating in violence, and witnesses report that one of the victims may have sustained minor injuries. 

Because the victims haven’t come forward, police have been unable to bring charges, and DeBlasi urged the victims and any other witnesses to contact the police department “to prevent possibly more serious assaults by this person.” DeBlasi suggested persons with information on the crimes to call the Sex Crimes Detail at 981-5735 or write to police@ci.berkeley.ca.us in reference to case #04-19966.

Berkeley residents better stock up on milk because, as part of the world’s largest bake sale event, the city will be over-run this weekend with cookies and brownies. And no, it’s not a Guinness Book of Records attempt, but rather another innovative campaign action by MoveOn.org to support the presidential candidacy of Democratic hopeful John Kerry. 

The national fund-raising event is called “Bake Back the White House.” 

In Berkeley there has been a mad dash to sign up and organize the bake sales, all of which took place on the Internet. As of Thursday, 36 bake sales were set to take place around the Bay Area this weekend. Nationally there are 1,000 scheduled bake sales, with more than 10,000 people set to participate.  

“People need to feel that their small amount makes a difference, and this gives us a chance to tell them that,” said Tim Hansen, a Berkeley resident who is organizing a sale on Benvenue Avenue.  

Adam Ruben, campaign director for MoveOn.org’s political action committee, said he had no way to know how much money will be raised through the event. The way these things go, he said, it will probably be better than expected. He added, however, that the event is more than just about the money. He says the event is also designed to highlight the differences between who is backing the Democratic and Republican campaigns, explaining that “we wanted to send a message about who is behind our campaign.”  

“More than 75 percent of [the Republican] campaign comes in $1,000 checks from CEOs,” he added. “In contrast, MoveOn is made up of regular Americans, They’re teachers and construction workers. 

According to the MoveOn website, more than $95 million of Bush’s campaign funding has come from $1,000-$2,000 checks. 

Tim Hansen said it’s more about a sense of community than raising money.  

“It’s about grassroots organizing,” he said. “It’s how we are going to start running campaigns that involve widespread grassroots support.” 

Hansen also credits MoveOn’s clever use of the Internet and thinks these kinds of unique strategies are going to be the key to winning back the White House. 

“Nobody could fund a presidential campaign by holding bake sales until the Internet. It’s groundbreaking, it’s significant,” he said. 

g

Friday, April 16 

10 a.m.: Virtual Bake Sale for Real Democracy, Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave, Berkeley 

Saturday, April 17 

9 a.m.: Bake Bush Out of the White House, corner of Sacramento and Woolsey streets, Berkeley 

9 a.m.: Baked Goods For Regime Change, Martin Luther King Jr. Park/Farmers’ Market, Berkeley 

9 a.m.: Krispy Kremes for Kerry, Le Visage Salon, 3510 Grand Ave., Oakland 

10 a.m.: Cookies for Kerry, 913 Taylor St., Albany 

10 a.m.: Karbs to Move On with Kerry 

1865 Solano Ave., Berkeley 

10 a.m.: Point Richmond Bake Sale for Democracy, 229 Bishop Ave., Richmond 

10:30 a.m.: Kids for Kerry Raising Dough for Democracy, 1831 Solano Ave. (outside of Front Row Video), Berkeley 

10:30 a.m.: Bake Sale for Democracy, 1701 Capistrano Ave. (corner of Ensenada), Berkeley 

10:30 a.m.: Kerry’s Benvenue Bake Sale,  

2633 Benvenue (driveway), Berkeley 

10:30 a.m.: Banish Bush By Baking!!, Grand Lake Theater, Oakland 

11 a.m.: Chocolate Chips for Regime Change, southwest corner of MLK and Harmon Street near the Vault Restaurant, Berkeley 

11 a.m.: Eat Cookies to Save America!  

Memorial Park, Albany 

11 a.m.: Bake Back the White House! (Condi Rice Krispie Treats, Beat Bush Brownies, Dick Clarke Cookies), 1323 Santa Fe Ave. (near Gilman), Berkeley 

11 a.m.: Bake Back the White House, Fourth Street near Peet’s Coffee and Hopkins Street near California, Berkeley 

11 a.m.: Richmond Annex Bake Back The White House, 6203 Sutter Ave., Richmond 

11 a.m.: Rockridge Bake Back the White House, Rockridge BART Station (Oakland) across the street from Cactus Restaurant, Oakland  

11 a.m.: Bush Bake-Out, Point Richmond Indian Statue, Richmond 

11 a.m.: The No C.A.R.B. (Cheney, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, Bush) Diet Ohlone Trail where it crosses Gilman Street (at Curtis Street), Berkeley 

11:30 a.m.: Bake Sale for Democracy 

1358 Hearst Ave., Berkeley 

Noon: Brownies vs. Bush, 1809 California St., Berkeley 

1 p.m.: Bake Back Democracy, Reel Video, 2655 Shattuck Ave., near Derby, Berkeley 

1 p.m.: Let’s Sweetly Stop Bush, 2804 Benvenue Ave., Berkeley 

Sunday, April 18 

9:30 a.m.: Beat Bush with Cookie Art, 62nd/College (near College and Claremont), Oakland 

10 a.m.: Berkeley Bake Sale for Democracy, 1201 Monterey Ave., Berkeley 

10 a.m.: Farmers’ Market Bake Sale, Jack London Square, Oakland 

2 p.m.: Democracy is Delicious, Berkeley Bowl, Berkeley 

To sign up to help or to hold a bake sale, visit MoveOn’s bake sale website at www.moveon.org/pac/news/bakesale.html. 

s

A draft UC Berkeley Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) and Environmental Impact Report (EIR) projecting 18 percent growth in academic building space, 30 percent growth in student housing, and 18 percent growth in parking was released by the university this week. The documents, when implemented in final form, are expected to direct future development on the campus and in surrounding Berkeley neighborhoods for the next fifteen years.  

The public has until June 14 to make comments on the documents. All comments must be addressed by UC Berkeley officials and will be included in a final EIR sent to the Board of Regents for approval this fall. The university and the City of Berkeley Planning Commission have both scheduled public hearings on the plan, and a workshop to explain the plan is scheduled for late May. The city will also develop a staff response to the EIR to convey city concerns to the university.  

A summary of the plans, provided by the university, showed the following projections: up to 2,300 new parking spaces, 2,600 new dormitory beds and 2.2 million square feet of new office space, three-fourths of which would be on the core campus and city blocks to the west. 

The analysis showed that university expansion would cause “significant and unavoidable” worsening of traffic congestion during commute hours at University Avenue and Sixth Street and University Avenue and San Pablo Avenue. In many such cases the analysis recommends mitigation measures such as new traffic signals, according to a UC press release. 

Mayor Tom Bates said he was pleased with his cursory glance through the document. He said the proposed development appeared to be based on academic needs rather than on real estate opportunities, but he questioned if the university would be able to realize its ambitious plans. “Where are they going to get the money to implement this?” he asked. “The state can’t finance the projects they’re outlining.” 

For his part, Councilmember Kriss Worthington was angry that, from what he was told, the plan didn’t include a free bus transit pass for university employees as a way to mitigate foreseen traffic problems.  

University expansion has long been a contentious issue with residents and city officials who fear that increased construction leads to added congestion and increased expenses for the city which must pay for municipal services required to serve the university. 

Last year Berkeley paid an environmental consultant $50,000 to prepare a report, due out next month, that outlines the university’s impact on city expenses. 

A deal signed at the adoption of the last UC Berkeley LRDP in 1990 committed the university to pay the city $500,000 mostly for fire and sewer expenses, a figure Planning Commissioner Rob Wrenn said is “pretty inadequate.” “I think there is a strong expectation from the citizenry for the city to do more [to get mitigation payments] than in the last plan,” he said. 

Assistant City Manager Arrietta Chakos wouldn’t give a dollar figure on what the city hopes to recoup from the university, but said it would be far greater than the current amount. 

The first UC-sponsored hearing on the two draft plans will take place May 5 from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. A May 11 hearing will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Krutch Theatre of the university’s Clark Kerr campus. 

Nic Rotolo, the Berkeley High Junior who collapsed and died on a San Jose ice rink during a hockey game last February, died from an irregular heartbeat, according to an amended death certificate released by the Santa Clara County Coroners Office Tuesday. Rotolo’s heart problem was most likely caused by a past viral infection, myocarditis, said Diana Hunter, a spokeswoman for the coroners office. 

Early reports linked Rotolo’s death to an opponent ramming his shoulder into Rotolo’s chest just seconds before Rotolo collapsed on the ice. 

Such sudden blows to the heart have been known to cause a fatal irregular heart beat, known as arrythmia. In an autopsy report, Medical Examiner Judy Melinek wrote that a videotape of the hit sustained by Rotolo demonstrated “a sudden arrhythmic death,” but since Rotolo already suffered from a heart ailment, his death could not be linked to the blow he sustained to a degree of medical certainty.  

Myocarditis is inflammation or degeneration of the heart muscle. A variety of medical conditions can cause myocarditis, including hypertension, but the most common cause is infection by viruses. 

—Matthew Artz

The Board of Education unanimously approved a new contract for its classified employees Wednesday, ending a three-year battle over wages and health benefits. 

The contract, a compromise crafted by a state mediator, denies the 360 instructional assistants and office workers a raise during the three-year contract, but does offer them the opportunity to re-open negotiations on pay and health benefits each year. Classified employees haven’t received a raise since their last contract expired in 2001. 

Two weeks ago union members overwhelmingly approved the contract, which expires in 2007. 

“When you’re in a fiscal situation like this you end up holding your nose and swallowing hard to do the best job you can to make health and welfare benefits as strong as they can be,” said Ann Graybeal, president of the Berkeley Council of Classified Employees. 

Raises have eluded nearly all district unions in recent negotiations. Last year the Stationary Engineers, Local 39, signed a contract with no salary increases. The Berkeley Federation of Teachers has been without a contract since last summer and hasn’t had a pay increase since 2002.  

The current district long-range fiscal plan calls for no employee raises through 2006, but BFT President Barry Fike isn’t taking that as gospel. “What’s put into the budget to get county approval doesn’t necessary reflect reality,” he said. Fike is hoping that a cost of living adjustment in the proposed state budget will be passed down to employees. 

But District Superintendent Michele Lawrence didn’t see any pay hikes on the immediate horizon. “Unfortunately we can’t give employee raises when the school district is still in deficit spending,” she said, adding that essentially the union members got a raise by not having to pay more for health care costs which increased 12 percent last year. 

The contract comes at a difficult time for the classified employees. Graybeal estimated that over the past two years, 70 members were either laid off or had their hours reduced below the threshold required to receive full medical insurance. 

Dee Kraus, a union member who served on the bargaining team, has seen her hours drop, but said she was happy with how the contract turned out. Asked about not receiving a raise, she said “Ask me how I feel about that if the teachers get a raise.”s

If this Sunday is a typical one in Berkeley, most residents will still be asleep around dawn. It will be quiet enough to hear the bells of the Campanile ringing across town. Berkeleyans will begin to rise and start their weekend routines—breakfast or brunch, church perhaps, or yoga, a morning walk or jog, a ruffle through the daily newspaper, an early start to garden work or studying or an excursion out of town, or perhaps just a morning spent relaxing in bed. 

Ninety-eight years ago, Berkeley was anything but tranquil. All over town the ground suddenly heaved and shook. Crockery crashed. Plaster walls cracked. Bricks fell, beds bounced, heavy furniture rattled around, books and bric-a-brac toppled.  

People hurried outdoors. The shaking stopped and the town seemed spared. Only here and there—in a few buildings downtown, at Berkeley High School—did there seem to be major visible damage. Then, across the bay, Berkeley residents began to see rising clouds of smoke. San Francisco was ablaze. It was April 18, 1906. The worst earthquake in modern American history had struck the Bay Area, and one of the worst urban fires ever was commencing.  

The big symbolic anniversary—the centennial of the “Big One”—arrives just two years from now, in 2006. Throughout the region, scientists, historians, policy planners and emergency workers are preparing to commemorate the event (see sidebar). 

In 1906, the East Bay was not as badly damaged as San Francisco (or San Jose or Santa Rosa, where less publicized but still horrendous damage and loss of life occurred). Ferry-borne refugees poured across the bay. Many were housed and fed here in Berkeley—and also racially segregated, in those more overtly discriminatory times.  

Tent encampments appeared on the UC campus, public buildings were pressed into service, and locals volunteered aid. The UC Cadet Corps—male students enrolled in military training—donned their uniforms and marched off to assist with guard duty in stricken San Francisco.  

UC administrators dismissed classes for the semester, arranged for free rail transportation out of town for many students, and began to total up the damage: physical, in the case of UC properties such as the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art which were destroyed in San Francisco; financial, in terms of the loss of property tax revenue and rental income for the University. 

UC was also at the epicenter—pardon the pun—of a serious research response to the earthquake at a time when many locals simply wanted to rebuild and forget, hoping or believing that the earthquake was a one-time event.  

Since the 1880s, Observatory Hill on campus had hosted one of the first seismographs in the Western Hemisphere (another was at UC’s Lick Observatory near San Jose). The 1906 event added strong impetus to earthquake research at UC. 

Geology Professor Andrew Lawson (who had mapped the San Andreas Fault and later had Bernard Maybeck design him an earthquake resistant concrete house in the Berkeley Hills) was appointed to head a scientific commission, financed by the Carnegie Institution. The commission would eventually issue an exhaustive and landmark report that would help provide the foundation for the modern science of seismology.  

History Professor Henry Morse Stephens marshaled students to gather first-hand and press accounts of the disaster. And a young Cal professor of engineering, Charles Derleth, Jr., was among the few experts to research and speak out against unsafe construction techniques even as San Francisco business interests busily sought to rebuild while minimizing the effect of the earthquake by emphasizing the fire, instead. 

Off-campus, Berkeley boomed following the earthquake and fire. Businesses and some burned-out San Franciscans relocated to what many perceived as the safer East Bay. Ironically, some resettled in the Berkeley Hills, above the Hayward Fault. Berkeley’s “streetcar suburbs” grew rapidly, and within a few years it was no longer a town but a city. 

Today, nearly a century later, the University of California remains home to some of the world’s top experts in seismology, seismic engineering and design, and the public policy aspects of planning for, and reacting to, natural disasters. The Berkeley campus has become a laboratory for seismically resistant design through the SAFER Program that has been retrofitting UC buildings at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.  

The City of Berkeley has also worked notably in recent years to become a “Disaster Resistant Community.” Public buildings and schools have undergone their own elaborate seismic retrofits, along with many commercial buildings and private homes. 

Still, up in the Berkeley hills broods the Hayward Fault, and its cousins, minor and mighty, snake beneath the Bay Area within serious shaking distance of the East Bay. Eventually, 1906 will come again, not just in anniversary form.  

Steven Finacom works at the University of California. In 2006 he will be curating a Berkeley Historical Society exhibit examining the local impact of the events of 1906.ˇ

• The marquee earthquake-related event takes place Wednesday, April 21 on the UC campus. The Seismological Laboratory sponsors the annual Lawson Lecture, featuring a distinguished speaker on issues of earthquakes and society.  

This year, the lecture is entitled “Earthquake Conversations” and will be delivered by Dr. Ross Stein of the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Dr. Stein studies how earthquakes interact with each other, how faults transfer stress, and what happens when main shocks or aftershocks progress along a fault. 

“Do earthquakes talk to each other?” is how one Seismological Lab researcher describes the topic. This is a subject of more than academic interest in the Bay Area, which is seamed with interconnected faults.  

The lecture takes place April 21, from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. at Sibley Auditorium in the Bechtel Engineering Center on the UC Berkeley campus. It’s free, and the public is encouraged to attend. 

• For excellent web-based resources on earthquakes, visit the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory at www.seismo.berkeley.edu/seismo/. 

The website includes links to a vast array of seismological sources and a “Geological Tour of Bear Territory” featuring earthquake and geology related locations you can see on and near campus. www.seismo.berkeley.edu/seismo/geotour/. 

• Around the Bay Area, institutions and organizations have joined in a 1906 Earthquake Centennial Alliance and are planning a series of coordinated events to mark the centennial of 1906, two years hence. There’s a website detailing proposed activities, and participants at http://06centennial.org/ 

• There’s also a UC campus-wide effort underway to plan for local commemorations of 1906. There will be lectures, presentations, tours, displays, and publications. For an introduction to likely events, go to www.seismo.berkeley.edu/seismo/1906/. 

1

Ray Bradbury once wrote a story about a man who entered a home, hung around a while, visiting, and then killed the fellow who lived there. On his way out, the man took out a rag and wiped the places where he thought his fingers might have touched. Each time he was ready to leave, he thought of a new place to wipe where he might have left traces of his identity. And then, it occurred to him that he might not have sufficiently wiped each place, and so he went back to rewipe. The police caught him there some hours later, the house spotless and sparkling, the murderer still mindlessly polishing. He had even polished the wax apples at the bottom of the bowl on the kitchen table. 

The whole idea being to avoid capture, the point Mr. Bradbury makes is that in obsessing over the details of an exercise, you sometimes miss the whole reason you started the task. 

Thus might my liberal and progressive friends appear to miss the mark in the present hand-rubbing and chortling over the Bush administration’s actions (or inactions) on Sept. 10, 2001, and the days and weeks immediately preceding. The most important business of the day, my friends implore us, is the defeat (or, perhaps, re-defeat), of George Bush the Lesser in November, in pursuit of which they are eager to race down any convenient alley or byway. And so, the extended finger, the puckered brow, the stern-intoned question: “What did you do, Mr. Bush, to protect us?” 

Back South, they are fond of saying that when you point a finger at someone else, three fingers point back at you (I’ll wait while you hold up your own hand and demonstrate). And so, my liberal and progressive friends might properly ask themselves, “What do we suggest should have been done, given the same set of circumstances?” 

Post World War II American liberals (beginning in the days when the term “liberal” was not considered a pejorative to be run from, hands in air, fingers a-waggle) have had an uneasy relationship with both the country’s massive military might and its extensive intelligence-gathering apparatus. Heretofore, at the end of wars, we had routinely disbanded our armies and—at times almost literally—beaten our swords into plowshares and returned to our farms and factories. The defeat of the Axis left no room for such a letting-down, however, not with the perceived threat of the Communist bloc. And so we left our armies standing and our intelligence forces gathering intelligence (or whatever it is they gather), with Cold War liberals in complete assent, often baying at the front of the pack. 

But one unified theory of standing armies, we have learned, is that they do not stand for long. Unable to merely sit around and gather rust, the pistol either takes its proper place as a glass case relic, medals shining, or it looks around for something at which to discharge its bullets. And so the nation’s leaders (Cold Warrior liberals in the forefront) found their fight in Southeast Asia. That became somewhat more than the scrap for spare shoes that had been predicted, and thus began the present liberal uncomfortability with war and the elements thereof. 

So, too, eventually, came the liberal distrust of the associated activities of spying, particularly when such spying turned inward. The Kennedy brothers—our liberal icons—had no misgivings about eating White House brunch with Martin King while simultaneously authorizing FBI agents to rifle through his trash can. But the practice of domestic spying began to turn onerous to liberals after liberals began to turn against the Vietnam War, and Mr. Nixon began collecting dossiers on dissenters. 

And so began the modern American perception that while liberal Democrats are good for bringing butter to the masses, they tend to be soft as butter when it comes to the warring arts. True or not, it is a tarbaby to which they are stuck. 

The issue could be finessed so long as the old Communist bloc held. The Russian Communists were aging and rotting from within, the Chinese Communists patient, and no world power—the U.S. included—saw any benefit in a third world war. For a long time, bruised and battered in Vietnam, America lay on its shores and licked at our wounds. In those long days, with prosperity within and no grave threat to the nation from without, we might properly have spent the time talking among ourselves about the lessons of Vietnam, and the proper role of a U.S. military and U.S. intelligence-gathering service in the modern world. Unfortunately, we did not. And so came 9/11, and we found ourselves both wounded and frightened and with a terrifying military apparatus at our disposal. What could we have done to prevent the attacks? What should we do now? If we only sack the president, the liberal/progressives say, the answers will be made manifest, the road ahead suddenly bright and clear and plainly-marked. If only. 

And so the left chortles with glee over the discomfort of Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Rice, et. al, elevating—almost to sainthood—anyone who can poke a pin in their swelling balloon. To the nation’s peril. The left has accepted, whole hog, this Embarrass Bush Contract of Criticisms without the requisite reading of the fine print. Who, after all, is this Mr. Richard Clarke, and what type of America and world would he lead us to if we gave him the reigns? 

Forget the fingerprints, my friends. Stop the goddamn polishing. Remember the whole point of it. The tragedy of the American left, indeed, would be to wake up on the day after the November elections to find their own actions have left neo-conservative policies firmly in place, regardless of whose ass it actually is that sits on that chair in the Oval Office. 

• • • 

And, finally, a passing note. This is the 52nd UnderCurrents column, the end of a first year’s writing. Thanks, Daily Planet, for having me. Thanks, readers, for tolerating. 

The Planning Commission took a baby step Wednesday towards capping the size of future developments on University Avenue. 

After its second public hearing in three weeks, the commission formally asked the city planning staff to return next month with the study of a revised zoning plan for University that would prohibit a state rule promoting dense housing development from swelling housing projects beyond the limits now set in the avenue’s strategic plan.  

Staff and commission members agreed Wednesday tha t a recommendation to the council from the commission on revisions to the University Avenue Strategic Plan would now not be ready until July, at the earliest. 

The commission will reopen the public hearing at its next meeting April 28 and receive a new an alysis from staff at their May 5 meeting. 

Richard Graham of Plan Berkeley applauded the commission’s action. He, like many other University Avenue area neighbors, had argued that the staff proposal originally presented to the Planning Commission last mon th would promote oversized buildings that push against neighboring homes and lack viable parking and retail space. Some neighbors called that original proposal “too pro-development.” 

Two developers in attendance at Wednesday’s commission meeting, Evan Ma cDonald and Chris Hudson, formerly of Panoramic Interests, warned after the hearing that if the requested revised zoning plan were ever implemented it would “stop private development on University Avenue.”  

However, MacDonald had already issued that same “stop development” charge during the hearing against the original staff proposal. 

Zoning on University emerged as a hot button issue last February when the Mayor’s Task Force on Permitting and Development made new zoning rules for University one of its top recommendations. In February the City Council requested that the Planning Commission come up with a new zoning overlay for University by May to conform to the 1996 University Avenue Strategic Plan.  

The new zoning overlay originally proposed by city planners conforms to much of what was called for in the strategic plan. It would permit three story buildings along much of the avenue, with four stories allowed along intersections identified as having strong retail potential. The original staff proposal also includes stricter set backs included in the strategic plan to protect neighbors from being dwarfed by the new buildings. 

But most neighbors at the meeting said the proposal had a catch. 

For one, the staff plan allowed for denser development on the targeted intersections and, worse, several speakers said, it didn’t take into account a state law that allows developers to build higher and wider than the zoning ordinance permits.  

Because Berkeley requires that housing developments with more than fou r units include affordable dwellings, city developments automatically qualify for a state “density bonus” that allows a 25 percent increase in space. On University Avenue, where lots tend to be narrow and shallow, the extra space both pushes the buildings up against abutting homes and raises them an extra story. 

Dan Marks, the city planning director, said the staff zoning proposal would shrink allowable building sizes on University, but added that he couldn’t say the decrease would be enough to conform to the strategic plan when the density bonus is included. 

Bart Selden, a member of the Mayor’s Task Force On Permitting And Development, argued that since the city would be hesitant to violate the improved setbacks, bonus space would mean added height to the front of new buildings. “We’re going to have a wind tunnel,” he said. “University is going to be a shaded pedestrian-unfriendly place.” 

Responding to the neighbor’s concerns, Commissioner Susan Wengraf proposed that staff return with a revised plan t hat imposes strict limits on new developments. Her proposal would reduce allowable density at the targeted intersections and lower building heights. The intended result would be that when developers factored in the density bonus, the overall size of their project couldn’t exceed the building envelope called for in the staff plan. 

All of the commissioners did not agree that asking staff to amend the plan proposal was a good idea.  

“I think your proposal goes off the deep end,” Commissioner David Stoloff told Wengraf. He worried that her suggestion would effectively downzone the avenue and risk putting the city in violation of a 2002 California law that forbids cities from decreasing the housing capacity of one district without increasing capacity in anot her. 

Marks said the staff would study possible impacts of the state law along with the analysis of the Wengraf proposal. Figuring out how to factor in the density bonus has been tricky, he said, partly because there was no evidence that the authors of th e strategic plan—working during an era when there was little development on University—ever considered how the state rule would impact building sizes.  

Most residents and merchants who spoke at the public hearing were clear that they wanted tight control s on the size of future developments and bigger retail spaces with more parking spaces.  

Helen Lasher, of Lasher’s Electronics on University, said that recent developments have diminished on-street parking and leave so few available parking spaces for re tail shoppers that stores on the avenue aren’t viable. 

Dr. Meredith Sabini agreed that new buildings have offered a lot of new housing but very little retail to serve neighbors. 

McKinley Thompson said his private home is dwarfed by a development on Univ ersity. “I don’t like that people in the neighboring building can look down into my house.” 

Councilmember Linda Maio, who has had to recuse herself from the debate in the City Council because she lives adjacent to University Avenue, attributed the neighb orhood backlash to the Acton Court project developed by Panoramic Interests, which she said was too bulky to fit into the surrounding neighborhood. “Everyone looked at Acton Court as a template for what’s coming down the pike and they were terrified, as I was,” Maio said. 

Chris Hudson, the former Panoramic Interests developer who is still associated with Acton Court in a management capacity, acknowledged that the development didn’t rank high in the charm department. “OK, maybe we didn’t do such a good job with the architecture,” he said but added that the development had nevertheless benefited the neighborhood. 

Some residents did speak in favor of denser development. “I don’t do anything in my backyard that I don’t want anyone else to see. I don’t know what other people do,” said Joe Walton whose home is also adjacent to a University Avenue complex.  

In other business the commission voted 5-3 (Pollack, Taub, Stoloff, Perry, and Wiggins, aye and Bronstein, Wengraf and Poschman, no) to support the constr uction of a UC Berkeley pedestrian bridge across Hearst Avenue. The university has been trying to get a city encroachment waiver to build a suspension bridge linking two dormitories at the Foothill Housing Complex since the project was first proposed in 1 988. A new, scaled-down bridge has eased concerns that it will obstruct views or collapse in an earthquake, but has not won fans among design advocates. The Public Works Commission will make the ultimate recommendation to the City Council, which must dec ide on the waiver. 

Reverberations continued to flow from Councilmember Margaret Breland’s controversial move to replace Commissioner John Curl with Tim Perry. Responding to a commentary in the Berkeley Daily Planet written by Commissioner Zelda Bronstein, which he said dragged his wife’s name in the mud and labeled him as “mean and nasty,” Perry warned that if another such commentary appeared again, he would “respond in kind.”›

SOUTHSIDE ASSAULTS  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For some time, I have been concerned about the assault robberies on the streets in South Berkeley and North Oakland that occur virtually daily. Many times, people are hit in the face or on the back of the head. The next thing they know they are on the ground with their pockets being picked. Usually, the only description the victim can give is the gender and race of the perpetrator, nothing else. Some victims are seriously hurt. About half of the incidents involve weapons. 

Several months ago, there were a couple of letters to the editor about groups of junior high school kids assaulting and robbing younger victims on the streets of Berkeley, and the reluctance of the police to intervene and to treat these incidents as crimes. Apparently one Berkeley district attorney refuses to prosecute most such cases based on a belief that Berkeley citizens would rather avoid legal confrontation for the sake of community peace. 

Several recent issues of the Daily Planet have had many letters to the editor concerning the unrestrained bullying taking place in the Berkeley public schools. Some writers noted that it is usually the victim being punished. Does anybody else see a connection?  

Osman Vincent  

• 

FAREWELL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If, given Richard Brenneman’s article of April 9 (“Berkeley’s Tower Records Throws in the Towel”), we are to say hail and farewell to a 30-year institution on Durant Avenue, let us also recall its predecessor and a genuine artifact of the counter-culture—Leopold’s. 

Leopold’s literally began in a closet across the street from the current/longtime Tower records. It was named for the memorable orchestral conductor Leopold Stokowski. 

One could make a charitable contribution at Leopold’s and get a “free” album in return, among other things. 

Hail and farewell, Leopold’s and Tower. 

Phil Allen 

• 

MEAN TO THE EXTREME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Zelda Bronstein recently blamed Shirley Dean for something Mayor Tom Bates did (“Bates, Stoloff and UC: Dean to the Extreme?” Daily Planet, March 26-29). She stretched the truth and used some totally wrong information. 

Maybe this is election year strategy to take the focus off “the powers that be”—the left-leaning Berkeley Citizens Action. Considering the horrendous mess they are making of Berkeley, I can understand why they might want to blame someone else. Their awesome power includes seven BCA-endorsed councilmembers and the city attorney who was a member of BCA when she was appointed. 

Dean is not on the council today, and can’t be blamed for most council decisions of the last 20 years, because BCA held the majority for all but two of those years. During 1995-96, Dean had the majority which did some great things, including passing the University Avenue Strategic Plan. But BCA regained control and to date have subverted the plan. 

Dean should be evaluated for what she’s done, and not done. She never was a part of the BCA’s school closures—past or present. And Dean is amazing—considering our political leaders who “speak with forked tongue.” BCA is a strategic planning group, making careful chess moves to our checkers. One of their latest strategies is to say they no longer exist! 

BCA’s record should be carefully scrutinized, documented, and even filmed! Just for fun, take a break for a moment, and image a film where our actions can change the course of events and therefore the ending of the movie. Imagine a fantasy based on the BCA story, starring Jack Nicholson (As Good As It Gets) playing Tom Bates, but include some dream scenes of the future as in A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life. 

Back to reality. The actions and agenda of Tom Bates need to be carefully analyzed. If Bates hadn’t lied to the police about stealing the Daily Cal the day before the November 2002 election, the headlines on election day would have read: “Bates Steals Newspapers Endorsing Shirley Dean.” He would certainly have lost to Dean. 

The BCA has too much power and we all know power corrupts. I know them well, because I was one of them, until they came to power for the first time in 1984. At that time they took over the city and schools and played politics with children. Now 20 years later, same thing, same plan: to redesign Berkeley for their purposes. The only difference now is their arrogance has been replaced with deception. 

Merrilie Mitchell 

• 

THE PASSION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Mark Winokur (“Film shows Need for Complex Interpretation of History,” Daily Planet, April 9-12) makes a good point. Any filmic depiction of historic events inevitably distorts, by exaggeration or oversimplification, the “true” events, in the process replacing them in “real” history.  

Referring to The Passion of the Christ, Winokur calls in a lengthy analysis for a calm recognition by Jews of Jewish involvement in Jesus’ crucifixion. He points out that at least some Biblical Jews must have been offended—for various reasons—by Jesus’ ideas and behavior, and may have overtly or covertly displayed their disapproval.  

Therefore, he says, modern Jews should openly accept this as fact and cease “a determined and insistent effort to disavow any possible or significant Jewish collaboration” in that event. Present protestations by modern Jews of ancient innocence “[do]… much to alienate us from our Christian brethren and may…only exacerbate [anti-Semitism].” 

While acceding to the historic deadly outbreaks of anti-Semitism, Winokur speaks as though dealing with a moderate affliction such as flu: Inoculate against it by rational acceptance of some ill-defined ancient responsibilities, and rest easy. Excesses such as those in the film will have no effect.  

Wrong! Those very excesses demonstrate the persistence of the virus, to which millions over the world are still susceptible: “The Jews killed Christ!” In a world of complex religious schisms (Christianity itself is replete with them) where bitterness is often deep, hard, and incisive, that short mantra still can ring out clear and distinct. 

Excesses such as those in The Passion must be challenged promptly every time, as must be all expressions which carelessly impugn any entire group or class. 

Morris Berger 

• 

SCHOOL EXCELLENCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

BSEP is a Berkeley property tax that supports Berkeley’s schools. It has been approved by voters for the past 20 years and has provided class size reduction, library and music programs in our schools. One portion of the BSEP funds are allocated to each school site for discretionary use. The funds are administered by a BSEP committee consisting of parents, teachers and the principal of each site. Each school uses the funds to provide a unique enrichment to their program. 

My experience with the BSEP committee has extended over the past 12 years at Berkeley Arts Magnet. Berkeley Arts Magnet (BAM) has a long history of arts education. The students receive one hour per day, four days a week, of instruction in dance, theater, vocal music, drums or graphic arts. These classes are taught by resident artists and are funded by our discretionary BSEP funds. BAM has won the California Distinguished School award in 1989, 1993, 1997, and 2000. In 1999 it was awarded the California Distinguished Arts and Education award. The students, teachers and parents at BAM believe the arts program enhances students academic learning. Many extra hours of volunteer time are provided by the school community to produce performances and hang art shows. The program works because we have BSEP funding and it is something our school community values and is committed to. Every Berkeley school has a unique BSEP funded program that is chosen and administered by the teachers and parents.  

The funding of the BSEP program is to be brought before the Berkeley voters for renewal soon. There is now discussion of mandating the use of the site discretionary funds into specific categories of spending at each site. These mandated spending areas could be school safety, mental health assistance, gardens, any number of worthy enrichment projects. However, mandating the use of the enrichment funds takes the creativity, community spirit, vision and commitment away from individual school sites. 

I urge the community to recognize that the BSEP enrichment programs that are inspired, developed and administered at individual school sites give the dollars spent a much higher value. Parents, teachers and students are participating in programs they personally feel are important and make their school special. Volunteer time, commitment and enthusiasm multiply the dollars spent. After BSEP allocation for class size reduction, libraries and music, Berkeley Schools Excellence Project funds should continue to be spent at the discretion of the individual school sites. 

Kate Obenour 

• 

SEX AND POT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Many no doubt read recent news articles about a Hayward pot clinic owner found with five pounds of marijuana in her car. She also was in the process of eviction for non-payment of rent on the pot facility for the second time. The first time eviction loomed a donor came to her aid with $11,000 dollars as a partner. She promptly changed the locks to the business on her “partner” who hasn’t been able to contact her.  

This illustrates why we don’t need the Community Resource Center with their pot club, needle exchange and Sexworker’s Outreach in our neighborhood, already burdened with drug wars and street violence. (Southwest Berkeley). We have a lot of crime clustered around the methadone clinic near the proposed site on Sacramento Street already as crime statistics show. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to have medical pot across the street from the methadone clinic and those struggling with addictions already. In an area plagued with excessive car break-ins already, few want to see another magnet for addicts. There are already pot clubs nearby on San Pablo and Telegraph surely this is adequate for those who need or want medical marijuana.  

Councilmember Kris Worthington expressed support for this group in a recent Berkeley Daily Planet article. Despite several e-mails sent to him, I have yet to receive a reply. 

Representatives from neighborhoods near the proposed center expressed dismay that Worthington did not communicate with neighborhood members, nor Councilmember Breland’s or Shirek’s office about his support for the center outside of his own neighborhood. It is said that Worthington suggested South Berkeley as an area where the group could be under the radar after opposition to a location near University Avenue was made clear. A few years ago, a pot club in that area was closed down after numerous armed robberies and other problems.  

At a recent meeting with neighborhood groups by those who propose the center, the representatives from the proposed “community resource center” made it clear they don’t care about neighborhood opposition. They also claimed to be working together with support from Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency, (BOSS), which was denied by BOSS leadership. At the same meeting, Robyn Few from the Sexworker’s Outreach claims not to be an advocate for prostitution. Yet, while on house arrest for federal prostitution trafficking charges, she is allowed to “work” on getting legalized prostitution on the ballot in Berkeley. 

If Mr. Worthington still supports this addict and sexworker center, surely he could be most effective finding a place for them in his own district. 

Robin Wright 

• 

HYPOCRISY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Once again, the international community is applying the double standard to judge an action taken by the Israel Defense Forces against a terror organization whose explicitly stated goal is to obliterate the Jewish state.  

Since September of 2000, Hamas has been the leading Palestinian terrorist organization taking responsibility for more than 50 suicide attacks, all under the “spiritual guidance” of Sheikh Yassin. 

We in the United States cannot afford to participate in this double standard while we hunt down the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. Is it not one of the primary responsibilities of a sovereign nation to protect its citizens? How can we be such hypocrites? 

Lorri Arazi 

Oakland 



As Democratic activists and friends of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, we read with dismay a statement imputed to her calling for more troops to bring stability to Iraq. We strongly disagree. The U.S. is sinking into a quagmire in Iraq. We cannot get out of this quagmire by going deeper into it. That reasoning led to our debacle in Vietnam. As in Vietnam, a U.S. administration has underestimated the power of nationalism. In a country where a people feel their sovereignty is being violated, greater intervention by a foreign occupier only deepens hostility and national resistance. 

While we recognize the need to safeguard our troops and our responsibility to bring greater security to the Iraqi people, increasing American military power without a fundamental change in US objectives will accomplish neither of these ends. We do have a responsibility to help the Iraqis get back on their feet. But unless there is a significant change in US thinking about Iraq, we are headed for a tragedy of monumental proportions. 

We Have to Bring in the UN 

While many Iraqi’s welcomed the fall of Saddam, they almost universally question our nation’s motives. And who can blame them? This war was instigated by an administration that lied and manipulated evidence to cloak its real motives. The U.S. will not to be able to impose its model for Iraq upon a people who distrust its intentions. More military force, under these circumstances, will backfire. It will strengthen the hand of those who are most hostile to us, making them look like the staunchest supporters of Iraqi sovereignty. 

We must bring in the United Nations. We must abandon the illusion that the U.S. can determine the final shape of Iraqi reconstruction. We must to begin to reduce our role as an occupying power, and enlist the help of the international community. Iraq needs an interim authority that can create an atmosphere of trust by convincing the Iraqi people that it truly recognizes they hold their destiny in their own hands. Only the United Nations stands a chance of brokering peaceful negotiations between the different Iraqi communities. 

The deepening crisis in Iraq is driven by a U.S. administration that learned nothing from history; that believes it can impose a national model that serves its own geopolitical agenda rather than something confirming Iraq’s particular historical trajectory. We must abandon any illusion that the U.S. can determine the final shape of Iraqi reconstruction. That is the path to quagmire. 

The way out is not for us to go further in, but to bring in those whom the Iraqis will trust to help them find their way forward—those whom the Bush administration sought to leave out.  

Vicki Cosgrove and Matthew Hallinan are co-chairs of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club.

In front of the proposed hotel, museum and conference center in the heart of Downtown Berkeley, Center Street—from Oxford to Shattuck—could be closed to motor vehicle traffic and redesigned as a pedestrian street. Imagine an entire block without the noise generated by cars, trucks and buses. A well-designed plaza could be created with benches and other street furniture. Trees could be planted to provide shade and additional landscaping could be added to naturalize the open space.  

Public art could be part of the mix and would be very appropriate on a street planned to be the new home for the Berkeley Art Museum. Part of the new pedestrian area could be set aside for outdoor lunchtime and weekend concerts. Without traffic noise, people could actually hear music performed outdoors in downtown. 

Hotel restaurant and museum café outdoor seating could face Center Street and help improve the sunny north side of this block of Center, which currently is rather unappealing and underutilized, in contrast to the south side of the street.  

Center provides the major pedestrian link between UC Berkeley and the downtown. As the major walking connector between the downtown BART/bus transportation hub and the campus, it presently accommodates more than 10,000 walking to work or school trips per day. Reinforcing the pedestrian character of the 2100 block of Center will encourage more people to walk to and from the campus, bus and Bart. 

The widening of the south side of Center sidewalk has encouraged more walking and made possible the popular café outdoor seating. By contrast, Center on the north side has narrower sidewalks lined by dull blank building walls and a paved Bank of America parking lot. It attracts little or no pedestrian traffic except bank custom. Little exists to attract walking along the north side of the 2100 block, lingering in the area or noticing a shop or café to cross the street and do business in.  

The current flow of pedestrians boosts business for all on the southside of Center from Starbucks at Oxford to Games of Berkeley at Shattuck. In good weather, outdoor seating gets good use. The block could become more of a destination for people who live and work nearby, as well as for hotel, museum and convention center guests.  

If these visitors are attracted outside, enjoying the day or evening in an ambiance that encourages window shopping and store browsing, they are more likely to explore and spend money in downtown businesses and eateries than if those visitors merely drive up to the hotel, park and stay inside. 

Berkeley’s 2001 General Plan recognizes that Center Street is a good candidate for closure and calls on the city to explore options for its partial or complete closure. Most other streets are not nearly as suitable because of the number of driveways or the necessity for motor vehicle circulation and because of the existing heavy pedestrian use.  

Numerous cities in Europe have pedestrian streets and the evidence is that they work very well for local merchants. There are also some successful examples in the United States, including the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, and pedestrian malls in Ithaca, New York, Boulder, Colorado and Charlottesville, Virginia (anchored by a hotel).  

Downtown San Jose and Monterey (anchored by hotel/convention center) have also been revitalized with pedestrian streets. Frank Ogawa Plaza is the pedestrian plaza anchoring Downtown Oakland’s redevelopment just as the pedestrian Jack London Square has been revitalized as a successful retail destination. 

How would the city pay for the costs associated with converting Center (Oxford to Shattuck) into a pedestrian street? The hotel developer could contribute, since the project would benefit from the pedestrian street location. The city could apply for TLC or Regional Pedestrian Program grant funds from MTC.  

The project will generate a lot of new revenue for the city in the form of a hotel tax and increased property taxes (or possessory interest or use taxes if UC retains ownership). The city could use a portion of the new revenue for the first two or three years to defray the cost of creating an attractive new pedestrian plaza. 

Center Street is the city’s best, if not its only, opportunity to create central public open space in the form of a pedestrian street. It’s an opportunity that should not be passed up.  

Creation of this pedestrian street would require some adjustments.  

Automobile access to any parking garage built under the hotel, conference center and planned museums would have to be from Addison or Oxford Streets, though stairs and elevators from the underground parking could lead directly to Center Street as well as to the hotel or rebuilt Bank of America branch. 

On-street metered parking spaces on the north and south side of Center Street would have to be removed. This parking, like the current Bank of America surface parking lot spaces, could be replaced in the garage built under the project. 

The current volume of automobile traffic using Center Street is relatively light, especially in contrast to the huge volume of pedestrian use. Although this would need to be analyzed carefully, closing this block is not likely to create any significant traffic impacts. 

Some buses use Center Street and their routes would have to be adjusted. AC Transit staff have indicated that ACT is not opposed to conversion of Center to a pedestrian street as long as ACT is able to work out suitable downtown alternative layover and stops for buses that currently stop on Center at Shattuck. 

Yellow delivery zones on Center would be removed. Deliveries could be made from the alley behind the south side of Center Street or from new zones on Oxford at Center. 

A portion of the pedestrian area can be kept free of obstacles to allow necessary access by emergency vehicles. 

If enough space were available with the cooperation of UC and the hotel developer, it would also be possible to incorporate a daylighted Strawberry Creek along the length of the 2100 Center Street block.  

A pedestrian Center Street plaza can create a strong and attractive entrance to the hotel/convention center, can generate additional business prosperity in downtown, can improve the natural environment, and can encourage more people to walk to work, school and shop. If designed to create the most walkable environment, the Center Street promenade can become the center for a substantial destination—Downtown Berkeley.  

Otherwise, it’s a missed opportunity the city will live to regret. 

Wendy Alfsen is a member of Walk&Roll Berkeley.›

This Saturday on the UC campus bells will ring, bands will play, dancers will dance, football players will scrimmage and choruses will sing. In building after building, faculty, students, and staff will throw open the doors of laboratories, classrooms, libraries, museums, and lecture halls. It’s Cal Day, the annual campus open house for the community. 

For many local residents, the university is a part of Berkeley but also apart. If you haven’t been on campus for months or years, or if your view of the university has narrowed to the commuter traffic passing your front door, Saturday is your day to re-acquaint yourself with the remarkably complex and interesting institution in our midst. The campus is yours to explore from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Places that usually charge admission will be open for free. Places that are almost never open to the public will welcome the casual visitor. Faculty luminaries will speak and there will be plenty of activities to entertain both kids and adults. 

Race a robot car by remote control. Buy a handcrafted pot at the ASUC Art Studio sale. Learn what fossil rat droppings say about the past. Imagine the future through computer animation. Play carnival games. See the campus cannon. Ride a motorized cable car. Wave a Cal flag. Attend the International House “Festival of Cultures.” Get a free massage. Ascend the Campanile for free. Touch a real brain (really). See inside some of the most advanced research laboratories in the world.  

There are hundreds of things to do on Cal Day. As a preview, here’s a short selection of intriguing activities: 

• Did you know a satellite passes over Berkeley every day? But it’s not spying on locals for the CIA. Cal operates a research satellite from—where else—the Silver Space Sciences Laboratory on the ridgeline above the Lawrence Hall of Science. Visit the control center where data is downloaded (sessions limited to 30 people). 10 a.m.–2 p.m. 

• Have a student expert analyze your diet, based on your description of what you typically eat. 10 a.m.–3 p.m., 120 Morgan Hall.  

• Meet the parents of Cal students at the Cal Parents tent. Maybe ask them why their children who live in that apartment building next door to you were so noisy last night. No, seriously, it’s a good opportunity for parents of college-bound kids to talk with other parents. 9 a.m.–4 p.m., Dwinelle Plaza.  

• Rappel down the south façade of Wheeler Hall, assisted by student Army ROTC cadets. This is always a big draw for both participants and spectators. South entrance of Wheeler Hall. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. 

• Students at the College of Engineering build solar cars and mysterious “super-mileage vehicles” for competitions. View the vehicles and meet their designers and operators. 10 a.m.–4 p.m., Memorial Glade (west of Evans Hall, northeast of Doe Library). Oh, and there’s Bearkelium, the latest edition of the ever-popular concrete canoe (O’Brien Hall breezeway, 10:30 a.m.–2 p.m.), AND robot car racing on a 100-meter course (10 a.m.–noon, Cory Hall courtyard).  

• Cal’s “Castle on the Hill” is the oldest public college residence hall in California. Bowles Hall proudly celebrates its 75th anniversary with an open house, tours, and a historical slide show. 11 a.m.–1 p.m. 

• “Ask the Mathematician.” Experts from the Math Department will answer your math questions, simple or convoluted. (9 a.m.–4 p.m., Evans Hall west entrance).  

Other opportunities to keep in mind: 

Campus museums have collections that make up a veritable Smithsonian of the West. On Cal Day most are open for free, including some that have amazing collections but no regular public exhibit galleries.  

Over at the Paleontology Museum in the Valley Life Sciences Building there’s a special exhibit of fossils found here in the East Bay and a number of activities, including free behind-the-scenes, tours from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. And in the same building the spectacular but rarely seen Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and University and Jepson Herbaria are open for tours much of the day. 

The Botanical Garden in Strawberry Canyon opens its gates from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.,, and the Essing Museum of Entomology exhibits “beautiful and bizarre” specimens of arachnids and insects from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (second floor hallway, Wellman Hall). You can also bring spiders and insects—and “bug riddled plants”—to the same place, for identification.  

The Berkeley Art Museum (11 a.m.–5 p.m.) and Lawrence Hall of Science (9 a.m.–5 p.m.) are also open for free. And the Pacific Film Archive is screening “exciting new works by filmmakers from around the globe”, free from 3-6 p.m.. 

In addition to exhibits and open facilities, professors and staff offer a medley of lectures throughout the day. Some of the more enticing topics include: “The Physics of Bicycle Riding” (Professor Joel Fajans, 11 a.m., 4 LeConte Hall); “Why Does Good Health Care Feel So Bad?” (Professor Alan Steinbach, 10 a.m., 130 Wheeler Hall); “Bear In Mind: The California Grizzly Bear” (author Susan Snyder, Bancroft Library, 10 a.m.); “What’s the Good of the Liberal Arts?” (Professor and Dean Steven Botterill, 10 a.m., 155 Dwinelle Hall). 

You can find out about these events at www.urel.berkeley.edu/calday/ or by visiting one of the information centers located just inside the campus’ major entrances. ˇ

Born on New Years Day 1942 in Washington D.C. to a Jewish mother and a Presbyterian minister father and named after Soviet leader Josef Stalin, Berkeley’s Country Joe McDonald went on to star at two of the seminal musical events of the ‘60s—the 1968 Monterey Pop Festival and, a year later, Woodstock. 

With their “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,” his Country Joe and the Fish band became icons of the anti-Vietnam War movement. Their notorious “Fish Cheer” captured on film at Woodstock (“Gimme an F! Gimme a U! Gimme a C! Gimme a K!”) heralded a new and widely celebrated defiance of convention. 

And then it was over, the band dissolving at the peak of their popularity. 

The Berkeley-born band has now reunited, minus guitarist Barry “Fish” Melton, as the Country Joe Band. And while they may be a little more sedate and a lot grayer, McDonald and company have kept the puckish spirit that made them band a major force in the countercultural and anti-war scenes of three decades ago. 

Berkeley residents will get a chance to see the resurrected Fish perform in Berkeley this Sunday at 8 p.m. in the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St., in a concert benefit for Options Recovery Services. 

“I’m really glad to get this event in Berkeley,” McDonald said. “Options Recovery is a really good 12-step program. They operate out of the Veterans Memorial Building, working with homeless people with drug and alcohol problems—many of them vets, which is a cause dear to my heart. 

“[It’s] thanks to a 12-step program [that] I don’t do drugs or alcohol anymore,” he explained, adding with a smile, “although I’ve had my share.” The last entry in the marijuana news section of his web site is dated Nov. 19, 2001. 

“I’ve been trying to bring the band back together for a long time, especially since I’d been unsuccessful in getting other musicians to play the psychedelic music of that era,” McDonald said. “I started working on it about six months ago, and it soon became apparent that Barry Melton’s schedule was too full, and since he’s the ‘Fish,’ we’re now the Country Joe Band. We’re sounding very good.” 

Lead guitarist Melton now heads the Yolo County Public Defenders Office in Woodland, supervising the 21 lawyers who represent poor and indigent criminal defendants and playing gigs in clubs across Northern California. 

The band’s partial reunion was sparked by the announcement that the World Peace Music Awards had decided to honor them as American musicians who lent their musical talent to the movement to end the war in Vietnam. 

Other recipients of the “Life of Peace” awards at the June 26 ceremony in Hanoi are other veterans of Berkeley in the ‘60s: Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte, the folk-singing trio Peter Paul and Mary, and the late Vietnamese composer Trinh Cong Son. 

Meanwhile, the “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” has renewed meaning in the days of an Iraqi war that is being increasingly compared to Vietnam. “A lot of young people haven’t heard the rag, but a lot have because of the Woodstock film. We’ll be doing some of the psychedelic instrumentals and love songs from our first two albums, a few songs from Woody Guthrie, and a new song, “Cakewalk to Baghdad,” about the Iraq war,” McDonald said, leaning back in his perch on the comfortable couch in his 1915 home on a quiet North Berkeley street. 

“We’re thinking about making a CD, but we’re just handling it one day at a time. We’ll just see what happens.” 

One hopeful sign for longtime fans is the planned DVD of an upcoming performance in Sebastopol, part of a tour that includes the Berkeley appearance. 

“What we hope to do with our tour is provide a little humor and validate our audiences’ goodness,” McDonald said. “We play pretty nice and we try to make fun of the president—a fine old American tradition. We hope to have a few reverent moments.” The he grinned. “And maybe make a few bucks, too.” 

Meanwhile McDonald, who lives in a comfortable North Berkeley bungalow with his spouse and two children, said he’s spent much of his time in recent years caring for his children and home while his wife works as a delivery room nurse. 

Nursing has become one of McDonald’s special passions, and led to his creation of a web page (www.countryjoe.com/nightingale/fnstore.htm) devoted to Florence Nightingale, who’s heroic effort tending for wounded soldiers during the Crimean War is considered the founding event of modern nursing. McDonald’s efforts on behalf of nursing have garnered considerable praise from the profession. 

McDonald grew up in El Monte, Cal., where his parents moved because their Communist Party activities had brought down too much heat. “They became disenchanted with the Communist Party,” he said, “and growing up I knew them as what you’d call left-wing liberals, the kind ‘compassionate conservatives’ loathe.” 

He’s been a familiar face around Berkeley since he first arrived here in 1965, as the campus was moving from the era of the Free Speech Movement into that of the Anti-War Movement. He teamed up with Melton not long afterward.  

Country Joe and the Fish started out as a duo, and turned into a band after McDonald and Melton signed a recording contract with Vanguard Records. 

Gary “Chicken” Hirsh had come to Berkeley from Chicago “where any self-respecting drummer is born,” he said. He’d “been playing with a few other bands when I ran into Barry Melton in the Café Mediterraneum on Telegraph Avenue, having recently been kicked out of the California College of Arts and Crafts for using the word ‘fuck’ on a final. I was critiquing the teacher’s questions.” 

It was two weeks before recording was to commence on the first album, and Melton was looking for a drummer. “So I raised my hand and said, ‘I’ll go,’” Hirsch said. 

He was joined by bass player Bruce Barthol and David Bennett Cohen on keyboard and guitar. And though McDonald wrote the ban’s trademark “Fixin’-to-Die Rag” before their first album, it didn’t appear until their second. 

With their appearance at Woodstock, the band became an international sensation before dissolving at the peak of their popularity. They reunited briefly for two gigs in 1994, one in Berkeley and the other at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Melton bowed out the day before the first performance. 

Hirsh eventually moved to Ashland, Ore., where he established himself as a painter while he continued to play his drums. Barthol is well-known to Bay Area residents as a performer and the resident composer and lyricist with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Cohen now lives in New York, where he continues to perform. 

For fans who can’t wait until Sunday evening to catch a reprise of Joe’s signature song, go to www.countryjoe.com and scroll do to “Musical Notes” and click on the song. That leads to a page with the lyric and a place for click for a streaming audio rendition. 

Then sit back, relax and enjoy—especially the memorable chorus that begins: 

“And it’s one, two, three, 

“What are we fighting for? 

“Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn, 

“Next stop is Vietnam. . .” 

The Country Joe Band benefit for Options Recovery Services takes place this Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets $20. Call 666-9552 for information and tickets 

f

FRIDAY, APRIL 16 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Watercolors” by Howard Margolis Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at Schurman Fine Art Gallery, 1659 San Pablo Ave. Exhibit runs through May. 524-0623. 

Paintings by Julia Ross Reception from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at The French Hotel, 1538 Shattuck Ave. Exhibit runs through April 30. 527-0173. 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “The Sisters Rosensweig,” a comedy by Wendy Wasserstein, opens at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman, and continues on Fri. and Sat. through May 15. Tickets are $10. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theatre Company “Antigone Falun Gong” at 8 p.m. Wed.-Sat., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. through May 16. Tickets are $28-$40 available from 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Black Repertory Group Theater “Trilogy of One Act Plays” Gala reception at 6 p.m., show at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2:30 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $15. 652-2120. www.blackrepertorygroup.org 

“The Mystery of Irma Vep,” Charles Ludlam’s theatrical cult classic at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage, through May 23. Tickets are $39-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Shotgun Players “The Miser” opens at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater, Thurs. - Sun. through May 2. Free. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org 

FILM 

47th SF International Film Festival at 5 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Marc Cooper discovers “The Last Honest Place in America: In Search of Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Bob Randolph at the Fellowship Café & Open Mic, 7:30 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita Sts. A donation of $5-$10 is requested.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Young Syncopations” En Pointe Dance presents original works by six young choreographers at 1:30 and 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $6 in advance, $8 at the door. enpointedance 

@yahoo.com 

University Dance Theater, directed by Marni Thomas, with premieres by Christopher Dolder and Carol Murota at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $8-$14, from 866-468-3399. www.ticketweb.com 

“Isadora ... No Apologies” a dance play recounting the life of Isadora Duncan at 8 p.m. at Lisser Hall at Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd. Tickets are $10-$15 at the door. www.isadoraduncan.org 

Redmeat at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Musicians from Marlboro at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Pre-concert talk by violinist Scott St. John at 7 p.m. Tickets are $38. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Palenque performs Cuban music at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Andrew Tosh & The Tosh Band, Sister I-Live, the Reggae Angels at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Double Standards, jazz trio, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Original Intentions at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$10. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Laura Risk with Steve Baughman, Irish fiddle and guitarist, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Danny Caron, jazz and blues guitar, at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Seek, Dynamic at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Hot Cross, Lickgoldensky, Cat on Form, Heart Cross Love at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

ROVA, avant garde saxophone quartet, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $10-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Bobby Vega and Chris Rossbach Group at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

SATURDAY, APRIL 17 

CHILDREN  

Juanita Ulloa will perform original and traditional Mexican songs for the whole family at 11 a.m. at Berkeley Public Library, West Branch, 1125 University Ave. 981-6278. 

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

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Bonnie Lockhart at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $3-$4. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Dance Jammies, a multi-generational dance event from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Motivity Center, 2525 8th St. Cost is $9. 832-3835. 

FILM 

47th SF International Film Festival at 1:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Berkeley Public Library’s Teen Playreaders present a multilingual poetry reading at 2 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda. 

Andrew Todhunter shares his gastronomic adventure of working in a Paris restaurant in “A Meal Observed” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

Gary Bogue and Chuck Todd give advice on living with urban wildlife in “The Racoon Next Door” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

University Dance Theater, directed by Marni Thomas, with premieres by Christopher Dolder and Carol Murota 8 p.m., Sun. at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $8-$14, from 866-468-3399. www.ticketweb.com 

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra performs Scarlatti’s “Vespers of St. Cecilia” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $29-$60 available from 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Trinity Chamber Concerts with Christine Mok, violin, and Miles Graber, piano, performing works of Beethoven, Kreisler, Ravel and Stravinsky at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana at Durant. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. 

All Bach Concert with David Ryther, violin, Aria Di Salvio, cello, Marvin Sanders, flute, at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. Tickets are $15-$50, benefits the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Aux Cajunals at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Vieques Si, Marina No, celebrating a victory for social justice at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10, $5 students. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Charlie King and Karen Brandow In Concert, politically affirming harmonies, at 7 p.m. at Redwood Gardens Community Center, 2951 Derby St. at Claremont Blvd. Suggested donation $5-$20.  

Naked Barbies, Frankie’s Dream at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

True Blue, traditional bluegrass, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Wil Blades Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Songwriter’s Showcase with Forest Sun, Alexis Harte and Adrian West at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

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

Mystic performs hip hop at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $12-$15. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Odd Shaped Case at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Donation $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Nika Rejto, Brazilian jazz, at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Vitamin X, Holier Than Thou, Deadfall, Our Turn, League of Struggle at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 18 

CHILDREN  

Family Explorations: Clay Day from noon to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th Sts. Admission is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Theater Workshop: Circus Skills for children of all ages from 1 to 3 p.m. at Berkeley Rep School of Theater, 2071 Addison St. Free, bring a children’s book to donate to the John Muir School library. 647-2972. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Julie Mehretu: Matrix 211 opens with an artist’s talk at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

FILM 

47th SF International Film Festival at 1:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“A Brivele der Maman” about a Jewish mother’s efforts to keep her family together. Made in Poland in 1938 in Yiddish, with English subtitles. At 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Suggested donation $2. 848-0237. www.brjcc.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Jenny Browne and Bruce Snider at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Annie Koh will discuss the new anthology “How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office (And by the Way, Some People of Color Are Just as Stupid and Need to Go Too)” at 3 p.m. at Eastwind Books, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Organ Recital with Brian Swager at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Brombaugh Organ at St. John’s. 845-6830. 

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra performs Scarlatti’s “Vespers of St. Cecilia” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $29-$60. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

The Country Joe Band, featuring former members of Country Joe & the Fish, at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $20. Benefit for Options Recovery Services. 848-0237. 

Berkeley High School Jazz Gala, at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets are $25-$75. 527-8245. www.berkeleyhighjazz.org 

California Friends of Lousiana French Music Dance and music lessons from 2 to 4 p.m., music jam and dancing from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5-$8. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

ACME Observatory’s Contemporary Music Series with Jacob Lindsey, Scott Looney & Gino Robair at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Odd Shaped Case at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Donation of $7-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Betsy Rose and Judy Fjell at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra at 4:30 and 7 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Opressed Logic, Resistoleros at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, APRIL 19 

FILM 

47th SF International Film Festival at 6:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Today I Vote for My Joey,” with filmmaker Aviva Kempner in person. A tragicomedy about immigrants and Jewish grandparents voting in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. At 7 p.m. at The Oakland Box, 1928 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $5-$15, sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds. 

THEATER 

“Jane Austen in Berkeley” Andrea Mock’s one-woman play at 8 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $7. 841-9441. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Aurora Stories will highlight Playwright’s Stories with James Carpenter, Lynne Soffer, and Jenny Lord at 7:30 p.m. at Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St. Free, but $20 donation suggested. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Simon Winchester describes “Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poet Bob Randolph will be featured at the Fellowship Café, at 7:30 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita Sts. A donation of $5-10 is requested. The series is sponsored by the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists. 540-0898. 

Eddie Yuen will discuss “Confronting Capitalism: Dispatches from a Global Movement’ at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC 

West Coast Songwriters open mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $5 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

TUESDAY, APRIL 20 

CHILDREN 

Jeanne DuPrau, author of “City of Ember” will speak to middle and high school students at 5 p.m. at Berkeley Central Library, 2090 Kittredge. 981-6223. 

THEATER 

First Stage Children’s Theater, “Confessions of a Cat Burglar” at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $4 at the door.  

FILM 

47th SF International Film Festival at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Amy Stewart introduces us to the remarkable achievements of earthworms in “The Earth Moved” at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, near Dwight Way. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Robert Sullivan introduces “Rats: Observation on the History and Habitat for the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Dan Millman discusses “Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Jane Huber introduces us to “60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: San Francisco” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Amazigh (Berber) Spring Commemoration with Moh Alileche and Guests at 8:30 p.m.at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazz- 

school at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Mark Erelli, hillbilly pilgrim, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Dayna Stephens House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.com 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21 

FILM 

47th SF International Film Festival at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Café Poetry hosted by Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Poetry Slam Semi Finals for the National Slam Team at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Edmundo Paz Soldan introduces his erotic political thriller, “The Matter of Desire” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

Laura Schapiro describes “Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Bannie Chow and Thomas Cleary will read from their new book of translations, “Autumn Willows: Poetry by Women of China’s Golden Age” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poetry for the People with Suji Kwock Kim at 3:15 p.m. in Unit 3 All Purpose Room, UC Campus. 642-2743. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players presents the Berkeley New Music Project, music by Berkeley graduate composers, at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Free. http://music. 

berkeley.edu/concerts.html 

Rhythm Doctors at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

Catie Curtis, American troubadour, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Otto Huber Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Jim Ryan’s Forward Energy at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15 suggested. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Candela performs salsa music at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article by Shirley Barker is the first of what we hope will be an ongoing series of articles from local gardeners writing about their own gardens. We thought readers would like to see her in her garden. She’s originally from England “with a touch of Irish,” she says. She comes from a long line of gardeners and farmers, and says she learned about gardening at her mother’s knee.  

Some years ago I met a woman who grew superb flowers. Although she was in her nineties, she was still able to totter round her plants, clutching a jam jar full of a liquid with which she anointed them. I felt sure that this magic brew was responsible for the atmosphere of well-being exuded by her garden. 

So last year, when I decided to grow for the first time the long, thin, Japanese cucumber, setting out nursery plants, and they did not do so well, I thought about my skilled gardening friend. The weather was warm, the ground richly prepared, and yet the plants barely limped along. I remembered my friend’s magic brew and decided to give the cucumbers a shot of it: fish emulsion, diluted to the palest fawn. 

The effect was greater than I had anticipated. The plants leaped up and over their six-foot fence, and produced an embarrassment of foot-long, crisp and luscious fruits in what seemed no time at all. I pressed them on neighbors three at a time. I cooked, pickled and snacked on them. “A cucumber a day” became a mantra. They went on like this until October, when I reluctantly removed them to make room for fall peas, knowing that without more global warming they could not continue past the equinox. Did I mention how many plants contributed to this largesse? Two! 

If a garden lacks a sunny fence, cucumbers and tomatoes will companionably share space. If the tomatoes are grown in hoops, the metal will give their tendrils something to grip and the fruits of both can dangle off the ground. Cucumber plants arrive in nurseries in April, and they are also easy to grow from seed. They do best when the earth has warmed up. Because of their rapid growth, planting is possible through mid-July. Put one plant outside and next to each hoop leg. Water regularly at ground level. Neither plant likes damp leaves. When new growth appears, it’s time for the fish emulsion. 

Ease of growing and their considerable nutritional value, including surprising amounts of B vitamins and iron, make cucumbers an important component of the home vegetable garden. Our ancestors recognized this. Pre-historians have credible evidence that our relationship with the cucumber has gone on for eleven thousand years, probably pre-dating agriculture. Such an ancient pedigree is perhaps why cucumbers, once harvested, lead a varied life, from slices placed on tired eyelids to the ubiquitous soggy English sandwich. Indeed, there are few regions in the world that do not have a culinary use for them, such as Russia, the Middle East, India with its numerous raitas, and various deserts where cucumbers, or a close relative in the same family Cucurbitaceae, have value as a source of water. Most commonly they are prepared in a salty, acid or sour medium. Yet cucumbers are delicious when allowed to speak in their own voice (see recipe at left.) Its blandness can be a soothing interlude in or contrast to spicier fare. 

Cucumbers in Cream Sauce. 

Peel and poach chunks of cucumber in lightly salted water, just enough to cover. Meanwhile, make a sauce by combining cornstarch and milk in a large glass microwave-safe bowl. Cover, and microwave in thirty-second increments, stirring after each one, until the sauce is thick and creamy, which will take two or three minutes. When they are tender but not mushy, tip the cucumbers with their liquid into the sauce, stir well, and adjust seasoning. This makes a delicate accompaniment to a mild-flavored white fish. Buttery mashed potatoes complete this comfort-food offering, ideal for all ages, including the nonagenarian. µ

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates recently threatened to explore alternative options to touchscreen voting machines if security problems aren’t worked out and the machines cannot ensure a secure and accurate vote. But City Clerk Sherry Kelly says that any switch would be an expensive project that might need approval from Berkeley voters before it could be implemented. 

On April 5, Bates wrote a letter to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and Alameda County Registrar of Voters Brad Clark asking for a full investigation into the Diebold touchscreen voting machines, presently used in all Alameda County elections. Citing problems during last October’s gubernatorial recall election as well as the March, 2004 election, the mayor threatened to explore other voting options. Bates has also placed an item on the April 20 City Council agenda that, if passed by the council, would direct city staff to “investigate legal and procedural options if the council determines that the problems have not been resolved.” 

In a letter to the council sent the same day, Bates wrote that the Diebold touchscreen “voting irregularities [in Alameda County] have raised considerable concern in the community. Yet, we have no official information from the county on the nature of the problems or efforts to fix them. It is absolutely essential for democracy to work that voters have complete faith in our electoral systems. These problems are testing the faith of the electorate and cannot be allowed to persist.” 

“It’s a critical error that needs to be investigated as soon as possible,” Bates said in a telephone interview while vacationing in North Carolina. 

But according to City Clerk Sherry Kelly, any switch could cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. Such a move might also necessitate the city changing its charter, something that can only be done on the ballot and thus not before November. Neither Kelly nor a representative from the California secretary of state’s office were certain whether a charter change would be necessary. 

City use of optical scan or the old punch card machines—separate from the controversial Diebold touchscreen machines—could only be done in an entirely separate city-run election, whether or not such an election was held on the same day as county/state elections. Kelly estimates that each separate city-run election could cost the city between $400,000 and $500,000.  

Currently, Berkeley is one of several cities that consolidates with the county-wide election process. This allows it to use county machines, county ballots and county employees to run the election. Any switch would force the city to foot the entire bill for all of this. 

“Even if we could do it, there is the really big issue of would you want to do it,” Kelly said. 

If the city were to change voting systems, it could only run elections for local ballot measures and local officials such as mayor, City Council, rent board and auditor. Any county, state or national elections would still be run by Alameda county on the current touchscreen machines. 

In 1994 Kelly said a run-off for mayor and auditor run by the city cost Berkeley $300,000 in hard costs. That cost included the voting system, rental space for polling places, and salaries for poll workers. It did not include time spent by regular city officials. If the city ran its own elections, Kelly said she would have to hire extra staff. 

“I didn’t feel comfortable that we could administer it with the staff we had,” said Kelly. “They got through it, but it was hard.” 

The current election system still costs the city money but not nearly as much as running it on its own. Kelly said Alameda County charges the city anywhere from 80 cents to $1.50 for every voter plus a portion of the capital costs for things like voting equipment, polling staff and the paper ballots used for local ballot measures and officials. The costs are mitigated because Berkeley is just one of several cities in Alameda County that contribute to cover the entire bill. The more cities that participate in the election, the less costly it is for each city. 

“It’s a good deal in that we couldn’t do it nearly that reasonably,” said Kelly. “Because they do it on such a mass number.” 

Alameda county, in the meantime, is also trying to work out the kinks in its own system but no final decisions have been made yet. County Registrar Brad Clark has sent his own letter to Diebold demanding answers to the problems that plagued the last two elections. During the recall thousands of votes were switched from Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante to Southern California Socialist John Burton. The problem was eventually blamed on the county’s vote tabulating software, another Diebold product.  

During the March 2 primary hundreds of polling places county-wide experienced delays when Diebold’s card-encoder machines malfunctioned. 

So far Clark said he’s only received a preliminary report back from Diebold but no definitive answers. Clark said he’s waiting for another report from the company that they are supposed to deliver on April 26.  

Clark said the problems during the recall election were mitigated during the March 2 primaries because they had some time to try and isolate the problem. They’ve been working on strategies to do the same for the new problems that happened during the primaries. 

›

Berkeley High students—already bombarded with a potpourri of culinary choices—were greeted Monday with the most conveniently located entry into the no-holds barred competition for student lunch money: a new school cafeteria. 

For the first time since 1993, when their old cafeteria was declared seismically unfit and demolished, an estimated 500 students waited in line this week while uniformed cafeteria workers heaped hot, freshly prepared meals onto their plates. 

And like any other day at the school, a couple of thousand more students poured out from the campus at lunchtime en route to downtown take-out restaurants, unmoved that their long awaited cafeteria was open for business. 

“I’ve gone off campus for over three years, I’m not going to stop now,” said Katri Foster as she returned with friends from a Chinese restaurant. 

That attitude spells trouble for the district, whose indebted cafeteria fund has cost it approximately $1.1 million over the past three years. Two months ago Director of Nutritional Services Karen Candito estimated the school would have to serve 900 meals per day at $3.50 apiece just to break even. Though an official tally was unavailable by press time, district spokesperson Mark Coplan estimated that only slightly more than one-fifth of the student body bought their lunches on campus Monday, 400 fewer than needed. 

The cafeteria is part of a $37 million construction project that includes a new gym, office space, a dance studio and a new library along Milvia Street. For the last 11 years the only food served at the school has been prepackaged entrees provided mainly to the 400 students on the free and reduced lunch program. 

“What we had before was so bad the only kids who would eat it would the ones who were getting it for free,” said Principal Jim Slemp. He hoped the new cafeteria could serve as a gathering place and foster an improved sense of community on campus. 

To attract the masses, Berkeley High is serving just about every type of food imaginable. Students can pick from 12 options including a burrito bar, salad bar with Annie’s Naturals dressing, pizza, rice and noodle bowls, burgers and pasta. There are two notable exceptions to the offerings, however. As part of the district’s nutrition campaign, students won’t find any fried food or sugary desserts and soft drinks. 

Student reactions to the cafeteria were as diverse as the entrees being served. Theo Wilson, a freshman, said his hamburger was better than most cafeteria food he’s eaten in Berkeley, but not quite on par with his favorite taqueria on Shattuck Avenue. 

For Kira Mandella the best part of the new cafeteria was not having to rush back from Shattuck during the 32-minute lunch period. “Usually the lines [at the off-campus food outlets] are really crowded and either we’re late for class or end up eating in class,” she said. 

Student complaints focused less on the quality of the food than the price. 

“I could go to Roundtable Pizza and get a Personal Pan Pizza and a drink for $3.50—here I just get a slice,” said Parris Moore, a freshman who brought her own lunch to the cafeteria. 

At $3.50, the lunch includes one entree, a drink and a piece of fruit. Candito said the price—50 cents more than smaller-portioned middle school lunches—is consistent with an across-the-board price hike the district implemented last year.  

Except for a slow moving line at the burrito bar, opening day appeared to go smoothly. Many students had already bought pre-paid debit cards to pay for lunches and Candito said lines would move faster when more students used cards instead of paying out-of-pocket. She didn’t have an estimate for how many students had already purchased the cards. 

Meanwhile, two blocks away, it was business as usual at Top Dog—a fast food restaurant—where Berkeley High students packed the line nearly to the door. “I don’t care what they have in the cafeteria, why would anyone want to stay in school during lunch?” said David Singer a 10th-grader walking back to campus after paying five dollars for two hot dogs and a drink. 

At optimum capacity the new cafeteria could serve 1,100 students, Candito said. While she doesn’t have to reach capacity, the new cafeteria remains a risky venture for the district. Usually, Candito said, elementary school cafeterias are the most profitable, but in Berkeley which has 11 small elementary schools with poor economy of scale that have historically lost money, the high school cafeteria must break even. 

To that end, Stephanie Allan said the district has laid off 11 food service workers at other sites and then rehired nine of them for the high school. Allan is the business representative for Stationary Engineers, Local 39, which represents Berkeley Unified School District’s food service workers. “They’ve melded everything else into the high school,” she said. “[Candito is] counting on serving one thousand kids a day and I’m praying she’s right.”›

As the Berkeley Planning Commission’s UC Hotel Task Force heads into its next-to-last session this afternoon (Tuesday, April 13), the 25 panelists are examining a sizable stack of suggestions. 

From the dozens of offerings submitted by task force members, individuals and community organizations, the panel will select the final recommendations to present to the City Council in early June. 

The proposed 12-story hotel, convention center and museum complex would occupy most of the two-block block area bounded by Shattuck Avenue and Oxford Street between University Avenue and Center Street. 

Today’s session, scheduled for 1-3:30 p.m. in the Sitka Spruce Conference Room at the city’s 2120 Milvia St. Permit Service Center, will focus on design, green building, preservation, transportation, possible daylighting of Strawberry Creek, labor and employment issues, economic impacts, taxes, and finance. 

Also scheduled is the appointment of a committee to draft the final report. 

Of the written suggestions submitted so far, design issues clearly rank near the top. 

• As the newest and tallest structure in the city center east of Shattuck Avenue, the hotel would dominate the urban skyline—and that worries panelist Peter Selz, a retired UC Berkeley professor and founder of the university’s art museum. 

In a memo to the task force on the project’s architecture, Selz wrote, “When I inquired about the [architecture of the building, an essential matter]. . .Kevin Hufferd the campus project director, was vague and evasive in his reply. The same noncommittal answer came from the representative of Carpenter & Company, the firm which has been chosen as the building’s developer.” 

Selz blasted Carpenter and Company’s St. Regis Hotel, nearing completion in San Francisco near the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which he said “has no architectural distinction.” 

Selz called for creation of an architect search committee consisting of one representative each from the university, city government and the public to hold a national or international search for a suitably distinguished architect. 

• Retired planner John English issued a call to create mid-block passageways providing pedestrian access between Center and Addison and between Addison and the intersection of University Avenue and Walnut Street. 

• English and fellow task force members Burton Edwards and Austene Hall jointly offered 19 proposals, including limiting floors six and above of the hotel to a maximum width of 80 feet, limiting the height of the building adjacent to Shattuck to four stories or less, and designing the streetfront exposures to harmonize with the existing structures. 

Many recommendations have poured in concerning the fate of Center Street, the principal access from the university to downtown. 

Most proposals call for either eliminating or severely restricting vehicular traffic on the street, creating a pedestrian plaza, and “daylight” Strawberry Creek, which flows above ground on campus and through underground culvert pipes through most of the city below. 

• The Sierra Club calls for an outright traffic ban on Center, while allowing access to the convention center to AC Transit buses and UC shuttles and bicycle access to the plaza. 

• A coalition of 27 individuals and activist groups urged daylighting the creek and project designed incorporating sustainable and green design principals, including solar energy. 

The coalition also urged that no free parking be provided for the project’s employees, who would be encouraged to use public transportation, and recommended a study to determine if an underground tunnel could be built linking the project with the BART station just across Shattuck. 

• Nathan Landau, senior transportation planner for AC Transit, urged the city to consider opening an access tunnel to BART on the east side of Shattuck and the creation of an underground station for AC Transit buses to allow easy transfer between buses and BART trains. 

• The city Transportation Commissioners weighed in with proposals of their own, including a call for hotel guests to pay market rates for parking at the complex—with a minimum charge of $10—and a limitation on parking at the hotel to no more than 25 spaces per 100 rooms. 

The commission also wants a single level of underground parking with an entrance on Addison Street and what they called “very expensive” all-day parking fees for non-hotel guests. 

Though commissioners said Center Street “could” be closed to cars and delivery vehicles, they recommended it be off-limits to buses—with enhanced bus stops on Shattuck to be partially funded by the developer, who should also contribute part of the parking fees or the hotel room rate to a downtown transportation fund. 

• Marcy Greenhut, president of the Berkeley Ecological and Safe Transportation Coalition (BEST), urged creation of permanent vendor spaces in the pedestrian areas of Center Street for the sale of art, crafts and locally produced food. BEST also called for a permanent, canopy-covered outdoor stage to provide a venue for local performers. 

• Task force members Zelda Bronstein, a member of the Planning Commission, and Bonnie Hughes, who serves on the Civic Arts Commission, called for a ban on all car and bus traffic on Center Street. They want the plaza designed as a work of civic art by architects and other designers of the highest caliber to provide discrete pockets of activity, including dining, shopping and people-watching. 

• To alleviate pressures on “the already over-stressed storm drain system and Sewer collection system,” the city Public Works Commission called for the project to be designed in conformity with strict green building standards. That suggestion was reinforced by task force chair Rob Wrenn’s plea that “the developer set a goal of building the ‘greenest’ hotel in the United States.” 

• Wrenn also urged that the developer and university allow access to meeting rooms at a lower community rate, and that they work with the city to incorporate public art into the project’s design. 

• The city Labor Commission called for the university and the developer to negotiate labor and neutrality agreements “to ensure labor peace throughout the construction.” Commissioners also urged the university and developer to comply with the city’s prevailing wage, equal rights benefits, living wage and First Source hiring ordinances, to provide adequate housing and childcare for workers, and to contribute to the city job training program.ˇ

It’s Sacramento’s never ending tug-of-war. The Legislature tries to extend its control over local governments, while the affected localities scratch and claw to stop them.  

Wednesday, the Assembly’s Local Government Committee will hear a controversial bill that, if passed, could have a big impact both on Berkeley’s landlords and its tenant population. AB 2702, carried by Darrell Steinberg D-Sacramento, and sponsored by the California Association of Realtors, could diminish the city’s ability to regulate the development of second unit housing (so-called “in-law apartments”) just one year after a similar bill forced the city to revamp its ordinance. 

The bill is essentially a replay from 2002, when the Legislature passed a law that required all applications for second unit housing be approved without an administrative hearing as long as the addition was in compliance with city zoning. Many localities negated that provision by passing local ordinances that made administrative hearings practically mandatory. 

This year’s proposed state bill would take that option out of the hands of cities by specifying what zoning standards cities can apply to second unit housing. 

“[The bill] would make it much easier to build a second unit,” said Berkeley Planning Director Dan Marks. “It’s the state’s usual one-size fits all approach to laws even though every community is somewhat different.” 

Miriam Ng, a real estate agent with Berkeley-based Korman & Ng, countered that the bill would improve the supply of affordable housing by eliminating costly appeals from neighbors unhappy with the development of second unit apartments. 

“When you have to fight three years and hire two attorneys, that doesn’t make for affordable housing,” she said. 

Ng added that the bill was geared more towards cities like Piedmont, where the community has demonstrated it doesn’t want homeowners to construct second unit housing. 

Berkeley, on the other hand, amended its zoning ordinance to comply with the 2002 law and to encourage such development, Instead of requiring all applicants to go before the Zoning Adjustment Board, Berkeley’s amended ordinance grants the homeowner a zoning certificate if the landlord has complied with all standards outlined in the ordinance. 

The proposed new state law, however, would cut into Berkeley’s freedom to regulate new projects. The city would no longer be allowed to deny proposed additions except on grounds of “health or safety,” would have to strike its prohibition against second units being built by absentee landlords, and would diminish local parking requirements to one space per unit. The latter provision would eliminate Berkeley’s ability to request more parking to mitigate the increase in density caused by a new housing unit. 

So far, the city hasn’t experienced much fallout since the 2002 bill went into effect. The Berkeley Zoning Adjustment Board has faced roughly the same amount of hearings on second unit developments, said Commissioner and Realtor Laurie Capitelli. Most of last year’s appeals, Capitelli said, involved parking or density issues, which he believed the city would retain discretion over even under the newly proposed law. 

Berkeley Housing Director Steve Barton guessed that, under the proposed law, the city would still be able to regulate second unit housing in the Berkeley Hills because the narrow windy roads and lack of parking would qualify make new developments a safety issue. But he feared that even if the law affected just a few developments it could have a big impact on the city. “If 10 people decided to do it, that’s 10 neighborhoods that are affected and 10 fights over second-story units,” he said. 

TUESDAY, APRIL 13 

Morning Birdwalk in Wildcat Canyon. Meet at 7 a.m. at the end of Rifle Range Rd. in Richmond. 525-2233. 

“State of the City” address by Mayor Tom Bates at 11:30 a.m. at the Doubletree Hotel, Berkeley Marina. Cost is $25. 

“The Housing Crisis” with US Congresswoman Barbara Lee at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Also speaking, Steve Barton, City of Berkeley Housing Director, and Wanda Remmers, Director, Housing Rights, Inc. Sponsored by Strawberry Creek Lodge Tenants and Gray Panthers of the East Bay. 548-9696. www.savehud.org 

“Diaspora and Homeland Development” A conference to discuss Haiti, the Philippines, Mexico, Palestine, Morocco, India, Pakistan, Armenia, Iran and Nigeria. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Room 223, Moses Hall, UC Campus. 642-2088. 

“How Animal Lineages Diversify: Implications for Evolutionary and Conservation Biology,” with David B. Wake, professor emeritus of Integrative Biology, UCB, at 5 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum Theater, 2621 Durant Ave. 

“Desalination Issues in the United States” with Kevin Price, Water Treatment Engineering, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, at 5:30 p.m. in 105 North Gate Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Water Resources Center Archives. 642-2666. 

“Where are You on Your Writer's Journey?” with Teresa LeYung Ryan, author, at 7 p.m. at Boadecia’s Books, 398 Colusa Ave., at Colusa Circle, Kensington. $10-$20 sliding scale donation. 559-9184. www.bookpride.com  

Writers Workshop on how to hire and work with a freelance publicist at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Introduction to Yiddish Folk Singing Workshop with Michael Alpert, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 27th and Harrison Sts. Cost is $20. Registration required. 444-0323. www.kitka.org 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Volunteer Recognition Luncheon. 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, APRIL 14 

“Zapatista Women” a documentary about the indigenous women soldiers of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), at 7 p.m. at The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland 393-5685. 

Tai Chi Exercises for Two People with Jonathan Russell, senior student of Master T.T. Liang, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com  

Intermediate/Advanced Yiddish Folk Singing Workshop with Michael Alpert, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 27th and Harrison Sts. Cost is $20. Registration required. 444-0323. www.kitka.org 

Berkeley Stop the War Coalition meets every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in 255 Dwinelle, UC Campus. www.berkeleystopthewar.org  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART, 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, APRIL 15 

The Berkeley Path Wanderers General Meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Live Oak Park Rec Center, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Alan Kaplan, a member of East Bay Parks, will talk about East Bay birds. 524-4715. 

Golden Gate Audubon Society presents “An Exploration of Chile’s Birds” at 7:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 843-2222. www.goldengateaudubon.org 

“Taking Exception to the Rulers” An evening with Amy Goodman, Michael Franti and David Goodman. The film “Independent Media In a Time of War” will be shown. At 7:30 p.m., King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Tickets are $15 advance, $20 door, available at independent bookstores. 848-6767, ext. 612. www.kpfa.org 

UC Berkeley Charter Day Events from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a ceremony honoring outgoing Chancellor Robert Berdahl at 3 p.m. in Zellerbach Auditorium. www.urel.berkeley.edu/charterday 

Matt Gonzalez on “The American City: A Tool for Progressive Change in the 21st Century” at 4 p.m. in Boalt Hall's Booth Auditorium, UC Campus. 

“Perspectives on a Changing Haiti” A discussion with Congresswoman Maxine Waters at 7 p.m. in the Lounge, Women’s Faculty Club, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

“The Snail as Architect” Design and construction with biominerals with Carole Hickman, UCB professor of Integrative Biology at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

East Bay Kerry Happy Hour Fundraiser from 6 to 8 p.m. at Albatross Pub, 1822 San Pablo Ave. with special guest, Tom Bates, mayor of Berkeley. A $25 suggested minimum donation to John Kerry, $10 for limited income/student. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 16 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Morris Cleland, retired businessman on “My Fun Family.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For reservations call 526-2925.  

Benefit for Jeff “Free” Luers with the film “Green with a Vengeance” at 7 p.m. at 6:30 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St. Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

“Sacred Allegiances: Decentralized Development and the Rhythm of Community Religion in Cuba” with Adrian Hearn and Michael Spiro at 4 p.m. in the CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch St. Sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

The Knitting Hour Come and learn to knit or regain old skills and meet other knitters at 4:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, West Branch, 1125 University Ave. 981-6270. 

APOC Meet-and-Greet at 6 p.m. at the Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Registration material for the weekend APOC gathering will also be available. 540-0751.  

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. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

Overeaters Anonymous meets at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 17 

Berkeley Bay Festival from noon to 5 p.m. at the Berkeley Marina. Tours of the new Nature Center, exhibits, vendors, food, music and free sailboat rides. 644-8623. www.cityofberkeley.info/marina/marinaexp/bayfest.html 

Berkeley Art Center Anniversary Party from 4 to 6 p.m. with a silent auction, music and refreshements, at 1275 Walnut St. Tickets are sliding scale $20 to $50. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:15 a.m. in the Sproul Room, St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 587-3257. www.berkeleycna.com 

Rhododendron Flower Show and Sale Hundreds of rhododendron flowers plus indoor garden of tropical Vireya rhododendrons, and a plant doctor to answer your questions. From noon to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland, in Lake Merritt Park. Free. 841-5402. www.calchapterars.com  

Tilden Park Plant Walk with Terri Compost. Meet at 12:50 p.m. at the Brazil Building in Tilden Park, or at 12:15 near the Berkeley BART, in front of Bank of America to catch the 67 AC Transit bus. Donation $5-$15, not including bus fare. 658-9178. 

Kids Garden Club Join us as we discover how bees are related to our garden and the world of plants. We will sample some honey also. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. For ages 7 - 12 years. Cost is $3, non-resident $4. Registration required, 525-2233. 

Conifers of California from 10 a.m. to noon at Regional Parks Botanic Garden. 525-2233. 

The Eucalyptus Tree A walk to see these naturalized forest citizens and learn their stories, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Non-Toxic Solutions for Pests and Diseases with Jessie West at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Jr. Skywatchers Club Learn how the sun and planets affect the weather. Watch clouds and predict the weather. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. For ages 8-11. Fee is $4, $6 non-resident. Registration required. 525-2233. 

“Why We Joined the Green Party” with African-American activists Wilson Riles, Donna Warren and Henry Clark at 7 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. Free. 644-2293. 

Grassroots Activists from Three Continents with Fides Chade, Tanzania, Gloria Vilma Ortiz Núñez, El Salvador, and Che Lopez, from South Texas, at 6:30 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Cedar and Bonita. $5 donation requested.  

Free Emergency Preparedness Class in Basic Personal Preparedness from 9 to 11 a.m. at 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. To sign up call 981-5605. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/fire/oes.html 

Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College Open House from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 2550 Shattuck Ave. RSVP to Taj Moore 666-8248, ext. 108. 

“Touching Our Youth To Curb the Violence” a community outreach forum hosted by St. Paul AME, 2024 Ashby Ave. at 8:30 a.m. with Berkeley Homicide Inspector Lionel Dozier, Retired SF Police Chief Earl Sanders, Contra Costa Probation Supervisor Daryl Nunley and Michelle Milam, Field Representative, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock. 848-2050. 

Black Women of Essence Information Meeting at 2 p.m. at the Harriett Tubman Terrace Rec. Room, 2870 Adeline St. 338-5236. www.bwoe.org 

“Balancing Act: Feng Shui” with Erin Alexander from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Reservations required. 547-0964. 

“Manage Weight, Mood and Menopause” with Ed Bauman, founder of Bauman College natural chef training schools, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com  

Volunteer Information Fair for the El Cerrito community and beyond, from 12:30 to 4 p.m. at 6830 Stockton, near Richmond St., El Cerrito. 799-7819. 

California Writers Club meets at 10 a.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. Panel discussion with people who have transitioned to become full-time writers. 644-0861. 

California College of the Arts Spring Sale from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 5212 Broadway, Oakland. Ceramics, glass, jewelry, photography, textiles, drawin, painting and other media. 594-3666. 

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. 

Dream Workshop on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to noon at 2199 Bancroft Way. Cost is $10. www.practicaldreamwork.com 

SUNDAY, APRIL 18 

Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at the Willard Community Peace Labyrinth, on the blacktop next to the gardens at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby and Stuart, enter by the dirt road on Derby. Free. Wheelchair accessible. Sponsored by the East Bay Labyrinth Project. 526-7377. 

“Birds, Blossoms, and Bicycles!” Aquatic Park EGRET hosts Open Garden Day at the park’s southern entrance from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Enjoy close-up views of bayshore birds and coastal wildflowers in a car-free setting. 549-0818 or egret@lmi.net 

“Bloodlines: A Medical Mission to Iloilo, Philippines” a documentary film about a medical mission to the Philippines in 2003, at 6:30 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $8-$15 and proceeds go to the distribution of the film. www.manja.org 

Berkeley Cybersalon meets at 6 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Meet the new social entrepreneurs who are successful in eradicating poverty, disease, hunger, and ignorance from the world. Donation of $10 requested. 527-0450.  

Klassic Kaiser Karz! classic and vintage Kaiser-Frazer automobiles from noon to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Golden State Model Railroad Museum open from noon to 5 p.m. Also open on Saturdays and Friday evenings from 7 to 10 p.m. Located in the Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline Park at 900-A Dornan Drive in Pt. Richmond. Admission is $2-$3. 234-4884 or www.gsmrm.org 

“Modern Mystics: Dorothy Day” with Dody Donnelly, author and theologian, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd. Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Sacred Feminine Bookclub meets to discuss “Confessions of a Pagan Nun” by Kate Horsley, at 7 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. RSVP to 526-6454. 

“The Power of Now” the principles of Eckhart Tolle’s book with Jill Lebeau and Maureen Raytis at 3:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com  

Tibetan Nyingma Open House from 3 to 5 p.m. with prayer wheel and meditation garden tour, yoga demonstration, and information on classes, followed by a talk “The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind toward Dharma” at 6 p.m. at 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, APRIL 19 

Berkeley Schools Now! meets at 7 p.m. at the LeConte School library, on Ellsworth St., to discuss next steps and the BSEP process. For more information email info@BerkeleySchoolsNow.org 

Tea at Four Enjoy some of the best teas and learn their cultural and natural history. Then take a walk to see nesting birds and flowering shrubs, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Registration required. Cost is $5, $7 for non-residents. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. 

Same Sex Marriage Symposium from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Lipman Room, 8th floor, Barrows Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by Inst. of Governmental Studies and Inst. for the Study of Social Change. 642-1474.  

“Allergy Relief with Homeopathy” with Edi Mottershead, homeopath, at 1 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy., 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com  

Great Popular Fiction Bookgroup meets at 7 p.m. to discuss “Angels and Demons” by Dan Brown at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. 548-0425. 

ONGOING 

Project Open Hand’s Senior Lunch Program is welcoming new participants in the East Bay. For information, please call 415-447-2300 or email seniors@openhand.org. 

Help Protect Berkeley’s Public Trees by campaigning for a Berkeley Public Tree Act. To learn more and help call 594-4088, or visit www.BerkeleyIssues.org 

Art Show Submissions for The Oakland Animal Shelter Submissions for the May show can be sent to art@oaklandanimalservices.org or by mail to Megan Webb, Community Outreach Program Manager, 1101 29th Ave., Oakland, CA 94601. Samples will not be returned without a stamped/self addressed return envelope. All submissions should be received by April 20, 2004. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon., Apr. 12, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Four by Four Joint Task Force on Housing Members of City Council and the Rent Board meet Mon. Apr. 12, at 5:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Stephen Barton, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/4x4/default.htm 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Mon. Apr. 12, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/landmarks 

Commission on Disability meets Apr. 14, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Paul Church, 981-6342. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disability 

Homeless Commission meets Wed., Apr. 14, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/homeless 

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed., Apr. 14, at 7 p.m. at 1170 The Alameda. Jackie Y. Griffin, 981-6195. www.ci.ber- 

keley.ca.us/commissions/library  

Planning Commission meets Wed., Apr. 14, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. www. 

ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed. Apr. 14, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Barbara Attard, 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/policereview 

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., Apr. 14, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti. 644-6376 ext. 224. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/waterfront 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs. Apr. 15, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/designreview  

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., Apr. 15, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Apr. 15, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/transportation

When Iran’s influential former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani recently hailed the Shi’ite Muslim militia of wanted Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as “heroic,” he might have been signaling that Iran is finally coming out from behind the scenes in the confrontation between the U.S. and al-Sadr that has left dozens dead. 

The U.S.-led coalition has said the main reason it has issued an arrest warrant for al-Sadr is because he is wanted for the murder of another Shi’ite cleric, al-Khoei, in the holy city of Najaf last year. But that line has few takers in Iraq. A survey of Arab television reveals a deep-seated suspicion about the real motives behind the arrest warrant. Ordinary Iraqis quoted on television wonder why the warrant came from Baghdad and not Najaf where the murder actually took place. And they point out that the murder happened last year. So why issue an arrest warrant for that now? 

The answer might lie in Tehran, Iran, which has huge influence on the Shi’ites in Iraq. The Shi’ites in Iraq are not unified. They can be divided into two groups—the moderates and hardliners. The moderates who want to work with the United States are led by Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, who is a member of the Iraqi Governing Council. The hardliners, led by the likes of Muqtada al-Sadr, are opposed to the coalition forces and make no secret about wanting the Americans to leave Iraq.  

This split mirrors in many ways the tension between reformists and conservatives in Iran as well. But in the recent elections in Iran, the reformists—led by President Khatami—were outmaneuvered and defeated by the conservatives who ally with Supreme Leader Khamenei. Though the means were dubious since many reformist candidates were banned from running, the end result has been a strengthening of the conservatives’ power in Iran. Now they are able to come out more openly in support of al-Sadr. Previously when they had invited al-Sadr to Iran, President Khatami had refused to meet him, though he had met with the moderate al-Hakim. 

The hardliners have always supported al-Sadr because they agree ideologically. Both distrust the United States and do not wish to enter into deals with the Americans. They also would like the U.S. to be stuck in the Iraqi quagmire so as to make sure that it does not put Iran on its hit list next. 

What has been worrying the U.S. lately is that the increased Iranian support to the Shi’ites led by al-Sadr could actually lead to a transnational Shi’ite alliance hostile to Washington. The militant group Hizbollah in Southern Lebanon has already thrown its support behind al-Sadr, who responded by saying he would be their “striking hand in Iraq.” The U.S. has been watching these developments in alarm because they did not go into Iraq to create Iran Number 2.  

Paul Bremer, the Coalition Provisional Authority administrator, probably hoped that by taking on Muqtada al-Sadr, he could nip this alliance in the bud, send a strong message to Tehran, and empower the moderate Shi’tes like the ones on the governing council. By issuing an arrest warrant, he is hoping to force Shi’ites in Iraq to make a choice. But the choice may not be so easy to make. Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani is the figure many Iraqi Shi’ites are looking to for direction. There has historically been bad blood between al-Sistani and al-Sadr’s father who was assassinated by Saddam Hussein’s regime. But al-Sadr has already declared his own allegiance to al-Sistani, who will not want to come out openly against al-Sadr, Iran and Hizbollah. So he has been issuing ambiguous statements that call for calm but also criticize the American forces. 

While the final outcome might still depend on al-Sistani, the increasing confrontation between the U.S. and al-Sadr’s Imam Mehdi army shows Bremer may have underestimated al-Sadr as no more than a young firebrand with limited support. The danger in igniting this confrontation is that it raises the possibility of Iraq’s majority Shi’ites reaching out to the Sunnis who have already been fighting the coalition forces in places like Fallujah. There are already signs that this is happening as residents of dominantly Sunni Fallujah tell al Alam television, an Arabic news channel out of Tehran, that they view al-Sadr as a political hero that the U.S. is trying to silence him by shutting down al Hawza newspaper which supported him.  

But the biggest danger is that the turmoil will allow hardliners in Iran to openly take up a prominent position in the unfolding drama. If it declares its full support to al-Sadr, it could be the key that would help him come out on top of the struggle between the conservatives and the moderates for control of Iraq.›

Suspected crack dealers busted 

Kofi Thomas and James Pryor, described by police as well-known South Berkeley crack cocaine dealers, were arrested by BPD officers executing searches on April 7. 

Thomas, on parole from a previous drug conviction, bolted when members of the BPD drug task force approached him on a parole search, said BPD spokesperson Kevin Schofield. 

A foot chase followed, and in the ensuing struggle, Thomas bit one of the officers on the hand. The policeman was briefly hospitalized. 

Found in possession of crack, Thomas was booked at the city jail. 

Shortly after 8 a.m. that same day, James Pryor, 25, on probation from a previous drug offense, was found in possession of crack at his residence in the 2800 block of McGee Avenue. He was booked on charges of probation violation and possession for sale of suspected rock cocaine.  

Road rage assault leads to jail 

A 47-year-old South Dakota man was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon Friday following a road rage incident that ended in the parking lot of the Whole Foods Market on Telegraph Avenue. 

The incident began with a dispute between the occupants of two cars, ending when the driver of one car pulled out a BB gun and fired a shot at the driver, striking him in the ear, said BPD spokesperson Kevin Schofield. 

George Miller was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and booked at city jail. Bail was set at $20,000.›

I’ve never been active in politics. Growing up on the East coast in the ‘50s and ‘60s, my parents expected my brothers and me to agree with them on political issues. Anything less resulted in enormous shouting matches, hurt feelings, and veiled threats. Even today, now that my brothers and I are practically senior citizens ourselves, we don’t discuss political views with my elderly parents. If you aren’t Republican and in support of George Bush, if you neglect to attend church, or if you don’t believe prison is full of people who need to be kept out of sight and out of mind, then it’s best to keep your opinions to yourself. We drink cocktails and talk about sports and the weather. It’s better for everyone’s nerves and high blood pressure. 

When I get around my parents I become the suburban 16-year-old I was 36 years ago: sullen, spoiled, and outwardly defiant. Back then I wore overalls, tie-dye t-shirts, mood rings, and moccasins, but my biggest act of rebellion was to temporarily forego underwear. 

I didn’t protest the Vietnam War or civil rights. I didn’t go to school with people of color. I only knew three people who went to Vietnam, one of whom escaped to Canada. I didn’t know anyone who’d been to jail, who was poor or foreign or sexually different. Perhaps you might think I was some kind of freak, but the truth is, everyone I knew was just like me. It’s nice to fantasize that we were a part of the wild, drug taking, sexually liberated ‘60s, but most of us stood on the sidelines and watched. I went to rock concerts every weekend, but I was always a little scared. 

Now I’m 52 years old and finally ready to join the “movement.” By that I mean, the work that needs to be done to get Bush out of office. No, I’m not going to protest rallies or planning any subversive activities. With a bedridden husband at home, medical bills to worry about, and house payments, I don’t have a lot of time or energy to devote to current politics. But like most things in my life, I’ve come to the left in a roundabout, unintentional way. 

Four years ago I went to an artists retreat and met Andrew Boyd, a young man who was trying (and failing) to write a humorous manifesto-advice book for men about feminism, entitled Enlightened Machismo. Andrew is a political pundit, and we became unlikely friends. What I didn’t know then was that he was an active radical, planning savvy theatrical protests against the corporate hijacking of America. 

Andrew is the co-chair and director of high-level schmoozing for Billionaires for Bush, a well-organized, liberal leaning media and street theater campaign whose mix of humor, satire and Internet know-how aims to expose the Bush administration’s lopsided economic policies. By impersonating the super-wealthy in an over-the-top manner, the Billionaires for Bush paint the president as a friend of corporate cronyism with sharp, surprising effectiveness. A photo of Andrew in his Billionaire identity, Phil T. Rich, dressed in top hat and tails, smoking an obscenely large cigar and drinking champagne, was recently featured in the New York Times Magazine. His grassroots campaigning is getting some big time notice. Already the Billionaires for Bush have 30 chapters nationwide, including one in the Bay Area. They’re planning a major action on tax day, April 15. 

So what’s my role in the Billionaires for Bush campaign? It’s easy and something I can handle. When Andrew comes to town for strategy meetings, as he did last week, I provide him with a roof over his head, clean towels and sheets, and chauffeuring services. I don’t attend his presentations or planning sessions. I don’t even talk politics with him because I still have emotional scars from my youth, preventing me from engaging in anything politically charged. I’m happy just to make sure Andrew gets to and from his meetings on time. It’s about as left as I get right now, but it’s a start. 

For more about the Billionaires for Bush (or to become a Billionaire—the website has everything you need to start your own chapter!) go to http://billionairesforbush.com. 

›

Thanks to the Reed family and the Daily Planet for the willingness to publicly address bullying in our schools. I too have navigated the institutional and family requirements to educate, keep healthy and resilient a student harmed by bullying and violence. For those students who have the unfortunate experience of persistent and pervasive harassment and abuse their childhood is quite different than others. Many students will encounter taunting and harassment in school, and may become wiser and stronger from the experience, but for many others the reality is disturbing and the problem and solutions are not completely in their control. Aggression in our schools is a constant; dismissing or pretending otherwise interferes with taking the right actions. Blaming the victim is a device of the ignorant. 

Because of my experiences my peers asked me to serve as PTA Council Parent Advocate. I have the honor and burden of assisting parents who have become desperate in their efforts to keep their kids safe. This past month three families contacted me, this is often the time of year when the kids can’t take it any more, the truth and pain come to the surface, and parents are frustrated. The parents who find me are coping with a degree of injury to their children and a wall of institutional dysfunction that is a nightmare. Bullying is a social dynamic, which means in any classroom, school, or family the situation will manifest differently. 

For many years committed parents have persisted together and contributed relevant resources as well as remedies specific to our local school system. I accept how overwhelmed the staff is and how difficult public education can be, however there are many missing safeguards which would improve the situation. I recognize that some preliminary and meaningful steps have been initiated, and I know it was collective parent pressure that produced district action. As overwhelmed as the staff is, families coping with these issues are equally overwhelmed. I say this in the hope that our school community can overcome the inherent “staff versus parents “ dynamic and the destructiveness it creates. Seven years ago school board members told me I was “wasting my time and banging my head against a wall” when I drafted reforms as opposed to a lawsuit. 

A few important facts: 

• The education code does allow for a student to defend himself or herself and not be suspended. 

• Parents and guardians can use a Uniform Complaint Process to formalize a complaint regarding a staff member, school practice or program. Forms and an explanation of the process can be found in the BUSD parent/student handbook, (This handbook was the result of PTA Council advocacy) 

• Bullying is primarily a power play, hence conflict resolution and peer mediation offer little help, in fact insisting the child participate often empowers the bully to continue. 

• Adults working in our schools are capable of behaving like bullies themselves. 

• Every school needs a functioning safety committee. 

• Well-established reporting practices and school procedures will reduce harassment and violence. 

• School safety monitors should be certified in first aid before being hired. 

• Education is lost when a student is a target of bullying. 

• The effect on the targeted child becomes a health issue.  

The responsibility to create resiliency in the life of a child is on the shoulders of the parents. When the school community fail to support the parents, we are further burdened and worn down. We are the most important adults in a child’s life. Listen to us, try to not judge us or dismiss us because we have to confront a problem that reflects negatively on the school. 

Laura Menard is PTA Council Parent Advocate and the parent of two Berkeley public school students. ›

What’s Berkeley like at rush hour? Traffic on Shattuck Avenue. Traffic on Ashby Avenue. Traffic on University Avenue. Berkeley’s major streets are at capacity, and are already clogged with traffic. This also affects commuters who take the bus, who are stuck in the same traffic.  

Now imagine almost 2,900 new commuter parking spaces constructed in Berkeley’s downtown and Southside. Berkeley’s traffic nightmare only gets worse. Not only are more cars caught in stop-and-go traffic jams getting through the city, but Berkeley will be less of a friendly place to live, work, go to school, and shop as the time to get in and around Berkeley increases. People getting to campus by bike and foot will travel to campus in clouds of car exhaust as 2,900 cars rest parked in the middle of major streets.  

This will be the future if UC Berkeley proceeds with its Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) as currently envisioned. The plan also proposes 2.2 million square feet of new classroom and office space and 2,600 additional beds of student housing (less than what may be needed) by 2020. However, the head count of faculty and staff is only increasing by 22 percent compared to the 41 percent increase of parking spaces, which includes the new Underhill parking garage.  

UC Berkeley should pursue a Transportation Demand Management approach to improving access to campus. Given the high rate of parking increase compared to the faculty and staff head count increase, it is apparent that this increase in parking will increase the faculty and staff drive-alone rate of 51 percent. At the same time, 1,060 faculty and staff who hold parking permits live within a mile of a bus stop and have a 20 minute bus ride to campus, according to UC Berkeley Parking and Transportation.  

UC Berkeley could reduce the demand for parking by providing a free transit pass to its faculty and staff, and pricing parking appropriately to encourage transit use. UC Berkeley should also actively maintain negotiations with BART to expand the class pass and a faculty/staff Eco-pass for BART. Especially in light of AC Transit’s planned Bus Rapid Transit on Telegraph, where one lane in each direction would be dedicated for a rapid bus every five minutes, UC Berkeley’s current course is set to collide with a preventable traffic jam for Telegraph. UC Berkeley should work with AC Transit’s planned improvements rather than make the situation worse.  

This strategy also perpetuates an increasing commuter campus mentality for UC Berkeley. The plan calls for the creation of 2,600 new beds of student housing in a “housing zone” located within a 20 minute bus ride to Doe Library. Though the campus has not specified specific sites, the plan should prioritize locating new undergraduate housing within the Southside and Downtown.  

The housing plan is also 1,150 beds short. The economy will not be sluggish forever, and only four years ago 2,100 students were ‘couchsurfing.’ Seven percent of students reported on the 2000 ASUC Housing Survey that they were homeless—-living at someone else’s place rather than their own. UC Berkeley identified a need for 3,200 new beds in the 1990 LRDP but only constructed 1,100 in the Underhill Area Projects. Given the 1,650 new students expected, UC Berkeley needs to plan for another 1,150 beds to provide enough housing.  

UC Berkeley can choose to strangle the streets of Berkeley, and starve the students of adequate housing, or take reasonable steps to improve the quality of life for students and the community. Let’s imagine paradise instead of the parking lot.  

Andy Katz and Brandon Simmons are the student representatives to the UC Berkeley Long Range Development Plan Steering Committee. Jesse Arreguin is the ASUC city affairs director.›

A product of sheer hard work, self-discipline, and enthusiasm, the En Pointe Youth Dance Company’s spring show “Young Syncopations” brings together six pieces, each with a unique style of choreography.  

This is their fourth annual spring show. The show is completely produced by youth. Sixteen year-olds Joanna Poz-Molesky and Anne Rigney founded the company in 2000, consisting of dancers ages 12-18. The dancers have trained at schools including Berkeley Ballet Theater, Berkeley City Ballet, Piedmont Ballet, East Bay School of the Arts, Dance Space and others. Members of the company choreographed all six pieces. 

The music sets the mood and the black tutus set the look for the first piece, entitled “Sentimientos” and choreographed by Gemma Stuart. The piece consists of four movements: a solo, a duet, a quartet, and a finale. The soloist, Sara Real, lights up the stage with her impressive jumps. The use of fans and beaming smiles in the duet, danced by Elizabeth Gow and Imogene Roach, add to the exciting movements and Spanish theme.  

The show changes pace quickly with a hip-hop trio next on the program. Performed to Usher’s “Yea,” and choreographed collaboratively by Mollie Gilles-Strain, Stuart, and Real, this piece demonstrates the versatility of the dancers. Their musicality and punctuation of the movement is awesome. Each one dances with a unique style, but there’s a consistent playful attitude that comes through to the audience throughout the dance. The dance incorporates some crowd-pleasing gymnastics as well. 

“I have a secret passion for hip-hop,” said Gilles-Strain. “It’s the complete opposite of ballet. In ballet you’ve got to be lifted, and in hip-hop, you’re grounded.” 

The next piece, “April Showers,” choreographed by Rigney, is easy to watch with the dancers in white, flowing dresses. The first section (out of five) is slow and serene, providing contrast to the exhausting petite allegro trio, which follows it. This piece is packed with challenging movement, including quick jumps and fuetés, and is very well staged.  

“Kissing You,” choreographed by Tenaya Kelleher, was performed during last year’s En Pointe show, and is being reset this year, with a live vocalist and pianist accompanying the dance. The choreography is a mixture of abstract modern and ballet and is performed by Stuart, Poz-Molesky, and Brie Connor.  

“Carnival,” choreographed by Sophie Bridgers, Theodora Boguszewki, and Linnea Snyderman, is a contemporary piece with funky turned-in moves that are skillfully executed. The vibrant colored skirts, handmade by Poz-Molesky, add an aesthetic appeal.  

The show finishes with “Pajaro Enjuavlado (Cageling),” choreographed by Poz-Molesky. The first movement of the piece is danced to Gounod’s “Ave Maria,” and has a somber, lyrical quality. The dancers move elegantly in long black or white skirts. The climactic group finale concludes the show. 

The company and production is funded solely on donations from local businesses and supporters.  

“The show gets better every year,” said both Poz-Molesky and Rigney. “Since the first year, it has improved one hundred percent.”  

If you’re looking for an evening of original choreography and visible passion for dance, En Pointe has a show for you. 

En Pointe Dance Company performs “Young Syncopations” Friday, April 16 at 1:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. in the Roda Theater on Addison Street in Berkeley. $6/ $8. For information write to enpointedance@yahoo.com. 

Citizens: Please report to the Berkeley Art Museum (BAM) by April 25. That’s the last date to catch “Ant Farm 1968-1978” before it leaves on a five-city tour. For your own protection, don’t miss this retrospective of architecture, urban-planning, and media pranks. It’s thought-provoking, transparent, and great fun. 

You might already know the Ant Farm troupe, if not by name, from two iconic images. “Cadillac Ranch” (1974) is the “modern Stonehenge” the troupe created off Texas’ Route 66 by half-burying 10 vintage Cadillacs, nose down, tailfins up. “Media Burn” (1975) features another Cadillac—customized into something resembling a spacecraft—crashing through a pyramid of burning televisions. 

Ant Farm gestated in Texas and hatched (“founded on a platform of educational reform”) in San Francisco. “We are underground architects,” the founders declared to a Bay Area friend. “Oh, you mean like an Ant Farm?” she replied. The name stuck. 

Mainstays Chip Lord (now teaching at UC Santa Cruz), Curtis Schreier, and the late Doug Michels worked out of San Francisco, Houston, and Washington, D.C., joined by a changing cast of co-conspirators. 

At the Berkeley Art Museum exhibit, you can watch both projects unfold on cycling videos. And you can examine Media Burn’s “Phantom Dream Car” itself—still intact, with conning tower, working fore and aft video cameras, dashboard TV monitor, escape hatch, and lunar-module-style Plexiglass cockpit. 

But the retrospective also presents 10 years of the group’s less famous countercultural interventions—some just as interesting. You literally can’t miss “ICE 9,” a ceiling-high inflatable shelter that occupies much of the gallery. Named for the apocalyptic catalyst in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle, it looks like a cross between the Space Shuttle and trippy ‘70s soft furniture. “Sleeps 5, weighs 20 pounds, inflates in 10 minutes—$500 w/fan,” its designers claimed. 

Ant Farm’s early work focused on portable structures and temporary communities—or “nomadics.” “ICE 9” was one of several rounded, cheap, inflatable designs that the museum’s press release calls “symbolic of their opposition to the mainstream Brutalist architecture of the 1960s.” (Such as, ironically, the BAM building itself.) The group’s 1970 “Instant City” plan looks like a blueprint for today’s Burning Man phenomenon.  

The core of Ant Farm’s work playfully satirized the grand public projects of the future-oriented ‘60s and early ‘70s. For the 1972 “Time Capsule” they sealed kitschy consumer products inside a refrigerator. (Why a fridge? To “open doors to the American Dream,” an Ant Farmer explains on video.) Three years later, they buried a similarly laden Oldsmobile station wagon. 

Ant Farm’s LSD-inspired “House of the Century, 1972-2072” was built near Houston without one square corner. The award-winning structure looks like a cross between a lunar lander and a giant Groucho nose/glasses disguise. 

One of their last playful projects was the 1977 “Dolphin Embassy,” a floating outpost for “bringing modern technology to the least developed nation of all.” A 1978 fire destroyed their San Francisco studio and ended Ant Farm as we know it. 

Ant Farm’s projects drew on earlier outsider architects like Buckminster Fuller and Britain’s Archigram (whose elaborate plans for mobile cities filled a wing of SFMOMA in 1999). And their videos and assorted happenings echoed, and inspired, a long chain of conceptual artists. 

But unlike solemn utopians and snide poseurs, Ant Farm did everything in good humor. BAM’s retrospective is a nostalgic flashback to a time when architectural pranksters were rewarded with laughter instead of million-dollar commissions. 

Don’t miss the video of their 1976 opera “CARmen,” performed in the Sydney Opera House’s parking lot. It’s played on 35 cars’ horns, “conducted” by an Ant Farm member hopping around in a ridiculously floppy kangaroo suit. (Two hours of videos are projected at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m., each Wednesday through Sunday.) 

One last nostalgic angle: Ant Farm’s most trenchant pranks satirized the ‘60s orthodox American Dream of excessive consumption, automobile dependence, mass-media addiction, militarism, and dubious space adventures. Yet pervading Ant Farm’s work is real love for the optimistic, Kennedy-era ideals of mobility, shared affluence, and inclusion. The “Artist-President” who presides over Media Burn is a miraculously resurrected JFK or Bobby Kennedy. 

Some sacred cows that Ant Farm targeted—like network television, or the notion of cars as liberation—have fallen a notch or two. These days, people think they’re achieving liberation by sitting behind computer screens with the “right” logo or innards. Particularly in this town, today’s official dogma is to force people out of their cars, and to force every possible inch of height and floor area out of every construction plot. 

One longs for the next generation of Ant Farm-style provocateurs, who might construct a “Density Ranch” out of half-buried skyscrapers, or videotape a Critical Mass of self-righteous bicyclists riding through a wall of smoking Macintoshes. And stream it on the web, dude.›

TUESDAY, APRIL 13 

FILM 

Optical Poetry: Oskar Fischinger Classics at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Peter Everwine reads from “From the Meadow: Selected and New Poems” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Nona Mock Wyman reads from her memoirs, “Chopstick Childhood in a Town of Silver Spoons” at 7 p.m. at the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512. 

“Harlequin Novels, African Style” with Lydie Moudileno, visiting professor, French Dept. at 4 p.m. at 652 Barrows Hall. Sponsored by the Center for African Studies. 642-8338. 

Nuriddin Farah, contemporary African writer, discusses his new novel “Links” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Andrew E. Barshay, Prof. of History, UCB, “The Social Sciences in Modern Japan: The Marxian and Modern Traditions” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Beatriz Manz, “Paradise in Ashes: A Guatemalan Journey of Courage, Terror and Hope” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Dayna Stephens House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.com 

Tee Fee Swamp Boogie at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, with a Cajun dance lesson with Annie Byrd at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Homespun Rowdy performs honky-tonk bluegrass at 4 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14 

CHILDREN 

Craft Program Make “Wild Things” masks at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library North Branch, 1170 The Alameda. 981-6250. 

THEATER 

“The Mystery of Irma Vep,” Charles Ludlam’s theatrical cult classic opens at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage at 8 p.m. through May 23. Tickets are $39-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

FILM 

Film 50: “The Art of the Political Film” and “Lifeguard” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Joan Blades introduces “MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Frederick Turner discusses “In the Land of Temple Caves: From St. Emilion to Paris’s St. Sulpice--Notes on Art and the Human Spirit “at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Mark Bittner introduces his new book “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-3635. 

Stephanie Elizondo Griest talks about “Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing and Havana” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam Semi-Finals for the National Slam Team competition at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7, $5 with student i.d. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Café Poetry and open mic, hosted by Kira Allen at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Donation $2. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Poetry Writing Workshop with Danna Zeller at 7 p.m. in the Edith Stone Room, Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 20. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Red Archibald & The Internationals at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Deepak Ram and Anuradha Pal, bansuri and tabla, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

La Verdad performs salsa music at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

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

Sebastien Martel plays Cuban French acoustic grooves at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 15 

FILM 

Vertical Pool: “Hysteria” A film by Antero Alli at 8 p.m. at Finnish Hall, 1970 Chestnut St., near University Ave. with the filmmaker in person. Admission $5. 464-4640. www.verticalpool.com/hysterinfo.html 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Ant Farm 1968-1978” Guided Tour at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

Amy Goodman discusses her book “The Exception to the Rulers” at 7:30 p.m. at M.L. King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. Tickets are $15. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Daniel Boyarin introduces “Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Micheline Marcom reads from “The Daydreaming Boy” a novel of a survivor of the Armenian genocide, at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. www.codysbooks.com 

Joseph A. Califano, Jr. describes his memoir, “Inside” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Japanese Architect Fumihiko Maki will speak at 8 p.m. at Dwinelle Hall, UC Campus. 464-3600. www.aiaeb.org 

Word Beat Reading Series with featured readers Mark Schwartz and Selene Steese at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

ROVA, avant garde saxophone quartet, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $10-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Kevin Seconds and Anton Barbeau at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Famous Last Words, Lizanah, Essence at 9:15 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Nerissa & Katryna Nields, contemporary folk, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

FRIDAY, APRIL 16 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Watercolors” by Howard Margolis Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at Schurman Fine Art Gallery, 1659 San Pablo Ave. Exhibit runs through May. 524-0623. 

Paintings by Julia Ross Reception from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at The French Hotel, 1538 Shattuck Ave. Exhibit runs through April 30. 527-0173. 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “The Sisters Rosensweig,” a comedy by Wendy Wasserstein, opens at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman, and continues on Fri. and Sat. through May 15. Tickets are $10. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theatre Company “Antigone Falun Gong” at 8 p.m. Wed.-Sat., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. through May 16. Tickets are $28-$40 available from 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Black Repertory Group Theater “Trilogy of One Act Plays” Gala reception at 6 p.m., show at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2:30 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $15. 652-2120. www.blackrepertorygroup.org 

“The Mystery of Irma Vep,” Charles Ludlam’s theatrical cult classic at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage, through May 23. Tickets are $39-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Shotgun Players “The Miser” opens at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater, Thurs. - Sun. through May 2. Free. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org 

FILM 

47th SF International Film Festival at 5 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Marc Cooper discovers “The Last Honest Place in America: In Search of Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Bob Randolph at the Fellowship Café & Open Mic, 7:30 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita Sts. A donation of $5-$10 is requested.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Young Syncopations” En Pointe Dance presents original works by six young choreographers at 1:30 and 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $6 in advance, $8 at the door. enpointedance 

@yahoo.com 

University Dance Theater, directed by Marni Thomas, with premieres by Christopher Dolder and Carol Murota at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $8-$14, from 866-468-3399. www.ticketweb.com 

“Isadora ... No Apologies” a dance play recounting the life of Isadora Duncan at 8 p.m. at Lisser Hall at Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd. Tickets are $10-$15 at the door. www.isadoraduncan.org 

Redmeat at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Musicians from Marlboro at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Pre-concert talk by violinist Scott St. John at 7 p.m. Tickets are $38. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Palenque performs Cuban music at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Andrew Tosh & The Tosh Band, Sister I-Live, the Reggae Angels at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Double Standards, jazz trio, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Original Intentions at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$10. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Laura Risk with Steve Baughman, Irish fiddle and guitarist, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Danny Caron, jazz and blues guitar, at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Seek, Dynamic at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Hot Cross, Lickgoldensky, Cat on Form, Heart Cross Love at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

ROVA, avant garde saxophone quartet, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $10-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Bobby Vega and Chris Rossbach Group at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

SATURDAY, APRIL 17 

CHILDREN  

Juanita Ulloa will perform original and traditional Mexican songs for the whole family at 11 a.m. at Berkeley Public Library, West Branch, 1125 University Ave. 981-6278. 

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

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Bonnie Lockhart at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $3-$4. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Dance Jammies, a multi-generational dance event from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Motivity Center, 2525 8th St. Cost is $9. 832-3835. 

FILM 

47th SF International Film Festival at 1:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Berkeley Public Library’s Teen Playreaders present a multilingual poetry reading at 2 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda. 

Andrew Todhunter shares his gastronomic adventure of working in a Paris restaurant in “A Meal Observed” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

Gary Bogue and Chuck Todd give advice on living with urban wildlife in “The Racoon next Door” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

University Dance Theater, directed by Marni Thomas, with premieres by Christopher Dolder and Carol Murota 8 p.m., Sun. at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $8-$14, from 866-468-3399. www.ticketweb.com 

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra performs Scarlatti’s “Vespers of St. Cecilia” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $29-$60 available from 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Trinity Chamber Concerts with Christine Mok, violin and Miles Graber, piano, performing works of Beethoven, Kreisler, Ravel and Stravinsky at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana at Durant. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. 

All Bach Concert with David Ryther, violin, Aria Di Salvio, cello, Marvin Sanders, flute, at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. Tickets are $15-$50, benefits the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Aux Cajunals at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Vieques Si, Marina No, celebrating a victory for social justice at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10, $5 students. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Charlie King and Karen Brandow In Concert, politically affirming harmonies, at 7 p.m. at Redwood Gardens Community Center, 2951 Derby St. at Claremont Blvd. Suggested donation $5-$20.  

Naked Barbies, Frankie’s Dream at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

True Blue, traditional bluegrass, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Wil Blades Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Songwriter’s Showcase with Forest Sun, Alexis Harte and Adrian West at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

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

Mystic performs hip hop at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $12-$15. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Odd Shaped Case at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Donation $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Nika Rejto, Brazilian jazz, at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Vitamin X, Holier Than Thou, Deadfall, Our Turn, League of Struggle at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 18 

CHILDREN  

Family Explorations: Clay Day from noon to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th Sts. Admission is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Theater Workshop: Circus Skills for children of all ages from 1 to 3 p.m. at Berkeley Rep School of Theater, 2071 Addison St. Free, bring a children’s book to donate to the John Muir School library. 647-2972. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Julie Mehretu: Matrix 211 opens with an artist’s talk at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

FILM 

47th SF International Film Festival at 1:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“A Brivele der Maman” about a Jewish mother’s efforts to keep her family together. Made in Poland in 1938 in Yiddish, with English subtitles. At 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Suggested donation $2. 848-0237. www.brjcc.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Jenny Browne and Bruce Snider at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Annie Koh will discuss the new anthology “How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office (And by the Way, Some People of Color Are Just as Stupid and Need to Go Too)” at 3 p.m. at Eastwind Books, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Organ Recital with Brian Swager at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Brombaugh Organ at St. John’s. 845-6830. 

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra performs Scarlatti’s “Vespers of St. Cecilia” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $29-$60. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

The Country Joe Band, featuring former members of Country Joe & the Fish, at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $20. Benefit for Options Recovery Services. 848-0237. 

Berkeley High School Jazz Gala, at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets are $25-$75. 527-8245. www.berkeleyhighjazz.org 

California Friends of Lousiana French Music Dance and music lessons from 2 to 4 p.m., music jam and dancing from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5-$8. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

ACME Observatory’s Contemporary Music Series with Jacob Lindsey, Scott Looney & Gino Robair at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Odd Shaped Case at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Donation of $7-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Betsy Rose and Judy Fjell at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra at 4:30 and 7 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Opressed Logic, Resistoleros at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926.

Red horsechestnuts are blooming now. It’s an interesting phenomenon: the rosy-red flowers are in great big stacks, but somehow easy to miss as you drive by. You walk by, or sit at a stoplight, and suddenly they’re astonishing. In a big mature tree like the handsome one at the southeast corner of Sacramento and Hopkins, the foliage is deep and thick enough to make the flowers less prominent to the fast-passing eye; in younger trees like those near the Berkeley Bowl, they’re like big candles on the twigs. 

Red horsechestnut has a scanty history, being a fairly recent hybrid: its formal name is Aesculus x carneus (that middle initial betrays its bi-species origin). Its lineage is distinguished and interesting on both sides, though. One parent is the European horsechestnut. The other is an eastern American native, red buckeye. Horsechestnuts are so called because they’re bitter and inedible to humans, but can be processed into a feed supplement for horses and cattle—though pigs, who relish true chestnuts, won’t eat it. (Or fide some sources, because the leaf scar on a twig looks like a hoofprint.) 

“Horsechestnut” and “buckeye” are generally interchangeable when people talk about the fruits. They do look like chestnuts, usually a bit less flattened and with that attachment scar on one side that makes the “eye.” There’s a folk belief that carrying one in your pocket protects against rheumatism, or brings luck. There’s also a trade in folk or “alternative” medicine using extracts of horsechestnut for assorted vein problems like swollen legs. I think I’d stick to wearing compression stockings myself, as the compounds are said to interact badly with such ordinary drugs as aspirin. 

Like most drugs, they come from a source that has its own dangers. The flowers of red horsechestnut are toxic to eat, and can be used to stun fish if for some reason you want to stun a fish. Why do that? I’m told that a compound of the local family member, California buckeye, was used by the original people here for grocery shopping—a handful in a pond or backwater would stun the fish in it; they’d rise to the surface for easy choosing, and when the stuff dispersed and diluted in the water, the rest would come to, shake their (presumably slightly hung-over) fishy heads and go on about their business. 

In the Pennsylvania neighborhood where I grew up, there was a great big European horsechestnut growing in a great big yard just up the hill. We took part in the great kid tradition of throwing the plentiful nuts—”conkers”—at each other when they ripened and fell every year. Really mean kids would pick up the ones with the spiky seedcoat still on them, very carefully, and throw those—the same kids who’d put a rock in a snowball. 

Red horsechestnuts don’t seem to drop many nuts, at least here. If you find one, you can grow your own tree, as this is one of the few hybrids that come true from seed.<

It’s often hard, when it comes time to write editorials, to decide what readers are most interested in thinking about. Editorial departments in many newspapers seem to believe that their job is to tell readers what to think. In Berkeley, and particularly at the Berkeley Daily Planet, that’s definitely not our job. Our readers can make up their own minds, thank you. What we hope to do is to point out what’s going on, in case someone’s missing something, so that readers know when it’s their duty to form opinions on important topics of the day. 

This week, events which might lend themselves to editorial scrutiny have ranged from the ridiculous to the even more ridiculous. Like many Berkeleyans, we’ve made a conscientious effort to follow the proceedings of the 9/11 commission. (And thanks as usual to KPFA for making this possible.) The president’s press conference, only the third in the current reign, was impossible to miss, particularly since the KQED tape loop re-ran it many times. In our household, as in many Berkeley houses, national broadcast news is mostly radio, listened to while doing home tasks, since we often can’t bear to look at the faces of the national newsmakers. But this week, I found that I couldn’t even stomach the radio version, not even in the car where there’s not much else to entertain. So the bulk of my perception of what happened at the 9/11 commission and the press conference is second-hand reports from stronger souls.  

I’ve gotten the impression from friends and print reports that a lot of the Condoleezza Rice part of the program revolved around what was or was not part of the President’s Daily Briefing, which was abbreviated PDB in news-speak. [As I typed my coined word “news-speak,” the spellchecker tried to change it to “newspeak,” a slightly different word coined by George Orwell which seems to have come to mean almost the same thing.] What catches my attention about this account is not what was in the PDB at issue, but the tragic irony that the current president seems to be unable to process more than a short page of predigested copy at a time, and there’s no guarantee he’s able to read it without moving his lips.  

The American presidency is an office which used to be held by men who got the job by being able, at some level, to read, write and think for themselves. It has been occupied by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, even Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, who for all their manifest faults were no slouches in the brain department. Now it’s become a kind of monarchy, where a show figure is occasionally put on display to read a message crafted by the powers behind the throne, much as Queen Elizabeth sometimes reads an address written by Britain’s parliamentary majority. George Bush II read the message from Halliburton on Iraq at his press conference last week. 

I turned off three successive re-broadcasts of the press conference, because I couldn’t bear even the three sentences I heard each time. I happened to call my sister while she was watching excerpts on the eleven o’clock news, and I asked her what she thought of it. “I’m deeply, deeply embarrassed,” she said. That comment will do for me, and I suspect for most readers of this paper. But it’s your duty, now, to form your own opinion about what’s going on in the nation, and even more important, to act on it as you see fit. The Daily Planet’s only here to let you know that you should be very, very worried. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Berkeley Daily Planet.

DOWNTOWN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Rob Wrenn’s commentary on traffic in Berkeley (“Taking Away Parking Did Not Increase Europe’s Traffic Congestion,” Daily Planet, April 9-12) can be summarized in one phrase: cars bad, pedestrians and cyclists good. It doesn’t, however, address a rather fundamental issue, which is what the nature of downtown Berkeley really ought to be. Every time I open a copy of the Daily Planet I read an article about another Berkeley retail store closing its doors—most recently Tower Records—usually accompanied by considerable hand wringing and gnashing of teeth. The connection that people don’t seem to make—Mr. Wrenn included—is that less vehicular traffic (and parking) means lower retail sales. The simple reason for this is that people don’t like to schlep their shopping bags large distances from the stores to their cars. It’s a peculiar human trait, but not a surprising one. Consequently, if you restrict parking, or vehicular access, to the center of Berkeley, you are automatically restricting the growth and profitability of retail businesses. 

I think the Berkeley community as a whole needs to decide what sort of downtown it wants. If it wants a vibrant retail center, along the lines of Walnut Creek, it needs to provide adequate vehicular access and parking. If it wants a totally pedestrianized downtown, with nice open spaces, but small service shops and fast food parlors (which is what it is rapidly becoming), that’s fine, but don’t complain about the absence of quality retail stores. You can’t have your cake and eat it. 

Malcolm Carden 

• 

SOURCE OF BLIGHT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his reporting of recent losses in downtown retail business (“See’s, Gateway Closings Jolt Downtown Retail Outlook,” Daily Planet, April 2-5), Richard Brenneman states that Berkeley’s office vacancy rate is the lowest in the East Bay. This observation may be true in general, but it overlooks one important factor in the decline of Shattuck Avenue: the loss of 200 office jobs and $10 million in annual payroll at the still-vacant former premises of California Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) at the corner of Bancroft Way when that organization relocated to downtown Oakland in 2001. That partly boarded-up building also housed other now-closed businesses. 

All of these businesses were driven out by the excessive rent demands of the building’s owner L.B. Reddy, currently serving a federal prison sentence for his crimes. Reddy refused to let CEB seismically upgrade the building at its own expense and exercise its option to renew the existing lease paying him $500,000 per year, unless CEB agreed to pay increased rent and employ his contractors. 

Reddy’s insatiable greed in this transaction has already cost him $1.5 million in lost rent, in addition to degrading the quality of life all over the downtown area. If Shattuck Avenue is indeed suffering from blight, the source of the blight is clear. 

Robert Denham 

• 

PUNKS, PIT BULLS, BUMS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was saddened to read in your paper that See’s Candy is going to move its store to Emeryville— saddened but not surprised. Berkeley is a mess of punks, pit bulls, bums, drunks, and the mentally ill. Oh, and dirty, smelly sidewalks as well. Who’d want to do business here? This is pretty much what I replied when asked by a surveyor for High Tech Burritos on Shattuck if I had ever eaten there. I wonder if High Tech’s downtown location is doing poorly. I am sure one of the reasons may be the oft-noted one that Berkeleyans tend not to like chains. There are the above reasons to consider which hardly anyone expresses publicly. Why is this???? 

Millicent Wilson 

• 

THE PASSION 

Editors, Daily Planet, 

Mark Winokur’s commentary piece on Mel Gibson’s The Passion makes a good point (“Film shows Need for Complex Interpretation of History,” Daily Planet, April 9-12). Any filmic depiction of historic events inevitably distorts, by exaggeration or oversimplification, the “true” events, in the process replacing them in “real” history.  

Winokur calls in a lengthy analysis for a calm recognition by Jews of Jewish involvement in Jesus’ crucifixion. He points out that at least some Biblical Jews must have been offended—for various reasons—by Jesus’ ideas and behavior, and may have overtly or covertly displayed their disapproval.  

Therefore, he says, modern Jews should openly accept this as fact and cease “a determined and insistent effort to disavow any possible or significant Jewish collaboration” in that event. Present protestations by modern Jews of ancient innocence “[do]… much to alienate us from our Christian brethren and may…only exacerbate [anti-Semitism].” 

While acceding to the historic deadly outbreaks of anti-Semitism, Winokur speaks as though dealing with a moderate affliction such as flu: Inoculate against it by rational acceptance of some ill-defined ancient responsibilities, and rest easy. Excesses such as those in the film will have no effect.  

Wrong! Those very excesses demonstrate the persistence of the virus, to which millions over the world are still susceptible: “The Jews killed Christ!” In a world of complex religious schisms (Christianity itself is replete with them) where bitterness is often deep, hard, and incisive, that short mantra still can ring out clear and distinct. 

Excesses such as those in The Passion must be challenged promptly every time, as must be all expressions which carelessly impugn any entire group or class. 

Morris Berger 

• 

PARKING AND TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am fortunate to live in the Berkeley hills with one of the most beautiful views in the world, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. But I’m beginning to feel ignored in all the discussions about parking in Berkeley. I would happily take public transportation whenever possible, but AC Transit comes to my area only every 30 minutes, and only hourly on weekends. This is not my idea of adequate public transit. When I lived in San Francisco I could easily manage without a car; the Muni wasn’t perfect, but it had convenient routing and fairly frequent schedules. 

There is no way that we can shop for groceries, go to medical and dental appointments, go to movies or cultural events, or do anything else without using our car. Increasingly, I find that I am going to Emeryville or El Cerrito to shop because of the difficulty in finding a parking place in downtown Berkeley. Even the public garages are frequently filled. Having pedestrian zones downtown is a great idea, but we need to be able to get to the pedestrian zones if we don’t live near them. 

Jerrie Meadows 

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HONORING OUR TROOPS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

MoveOn.org sent out a message entitled “Honoring Our Troops” stating “it’s a good time to take a moment to honor the sacrifices our troops there and their families are making.” We felt it important to respond. Here’s what we said: 

“Dear friends at MoveOn, 

“Whenever we have heard others remark about the importance of supporting our troops even though one may oppose the war itself, we’ve felt a sense of unease, a kind of intuition that says that there is something inconsistent with supporting those that are conducting the war. Sure, it is Bush-Cheney and their cabal that got us into this, but it’s the regular soldiers who are firing the rockets, dropping the bombs, shooting at shadows that turn out to be children, terrorizing families, torturing prisoners, and then coming home, traumatized by the horrors they’ve seen and those they have themselves perpetrated. 

It is much better in our opinion, to honor those soldiers who have refused to fight or refused to go. They deserve our support. And in so doing, we should be encouraging all soldiers to refuse. This is an immoral war, and the soldiers who are carrying it out should be given a very clear message that their willingness to follow orders makes this war possible. 

MoveOn might consider some form of financial or legal support for any soldier who refuses to go to Iraq via a campaign similar to those you’ve undertaken to rid us of Bush. Look to the Israelis who are supporting their Rufuseniks to see how to make this happen. This is the type of action that we should all be supporting. 

Tom and Jane Kelly 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Richard Clarke did nothing more than attempt to shift blame from the administration which had done nothing of any true consequence, Bill Clinton’s, to George W. Bush’s administration. His self-serving apology not only made him a hero to Democrats, it also sold thousands of books for him. It is a shame that this false apology, given under dubious circumstances, is given such high praise by George Cohen. Why didn’t Clarke make this apology months or years ago? Could it have something to do with the release of his book and his malice toward the Bush administration? Not according to Mr. Cohen. Mr. Cohen believes that Clarke is acting in a completely forthright manner. 

Never mind the contradicting testimony of Richard Clarke, where he constantly says one thing in his book and testimony and something completely different in the memos and e-mails he sent while in office. According to Mr. Cohen, Richard Clarke should be believed at face value. Like P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” 

Peter McClellan 

Sacramento 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding our progress in getting the City of Berkeley to paint a crosswalk between Berkeley High School and the civic center park, we are chugging right along. Today (April 8) my daughter Ashley and I were scheduled to meet with the 2x2 committee at City Hall. What is 2x2? That’s a meeting between two City Council members and two School Board members. However, today’s meeting was canceled at the last minute. 

I had talked with various city officials earlier about how to get an initiative on the November ballot and was told that the 2x2 was a better way to go. However, the 2x2 isn’t rescheduled to meet again until May and if we wait that long, we won’t have time to collect the 2,007 signatures we need to get the crosswalk on the November ballot. Sigh. 

So this morning, a rather sleepy Ashley and I filed a petition to get the crosswalk initiative on the ballot. Next step? The city’s attorney will review our petition to see if it sez all the right stuff. THEN we will have to collect A LOT of signatures by May 31. Are you up for it? How badly do you want this crosswalk? WARM UP YOUR WRITING HAND! 

And while we are at it, perhaps we should circulate a petition to get America out of Iraq and George Bush into jail. Input? 

Jane Stillwater 

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