Berkeley’s medical cannabis advocates issued a clear threat to the Berkeley City Council at last Tuesday night’s (April 20) regular meeting: If the council doesn’t pass Councilmember Kriss Worthington’s medical marijuana plant increase measure next week, the activists will go to the voters next November with a ballot initiative that would potentially make Berkeley the most pot-friendly city in California. 

At the same meeting, the council decided to reverse the “ex parte” rule that prevents members from talking to developers or residents about pending development projects which might ultimately come before the council. In a 5-3-2 vote (Bates, Maio, Spring, Breland, Worthington aye, Hawley, Olds no, Shirek, Wozniak abstain), the council approved a recommendation that ex parte contacts should be allowed on such projects, with the provision that each council, board and commission member must document and disclose all contacts before the beginning of a public hearing.  

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said that the draft language for the new rule could be presented for council approval within two months. 

But it was the medical marijuana issue that generated the most interest at Tuesday’s meeting. 

Worthington’s proposal on next week’s council agenda asks the council to adopt the Proposition 215 “Implementation Plan” which would, among other things, allow medical cannabis users in the city to increase the number of personal marijuana plants in their possession from 10 to 72. That is the same number as is currently allowed in Oakland. 

Proposition 215 was the California voter-passed initiative that legalized medical marijuana use in the state. 

“[But] just as a precaution we took the liberty of filing the ballot petition,” Berkeley Patients Group Director Don Duncan told about 30 demonstrators outside of Old City Hall. “If next week we can’t get the council to do what we want, we’ll do it ourselves.” 

Dubbed the Patients Access To Medical Cannabis Act of 2004, the proposed ballot measure would allow licensed patients to grow as much marijuana as their doctors deemed necessary. In addition, the initiative would put the city in charge of distributing medical cannabis if the federal government ever shut down the city’s three established cannabis clubs. No other city in the state presently has such a distribution fallback guarantee. However a historic preliminary injunction Wednesday might make that a moot point.  

In a first-of-its-kind case, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel barred the U.S. Justice Department from raiding or prosecuting the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz after a 2002 raid sparked public outrage. 

Though the fear of federal intervention now appears on the wane, cannabis advocates say Berkeley’s strict limits on the number of marijuana plants patients can grow remains a pressing concern. 

If the November measure makes it onto the ballot and passes, Berkeley would also join Santa Cruz as the only cities in the state with no limits on the number of marijuana plants patients could grow and become the first city to guarantee the distribution of marijuana in the event of a federal crackdown on cannabis clubs. 

In an interview after the council meeting, Worthington was quick to separate himself from the cannabis advocates pressuring the council to support his bill. “I had nothing to do with writing their initiative or encouraging them,” he said. “I’m doing what I think three-fourths of Berkeley thinks is a reasonable improvement.” 

In 1996, 86 percent of Berkeley residents supported Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act that set the stage for medical cannabis clubs. Regulating medical cannabis, however, was reserved for cities. In 2001, the City Council voted 5-4 to limit patients to 10 plants. A counterproposal that garnered four votes would have allowed patients to grow 144 plants.  

The 10 plant limit is fairly average in California, with only Santa Cruz, Oakland, and San Diego allowing significantly more plants than Berkeley. A state law passed last year (SB420) set a floor of six plants for all cities that do not set their own medical marijuana plant limit. 

Ten plants is enough for a single medical marijuana user if they are grown outdoors, Duncan said. Berkeley law, however, states outdoor plants, which can grow as high as trees, must be out of view. Duncan explained that in a dense city like Berkeley, this means that nearly all plants are raised indoors. 

Berkeley police don’t actively enforce the 10 plant law, but that isn’t the point, said Duncan, adding that “patients don’t want to live in fear that they are breaking the law.” Claiming that he was confident Worthington’s bill would be supported by Mayor Tom Bates and councilmembers Linda Maio and Dona Spring, Duncan urged supporters to lobby Margaret Breland and Maudelle Shirek to cast the remaining necessary votes. In 2001, Breland sided with Worthington, Spring and Maio in supporting a 144 plant limit. 

Other potential November ballot initiatives also came up at Tuesday’s council meeting. The council postponed a city manager’s report on two initiatives—one that would establish a civic board to govern the removal of trees in public spaces and the other, the Angel Initiative, that would decriminalize prostitution in Berkeley and call on the state to do the same.  

Elliot Cohen, author of the Berkeley Tree Act, argued that in the midst of a budget crisis, the city shouldn’t waste staff time studying the ramifications of his measure until he collected enough signatures to qualify it for the November ballot.  

Robin Few, author of the Angel Initiative, feared that a negative report from the city manager could harm her efforts to collect signatures.  

Despite objections from the Transportation Commission, the council voted 8-1 (Worthington, no) to approve a new flat-rate $1.50 fee for two hours of parking between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. weekdays and 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturdays. Transportation Director Peter Hillier said transportation commissioners were concerned that the move would encourage more drivers to come into the downtown area, but would do little for pedestrians, cyclists and mass transit riders. 

Last month, the council had requested the commission issue a recommendation before taking a final vote on the proposal. Hillier will prepare a report on its effectiveness after three months. 

The council held off on approving the allocation of $3.88 million in 2004-2005 Federal Community Development Block Grant funds while the staff looks for more money for the Center for the Education of Infant Deaf. The Housing Advisory Commission granted the group $10,000, but Director Jill Ellis said that a $50,000 grant would enable it to utilize a separate federal grant to open an audiology suite. The suite would allow babies complete, timely diagnostic screening. Currently, Ellis said, babies with hearing problems must wait four to six months for tests and hearing aids which drastically hinder their development. 

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  Students from five student-run outreach and retention centers on the UC campus gathered in front of California Hall on Thursday afternoon to express their frustration over the state of recruitment and enrollment for minority students at the university, and to present a list of demands to correct what they feel is the problem. 

  “I’m embarrassed to be at a university that prides itself on diversity,” said Dallas Goldtooth, a UC student and member of the Native American Recruitment and Retention Center. “I can no longer do a disservice to my people and tell them to come to a campus that doesn’t respect them.” 

  “The state of black affairs at UC Berkeley is one of emergency,” said Renita Chaney, a student and executive director of the Black Recruitment and Retention Center. “I will not continue to implore my community to face a hostile environment.”  

Figures released Tuesday by the university indicated the source of the protesters’ concerns, showing a severe decline in the number of minority students admitted this year, angering many who say the university and the state have not done their part to create campuses that mirrors the diversity of California. 

  According to the UC Berkeley news center, African American admissions are down 29.2 percent since this time last year, American Indian admissions are down 21.6 percent, and Chicano/Latino admissions are down 7.3 percent. While admissions for students under the broad category of Asian American went up 4.7 percent, the number of students admitted to the university who identify themselves as southeast Asian and Pacific Islander was down 12 percent. White student admissions went up 10.6 percent since last year. 

  The students and their supporters at Thursday’s press conference said they are particularly upset because the state has continually turned its back on outreach programs, forcing students to create and run their own services. 

  The five student centers represented at the press conference—the Native American Recruitment and Retention Center (NARC), the Black Recruitment and Retention Center (BRRC), the Pilipinio Academic Student Services (PASS), Raza Recruitment and Retention Center, the Asian/Pacific Islander Recruitment and Retention Center (REACH)—are all student run and perform a major part of the university’s outreach services. They were joined by bridges, a multicultural resource center. 

  “I do it because the university won’t do it or won’t do it right,” said James Valdez, about his work with Raza. “Instead they reap the benefits. If the university is serious about diversity, the university must start supporting us.” 

  Demands presented by the minority student groups included the appointment of a vice chancellor of minority affairs, active support for policies that support diversity, scholarships for students working with bridges and the student outreach centers, a multicultural student center, and a position for a member of bridges on any university committee that makes decisions concerning outreach and yield.  

Several administrators showed up to the press conference but none spoke. In a later interview, John Cumins, associate chancellor, said the university “was as concerned as [the students] about these unusually low numbers,” and pledged to “certainly take their demands seriously.” 

  Chancellor Robert Berdahl did not attend the press conference but did issue comments in a campus press release. “I am profoundly saddened and disappointed that so many of these students, especially African American students, will not receive the exceptional education and experience that this public institution has to offer,” the statement said. 

  Berdahl, who will retire at the end of the school year, said he will do all he can in his remaining time to ensure that numbers grow in subsequent years. 

  Many of the students at the press conference acknowledged the programs the university does run and said they realized that minority recruitment and enrollment problems are often caused by state policies. Starting with the voter-passed Proposition 209 in 1997, which banned affirmative action in California’s government agencies, the state’s public higher education institutions have faced a series of laws, voter initiatives, board of regents edicts, escalating budget cuts, and other setbacks in recent years that have hurt outreach and retention programs. This year, all monies currently earmarked for state university-sponsored outreach programs are slated to be cut once the governor’s budget passes. 

  Budget cuts, besides hurting outreach programs, also raise fees for students and cut back on the amount of financial aid the university can offer. 

  In 2003, Regent John J. Moores turned the spotlight on UC Berkeley when he released a report criticizing the university’s comprehensive review program, an admissions policy accepted in 2001 by the UC Regents. The policy forced UC admissions departments to look at more than a students SAT scores and grades, as well as to consider the students’ socioeconomic background, talents, extracurricular activities and community involvement. Many saw the program as a legal attempt to take into consideration some of the information that Prop. 209 had banned. 

  In the meantime, minority students say they have had other recruitment help from the university. According to Richard Black, associated vice chancellor of admissions, student recruitment and retention centers receive money from the university’s outreach budget, from Prop. 3, a student ballot initiative that added a fee to student registration, and also get a nominal fee that is usually around $50,000 from the chancellor. Because they are student organizations, the groups also get funding from the student government, the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC). 

  Nonetheless, students at Thursday’s press conference said running the outreach programs often amounts to a full-time job, which takes away from their academics. 

  “Students are really sacrificing their own academic work because they are organizing,” said Lisa Walker, coordinator for the Cross Cultural Student Development office, the office that does multicultural programming on campus. “They are doing tremendous amounts of work because they care about their community.” 



Without taking a formal vote Wednesday night, directors of the Berkeley Board of Education vaulted ahead of their superintendent and left no doubt that they will present voters with a November ballot initiative that could raise property taxes by as much as $12 million. 

At their first formal discussion on renewing the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project (BSEP)—a $10 million parcel tax targeted to cover specific programs the district’s general fund can’t cover—directors, one by one, declared the urgency of a November ballot. 

“It would be irresponsible for us as a school board to let children suffer while we figure out correct funding,” said Director Nancy Riddle. 

BSEP doesn’t expire until 2006, but increased costs and reduced state funding have undermined the effectiveness of the measure approved by voters in 1994, directors said. Over the past three years, the district’s financial crisis has forced the board to increase class sizes and cut music programs—two of the areas BSEP was supposed to safeguard. 

Though directors were in agreement on moving ahead with a November ballot with funds earmarked for class size reduction, music, and libraries, they differed on dollar figures, the length of the measure, and how much flexibility the district should have in the distribution of the funds. At the urging of Superintendent Michele Lawrence, the school directors voted unanimously to approve a survey, at a cost of about $20,000, to gauge the political viability of different options. 

A new BSEP measure on the November ballot also comes as the city is planning to go before voters with at least two tax measures—one specially designed for youth services.  

BSEP has traditionally been the city’s most widely supported tax measure, garnering 92 percent of the vote when it was re-authorized in 1998. However, Berkeley voters have proved less amenable to new taxes of late. In 2002, voters rejected three out of four tax measures, and just six months ago, a tax revolt by a coalition of Berkeley residents, community organizations, and labor unions killed a planned $7.5 million city parcel tax to help plug its budget deficit. 

Still, the school directors showed little fear that voters would spurn a call to help the schools. Director Terry Doran called for a measure that would double funding to $20 million and Director Shirley Issel proposed $22 million. For an average homeowner, Issel’s proposal would raise the annual BSEP tax from $234 to $495. 

While the school directors charged ahead with BSEP, Superintendent Lawrence continued to prescribe a more cautious approach. “I’m expected to lead a group of people here out much further than I am,” she told the board. “Without appropriate analysis of what’s good for children, I think we’re being short-sighted.”  

Lawrence has pushed for restraint while the district engages in a year of strategic planning to identify core needs and integrate BSEP funding into other district resources. 

“This is what I came here for. I never get to talk about public education and what’s good for kids,” she said.  

In an apparent compromise move, Lawrence proposed presenting voters with a five-year bridge measure (a short-term ballot measure intended to provide the district with current funds until BSEP is fully-renewed), with money dedicated for teacher development, music libraries, and language access, to supplement the current $10 million BSEP measure.  

Four of the five directors had already stated their preference for a bridge measure that would preserve the current BSEP measure and infuse cash into the district while they plan a future initiative. But Board President John Selawsky feared that going to voters for a big tax twice in two years would be pressing their luck. “We are asking for a big amount of money,” he said. “That’s a pretty big pill for people to swallow.” 

If the board agrees to a bridge measure, the vote for on a new long-term BSEP measure would likely come in March or November of 2006. Though BSEP expires in 2006, funding continues until June 2007. 

The structure of a new measure remains undecided. Director Terry Doran called for more flexible funds for the district and school sites to employ as different problems arose. But after three years of struggling to fix its creaky financial and data process systems, other directors questioned if Berkeley voters would be comfortable giving the district more discretion over their tax dollars. 

“Too much flexibility might not get us a lot of votes,” said Director Joaquin Rivera. 

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Six months after losing their union election battle on a disputed 119-70 vote, Berkeley Bowl workers might still get union representation. 

On Tuesday, Local United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Butcher’s union local 120 president Tim Hamann and union attorney David Rosenfeld both received calls from the local National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) office, telling them the NLRB will soon be issuing a complaint against the Berkeley Bowl for unfair labor practice charges filed during last year’s union drive. 

Along with that complaint, the NLRB will also deliver a bargaining order under which Berkeley Bowl must start negotiating with the union without holding another election. 

The decision does not mean that Local 120 will automatically and immediately become the union representative for the Berkeley Bowl workers. The NLRB’s order will now go before an administrative law judge for adjudication, and can be appealed from there. 

In the interim, however, Rosenfeld said the local NLRB board will file for an injunction that would allow the bargaining order to go through while the administrative law judge decides on the case. Without an injunction the process could take years. With an injunction, both sides could meet at the bargaining table in a couple of months. 

Alternatively, the Berkeley Bowl can try and negotiate a settlement outside the courts.  

“This is about the biggest slap on the hand you can get from the feds,” said Hamann. “Did the union get beat [last year]? I don’t think so.” 

For the workers, who organized for more than five months before going to an election, the decision is verification of their claim that the Berkeley Bowl committed numerous violations to sway the vote. 

“I’m delighted the federal government, the NLRB, has come to a decision that they feel that the Berkeley Bowl has violated our rights because this is what we were saying all along,” said Kevin Meyer, a cashier at the store.  

Berkeley Bowl officials said they had no comment on the NLRB’s decision. 

Part of the complaint that the NLRB issued includes a charge that former produce worker Arturo Perez was fired illegally during the union drive. If or when the decision is handed down against the Berkeley Bowl, Perez will be entitled to his job back plus full back pay.  

For the workers, Perez getting his job back and walking back into the store would be an especially sweet victory because many believe he was fired for being an outspoken union supporter. 

“The most important thing, hopefully, will be that the Berkeley Bowl will be forced to offer Arturo his job back plus full back pay,” said Meyer. “That was one of the biggest wrongs that they did and he certainly deserves that. That would be a huge symbol to the workers here, it will prove that we have rights.” 

After Perez was fired he had to fight to get unemployment, and found himself commuting several hours to another grocery job in the north bay. His wife, who had heart surgery, needs expensive medicine and at times the only way he could survive was with the help of his children.  

“I have a lot of hope, since the first moment I knew I had pretty good case,” said Perez. Before celebrating, though, he said he wanted to make sure everything went through. He did say he was happy to hear the news and was hopeful that any changes will benefit the entire store, not just him. 

“This is what everybody wanted, this is what we fought for,” he said. 

Berkeley Bowl workers originally tried to avoid an NLRB election as a way to verify the union. Instead, they originally advocated a card check election, where the union would be certified if a majority of the company’s workers signed cards indicating they wanted to be represented by the union.  

Unlike an NLRB election, a card check verifies the union immediately. Union supporters had said last year that because the NLRB election takes months, it gives the employer time to run an anti-union campaign and sway the vote. Several of the current charges against the Berkeley Bowl occurred during the time between the scheduling of the union vote and the time the vote actually took place.  

The board decision, said union lawyer Rosenfeld, “proves that the employers can always defeat a union election by doing enough illegal things and the result is it takes years for the union to get bargaining rights. It proves that the whole election process is flawed.” 

According to Michael Leon, assistant regional director for the local NLRB office in Oakland, a bargaining order can only be filed when there is enough evidence to prove that there is no way to hold another election that would be fair.  

“The theory is that the union didn’t win because of the unfair labor practices and it’s pointless to hold a second election because there would be no way to get back to the status quo that existed before the alleged unfair labor practices,” said Leong. 

Four years after it struck out in its bid to close a block of Derby Street to build a baseball field in South Berkeley, the Berkeley Unified School District is proposing a far more modest field of dreams. At least for now. 

The district last week announced plans to build a multipurpose athletic field at its East Campus site on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, between Derby and Carleton streets.  

Though the stated goal would likely result in a softball field and soccer field on the two-acre lot for use by the high school, the Alternative High School Program and Longfellow Middle School, several school board members have professed their preference for reintroducing a controversial plan to dig up the adjoining block of Derby Street to create enough space for a baseball diamond.  

Currently the Berkeley High baseball team plays their games a mile-and-a-half from campus at San Pablo Park—long a sore spot for backers of the team. 

In 2000 a similar baseball diamond plan proposed by Berkeley Unified fell flat on its face when neighbors and the Ecology Center’s Berkeley Farmers’ Market (which uses Derby Street Tuesday evenings) objected and the City Council refused to close Derby between Martin Luther King Jr. and Milvia Street. 

Since then, the lot has remained home to a collection of portable classrooms that once housed the Berkeley Adult School and the Alternative High School Program, but is now mostly storage space with a few offices. Neighbors have pushed for the district to tear down the buildings, which several said attracted rowdy homeless people at night. 

Berkeley Unified had always planned to develop some sort of field on the site, said Lew Jones, the district’s Director of Facilities and Maintenance, but the bad blood caused from the first proposal led the district to pull back for several years. “There was so much acrimony, it wasn’t anybody’s favorite project to pick up and run with,” he said. 

The new project presently being proposed doesn’t appear likely to face the same level of passionate opposition as the previous one. Jones said the plans are to remove the portable classrooms, rip up underground utilities, and fix the drainage problems.  

The drainage woes are caused, in part, by Derby Creek which flows below the property, said School Board President John Selawsky. After fixing the grounds, the district plans to build athletic fields, fences, bathrooms and bleachers to hold between 60 and 100 people. Jones gave assurances that the district would not install lights for night games. 

The project would likely require environmental review resulting in a mitigated negative declaration, Jones said. In 1999, the city spent roughly $150,000 on an environmental impact report to study the closing of Derby, but neither the city nor the district ever adopted its findings. 

In all, the project should be completed by spring 2006 ,and cost no more than $1.5 million, paid for by money from voter-approved school bond Measure AA passed in 2000.  

But the question remains: Will that be the final project or will the district push to close Derby and build a bigger field? At a Board of Education meeting last week, Directors Shirley Issel, Joaquin Rivera and Terry Doran all expressed a preference for the bigger project if the political climate was right. 

“We should keep the door open so when we’re allowed to close Derby, we can go ahead with bigger plans,” Rivera said. 

Should the district proceed to request the closure of Derby, a renewed battle with the Ecology Center’s farmers’ market doesn’t appear likely. Pam Webster, an executive board member at the Ecology Center and one of the most vocal critics of the district’s former plan, is the wife of School Board President Selawsky, who has already stated he will support closing Derby only if the farmers’ market can stay at its present home.  

Penny Luff, the market’s director, said that during the first battle over Derby vendors rejected a proposed move to Sacramento and Oregon streets out of fear they would lose customers.  

Selawsky’s assurance that the farmers’ market would be safe was good enough for her, Luff said. Her primary concern was that a proposal to pave over a stretch of grass beside Derby for a new farmers’ market would make her the tenant of the school district, which had previously forced the market to move repeatedly when it operated out of school parking lots.  

While the farmers’ market doesn’t appear to be an obstacle to either plan, neighborhood sentiment remains mixed and not all passions have died down. “If they build a field life as we know it comes to and end,” said neighbor Michael Bauce, who lives a block from the property. He discounted assurances that the fields would not have lights. 

Brian Boudreau, who lives across the street from the portable classrooms, said he wants to see a field, but not the bleachers or bathrooms that might accompany it. “Bathrooms open up a whole can of worms,” he said. “We live just close enough to a problem area that they could be a draw for activity we don’t want to see happening.” Boudreau also worried that fire trucks from the engine company at Shattuck Avenue and Derby, would use his street, Carleton, as its main thoroughfare. 

Boudreau’s next door neighbor, Ruth Reffkin, said she wasn’t as concerned by the final project as much as establishing a fair process that wouldn’t lead to the same animosity that led many of her neighbors to hang signs in their windows reading “Keep Derby Open.” 

The School District’s Jones said that he will form a site committee with neighbors and the farmers’ market to discuss the project. 

Though Reffkin was hesitant to reveal what kind of park she wanted to be built across her street, she was quick to say what she wanted gone. “Those buildings,” she said pointing to the portable classrooms. “Nothing could be as bad as them.”

The public gets one last chance Saturday to discuss the Civic Arts Commission’s proposed Arts and Culture Plan element for the city’s General Plan during a 4 to 6 p.m. session in the Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. 

The 33-page draft document, available online at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/civicarts/artscultureplan.htm, attempts to fulfill six objectives aimed at enhancing artists, art training, artistic and cultural appreciation, and cultural programs in the city. 

Any changes arising form Saturday’s meeting will be considered for adoption by the commission at their next regular session on the April 28, and the final plan will be submitted to the City Council in June. 

—Richard Brenneman

What do the Fleshies, the Funky Nixons, the Fat Chance Belly Dance Troupe, the Willy Bologna Circus Show and the Chirgilchin Tuvan Throat Singers all have in common? 

They’re part of the fascinating cast of performers who’ll be sharing the stage Sunday afternoon (April 25) to celebrate People’s Park and its 35 years as a Berkeley institution. 

Drawn together by the People’s Park Council, the 35th Anniversary Fair runs from noon to 6 p.m., featuring People’s Movement workshops, an art museum, meals from Food Not Bombs, and a block-long stretch of Haste Street next to the park reincarnated as a roller skate park. 

Also featured are Bike Rodeo, wandering clowns, and the traditional May Pole winding. 

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” promised Arthur Fonseca, who has been busily painting the Free Speech stage in anticipation of Sunday’s festivities. A volunteer at the park for over a decade, Fonseca promises a good time to visitors of all ages at Sunday’s free festival. 

“Every year we reclaim the park at the anniversary. This is how we keep the park,” said Debbie Moore, co-director of Berkeley’s X-plicit Players and one of the organizers of Sunday’s events. “For me, this is a wonderful time, and it’s a good time for people who love the park to come out and reaffirm their connection.” 

The All Nations Singers, a drum and vocal troupe of Native Americans, will offer the first hour’s entertainment from noon to 1 p.m. 

The next 40 minutes feature the Funky Nixons, often called “the house band of People’s Park,” offering some of their outrageous fare. Considering the titles of two cuts on their latest CD (“Smoke a Joint With Jesus” and “Barbara Bush’s Dog”) they’ll be sure to both outrage and delight. 

After a 10-minute poetry reading, three unusual acts from the cold deserts of the former Soviet Union as well as an instrumentalist playing the oldest instrument of the Australian Outback will appear.  

The Chirgilchin Tuvan Throat Singers troupe offers the hauntingly earthy throat singing stylings of the ancient and little known land of Tuva. As national champions of the art, they’re been touring the world, drawing wide popular and critical acclaim. Sarymai, a Buddhist monk from Siberia who often travels with the troupe, plays the traditional folk music of the Altai culture and imitates the sounds of nature, animals and birds. 

The Aussie instrument is the didjeridu, an Australia aboriginal instrument played by Stephen Kent in a variety of musical genres. 

For the next hour, after 2 p.m., park participants will break up into a series of free workshops.  

For children, there will be a playground, music lessons, a chance to learn the didjeridu with Steven Kent, face-painting, puppeteers, balloon-twisters, an old-fashioned May Pole and skateboard lessons—with a block of Haste Street turned into an improvised skateboard park. 

Both young and old can delight in “Dr. Techno’s Traveling Minstrel and Music Show” as it revives a bit of classic vaudeville with Bruce Cartier (Dr. Techno) juggling and balancing while he plays an assortment of musical instruments. He also offers some dramatic magic, including a balancing act done over a sword box. 

The Willy Bologna Circus show features a puppet show, stilt-walking, a magic routine and other delights by Willie the Clown, otherwise known as Glenn Allen. 

No People’s Park celebration would be complete without an array of activists, and Sunday’s workshops include some of Berkeley’s most familiar names. 

Michael Delacour—who hosted the first meeting that led to the park’s creation—will lead a session on park history, and singer/activist Carol Denney will discuss the UC Berkeley lawsuit that stifled her rights to openly challenge the school in its efforts to develop the park. 

Peace and Justice Commissioner Elliott Cohen will be busy talking about and collecting signatures for his proposed Berkeley tree protection ordinance, and Harold Adler will exhibit and discuss Free Speech photography. 

Other workshops feature Dave Beauvais on civil liberties, Robin Few on prostitute’s rights, Gena Sasso on disabled rights, Yoko Barringer on the California Public Interest Research Group, and Kirian on the Barrington Collective. Michael Diehl will discuss saving the safety net in an era of tax slashing, while Glenda Rubin will talk about park/community relations. 

Debbie Moore will host a session on body reading and Terri Compost will lead a plant walk.  

The action returns to the stage at 3:25 with the critically acclaimed Beth Custer Ensemble, featuring Custer, backed by her band, presenting an array of song and clarinet stylings from jazz to hoe down. 

Next up—from 4:50 to 4:25—is the widely traveled and much-imitated Fat Chance Belly Dance Troupe of San Francisco, treating the audience to a demonstration of sensuous undulations. 

Big Brutha Soul, aka Hip-Hop artist Chopmaster-J, will offer up some of his trademark “Herb ‘N Hippie Soul,” with an eccentric collection of characters of his own creation. 

From 5:05 to 5:20, Julia Vinograd, a poet who was there at the creation of the park in 1969, will lead a young people’s poetry session. 

Then, with the closing act, comes the day’s rowdiest performers, The Fleshies, one of the few remaining hard core Punk bands. The band often lives up to their name, with their epidermal exposure increasing as their performances progress. 

Moore urged all who attend to bring clothing to give away. While that’s a noble gesture, discarding clothes shouldn’t be hard for the X-plicit Players leader, since her troupe is famous for performing in the altogether.  

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The 25-member Berkeley Planning Commission task force charged with making recommendations about the proposed UC Berkeley hotel and museum complex holds its final meeting Tuesday. The meeting, which begins at 1 p.m., will be held in the second floor Sitka Spruce Room of the city Permit Service Center at 2120 Milvia St. 

Formed by the City Council under the auspices of the city’s General Plan, the task force is charged with making non-binding recommendations to guide the council in negotiations with the university over the proposed project. 

The massive project, which would reshape the city center, is projected for the two-block area bounded by Shattuck Avenue on the west, Center Street on the south, Oxford Street on the east and University Avenue on the north. 

The task force has held a series of meetings taking public input on the complex. 

During their last session two weeks ago, the panel reached decisions of all issues except the fate of Strawberry Creek along the block of Center Street between Shattuck and Oxford. Several environmental groups have called for closing Center to traffic and “daylighting” the creek, which now runs through an underground culvert pipe. The creek issue will be voted on at Tuesday’s meeting. 

Following Tuesday’s wrap-up, a drafting committee will prepare the final task force report for submission to the City Council.

Feds, Oakland Settle 1990 Earth First! Bombing Suit 

The City of Oakland and the U.S. Department of Justice ran up the white flag Thursday, agreeing to pay $2 million each to settle a suit filed by two Earth First! activists injured in a 1990 Oakland car bombing. 

The lawsuit was filed in 1991 by Judi Bari and Darryl Chaney, who were in Oakland to generate support for their campaign to save old growth redwoods when a nail bomb exploded inside the car in which they were riding. 

Bari—left paralyzed by the blast—was arrested in her hospital bed, and she and Chaney were held on suspicion of possessing and transporting explosives. 

The Alameda County District Attorney refused to press the prosecution, and no federal charges were ever filed. Bari died from breast cancer six years later, but the suit was continued on behalf of her two daughters. 

The two environmentalists charged that county and federal investigators made false and misleading statements in their search warrant affidavits and lied about matching the round-headed nails in the bomb to flat-headed nails found in Bari’s home. 

In 1992, a federal civil jury found in favor of the activists, but the awards were withheld pending appeals by the losing law enforcement agencies. 

Thursday’s settlement was reached after the agencies agreed to abandon their appeals. 

Bay City News contributed to this report. 

—Richard Brenneman 

D.A. Drops Port Anti-War Protest Charges 

The Alameda County District Attorney’s office dropped charges against the 24 remaining people who were being prosecuted for participation in the anti-war protest at the Oakland docks in April of 2003. 

According to a report by Bay City News, the charges were dropped by the district attorney’s office because the protesters had not been charged with any new violations since the protest last year, and because there had been three lawful and peaceful anti-war protests since the protest at the docks.  

Bobbi Stein, the lead attorney for the defendants, was also quoted by Bay City News as saying, “The prosecution didn’t have any evidence against protesters and the defendants would have prevailed at a trial.” 

The protesters were facing misdemeanor charges of creating a public a public nuisance, failure to disperse, and interfering with a business. 

—Jakob Schiller 

State Panel Recommends Diebold Ban In Four California Counties 

The California Voting Systems and Procedures Panel recommended in an 8-0 vote Thursday that Secretary of State Kevin Shelly ban four counties from using 15,000 Diebold Election System Inc. voting machines in the November election. The counties affected include San Diego, Solano, Kern and San Joaquin. 

Diebold manufactures the touch screen voting machines used in Alameda County. 

The panel’s decision came after Diebold admitted the obvious: that the company has provided several counties in California with machines that have serious security flaws and that have helped disenfranchise voters. 

  The voting panel is set to make a recommendation about thousands of other Diebold machines used in 10 other California counties next Wednesday. It could not be verified before press time whether Alameda county will be one of the counties affected.  

—Jakob Schiller 

t

Alleged Sexual Batterer Arrested With Help of UC Police 

Berkeley Police, in cooperation with the UC Berkeley Police, arrested a 36-year-old man Thursday and charged him with sexual battery on a minor and false imprisonment. Melvin Scott, whose hometown was not released at press time, is suspected of grabbing and holding a 15-year-old student last April 15 during school hours near the Berkeley High School campus, according to a police bulletin.  

A passerby pulled the assailant off the victim. 

The bulletin said that Scott escaped, but was later identified in a photo lineup by the unidentified victim, who said she did not know him. 

Berkeley police say that are investigating whether Scott might be responsible for any other local sexual battery cases still under investigation. 

Seven-Hour Robbery Spree Hits City 

Berkeley Police are seeking suspects in five armed robberies that occurred in the seven hours between 5:13 p.m. Tuesday and 12:15 a.m. Wednesday. 

A 34-year-old Oakland woman was accosted near the intersection of University and San Pablo Avenues shortly after 5 p.m. by a pair of armed robbers who fled after stealing her purse, said BPD spokesperson Kevin Schofield. 

Three hours later, at 8:37 p.m., a lone adult robber brandished a pistol at a Berkeley man on Peralta Avenue near Gilman Street and escaped with the victim’s wallet. 

Twenty minutes after that, a juvenile armed with a handgun robbed a pedestrian at Gilman and Sixth Street. 

Six minutes before midnight, a gunman tried to rob a pedestrian at Fourth Street and Allston Way but fled before completing his crime. 

The final crime of the day went down 15 minutes after midnight when a solo bandit stuck up a pedestrian in the 1400 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way, fleeing on foot with the victim’s cash. 

Still, Berkeley’s Crime Is Down 

Berkeley’s violent crime rate dipped last year to its lowest rate since 1968, according to Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Kevin Schofield. 

Only 582 violent crimes—murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault—were reported in 2003, down from 1992, the most violent year in the city’s history, when 1665 crimes of violence reached police attention. 

Captain Stephanie Fleming of BPD’s Field Services Division attributed some of the decline to the department’s Community Involved Policing Program, which stresses citizen involvement in crime-stopping.  

“Having all of our officers dedicated to this philosophy has proven productive,” Fleming said. “The greater community involvement in addressing many problems is invaluable.” 

Fleming singled out citizen participation in BPD-sponsored Neighborhood Watch programs as a significant factor in the declining crime statistics. 

For more information on Neighborhood Watch and other prevention programs, call BPD’s Community Services Bureau at 981-5806 or log on to the department’s website at www.BerkeleyPD.org. ›

There is no textbook template for leadership in difficult times. Lincoln, we are told, suffered through doubt and depression throughout the years of the Civil War, walking the nighttime White House halls like a lanky wraith, agonizing over every decision and adverse turn of events. Truman, on the other hand, reportedly gathered all his facts in front of him, made up his mind, gave his orders, and slept in peace. Eisenhower, we are told, wrote in advance two short speeches to announce the events of the D-Day invasion of the French coast, to cover both possible outcomes. One of them—accepting personal responsibility for the defeat of the Allied forces at Normandy and the deaths of thousands of brave men—stayed in his pocket. Nixon sent Henry Kissinger in secret to China, ending the Cold War world as we heretofore knew it, breaking all our old assumptions with one swift blow like a hammer striking—cracking—shattering rock. Whether we agree with all of their actions or not, these men are remembered as firm, resolute American leaders when the time came for action, guideposts by which all future leaders might be measured. When told by one of his generals following the fall of Richmond that Lee was fleeing west with his command and “if the thing be pressed” the Army of Northern Virginia might be overrun and the long national nightmare brought to an end, Lincoln wrote back a simple, one-line note: “Let the thing be pressed.” One can almost hear the taking of the long breath, see the sad hounds-eyes’ slow blink, before the scratch of pen on paper. 

Idle thoughts in the aftermath of the president’s recent press conference, and the bubbling chatter of his public supporters—backed, apparently, by the polls—how Americans admire Mr. Bush because of his qualities of strong leadership. “Where have all the flowers gone?” the old Vietnam-era song began. Substitute “standards” for “flowers,” and there might be a point to be made here, somewhere. In our haste—to get where, one wonders—we seem to be abandoning our standards willy-nilly, shedding them like a goose dropping feathers as we fly through the air. 

Our young soldiers must die—and others along with them—we are told, in order to bring democracy to the people of Iraq. If so, it is not Halliburton our Iraqi friends must beware, so much as the folks at Diebold. 

In the early days of the nation, we took this democracy thing seriously—argued over it, fought over it, gave it up grudgingly, even to our own fellow citizens. We saw it as something of value, the foundation of our society. Now we see it merely as something to do, or a slogan to be broadcast in Arabic and other exotic languages. Doubt me? The Supreme Court halts the counting of the presidential ballot, deeming inconvenient the taking of the time to complete the actual tally. “You seem more yourself,” an aide says to the British King George, of madness fame. “I have always been myself,” the king replies. “But now I seem more myself. It is the seeming that is important.” Yes. 

Oakland recently divided over the issue of how we ought to attack crime and the social causes thereof. The vote of Measure R was so close that it came down to the absentee paper ballots which, being noted on paper, had to be counted by hand. It is the way of count—the elders might remember—that served us well from the beginning of the republic. Days passed, then weeks, as the election workers went through the count, ballot by ballot. No chaos ensued. No charges of dirty tricks. Only a steady, dignified, patient public wait as we determined what was our will. 

Why, then, one wonders, have we decided to turn our democracy over to Diebold? Why go ye that way, America? (to paraphrase the Revolution-era ditty) What madness your mind fills? Haste and greed, one supposes. The greed of profiteers, figuring out a way to make a buck by filling a “need” where no known “need” actually exists. Playing upon our haste. We have become a hasty people. We must have electronic vote tallying because we must know how the election came out within seconds after the closing of the polls because—goodness—one forgets exactly why we must know how the election came out within seconds after the closing of the polls. We just know that someone told us it is important, and it must be so. And so, the Diebold debacle, with the downcast glance, the embarrassed scratching at the side of the cheek, the shuffling of the feet, the sad, “Well, yes, we miscounted a thousand votes, here and there, but?” and here the fleeting smile, the hopeful rise in tone—“but didn’t we get it wrong so awfully fast, don’t you think?—” And rather than chucking the whole nonsense, we muddle on. 

The modern American, we are told by the media analysts, want a leader who makes up his or her mind quickly, and sticks to it. God help us, if that is all. 

›

FRIDAY, APRIL 23 

“Spring Flora of Mount Diablo” Weekend workshop sponsored by Jepson Herbarium. A unique opportunity to stay “on the mountain” for extended hikes and exploration. Registration and deposit required, for information, see http://ucjeps. 

berkeley.edu/jepwkshp.htm 

Inspiration Point Hike with Solo Sierrans at 4 p.m. Meet at large parking lot off Wildcat Canyon Road. You need not be a member to attend. 525-2299. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Terry Woronov, PhD, Anthropology, on “Transforming Chinese Culture: Raising Children’s Quality.” Lunch 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.  

East Bay Farm Worker Support Committee Dinner Dance, with the 2004 Chavez Legacy Award, at 6 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St. Oakland. Cost is $10-$25. 832-2372. 

César Chávez Commemoration, with speakers, performers, music, food and an altar, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the César Chávez Student Learning Center, UC Campus. Program includes Federico Chávez, grandson of César Chávez. 642-1802. 

Healthy Kids Day from 6 to 9 p.m. at Berkeley YMCA with a cooking class with Joey Altman of KRON 4 Bay Café. 665-3271. 

“The USA Patriot Act: Californians Respond” with Sanjeev Bery, Field Organizer for the Northern California ACLU, at 6 p.m. in the FSM Cafe at Moffitt Library, UC Campus.  

“Eyewitness to Empire” 2nd National CAN Speaking Tour with Khury Peterson-Smith, CAN activist from NY who visited Iraq in January, Military Families Speak Out and Campus Antiwar Network. at 7 p.m. at 126 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. www.campusantiwar.net 

Night of Cultural Resistance presents “Borderspeak: Tak(l)king Us Home” at 6:30 p.m. in the Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Center, UC Campus. Free. 642-4270. 

“Life and Debt” a film explaining the complexity of international lending, structural adjustment policies and free trade, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751.  

“Feng Shui: The Principles Behind the Rules” with Jessica Levine, at 7:30 p.m. at Enchanted Skye, 1487 Solano Ave., Albany. 

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

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

Kol Hadash meets at 7:30 p.m. for Shabbat, at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. 428-1492. www.kolhadash.org 

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

SATURDAY, APRIL 24 

Earth Day at Civic Center Park from noon to 5 p.m. with cultural performers, activities for children, food, craft and community booths.  

Family Farm Day at Berkeley Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. Co-sponsored by The Ecology Center and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Bike Tour in Eastshore State Park leaving from Civic Center Park at noon and going to Richmond. Sponsored by Citizens for the Eastshore State Park. Bring water, sunblock, and windbreaker. Bikes should be in good condition. Course is flat. Route is approximately 25 miles. Helmets are encouraged. For more information 461- 4665. www.eastshorepark.org 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of Aquatic Park at 10 a.m. Pre-paid reservations required, $8 for members, $10 for non-members. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/  

Berkeley High Work Day from 9 a.m. to noon to weed, plant and pick up trash to welcome spring and to look our best for the Grand Opening Celebration on April 25. Bring trowels and weeding tools, work gloves, sunscreen/hat. Water, snacks, garbage bags, disposable gloves provided. Come to the lower courtyard through the Allston Way gate. 333-6097.  

Creek Tour with Urban Creeks Council from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with restoration expert Ann Riley. Tour of East Bay Restoration Sites includes Wildcat, Baxter, and Blackberry Creeks. Bring a lunch and dress for hiking. To register visit www.urbancreeks.org 

Turtle Time at Tilden Reptiles all around the park will be coming out of winter hibernation. Meet and greet the three exotic turtles that live at the Nature Center from 2 to 3 p.m. 525-2233. 

Earth Day Paddle at Gallinas Creek just north of China Camp State Park in San Rafael. All equipment and instruction included. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sponsored by Save the Bay. Cost is $30 members, $40 non-members. To register call 452-9261. www.savesfbay.org 

A Neighborhood Walk Through South West Berkeley, sponsored by Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action. Meet at 8:30 a.m. at Berkeley Chinese Community Church, 2117 Acton St. for music and light breakfast before the walk. 658-2467. 

Spring Plant Sale at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Spring Blooming Perennials and Shrubs with Aeirn Moore, at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Community Music Day from noon to 5 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. 559-2941. 

Thumbs Up Child Protection Project will provide free child identification cards from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Eastmont Mall. Sponsored by the California Youth Authority. 563-5361. 

Women’s Peace Day at Mosswood Park, McArthur and Broadway, Oakland, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. An open-air fair calling attention to the impact of US military presence in Okinawa, Korea and the Philippines on women, communities, and the politics of the region. www.koreasolidarity.org 

Civic Arts Commission Hearing on Berkeley’s Arts and Cultural Plan at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 981-7533. 

“Eyewitness to Empire” West Coast Campus Antiwar Network Conference from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Evans Hall, UC Campus. To register, contact can_wc_conf_2004 

@hotmail.com  

Free Emergency Preparedness Class in Fire Supression from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. To sign up call 981-5605. www. 

ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html 

Berkeley Copwatch Know Your Rights Orientation Join us for this hands-on workshop from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. near Shattuck Ave. Free, wheelchair accessible and open to the public. Donations gratefully accepted. 548-0425. 

Small Press Distribution Open House, with refreshments, readings and books, books, books. From noon to 4 p.m. at the SPD Warehouse, 1341 7th St. off Gilman. 524-1668. www.spdbooks.org 

Breast Cancer Action’s Town Meeting for Activists, with Anne Lamott and Dr. Sandra Hernandez on “Taking Care in a Toxic Time” from 1 to 5 p.m. at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. 415-243-9301, ext. 17. www.bcaction.org 

“Families Dealing with Dementia” a workshop from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Mercy Care & Retirement Center, 3431 Foothill Blvd., Oakland. Eileen Zagelow, BA, CMC, Geriatric Care Manager for Eldercare Services will lead the workshop. $15 donation is requested. 534-8540. www.mercyretirementcenter.org 

Guerrilla Media Action Tour with Cascadia Media Collective’s films and more at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St. Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

Luna Kids Dance Open House for ages 10 and up, at 10 a.m. at Black Pine Circle School, 2027 7th St. 644-3629. www.lunakidsdance.com 

Tai Chi Demonstration by Wen Wu Studio at University Village on San Pablo at 11 a.m. 524-1057. 

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

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 25 

Berkeley High School Open House and Ribbon Cutting from 1 to 5 p.m. with music, sports, arts, and refreshments.  

People’s Park 35th Anniversary Circus from noon to 6 p.m. with the Tuvan Throat Singers, Beth Custer Ensemble, The Fleshies, The Funky Nixons and many more. Bike rodeo, clowns, and community workshops. 658-9178. 

Spinning Demonstration Witness the alchemy of spinning plant fibers into yarn at 1 p.m. at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Free with garden admission. 643-2775. http:// 

botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu  

Flowers: Their Parts and Partners We’ll take a close look at intimate parts of plants, and learn stories of their mating habits, from 10 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

A Lot of Galls Insects and other organisms cause swellings on plant parts that serve as homes for offspring. We’ll search for a variety of these growths and learn their history. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

“Voice of the People” A variety show on current political, social and environmental concerns by The Traveling Bohemians, at 4 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10.  

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sponsored by Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. 2315 Durant Ave. 848-7800. 

Learn Sufi Dances, Dances of Universal Peace at 7 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 526-8944. 

“Spirited Action: Coming Together For A Change” with Buddhist author and teacher Sylvia Boorstein, activist Daniel Ellsberg, and singers Linda Tillery and Betsy Rose at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. www.spiritedaction.org 

Forum on "A Christian Ecological Perspective" at 9 a.m., service at 10 a.m., tree and native plant planting after service at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. 848-1755.  

Anam Cara House Open House from 4 to 8 p.m. at 6035 Majestic Ave. near Mills College. Anam Cara House provides work space to healing arts practitioners, workshops, and groups. 333-3572. 

“Yoga and the Vedic Sciences,” with Sam Geppi, certified Hatha Yoga instructor, on the three Vedic sciences at 11:30 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com  

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

Tibetan Yoga with Jack van der Meulen on “Body Psychology” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Mikvah Taharas Israel invites Jewish Women to a Spa for the Soul from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Claremont Resort. Cost is $36. For reservations call Chabad of the East Bay 540-5824. 

MONDAY, APRIL 26 

Tea at Four Enjoy some of the best teas from the other side of the Pacific Rim 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 for residents, $7 for non-residents. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. 

Honoring Lake Merrit’s Birds at the Bird Refuge, 600 Bellevue Ave. foot of Perkins St. at Lakeside Park, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Please RSVP to 238-3739. 

Earth Month Community Talk on Climate Change, by Dr. Margaret Torn, of Berkeley Lab, at 5:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library Community Meeting Room, 3rd Fl, 2090 Kittredge St. Sponsored by Friends of Science. http://www.lbl.gov/friendsofscience 

No Child Left Behind? A discussion with students, teachers and activists in the Richmond School District, led by Cesar Cruz, at 7:30 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita Sts. 669-1842. 

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

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

TUESDAY, APRIL 27 

Morning Birdwalk Meet at 7 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area to look for Laurel Canyon birds. 525-2233. 

Return of Over-the-Hills Gang at Black Diamond Regional Preserve. Hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history and fitness are invited to join us on a hilly 3 mile hike, meeting at 10 a.m. at the end of Somersville Rd. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Robert B. Reich “Taking Back Politics” at 11:30 a.m. at the Doubletree Hotel, Berkeley Marina. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters. Tickets are $50 and reservations can be made by emailing lwvbae@pacbell.net 

Phone Banking to ReDefeat Bush on Tuesdays from 6 to 9 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Bring your cell phones. Please RSVP 233-2144. dan@redefeatbuch.com 

Berkeley Special Education Parents Network Forum with Michele Lawrence, Ken Jacopetti, and Gerald Herrick, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Ala Costa Center, 1300 Rose St. 525-9262.  

Ohlone Dog Park Association meets at 7:00 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 843-6221. 

Biodiesel and Sustainability A panel discussion from 7 to 9 p.m. at BioFuel Oasis, 2465 4th St. at Dwight. Donation $5-$15. 

Adventure Racing: Spring Training Tips for Women with Terri Schneider at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Both men and women welcome. 527-4140. 

“The Integration Trap, Generation Gap” with Oba T’Shaka at 5 p.m. in Dwinelle 370. Part of the Distinuished Lecturer of Color Series. 642-2876. 

“The Gender Agenda in Africa” with Jacqueline Adhiambo Odoul, US Int’l Univ., Nairobi, Kenya, at 4 p.m. in 652 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by Center for African Studies. 642-8338. 

“Is Middle East Peace Possible?” with Iftekhar Hai, United Muslims of America, Souleiman Ghali, Pres. Islamic Society of SF, and David Meir Levi, Dir. Israel Peace Initiative at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley Ave. 848-3440. www.ahimsaberkeley.org 

Organic Produce at low prices sold at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon Sts. every Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. 843-1307. 

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.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28 

“The Local Housing Crisis” with Kriss Worthington, Berkeley Councilmember, and Nancy Nadel, Oakland Councilmember at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Sponsored by the Gray Panthers of the East Bay. 548-9696. 

“Victorian Glory in the San Francisco Bay Area” with Paul Duchscherer at 7:30 p.m. at Church by the Side of the Road, 2108 Russell St. Tickets are available from Berkeley Architectural Heritage Assoc. 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

“Fact and Fiction: An Inside Look at Islamic Cultures” An exchange of perspectives with Peace Corps volunteers and recent immigrants from Islamic countries at 7 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. sswiderski@peacecorps.gov 

“A Place Called Chiapas” A documentary by Nettie Wild covers eight months inside the Zapatista Uprising in 1997. At 7 p.m. at The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. 393-5685.  

“Compassion Defies Violence and Hate” on the five year peace- 

ful journey of Falun Gong at 6 p.m. at 182 Dwinelle, UC Campus. 

Bayswater Book Club monthly dinner meeting will discuss Richard Clark’s “Against All Enemies” at 6:30 p.m. at Liu’s Kitchen Restaurant, 1593 Solano Ave. 433-2911. 

“Beyond Networking: Building Win-Win Strategic Partnerships” at 7 p.m. at Gate 3: Emeryville, 1285 66th St. Emeryville. 665-1725. 

Acdemic Quiz Bowl with high school teams at 7 p.m. at Barnes and Nobel, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

“Astral Travel & Dreams” a free 9-week course starts April 28, meeting from 6:30 to 8 p.m at 2015 Center St. 654-1583. www.mysticweb.org 

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

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon. Apr. 26, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Apr. 26, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Deborah Chernin, 981-6715. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/parksandrecreation 

Solid Waste Management Commission Mon., Apr. 26, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Becky Dowdakin, 981-6357. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/solidwaste 

City Council meets Tues. Apr. 27, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Budget Review Commission meets Wed., Apr. 28, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7041. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/budget 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Apr. 28, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/civicarts 

Disaster Council meets Wed., Apr. 28, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Carol Lopes, 981-5514. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/disaster 

Energy Commission meets Wed., Apr. 28, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Mental Health Commission meets Wed., Apr. 28, at 6:30 p.m., at 2640 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Harvey Turek, 981-5213. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/mentalhealth  

Planning Commission meets Wed. Apr. 28, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planningˇ

GARDENING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want to let you know that I really enjoyed the article by Shirley Barker (“Cucumbers: A Treat That Predates Agriculture,” Daily Planet, April 16-19) and hope you will continue to publish stories on local “experts.” The Berkeley Daily Planet has been a routine read in the mornings during dog walks since I moved to the Bay Area in 1999. I pick up my copies at a paper box on Alcatraz for my morning walk between the Rockridge and Elmwood neighborhoods. 

Ann Stovel 

Oakland 

• 

SIREN TESTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Can you imagine a fireman coming to your house to slap you in the head? Unimaginable? Put on your thinking cap. Sirens will be tested on April 22 and 29 at four different locations in this city, that supposedly cares about its residents. People and animals (including birds) close to the places the sirens will scream are the most vulnerable. The decibel level of the noise produced is in the range of 118 to 123 decibels. Sound is pressure. The sound strikes your ears. BANG! You've just been hit, a huge slap to your ears. The level of sound the sirens produce is louder than adult humans should be exposed to because noise at that loudness can impair hearing. For information, see www.nonoise.org.  

Sirens in Berkeley? Sirens that must be tested on a regular basis? At what price? 

Ann Reid Slaby 

• 

CYA ABUSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In January, California Youth Authority staffers Delwin Brown and Marcel Berry (at Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility) were caught on tape, showing them viciously beating two youths while two other staff members held them down and two others watched. One youth is seen on tape lying motionless and handcuffed on the floor as he is beaten and kicked repeatedly. The San Joaquin county D.A.’s office has publicly reported that it won’t file charges against the six staff. Is California now like pre-60s Mississippi?  

The odious message being sublimally broadcast through CYA, a state agency, is that California takes care of its children with brutality, cruelty, and by starving/closing school systems.  

Concerned citizens need to urge Atty. Gen. Lockyear (fax: (916) 445-6749 or (916) 327-7892) that he respond immediately to the vicious beating; he has the jurisdiction to do so. At the very least, he has the obligation to prosecute the CYA employees. Correctional officers are not above the law. 

Justice isn’t served when defenseless youth are brutally beaten in the man-made hell the CYA has become. 

Maris Arnold 

• 

EXPORTING DEMOCRACY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am happy to hear that President Bush is planning to install a western-style democracy in Iraq by the end of June. Does this mean the whole nine yards? 

Does it include freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion? Does it mean ownership and control of Iraqi oil will revert to Iraqis? Does it mean that Iraqi tribes will be able to build tax-free casinos on their tribal lands? 

And what about same-sex marriage? 

Marion Syrek 

Oakland 

• 

PLACING BLAME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Attorney General John Ashcroft recently blamed Clinton administration intelligence policies for failures that led up to 9/11. Apparently, after nearly one year into the Bush administration, it was Bill Clinton who was responsible for any problems that might have contributed to that horror! Okay, it may have been the lies of the liberal media, but, by golly, I’d thought George Bush was the president! Clearly that’s absurd! 

Michael Steinberg 

• 

JUSTICE, COMPASSION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Many faith groups flourish in freedom throughout California, and, as our founders would have wanted it, hold a wide variety of differing beliefs on issues ranging from theology to foreign and social policy. However, all hold that we are called to care for one another when we are ill or suffer from disease, and provide healing. 

As faith leaders, we are often called upon to console and care for the sick and dying in our community. But when our neighbors are unable to get the medical attention they need because they do not have health insurance coverage, we must do more than console or pray. We must speak out. 

That’s why leaders of different faiths throughout Oakland, Alameda, and the entire Bay Area are joining with countless others across the nation to speak out for health coverage for all in America during Cover the Uninsured Week, May 10-16. We encourage people of all faiths to unite in a common call to ensure that all Americans have access to health care coverage, private or public. 

We ask for a more just and compassionate society that does not stand by while nearly 44 million Americans go without health insurance for a full year. These men, women and children who are uninsured are not strangers to us. Some of them are in our families. Others live in our communities. They pray, work, and study with us. Uninsured Americans are found in every neighborhood. They include followers of every religion and members of every race. 

It is time for leaders of this state, and our nation, to ensure that all of us have the health care coverage we need in order to live in the fullness of health that we are intended to live. 

We encourage everyone to log on to the Web site at www.CoverTheUninsuredWeek.org, to learn more about the uninsured and to find out how you can become involved in your community. 

Rev. Kelvin Saulsw 

Downs Memorial United Methodist Church 

Rabbi Allen Bennett 

Temple Israel 

• 

DOWNTOWN PARKING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Malcolm Carden writes that downtown Berkeley needs more parking to become “a vibrant retail center, along the lines of Walnut Creek” because people will never take transit to go shopping. (Letters, Daily Planet, April 13-15). 

Apparently, he does not know that the most successful shopping district in the Bay Area is the Union Square area of San Francisco, where there is relatively little parking and most shoppers come by transit. 

Downtown Berkeley will never succeed by trying to provide better automobile access than Walnut Creek or suburban malls. It is too far from the freeway, there is limited capacity on local streets, and there is limited land left for parking.  

Downtown Berkeley will succeed by providing pedestrian-friendly streets and a mix of uses that is much more interesting than anything you can find in suburbia. The university’s proposed convention center and museums and the new residential development in downtown will help create the mix of uses that will draw more people and will create a thriving retail center.  

We certainly need some customer parking, but if we provide too much parking, downtown will become so congested that it will be less attractive to shoppers. Many intersections in downtown are already at a D or E level of service. If we try to provide as much parking as Walnut Creek, those intersections will reach the F level of service -- commonly known as gridlock. 

People who drive everywhere and who complain that it is difficult for them to shop downtown should face the fact that downtown Berkeley cannot accommodate every car that wants to come here, any more than downtown San Francisco can. If they have chosen to live someplace where they drive every time they leave their homes, then they are going to have to do much of their shopping in suburban malls, and they are going to have to miss some of the most interesting parts of the Bay Area, such as downtown San Francisco and downtown Berkeley. 

Maybe these people should consider moving to a transit-oriented neighborhood. They would have less trouble getting around, and they would do less damage to the environment. 

Charles Siegel 

• 

MARRIAGE AMENDMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

President Bush and other conservatives have been accused in recent weeks of seeking to “put bias in the Constitution” by endorsing an amendment that would define marriage as solely the union of one man and one woman. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Gay marriage has never been a constitutional right in America—or any other civilized nation. Those who support the amendment aren’t trying to deprive homosexuals of any of the legal protections they currently enjoy; instead, they are trying to prevent runaway courts from creating out of thin air new “rights” that would prove detrimental to society. 

Yelling “discrimination” is not the only strategy liberals have unleashed to defeat this amendment, though. They also have argued that gay marriage is a civil rights issue akin to the African-American struggle for equality. No less a civil rights icon than Jesse Jackson has denounced that claim, noting that “gays were never called three-fifths human in the Constitution.” 

This aggressive campaign to undermine marriage as it’s always been known can be defeated—but only if we all stand up to support the Federal Marriage Amendment. 

Marlene Friedlander 

• 

IRAQ OCCUPATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Although domestic opposition to the U.S. occupation and war against Iraq is growing, serious confusion about U.S. purposes remain. Many who say, how can “we” leave before “we get the job done” or “fix the mess” are sorely misguided. The U.S. did not invade Iraq to bring democracy, nor has it any intent to do so. That was and remains a subterfuge just like the lie that Iraq was a threat to our security. In fact the U.S. will try to control Iraq indefinitely and for a different reason: the loss of control of Iraq can damage U.S. political and economic dominance (of Europe, Japan, Russia, China, as well as the Israeli-U.S. dominance of the Middle East—all well documented in “Oil, Power and Empire” by Larry Everest). Barring fierce public opposition, the Iraq war could become longer and worse than Vietnam leaving no peace for a generation. Getting the U.S. out of Iraq may test our nation’s democratic institutions even more than ending the Vietnam war did because the American people are facing off against a faltering U.S. imperialism with more to lose now.  

Marc Sapir 

ˇ

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The “State of Palestine” cartoon by Justin DeFreitas (Daily Planet, April 16-19) depicted a Palestinian impaled on a flagpole bearing a United States flag. The stars in the flag were arranged as the Star of David, a potent religious symbol identified with Jews the world over. 

Because he chose to use a religious symbol, Mr. DeFreitas goes beyond what I assume to be a criticism of current U.S. and Israeli policies and opens the possibility that he was implying Jews have manipulated the foreign policy of the United States. This anti-Semitic canard has been repeated for generations by extremist hate groups and used to justify hateful and discriminatory actions against Jews. 

Let’s hope Mr. DeFreitas will be more careful in avoiding hu rtful stereotypes—his political satire will be stronger for the effort. 

Andrew Stoloff 

Anti-Defamation League 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want to write and thank you for the exceptional editorials that you have run in recent weeks, particularly concerni ng what is going on between Israel and Palestine. Not only were you willing to comment, but the way you did it was extremely thoughtful. 

It takes guts to comment on what is happening on this issue, but it takes real insight and intelligence to do it so e ffectively. 

I particularly appreciated the cartoon in the April 16 issue. All I could do was read in horror about what Bush did with Sharon. His support for Sharon gives Israel a green light to continue the occupation and annexation of the Palestinian st ate and effectively deals a death blow to any sort of just peace, and the cartoon expressed this effectively. The U.S. has always been supportive of Israel, sending billions of dollars in aid every year and then turning its back as Israel continues to com mit war crimes and destroy the livelihood of all Palestinians. Now it’s out in the open. Even the New York Times came out and commented on the consequences of Bush’s support. And if the Times allows that through its editorial board, you know the depths of the issue. 

The editorials about the execution of Hamas leaders have also been excellent. Both expose Israel for what it is: a country that is running an unjust occupation and an unjust war against those who oppose the occupation. Without taking sides, the editorials have plainly explained why extrajudicial killings are wrong, and why they are not effective. And again, I commend you for speaking up. Those who support Israel would like to quash all dissent, which can be seen in the letters in your paper. 

Please know that even though there seems to be a backlash against those who speak up on this issue, there are also those of us who support it. Please continue to do so. 

Max Reiner 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As an American and a Jew I was shocked and revo lted by the cartoon which appeared in the weekend edition of the Daily Planet. It suggests the Jews control U.S. policy and are stabbing Palestinian rights in the back. 

This cartoon is frankly anti-Semitic as well as anti-Israel and is an insult to all A mericans. Jewish Americans do not control the U.S. foreign policy. This cartoon reminds me of Nazi art which libeled the German Jews in the 1930s. 

I will not patronize any of your advertisers and I will tell them so. 

Susanne (Sanne) DeWitt 

•  

Editors, D aily Planet: 

The cartoon that was presented in your weekend edition was a shocking display of anti-Semitic overtones in our public discourse. The notion that Israel and the United States—two democratic allies—are single handedly responsible for a disrupt ion in the creation of a Palestinian State is an irresponsible claim. Making such a claim ignores the inability of the Palestinian Authority to teach its population to promote co-existence with their Israeli neighbors in addition to the countless terrorist attacks that are funded by known terrorist Yasser Arafat. Israel since 1948-56 years ago—has made endless attempts to achieve peace with her Palestinian neighbors with no reward in return except for increased terrorist attacks and anti-Semitic cartoons falsely accusing of the only two democratic countries working to achieve a lasting peace in the region. 

Ziv Shmargad 

Political Director, Israel Action Committee, UC Berkeley 

•  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding the spate of letters by Israeli State apolo gists recently published in the Daily Planet: 

First point, Israel’s size is irrelevant. “Little England” once ruled most of the world. Little states can be as aggressive and imperialistic as large states. 

Secondly, Israel did displace close to one milli on Palestinians in 1947-48. The U.N. accounted for over 950,000 Palestinians living in its refugee camps by 1949. 

Third, most of the “250 million Arabs” are not wealthy and most live under reactionary regimes supported by the U.S., which is also the chie f payroller of Israel. 

Fourth, Israel encouraged and funded Hamas going back to the late 1970s in an effort to discourage the secular PLO. Now the chickens have come home to roost. 

Fifth, Israel is the fourth strongest military power in the world and contrary to myth, has never been the underdog. In 1948 the Zionist paramilitary forces already greatly outnumbered the pathetic combined Arab “armies.” 

Sixth, Broudy gives no sources for the probably inflated claims of Arafat’s wealth. Israel itself has a much higher standard of living than its productivity would justify, and it is U.S. aid which is behind this. 

Seventh, selective and out of context quotes from the ultra-right and Zionist New York Post do not an argument make, contrary to Arthur Braufman. 

Eight, Clinton’s fabled final peace plan was a fraud, as Noam Chomsky has demonstrated in detail. The Israeli settlements were going to stay, Israel would retain control of the water supply, the apartheid highways would continue to isolate Palestinian a reas from each other, and no return or compensation for the millions of Palestinian refugees. 

Nine, John Kerry has been terrible on this issue. He has if anything moved to the right of Bush here. Many of us are not going to vote for him but instead for a great Arab American, Ralph Nader. 

Michael P. Hardesty 

•  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a realtor in Berkeley, and as immediate past president of the Berkeley Association of Realtors, and as a long time resident of Berkeley, I was appalled to find out that your newspaper has deemed an anti-Semitic cartoon to be worthy of dissemination by your paper. Shame on you and on your paper. To infer by your political cartoon that the United States of America is run by the State of Israel is not only laughable, but it is the same kind of propaganda of hatred that has been around for millennia. Hasn’t the world gotten beyond its blind hatred of “the Jew”? When will this end? Certainly not with the continued publication of smut such as yours. 

As a realtor with 31 years of working in the Berkeley community I can assure you that your paper will not be receiving any of my advertising business. I do know that a representative of your paper has been calling to solicit real estate ads. I will actively urging my colleagues in my office and in the city to refrain from sending you their advertising dollars. I cannot make you stop publishing anti-Semitic cartoons, but I can speak loud and clear with my dollars.  

Joan Brunswick 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your weekend cartoon by J ustin DeFreitas was completely one-sided and does not reflect the efforts of Israel to agree to a fair two-state proposal which was offered by President Clinton and Barak at Camp David. 

This was rejected by Arafat who instead started the Intifada and terrorism against Israel. 

The basic problem is that Arafat and many Palestinians are in agreement with the goals of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which is for the destruction of Israel. And a subsequent one-state solution. 

Irving Berger 

r

It’s been said that a political cartoon has about eight seconds to make its point before the reader moves on to other things. Therefore the cartoonist must communicate in a language consisting of symbols, caricatures and archetypes—figures and concepts that are easily and immediately recognizable. 

In some cases these symbols come loaded with other meanings—meanings that may or may not have anything to do with the topic at hand, meanings that may or may not be intended by the artist. 

One of the most sensitive of these symbols is the Star of David, for it is a religious symbol and yet it is also a national symbol, present on the Israeli national flag. And this is often a source of confusion where political cartoons are concerned. 

“The State of Palestine,” the cartoon I drew for the Daily Planet’s April 16 edition, is by no means the first editorial cartoon critical of Israel to be branded “anti-Semitic” by newspaper readers. It is not even the first of my cartoons to be so judged. I faced the same criticism once before while working for another newspaper, after drawing a cartoon that questioned the United States’ ability to function as a mediator in the Middle East conflict while supporting one side. Another cartoon calling for Arafat’s removal earned me the charming epithet “Zionist pig” from one reader. And still another cartoon, shown at left, depicting an endless mosaic of Israeli and Palestinian coffins in an effort to capture a feeling of futility, was attacked as cowardly, afraid to take a side while implying that blame was to be shared equally. 

The intent of the “State of Palestine” cartoon was to show the United States striking down the Palestinian state by throwing its full support behind what I believe to be the wrong-headed policies of the Sharon administration. Disagreement on this point was and is both expected and welcome, for the goal of a good cartoon is to provoke debate and invite discussion, to engage readers in a give-and-take on issues that concern us all. What are not welcome are unwarranted accusations of bigotry. 

To make its point the cartoon uses a simple theme employing national flags to represent the three entities involved. This, along with the timing of the cartoon (published immediately following Bush’s announcement of support for Sharon’s plan), should make it obvious that the Star of David is intended as a national symbol, not a religious one.  

The purpose of incorporating the Star of David into the American flag is not, as some readers have suggested, an effort to depict some sort of Jewish control of the U.S. government. These are the idiotic theories of true anti-Semites and I do not subscribe to them. It was merely to demonstrate that these two powerful nations have now officially united in opposition to Palestinian sovereignty. The impaled figure is meant to drive home the point that the Palestinians, with no military and little political clout, are up against the world’s largest and fourth-largest militaries—both nuclear powers, in fact. 

If these symbols should conjure other, perhaps hurtful images in the minds of some readers, that is unfortunate. But a cartoon can be a bit like a Rorschach test, and one never quite knows who will see what in its configurations of black ink and white space. And its creator cannot possibly predict or fathom all of these interpretations. 

The cartoon is not anti-Semitic. Nor is it even anti-Israel; though a cartoon can only make one point at a time, the human being behind the cartoon does not necessarily think in such black and white terms. It is possible to condemn the policies of the U.S. and Israel without condoning suicide bombings; it is possible to deplore Sharon while also deploring Arafat; it is possible to criticize Israel’s use of military force while also deploring the tactics of Hamas.  

In other words, it is possible to be both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel. For me—and, I suspect, for most—it is not a matter of one triumphing over the other; it is a matter of both respecting one another enough to come up with a workable compromise. And it is my humble opinion that Israel’s offers have not yet come close to respecting Palestine. I do not expect agreement on this point, but I do think it is reasonable to expect the Planet’s readers to respect my right to express it without fear of being branded an anti-Semite.  

Criticism of Israel and Ariel Sharon is not anti-Semitic, any more than criticism of America and George Bush is anti-American or anti-white or anti-Christian. And throwing around accusations of bigotry where it does not exist benefits no one. For not only does it reduce what could otherwise be a reasonable debate to the level of a shouting match, but it undermines and trivializes the plight of victims of true bigotry and hate.  

Anti-Semitism is real and it is dangerous. Bigotry is real and dangerous. Racism and hatred and violence are real and dangerous. There are many real and dangerous enemies in this world, but your Daily Planet cartoonist is simply not among them.  

›

Berkeley’s beautiful creeks have been receiving a lot of attention lately. The good news includes the start of a million-dollar state-sponsored restoration program on lower Codornices Creek; the elimination of the sewage leaks that were contaminating Bla ckberry Creek as it runs past Thousand Oaks Elementary school; and the all-volunteer restoration project at Strawberry Creek Lodge that is the joy of its residents.  

Not all the news is good: A lawsuit has been filed against the city over who is responsible for expensive maintenance on deteriorating culverts that run under private property; and the Thousand Oaks school cleanup cost the city over $100,000 because of the need to break into the upstream culvert at many locations to plug leaking sewer lines.  

What can we do to increase the good news? For starters, we can keep doing the good things we’ve already begun. Berkeley has many active restoration projects, and has successfully daylighted several stretches of its local creeks, such as those at Stra wberry Creek Park and on lower Codornices Creek around Ninth Street. Where creeks can be daylighted and restored, they should be. Restored creeks and their associated vegetation filter pollutants out of the water, carry more water than culverts, and provi de habitat for fish, birds, and animals. Moreover, the state and regulatory agencies now view creek restoration as one way of improving water quality and controlling floods. 

Another step is to better educate people about urban runoff and how to reduce th e pollutants it carries. Many people still don’t realize that whatever is dumped onto streets ends up in the creeks: detergent from washing cars, pesticides, herbicides and oil dumped into storm drains. Once people understand that such pollutants ultimately contaminate creeks and the bay, they can often take easy steps to reduce or stop such pollution. The city can also encourage measures that cause less stormwater to run directly into creeks. For example, it can require or provide incentives for the use of permeable paving stones instead of asphalt for driveways and parking areas; and it can encourage the enhancement and protection of natural habitats and vegetation, through projects like the National Wildlife Federation’s “Backyard Wildlife Habitat” pro gram. 

Most of Berkeley’s creeks were put into underground culverts more than 70 years ago, when the creeks were literally used as sewers. Also, culverting the creeks allowed developers to build over them. Now, many decades later, these culverts are start ing to fail. Failed culverts undermine homes, buildings, and roadways, costing the city—and property owners—huge sums of money, whether through legal battles, or massive repair bills. Natural creeks cost less to maintain, and provide far more benefits, th an artificial channels and culverts. 

Berkeley can actively encourage the restoration of natural creek conditions by repairing sewer breaks and removing illegal hook-ups, as well as stepping up enforcement of existing laws that prohibit illegal dumping into storm drains. And the city should be firm about enforcing the existing Creek Ordinance, which was implemented both to protect our creeks, and to protect the health and safety of homeowners and property.  

Mechanisms that encourage creek restoration on private property should be explored and implemented; for instance, the City could offer a partial transfer tax rebate modeled on the seismic upgrade rebate. The city also needs to come up with ways to finance the long-term maintenance and restoration of o ur treasured creeks, using ideas that have been effective in other cities and counties. For example, the city should consider implementing stormwater fees for basic infrastructure maintenance and creek restoration, as well as a long-term bond measure, sim ilar to Oakland’s wonderfully successful measure last year for restoration of Lake Merritt, wetlands, and creeks. 

Finally, we need a more fundamental zoning change as well: It is time to update and strengthen Berkeley’s Creek Ordinance. 

The City of Berk eley passed one of the nation’s first watershed protection ordinances in 1989 (Chapter 17.08). That ordinance was primarily designed to prevent further culverting. Since then, many other jurisdictions have adopted ordinances that go much further toward preserving and restoring creeks, and have incorporated a much more sophisticated body of knowledge into their regulations.  

We—an ad hoc group of Berkeley residents, including creekside landowners, creek experts, and interested citizens—have spent several months reviewing the city’s creek ordinance, with an eye towards making it clearer, more effective, and fully up-to-date.  

Our review included researching creek ordinances in other California cities, and comparing effective strategies elsewhere with Berk eley’s current regulations. We also looked at possible funding sources for water quality improvement and protection over the long term. Our initial recommendations are simple: 

1) The ordinance should be overhauled as a comprehensive piece, not as pieceme al responses to particular cases that come before the City Council; 

2) The process should be careful and thoughtful, with public input; 

3) The process should first identify the issues to address, through research on other cities’ and counties’ ordinance s, advice from experts, etc., before developing specific recommendations on these issues. After the issues and recommendations have been identified and settled upon, specific language of the ordinance can be drafted to achieve these goals. 

The city is facing an exciting—but challenging—time with respect to its creeks and watersheds as a whole. Increased knowledge about the importance of healthy creeks, new stringent state regulations for water quality, and a failing culvert infrastructure, all argue for a comprehensive and pro-active long-term strategy to protect and restore these ecological treasures. We possess some of the strongest environmental sensibilities in the nation, a cadre of concerned, committed citizens, and the intellect to come up with in novative, effective approaches that benefit both current and future generations of Berkeley residents. It is time for us to come together and face these challenges directly, and with ecological sensitivity. We urge the city to move ahead in addressing the se challenges, and offer our help in doing that. 

Juliet Lamont, Phil Price, Carole Schemmerling, Junko Bryant, Alan Gould, Diane Tokugawa, Tom Kelly, Jane Kelly, Chad Markell, Jeiwon Choi Deputy, Vikrant Sood.Ä

What Berkeley’s Creek  

Ordinance Does and Doesn’t Say 

Here’s a quick summary of some key points about Berkeley’s Creek Ordinance. For a copy of the ordinance itself, see Section 17.08 (“Preservation and Restoration of Natural Watercourses”) of the Berkeley Municipal Code at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/bmc/. 

What it says: 

(1) Berkeley’s Creek Ordinance prohibits certain types of new construction and expansion within a 30-foot “setback” distance from a creek (including a culverted creek), to protect property from damage, as well as to protect the creek and improve flood control. In particular, the ordinance prohibits the construction or expansion of roofed structures within the setback distance. 

(2) The ordinance prohibits the construction of new culverts, walls, channels, etc., within the creek banks. Such “hardscaped” engineered structures cause problems with water quality, flooding, and loss of habitat, and thus they are only allowed as a last resort, and require special permitting.  

What it doesn’t say: 

(1) The ordinance does not prevent improving or repairing existing structures subject to the ordinance. Only new building (including expansion) within the creek setback is prohibited. 

(2) The ordinance does not prohibit homeowners from building a fence. The creek ordinance only prohibits the construction of roofed structures within the setback area.  

(3) The ordinance does not require homeowners to pay for repairing culverts on their property. The ordinance is silent on this issue, except for culverts that were illegally installed after the ordinance took effect. The claim that property owners are responsible for culvert repairs on their property is the City of Berkeley’s position on this issue and is not a part of the creek ordinance. 

(4) A new map has been produced by the City of Berkeley to assist in the identification of sites that might be subject to the creek ordinance. This map is a guide to help both landowners and the city understand potential permitting issues and restrictions on properties. The map shows property parcels that may be subject to the ordinance; not all necessarily are. Moreover, there may be properties that are not identified by the map, but that may be subject to the ordinance (if some creeks don’t go where the city thinks t hey do). The ordinance is the law. The map simply provides guidance as to the location of the city’s creeks.  

For more information about how you can help to protect and restore creeks—and about projects happening right near you—visit the Urban Creeks Council website at www.urbancreeks.org , or contact UCC at ucc_berkeley@earthlink.net or 540-6669. 

Friday, April 23—that is to say, tonight—Volti celebrates its 25th anniversary with a concert at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. Once known as the San Francisco Chamber Singers, Volti is one of the few professional vocal ensembles in the Bay Area that regularly presents contemporary repertoire (in fact, I count one other: Chanticleer). 

If you’re gun-shy about new music concerts, this may be the restorative you need. The singers are superb, and director Robert Geary manages to find his way to the warm heart of even the most challenging modern score. With The Left-Coast Ensemble as guest artists, a scheduled premiere of new work by Mark Winges, and selected favorites from the group repertoire, this is a concert I’ve been looking forward to for some time. 

Originally from Rhode Island, Bob Geary came to the West Coast from the University of New Hampshire 30 years ago to study conducting with Howard Swan. As Geary tells the story, the group’s inception in 1979 was more serendipity than sweeping vision. It began as a collaborative effort drawing from some of the better vocal ensembles extant at that time. “And I was the one with conducting experience, so I was enlisted.” 

I asked Geary how he felt about the West Coast as a home for the pioneering programs he has presented every year since then. 

“My personal belief is that new music is a symptom of a healthy culture,” he told me. “If we are only creating situations where audiences are given music from hundreds of years ago, then we keep looking b ackward. I always felt, as far as the West Coast, that there’s a history of experimentation and innovation here.” 

I wondered how the Bay Area has changed, in his view, for this work. 

“In many ways, we’re fortunate,” he told me. “The caliber of singers has risen steadily. And there’s a tremendous affection and loyalty—both from the audience, and within the group. We have some singers that have been with group as long as eight, 10, 12 years. At the same time, we’re chronically under-funded, of course. We have small grants from Irvine, and, thankfully, individual donors. But the California Arts Council has essentially ceased to exist. And the San Francisco Foundation, which was one of our big supporters, stopped funding us when they made cuts during the Re agan years. I have a personal rule-of-thumb, which I know seems cynical, but it’s really true in my experience! That is ‘The better the art, the worse the funding.’” 

Financial hardship is always a big secret in America. Everyone puts on a bold face and t heir best suit, even if the wolves are at the door. Talking to Bob Geary, I was reminded of a family that rented a house down the road from where I grew up. I used to play with their kids, bicycling around, trekking through the woods. Then, one morning, they were just gone. The word around the neighborhood was that, hopelessly behind on rent and bills, they’d packed up and moved in the middle of the night. 

I’ve been thinking about that family lately, and about the way we go to plays, dance performances, and concerts with a certain amount of complacency. We enjoy ourselves, are perhaps even deeply moved. Meanwhile, we assume that the work that went into presenting that program is replicable—that the director and the artists will pull it together one more time, and we’ll be back to visit with them next season. 

Yet we know, we who have been watching the arts in the Bay Area in recent years with a worried eye, that it ain’t necessarily so. 

Volti has, in its 25 years, performed internationally, and has tour ed the states several times. They have made recordings, including a CD on the Innova label. They have on four different occasions been a recipient of ASCAP’s award for Adventurous Programming. I can’t imagine a better way to assist them in well-deserved a nd continued long life than to celebrate, with them, their 25th Anniversary at St. John’s this Friday evening at 2727 College Ave. in Berkeley. Tickets are $25. More information can be had at (415) 771-3352. And if you miss the East Bay concert, Volti wil l be performing at 7 p.m. this Saturday night at the First Unitarian Church in San Francisco, 1187 Franklin at Geary (champagne reception and silent auction to follow that performance). 

Clark Suprynowicz is a composer living in Oakland.›,

Aurora Theatre is presenting an impressively staged world premier of San Francisco playwright Cherylene Lee’s Antigone Falun Gong. Lee may well be remembered from TheatreWorks’ production last year of The Legacy Codes. 

Lee, a fourth generation Chinese-A merican, has been drawn to create an amalgam of materials taken from both the great Greek tragedy, Antigone and the now-outlawed Chinese movement entitled Falun Gong. The result, although uneven, is quite remarkable and, in many places, stunningly beautif ul. 

Not surprisingly, the classic Greek tragedy Antigone provides the structure and much of the plot, with significant alterations from Lee. An effective Bonnie Akimoto is cast as “A,” the protagonist. As in the classic tragedy, “A” is attempting to prov ide proper burial for one of her dead brothers, who has been condemned to decay unburied by her uncle “C,” the magistrate (ably played by David Furumoto). More than unafraid, “A” actually seems to look with anticipation upon the death sentence she will in evitably incur. (No, it isn’t depression; it appears to be based on her beliefs from the Falun Gong.) 

Defining the Falun Gong would probably require a dissertation. First, the huge masses of people who practice it deny that it is a movement. It simply is n’t clear whether it’s a cult or a religion or just a set of spiritual exercises. (It took the Chinese government until about three years ago to consider it any kind of political threat and to begin serious attempts to wipe it out.) 

What did happen was t hat huge numbers of people regularly gathered in parks and open spaces where they practiced five exercises ( known as qigong) of something apparently rather like yoga movements. One aspect—relevant to this play—is the concept of the development of a “thir d eye” through which practioners can “see” events otherwise unknown to them. It is through this “third eye” that “A” has experienced her uncle’s part in her brothers’ deaths. 

Antigone is, of course, the third and final play in the trilogy in which the horror of the curse upon her father, Oedipus, is played out through his children. Oedipus’ suicide led to a fight between his two sons over who would inherit the throne. Both died, and their uncle assumed the monarchy. In this production the uncle, “C,” is transformed into a “magistrate,” but clearly one with absolute powers over life and death. Furumoto, who also directed the play, portrays the character effectively. 

And this is where it becomes rather difficult to discuss what are clearly some of the bes t parts of the production, the group scenes which can perhaps be best described as based on dance. Peter Kwong, the choreographer, says that his choreography is “a fusion of martial arts, jazz, and hip-hop.” He is a practitioner of Northern Shaolin Kung-F u, Tai Chi Chuan and Chi Kung. Other movements appear to be derived from the Falun Gong positions that “A” has used in many of her appearances on stage. 

Whatever the source, these scenes are tremendous and, fortunately, frequent. One suspects that it boi ls down to the fact that Kwong is an extraordinarily gifted choreographer who obtained absolutely first class dancers for these roles. And their frequent appearances on stage are the primary reason to see this production. 

Despite excellent performances—you can’t fault the actors—the play itself seems to flounder under the weight of way too much story to tell. There just isn’t time to develop any feeling about any of the items that are being thrown at you. Even the pathos of a self-doomed heroine is lost in the lengthy grocery list of events. 

(We haven’t mentioned the rather startling and fairly lengthy discussions about the American planes and television cameras flying overhead as if they are there for 24 hours a day. And there’s the doomed love affair between Antigone and her cousin (an excellent performance by Michael Cheng). Then there had to be room for a lengthy confrontation between Antigone and her uncle? 

A whole lot of stuff goes on in this play—much too much to fit into the time restraints a m odern audience expects. As it stands, the themes can’t be developed into issues that the audience is going to care a hoot for. Even the horror of a brother’s body left to open decay arouses no significant response. There isn’t time. 

Clearly this is a gre at production—worth seeing for the beauty and drama of the frequent martial arts and dancing scenes. And the actors are talented. If the play could go thorough a few more rounds of re-write, it would be simply breathtaking. 

Aurora Theatre Company perform s Anigone Falun Gong at 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $28-$40. 2081 Addison St. 843-4822 or www.auroratheatre.org.›f

FRIDAY, APRIL 23 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “The Sisters Rosensweig,” a comedy by Wendy Wasserstein, opens at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck. 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. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

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

Shotgun Players “The Miser” at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater, Thurs.-Sat., Sun. at 7 p.m. to May 2. Free. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org 

“Company” a musical performed by UC Choral Ensembles at 8 p.m. in the Choral Rehearsal Hall, Cesar Chavez Student Center, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$10. 

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 

Pico Iyer describes “Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck. 843-3533. 

Lynne Truss introduces “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

University Dance Theater, directed by Marni Thomas, at 8 p.m., Sat at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sun at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $8-$14. 866-468-3399. www.ticketweb.com 

VOLTI and the Left Coast Chambe r Ensemble at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $25. 415-771-3352. www.voltisf.org 

California Bach Society at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $12-$25. 415-262-0272. www.calbach.or g 

The Georges Lammam Ensemble, Middle Eastern music in a benefit for youth in the Palestinian village of Deir Ibzi’a, at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Tickets are $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Amy Obenski, original folk roots, at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Martyn Joseph, Welsh folk troubadour, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Youthquake Teen Music Winners at 8 p.m. at Ashkenez. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Maverick, Ottis Goodnight, Stymie at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$8. 548-1159.  

Moonrise Concert with Deborah Hamouris, Robin Dolan and Denise Casleton at 8 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $8-$12. Reservat ions requested. 595-3915. 

All Ages Show! at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Julie Kelly and the Vince Lateano Trio, jazz and Brazilian vocals at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Singer-Songwriter Night with B arry Syska at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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

The Reputation, Love Kills Love, The Sky Flakes at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilma n St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 24 

CHILDREN 

“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 Jeff Lead and a Cinco de Mayo presentation at 10:30 a.m. at La Pe ña. Cost is $3-$4. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Word for Word presents “The Wonderful Story of Zaal” a Persian legend about a baby rescued by a magical bird, at 3 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720.  

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Icons: Expressions o f the Spirit” works by Karen Gutowski, Denise Hartley and Jennifer Sipple. Reception at 7 p.m. at 4th St. Studio, 1717D Fourth St. Exhibition runs to May 15. 527-0600. www.fourthstreetstudio.com 

Skyline High School Art Exhibit from 2 to 6 p.m. at St. Cuth bert’s Church, 7932 Mountian Blvd. 414-9807. 

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 

Mordecai Gerstein tells the story of “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Rhythm and Muse with Tres Santos at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dance for Community and World Peace at 7:3 0 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $20, no one turned away. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Healing Muses “Fantasy, Humor and Elegence” music from the Baroque at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Tickets are $15-$18, r eservations recommended. 524-5661. www.heaingmuses.org 

Kensington Symphony with Geoffrey Gallegos, guest conductor and Patrick Galvin, violin at 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Donation $8-$10. 524-4335.  

Joe Lova no Nonet at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Handel’s “Messiah” University Chorus, at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $3-$10. 642-9988.  

KITKA and Maria na Sadovska, “Enchantment Songs” ancient music and stories from the Ukraine at 8 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave. Tickets are $15-$20. 444-0323. www.kitka.org 

Wake the Dead performs Celtic Roots of the Grateful Dead at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

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

Zion 1 & The Crown City Rockers at 9 p.m. a t Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Philip Greenlief and Tony Malaby at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $8-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Irina Rivkin CD release concert at 8 p.m. at Rose Street House of Music, 1839 Rose St. Sliding scale donation. 594-4000 ext. 687. www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Rock that Uke Tour with Carmaig de Forest, Songs From A Random House, Oliver Brown and film screening of “Rock That Uke!” at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin, traditional music duo, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Wayne Wallace, jazz trombone, at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Bands Against Bush Replicator, An Albatross, Greenlight Bombers, The Yellow Press at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 25 

CHILDREN 

Tim Cain at 3 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054.  

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Bohemian Berkeley 1890-1925” an exhibition on the colorful artistic community of late 19th and early 20th century Berkeley. Opening reception from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. Regular hours Thurs.-Sat. 1-4 p.m. Exhibition runs to Sept. 18. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

“Kids Collect: Honoring Elders” an exhibition by students from four Oakland schools. Reception from 1 to 3 p.m. Runs to June 6 at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Admission $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

THEATER 

The Traveling Bohemians, “Voice of the People” an ecclectic experimental performing arts group integrating poetry, prose, music and dance at 4 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

FILM 

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

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Pressing Issues” on contemporary printmaking with Donald Farnsworth, founder of Magnolia Editions at 3:30 p.m., Oakland Museum of Califo rnia, 10th and Oak Sts. Admission is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Ant Farm 1968-1978” Guided Tour at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

Poetry Flash with Karen Kevorkian and Gail Wronsky at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Zakir Hussain Masters of Percussion at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Dance-A-Rama Open Studios at the Saw Tooth Complex, Dwight and Eighth from 12:30 to 5 p.m. Performances by Motivity Center, Terry Sendgraf Aerial Dance, Western Sky Studio and Eighth Street Studio. 848-4878. 

UC Jazz Ensembles Spring Concert at 7 p.m. in Pauley Ballroom, in the MLK Student Union Bldg. Tickets are $5-$10.  

KI TKA and Mariana Sadovska, “Enchantment Songs” ancient music and stories from the Ukraine at 7 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave. Tickets are $15-$20. 444-0323. www.kitka.org 

Music from Scotland, England and Beyond with David Massengill at 7:30 p.m. Donation of $15. For reservations and location email sally@greenberg.org 

ACME Observatory’s Contemporary Music Series with John Shiurba and Daniel Popsicle at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Los Cenzontles, traditional Mexican music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Redemption 87, All Bets Off, Rely, Love Equals Death, Jealous Again at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Pete Magadini Quartet at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MONDAY, APRIL 26 

FILM 

47th SF International Film Festival at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Mahmood Mamdani talks about “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War, and the Roots of Terror” at 12:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Elizabeth Berg reads from her new novel “The Art of Mending” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Student Reading Night presenting works from UCB’s Extension Writing Program at 6:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

UN/Dialogue Through Poetry celebrating the 100th birt hday of Pablo Neruda. Bring Neruda poems to read, plus your own, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

TUESDAY, APRIL 27 

THEATER 

First Stage Children’s Theater “Confession of a Cat Burgler” at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $4 at the door. 845-8542. 

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 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Steve Olson descri bes “Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World’s Toughest Math Competition” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Brad Olsen introduces “Sacred Places Around the World” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 8 43-3533. 

Jacqueline Kramer introduces “Buddha Mom: The Path of Mindful Mothering” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

The Whole Note Poetry Series with Mary Rudge and poet contributors to peace and justice anthologies at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave. 549-9093. 

Poets Gone Wild Readings from the historical anthology “California Poetry” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dennis D’Mennance, Brimstone and Kingston 12 perform reggae at 9:30 p.m. a t Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Flora and Fauna” and “Garden of Peace” two new exhibitions open at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. Gallery hours are Mon. - Fri. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

FILM 

47th SF International Film Festival at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Victorian Glory in the San Francisco Bay Area” with Paul Duchscherer at 7:30 p.m. at Church by the Side of the Road, 2108 Russell St. Tickets are a vailable from Berkeley Architectural Heritage Assoc. 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

Joan Blades introduces MoveOn’s “50 Ways to Love Your Country” at 7:30 p.m. at Diesel Bookstore, 5433 College Ave. in Oakland. 653-9965.  

Daniel Dorman discusses “Dante’s Cure: A Journey Out of Madness” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Susan Halpern describes “The Etiquette of Illness: What to Say When You Can’t Find the Words,” in a benefit for Alta Bates Comprehensive Cancer Center at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Nina Marie Martínez describes an adventure story/soap opera in “!Caramba!” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Andrew Carriere & Cajun Classics at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost i s $4. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

Ross Hammond, creative ja zz guitar, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15 suggested. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

THURSDAY, APRIL 29 

EXHBITION OPENINGS 

“Still Moments in a World of Flux” photographs by Dafna Kory, Elizabeth Lane, and Jason Malinsky at Wuster Hall Lob by, UC Campus. Reception from 5 to 8 p.m. 

THEATER 

“Scenes of Unseen Prejudice” Presented by Piedmont’s Appreciating Diversity Committee at 7 p.m. at Piedmont’s Veteran’s Hall, 401 Highland Ave., Piedmont. Free. 663-9649. 

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 

Jesse Shepard reads from his collection of short stories, “Jubilee King” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Jonathan Rausch talks about “Gay Marriage: Why it is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Arianna Huffington describes “Fanatic and Fools: A Game Plan for Winning Back America” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-5900. www.codysbooks.com 

“Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness” a discussion of bipolar worlds with Sascha Scatter and Ashley McNamara at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674 A 23rd St, Oakland. Don ation $5. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured readers April Chartrand and Phillip Nails at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New Century Chamber Orchestra performs Mendel- 

ssohn, Sho stakovich and Grieg at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $28-$39. 415-392-4400. www.ncco.org 

Quetzal performs Chicano music at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Greg Brown at 8 p.m. at Berkele y Rep’s Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $24.50 in advance, $25.50 at the door. Presented by Freight and Salvage. 548-1761. 

John Schott’s Typical Orchestra and Myles Boisen’s Past Present Future at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Sacred Music Night at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Swoop Unit at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277.?à

Anyone who’s driven past Essex Street on Shattuck Avenue in South Berkeley in recent months has delighted in the stunning underwater scene emerging on the exterior walls of The Octopus’s Garden at 3039 N. Shattuck, Erin Janoff’s tropical fish and aquarium store. 

“I wanted to paint on those walls since I first came to Berkeley over 30 years ago,” says Joe Silva, a burly bear of a man usually seen at work on the walls in his trademark African cone straw hat. “But it was a liquor store back then, and they weren’t all that interested.” 

Three decades later, a friend brought Janoff and Silva together and the painting began. 

Silva always knew he was an artist, and at age 4 he discovered his passion for murals when he took his mother’s nail polish and painted “a mural of rather primitive animals on my mother’s dresser.” He smiles, his gentle brown eyes sparkling at the memory. “I got dressed down for that.” 

Silva was born in 1951 in Providence, Rhode Island, a serendipitous locale for an artistically gifted youth because of the presence of the legendary Rhode Island School of Design. 

At age 8, he won the first of the weekend scholarships at the design school that would help him master the fine points of his chosen media. Then, at age 16, while he was attend ing a summer session at the school, Silva had a momentous and life-changing encounter while he and his best friend were grabbing a bite at Joe’s Sandwich Shop, a local institution on the east side of Providence. 

“Because I was kind of shy around the oppo site sex, [my friend] bet me five dollars I wouldn’t talk to the next woman who walked in the door,” Silva explained. “That was a huge sum of money to me in those days, so when a woman walked in wrapped in a rather tattered fur coat, I tapped her on the s houlder, and when she turned around I said, ‘Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Janis Joplin?’ She said, ‘I walk in here and you tell me I look like me.’” 

Joplin told the stunned young artist she and her band were looking for a pleasant place to kick back and unwind after weeks on the road. 

“We were three blocks from Prospect Terrace, a scenic overlook with nice benches and a great view of downtown Providence, and we hung out and talked. I was surprised to discover she was an artist, too, and she liked to create murals. She invited me out to California, and it sounded like this wonderful creative place.” 

Two years later, Silva hitched his way across the country, arriving in Berkeley in October, 1970, just days after Joplin’s death. He’s lived here ever since. 

“I started doing illustrations right away, and I supplemented my income by doing quick graphics and cartoons for the Berkeley Barb and the Berkeley Tribe,” he said. “I did flyers for rock and roll clubs and posters for the Long Branch an d groups like Asleep at the Wheel.” 

In 1976, Silva met Gary Graham, who taught a class on murals at Oakland’s Laney Community College. “He was more of a carnival painter than a muralist, and I became his teaching assistant,” Silva explained. 

Immersing h imself in the mural form, Silva was painting a whale in a Laney mural project on the wall of a freeway underpass at Claremont Avenue and Hudson Street in Oakland when a car pulled up and two men jumped out and said, “This is what we want on our wall.” The new-found fans were the Mitchell brothers, Jim and Artie, the San Francisco porn and skin show moguls, who were in search of art for the walls of their O’Farrell Theater. 

Silva painted his murals at the O’Farrell in 1978 and 1985 and was in the middle o f yet another work at the O’Farrell in 1989 when Jim Mitchell shot his brother. 

During his last gig at the O’Farrell, Silva was busily painting when David Warren, proprietor of The Giant Camera, walked up bearing an urn and two requests. Inside the conta iner were the ashes of a long-time fan, “unbeknownst to me,” of the artist’s murals. 

A well-known clown who’d worked at the long-vanished Playland of the Pacific, the dead man’s first wish had been to be incorporated into one of Silva’s murals. 

“I short ly set about sifting the finer ashes into my paint mixtures,” Silva said. “I painted him into the vegetation and the anaconda in the lower right section of the ‘Rainforests’ mural.” 

That task complete, he fulfilled the clown’s second wish—scattering more ashes beneath the O’Farrell stage so the clown could spend part of eternity close to his equally beloved strippers. 

In 1979, Silva created “Cross Section,” a slice of California from ocean to desert on the exterior wall of University Press Books at Banc roft Way and Dana Street. 

Over the years the painting has been damaged by car bumpers and leaks in the wall. “I asked if the university would be interested in partially funding a restoration, but I have yet to hear from them,” he said. 

He created anothe r underwater scene for the swimming pool area of the UC medical center, and a mural depicting prehistoric whales for the Steinhardt Aquarium at the San Francisco Academy of Sciences—recently claimed by the wrecking ball as part of a major renovation. 

Oth er murals are gone, too—vanished at the whims of new owners. 

“I have a very detached philosophy about public art,” he said. “I put it out for people to see, and because the energies change from day-to-day, you have to accept that that’s part of what goes along with creating public art. I have a friend who’s very attached to his public art and almost goes crazy when some of his work disappears. But that’s just part and parcel of doing public art. The best approach I find is when I complete a mural, I make a photographic record.” 

On a smaller scale, Silva has created countless illustrations, many of marine mammals, for academic textbooks. He’s also worked as a naturalist at the Desert Tortoise Natural Area in the Mojave Desert. 

“Whenever I can, I like to get out and spend time in the desert or on the ocean,” he said. “I also like chase snakes to photograph them because I like to work them into my paintings. I also have this fascination for crocodilians, which has taken me to Northern Australia several times.” 

That would explain the presence of one of the toothsome critters on Shattuck Avenue. “I’ve traveled extensively through the South Pacific, and I’ve spent time in Vanuatu, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.” 

What’s next? 

“Well, I’ve been asked to consult with Epic Arts. One of their projects is Artify Ashby, and they want to fill every available space around Ashby with murals.” 

Then he smiles again. “Since I started on this mural, about half the people in the neighborhood have asked me about doing murals on their homes. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”?n

A controversial City Council rule that Councilmember Kriss Worthington called the “largest restraint to free speech in Berkeley history” could be history itself shortly after a public hearing at tonight’s (Tuesday, April 20) City Council meeting. 

Already five members of the council—Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmembers Linda Maio, Gordon Wozniak, Dona Spring, and Worthington—have publicly supported a reform to the council’s rule on ex parte communications which forbids councilmembers from so much as overhearing conversations about pending projects that they could vote on as a quasi appeals court. A sixth councilmember, Margaret Breland, is ailing and has not been available for comment, but in 2001 she spearheaded an identical reform drive that failed to win a council majority. 

The impetus for this round of “ex parte” reform came from the Mayor’s Task Force on Permitting and Development, which last December called on the City Council to “hold a public hearing to discuss modifying [the rule] to allow for more open communication” in the permitting process. “Regardless of whether the ex parte rule is modified,” the Task Force’s final report went on to suggest, “the city should provide clear and concise information on the rule so that everyone understands how this rule is to be followed and the consequences of the failure to do so.” 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz has asked the council, following tonight’s public hearing, to provide his office with direction as to how to regulate such ex parte contacts. Under normal council procedure, the city manager’s office would draft any council recommendation into a proposed change to Berkeley’s city ordinances, which would then be voted on by the council at a later date. 

A change in the rule this time around could transform the city’s often contentious and litigious process for approving new developments. Instead of relegating the City Council to the sidelines of the debate from the time a project is submitted to the planning department up until the City Council is called on to make the ultimate call after an appeal, councilmembers would be able to talk to both developers and opponents of projects to foster compromises before the issue ever reaches the council. The content of all conversations would have to be disclosed by the councilmember before the public hearing. 

Presently, all communications from the public to councilmembers on pending developments and other issues that might be appealed to the city council must be in writing and shared with all councilmembers.  

The current prohibition on oral communications in Berkeley and several other California cities is meant to safeguard the city from lawsuits in which one party could claim that their due process rights were violated because a councilmember had access to information that might have biased his vote on a project.  

“It’s about fairness,” said Bill Connors, city attorney of Monterey. He said that the strict rules on councilmembers preserve the integrity of their vote since they are privy to the same arguments and information presented at the hearing. In addition to Monterey, Mountain View and San Diego have rules similar to Berkeley’s. 

But opponents of the rule, like Councilmember Spring, argue that it stifles free speech, fosters alienation and in cases in which the hearing involves a proposed development, stacks the deck in favor of developers. 

Developers, she said, peddle their projects to councilmembers and then quickly submit their applications so residents are effectively shut out of the project. The end result is that the city staff ends up controlling all of the information and works, “hand in glove with the developers.” 

“Ultimately you get staff driven development,” she said. 

Berkeley Planning Commissioner Dan Marks declined to comment on the issue. 

To avoid any perception of due process violations, Spring and her fellow councilmembers are kept at arms length from the public, once a developer has completed his application. 

If a constituent mentions a project to any councilmember, including the mayor, the elected official must withdraw from the conversation; if the constituent calls the office, the elected official can’t call back; if the constituent leaves a message stating an opinion on the pending project, the elected official can’t listen to it. Even e-mails are to be directed to the city clerk so they can be included in the public record and available to all councilmembers. 

While the restrictions might be a hassle for the mayor and councilmembers, for a resident opposing a development they can be outright infuriating. “It took a year out of my life,” said Sharon Hudson, president of the Benvenue Neighborhood Association, and a leader in a two-year neighborhood struggle to block a development planned on the street by the American Baptist Seminary. Since she couldn’t talk to her representatives, Hudson estimates she wrote about 200 pages on the project, 90 percent of which she guesses “was never read by anybody.” 

“If I could have spoken to them for five minutes that would equal about 10 pages worth of work,” she said. It’s a more honest way of communication. That way they can ascertain if I’m a total flake.” 

Had Hudson lived a couple of miles south, she would have done a lot more talking and a lot less writing. 

Oakland has one of the least restrictive rules in the state when it comes to allowing city councilmembers access to developers and opponents to the developments on which the council must ultimately rule. Councilmembers can talk to whomever they want and they don’t have to disclose the content of their conversations. City officials and local developers say their system has allowed Oakland to avoid the drawn out nasty land use battles endemic to Berkeley without putting the city at risk of a lawsuit. 

Oakland City Councilmember Jane Brunner said she always tries to talk to neighbors and developers when considering new projects planned in the city. “That’s how I make my decision,” she said. Last year when opponents railed against the 700-unit “Uptown” housing development for not including enough affordable units Brunner and other councilmembers brought both sides together and forged a compromise to build a separate “totally affordable structure” on the lot, settling the issue before it ever reached the full city council. 

Ali Kashani, the outgoing head of Affordable Housing Associates, praised the Oakland system. In 1996, when opposition emerged to his proposal to turn a motel into affordable housing for senior citizens, Kashani turned to then Oakland City Councilmember Nate Miley for help. 

“He had the balls to say ‘what are your issues?’” Kashani said. “He’d take sides, he’d say this is what we’re going to do.” 

In contrast, Kashani said that Berkeley city councilmembers “hide behind ex parte” to duck controversial cases. Nevertheless certain council members, he said, will violate the law to speak to developers or opponents to developments with whom they have close ties. 

“What’s frustrating for both sides is if you don’t have a relationship you’re told they can’t talk to you because of ex parte,” he said. “It stokes the level of people’s frustration and adds hostility to projects,” he said. 

A case in point might be Kashani’s Sacramento Senior Housing project that remains tied up in the courts after the City Council voted to approve the project over stiff neighborhood opposition. Marie Bowman, who has led the fight against the project, said she was denied access to city councilmembers, but didn’t think the same held true for Kashani. “He would brag that [Councilmember] Linda [Maio] would take care of him,” she said.  

Looking back on her three-year ordeal, Bowman thinks the neighbors could have negotiated for an acceptable development had they been able to communicate to city councilmembers like Oakland residents can. 

“If they had read the information and understood what our concerns were, I think a better project would have been built,” she said. 

So how can neighboring cities have such polar opposite rules on a legal issue? The answer appears to be diverging interpretations of state law and Berkeley’s litigious history when it comes to civil procedures. 

The Berkeley City Council adopted the rule in 1985 as part of a reform drive to protect the city from litigation, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said. That year the city faced a barrage of lawsuits, many with merit, from residents who argued that city procedures violated state law. 

“People were challenging everything we were doing. We had to figure out what we needed to do to protect ourselves,” she said. 

When it came to ex parte communications, Albuquerque recommended the council take the strictest and safest interpretation of the constitutional rights to due process, even though, she acknowledged, the law is unclear on the subject.  

“The U.S. Supreme Court has said this is a matter of flexibility, but there is no case in California that has ruled on this question.” 

Recent case law, said Albuquerque, suggests that since 2001 state courts have taken a tougher line against city procedures that violate due process. In essence for a hearing to be considered fair, all parties must be aware of all information provided to the decision-making body, so each party can respond to that information. 

In one case Nightlife Partners versus Beverly Hills, she said the appeals court judge based his decision to invalidate an administrative procedure in Beverly Hills on the state’s Administrative Procedure Act. The act applies to state agencies, not cities, but Albuquerque feared judges, lacking sufficient case law on matters dealing with cities, might now use the APA as a “gold standard.” If that were the case, anything less than a full ban on ex parte communications called for in the APA could face judicial scrutiny, she said. 

But Oakland Assistant City Attorney Mark Morodomi read the law differently. He said recent cases show that state courts recognize that councilmembers are not judges and they “need to be interacting with homeowners and neighbors.” 

Michael Asimow, a UCLA law professor with a specialty in municipal administrative law concurred. “I would be shocked to see a state court overturn a land use decision because either the opponent or applicant had ex parte contacts.” He said the Nightlife case involved the revocation of a business license, which has historically carried strict due process guidelines.  

However, he said, land use has never been interpreted to require strict standards for ex parte contacts. “What due process calls for is not a pristine type of hearing,” he added. “Councilmembers are allowed to decide cases even when developers make contributions to their campaigns. That would be a due process violation in any other type of case but land use.”  

Tonight (Tuesday, April 20) is public hearing night for the Berkeley City Council. Aside from the much-anticipated hearing on ex parte communications (see accompanying story, above), residents will also get a chance to weigh in directly on proposals for the allocation of public housing funds, a new police youth service counselor, higher park fees, a new parking rate plan for the Center Street garage, and the first of several fee hikes targeted at closing the city’s $10 million deficit. 

While the ex part e hearing is scheduled for information-gathering only, with the council set to make possible ordinance-changing recommendations at a later council meeting, the remaining proposals have accompanying resolutions that the council is scheduled to vote on toni ght.  

The youth service counselor would be paid for by the city out of part of a $155,816 grant from the California Citizen’s Option for Public Safety. The money was originally slated for a youth center, Councilmember Kriss Worthington said, but after efforts to start up the center were delayed and bumped up against the grant application deadline, the city changed course. In addition to the youth service coordinator, the funds will also pay for a youth program volunteer coordinator, police aides and DNA testing of suspected criminals. 

The city manager’s office is recommending raising more than $58,000 for the general fund in recreation fee hikes, including increasing tennis court fees in general and charging youth for the formerly-free tennis lessons ta ken during the After School and Fun Club Programs, eliminating city purchase of BART and bus tickets for youth field trips, and eliminating free swimming for Summer Fun Camp participants. 

A bigger boon to the general fund will come if, as expected, the c ouncil approves a proposal to discontinue the waiver of building permit fees for seismic retrofits of residential buildings. The city approved the fee waivers, which average $400, in 1991 to encourage homeowners to retrofit their properties. Over the last five years Berkeley has waived an average of $298,000 annually in building permit fees for seismic retrofits, according to a report from Planning Director Dan Marks. 

The council is also expected to approve a new fee policy for the Center Street garage. To bring more short-term shoppers downtown, city staff has proposed a flat-rate $1.50 fee for two hours of parking between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. weekdays and 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturdays. Currently, the city charges a $3 fee for two hours of parking and $1 for the first hour of parking. The change is not anticipated to affect parking revenues. 

On the housing front, the City Council will discuss this coming year’s allocation of federal housing money. Berkeley will receive $3.88 million in 2004-2005 from th e Federal Community Development Block Grant—$75,000 less than the current fiscal year. The proposed budget includes no money for the University Students’ Cooperative Association and 10 percent cuts to Affordable Housing Associates and Resources for Commun ity Development, Berkeley’s two largest non-profit developers. 

Aside from public hearings, the council will consider a proposal from Mayor Tom Bates to hold four special City Council community meetings on the city budget each Thursday in May. Mayor Bates had also proposed that the council request Alameda County to conduct an investigation of problems encountered with the county’s Diebold voting machines and that the city staff explore other options if the problems persist. 

›

As Tibetan hunger strikers moved into their sixteenth day in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York, a small group of Bay Area residents turned out Saturday in downtown Berkeley to show their support by staging their own one-day strike. 

Resting under a canopy set up at the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, some 25 protesters meditated, prayed and chanted. 

The strikers’ demands include China’s release of several high-ranking religious leaders—including one that is set to be executed—as well as an independent investigation into the abuse of human rights by the Chinese government in Tibet.  

The three hunger strikers in New York said they are prepared to stay in front of the U.N. building until these concessions are met. In the meantime, solidarity actions such as the one in Berkeley have popped up around the country. 

“Our ultimate aspiration is the end of the Chinese occupation of Tibet,” said Topden Tsering, president of the San Francisco Tibetan Youth Congress, the organization that organized the strike. “But right now they are outside the U.N. with very practical demands.” 

One of the religious leaders currently held by China is Ghedun Choekyi Nyima, the eleventh Panchen Lama and the second highest leader of Tibet. Nyima has been jailed since 1995, when he was captured at age of six. The other prisoner, Tulku Tenzin Delek, a Tibetan lama, was arrested and sentenced to death for refusing to renounce allegiance to the Dali Lama, according to Tsering. Both figures, said Tsering, were arrested because they were seen as a threat to Chinese power in Tibet. 

Tibet has been under Chinese occupation since 1959 and has garnered a broad base of support here in the United States. Yet according to Tsering, China’s influence in the world market has kept anyone, including the United States, from making any definitive moves to demand the end of the occupation. 

The protests here in Berkeley and in New York, as a result, are part of a new wave on non-violent resistance by Tibetans, said Tsering. In 1997, Tibetan Youth Congress hunger strikers in Delhi, India, held out for 59 days until they were forcibly removed by the Indian police. During that struggle, a young Tibetan man dowsed himself with gasoline and set himself on fire to redraw attention to the struggle. 

“We are letting the free world know that even though you have business to do with China, we should also have the freedom to have our culture, and our freedom,” said Dhonyo Tenzin, a Berkeley resident who was originally born in Tibet. 

“The U.S. should not just look for incentives like oil to support people,” said Tsering. 

Tsering said a strong Tibetan community has developed in the diaspora and he hopes support will continue to grow.  

“Even after more than 40 years we have not forgotten our culture,” he said. “We can go back to a free Tibet and we will.” 

Fed up with what they say is more than 25 years of strewn trash, raucous parties and a plague of vermin, 22 neighbors earlier this month filed small claims court suits totaling $110,000 against Le Chateau, UC Berkeley’s most notorious student housing cooperative. 

The neighbors are each seeking the maximum $5,000 in damages from the University Students Cooperative Association (USCA), which counts Le Chateau as one of its 20 member cooperatives. The suits charge that the co-op, founded in the late ‘70s and known for its quirky residents that several years ago would invite homeless people from People’s Park to camp on their roof, has created a nuisance and diminished property values in the neighborhood. 

George Lewinsky, who has lived next door to the 85-student three-building complex on the intersection of Hillegass and Parker streets since 1989, described the usual state of affairs: “When I look out my bedroom window I see the entire entrance to their backyard covered with trash.” He said on a couple of occasions the co-op, which houses about 85 mostly first-year students, has been so loud, his wife has had to sleep in a different bedroom. 

The nuisance suits come at a time when Lewinsky acknowledges that behavior at Le Chateau is actually improving. Last year after a meeting with neighbors and city officials, the co-op adopted an addendum to its charter that set stringent noise rules and fines for residents who violated them. Six residents were fined last semester, said former manager Ryan O’Laughlin. However, the USCA refused to meet the neighbors demand that it hire a professional manager for The Chateau. 

“Rotating elected managers has not worked,” Lewinsky said. “There’s no consistency in the way the place is managed and in the way members treat the neighbors.” 

But a professional manager would “go against the entire idea of a co-op,” said Ben Reccius, a freshman and the social manager of The Chateau. “It’s about co-operative living, not a professional management company overlooking everything.” 

For most co-ops, including Le Chateau, managers are elected by residents and then go through a week-long training session.  

However, there is precedent for installing a professional staff. Rochdale, a student cooperative, has had a professional manager since its inception and, USCA General Manager George Proper said UC Berkeley was pushing for the USCA to install a professional manager at Cloyne Court—another freshman dominated co-op—as part of a new lease agreement. 

Proper said Le Chateau—which sits on USCA-owned land—could one day receive a professional manager, but that the co-op board of directors would not tie any management change to the lawsuit, which the USCA has pledged to fight and if necessary appeal to the superior court.  

Should they lose, Proper guessed that the fines would be paid through reserve funds accumulated over several years by all 1,300 students who belong to the USCA. He added that despite a similar case more than 15 years ago, a legal battle wouldn’t spell the end for Le Chateau. In the late 1980s the USCA closed Barrington Hall rather than fight a neighbor-driven lawsuit filed in superior court. 

The small claims case against Le Chateau is believed to be the first against a student co-op or a fraternity, but Berkeley Neighborhood Services Liaison Michael Caplan, said such suits are a growing trend in Berkeley and elsewhere. He is aware of three to five groups of neighbors considering filing joint small claims suits against owners of problem properties. Earlier this year a group of neighbors won their case against a neighbor they alleged harbored known drug dealers at his property in West Berkeley. 

“Nuisance suits are always the last resort,” Caplan said. “It’s a way to put pressure on the property owner when other means of problem solving are not available.” 

Lewinsky said he and other neighbors had exhausted all of their options. In 1996 he and the USCA reached an agreement through Berkeley Dispute Resolution Services, but new managers and students who weren’t part of the negotiations never honored the deal, he said. 

Co-op officials, though, insisted that the agreement reached last October was working and should have been given more time.  

“We’ve done everything within our power to appease them,” said Reccius, the social manager. He said the co-op had built outdoor storage cupboards to store garbage, hired an exterminator to prevent mice and rats that neighbors say are rampant, gave neighbors notice when they would have parties and provided managers with beepers so neighbors could contact them when issues arose. 

Ryan O’Laughlin, a former manager and current resident of Le Chateau, said neighbors often beeped him with frivolous complains including a loud pool filter and noisy nighttime dishwashing. He said this semester neighbors stopped beeping managers and started calling police. 

O’Laughlin understands that the tawdry history of Le Chateau, especially the unwelcome invitations to homeless people, has left neighbors dubious that a solution can be reached. 

“Even though the house is improving they’re convinced that five years from now it’s going to be like five years ago,” he said. “There were some assholes who used to live here, but don’t want our house to go back to that. They just don’t trust us to police ourselves.”›

In the upcoming weeks, UC Berkeley officials will be meeting to finalize changes to the student code of conduct that could prevent students from having legal representatives during on-campus hearings. The potential change in policy leaves many students worried about their due process rights on a campus well-known for civil unrest.  

According to UC administration sources, the student code of conduct is normally revised every five to six years. 

Last Friday, the Student Code of Conduct Review Committee (SCCRC)—charged with overseeing the changes—delayed a scheduled meeting on the matter for two weeks. Students, nonetheless, held a press conference Friday outside California Hall to let the administration know that they will continue to demand representation and other due process rights during campus hearings. 

“It’s a very slippery slope and we don’t want to slide down it,” said Boris Sorsher, a member of the campus American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), about possible changes to the code. 

According to Neil Rajmaira, UC Berkeley’s student judicial officer, students are currently allowed to be represented by a lawyer or anyone of their choosing during on-campus hearings. But last March, the SCCRC tentatively voted that students could only be allowed to be represented by attorneys if it were deemed necessary by the hearing panel. Although this was considered a compromise position at the time, students want the SCCRC to reverse its vote and return to full attorney representation. In addition, students say they are worried that the SCCRC might vote at the next meeting to further erode student representation rights. 

“This essentially will set the tone for the next five or seven years,” said Sorsher. “If they implement these rules it could restrict liberties in the future as well.” 

Proponents of the changes say they are trying to make the hearing process more educational and less adversarial. They say students learn more from the process when they represent themselves. Students say that the consequences they can face are serious enough to merit representation by a lawyer. 

Last November, Ronald Gronsky, a professor in the Engineering department who co-chaired the committee responsible for updating the codes, told the Berkeley Daily Planet that the changes were also meant to bring UC Berkeley’s policies into line with the rest of the UC System.  

Calls placed to other UCs, however, find that they have varied policies for on-campus hearings. UC Santa Barbara allows students to have lawyers advise them during hearings but not speak for them. At UCLA, students can have lawyers represent them or advise them and do not need permission from the hearing panel. At UC Davis, lawyers can represent students during hearings where the penalties are suspension or expulsion. They can only advise students when the penalty is probation. 

All the campuses, including Berkeley, also have non-lawyer university officials who can advise or, if allowed, represent students. 

Several of the university officials in charge of hearings at other campuses said they believed in making the process educational but also thought it was important right to have an attorney, especially if the student is facing criminal charges outside the university for the same incident. 

“Any form of representation oftentimes allows for better communication,” said Brian A. Carlisle, Assistant Dean of Students for UCLA. “It’s not fair to have a student face charges that are major at a university and not let them have representation.” 

Jeanne Wilson, director of student judicial affairs for UC Davis, said the university encourages students to seek legal advice or representation if the student faces criminal charges along with their campus charges. She said though lawyers can bog a hearing down, more often they facilitate the process and make it more comfortable for the students. 

Neither Carlisle nor Wilson know of any law that says students are guaranteed representation.  

“I’m not aware of any California case that definitively says that students at a public university have the right to attorney in a disciplinary process,” said Wilson, who practiced law in California for several years before joining UC Davis. 

The issue of due process for students at UC Berkeley is particularly timely because of several high profile on campus cases within the past couple of years. Most recently, three students faced campus charges for their participation in an anti-war demonstration and sit-in when the war broke out in Iraq. 

Two of them could receive letters of warning that stay in their campus file and are reportable on graduate school applications, if they apply for government jobs, or waive their rights to the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).  

The anti-Iraq-war student protesters were allowed representation at their hearing, but had to fight to have open hearings, another issue students plan to address during the code of conduct committee’s next meeting. At one hearing, all three of the protesters walked out because the panel refused to open to it to the public. Sorsher from the campus ACLU said the university cites privacy reasons for trying to close hearings. Students say it is part of their due process rights to have them open.ª

Student commission captures honor 

UC student and Berkeley Housing Commissioner Brandon Simmons has won one of three prestigious John Gardner Fellowships awarded annually to UC Berkeley students. 

The fellowships are named for John Gardner, who received his doctorate from UC Berkeley and went on to serve as secretary of health, education and welfare from 1965 to 1968 under President Johnson and founded Common Cause. The fellowships team graduating seniors with distinguished citizens in government and public service. 

Three other fellowship are given to graduating seniors from Stanford University, where Gardner received his baccalaureate and master’s degrees. 

Former Daily Planet reporter honored 

The California Teachers Association has honored former Berkeley Daily Planet reporter David Scharfenberg with a John Swett Award, a journalism prize awarded annually for journalists “who honor all teachers with their skillful and sensitive work,” said CTA President Barbara Kerr. 

Scharfenberg’s award came for his ongoing coverage of education issues for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. 

UC Berkeley professor to head S.F. Federal Reserve 

UC Berkeley economics professor Janet Yellen will become the first woman to head the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco when Robert Parry, the current president and CEO, retires in June. 

Yellen, who also serves as the Eugene and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor at the Haas School of Business, joined the UCB staff in 1980. From 1994, Yellen was on leave from the school to serve of the Fed’s board of directors. 

She becomes the fourth woman to head a Federal Reserve Bank. 

Sexual predator sentenced 

An Alameda County Superior Court judge sentenced serial child molester Kenneth Parnell, 72, to 25 years in state prison last week for attempting to buy a four-year-old boy 

It was his fifth conviction.  

Parnell was busted by Berkeley police last year after the sister of his former caretaker told him Parnell wanted to buy an African American boy. 

Parnell soared to national notoriety after the escape in 1980 of 15-year-old Steven Stayner—kidnapped as a sex slave in Merced eight years earlier—and five year old Timothy White of Ukiah. 

Stayner spent only five years in prison for the two kidnappings and was paroled to Berkeley in 1985. The parents of both children urged that Stayner receive the maximum sentence in the Berkeley case. 

Road Rage Leads to Berkeley Shooting 

An outbreak of road rage ended on a dead end Berkeley street Saturday afternoon when one driver shot another in the arm. 

The incident started in North Oakland shortly after 12:30 p.m., and one angry driver pursued another through city streets and on into Berkeley. Unfortunately, the fleeing driver turned onto the 1600 block of Fairview Street, which ends in a barrier at King Street. 

Forced to turn around, the panicked motorist had to pass his pursuer, who fired one shot, striking the 22-year-old in the arm, according to Berkeley Police spokesperson Kevin Schofield. 

The victim was rushed to Kaiser medical center in Oakland, where he was treated for a non-life-threatening injury. 

The shooter, described as an African American male driving a recent vintage maroon or burgundy import sedan, remains at large. 

Berkeley police make three gun arrests  

Six minutes before Saturday’s road rage shooting, Berkeley Police were summoned to the 1600 block of Russell Street by an alert citizen who reported a gunman carrying a pistol inside his jacket. 

Officers arrested Manuel Gorrostieta-Martinez on one charge of carrying a concealed weapon, with a separate “enhancement” charge citing him as a gang member. He was taken to Berkeley City Jail, said BPD spokesperson Kevin Schofield. 

The next arrest came at 2:40 a.m. Sunday in the 1600 block of Stuart Street when an officer spotted a young man acting suspiciously. The officer stopped the youth, and quickly found a loaded handgun nearby. 

The 17-year-old was booked into city jail on one charge of carrying a concealed weapon and another of carrying a loaded weapon. 

The same two charges were filed against Mark Lesh, a 21-year-old Oakland man, after an officer stopped him for driving with his high beams. A subsequent search discovered a loaded pistol under the seat, said Officer Schofield. 

Lesh was booked into city jail on the two firearms charges and the vehicle code violation.

When the air raid sirens shatter Berkeley’s daytime calm this Thursday and next, don’t worry. It’s only a test. 

Though George Bush told reporters last week that until 9/11, Americans felt safe from attacks over the oceans, anyone over the age of 40 will probably remember the days when the Cold War was at its scariest heights and duck-and-cover drills and siren tests were monthly events. 

Between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on both days, the city’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services will be sounding siren blast s to test how well the noisemakers can be heard in different parts of the city. 

For each proposed siren location tested, city workers will sound a series of four one-minute siren blasts spaced several minutes apart. The mobile test sirens will be located at Indian Rock Avenue and Oxford Street, Panoramic Way at the Oakland city limits, Bonar Street and Allston Way, and Cragmont Avenue and Regal Road. 

The sirens could cover a range of emergencies, including fires in the hills and chemical spills, according to Emergency Service Manager Bill Greulich. 

—Richard Brenneman

TUESDAY, APRIL 20 

Morning Birdwalk in Briones 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 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 from 3 to 7 p.m. 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 Tues. April 20-May 18. Cost is $185, $165 for Garden Members. 200 Centennial Dr. 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. 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/ 

“Mexico and California: New Challenges for Consular Affairs” with Georgina Lagos, former Consul General of Mexico at 4 p.m. in the CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch St. 642-2088. 

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. 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 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, vigil at 6:30 p.m. 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, noon to 1 p.m. Dwinelle Ishi Court, UC Campus. berkeleycue@earthlink.net 

Berkeley CopWatch open office hours 7 to 9 p.m. Assistance available. 548-0425. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 22 

Beginning Bird Watching at the UC Botanical Garden with Dennis Wolff. Meets Thursday mornings from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Fee is $75, $65 members. For information and registration call 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Earth Day Strawberry Creek Cleanup from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Meet at the natural amphitheater just east of Sather Gate on the UC Campus. Trash bags and gloves provided. 642-6568. 

Creative Remodels in the East Bay a lecture with Jane Powell, author of “Bungalow Kitchens, Bungalow Bathrooms,” at 6:30 p.m. at the Center for Digital Storytelling, 1803 Martin Luther King Way. A home tour will follow on April 24. The talk and tour benefit Children’s Community Center, a cooperative preschool in Berkeley. For tickets please call 528-6975. 

“Remembering Rwanda: Africa in Conflict Yesterday and Today,” with Human Rights Watch’s Africa researcher, Corrine Dufka, a 3:30 p.m. in the Goldberg Room, Boalt Hall, UC Campus. 642-0965. www.hrcberkeley.org/event_rwanda.html 

International Institute of the East Bay 85th Anniversary Reception Celebration with Dorothy Ehrlich, Director of the ACLU of Northern California, at 5:30 p.m. at the Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $75. 451-2846, ext. 324. hcastillo@iieb.org 

“Breathing Retraining” with Dorisse Neale, certified Eucapnic Buteyko practitioner, to help treat respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological and immune system disorders. At 3:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com  

GreenCine Film Trivia Night with co-hosts Underdog and Futureboy at 6:30 p.m. at Albatross Pub, 1822 San Pablo Ave. www.greencine.com  

FRIDAY, APRIL 23 

“Spring Flora of Mount Diablo” Weekend workshop sponsored by Jepson Herbarium. A unique opportunity to stay “on the mountain” for extended hikes and exploration. Registration and deposit required, for information, see http://ucjeps. 

berkeley.edu/jepwkshp.htm 

Inspiration Point Hike with Solo Sierrans at 4 p.m. Meet at large parking lot off Wildcat Canyon Road. You need not be a member to attend. 525-2299. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Terry Woronov, PhD, Anthropology, on “Transforming Chinese Culture: Raising Children’s Quality.” Lunch 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.  

East Bay Farm Worker Support Committee Dinner Dance, with the 2004 Chavez Legacy Award, at 6 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St. Oakland. Cost is $10-$25. 832-2372. 

César Chávez Commemoration, with speakers, performers, music, food and an altar, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the César Chávez Student Learning Center, UC Campus. Program includes Federico Chávez, grandson of César Chávez. 642-1802. 

“The USA Patriot Act: Californians Respond” with Sanjeev Bery, Field Organizer for the Northern California ACLU, at 6 p.m. in the FSM Cafe at Moffitt Library, UC Campus.  

“Eyewitness to Empire” 2nd National CAN Speaking Tour with Khury Peterson-Smith, CAN activist from NY who visited Iraq in January, Military Families Speak Out and Campus Antiwar Network. at 7 p.m. at 126 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. www.campusantiwar.net 

“Life and Debt” a film explaining the complexity of international lending, structural adjustment policies and free trade, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751.  

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

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

Kol Hadash meets at 7:30 p.m. for Shabbat, at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. 428-1492. www.kolhadash.org 

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

SATURDAY, APRIL 24 

Earth Day at Civic Center Park from noon to 5 p.m. with cultural performers, activities for children, food, craft and community booths.  

Family Farm Day at Berkeley Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. Co-sponsored by The Ecology Center and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Bike Tour in Eastshore State Park leaving from Civic Center Park at noon and going to Richmond. Sponsored by Citizens for the Eastshore State Park. Bring water, sunblock, and windbreaker. Bikes should be in good condition. Course is flat. Route is approximately 25 miles. Helmets are encouraged. For more information 461- 4665. www.eastshorepark.org 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of Aquatic Park at 10 a.m. Pre-paid reservations required, $8 for memebers, $10 for non-members. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/  

Creek Tour with Urban Creeks Council from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with restoration expert Ann Riley. Tour of East Bay Restoration Sites includes Wildcat, Baxter, and Blackberry Creeks. Bring a lunch and dress for hiking. To register visit www.urbancreeks.org 

Turtle Time at Tilden Reptiles all around the park will be coming out of winter hibernation. Meet and greet the three exotic turtles that live at the Nature Center from 2 to 3 p.m. 525-2233. 

Earth Day Paddle at Gallinas Creek just north of China Camp State Park in San Rafael. All equipment and instruction included. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sponsored by Save the Bay. Cost is $30 members, $40 non-members. To register call 452-9261. www.savesfbay.org 

A Neighborhood Walk Through South West Berkeley, sponsored by Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action. Meet at 8:30 a.m. at Berkeley Chinese Community Church, 2117 Acton St. for music and light breakfast before the walk. 658-2467. 

Spring Plant Sale at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Spring Blooming Perennials and Shrubs with Aeirn Moore, at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Community Music Day from noon to 5 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. 559-2941. 

Women’s Peace Day at Mosswood Park, McArthur and Broadway, Oakland, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. An open-air fair calling attention to the impact of US military presence in Okinawa, Korea and the Philippines on women, communities, and the politics of the region. www.koreasolidarity.org 

Civic Arts Commission Hearing on Berkeley’s Arts and Cultural Plan at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 981-7533. 

“Eyewitness to Empire” West Coast Campus Antiwar Network Conference from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Evans Hall, UC Campus. To register, contact can_wc_conf_2004 

@hotmail.com www.campusantiwar.net 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class in Fire Supression from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. To sign up call 981-5605. www. 

ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html 

Berkeley Copwatch Know Your Rights Orientation Join us for this hands-on workshop from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. near Shattuck Ave. Free, wheelchair accessible and open to the public. Donations gratefully accepted. 548-0425. 

Small Press Distribution Open House, with refreshments, readings and books, books, books. From noon to 4 p.m. at the SPD Warehouse, 1341 7th St. off Gilman. 524-1668. www.spdbooks.org 

Breast Cancer Action’s Town Meeting for Activists, with Anne Lamott and Dr. Sandra Hernandez on “Taking Care in a Toxic Time” from 1 to 5 p.m. at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. 415-243-9301, ext. 17. www.bcaction.org 

“Families Dealing with Dementia” a workshop from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Mercy Care & Retirement Center, 3431 Foothill Blvd., Oakland. Eileen Zagelow, BA, CMC, Geriatric Care Manager for Eldercare Services will lead the workshop. $15 donation is requested. 534-8540. www.mercyretirementcenter.org 

Guerrilla Media Action Tour with Cascadia Media Collective’s films and more at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St. Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

Luna Kids Dance Open House for ages 10 and up, at 10 a.m. at Black Pine Circle School, 2027 7th St. 644-3629. www.lunakidsdance.com 

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

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 25 

Berkeley High School Open House and Ribbon Cutting from 1 to 5 p.m. with music, sports, arts, and refreshments.  

People’s Park 35th Anniversary Faire from noon to 6 p.m. Live music, bike rodeo, clowns, may pole and community workshops. 658-9178. 

Spinning Demonstration Witness the alchemy of spinning plant fibers into yarn at 1 p.m. at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Free with garden admission. 643-2775. http:// 

botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

“Spirited Action: Coming Together For A Change” with Buddhist author and teacher Sylvia Boorstein, activist Daniel Ellsberg, and singers Linda Tillery and Betsy Rose at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. www.spiritedaction.org 

Forum on "A Christian Ecological Perspective" at 9 a.m., service at 10 a.m., tree and native plant planting after service at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. 848-1755. allsoulsparish.org  

Anam Cara House Open House from 4 to 8 p.m. at 6035 Majestic Ave. near Mills College. Anam Cara House provides work space to healing arts practitioners, workshops, and groups. 333-3572.  

Flowers: Their Parts and Partners We’ll take a close look at intimate parts of plants, and learn stories of their mating habits, from 10 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

A Lot of Galls Insects and other organisms cause swellings on plant parts that serve as homes for offspring. We’ll search for a variety of these growths and learn their history. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

“Voice of the People” A variety show on current political, social and environmental concerns by The Traveling Bohemians, at 4 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10.  

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sponsored by Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. 2315 Durant Ave. 848-7800. 

Learn Sufi Dances, Dances of Universal Peace at 7 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 526-8944. 

“Yoga and the Vedic Sciences,” with Sam Geppi, certified Hatha yoga instructor,on the three Vedic sciences at 11:30 a.m. at at Elephant Pharmacy. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com  

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

Tibetan Yoga with Jack van der Meulen on “Body Psychology” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Mikvah Taharas Israel invites Jewish Women to a Spa for the Soul from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Claremont Resort. Cost is $36. For reservations call Chabad of the East Bay 540-5824. 

CITY MEETINGS 

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.ber- 

keley.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/welfareˇ

Cassidy Hudson, 10, fills up with goodies at Saturday’s “Kids for Kerry Raising Dough for Democracy” bake sale on Solano Avenue. MoveOn.org raised thousands of dollars this weekend for John Kerry’s presidential campaign.t

Recently, after two decades of living in the East Bay, I finally got on a sailboat and cruised out beyond the Berkeley Municipal Pier. My friend Martin had bought a 17-foot dingy complete with two sails and some life jackets. He invited me on his maiden voyage through the jetties of the Berkeley Marina. I was hooked. 

I’d lived on the water as a child growing up along the New Jersey shore, and learned to swim, sail, and water ski at a young age. But since moving to the Bay Area, I haven’t had the opportunity to step off terra firma and dip into the water. Quite frankly, I’ve always thought it was too financially inaccessible to me, but when I heard that the City of Berkeley’s Marina Experience Program was holding its Bay Festival this past weekend, I jumped at the chance to see what they were offering. I even drove over to Hunter’s Point to pick up my friends Jernae and Brittnae so that they could join me. I didn’t want them to wait 20 years to enjoy one of the Bay Area’s most stunning natural resources. From their apartment in the projects off Third Street they have a gorgeous view of the water. It was high time they got on it. 

Our first order of business upon arrival at K Dock was to find Martin, who was offering free sailing rides on his dingy under the auspices of MADS, the Metropolitan Area Dingy Society, which provides a recreational therapy program for people with mental illnesses. We strapped on bulky orange life preservers and sailed out to the edge of the bay. Back and forth we tacked westward, then did a quick come-about and returned with the wind in our sails to the dock. 

Next, we signed up for the dragon boat ride, where we joined 20 other novice paddlers for a cruise around the marina in a 50-foot long canoe. We learned that dragon boat racing began in China 2,400 years ago and that the recreational Berkeley Dragons and the competitive Dragon Max team practice their skills at the Canoe Center on the marina. 

We wandered between the 30-plus tables set up along Marina Square, stopping at such diverse booths as the Berkeley Waterski Club, the Bay Nature Institute, the Bio-diesel Cooperative, and the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. We looked at tiny plankton through a microscope, petted the skins of walruses and seals, examined the odd, hairy-like teeth (baleen) of a whale. We checked out the food booths, sampling the fried calamari, clam chowder, and Thai barbecue while watching juggler Dana Smith and Lacey the Wonder Dog perform feats of inspiring acrobatics. We headed for the Cal Adventures Climbing Wall and then on to Adventure Playground, where we ran through the mazes, swung on the tire swings, pounded a few nails, and took several zips along on the trolley line. What fun! 

From there we explored a 70-foot giant nylon whale (sponsored by the Evelyn Roth Festival Arts program), and visited the inflatable planetarium run by Astrowizard Dave Rodrigues. We toured the newly opened Straw Bale Visitors Center, an 850-foot environmentally-friendly building constructed from recycled materials and powered by solar energy. We ended the day with our own personal rock skipping contest along Shorebird Park while we watched kayakers and sailboarders paddle and surf among the waves, accompanied by the hip swinging tunes of the All Star Cajun Band who were performing at Marina Square. 

The generosity of the participating groups was outstanding. We didn’t have time to explore the Berkeley Marine Police boat, take a complementary cruise on a Hornblower Yacht, or tour the historic Wallace Foss tugboat. But we made the most of a beautiful day on the water, sampling some of the many wonderful resources available close to home. The Berkeley Bay Festival occurs every spring. Next year, don’t miss it! 

The Berkeley Marina Experience Program can be reached at 862-3644 or on the web at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/marina/marinaexp. 

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Tonight (April 20) the City Council has the chance to moderate Berkeley’s extreme rule prohibiting any communication between citizens and council members on land-use permitting matters, and bring Berkeley into line with practices that generally prevail throughout California. For many years the council has operated under its self-imposed rule that categorically forbids councilmembers “to discuss with any member of the public the facts of any [land use application] which may probably be the subject of public hearings by the City Council.”  

Not surprisingly, the city’s task force on land-use permitting made revision of this rule its highest-priority recommendation. Both development and preservation interests have been frustrated by this rule’s draconian impact on democratic decision making. The council can responsibly and lawfully respond to this frustration by allowing members to discuss pending applications informally with members of the public (homeowners and developers alike), so long as the contents of those discussions are disclosed in the public record before the council hears the matter.  

Berkeley’s present rule stems from the city attorney’s meritorious interests in securing fairness in City Council deliberations, and minimizing the city’s risk of litigation from losers in the land-use process. These are important interests, but like all interests, they are not absolute. Perceptions of “fairness” and a litigation-risk-free environment are in the California Supreme Court’s view trumped by the interests of the citizenry to enjoy access to their elected officials, to hold those officials accountable to the voters, and to ensure that the council makes the most well-informed decisions possible. 

The city attorney’s memorandum that the council will consider this evening focuses substantially on “fairness” in adjudicatory proceedings, but does not honor the paramount interests in civic accountability and high-quality decisions. The existing rule is based on an obsession for procedural purity in a setting far removed from the judicial or administrative arena where fundamental vested rights are at stake. Proceedings to which the rule apply are labeled “quasi-adjudicatory,” without asking the hard question of just how “quasi” the typical Berkeley land-use adjudication should be. 

In the true judicial proceeding (conducted either by judges or an administrative hearing body) we insist that the decision be based on formal rules of evidence, that the decision-maker consider only the evidence presented openly where it can be cross-examined, and divorced from political values and accountability. Judges and lawyers are bound by codes of conduct developed to ensure that when one party engages the state to claim property or prerogative from another, or when the government itself proceeds against an individual’s freedom or livelihood, the decision-maker remain focused on the competing cases of the two parties and not be swayed by the sentiments of the larger public. One reason the legal process seems so expensive is the training and experience required of lawyers to present their cases within the stringent formalities and requirements of the judicial process. 

Land-use decisions at City Hall do not—and should not—constitute “true judicial proceedings.” Viewed from the perspective of the legal profession, virtually all the participants are lay persons—most importantly, the decision makers themselves. The decisions to be made call in part for an exercise of political judgment; the views of the larger public are not only not irrelevant, they are indispensable to democratic decision-making and accountability. The city’s existing ex parte rule must be evaluated in this context. 

Any doubt about the wisdom of Berkeley’s absolute prohibition of communications between the public and council members outside the council’s public hearing dissolved in the last City Council election. During the council campaign, an extraordinarily controversial application was pending before the City of Berkeley. Members of the public appropriately asked incumbent council members and their challengers where they stood on this issue: Should the council treat a well-respected religious institution like any other developer required to mitigate harm, or should the institution’s important role in the community justify more flexible application of environmental standards?  

Incredibly, City Council candidates were advised not to answer those questions during the campaign, because the council’s ex parte rule prohibited that discussion. Even though a leading California Supreme Court decision (City of Fairfield v. Superior Court) directly addressed this situation, and concluded that political accountability of a city council to its electorate outweighed the developer’s interest in avoiding allegedly “biased” decision makers, here in Berkeley the ex parte rule deprived voters of knowing where their candidates stood on this vital public issue. (The city attorney has consistently attempted to distinguish Fairfield on technical grounds, failing to honor the spirit of the Court’s instruction, and ignoring another leading case (Andrews v. ALRB) where the Court suggested that a council of “rare intellectual eunuchs” would be adversely qualified to decide the cases before them.) 

Against the compelling case for enabling council members to be heard by and accountable to their constituents, the ex parte rule asserts a strong interest in precluding council members from relying on evidence that opponents do not know of to rebut. These interests can be harmonized, however, rather than discarding the compelling interest in favor of the strong one. Berkeley should finally adopt the general practice of most California agencies and cities that do not prohibit communications outside the council chamber, but require written disclosure of those communications and any evidence received, in time for all interested parties to learn of and rebut them.  

Councilmembers who desire to avoid such communications are not required to have them; but those who find them helpful to fulfill their duties will have the choice. And moderation of the unqualified ex parte rule would actually reduce the city’s litigation risk, by removing claims based on its violation and requiring challengers instead to prove actual harm or bias in City Council proceedings. 

Antonio Rossmann has practiced land use law for more than 30 years, and has taught that subject at Boalt Hall since 1990.  

Unlike the City of Berkeley powers that be, the Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry understands the financial plight of the middle class and is seeking to reduce its tax burden. 

Real property taxes in Berkeley are regressive and unfair and are a direct attack on the financial well-being of Berkeley’s middle class homeowners. Most Berkeley homeowners, unlike City of Berkeley employees, live in high-tax Berkeley and in a real world of uncertain employment, increased health care costs, and no guaranteed retirement system. Their home is usually their major asset in general and their primary asset for retirement. Many older Berkeley homeowners live on dwindling fixed incomes, and, by increasing the already-high local tax burden, the city is substantially impairing homeowner and community well-being. Younger Berkeley homeowners pay a high price for their homes and a large part of their income—often close to 50 percent—for housing, not because they are rich but simply because housing is expensive in Berkeley and in California. These younger homeowners are often hard-pressed to meet normal living expenses and are certainly unable to accumulate much in the way of retirement assets. Home ownership in Berkeley is simply not a proxy for wealth, high income, or substantial assets.  

We propose that before contemplating increased taxation as preferable to balancing the city budget through labor contract renegotiation, the city undertake an income/asset analysis of the typical Berkeley homeowner as compared to the typical city employee non-resident homeowner. For the income part of this study, one would need to factor in a monetary value for the 40 percent or so of total city employee compensation that is attributable to the fully-paid-by-employer benefits. For the asset side, one would need to include an asset value for the city’s retirement plan that accounts for an extended life span, employer-paid retiree health care, and an annual CPI adjustment in retiree income. 

With the help of accounting experts we have run the retirement asset numbers for a hypothetical 60 year old city employee who retired today at 75 percent of salary and whose life expectancy is another 25 years. We have assumed an additional $6,000 annual cost for health insurance, a five percent rate of return, and an annual CPI of 2.5 percent. Over the 25 year period, if this employee retires at $74,000 annually, the current asset value of this person’s retirement package is almost $1,500,000. So a Berkeley homeowner who is retiring today, for comparable retirement security would have to have about $1,500,000 invested (which, unlike the city employee pension, is not guaranteed by the full faith and credit of any government). A 35-year-old Berkeley homeowner would need to be setting aside, on average, about $70,000 annually for the next 25 years, and have an investment account at year 25 of about $2,300,000 to achieve this level of retirement security. 

So fellow Berkeley voter, if you are neither rich nor poor but instead a member of the vanishing middle class, you may want to think seriously about rejecting all of the November tax increases being pushed by the political establishment and also think about un-electing and un-appointing all city officials who are not following John Kerry’s lead and taking your plight seriously.  

Barbara Gilbert and Viki Tamaradze are co-chairs of the Berkeley Budget Oversight Committee.›

Some of Berkeley’s roots are grand structures built by wealthy people, people with the leisure and capital to chart grand designs through their acreage, and whose praises are sung by architects and historians alike. 

Some of Berkeley’s roots are buildings as plain-looking as the lives they sheltered. If you look too quickly you may miss the few remaining details that document the history of more common lives, lives which best exemplify the majority of people in an historical period but, ironically, are often less respected for that commonality. 

A small, unassuming, single-family house on Fifth Street headed for the seemingly inevitable multi-unit, multi-story replacement was discovered by an interested neighbor to have been built in 1878, making it one of Berkeley’s oldest structures. The bare sketch left of the widowed woman who built the house and lived there with two daughters, described in one document as a “washerwoman,” is an intriguing invitation to learn more about a time when both the area and the rights of women were quite different. 

If you don’t look quickly, it will be gone. The builder wants to get busy and demolish it while the weather is good. The Landmarks Preservation Commission couldn’t muster the votes to protect it, but neither could they vote down its potential as a landmark or place of interest. Constantly battered as obstructionists, they managed only to continue the matter. 

The builder is frustrated. At least one of the required permits sailed through the Zoning Adjustments Board the evening after landmark status was initiated. The building is unassuming, altered from its original design, and described as “blight” by some neighbors. Even at its birth, this building would have been very plain, very different from its gingerbread cousins of the period. 

West Berkeley, the town’s working roots in 1878 and today, gets a combination of impatience and indifference unknown in wealthier neighborhoods. The hearing on the proposed demolition of the small house, in a move some commissioners claim is out of order, was opened and closed the same night the documentation of its history was made available to those in attendance, not by the commission staff, but by the same neighbor who managed to discern from the plain but unusual lines of the Italianate building that there might be something in the building, its setting, and its circumstance that Berkeley should stop to examine, and perhaps protect. 

The woman who built the little house on Fifth Street near the factories and working opportunities of the time may never have thought of her house as worthy of notice. But Berkeley owes its working class roots and its female pioneers simple respect more routinely accorded in other parts of town. Working women’s lives are too often omitted from history, and this small building may be one of a very few chances left to honor their lives and work. 

Carol Denney is a Berkeley community activist.  

›

NATIONS AT WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Planet’s editorial cartoon (“The State of Palestine,” Daily Planet, April 16-19) accuses Israel and the U.S. of killing Palestine. 

So, if a Palestinian State is established, everyone in the Mideast will live happily ever after? No more jihad? No more bus bombs? 

So, if Saddam Hussein is deposed, everyone in Iraq will live happily ever after? No more violence? Democracy will flourish? 

It’s hard for the US to show much outrage at Israel for assassinating two Hamas leaders in a row. We may soon have to kill a certain Shiite leader. 

In self-defense, of course. We and Israel are both fighting a war. 

Steve Geller 

• 

DISSERVICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The April 16 editorial cartoon by Justin DeFreitas showing the moribund state of Palestine impaled by an American Flag, with the Star of David as a replacement for the 50 stars of the United States, was inflammatory and terribly misrepresenting of reality. It does a disservice to your readers and worsens the chance for peace and justice.  

Consider these quotes from world-wide sources: 

1. “Arafat says that the Bush-Sharon deal marks the end of the peace process, but I believe it signals the beginning of his end,” commented a veteran PLO official in Ramallah. “The Palestinians are not stupid and most of them know that we have reached this situation largely because of Arafat’s failure to read the political map correctly.”  

2. “Yesterday George W. Bush outlined a path for peace between Israel and the Palestinians that has the distinct advantage of being based in reality. A Palestinian state will only come into existence when Palestinians themselves have grasped that the Jewish state is here to stay and that a peace deal will have to take account of Israel’s needs and interests as well as theirs. 

“President Bush opened a new era of possibility for peace by stipulating some of the tough stuff at the beginning. His realism—together with the daring vision of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who intends to lead unilateral pullbacks from Palestinian lands in Gaza and on the West Bank—is a wake-up call to Palestinians that their only possible future is one in which they are not placing all their hopes on the negotiated destruction of Israel (“Mideast breakthrough,” by John Podhorez, New York Post, April 15, 2004). 

Israel and the United States did not kill the idea of a Palestinian State. The Palestinians did it to themselves. When they can demonstrate responsibility for controlling their destiny, and eliminate indoctrinating their children with hatred, and halt terrorism against their neighbors, and demonstrate that they want to live peacefully with a secure state of Israel - then their long awaited state may start to become a reality.  

Shame on the Daily Planet for not providing a broader understanding to their readers.  

Arthur Braufman  

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EX PARTE RULE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The ex parte rule has not served our community well. 

Unlike almost every other community in the country Berkeley forbids communication between elected officials and it citizens concerning building projects once a permit application has been filed. This means that our City Council is out of the picture unless the project comes to them on appeal. By this time much time and money has been spent and people’s positions have hardened. The results is often a no-win situation for all involved. We need to find a better way. 

Eliminating the ex-parte rule would allow councilmembers to, if they wish, play an active role in bringing our community together to find solutions which we can all live with. They could provide us with the leadership that is expected of elected officials in every other community in the nation except Berkeley. Building housing is not incompatible with preservation or quality of life, it all depends on how it is done. Ensuring that it is done right is the job of our elected officials. 

Berkeley deserves better than the projects it is currently getting and I believe that eliminating the ex parte rule will lead to much better projects. When people work together early on in the process, good things can happen. Thank you Mayor Bates for your leadership on this issue.  

Tim Hansen 

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PUBLIC ART 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If our City Council decides to buy more public art for Center Street or elsewhere, I would like the selection(s) to be voted on by the public. I don’t see the point in spending a lot of our money for “art” that we don’t like. 

An important requirement for public art is that it be noticeable. The two “sculptures” downtown are so un-artistic that I don’t notice them: a tall, straight piece of steel and a rock. 

Proposed sculptures can be submitted as small models, then displayed so that the public can look at them and vote, like we voted for the new public safety building. There should be a lot to choose from, at least 100. 

But we can’t really afford to buy art at this economically stressed time anyway. 

Myrna Sokolinsky 

• 

POLITICAL CLIMATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I arrived in Berkeley in 1946 to enroll in UC Berkeley. As a liberal/left Democrat, I fell in love with the political climate here. I lived in student COOP housing, became active in the Berkeley Consumer COOP (becoming chairman of the North Shattuck COOP) , campaigned for Henry Wallace for president, etc. 

I embrace employee owned businesses like the Cheeseboard, Juice Bar, et al. But today I see a very different political climate here. To be politically correct one must embrace and support the Palestinians and other Moslem nations that give little or no rights to women, that do not offer religious freedom or diversity, and that feel threaten by democracy. 

I see “Free Palestine” signs all over Berkeley. That is the last thing that Arafat wants. He came as a poor carpet-bagger from Egypt to visit his uncle the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a supporter of the Nazis who spent WWII with Hitler in Berlin. He became a willing student of the Russian KGB and the Romanian equivalent. Today he is one of the richest men in the Middle East using his skills as a super-terrorist and taking funds from Arab nations, the USA and Europe to help his cronies and to keep the Palestinians impoverished and in refugee camps. 

What the Arab nations could not achieve by military might, i.e.: defeat the Israeli military, they are achieving by duplicity, deception and terrorism. The millions of dollars that Arafat has in Swiss banks and that funds his wife’s Paris life style, could fund a healthy and prosperous existence for the Palestinians. 

How easily and swiftly this new generation has abandoned leftist values and supposedly support the underdog. How foolish to cast 250 million Arabs with their boundless wealth as the underdogs against five million Jews in their postage-stamp state. 

Aubrey Lee Broudy 

• 

SEISMIC FEE WAIVER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The members of the Berkeley Disaster Council think that the Berkeley community should be aware that the City Council is considering ending the seismic fee waiver program in order to capture approximately $300,000 per year for the city. While this is clearly tempting in the face of a $10 million shortfall, the Disaster Council hopes the City Council will resist this impulse.  

This waiver of city permit fees is the only incentive we offer to most current residents to improve the seismic safety of their homes. (The much larger transfer tax partial waiver is only available when property changes hands.) The $300,000 represents thousands of houses made safer each year. Each additional house that survives the next major earthquake intact represents a tremendous saving to the city and the community.  

The other fees that the city is studying for increases work very differently—for example, a higher traffic ticket or parking fine is only a one-time (and avoidable) annoyance to a driver. The seismic fee waiver is the sole fee change under consideration that is designed to encourage and help capture the benefits of significant private investment in the city. To end this program would be shortsighted. 

Margit Roos-Collins 

Chair, Disaster Council

Due to a production error, a word was omitted from Merrilie Mitchell’s letter (“Mean to the Extreme,” Daily Planet, April 16-19). The sentence should have read “And [Shirley] Dean is honest—amazing— considering our political leaders who ‘speak with forked toungue.’”0

A recently-revealed account of the founding of People’s Park, the south-of-campus former political battleground which celebrates its 35th birthday today as the archetype of ‘60s radicalism, alleges that it actually came into being not as an anti-war or free-space protest but because two lovers wanted a place to carry on their secret tryst. 

As Wendy Schlesinger tells it, she was 20 years old at the time and living with one man while she carried on a tryst with another man who was living with another woman over the Red Square, a dress collective located where Bongo Burger is now on Dwight Way just east of Telegraph. 

When Schlesinger’s secret lover, Michael Delacour, suggested the two create a space where they could meet, they settled on the muddy half block east of the shop, littered with abandoned cars and trash after the university tore down a collection of homes and small apartments to make way for development. 

“I said okay, so we printed up flyers and I raised most of the money and did all the speech-making,” Schlesinger said of the early days in trying to turn the neglected square block into a park. “It wasn’t a political act till later.” 

After a brief protest against delving into his past love life—“Do you really want to write that kind of a story?”—Delacour reluctantly confirmed his former lover’s story, though he said other, more political factors were also involved. 

For a half century or so, the site they chose—the half-block east of Telegraph Avenue bordered by Bowditch Street between Dwight Way and Haste Street—was much like other residential areas close to the UC Berkeley campus, a collection of 40 or some homes and small apartments. But the property’s fate had been sealed a decade earlier, when UC Regents on June 22, 1957, appropriated $1.3 million to purchase land south of the campus—including the site Schlesinger and Delacour picked. 

The university finally evicted the tenants and brought in the bulldozers in February, 1968, razing the buildings and leaving a scarred landscape behind. But for the next 14 months, the property remained a dusty weed-filled eyesore littered with abandoned cars because the school lacked funds to build on it. 

“I got invited to a meeting at the Red Square on April 13. Michael Delacour presented the idea of building a park, and different people laid out the plans,” said Stew Albert, founder—with spouse Judy Gumbo—of the Youth International Party, aka Yippies. “I was given the assignment of writing a story for the Berkeley Barb, which appeared on April 18, 1969, as a call for one and all to one to bring building materials to the lot so they could build a community park. I signed it as Robin Hood’s Park Commissioner. The Barb story appeared on April 19, and the next morning between 100 and 200 people showed up. The next weekend we had something like a thousand. It was all spontaneous, and there wasn’t much of a central authority.”  

At Delacour’s suggestion, he and landscaper John Reed had driven up to a sod farm in Vallejo, buying turf that volunteers laid on ground they had cleared and prepared. 

Then, on April 28, UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor Earl F. Cheit announced that construction would soon begin at the site for an intramural soccer field, though he promised he would notify park supporters before construction. Cheit repeated the promise two days later, and said park advocates would have creative control over a quarter of the plot. 

The other shoe dropped on May 13, when the office of Chancellor Roger W. Heyns announced in a press release that the university would begin construction on the field after erecting a fence around the park “to reestablish the conveniently forgotten fact that the field is indeed the university’s.” 

At 3 a.m. on May14, Berkeley Police and university workers surrounded the park with 51 “no trespassing” signs. Park supporters responded by organizing protests and naming an 11-member committee to negotiate with the university. 

The next day went down in Berkeley history as “Bloody Thursday.” 

Grace Christie and Jill Hutchby were working in their shop at Dwight and Telegraph, Berkeley Stamp Co. & Collectibles, where they supplemented their stock of postage stamps and other collectibles with buttons they turned out on a machine that a member of the Grateful Dead had taught them to operate. The two business owners were used to protests on Telegraph, and a friend had built them wooden panels to hang over their shop windows when things got dangerous outside. 

But May 15 was different. 

“We saw terrible things that day,” Christie recalled, “and the worst violence came from the ‘Blue Meanies’”—deputies of the Alameda County Sheriff's Department so nicknamed for the turquoise blue jump suits they wore when working crowd control. 

San Francisco television reporter Belva Davis recalled one of her own encounters with the Blue Meanies in a June 28, 1992 interview for the Washington Press Club Foundation’s Oral History Project. 

Davis, who covered events in Berkeley during the mid-1960’s, told interviewer Shirley Biagi, “I guess if I were ever afraid, my biggest fear always was of the police. Especially when I was dealing with the Alameda County Sheriff's Department, I was always afraid. ... [T]hey were so vicious. They were really, really vicious.” 

What started as a march by thousands of protesters quickly turned ugly, with police and deputies firing tear gas and protesters responding with bottles and rocks. 

Hutchby and Christie turned their store into a first aid center, keeping a supply of wet cloths for people who stumbled in with eyes blistering from the gas. 

“When it was over, we took them out through the back so they could leave by the alley,” Hutchby said. “And then one kid came in with shotgun pellet wounds in his legs. He begged us for help and he said ‘They’re arresting us at the hospital’,” Christie recalled. The two patched him us they best they could and escorted him out through the back. A merchant we knew went out during a calm period, and when he was walking back into his store, they shot him in the back with birdshot. He eventually moved out of Berkeley.” 

But Hutchby saw something else that day, images she has worked hard to banish from memory. Across from her shop, bystanders had climbed the fire escape to watch the confrontation from the roof of the building at 2509-13 Telegraph Ave.—now the home of Krishna Copy and other merchants. 

“They were told by the cops to get away from the roof, and they had turned to leave when one of the Blue Meanies raised his shotgun and fired,” Christie said. “I didn’t see the shooting, but Jill did. Our friend George Pauly was struck by buckshot, but he survived. Another man, James Rector, later died.” 

Rector, a San Jose man, had been visiting in Berkeley that day, and had climbed up on the roof to watch the action unfolding on the streets below.  

Another man—Berkeley artist Allan Blanchard—was permanently blinded in the shooting, and many others were wounded. 

Minutes after the shooting, when Christie saw a sheriff’s deputy raise his shotgun and take aim on students on another roof, she tried to race out the door. “I wanted to pull his shotgun down so I could deflect his shot,” she said. 

Fortunately, Hutchby grabbed her. “Can you imagine what they would’ve done to her if she’d grabbed the shotgun?” 

Massive protests followed the shootings, and Gov. Ronald Reagan called in the National Guard, which deployed along Telegraph side streets behind barbed wire barricades. 

Through it all, Christie was taking pictures. “We were told early on not to give our film to developers here in Berkeley because it would all come back blank. Sure enough, the thing we gave to a local developer came out blank.” 

But the rest of her photos survived, creating a unique legacy. 

Another photographer shooting during those hectic days was an electrical engineering junior who was supporting himself by working in a television repair shop on Telegraph. 

“I was shooting [pictures] for myself. I witnessed one of the [police] shootings, and I almost got shot myself. It turned out that there was one officer who did all the shootings,” said Allan Alcorn, now of Portola Valley. “There were a bunch of Blue Meanies running a pepper gas machine next to an overturned police car, and students were throwing rocks. Then this Blue Meanie aimed his shotgun and fired right at a student. When he turned the shotgun my way, I did a real fast 50-yard dash.” 

Alcorn later wound up testifying against the officer. 

“I was there at the beginning of the park, and it was a real fun kind of place. It wasn’t any kind of structured event. People just did it,” he recalled. 

After graduation, Alcorn went on to found the Atari Corporation, where he created Pong, the first-mass marketed computer game, and—as an historical aside—hired a young Reed College dropout named Steve Jobs to write games for him. 

The May violence came to an end on Memorial Day when Cody’s Books owners Fred and Pat Cody spearheaded a mass reconciliation meeting attended by thousands of students and activists. 

The following year, after Stew Albert’s protest involvement landed him in Santa Rita jail for an unpleasant two months, he decided to run for Alameda County Sheriff against John Madigan. He carried the city of Berkeley and captured 65,000 votes. 

The struggle over the park didn’t end. Riots again erupted on July 13, 1991 when the university sent in bulldozers to clear the way for a volleyball court—which was finally removed six years later.  

Today, the university still retains title over the park, though there’s an ongoing effort to raise the cash needed to buy the grounds. 

Albert now lives in Oregon, though he appeared in Berkeley recently to read from his just-published memoir, Who The Hell is Stew Albert, published by Red Hen Press. 

Now semi-retired and a venture capitalist, Alcorn hasn’t abandoned all the radicalism of his youth. “I wear an ‘I Hate Bush’ button, and I won several hundred bucks off of conservative friends betting that no weapons of mass destruction would turn up in Iraq. 

Schlesinger and Delacour are long separated. Now in business, she also heads the Gardens on Wheels Association and is active in the movement to preserve the Gill Tract. Retired, the perennial Berkeley City Council candidate Delacour now lives in Oakland. 

“I learned that leadership has a price,” Schlesinger said. “The park started as an act of love, but someone got killed and others got injured, and that’s on my conscience to this day.” 

Christie and Hutchby share an apartment on Hillegass Avenue, just across Dwight from People’s Park. 

¸

It seems a little unfair that so many reviewers and their ilk have blown the best joke of them all in Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s hilarious new production The Mystery of Irma Vep. 

Granted, the play’s been so popular for so long that they may think that by this time everybody knows what to expect. But there are still plenty of innocents out there who could be justifiably startled when only two actors show up for curtain calls …like, where are the other six characters? Well, it sure looked like the women characters might be in drag, but… 

Arnie Burton and Erik Steele are making their debut at Berkeley Rep. They’ve both compiled a lot of New York credits, but if we’re all very nice to them, maybe we can get them to stick around for a while. 

The pace is so fast and the illusions so successful that it would be possible to leave the theater swearing that there were scenes in which more than two actors appeared on stage simultaneously. When the play first appeared in Charles Ludlum’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company, the most prized seats were off-stage where it was possible to watch the quick-changes. 

Some of us would pay good money to get a chance to do that this time around. These two guys are nothing short of terrific. Altogether they play eight roles—popping on and off stage with such phenomenal speed and dexterity that the illusion of wildly different characters is flawless. 

Most of this piece of nonsense is a spoof of the great old melodramas—complete with spooky mansions, werewolves howling in the background—thunder and lightning—even the undead walking, for goodness sakes! (The staging here fantastic. The lights in the old mansion dim, an organ growls base notes and a red glow colors the stage. Ah, it’s all quite wonderful). 

Anyone who can recall the film Rebecca will instantly recall the evil housekeeper obsessed with her previous dead mistress’ perfection. This time the ghost lady is called Irma Vep. It’s tough going for a young second wife coming to her husband’s old mansion for the first time. Irma’s the one whose picture and ghost seems to be hanging around determined to cause everybody serious trouble. But in good Victorian style, we also get involved with Egyptian mummies and their unpleasant interest in the plot. 

Ah...Its a meaty thing, this play. 

In addition to all the fun and game so satisfactorily presented on stage, Ludlum played what we might like to think of as Berkeley-style tricks with the dialogue—he steals quotes from just about every hallowed poem and play you’ve ever encountered in English (yes, of course Hamlet is there), and works them into the dialogue with a perfectly straight face.  

To make a really bad phrase, there’s absolutely no mystery why The Mystery of Irma Vep has been played more often than any other play in the United States. And this is a terrific production. 

The Mystery of Irma Vep runs through May 23 at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage. $39-$55. For tickets or information call 647-2949 or go to www.berkeleyrep.org.

TUESDAY, APRIL 20 

CHILDREN 

Jeanne DuPrau, author of “City of Ember” speaks 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 Theater. Tickets are $4 at the door.  

“The Vagina Monologues” at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater in a benefit for the empowerment program GirlForward. 577-9000, ext. 152. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Chavez Memorial Exhibition with a model of the proposed solar calendar, in the Reference Lobby, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. To April 25. 

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 

Reid Gómez on “The Poetry of Love and Politics” at 5 p.m. in the Tilden Room, MLK Center, UC Campus. 642-2876. 

Amy Stewart describes the remarkable achievements of earthworms in “The Earth Moved” at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 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 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 

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 

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 

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 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 at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 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 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. Cost is $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.  

THURSDAY, APRIL 22 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“What Remains?” sculpture exhibit by Diana Marto and Margaret Herscher in the Addison St. Windows. Reception at 6 p.m. 981-7533. 

FILM 

“El Fotógrafo” Chilean film by Sebastián Alarcón at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $6-$8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Mordicai Gerstein, author and illustrator and 2004 Caldecott Medal winner, at 4 p.m. at North Branch, Berkeley Public Library, 1170 The Alameda. 981-6250. 

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

Jonah Raskin follows the evolution of “Howl: Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” and the Making of the Beat Generation” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

A.S. Byatt introduces her “Little Black Book of Stories,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. www.codysbooks.com 

Sarah Erdman describes her time in the Peace Corps in “Nine Hills to Nambonkaha: Two Years in the Heart of an African Village” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

Steven Weber discusses “The Success of Open Source” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured readers Rachmael and Debralee Pagan, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985.  

Donna Genett, Ph.D., author of “If You Want It Done Right, You Don’t Have to Do It Yourself! The Power of Effective Delegation” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Albany High School Jazz Band benefit for Albany Music Fund at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Benefit for Inanna’s Temple with Land of the Blind at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$25. 841-2082. 

Swoop Unit at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

Bill Kirchen & the Moonlighters, rockabilly, dieselbilly and truck stop rock at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Bekka’s Frogland Orchestra 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 

FRIDAY, APRIL 23 

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 

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

Shotgun Players “The Miser” at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater, Thurs.-Sat., Sun. at 7 p.m. to May 2. Free. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org 

“Company” a musical performed by UC Choral Ensembles at 8 p.m. in the Choral Rehearsal Hall, Cesar Chavez Student Center, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$10. 

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 

Pico Iyer describes “Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

Lynne Truss introduces “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Bookson Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

University Dance Theater, directed by Marni Thomas, at 8 p.m., Sat at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sun at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $8-$14. 866-468-3399. www.ticketweb.com 

VOLTI and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $25 available from 415-771-3352. www.voltisf.org 

California Bach Society performs at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $12-$25 available from 415-262-0272. www.calbach.org 

The Georges Lammam Ensemble, Middle Eastern music in a benefit for youth in the Palestinian village of Deir Ibzi’a. At 8 p.m. at La Peña. Tickets are $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Amy Obenski, original folk roots, at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Martyn Joseph, Welsh folk troubadour, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Youthquake Teen Music Winners with The Panics, Dubious Divine, San Pedro, and The Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco at 8 p.m. at Ashkenez. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Maverick, Ottis Goodnight, Stymie and The Pimp Jones at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$8. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Moonrise Concert with Deborah Hamouris, Robin Dolan and Denise Casleton at 8 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $8-$12. Reservations requested. 595-3915. 

All Ages Show! with The Phenomenauts, The Flash Express, The Merry Widows at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Julie Kelly and the Vince Lateano Trio, jazz and Brazilian vocals at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Singer-Songwriter Night with Barry Syska at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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

The Reputation, Love Kills Love, The Sky Flakes at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 24 

CHILDREN 

“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 Jeff Lead and a Cinco de Mayo presentation at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Word for Word presents “The Wonderful Story of Zaal” a Persian legend about a baby rescued by a magical bird, at 3 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720.  

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Icons: Expressions of the Spirit” works by Karen Gutowski, Denise Hartley and Jennifer Sipple. Reception at 7 p.m. at 4th St. Studio, 1717D Fourth St. Exhibition runs to May 15. 527-0600. www.fourthstreetstudio.com 

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 

Mordecai Gerstein tells the story of “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Rhythm and Muse with Tres Santos at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dance for Community and World Peace at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $20, no one turned away. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Healing Muses “Fantasy, Humor and Elegence” music from the Baroque at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Tickets are $15-$18, reservations recommended. 524-5661. www.heaingmuses.org 

Kensington Symphony with Geoffrey Gallegos, guest conductor and Patrick Galvin, violin perform Schubert, Vieuxtemps and Beethoven at 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Donation $8-$10. 524-4335.  

Joe Lovano Nonet at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Handel’s “Messiah” University Chorus, at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $3-$10. 642-9988.  

KITKA and Mariana Sadovska, “Enchantment Songs” ancient music and stories from the Ukraine at 8 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave. Tickets are $15-$20. 444-0323. www.kitka.org 

Wake the Dead performs Celtic Roots of the Grateful Dead at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

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

Zion 1 & The Crown City Rockers at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Philip Greenlief and Tony Malaby at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $8-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Irina Rivkin CD release concert at 8 p.m. at Rose Street House of Music, 1839 Rose St. Sliding scale donation. 594-4000 ext. 687. www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Rock that Uke Tour with Carmaig de Forest, Songs From A Random House, Oliver Brown and film screening of “Rock That Uke!” at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin, traditional music duo, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Wayne Wallace, jazz trombone, at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Bands Against Bush including Replicator, An Albatross, Greenlight Bombers, The Yellow Press at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St.Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 25 

CHILDREN 

Tim Cain at 3 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054.  

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Bohemian Berkeley 1890-1925” an exhibition on the colorful artistic community of late 19th and early 20th century Berkeley. Opening reception from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. Regular hours Thurs.-Sat. 1-4 p.m. Exhibition runs to Sept. 18. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

“Kids Collect: Honoring Elders” an exhibition by students from four Oakland schools. Reception from 1 to 3 p.m. Runs to June 6 at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Admission $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

THEATER 

The Traveling Bohemians, “Voice of the People” an ecclectic experimental performing arts group integrating poetry, prose, music and dance at 4 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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 

“Pressing Issues” on contemporary printmaking with Donald Farnsworth, founder of Magnolia Editions at 3:30 p.m., Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Admission is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Ant Farm 1968-1978” Guided Tour at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

Poetry Flash with Karen Kevorkian and Gail Wronsky at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Zakir Hussain Masters of Percussion at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Dance-A-Rama Open Studios at the Saw Tooth Complex, Dwight and Eighth from 12:30 to 5 p.m. Performances by Motivity Center, Terry Sendgraf Aerial Dance, Western Sky Studio and Eighth Street Studio. 848-4878. 

UC Jazz Ensembles Spring Concert at 7 p.m. in Pauley Ballroom, in the MLK Student Union Bldg. Tickets are $5-$10.  

KITKA and Mariana Sadovska, “Enchantment Songs” ancient music and stories from the Ukraine at 7 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave. Tickets are $15-$20. 444-0323. www.kitka.org 

Music from Scotland, England and Beyond with David Massengill at 7:30 p.m. Donation of $15. For reservations and location email sally@greenberg.org 

ACME Observatory’s Contemporary Music Series with John Shiurba and Daniel Popsicle at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Los Cenzontles, traditional Mexican music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Redemption 87, All Bets Off, Rely, Love Equals Death, Jealous Again at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Pete Magadini Quartet at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com

Is it just me, or are there more Nuttall’s woodpeckers in the Berkeley flatlands than there used to be? Maybe I’d just been missing them—my battered copy of Joseph Grinnell and Margaret Wythe’s Directory to the Bird-Life of the San Francisco Bay Region, published in 1927, lists the species as resident in Berkeley. But there was a time when most of the woodpeckers I saw here were downies, and spotting a Nuttall’s was a rare event. 

Now it’s practically a daily encounter. Almost every woodpecker I hear drumming on a telephone pole in my neighborhood turns out to be a Nuttall’s. (Although telephone poles are not rich in wood-boring insects, this behavior doesn’t represent the triumph of hope over experience. Drumming is a social signal; it’s what woodpeckers do instead of singing). And I’m always hearing their distinctive staccato whinny from the oak behind the parking lot next door, or in the mulberry trees down the street. 

I recognize these birds as Nuttall’s by their characteristic black-and-white-barred backs. Downy and hairy woodpeckers, also crisply patterned in black and white, have a single broad white stripe down the back. The Nuttall’s only real look-alike is the desert-dwelling ladder-backed woodpecker, but their ranges barely overlap. The two are similar enough that they’ve been caught hybridizing. Ornithologists still consider them separate species, though. 

Nuttall’s woodpecker, a bird of oak woodlands, is close to being a California specialty; it occurs from the head of the Sacramento Valley down into northern Baja. While it’s still common in most areas, its dependence on oaks—like that of the acorn woodpecker, the oak titmouse, and the yellow-billed magpie—is cause for concern. If Sudden Oak Death Syndrome spreads, all these habitat specialists will be in trouble. 

It’s ironic that this creature was named for a naturalist who never saw it alive. Having your name attached to a bird, or insect or plant, is an odd kind of honor. Sometimes the naming recognizes a discoverer: Lewis’s woodpecker, Clark’s nutcracker. Or it can be a way of commemorating a friend or colleague. James Bond—the real one, author of Birds of the West Indies—once threatened to name some really unprepossessing bird for Ian Fleming, but, as far as I know, never followed through. 

As it happens, a lot of North American birds bear the names of 19th-century naturalists who worked the frontiers of civilization and science: a mixed bag of geniuses and scoundrels, Army surgeons and drifters. Thomas Nuttall was one of those, a Yorkshireman born during the Revolutionary War who came to the new nation on the cusp of the new century. He was mostly a botanist—William Bartram was one of his early patrons—but, like many of his contemporaries, he had a broad streak of curiosity about the natural world, dabbling in seashells and lizards, fossils and minerals. 

After years of scuffling for a living, Nuttall got a berth at Harvard teaching botany and ornithology while writing the first practical manual of American birds. (Audubon’s elephantine work was not the handiest thing to take into the field.) He hated Cambridge, though; he described his time there as “vegetating among vegetables.” Given the choice, he’d pick wilderness over academia. 

And he saw a fair amount of that wilderness: across the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi, up the Missouri and the Yellowstone, into the swamps of the Southeast. Along with the younger naturalist John Kirk Townsend, he went west to the Columbia River in 1834 with a party of fur traders. He had the reputation of a bumbler, an eccentric even in a calling that attracted eccentrics, always wandering off into the prairie and having to be rescued. He wasn’t the marksman that Audubon was, and seems to have used his gun primarily to dig up plant specimens; once, during a tense encounter with hostile Indians, his rifle barrel was found to be clogged with dirt. But somehow he survived the rigors of the trail. After a sojourn in the Sandwich Islands, Nuttall finally made it to California in 1836. 

It was there, on the beach at San Diego, that he bumped into a former Harvard student, Richard Henry Dana, who had dropped out of Massachusetts society to crew the hide-boat Alert around Cape Horn. Nuttall had worked his way down the coast from Monterey aboard the Pilgrim, whose sailors dubbed him “Old Curious.” As Dana recounted in Two Years Before the Mast, they all thought Nuttall was touched in the head: “Why else a rich man should leave a Christian country, and come to such a place as California, to pick up shells and stones, they could not understand.” 

But Nuttall couldn’t stay in this fascinating new world. In 1840 he inherited his uncle Jonas’ estate, with a catch: he had to spend at least 9 months of every year in England. There was no escape clause. Back at Nutgrove, he first learned of his namesake woodpecker in a manuscript by his protégé William Gambel. Gambel had collected the bird near the Pueblo de los Angeles, and later found an active nest in an oak stump at Santa Barbara. 

I suspect very few people, even inveterate birders, would recognize Thomas Nuttall’s name. But it lives on in that woodpecker, and in the Latin names of the yellow-billed magpie (his own discovery) and the common poorwill, a cockle, a dogwood, a sunflower, an evening primrose, and—likely the one he was proudest of—a gorgeous rhododendron that his nephew found in the mountains of Assam. Nuttall lived just long enough to see the specimen he donated to Kew Gardens come into bloom. 

TUESDAY, APRIL 20 

Morning Birdwalk in Briones 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 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 from 3 to 7 p.m. 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 Tues. April 20-May 18. Cost is $185, $165 for Garden Members. 200 Centennial Dr. 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. 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/ 

“Mexico and California: New Challenges for Consular Affairs” with Georgina Lagos, former Consul General of Mexico at 4 p.m. in the CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch St. 642-2088. 

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. 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 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, vigil at 6:30 p.m. 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, noon to 1 p.m. Dwinelle Ishi Court, UC Campus. berkeleycue@earthlink.net 

Berkeley CopWatch open office hours 7 to 9 p.m. Assistance available. 548-0425. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 22 

Beginning Bird Watching at the UC Botanical Garden with Dennis Wolff. Meets Thursday mornings from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Fee is $75, $65 members. For information and registration call 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Earth Day Strawberry Creek Cleanup from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Meet at the natural amphitheater just east of Sather Gate on the UC Campus. Trash bags and gloves provided. 642-6568. 

Creative Remodels in the East Bay a lecture with Jane Powell, author of “Bungalow Kitchens, Bungalow Bathrooms,” at 6:30 p.m. at the Center for Digital Storytelling, 1803 Martin Luther King Way. A home tour will follow on April 24. The talk and tour benefit Children’s Community Center, a cooperative preschool in Berkeley. For tickets please call 528-6975. 

“Remembering Rwanda: Africa in Conflict Yesterday and Today,” with Human Rights Watch’s Africa researcher, Corrine Dufka, a 3:30 p.m. in the Goldberg Room, Boalt Hall, UC Campus. 642-0965. www.hrcberkeley.org/event_rwanda.html 

International Institute of the East Bay 85th Anniversary Reception Celebration with Dorothy Ehrlich, Director of the ACLU of Northern California, at 5:30 p.m. at the Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $75. 451-2846, ext. 324. hcastillo@iieb.org 

“Breathing Retraining” with Dorisse Neale, certified Eucapnic Buteyko practitioner, to help treat respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological and immune system disorders. At 3:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com  

GreenCine Film Trivia Night with co-hosts Underdog and Futureboy at 6:30 p.m. at Albatross Pub, 1822 San Pablo Ave. www.greencine.com  

FRIDAY, APRIL 23 

“Spring Flora of Mount Diablo” Weekend workshop sponsored by Jepson Herbarium. A unique opportunity to stay “on the mountain” for extended hikes and exploration. Registration and deposit required, for information, see http://ucjeps. 

berkeley.edu/jepwkshp.htm 

Inspiration Point Hike with Solo Sierrans at 4 p.m. Meet at large parking lot off Wildcat Canyon Road. You need not be a member to attend. 525-2299. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Terry Woronov, PhD, Anthropology, on “Transforming Chinese Culture: Raising Children’s Quality.” Lunch 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.  

East Bay Farm Worker Support Committee Dinner Dance, with the 2004 Chavez Legacy Award, at 6 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St. Oakland. Cost is $10-$25. 832-2372. 

César Chávez Commemoration, with speakers, performers, music, food and an altar, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the César Chávez Student Learning Center, UC Campus. Program includes Federico Chávez, grandson of César Chávez. 642-1802. 

“The USA Patriot Act: Californians Respond” with Sanjeev Bery, Field Organizer for the Northern California ACLU, at 6 p.m. in the FSM Cafe at Moffitt Library, UC Campus.  

“Eyewitness to Empire” 2nd National CAN Speaking Tour with Khury Peterson-Smith, CAN activist from NY who visited Iraq in January, Military Families Speak Out and Campus Antiwar Network. at 7 p.m. at 126 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. www.campusantiwar.net 

“Life and Debt” a film explaining the complexity of international lending, structural adjustment policies and free trade, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751.  

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

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

Kol Hadash meets at 7:30 p.m. for Shabbat, at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. 428-1492. www.kolhadash.org 

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

SATURDAY, APRIL 24 

Earth Day at Civic Center Park from noon to 5 p.m. with cultural performers, activities for children, food, craft and community booths.  

Family Farm Day at Berkeley Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. Co-sponsored by The Ecology Center and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Bike Tour in Eastshore State Park leaving from Civic Center Park at noon and going to Richmond. Sponsored by Citizens for the Eastshore State Park. Bring water, sunblock, and windbreaker. Bikes should be in good condition. Course is flat. Route is approximately 25 miles. Helmets are encouraged. For more information 461- 4665. www.eastshorepark.org 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of Aquatic Park at 10 a.m. Pre-paid reservations required, $8 for memebers, $10 for non-members. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/  

Creek Tour with Urban Creeks Council from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with restoration expert Ann Riley. Tour of East Bay Restoration Sites includes Wildcat, Baxter, and Blackberry Creeks. Bring a lunch and dress for hiking. To register visit www.urbancreeks.org 

Turtle Time at Tilden Reptiles all around the park will be coming out of winter hibernation. Meet and greet the three exotic turtles that live at the Nature Center from 2 to 3 p.m. 525-2233. 

Earth Day Paddle at Gallinas Creek just north of China Camp State Park in San Rafael. All equipment and instruction included. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sponsored by Save the Bay. Cost is $30 members, $40 non-members. To register call 452-9261. www.savesfbay.org 

A Neighborhood Walk Through South West Berkeley, sponsored by Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action. Meet at 8:30 a.m. at Berkeley Chinese Community Church, 2117 Acton St. for music and light breakfast before the walk. 658-2467. 

Spring Plant Sale at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Spring Blooming Perennials and Shrubs with Aeirn Moore, at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Community Music Day from noon to 5 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. 559-2941. 

Women’s Peace Day at Mosswood Park, McArthur and Broadway, Oakland, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. An open-air fair calling attention to the impact of US military presence in Okinawa, Korea and the Philippines on women, communities, and the politics of the region. www.koreasolidarity.org 

Civic Arts Commission Hearing on Berkeley’s Arts and Cultural Plan at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 981-7533. 

“Eyewitness to Empire” West Coast Campus Antiwar Network Conference from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Evans Hall, UC Campus. To register, contact can_wc_conf_2004 

@hotmail.com www.campusantiwar.net 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class in Fire Supression from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. To sign up call 981-5605. www. 

ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html 

Berkeley Copwatch Know Your Rights Orientation Join us for this hands-on workshop from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. near Shattuck Ave. Free, wheelchair accessible and open to the public. Donations gratefully accepted. 548-0425. 

Small Press Distribution Open House, with refreshments, readings and books, books, books. From noon to 4 p.m. at the SPD Warehouse, 1341 7th St. off Gilman. 524-1668. www.spdbooks.org 

Breast Cancer Action’s Town Meeting for Activists, with Anne Lamott and Dr. Sandra Hernandez on “Taking Care in a Toxic Time” from 1 to 5 p.m. at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. 415-243-9301, ext. 17. www.bcaction.org 

“Families Dealing with Dementia” a workshop from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Mercy Care & Retirement Center, 3431 Foothill Blvd., Oakland. Eileen Zagelow, BA, CMC, Geriatric Care Manager for Eldercare Services will lead the workshop. $15 donation is requested. 534-8540. www.mercyretirementcenter.org 

Guerrilla Media Action Tour with Cascadia Media Collective’s films and more at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St. Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

Luna Kids Dance Open House for ages 10 and up, at 10 a.m. at Black Pine Circle School, 2027 7th St. 644-3629. www.lunakidsdance.com 

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

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 25 

Berkeley High School Open House and Ribbon Cutting from 1 to 5 p.m. with music, sports, arts, and refreshments.  

People’s Park 35th Anniversary Faire from noon to 6 p.m. Live music, bike rodeo, clowns, may pole and community workshops. 658-9178. 

Spinning Demonstration Witness the alchemy of spinning plant fibers into yarn at 1 p.m. at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Free with garden admission. 643-2775. http:// 

botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

“Spirited Action: Coming Together For A Change” with Buddhist author and teacher Sylvia Boorstein, activist Daniel Ellsberg, and singers Linda Tillery and Betsy Rose at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. www.spiritedaction.org 

Forum on "A Christian Ecological Perspective" at 9 a.m., service at 10 a.m., tree and native plant planting after service at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. 848-1755. allsoulsparish.org  

Anam Cara House Open House from 4 to 8 p.m. at 6035 Majestic Ave. near Mills College. Anam Cara House provides work space to healing arts practitioners, workshops, and groups. 333-3572.  

Flowers: Their Parts and Partners We’ll take a close look at intimate parts of plants, and learn stories of their mating habits, from 10 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

A Lot of Galls Insects and other organisms cause swellings on plant parts that serve as homes for offspring. We’ll search for a variety of these growths and learn their history. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

“Voice of the People” A variety show on current political, social and environmental concerns by The Traveling Bohemians, at 4 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10.  

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sponsored by Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. 2315 Durant Ave. 848-7800. 

Learn Sufi Dances, Dances of Universal Peace at 7 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 526-8944. 

“Yoga and the Vedic Sciences,” with Sam Geppi, certified Hatha yoga instructor,on the three Vedic sciences at 11:30 a.m. at at Elephant Pharmacy. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com  

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

Tibetan Yoga with Jack van der Meulen on “Body Psychology” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Mikvah Taharas Israel invites Jewish Women to a Spa for the Soul from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Claremont Resort. Cost is $36. For reservations call Chabad of the East Bay 540-5824. 

CITY MEETINGS 

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.ber- 

keley.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›

Looking across the bay from Berkeley to the drama around District Attorney Kamala Harris’s decision not to seek the death penalty for the young tough accused of killing an undercover San Francisco police officer, I am struck by how much times have changed, and at the same time how much things remain the same. A central argument of the early suffragists was that when women had the vote and were elected to public office their decisions would be more humane and thoughtful. From my perspective, Kamala Harris seems to embody that image of the woman as leader: humane, because she recognizes that nothing would be gained by executing a young person who seems to have acted without premeditation, using a weapon he should never have been able to buy, against a challenger that he may not even have known was a police officer; thoughtful, because seeking the death penalty would be an expensive and pointless symbolic gesture, since San Francisco (as well as Alameda County) juries almost never vote for death sentences.  

But then I think about Diane Feinstein: always willing to rattle sabers, as bloodthirsty as any man when it comes to crime and punishment. And about the new San Francisco police chief, Heather Fong, just one of the boys in blue, calling for death to the cop killer. Also, I remember that Kamala Harris is able to take the humane perspective only because she’s standing on the shoulders of one of the Hallinans, a group of boys-will-be-boys so generally rowdy that I can never remember which one goes with which name, who made opposing the death penalty look macho enough that the lady-like Ms. Harris could get elected on an anti-death platform.  

So much for gender stereotypes. The case against the death penalty is better made not on humane grounds, or on the basis of short-term pragmatism, but statistically, looking at what it actually accomplishes, or doesn’t. All of the relevant data are long since in, and can be found on the deathpenalty.org web page. Here are just a few of the points made there: 

Execution doesn’t deter: “Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter people from committing crime. The respected Thorsten Sellin studies of the United States in 1962, 1967 and 1980 concluded that the death penalty was not a deterrent.” 

Innocent people have been executed: “Since the reinstatement of the death penalty, 113 men and women have been released from Death Row....some only minutes away from execution.” 

The death penalty is more expensive: “A 1993 California study argues that each death penalty case costs at least $1.25 million more than a regular murder case and a sentence of life without possibility of parole.” 

Life without parole protects the public: “Only two people sentenced to life without parole have been released since the state of California provided for this option in 1977, and this occurred because they were able to prove their innocence.” 

All of this information should be used by Harris to bolster her resolve, just in case she’s tempted to cave in to the pressure she’s facing. Hanging tough has been more traditionally associated with conventional males, but in fact it’s a human virtue which has been demonstrated historically by both men and women.  

One thing we Berkeley people have got to love about San Francisco is that the political process there seems increasingly to produce two good opposing candidates for every office. Yes, most of our friends probably voted for Gonzalez, but even Newcomb has been doing pretty well so far. (Angela Alioto, bless her heart, seems to have figured this out when she endorsed him.) And certainly, Greater Berkeley admires the Hallinans (three of them are now living here) but Harris has turned out to be no slouch either. San Francisco should be proud of the whole bunch. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

The ancient Greeks told stories about the history of the world as they knew it which are still a useful way to predict what will happen to humans in the modern world. Hercules, half man and half god, was one of the central figures in Greek mythology. Like Superman in the 20th century, he dedicated his career to stamping out evil wherever he found it. One of the labors, or heroic tasks, of Hercules was killing the legendary Hydra.  

Whoever is calling the shots in Israel today would be well advised to study the lesson of Hercules and the poisonous Hydra, depicted below.  

According to Bullfinch, “the Hydra had nine heads, of which the middle one was immortal. Hercules struck off its heads with his club, but in the place of the head knocked off, two new ones grew forth each time.” 

At the moment, Israeli leaders are engaged in the seemingly futile task of cutting off the heads of Hamas. They can be sure that for every leader they assassinate, two will grow in his place. [Note to my faithful Zionist correspondents: we are not talking about morality here. We are talking about strategy and logic.] Now, it’s true that Hercules eventually defeated the Hydra, as Bullfinch recounts: “At length with the assistance of his faithful servant Iolaus, he burned away the heads of the Hydra, and buried the ninth or immortal one under a huge rock.”  

But what Sharon and his ilk should also keep in mind is Hercules’ ultimate fate. He dipped his arrows into the Hydra’s venom, which gave them magical powers to vanquish enemies. This, however, eventually resulted in the hero’s death. A venom-dipped arrow was used to kill one Nessus. As he was dying, Nessus persuaded Hercules’ wife to dip a shirt in his blood to use as a love potion. She gave it to Hercules to wear, and when he put it on it, it killed him.  

The Latin poet Ovid described the gruesome outcome in Metamorphoses: 

“Desperately he tried to tear the fatal shirt away; each tear tore his skin too, and, loathsome to relate, either it stuck, defeating his attempts to free it from his flesh, or else laid bare his lacerated muscles and huge bones. Why, as the poison burned, his very blood bubbled and hissed as when a white-hot blade is quenched in icy water. Never an end! The flames licked inwards, greedy for his guts; dark perspiration streamed from every pore; his scorching sinews crackled; the blind rot melted his marrow ... In wounded agony he roamed the heights of Oeta [and died escaping pain in the flames of his funeral pyre].”  

Israel, half secular state and half theocracy, with the help of its faithful servant the United States, might be able to destroy Hamas. Americans have traditionally admired Israel, and condemned Hamas’ suicide bomber tactics. But if Israeli leaders dip their arrows into the venom of those they despise, they could be creating the means for their own nation’s destruction. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Daily Planet. 

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