The Berkeley Housing Authority’s Section 8 program is mismanaged, poorly staffed, and on the brink of insolvency, according to a sweeping independent study delivered to BHA board members Friday. 

The $100,000 report compiled by Ronnie Odom of MDStrum Housing Services—conducted at the request of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and paid for by the federal agency—found problems ranging from thousands of dollars lost in miscalculated rents, no procedures for managing a waiting list of 5,000 applicants for Section 8 housing vouchers, and a backlog of 900 housing units not inspected. 

Berkeley Housing Director Steve Barton said the report’s findings came as no surprise to him. The authority—which manages all public housing units in Berkeley as well as Section 8 vouchers—has flunked itself on repeated self-evaluations. 

“The housing authority is lacking just about everywhere, and has been for some time,” Barton said. 

Berkeley has the only “troubled” agency in the East Bay, said HUD Program Assistant Sue Platania. 

Section 8 is the largest housing subsidy program in the country. Eligible residents pay 30 percent of their income for an apartment, with HUD footing the bill for the rest. HUD is also responsible for paying a fee to the housing authority to manage the program. 

Odom concluded that the housing authority’s current problems stem from a frantic drive over the past three years to ramp up the number of housing vouchers to the allotted 1,841 tenants provided by the federal government. That effort has diverted resources from establishing procedures and protocols aligned with HUD regulations, he said. 

Even worse, according to Odom, was that with the city now approaching full use of all its available Section 8 vouchers, the three housing representatives find it nearly impossible to provide service to the growing number of tenants. Two housing representatives retired last year, but with salaries for the jobs between $55,000 and $60,000 a year, the authority’s budget does not allow it to hire replace them. 

With roughly 1800 units rented the three housing representatives—out of the authority’s 17 employees—are each responsible for about 600 cases. Odom said that is double the workload in a typical housing authority. 

“They’re doing the best they can, but they’re essentially working two jobs,” he said. 

Of the roughly $1.9 million the authority gets to administer the program, $1.5 million goes to staff salaries and benefits, leaving precious few dollars for other administration costs. Although the authority is currently solvent, Odom projected an $87,000 deficit in 2006 and a $156,000 deficit in 2007. 

That might be just the tip of the iceberg. HUD is basing next years funding on the lease-up totals presented last August. At the time Berkeley had placed tenants for 1,650 vouchers, but Barton said a computer problem recorded the total at just 1,449. The city will get a chance to appeal, but if that number stands, it would decrease funds to Berkeley and plunge the authority into debt. 

The long-term answer to the authority’s fiscal woes, Odom said, was to reduce the number of administrative staffers and hire more housing representatives. 

“You have a lot of clerks sitting around all day doing nothing,” said Odom who didn’t hesitate to spread the blame around. 

He criticized the authority’s management system, which puts several layers of authority between Executive Director Sharon Jackson and the board, and lets the three housing representatives “run three different housing authorities.” Odom also blasted its inclusion of what he called “fluff” programs that are designed to supply some residents with extra services, but, in his estimation, waste vital staff resources. 

Odom is in the process of writing new procedures for the authority and training its members to follow HUD guidelines. 

The housing authority board—comprised of the City Council and two elected members—didn’t escape Odom’s wrath either. 

“You are all part of the problem,” he told them. Councilmembers and other politicians sometimes encourage the authority to sidestep HUD rules when they are advocating for a constituent, Odom said. 

Councilmembers refuted that claim, but agreed they needed to do a better job of overseeing the program. 

“It isn’t until the federal government gets on our case that we have a real housing authority meeting,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington.  

Commission meetings are held monthly, but usually squeezed in just before the city council convenes. 

Councilmember Miriam Hawley proposed hour-long meetings to start a discussion on the authority’s problems. 

Though, he acknowledged the authority was troubled, Housing Director Barton said he didn’t regret his emphasis on leasing up the number of vouchers. 

“The lease-up is just plain more important [than the administrative concerns raised by HUD],” he said. “If you have the vouchers you have the [financial resources] to work on other issues,” he said. 

Three years ago, the number of rented Section 8 units in the city sank to 1,260 as the combination of ending rent control on vacated units and spiraling rent prices made Section 8 unattractive for landlords who could get more money from the market. 

Fewer vouchers meant less money for the housing authority. During the last few years, the authority needed a $150,000 bail out from the city and tapped its reserves to stay solvent while it ramped up its vouchers. At present, one percent of the vouchers go to developers, though more vouchers have been assigned to two Affordable Housing Associates projects in the pipeline. 

Barton welcomed Odom’s help, but said it was “ironic” that HUD was coming down hard on the authority now, when its finances are improved and three years after Berkeley had first requested the assistance. 

Should the authority become insolvent, Berkeley would likely have to join the Alameda County Housing Authority, and would lose the guarantee of 1,841 housing vouchers for Berkeley residents. 

Barton said the authority was in the process of redeploying workers and training clerks so they can help housing representatives with rent evaluations and income eligibility research and free them to do more unit inspections. 

Still, on some matters, the housing director didn’t think HUD recommendations would work in Berkeley. He said the layers of authority that have the executive director report to him and him report to Phil Kamlarz, who reports to the board, might be unusual, but it gives the board a thorough overview of Berkeley’s total housing picture. 

Barton also said a suggestion to streamline the voucher applications might help the city lease-up more quickly but could hurt the city’s neediest citizens. “We’ve helped hundreds of Berkeley residents in danger of becoming homeless,” he said. “I think that is what the City Council, the board, and the people of Berkeley want, even if some people think its slowing us down.”›

What promises to be the biggest local tax on the November ballot is looking like it will be a little less costly to Berkeley taxpayers.  

Two weeks after the school board declared its intention to go to voters with a tax that some board members wanted to set at $10 to $12 million—a roughly $260 increase for the average homeowner—the board last week appeared heading towards a more modest proposal that could trim the burden to taxpayers down to half that much. 

The new tax would be a two-year supplement to the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project (BSEP)—a $10 million parcel tax, set to expire in 2006, that funds specific programs the district’s general fund can’t cover. If the current consensus holds, a tax measure this November—separate from BSEP—would be used to restore basic services. In 2006, after engaging the community in a period of strategic planning, the district would then go before voters with a brand new long-term BSEP measure. 

The push to take a new tax to voters comes amid cuts in state funding and rising labor costs over the past several years that have forced the district to cut back on several programs BSEP was authorized to preserve—primarily low class sizes, music instruction and libraries. 

Last Wednesday the board received three tax plans that proposed to spend between $6 and $8 million to bolster those top three priorities, along with a few extras. 

A proposal from Superintendent Lawrence proposed including money for teacher professional development, research and evaluation services, and an outreach program for families that don’t speak English. None of those programs received much fanfare at the district’s two community planning meetings held earlier this year. 

The BSEP Planning and Oversight Committee mirrored the superintendent’s proposal, except it didn’t include money for staff development. 

A proposal submitted by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers included money for staff development, flexible grants to school sites that could be used for music and libraries and funds for instructional materials and facility improvements. 

B Federation of Teachers President Barry Fike said he expected his union to support the superintendent’s proposal as long as it included strict language that holds the district to its promised class size reductions. 

The proposals from both Lawrence and the BSEP committee call for class size ratios of 20-1 for grades kindergarten to three, 26-1 for grades four to six and 28-1 for grades seven to twelve. The BSEP committee estimates the reduction would require hiring between 31 and 40 new teachers at a cost of $3.1 and $4 million. 

The current BSEP measure devotes about $6 million to reducing class sizes, but that doesn’t mean Berkeley’s classes are smaller than other districts.  

In recent years, to deal with a financial crisis, the school board has declared a fiscal emergency, allowing it to set class sizes at a rate of 37-1, above state standards of 35-1 for secondary schools and 32-1 for fourth and fifth grades. The district has then used the BSEP money to bring class sizes down to the state standards, but not to the levels promised when the measure passed in 1994. The district uses a state grant to keep kindergarten to third grade class sizes at a ratio of 20-1. 

With the district planning to return to voters in two years for an even bigger tax measure, many people close to the negotiations stressed the need for transparency.  

“If this is the measure, that’s what the classroom should look like,” said Director Nancy Riddle. 

Co-Chair of the BSEP Committee Dan Lindheim told the board that as an act of good faith, “once the money comes in, it’s important not to declare a fiscal crisis.” 

In recent weeks Superintendent Lawrence—who at first appeared hesitant to proceed with any type of tax measure this year—has been the strongest advocate for the two-year tax proposal. She wants to lead a community conversation on how best to fund public education in the face of declining state funding before going forward with a new BSEP measure in November 2006.  

Although the majority community members active in BSEP had originally expressed a preference for taking a new long term measure to voters this November, Lawrence, who has attended the past three BSEP committee meetings, has apparently forged a consensus around her plan. 

“Definitely we listened to what the superintendent said [about the strategic planning]. The majority felt like that was a good thing,” said BSEP Committee Co-Chair Susan Henderson, who had favored going forward with a new BSEP measure this year. 

›

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series. Part two will appear in the May 14 edition. 

In a state plagued by a crumbling infrastructure, troubled schools and an electorate increasingly unwilling to shell out more tax dollars, Berkeley voters are unique among California cities in their willingness to levy new taxes on themselves to fund schools, libraries and other civic improvements. 

But that burden falls mainly on residential and commercial property owners—a dwindling majority in a city dominated by a massive property-tax-exempt University of California campus and a host of other exempt properties. 

The city’s last study on exempt properties, completed in December, 1994, stated the obvious: “Berkeley has an unusual number of properties which are tax exempt,” ranging “from the University of California campus and properties, government owned properties, Alta Bates/Herrick Hospitals and properties, the Graduate Theological Union and properties, to properties owned by churches, private schools and other tax-exempt institutions.” 

The 1994 study estimated that the total tax loss caused by various exemptions on assessed property and even larger unlisted blocks, most notably the UC Berkeley campus, produced an annual property tax shortfall of $23.4 million—nearly two thirds of the $36.6 million collected that year from non-exempt property owners, most of them homeowners. 

“In conclusion,” wrote then-City Auditor Anna Rabkin, “Berkeley’s tax exempt institutions create a massive, hidden fiscal impact on the community. The trend of shifting the tax burden onto residential property taxpayers appears to be increasing, both as a result of Proposition 13 and due to the apparent growth of tax exempt institutions.” 

That Prop. 13—a constitutional amendment passed by California voters in 1978—has inflicted considerable damage on local governments in California comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with its authors, Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann. 

The flames of Proposition 13 were fanned by the soaring rise in California property values between 1975 and 1978—the same incendiary force that sent rents soaring and led to rent control in both Santa Monica and Berkeley. 

Homeowners, stunned by whopping tax increases, eagerly embraced the proposals Jarvis had earlier floated without success. Proposition 13 put a one percent cap on annual tax increases and rolled back assessments to 1975—before the real estate spike that led to its passage. 

Proposition 13 inflicted a double blow on local government by including commercial and industrial property under the same tax protections as residential property. By 1997, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities was estimating that annual non-residential property tax losses to California cities and counties were running up to $5 billion a year. 

Cities have responded by floating special fee and assessment districts—which, also thanks to Prop. 13, must carry by a two-thirds vote. 

A preliminary compilation of non-UC exempt Berkeley property last July came up with a total value of $354 million, with Alta Bates Hospital leading the list with exemptions of $104.6 million, followed by the Graduate Theological Union with $12.1 million, the Pacific School of Religion with $7.7 million and the Herrick Foundation at $4.3 million. 

There is no formal estimate of the value of University of California exemptions, since state-owned property isn’t appraised. 

Not only are university-owned properties exempt, but so are properties leased by the university so long as they are used for educational uses. Conversely, university property leased to for-profit companies is taxable. 

In Berkeley, the ongoing metastasis of the UC campus onto previously taxable properties led the drafters of the city’s December, 2001, General Plan to incorporate Policy LU-35 into the Land Use Element, calling on the city “to discourage additional UC expansion (with the exception of housing) in Berkeley and also discourage the University from removing additional properties from the City’s tax rolls.” 

Nonetheless, the city has bestowed its preliminary blessings on a major UC expansion into downtown—the museum and hotel complex recently vetted by a special Planning Commission task force. While the hotel and convention center would pay property taxes, the museums are exempt by law, as would any other educational uses in the complex.  

Exemptions are a problem nationwide, and one partial solution adopted by the federal government and some states to offset losses from exempt properties is the PILOT program, short for Payment In Lieu Of Taxes. The purpose of this program is to provide funds to compensate for property taxes lost on exempt property owned by governments and non-profit and charitable institutions exempt from paying taxes on the real estate they own. 

The federal Bureau of Land Management is the country’s largest PILOT payer—though the acronym is PILT in federalese—shelling out the lion’s share of the Interior Department’s $227.5 million in fiscal year 2004 PILOT funding. 

Federal military installations and the Department of Energy also make PILOT payments to local governments whose schools, roads and other infrastructure and service elements are impacted by their presence. 

Rhode Island offers cities and towns payments amounting to 27 percent of the taxes lost from otherwise tax exempt state owned facilities. Vermont pays cities half of the estimated taxes on state-owned property. Massachusetts also offers PILOT fees to municipalities, though in recent years legislators have severely underfunded the program. 

A 1960 Connecticut law mandates that the state pay PILOT fees equivalent to the full share of property taxes to towns hosting state prisons or where the state owns more than half the property in the municipality, and 40 cents on the dollar on state property comprising less than half of the municipality’s real estate. A 1978 Connecticut law authorizes state-paid fees of 77 cents on the dollar to replace taxes lost from other all other exempt properties, including hospitals, private colleges and universities. 

In reality, the Connecticut legislature typically underfunds the program, and PILOT fees are prorated based on the amount actually appropriated. For the current fiscal year, one university city—New Haven, home to Yale—pocketed $32.7 million in PILOT fees, considerably less than its full statutory entitlement. 

Connecticut’s program was launched in 1968, and the original legislation authorized compensation to local government for taxes lost on state-owned property amounting to 100 percent for state prisons and 40 percent for all other state-owned facilities. A 1978 amendment added state compensation of 77 percent of lost property taxes and assessments for hospitals and private colleges and universities. 

The Massachusetts PILOT fee program dates back to 1910, and compensates municipalities only from taxes lost on the land itself and not the considerably more valuable buildings and other improvements. 

The statewide base for Massachusetts PILOT payments was land valued at $1.86 billion, and authorized payments were based on a statewide rate of $16.58 per $1000 of assessed land values. The total authorized by law was $30.8 for all municipalities—but legislators only appropriated $21 million, a move decried by state auditor Joseph DeNucci. 

Rhode Island launched its own PILOT program in 1986 to reimburse municipalities for the lost property tax revenues on non profit hospitals and institutions of higher learning, with reimbursement fixed at 25 percent taxes owed on property of equivalent value. Two years later, state hospitals, veteran’s homes, and prisons with more than 100 inmates were added to the list. In 1997 legislators upped the reimbursement rate to 27 percent. 

Vermont’s PILOT program pays municipalities $1 per $100 in assessed value on state-owned land. 

Some institutions offer voluntary PILOT funds. In New Jersey, Princeton University voluntarily pays taxes on otherwise-exempt faculty and graduate student housing and for the president’s estate. 

But in California, the University of California, the state universities and community colleges are statutorily exempt from local taxes, and they have successfully resisted all efforts to require them to pay any compensation. 

It’s not that California state government doesn’t provide any PILOT funds, observes Peter Detwiler, a consultant to the California Senate Local Government Committee. The most notable payments are made under the Williamson Act Subvention Program, created by the legislature in 1965 to encourage the preservation of “green belt” agricultural regions around municipalities. 

Farmers and ranchers who sign contracts to keep their land developer-free have their property assessed based on its value for agricultural use rather than the higher values that would result from exploiting for commercial and residential development. 

To make up for the resulting loss of taxes, the state offers compensation—$38 million to counties and $60 million to school districts in the current fiscal year. 

Acknowledging that Berkeley might have the greatest property tax losses of any UC campus, Detwiler said that the benefits from sales tax and other revenues generated by the university’s presence could significantly mitigate the impact of loss property tax revenues. 

The latest proposal to offset some of the costs universities, colleges and other otherwise-exempt public agencies impose on local governments comes from California Assemblymember Lonnie Hancock, a former Berkeley mayor and the spouse of current Mayor Tom Bates. 

Hancock’s Assembly Bill 2902 would amend the state Public Resources code to ban public agencies such as UC from implementing plans for developments governed by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that would require other agencies to implement mitigations unless the implementing agency agrees to pay a fair share of the costs. 

Both the UC and state university systems have announced their opposition, citing the City of Marina ruling—making the upcoming Supreme Court hearing all the more important for local governments, the state and taxpayers.  

With UC Berkeley’s recently unveiled Long Range Development Plan projecting an additional 1.1 million square feet of off-campus development by 2020, Hancock’s measure becomes a matter of critical importance to Berkeley City officials. ˇ

According to friends and family, Berkeley’s Wendell Ralph Lipscomb was a renaissance man in the true sense of the word. A former instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen, a physician, musician, and teacher, those who knew him best said he was good at whatever he did. 

Even into his later years, Lipscomb pursued his multiple passions, most importantly his love for flying. But on Thursday, Lipscomb’s life came to an abrupt end when he tripped and fell from a center median on Shattuck Avenue and was run over by a passing truck. 

“He was a man of great generosity, a man who never complained, a man who never bragged about all of his achievements,” said Joe Lurie, a friend and executive director of the International House at UC Berkeley, where Lipscomb spent time while studying to become a doctor. Lipscomb subsequently served on the I-House board. 

“He was a real star, he was good at everything he put his mind too,” said Kathryn Raphael, one of Lipscomb’s two step-daughters.  

Born in Berkeley in 1920, Lipscomb grew up in Oakland and eventually moved to San Diego. There he developed his passion for flying by hanging around the airfields, offering to wash planes or help pilots. Some of the pilots eventually started giving Lipscomb free flying lessons and by the time he was 16, he had his pilot’s license. Even the more than his age, it was a major accomplishment for the African American Lipscomb to achieve that distinction in an era of overt anti-black racism. 

At 17, as the Spanish Civil War broke out, Lipscomb enrolled as a pilot with Americans who went to fight against the fascist troops of Francisco Franco. The planes however, never showed up so Lipscomb wasn’t able to fly. 

“He wanted to fly, he wanted to use his talents,” said Ellen Gunther, Lipscomb’s wife of nearly 40 years. “He was just a natural pilot. Even if he went a year without flying, the minute he got in the [cockpit], it was like he was in there yesterday.” 

Lipscomb’s time as a pilot was far from over though. Back in the United States during World War II, Lipscomb became an instructor for the Tuskegee Airman, the first African Americans to fly airplanes for the Army Air Corps in Alabama. After the war ended, he tried to become a commercial pilot but none of the major airlines would hire an African-American. After several tries, he did fly with British Airways for a short stint. 

His inability to fly did not hold Lipscomb back, however. He graduated from San Diego State college in 1947 and soon enrolled in medical school at UC Berkeley. When the medical school was transferred to San Francisco he went with it, graduating in 1953. After graduation, like the fictional Hawkeye and Trapper John of “M.A.S.H.”, Lipscomb spent time in Korea during the war. When he returned to the states he also returned to school, graduating with his masters in public health from the University of Michigan. 

According to his wife, Lipscomb became the first African-American doctor to do his residency at Kaiser hospital in Oakland. Back then, she said, they never asked for a picture and offered him the job because he graduated tenth in his class. She said they were noticeably surprised when he showed up. 

Lipscomb did not stop at general medicine, however, and continued to pursue other interests, serving as the supervisor of the alcoholism project for the California State Department of Public Health. He also did a residence at the Mendocino State Hospital as a psychiatrist. He continued to work as a psychiatrist in Oakland, and eventually ran his own private practice in Berkeley. 

He had just retired this past January.  

When asked if he was a work-aholic, Gunther said, “I told him I think its time to retire, and he said I’ve never quit a job in my life. That’s the definition of a work-aholic.” 

Even though he wasn’t flying professionally for most of his life, Gunther said Lipscomb could never really keep his feet firmly planted on solid ground. 

“He really loved it, the minute the airplane broke ground, he was free,” she said. She added that Lipscomb flew on his own, taught both his stepson and grandson to fly, and also participated in a program at the Oakland airport that gave flying lessons to middle school and high school students. 

The program, run by Sam Broadnax, another former Tuskegee Airman, started in 1994 and targeted African-American youth from around the Bay. 

“It’s sort of an old saying that real pilots have air in their blood,” said Broadnax about Lipscomb. “His love for flying didn’t diminish at all as his age advanced and he couldn’t fly any more.” 

Besides his love for flying, his family said he was also a talented musician, philanthropist, avid bird watcher, voracious reader, and at one point owned his own art gallery. Over the years ,he made so many friends and acquaintances (especially during his time at the I-House) that he couldn’t travel anywhere that he didn’t know someone. 

Before he died he was struggling with dialysis but, according to friends, never complained and continued to pursue his work. He also always kept a sense of humor. 

“He was an extraordinary man, a magnificent human being,” said Lurie from the I-House. 

TUESDAY, MAY 11 

Morning Birdwalk Meet at 7 a.m. at the pull-out on Wildcat Canyon Rd., east of Grizzly Peak Blvd. 525-2233. 

Public Hearing on UCB’s Long Range Development Plan at 5:30 p.m. at the Krutch Theater, CLark Kerr Campus. Copies of the plan and the draft Environmental Impact Report are available at http://lrdp.berkeley.edu 

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

Arianna Huffington will speak at 11:30 a.m. at the Head-Royce School, 4315 Lincoln Ave., Oakland. Sponsored by the Civic Purpose Committee, Democracy Matters and California Common Cause. 531-1300, ext. 2247. 

Phone Banking to ReDefeat Bush from 6 to 9 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Bring your cell phones. Please RSVP if you can join us. 233-2144. dan@redefeatbush.com 

“The Evolution of California Water Policy” with David Kennedy, former director of the California Dept. of Water Resources at 5:30 p.m. in 105 North Gate Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Water Resources Center Archives. 642-2666. 

“Evolution’s Rainbow” Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People, with Dr. Joan Roughgarden at 7:30 p.m., 2050 Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Campus. 643-7008. bnhm@berkeley.edu 

Writer’s Workshop: Crossing Genres with Melita Schaum at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Goddess Grace Moving Meditation at 10 a.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $7-10, bring a yoga mat or blanket. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

East Bay Theology on Tap meets to discuss “Catholicism, Democracy and Civil Society” with Jerome Baggett at 7 p.m. at 4092 Piedmont Ave. Contact Norah at St. Leo the Great 654-6177. 

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

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Joan Sinon will speak on Home Instead Senior Care at 11 a.m. 845-6830. 

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

WEDNESDAY, MAY 12 

Fresh Produce Stand Grand opening from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center, with home-cooked food and festivities. Sponsored by Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

“Free to Fly: The US-Cuba Link” a documentary on the efforts of people to maintain links after 16 years of no direct travel, at 6:30 p.m. at the South Branch Library, 1901 Russell St. 981-6260. 

“Miel de Oshun” a film about a Cuban American who goes back to Cuba to search for his mother, at 7 p.m. at Fellowship of Humanity, 390 7th St., Oakland. Donations accepted. 393-5685. 

East Bay Genealogical Society meets at 10 a.m. with speaker Diane Rooney on research on Eastern European families. Library Conference Room, Family History Center, 4770 Lincoln Ave., Oakland. 635-6692. 

The Knitting Hour at the West Branch of the Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave., at 7 p.m. Come and learn to knit, regain old skills, and get inspiration for new projects. Limited supplies are available. Please feel free to donate. For beginners, we recommend a pair of size 8 needles and one skein of yarn. All ages welcome. 981-6270. 

Poetry Writing Workshop, led by Danna Zeller, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 20. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, MAY 13 

“There’s No Place Like Home” a fundraising event for First Place Fund for Youth, for youth who “age out” of the foster care system, at 5:30 p.m. at Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Tickets are $50. 272-0979. www.firstplacefund.org 

Berkeley Adult School Career Fair from 9 a.m. to noon at 1222 University Ave. Free admission. 644-8968. 

“Election” the political comedy will be shown in a benefit for the John Kerry campaign at sundown at the outdoor cinema, Pyramid Alehouse, 8th and Gilman. Bring your own seating: blankets, lawn chairs, etc. Suggested donation is $20 or whatever you can afford. All donations go Kerry’s campaign. apbeahrs@mac.com.  

Embracing Diversity Films and Albany High School PTA present “Bums’ Paradise” at 7 p.m. in the Albany High School Library, 603 Key Route Blvd., Albany. 527-1328. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers monthly meeting at 7 p.m at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave. 547-8629. 

Tea Dancing and Dance Lessons from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley. Cost is $10, and include refreshments. 925-376-6345.  

East Bay Mac User Group meets to discuss MacWireless at 6 p.m. at Expression Center for New Media, 6601 Shellmound St. www.expression.edu 

FRIDAY, MAY 14 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Nelson H. Greyburn, Prof. of Anthropology, on “Recent Generational Changes in Japan.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020. 

Literary Friends meets at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center to discuss Creative Poetry in Action 232-1351. 

Berkeley Critical Mass Bike Ride meets at the Berkeley BART the second Friday of every month at 5:30 p.m. 

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

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

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

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

Herbal Tea at Three Learn tea lore, medicinal properties, and taste familiar and exotic varieties. Every Friday from 3 to 4 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com 

SATURDAY, MAY 15 

Berkeley Health Carnival from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at San Pablo Park, 2800 Park St. Free medical screenings and enrollment opportunities. Sponsored by the LifeLong Medical Group. 

City of Berkeley Budget Forum at 9:15 a.m. in the Sproul Room, St. John’s Presbyterian, 2727 College Ave. Sponsored by BANA/ 

CNA.  

Interfaith Pagan Pride Parade and Celebration with indigenous and Earth-based traditions celebrating the “Divine Feminine” from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Civic Center Park. www.paganparade.org 

Strawberry Tastings at Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Civic Center Park from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with cooking demonstrations at 11 a.m. 

Berkeley Fire Station Open House from 1 to 4 p.m. at Station 2, 2029 Berkeley Way. Tour the station, see a safety presentation, and historical display and enjoy hot dogs and cake. Families and children especially welcome. 981-5506. 

Slitherin’ Snakes Visit the friendly snakes at Tilden Nature Center from 10:30 a.m. to noon and learn about reptiles. 525-2233. 

Bugs-R-Us If you love insects, come on down to search out some creepy crawlies. You’ll learn all about our many legged friends and then search for them in the soil, under logs and even in our compost! From 2 to 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “Piedmont Way” led by Paul Grunland from 10 a.m. to noon. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

Bike Rodeo at San Pablo Park with obstacle courses and other activities from 10 a.m. to noon. 

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

Mindfulness in Education Join with educators, parents, students, and all those concerned with education in a mindfulness day of meditation, reflection, sharing, and inquiry about creating peaceful schools with heart. From 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave.  

Spring Faire at Washington School from 10 to 2 p.m. at 2300 Martin Luther King Jr. Way Join us for a community celebration co-sponsored by Healthy Start. Lots of fun activities for kids, health and education booths, food, music, and raffle. 486-1742. 

Walden Spring Fair from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Walden School, 2446 McKinley Ave., corner of Dwight. Live entertainment, food, arts and crafts, and children’s games. 841-7248. 

Russian Festival hosted by The Berkeley Russian School from 1 to 5 p.m. at 1821 Catalina at Colusa. Concert featuring Sergey Podobedov on the piano, Yulia Ronskaya, soprano, Elena Stepanova, soprano, and art exhibition, dancing, drama performances and lots of Russian piroshkis & blintzes. Admission $5. 526-8892. 

Berkwood Hedge School Music & Art Festival from 1 to 5 p.m, 1809 Bancroft Way. Join us for an afternoon of musical performances, art exhibits, crafts, games and fine food and drink. Admission $3-$7. All proceeds benefit the Berkwood Hedge scholarship program.  

Community Block Party at 1 p.m. at 2824 Haven’s Court, between McArthur and Bancroft. Sponsored by Cultural Designs. 205-9331.  

Gardening with East Bay Native Plants from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pre-registration required Class is held off-site. Cost is $15-$25, low-income spots by arrangement. 548-2220, ext. 233. erc@ecologycenter.org 

The Friends of the Albany Library Book Sale from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, or to volunteer for the sale, please call the Albany Library at 526-3720, ext. 5. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club Open House from 1 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The public is invited come try lawn bowling at the greens, which are located at 2270 Acton, intersecting with Bancroft. For more information, please call Ray Francis at 234-6646. Berkeleylawnbowl@aol.com   

Satsuki Arts Festival & Bazaar with kotoist June Kuramoto and keyboardist Kimo Cornwell, taiko drummer Kenny Endo,and a variety of Japanese food, Asian arts and crafts, a silent auction and children's carnival games. From 4 to 9 p.m. and Sun. noon to 7 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Temple, 2121 Channing Way. 841-1356. http://home.pacbell.net/bsangha/ 

“Running for Office 101” a workshop to strengthen skills in political leadership and campaing management from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Peralta Community College District Boardroom, 333 East 8th St., Oakland, across from Laney Football Field. Cost is $75. 763-9523. www.bwopa.org  

Sweet Inspirations Auction and Dessert Reception to benefit Elizabeth House, a transitional residential house for women, at 7 p.m. at Holy Redeemer Center, 8945 Golf Links Rd, Oakland. Tickets are $25. 601-1213. 

Sacred Listening A workshop led by Leonard Levis and Nora Martos-Perry from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Road, Kensington. Suggested donation $45. 526-8944. 

Yoga for Seniors at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., on Saturdays from 10 to 11 a.m. The class is taught by Rosie Linsky, who at age 72, has practiced yoga for over 40 years. Open to non-members of the club for $8 per class. For further information and to register, call Karen Ray at 848-7800. 

Pet Adoptions, sponsored by Home at Last, from noon to 5 p.m., Hearst and 4th St. 548-9223. 

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

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

SUNDAY, MAY 16 

“Shattering Myths in Palestine/Israel” a visual reportback from April Middle East Children’s Alliance delegation, at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale, benefit Palestinian children. 849-2568. www.mecaforpeace.org 

“Working for Justice in a Time of Conflict” with Rabbi Arik Ascherman, director of Rabbis for Human Rights, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Donations welcome. Co-sponsored by Trees of Hope. 848-0237. www.brjcc.org 

“Jews Against Zionism” A new documentary by local film-maker Wendy Campbell, at 3 p.m. at the Parkway Theatre, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Free, donations accepted. 814-2400. www.exposingisraeliapartheid.com 

International Women’s Writing Guild quarterly meeting at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

“Spirit, Work and Money” a workshop with Tony D’Aguanno, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, 1606 Bonita. Cost is $45. Please RSVP to 272-9915. 

Guided Trails Challenge Hike in the Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Smack-dab in the heart of industry lies a peaceful shoreline. Climb the hills and learn the history of Rancho San Pablo, Ferry Point, and Botts’ Flying Machine. Meet in the first parking lot off Dornan Dr. near Pt. Richmond. Registration required 525-2233.  

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

Parking Lot Book Sale from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Spectator Bookstore, 4163 Piedmont Ave. Lots of books at really low prices. 653-7300. 

Satsuki Arts Festival & Bazaar with kotoist June Kuramoto and keyboardist Kimo Cornwell, taiko drummer Kenny Endo, and a variety of Japanese food, Asian arts and crafts, a silent auction and children’s carnival games. From noon to 7 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Temple, 2121 Channing Way. 841-1356. http://home. 

pacbell.net/bsangha/ 

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

Anxiety A free talk with Stacy Taylor at noon at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Amdo on “Entering the Bodhisattva Path” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

“Buddhism: Building Bridges of Understanding” at 7 p.m. a St. Cuthbert’s, 7900 Mountain Blvd. Reading materials available beforehand from StCuddy@aol.com 

“The Death of Progressive Education” with Dan Harper at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

“Eckhart Tolle Talks on Video” at 6:30 p.m. the Feldenkrais Ctr., 830 Bancroft Way. Donation $3. Potluck afterwards so bring food/drink to share. 415-990-8977. 

ONGOING 

Free Community Yoga Workshops with David Korman, every Wed. on the grounds of Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., North Berkeley. Next session starts May 19th. 649-1664. 

Vista College Study Abroad in Mexico Live with a family and learn language skills in a two-week session in July in Guadalajara. 981-2917. www.peralta.cc. 

ca.us/interntl/studyabr.htm 

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

Radio Summer Camp, four day sessions from June 4 through Sept. 6. Learn how to build and operate a community radio station. Sponsored by Radio Free Berkeley. 625-0314. www.freeradio.org 

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

CITY MEETINGS 

Commission on Disability meets Wed. May 12, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Paul Church, 981-6342. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disability 

Homeless Commission meets Wed., May 12, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/homeless 

Planning Commission meets Wed., May 12, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets May 12, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Barbara Attard, 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview 

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., May 12, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti. 644-6376 ext. 224. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/waterfront 

Commission on Early Childhood Education meets Thurs., May 13, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/earlychildhoodeducation  

Community Health Commission meets Thurs, May 13, at 6:45 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. William Rogers, 981-5344. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/health 

Two-by-Two Meeting of elected City and School officials to dicuss common concerns, Thurs., May 13, at 8:30 a.m., in the Redwood Room, 6th floor, 2180 Milvia St. 644-6147, 981-7000. 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thurs., May 13, at 7 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7520. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/westberkeley  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., May 13, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning  

Planners To Get Hotel Task Force Report 

Berkeley’s planning commissioners will get their first official look at the recommendations crafted by their UC Hotel Task Force at Wednesday’s 7 p.m. meeting in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

The report, prepared after extensive public hearings before the 25-member task force, details recommendations for the massive complex planned for the two-square-block area between Shattuck Avenue and Oxford Street and Center Street and University Avenue. 

The university has proposed a 12-story hotel and convention center plus a complex of UC museums for the site. 

Joint Meeting To Discuss Animal Shelter Sites 

The City Council Subcommittee of the New Animal Shelter will meet with the Citizens Humane Commission Wednesday afternoon for an update on possible sites for the new city animal shelter. 

The session is of particular concern to Bob Brockl of the nonprofit Nexus Gallery and Collective, whose 25 artisans and craft workers occupy the unreinforced building owned by the humane society which is frequently mentioned as a site for the new facility, funded by a bond measure approved by voters in 2002. 

The structure in question was built in 1924 by the Austin Building Company, the same firm that designed the city’s landmarked Heinz Building at San Pablo and Ashby avenues. 

Under terms of the West Berkeley Plan, any arts and crafts spaces demolished for development must be replaced by similar space at identical rates. 

“That poses something of a problem,” said Katherine O’Connor, the city staffer assigned to the Citizens Humane Commission, “because they are paying very low rents.” 

O’Connor said the Nexus building had drawn the most official attention as a possible shelter site because other sites are difficult to find, “though they have looked at a site on Camellia Street.” 

Discussions are still at a very preliminary stage, she said. 

Family Sues Over Santa Rita Jail Death 

The family of Kevin Freeman, a well-known Berkeley homeless man, has filed a federal wrongful death suit against Alameda County Sheriff Charles C. Plummer and other officials in his department stemming from Freeman’s murder last year while in custody at Santa Rita County Jail. 

Others named as defendants include jail supervisor Commander Dennis G. Scheuller and the staff on duty the night of Freeman’s murder, said San Francisco attorney Frank S. Moore, who filed the action on behalf of Freeman’s family. 

Freeman, a 55-year-old schizophrenic with a history of drug abuse, was killed May 9, 2003, less than 24 hours after he was placed in a cell with a mentally disturbed inmate with a history of violence. 

Freeman had been jailed on charges of public intoxication and probation violation. 

Ryan Lee Raper, who was 20 at the time of the killing, has been charged with Freeman’s murder and remains in Santa Rita, where he is being held without possibility of bail. 

The lawsuit charges that the county violated Freeman’s constitutional right to humane confinement. The family seeks punitive damages in addition to compensation for pain and suffering and lost income. 

Though the suit was filed April 30 in the Oakland branch of the United States District Court, the case has been assigned to a San Francisco courtroom. Nothing more will happen until the first case management meeting, which must be held within 120 days of filing, Moore said. 

UC Programmer Dies In Nevada Glider Accident 

Ruben Zelwer, a computer programmer and systems analyst for UC Berkeley, died Sunday in a glider accident at the Air Sailing Center 25 miles north of Reno. 

Zelwer was an active member of Congregation Beth El in Berkeley. 

Washoe County Coroner Vernon McCarty said Zelwer died at 4:43 p.m. from injuries sustained in the crash, which followed a break in the tow rope as a plane was pulling him up to gliding height. 

The accident is currently under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, McCarty said. ›

Berkeley Arts Magnet Elementary School is learning that despite a new vaccine that promises to one day vanquish the disease from the face of the earth, the chicken pox can still pack a wallop. 

A sudden outbreak two weeks ago has left six students home sick with the virus, as well as eight students barred from school for three weeks because of their refusal to accept the vaccine. Four of the six students infected are in the same sixth grade class and the other two are in fourth grade.  

And for good measure, the outbreak comes just as students are taking state standardized tests which can label schools as failing if they fail to test enough students. 

“We’re hoping for an extension from the state (for taking the state test),” said School Secretary Brenda Stanford, who said the outbreak has meant a lot of extra work for her. 

It’s also been a trial for city Health Officer Dr. Poki Namkung. She is responsible for coordinating the school’s response, and has taken some heat from at least one parent for her stance that any child not vaccinated be kept out of school for the 21-day period that the virus takes to incubate. Many of the families refusing the vaccine say it violates their religion. 

Nora Akino, whose daughter attends Berkeley Arts Magnet, questioned if the policy was intended to “force parents to vaccinate their children.” She said no doctor had ever urged the vaccine for her child, but said it seemed to her that now chickenpox had been redefined as a dangerous disease. 

“The disease has not changed, and my reasons for not giving my child the vaccine have not changed,” she said, “yet suddenly and without warning, I have been transformed from a parent deciding against an optional vaccine to a parent that is ‘out-of-compliance’ whose child has been barred from school.” 

Health Officer Namkung counters that the virus has killed a “significant number of children” and that she is following standard public health procedures in dealing with the outbreak—which is defined by the state as more than five cases in one elementary school. 

The first case at the school was identified on April 26, but Namkung was not alerted until three days later. She then reviewed school immunization records to determine which students were at risk for contracting the highly infectious virus. On May 5 the city offered vaccines to the 17 students who couldn’t provide proof that they were immune. The vaccine will not protect the students if they had been exposed earlier, but guarantees that if they do come down with the virus, it will not be passed on to their classmates. 

The eight students whose parents opted against the vaccine have been offered independent study contracts for the next three weeks, Stanford said.  

Akino said that she doesn’t trust the effectiveness of the vaccine and wants her daughter to have the chickenpox as a child so she will be immune the rest of her life. Namkung, however, said she “cannot let susceptible children into an environment where I know a serious disease is occurring.” 

This year’s outbreak is the first in Namkung’s nine years with the city and it might well be the last. Since 2001, all incoming elementary school students are required to be vaccinated for the chickenpox or receive an exemption. 

The Berkeley School Board is asking the City Council to step up to the plate and dig up a Berkeley street so that the district can build a new home for the Berkeley High baseball team. 

Two weeks after sending a mixed message on the type of athletic field they want to build at its East Campus site on Martin Luther King Jr. Way at Derby and Carleton Streets, the board passed a measure 4-0-1 (Selawsky, abstain) last Wednesday declaring its preference for the city to close a block of Derby Street between Martin Luther King and Milvia Street. The district says if that is done, it can sod over the pavement and build a regulation size baseball field. 

“The City Council can’t entertain it unless they know we want it,” said School Board Director Terry Doran, who co-sponsored the resolution with Director Shirley Issel.  

The last time the City Council considered the street closure, the school board lost big. In 2000, with opposition from several neighbors and the Berkeley Farmer’s Market, which uses the that section of Derby Street on Tuesday evenings, the council voted 6-3 to deny the school board request. 

Proponents of the plan think this time around they will have two factors on their side: The resolution safeguards a spot for the farmer’s market on the site and supporters say they are told Mayor Tom Bates is open to considering the plan. The mayor’s office declined to reply to inquiries from the Daily Planet on this issue. 

Currently the proposed plot is home to a collection of portable buildings that house a few district offices, some classes and storage space. It also currently has a very large grassy field that residents use for pickup football and soccer games. 

The resolution passed last week will not halt the current plan to remove the portables and build a multi-purpose field on the site bounded by Carleton and Derby streets while the school board waits for a decision from the City Council.  

The Berkeley High School baseball team currently practices and plays home games at San Pablo Park, a 1.5 miles from campus. Doug Fielding, chair of the Association of Sports Field Users, told the board that the lack of sports fields prevents the baseball team from practicing for more than an hour and a half daily.  

School Board President John Selawsky feared that the resolution would prejudice the board as it prepares to organize a committee of neighbors and school officials to plan the project. 

“It seems we’re not keeping an open mind on uses of that site if we’ve already determined what the uses of that site are,” he said.

Four Berkeley engine companies battled a blaze fanned by 35-mile-an-hour winds atop Grizzly Peak after Oakland firefighters issued a call for mutual assistance at 10 minutes after midnight Monday morning. 

Before the four-acre grass blaze was contained, Oakland issued a third alarm. 

About a dozen engines from Oakland, two from Orinda, five from the California Division of Forestry, and the four Berkeley crews battled for more than three hours to contain the flames. No dwellings were burned, and there were no injuries among the crews, said Berkeley Deputy Chief David Orth. “The fire started when a tree fell over into electric lines,” he said. 

“This is really an early start to fire season,” explained the Berkeley firefighter, adding that another mountain-area woods fire hit Marin County over the weekend. 

My mother thinks that everyone in California runs around naked. It’s one of her theories left over from the ‘60s, when Life Magazine was delivered weekly to our house in New Jersey. In each issue were big photographs of pain and tragedy: train wrecks, car crashes, runaway children, missile crisis, racial strife and a war somewhere across the Pacific. In-between these articles were snippets of life in California: tan surfer girls shopping in bikinis at the grocery store; movie stars in group therapy; common housewives primal screaming; nude people on the Big Sur coast, sitting in hot tubs discussing their feelings; naked folks in communes having sex with one another; hairy kids in the desert doing god knows what without their clothes on. That’s how mother got the idea that everyone in California was naked, including her daughter: Life Magazine told her so. 

And it was true, I did spend some time sans clothes in California. Hitchhiking up the coast, from Thousand Oaks to San Francisco, I got into cars with half naked people and lay on beaches with the partially clothed. I spent time in a commune in Santa Cruz where threads were optional. I kept my clothes on, but mother didn’t believe me. 

After I graduated from college and returned to California 10 years later, mother advised me to “Knock’em dead out there, sweetheart, but keep your clothes on.” 

She came to visit. We walked around San Francisco’s North Beach. “See,” mother said as she peered into the doorway of Big Al’s. “Naked people everywhere.” 

I took her to the beach. Surfers removed their wet suits in front of mother. “My god,” she exclaimed, looking away, then sneaking a glance back after we had passed by. “Have those boys no shame? Oh my,” she whispered walking by a well-endowed blonde.  

At Muir Woods we took a hike, then raced back to the car in order to make it into San Francisco for dinner. “Mom,” I shouted. “You’ll have to change your clothes in the parking lot! There’s no time to go home.” 

“You want me to get naked right here in front of everybody?” she asked. “You’ve got to be kidding!” 

I looked around. There wasn’t a soul in sight. “Mom, sit in the car. Take your pants off. Put on your skirt. Roll your panty hose up underneath it. That’s it. Now take off your shirt and I’ll hand you your blouse. Good. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” 

“Wait ‘til I tell the gals at bridge club. They won’t believe it.” 

We went to Calistoga. We took our clothes off in a communal bath and let a stranger pile hot dirt on top of us. “Isn’t this fun?” I asked as mud oozed around my chin. 

“Yes,” she answered in a tentative voice, careful not to let mud fill her nostrils.  

The next day we headed to Carmel. I had made reservations for us at Tassajara Hot Springs. 

“Mom, there’s something you should know about this place,” I said as we sped down Highway 1. 

“Yes?” 

“It’s clothing optional.” 

“Mmmmmm,” she whispered. 

Upon our arrival we put on bathing suits and headed for the women-only tubs. Everyone was naked except for mother and me. Someone suggested we take off our suits. 

“No thank you,” replied mom. 

After our soak we hiked through a narrow canyon. We sat on warm rocks and stared up at the cloudless blue sky. Out of the woods a naked young man meandered toward us. He was tall and muscular, an in-the-flesh Adonis, and he was headed in our direction. “My god,” mother said as she peered over her bifocals at the fellow. I could hear her sucking in air. He said hello as he walked by. I answered “hi,” but mother said nothing. She was holding her breath. We watched him amble away, his firm buttocks glistening in the afternoon sun. “My god,” mother whispered again. 

“Are you all right, mom?” 

“Yes,” she answered. “I’m okay.” She let out a big sigh. “Ahhh, but how I do love California,” she said. 

STRANGE RINGING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ve heard a strange ringing all over town since Rumsfeld testified Friday (about the Abu Ghraib prison abuses). It must be the sound of a million bullshit detectors! Somebody call Homeland Security! 

David Spinner 

• 

COMMON SENSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Jennifer Dieges’ suggestion (Letters, Daily Planet, May 7-10) that chemotherapy patients are perfectly capable of bike-riding to and from their treatments will probably reign forever as my favorite illustration of the lunacy of arguing for policy based on an extreme and singular circumstance. 

Be glad for your relative good health, Jennifer. Many other cancer patients are extremely debilitated by their treatments, all of which differ by dose and diagnosis. I am a cancer patient who has no desire to have sick, nauseated people wheeling through dangerous streets. 

Berkeley’s policies need to reflect some honesty, and quickly, before the fashion of anti-car attitudes drives all common sense entirely away. 

Carol Denney 

• 

UC PAY RAISES 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

Appalled by news of annual pay of $380,000 plus housing for a new chancellor of a UC campus and other administrative UC pay raises, I telephoned UC and learned that even its highest-paid teaching professors (in the School of Law and the School of Business) earn less than $300,000! 

Of recent years, UCB, if not other campuses, has had difficulty recruiting teaching staff because of the cost and scarcity of housing! At the very least, when housing is supplied to high-paid non-teaching officials they should be charged market rents for it! 

The State Legislature, which largely funds the university, needs to put a permanent check on the regents’ magnanimity to greedy administrative hirelings, many of whom some Regents can probably list among their business acquaintances! A restrictive formula for non-teaching administrators’ pay is long overdue. It should allow only, at best, a maximum (excluding housing) of say, the median pay of the top-earning 25 percent of the university’s teaching professors. 

Until some such reform is in place UC alumni should withhold gifts to the university. 

Judith Segard Hunt 

• 

OVERPOPULATION 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

In regards to Michael Packer’s letter about overpopulation (Daily Planet, May 4-6) and his query: “To many, it is unclear just why California is inviting so many people here these days.” 

None of us are “inviting” the millions of illegal immigrants who are flooding across our borders every year. And most of us aren’t “inviting” the millions of legal immigrants either; the vast majority of American citizens want to seriously curtail our insane level of mass immigration. 

Who is “inviting” these people? A very small cross-section of the American public: Our politicians (who want to exploit their votes); Big Business (who want an endless source of cheap labor); and the Liberal elite. And it’ll be the very same idiots who spend the next 20 years checking in with their useless “solution” to all the problems they created in the first place. 

The California population is projected to increase from 34 million to 60 million over the next 20 years, almost entirely because of our insane level of Mass Immigration. That’s the equivalent of 30 cities the size of San Francisco popping up in California over the next 20 years. You think we have a homeless problem now? You haven’t seen anything yet. 

Peter Labriola 

• 

FRATERNITY HOUSE 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

Your recent article on the empty frat house (“Shortage of Pledges May Empty Frat House,” Daily Planet, May 4-6), resulting from a shortage of pledges, actually contained within it a very workable solution to the problem, but unfortunately not until you get down to the eleventh paragraph: 

“It seems that some of the boarders are actually bigger partiers that the brothers …We’ve had a few guys come in and puke all over the place…” 

Since college fraternities are, by definition, undemocratic and elitist, the obvious solution would seem to be to get as many students and citizens as possible to go in and puke all over the place, to let them know what we think of “their ways and traditions” that they want to perpetuate among future generations of students. 

Marion Syrek 

• 

CORRECTION 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

An article by Louis Nevaer of Pacific News Service (“Terrorist Mercenaries on U.S. Payroll in Iraq War,” Daily Planet, May 4-6) reports:  

“Erinys has been awarded subcontracts to protect American construction contractors, including San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp. ...” 

In fact Bechtel has not awarded Erinys any subcontracts for our work in Iraq. We hope, in the interest of accuracy, that you will set the record straight in a correction. 

Michael G. Kidder 

Manager of Public Affairs 

Bechtel National, Inc. 

San Francisco 

A friend of mine just put a new bumper sticker on her car. It says “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention!” When I first saw it, I quipped, “Or, if you are outraged, stop paying attention!”  

Kudos to the Daily Planet for emboldening Berkeleyites (for whom my quip is gospel when it comes to local politics) to try something different. I include myself.  

In this case: the Great Berkeley Parking Debate of 2004. 

Consider Charles Siegel’s pair of letters in these pages extolling San Francisco’s Union Square. A great model, Mr. Siegel, opines, for a commercially vibrant downtown Berkeley without any parking. 

Now of course Union Square is built atop a parking garage and there are no fewer than 91 other public parking garages within a quarter mile. Not to worry: zealous hyperbole and fuzzy rhetoric masquerading as idealism are rarely challenged in Berkeley. After all, ours is a community where seven out of nine councilmembers drove to the meeting where they brazenly cast a vote against a housing project because it provides “too much parking” for its residents. But what can you do? 

Well, start with simple honesty. In this case: I challenge you, dear reader of this paper, to take a few moments this weekend and search Berkeley for our most vibrant pedestrian area, a place buzzing with people, a place where you might buy a magazine, linger over a cup of coffee, unexpectedly meet someone you know. Most likely, you will have parked your car, bicycle or legs (all equally for free) on Fourth Street.  

You may note with surprise that unlike most commercial areas in Berkeley, Fourth Street is not overrun by cars. You may find this odd, since it is the only commercial district in Berkeley that accommodates those who drive with abundant free parking. Upon closer inspection, however, you may note that there is no frantic circling the block looking for parking—that frantic circling is confined to the parking lot. Did you drive? Probably. And that is because you live in one of the vast number of Berkeley homes built after 1920, by and for people with cars, in a dispersed pattern that is inconvenient to access any other way.  

Now before we abandon Fourth Street and move on to some “progressive” demagoguery excoriating the potential “Walnut Creek-ification” or “Emeryville-ization” of Berkeley, consider the following. If Berkeley had captured 75 percent of Emeryville’s pre-Ikea, pre East Bay Bridge Center annual sales tax revenue, our current budget deficit would disappear. Now imagine if we could finance nearly half of our general fund with sales tax, as Walnut Creek does. Or imagine how our community might spend the $20 million annual infusion we would net if per capita sales tax revenue matched that of the Bay Area’s other university town, Palo Alto.  

Why stop there? What if we matched the boldness and vision of our sister city in the Southland, Santa Monica? How exactly did Santa Monica transform a derelict shopping district into the most vibrant, pedestrian-packed area south of Sproul Plaza at noon? They went against politically correct wisdom; reopened a street that had been closed to cars; capitalized on mid-block parking garages screened from view; made smart commercial use of the median; clear-cut tired city trees and planted new ones; installed accessible, humorous public art. Net effect: bountiful municipal revenue, and more importantly, a place where people park their car, and leave it parked, discovering the joy that is the heart of a city.  

Could it happen in Berkeley?  

Kevin Powell is a Berkeley resident. ›

As our city struggles with budget shortfalls, one fat sacred cow continues to gorge itself at the public trough. The mayor and the City Council willfully ignore it, tip-toeing around this bloated bovine for fear of awakening a stampede of crushing political correctness. 

This beast consumes over $3 million of public money each year enforcing a program and sustaining a bureaucracy that is counter-productive and unfair. 

I am speaking of the Rent Stabilization Board. 

The money collected from Berkeley citizens to sustain the Rent Board would be better used to augment affordable housing programs and maintain other important social programs currently on the budget chopping block. 

We must not waste public funds on unfair and unneeded programs. 

Rent control is unfair in two fundamental ways. First, because there is no means testing, the benefit of rent control goes to individuals at random. The failure to determine who actually needs this subsidy creates a situation wherein individuals of lesser means may be compelled to give subsidies to individuals of greater means. 

Why not means testing? When this question is put to rent board officials they respond that “means testing is illegal.” How can this be? All levels of government engage in means testing to determine who should receive housing, medical, food and other subsidies. Why is the Rent Board really opposed to means testing?  

Secondly, rent control is unfair because it compels a small portion of our citizens to bear the entire burden of this social subsidy program. It is right and good for society to assist its weaker and needy members. It is wrong for the collective to foist that responsibility onto one small group. If Berkeley wishes to provide a housing subsidy program in addition to existing state and federal programs then all citizens should contribute to such a program, not merely housing providers. Of course, we must make sure such benefits go to those who need them.  

Rent control is not needed. State legislative changes compelled the rent board to loosen its grip on the housing stock. This partial deregulation allowed market forces to be activated resulting in new housing and thus a decrease in demand. The open market worked—rents declined and vacancies increased. Rent does not need to be “stabilized.” Rent control degraded our housing and caused a decline in the number of units. Rent control contributed to the housing shortage in the first place. It is counter productive and archaic. 

Why not use the Rent Board’s budget to build more affordable housing and /or as rent subsidies earmarked for those who are truly needy. As it stands now, every member of the rent board receives the benefit of rent control. Each of them enjoys housing subsidies with no way to determine if they need such subsidies. Perhaps this is why the Rent Board dismisses means testing so quickly! 

It is ironic that Berkeley, a city usually dedicated to fairness and thoughtfulness has maintained such an unfair and counter productive program for so long. We can no longer tolerate this voracious sacred cow, it is time to take it to the chopping block.  

John Koenigshofer is a Berkeley resident.

I am writing in response to the recent letter to the editor in your newspaper (Daily Planet, May 4-6) entitled “Warsaw Ghetto” by Jane Stillwater. I would like to commend her on her particularly clear-sighted comparison between the situation of the Palestinians in Gaza and the state of the Jews in Warsaw prior to the Second World War. She is scathingly accurate in writing that the “independent” Gaza that Ariel Sharon would create would be “an exact re-creation of the spirit and mood of the ghetto at Warsaw—no more, no less,” and that “being an Arab these days is chillingly similar to being a Jew in 1939,” with “the only difference” that she can see being the source of the financing of such genocide.  

Her insightful comparison sheds much-needed light on the frightening similarity between the two situations, which in my mind is much more apt and valid than the comparisons that are carelessly being tossed back and forth these days between Iraq and Vietnam. First and foremost, it is truly a wonder that the mainstream media has not devoted more attention to the secret camps and factories in the Negev where the Israelis have slowly but persistently been transporting trainloads of Palestinian families innocent of any crime to burn in ovens as part of a genocidal Israeli policy that is strikingly similar to the German “Final Solution.” This is probably the single greatest similarity between Warsaw and Gaza. From independent sources, I would estimate that over two million Palestinians have already been systematically disposed of in this manner, although you would not read it in any newspaper. (A particularly touching story is that of the teenager from Gaza who was strapped with explosives and sent to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel. If you look at the accounts of the incident in the mainstream Zionist media, you are led to believe that the life of this young teenager was spared by the Israelis through the removal of an explosive device that had been so skillfully placed around his body by his fellow Palestinians. What the news media does not tell you, however, is that once the news cameras had finished taking their last shots, the unfortunate young boy was immediately led out by the Israeli authorities to be incinerated in an Israeli oven that would have made the Nazis proud.) Although the number of murdered Palestinians may at this particular moment be considerably less than that of the Jews who were killed in a similar manner in Europe in the past, I would not personally be surprised if it were to reach six million in the next couple of years, especially if people like Ms. Stillwater do not take the humanitarian attitude that “no one spoke out to protect the Jews in 1939… but dag nab it, I’m not going to let that happen again.” As for the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, with few exceptions, they either met their deaths in the incinerators of German concentration camps or were murdered by German soldiers after the staging of a desperate uprising. Clearly, I think there are few people who could seriously deny that without a concerted effort, it can only be a matter of years—or perhaps even months—before the entire population of Gaza is similarly decimated by the Israelis. 

Expanding further upon the comparison between the Jews in Warsaw and the Palestinians in Gaza, a second major similarity can be seen in the reasons why the Jews were initially placed in a closed-up ghetto behind “watch towers, machine guns, and barbed wire” in the first place. If you are familiar with the history of Germany prior to World War II, you will remember that the Jews were actively devoted to the creation of an exclusively “Jewish” state in Germany, in which all Germans would be “driven into the sea.” An examination of textbooks taught in Jewish schools in Germany in the early 20th century reveals maps of Europe in which the entire territory of Germany is labeled as “Greater Israel.” Whereas the Germans grudgingly tolerated the Jews’ right to freedom of expression, they were understandingly infuriated by the fact that in pursuit of Zionist aspirations, the Jews continually blew up innocent women and children in German malls, cafes, discotheques, and buses. However, despite their well-grounded concerns for security, this of course in no way justifies the over-reaction by the German government, which evilly forced Jews into ghettoes and herded them off for mass slaughter by the millions.  

In conclusion, I wholeheartedly agree with Ms. Stillwater that the comparison between Gaza and Warsaw is “just too ripe” to resist. I could not imagine why anyone might possibly think that such a level-headed comparison could reflect anti-Semitism on the part of its author.  

Peter Koret is a Berkeley resident. This article is intended as satire and is not to be taken literally.  

She steps out onto the platform, looking about 16—rail thin and pale—flashes a shy smile, and sits down at the piano. Her long, straight red hair cascades over her shoulders as she focuses, placing her hands on the keys, then begins some hesitant modal runs that become buoyant, lively evocations of Irish dance, then—CRASH!—her right forearm smashes down across the treble keys—CRASH!—her left forearm across the bass, right, left, right, relentlessly, and all illusions of timidity and frailty explode into bursts of joy. 

Despite her teenage appearance, Sarah Cahill freely admits to her birth year, 1960. She came to Berkeley at five when her father was invited to teach Chinese Art at UC. Both her father and her mother (who still lives in Berkeley) played piano. “In the evening, my father would put a stack of old 78s on the record player, and we would sit there listening to his collection of great old composers, sometimes playing or conducting their own work. That was my musical education.” 

At seven Sarah began piano lessons. She credits Sharon Mann (still teaching and performing) as a central inspiration. “I attended a new elementary school every year in Berkeley, private and public, because my parents couldn’t decide which school was best for me.” (Anyone raising children in Berkeley during the educationally-experimental ‘60s and ‘70s can identify with them.) “I graduated a year early from Berkeley High in 1977,” and, after a chamber music festival in Switzerland, went briefly to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. “When I got to be 18, suddenly poetry seemed so much more interesting than playing the piano. I did an English major at the University of Michigan, won the poetry prize in the Hopwood contest there, got published. Poetry is still one of my passions.” 

She was soon focused on music again, but never stopped writing (her journalism career began at 17, when she worked as a stringer for the old Berkeley Gazette). From 1985 to 1998, she was the classical music critic for the East Bay Express. “Robert Hurwitt edited my pieces, tearing them apart, sentence by sentence. I’m still amazed and grateful at the amount of time he put into them. Sometimes I felt devastated, yet encouraged by his attention.” She continues to write reviews, program notes for concerts, liner notes, and articles for magazines, ranging from specialized art and music publications to the (NY) Village Voice Literary Supplement. 

In 1989 Charles Amirkhanian, then Music Director at KPFA (now directing the new music organization Other Minds, among other artistic activities in the Bay Area) asked Sarah to do a two-hour classical music program on KPFA. For the next 11 years, she introduced her many faithful listeners to new and old music. Currently you can hear her music program “Then and Now,” every Sunday from 8 to 10 p.m. on KALW 91.7 FM. 

That was an important year in other ways for Sarah. It was the year she met her husband-to-be, John Sanborn, a video artist. And it was the year she decided to concentrate most of her energies on new music. Why? “Because it’s part of our living culture, and is so much broader, more open than it was almost up until I was born. Yes, there were African and Asian influences on western “classical” music, but, up until the mid-1900s, the recognized composers, the ones who got performed, were mostly white males. Now I get to play music by women, by composers of all cultures and countries, and especially California composers, whose sensibility draws less on European sources. I get to work with living composers on their music. Sometimes I see it happening. One time I was practicing with Chen Yi, and she stopped to write some changes on the score! Miranda is going to grow up thinking of composers as people we run into at the Berkeley Bowl!” 

Miranda is Sarah and John’s daughter, born in 1998. “I was scheduled to do my KPFA program the day I gave birth. Charles Amirkhanian took over for me that day and did a whole program of music just for Miranda, and interviewed me about the birth experience from my Alta Bates Hospital bed.” 

Sarah has made her mark as a performer introducing audiences—east and west—to composers like Henry Cowell (of the elbow-smashing chord clusters), Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, John Adams, Chen Yi, Leo Ornstein, Paul Dresher, and Ruth Crawford Seeger. Her performances of Ravel, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Johanna Beyer and Henry Cowell are available on New Albion CDs.  

Her performing career took off nationally in 1995 when she was part of the east coast “Ladyfingers” tour, “partly, I think, because I played new music. I mean, would those reviewers have paid attention if I was just another pianist playing Beethoven?” In 2001, when John took a job with Comedy Central (the cable TV station), they lived for a year in New York. “I performed at Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Brooklyn College, once took the train to Washington D.C. to play at the Phillips Collection.” She shakes her head. “I was miserable. I missed the West Coast music community.” John’s New York job ended abruptly after 9/11, and Sarah is “so glad to be based in Berkeley again! Aren’t we lucky to live in the Bay Area?” 

Her career as a producer is just as active and distinguished as her work as performer. I first spoke with Sarah about 1990 at Bay Area Pianists, a series she organized and ran for four years, “buying the cookies, getting the piano tuned, the whole thing,” a showcase for excellent local performers I’d never heard of. She has organized music festivals in conjunction with Cal Performances, including a Henry Cowell festival (1997). She was a curator at last summer’s inaugural “Edge Fest,” another collaboration with Cal Performances. Every summer she produces the Garden of Memory Summer Solstice Concert, presented by New Music Bay Area at Chapel of the Chimes (yes, at the cemetery on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland). If you’ve never attended this multi-performer concert in this unusual and lovely venue, try it this year—Monday, June 21, 5 to 8 p.m. In June she also goes to Japan for a new music festival, and in October to Rome. In the fall she wants to produce a music series for children at All Soul’s Church (Cedar and Spruce) “to introduce kids, ages 5 to 10, to classical music. You know, Miranda never gets to hear Mozart or Bach unless I put on a CD for her. Concerts always start at 8 p.m., too late for her. So I want to perform classical piano works, talk about structure and form, bring in someone to improvise, make it fun for the kids.” 

And she has another composer to explore, working toward a festival of his music in New York, in 2005-2006. “Ever hear of Dane Rudhyar?” Astrologer? Californian? She nods. “He also wrote poetry, terrible poetry.” She laughs, then becomes serious. “And painted. And composed music. I’m fascinated by an eccentric like Rudhyar, who used the arts in trying to reach and explore altered states. Lately I’ve been reading Coleridge, and how wild he got on opium, how he channeled that part of himself that scares most of us, that’s buried deep within us, and comes out in dreams or in art. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to play music that can put us in that heightened state.”  

›

TUESDAY, MAY 11 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Douglas Unger reads from his new collection of short stories “Looking for War” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Michael Eric Dyson introduces “Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Oliver Chin, author and artist of graphic novel, “A Window to the World,” a story of a diverse group of Bay Area teenagers struggling with the aftershocks of 9/11, at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512.  

James Lilley introduces “China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage and Diplomacy” at 1:30 p.m. at the Women’s Faculty Club, UC Campus. Part of the New Perspectives on Asia Series. 549-2668. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

Ursula Schultz and Cathy Goldberg of Berkeley’s Cheese Board Collective take us on “A Tour of Old and New World Cheeses” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

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

www.thejazzhouse.com 

Sauce Piquante at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, with a Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mingus Amungus, 10 year anniversary party at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 12 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Con le Nostre Mani” photographs of Italian Americans at work in the East Bay opens at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6233. 

Rogen Ballen “Photographs” opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant. 642-1295. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Carl Pope on “Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Bill Caldwell discusses “Oakland: A Photographic Journey” at 7 p.m. at L’Amyx Tea Bar/Spectator Bookstore, 4179 Piedmont Ave. 653-7300. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with Charles Ellik at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Acis and Galatea” under the direction of George Thomson at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Jordi Savall, viola da gamba virtuoso, at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

West Coast Swing Dancing with the NC Blues Connection at 9 p.m. with a swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Hawaiian Music’s Next Generation with Keoki Kahumoku, David Kamakahi, Herb Ohta, Jr., and Patrick Landeza at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50. 548-1761. www.freight- 

andsalvage.org 

Brasil Brazil at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $20 in advance, $22 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ducksan Distones explore the creative concept of dissonance in music at 8 and 10 p.m. at The Jazz House. $5 donation. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Roy Hargrove Quintet at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

The Drouges, The Slandt, Cargo at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Jules Broussard at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Phil Thompson Group at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, MAY 13 

FILM 

Gallery Video Program: “The Grid of One” introduced by PFA Video Curator Steve Seid at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dennis S. Charney, M.D. offers “The Peace of Mind Prescription: An Authoritative Guide to Finding the Most Effective Treatment for Anxiety and Depression” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Arthur Balustein introduces “Make a Difference: America’s Guide to Volunteering and Community Service” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

Kala Gallery Salon Series with Paz de la Calzada, a multi-disciplinary artist from Spain, at 7:30 p.m. at 1060 Heinz. 549-2977 www.kala.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

David Jacobs-Strain and Mokai, acoustic/folk for all ages at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Jefe Salsa, Berkeley’s newest salsa band, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $6-$8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Bryan Bowers, autoharp hall-of-famer, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Keni El Lebrijano, flamenco guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

FRIDAY, MAY 14 

CHILDREN 

Pool Party Time with storyteller Ms. Malanie at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Landscapes and Portraits” by Joanna Katz. Reception from 5 to 7 p.m. at Gallery 940, 940 Dwight Way. Exhibition runs to May 28.  

“Flora and Fauna” and “Garden of Peace” reception for the artists at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. from 6 to 8 p.m. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

“Hovering: New Works” by Seiko Tachibana and Emily Payne. Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at Cecile Moochnek Gallery. 1809-D Fourth Street (upstairs). Exhibition runs through June 28. 549-1018 www.cecilemoochnek.com 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “The Sisters Rosensweig,” a comedy by Wendy Wasserstein, at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck, 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 

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

“Casino!” a musical comedy by Joyce Whitelaw at 8 p.m at The Glenview Performing Arts Center, 1318 Glenfield Ave., Oakland. Also May 16 at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $20. 531-0511. www.glenviewpac.com 

Impact Theatre “Money and Run” an action serial adventure with different episodes on Thurs., Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Runs through June 5 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. For tickets and information call 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

New Shakespeare Company “Hamlet” at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, Through June 5.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Kent Haruf reads from his new novel “Eventide” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Acis and Galatea” under the musical direction of George Thomson at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Oakland Opera Theater “Akhnaten” by Philip Glass at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Tickets are $15-$27. Also Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun at 2 p.m. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Hespérion XXI, Jordi Savall, director and viola da gamba, at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Bay Area Classical Harmonies “Spring Fever!” at 7:30 P.M. at the Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave. in Kensington. Tickets are $8-$12 available online at www.BerkeleyBACH.org or by calling toll free 866-233-9892.  

Chuck Prophet & the Mission Express and Farma at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $12. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Palenque, Cuban son, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, with a salsa dance lesson with Wendy Ellen at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Monkey, Soul Captives, Pinche Hueros at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6.  

848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Sandy Chang and Alex Pfei- 

fer-Rosenblum at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Donation of $7-$10. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Robert Karimi’s Self (the Remix) The story of a suburban boy and his quest for wholeness at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Mike Seeger, music from “true vine” at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Frank Jackson at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Roy Hargrove Quintet at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

S.T.F.U., Scurvy Dogs, Fatbush, Eskapo, Collateral Damage at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Bitches Brew at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

SATURDAY, MAY 15 

CHILDREN  

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

Kids on the Block Puppet Show, promoting acceptance and understanding of physical and cultural differences at 2 p.m. at the Hall of Health, 2230 Shattuck Ave. Donation $3. Children under 3 free. 549-1564. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

FinnArt: Art by Finns/Art Inspired by Finland Visual arts exhibition by more than a dozen artists, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Includes an Art Cafe, childrens art show, Finnish art history lectures. At the Finnish Kaleva Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. 849-0125.  

Photography by May-Li Khoe, Jonathan Andrew and Natalie Douvos. Reception from 7-9 p.m. 1250 Addison St., suite 102. 883-1126. www.innersport.com  

“High Altitude Pots” by Doug Casebeer. Reception from 5 to 7 p.m. at TRAX Ceramic Gallery, 1812 5th St. 540-8729. www.traxgallery.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“19th Century Finnish Art” with art historian Anu Vaalas at 2 p.m. and art historian Dorothy Klepper McCall at 3:30 p.m. at the Ski Club Room, Finnish Kaleva Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. Free. 849-0125. 

“What’s in a Name? New Ways of Looking at ‘Craft’” A panel discussion about the viability of craft in the art world at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Rhythm & Muse features Jaliya, with Ademola Oshun, Big Momma, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893.  

Ariel Gore and her daughter, Maia Gore, introduces “Whatever Mom: Hip Mama’s Guide to Raising a Teenager” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sacred and Profane “In an English Garden” chamber chorus at 7 p.m. at St. Ambrose Church, 1145 Gilman. Tickets are $12-$17. Advance purchase recommended. 524-3611. 

Paufve Dance “Bare Bones” dance performance featuring new choreography by Randee Paufve and others at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2547 Eighth St. Tickets are $12-$15. 415-722-2457. 

Trinity Chamber Concerts with Daniel Reiter, cello and Natalie Cox, harp at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana at Durant. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. 

West Coast Live with Bert Stratton, Mark Hansen and Austin Willard and others at 10 a.m. at the Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15 in advance, $18 at the door, available from 415-664-9500 or www.ticketweb.com 

June Kuramoto, kotoist, with Kimo Cornwell, keyboardist and Kenny Endo, taiko, perform in a fundraiser for West Contra Costa School District’s music programs, at 7 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $20-$35. 841-1356. 

Mumbo Gumbo at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Gabrilla Ballard, New Orleans vocalist, at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

Penelope Houston Band, Moore Brothers, and Mike Visser at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Robin Flower and Libby McLaren, progressive folk fusion, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Oakland Jazz Choir at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Henri-Pierre Koubaka, Senegalese folk songs, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $8-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz Project at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

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

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

Shakedown, Dead Beat at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Edmund Welles: The Brass Clarinet Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Kellye Gray at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Punk Prom with The Groovie Ghoulies, R’N’R Adventure Kids, Clarendon Hills, at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, MAY 16 

CHILDREN  

Family Explorations: “Rosie the Riveter” Learn about the non-traditional roles women played during WWII. From noon to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

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

FILM 

“The Substance of Fire” Manhattan publishing magnate Isaac Godlhart descends into madness. At 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Suggested donation $2. 848-0237. www.brjcc.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Brad Herzog describes his road trip across the US after Sept. 11, 2001 in “Small World: A Microcosmic Journey” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poetry Flash with Erika Meitner and Sean Thomas Dougherty at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Christopher Brown and Joel Isaacson, in a conversation about painting at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave.. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jazz on Fourth Street with the Berkeley High Jazz Orchestra and Combos, Mark Hummel & The Blues Survivors, and Quimbombó, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Fourth St. between Hearst and Virginia. 526-6294. 

Paufve Dance “Bare Bones” dance performance featuring new choreography by Randee Paufve and others at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2547 Eighth St. Tickets are $12-$15. 415-722-2457. 

Berkeley Opera “Acis and Galatea” under the direction of George Thomson at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Organ Recital with Sandra Soderlund at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Reception follows. 845-6830. 

Cantare Chorale and Chamber Ensemble “Make Our Garden Grow” a concert of love, loss and spring fever, at 3 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 27th St. and Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $19-$25. 925-798-1300. www.CantareConVivo.org 

VOCI presents “Songlines” music from Central and Eastern Europe at 4 p.m. at Temple Sinai, 2823 Webster at 28th St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$20. 531-8714. www.coolcommunity.org/voci 

Young Musicians Program Senior Recital at 3 p.m. at First Congregational Church at Dana and Durant. http://ymp.berkeley.edu 

Flamenco Open Stage with Koko de la Isla at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Americana Unplugged: The Dark Hollow Band at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Loudon Wainwright, III, leading edge singer-songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50 in advance, $23.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Oakland Jazz Choir at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

›

I never thought I’d find myself writing in defense of eucalyptus, but here I am. Go ahead, quote me: Eucalyptus is not the devil. 

I speak as a hardcore native-plant fanatic—no, actually more of a native-landscape fanatic. I love native California plants for themselves alone, and certain calochortuses make me whoop and swoon, but I love them also because they’re part of the splendid world we live in here, nested in the varied food webs that supply and are supplied by all of the creatures here, from mycorrhizal fungi to mountain lions, and including, for scores of millennia, us. They make the air I breathe and filter the water I drink and they feed and inspire me; after some 30 years here, I am composed mostly of California landscape, however much of that nice imported cider and ham and smoked paprika from The Spanish Table I consume. 

I myself am not alien here in any meaningful sense. My species has long been here and shaped this landscape, brutally at times, but sometimes with such finesse and elegance that latecomers have assumed that the land was “wild” and “untouched.” One of the most brutal things we’ve done, in recent eras anyway, was the introduction of alien plants to this landscape. Eucalypts? Yes, but only among others, as a sideshow. Some of us brought in annual grasses, by accident or deliberately, and changed the very color (and flammability) of our state. It’s possible that tamarisk, with its invasive thirst, will turn out to be our worst ecological terror, west of the kudzu belt. 

But eucalypts, some dozens of species of trees imported from Australia and its neighbors, are to some the very emblem of invasive species. They’re not amiss in this calculation, but some eucs are worse than others, and few are bad for the reasons usually mentioned. 

When people here talk about eucalyptus, they usually mean Eucalyptus globulus, blue gum. It’s a bother, all right, and a conspicuous one. For one thing, it’s been planted in wildlands, whereas most other eucs are town-dwelling ornamentals. In wildlands it, like most exotics, is essentially a non-taxpaying parasite. Eucs look “healthier” here than in their home ranges because until recently there wasn’t much here that ate them. They turn a place into a near-monoculture, allowing few species to live under them and supporting even fewer. You’ll get 12 species where there should be 120. 

And they seem to be a trap to some—the estimable Rich Stallcup of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory has pointed out an apparent tendency of warblers to smother on euc goop when they feed on the sweet flowers. Aussie birds that use eucs are built differently, with their nostrils set farther up their bills to avoid the sticky stuff; probably they’ve been shaped by the trees themselves, as we all shape each other. 

So yes, they gotta go. Not because they get big or have shallow roots or drop limbs or get blown over or lift sidewalks or invade waterlines—all this happens with big trees regardless of their species. Not even because they’re flammable—native pines and bay laurels are too, and a crown fire sends torches flying no matter what’s burning. 

But eucs in wildlands, including parks, aren’t pulling their biological weight, not supporting their neighbors, and as we have less wildland this becomes more dire. So we need to remove them and replace them with native trees, or with no trees where they don’t belong. But we have to do it slowly and thoughtfully, a few at a time, because wholesale clearcutting sets loose its own demons, like landslides and sunscorch. And some local species get some value out of eucs—monarch butterflies seem to favor them, for example, and some raptors have longstanding nests in certain eucs. In some situations, if you’re a desperate bird or salamander, any tree is better than no tree. We need to remove them slowly, carefully, thoughtfully—and first we need to find out why they’re useful to anyone like those monarchs, and figure out how to supply that use. Reflexive reaction and wholesale slaughter will only compound the problems we’ve made in our clumsiness.

I never thought I’d find myself writing in defense of eucalyptus, but here I am. Go ahead, quote me: Eucalyptus is not the devil. 

I speak as a hardcore native-plant fanatic—no, actually more of a native-landscape fanatic. I love native California plants for themselves alone, and certain calochortuses make me whoop and swoon, but I love them also because they’re part of the splendid world we live in here, nested in the varied food webs that supply and are supplied by all of the creatures here, from mycorrhizal fungi to mountain lions, and including, for scores of millennia, us. They make the air I breathe and filter the water I drink and they feed and inspire me; after some 30 years here, I am composed mostly of California landscape, however much of that nice imported cider and ham and smoked paprika from The Spanish Table I consume. 

I myself am not alien here in any meaningful sense. My species has long been here and shaped this landscape, brutally at times, but sometimes with such finesse and elegance that latecomers have assumed that the land was “wild” and “untouched.” One of the most brutal things we’ve done, in recent eras anyway, was the introduction of alien plants to this landscape. Eucalypts? Yes, but only among others, as a sideshow. Some of us brought in annual grasses, by accident or deliberately, and changed the very color (and flammability) of our state. It’s possible that tamarisk, with its invasive thirst, will turn out to be our worst ecological terror, west of the kudzu belt. 

But eucalypts, some dozens of species of trees imported from Australia and its neighbors, are to some the very emblem of invasive species. They’re not amiss in this calculation, but some eucs are worse than others, and few are bad for the reasons usually mentioned. 

When people here talk about eucalyptus, they usually mean Eucalyptus globulus, blue gum. It’s a bother, all right, and a conspicuous one. For one thing, it’s been planted in wildlands, whereas most other eucs are town-dwelling ornamentals. In wildlands it, like most exotics, is essentially a non-taxpaying parasite. Eucs look “healthier” here than in their home ranges because until recently there wasn’t much here that ate them. They turn a place into a near-monoculture, allowing few species to live under them and supporting even fewer. You’ll get 12 species where there should be 120. 

And they seem to be a trap to some—the estimable Rich Stallcup of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory has pointed out an apparent tendency of warblers to smother on euc goop when they feed on the sweet flowers. Aussie birds that use eucs are built differently, with their nostrils set farther up their bills to avoid the sticky stuff; probably they’ve been shaped by the trees themselves, as we all shape each other. 

So yes, they gotta go. Not because they get big or have shallow roots or drop limbs or get blown over or lift sidewalks or invade waterlines—all this happens with big trees regardless of their species. Not even because they’re flammable—native pines and bay laurels are too, and a crown fire sends torches flying no matter what’s burning. 

But eucs in wildlands, including parks, aren’t pulling their biological weight, not supporting their neighbors, and as we have less wildland this becomes more dire. So we need to remove them and replace them with native trees, or with no trees where they don’t belong. But we have to do it slowly and thoughtfully, a few at a time, because wholesale clearcutting sets loose its own demons, like landslides and sunscorch. And some local species get some value out of eucs—monarch butterflies seem to favor them, for example, and some raptors have longstanding nests in certain eucs. In some situations, if you’re a desperate bird or salamander, any tree is better than no tree. We need to remove them slowly, carefully, thoughtfully—and first we need to find out why they’re useful to anyone like those monarchs, and figure out how to supply that use. Reflexive reaction and wholesale slaughter will only compound the problems we’ve made in our clumsiness.

Cartoon by Justin DeFreitas*

With Berkeley’s biggest neighbor planning to add over two million square feet of girth in the coming 15 years, residents gathered Wednesday to tell UC Berkeley to slow down before it gobbles the town whole.  

“This plan is a death knell to the historic ambiance of the Berkeley community,” said Clifford Fred, one of more than a dozen residents to speak at the first of two scoping sessions on the university’s Draft Environmental Impact Report to its Long Range Development Plan (LRDP).  

And when a university spokesperson pledged that the university “will pay our fair share” when it comes to mitigating impacts caused by the plan, a woman in the audience called out, “No you won’t,” accompanied by a chorus of jeers from fellow residents. 

The proposed development plan, released last month, guides future university development both on the central campus and on city streets through 2020. It projects 2,600 new dormitory beds, 2,300 new parking spaces, 2.2 million square feet of new administrative space, and nearly 5,000 more people traveling to campus daily. 

While the goals are ambitious—the plan calls for roughly three times more development than its predecessor adopted in 1990—UC Berkeley Project Manager Kerry O’Banion said both that the new space is needed and that the university is committed taking the city’s concerns seriously. 

UC Berkeley often catches flak among city residents because, as a state entity, it pays no property taxes, offers the city little compensation for municipal services such as sewers and public safety, and is exempt from city zoning rules for its directly education-related activities. 

O’Banion assured residents that more than three-quarters of the proposed new space in the LRDP would be built on the main campus and adjoining city streets. He said the campus is already short some 450,000 square feet of research space after several consecutive years of state mandated enrollment growth.  

O’Banion also assured residents at the scoping session that for developments planned on city streets, the university would seek harmony with city planning mandates. Unlike UC’s last EIR adopted in 1990, O’Banion said, the new plan begins each chapter with an analysis of Berkeley’s General Plan, which guides Berkeley city development. In addition, the university’s LRDP commits development south of the main campus to conform to the city’s Draft Southside Plan.  

“We do take local plans seriously,” O’Banion explained. 

Residents in attendance were nearly unanimously critical of the university and were especially concerned about what anticipated UC growth would mean for Berkeley’s already congested streets. 

“Twenty-three hundred new spaces could put people back in their cars,” warned Nora Foster, who works at a UC Library. 

Steve Geller urged the university to use its resources to find a better way to mitigate traffic problems than merely putting a series of new traffic lights at affected intersections. 

“Seems like you folks should be able to figure it out,” Geller said. “They did it at the University of Washington and Stanford.” Those schools offer a subsidized transit pass, which UC Berkeley is considering establishing. Parking for UC staff ranges from $78 to $108 per month, while an AC transit 31-day pass costs $60. 

But O’Banion countered that new parking is needed, especially after the university failed to approach its parking goals in the 1990 plan. Though that plan called for 1,000 new spaces, the university has actually lost 300 spaces since 1990, he said. About 50 percent of UC Berkeley staff and 10 percent of students drive to campus, according to O’Banion. 

Another area where the university has fallen short of its 1990 goals is housing. UC is already building about 1,000 new beds of housing south of campus and the plan pledges to guarantee housing for sophomores, new faculty, transfer students and first-year graduate students.  

But one plan to build 100 units of faculty housing on Summit Road faced organized opposition Wednesday. “The proposal will do great harm to our neighborhood,” said David Nasatir, who echoed other neighbors’ concerns that the project would create noise and traffic problems. 

Former City Council candidate Anne Wagley chastised the university for leaving Berkeley taxpayers to pay for city services that go to the university.  

“Every new sink and toilet UC builds burdens the city’s sewer system and property tax payers in Berkeley subsidize this,” said Wagley, who is an employee of the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

Residents will get a second opportunity to comment on the plan May 11 at the Krutch Theater on the Clark Kerr Campus. The university must respond to all comments in the final EIR, which is scheduled to go for final approval before the Board of Regents in the fall. 

Berkeley Assistant City Manager Arrietta Chakos announced that the city would hold its own public hearing on the university’s development at the May 19 meeting of the Planning Commission. She said the city currently had a 10-person team reviewing the plan and that the City Council will consider it at a May 25 work session and at its June 8 meeting. 

›

After 31 years as one of the nation’s most prestigious centers for foreigners to come and learn the English language, class was officially dismissed at Berkeley’s English Language Program (ELP) Thursday.  

But as the professors marched out of their last classes and through the campus to vent their rage at UC administrators at a tearful mock funeral, they insisted their fight to save the program—or at least to force a severance package out of the university—isn’t over yet. 

“We can’t let them get away with not taking care of us,” said Suzan Tiemroth-Zavala, one of five teachers who stands to lose lifetime health benefits when the program officially closes next week. 

Last January, UC Berkeley Extension announced that the ELP, which regularly attracted 2,000 elite students every year from across the globe, would shut its doors this month. The rationale wasn’t financial or programmatic, said UC Berkeley Extension Dean Jim Sherwood, who made the call to terminate the program. Rather it was a question of appropriateness.  

According to a strategic plan completed last year, Sherwood said, English as Second Language has proliferated throughout the Bay Area and is no longer a good fit for the Berkeley campus. He explained that the program lost about $400,000 last year—a fraction of the Extension program’s deficit. 

When the ax fell, the 26 instructors found themselves with few rights. Although most of them had taught full-time with the program for over a decade on one-year contracts, they were not unionized, not classified as faculty, and were not entitled to a severance package. 

For the five teachers under the age of 50, the blow was particularly hard and the stakes exceptionally high. A UC policy offers 100 percent life-time medical benefits to employees with more than ten years of experience that retire at age 50 or older. Workers who started after 1990 are entitled to only 50 percent. 

At age 48, and with 16 years as an ELP teacher, Tiermroth-Zavala was two years away from guaranteed lifetime health care. Now, come July when her contact expires, she is looking at $1,000 COBRA premiums for her and her family, and an eventual loss of health insurance when those COBRA benefits run out. 

“It’s outrageous,” she complained. “Just because of our age, we lose everything.” 

Tiermroth-Zavala and the other teachers have 120 days to find another job at UC, but as non-union worker, they have no preferential rehire rights will be placed behind a waiting list of 200 prospective union candidates. 

The teachers are asking for a year’s severance from the day they were notified of the program’s demise—the same right negotiated by the university’s lecturers, said Michelle Squitieri, a Field Representative for University Council-American Federation of Teachers. That organization is offering guidance to the ELP instructors.  

Squitieri said Dean Sherwood sacked the program because the teachers had already filed unfair labor grievances against UC for past layoff practices and that the Dean failed to follow proper procedures, which, she said, required him to consult the Academic Senate’s Committee on University Extension before canning the ELP. 

For his part, Dean Sherwood maintained that although he didn’t discuss the ELP program specifically with the committee, he did go over the strategic plan’s criteria for “appropriateness” last fall before he closed the program. 

“I honestly believe I sought advice from the committee and I feel I followed the process that was outlined,” he said. As far as the severance, he said his hands were tied by a UC system-wide policy.  

Debra Harrington, UC Berkeley’s manager of labor relations, did not return phone calls to the Daily Planet. 

On Monday, UC Berkeley’s Divisional Academic Senate is scheduled to review a report on the decision to close the program. While he cautioned that he hadn’t yet seen the report, prepared by the Academic Senate’s Extension Committee, Senate Chairman Ron Gronsky said, “I don’t think we’re going to see that there was faculty consultation. The dean should have gone to the committee and said we need your advice. That’s what should have happened.” 

Even if the Academic Senate finds Dean Sherwood didn’t follow proper procedures, Gronsky said it acts solely in an advisory capacity for the Extension program, and he didn’t think its decision could compel the university to reinstate the program or compensate the teachers. 

“I told [them] the legal route is [their] best hope,” he said. 

In that vein, ELP teacher Cliff Stevens filed a grievance with the university last month, asking for the program to be reinstated. In the alternative, Stevens is asking for the teachers to receive a severance package. The case is currently before James Hunt, a professor of civil engineering. 

Additionally, Margot Rosenberg, the attorney for UC lecturers, has amended the ELP teachers’ complaint before the Public Employee Relations Board to include the charge that UC Extension axed the program as retaliation for ongoing complaints filed by the teachers. 

The amended complaint seeks to keep the program alive, but Rosenberg hopes that if it fell short of that goal it could at least bring monetary relief. “In lieu of that, we’re seeking to make the teachers whole for their loses,” she said. 

Most teachers said they were left with an empty feeling on their last day of classes. 

“It’s like being found guilty in court when you know you’re innocent,” said David Winet, who has taught at the program since 1975.  

“I’ve never worked anywhere that had a faculty community feeling like this place,” said Kathleen Letellier, a teacher at the school since 1991. “It’s awful to walk into a teacher’s room and see people crying.” 

Then turning to Tiermroth-Zavala, her eyes welled up. “This is what I’ve been in denial about all this year, that I’m not going to see you every morning,” Letellier said. 



The Florida version of the 2000 presidential election proved that punch cards are problematic. California’s adventures with touchscreen voting machines—including what amounts to a blanket decertification by the California secretary of state—demonstrated that this form of tally has some problems as well. Paper balloting seems a relic of the distant past. With the November general elections quickly approaching, many are wondering how they can ensure that their votes actually are counted. 

Daniel Silverstein, a freelance computer consultant and recent Cal graduate, says he has a solution. When he looks at paper ballots and touchscreen machines he sees where they are flawed, but also looks at their advantages. Instead of looking to one or the other to ensure the vote, he says, we should be looking at both. 

By both Silverstein doesn’t just mean a voter verified paper trail, where a touchscreen machine prints out a paper receipt. Instead, he thinks both the paper and electronic components should be used in conjunction, balancing each other out and aiding each other in facilitating the vote. 

“Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong,” he said, explaining the need for redundancy and verification. “Expect machines to fail.” 

Silverstein has put his ideas on paper and is currently trying to get his academic essay—“Improving the Security of Your Election by Fixing It,” co-written with two other students, Tobin Fricke and Damon McCormick—published in a peer-reviewed journal. The paper is currently being reviewed by Rebecca Mercuri, a computer science professor and one of the leading experts in the field.  

Silverstein said he does not have plans to patent any voting machine product that might result from the publication of the paper, but is more interested in adding his ideas to the debate over the issue. 

The goal of the proposed new system, Silverstein said, is to “leverage both computers and paper ballots to create a hybrid voting system which is more secure, auditable, and fault tolerant than either paper ballots or electronic voting alone. 

What Silverstein proposes is one step further than the one recently demanded by Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. Instead an electronic system with a voter-verified paper audit trail that merely checks the electronic vote, Silverstein envisions using electronic signatures that are attached to both paper and electronic votes so that both systems can double check each other.  

Silverstein said he originally came up with the idea after monitoring the touchscreen controversy and then participating in the recent UC Berkeley ASUC elections. The experience, he said, gave him and others the perfect opportunity to analyze an electronic voting system without the restrictions they might have faced in a regular municipal election. 

As part of his proposal, Silverstein has broken the voting system into three categories; recording, storage and tabulation. In all three, both paper voting and electronic voting have their disadvantages. Combined, however, the two systems balance each other out. 

In the recording phase, he calls punch card or scanned ballots “barely adequate.” Along with hanging chads, he says things like incomplete pencil marks and partially erased bubbles can tie up such systems. Electronic voting machines, on the other hand, are much easier to use. Large type and clear interfaces help ensure that voters record the vote they intended to make. Most importantly, voters can initially verify how the machine reads what you tell it on screen. 

In the next phase the two systems switch. Storing paper ballots is “fairly clear cut.” Since they are paper, we can rest assured they won’t change themselves. One of the only vulnerabilities is ballot box stuffing, a problem that Silverstein said is fairly well-guarded against. 

Once a vote is cast on a computer, however, Silverstein said even the most comprehensive checks sometimes can’t ensure the machine won’t make a switch. 

“There is no way to know the insides of a computer,” he said. Even if the machine’s software code is open, its hardware and software have been tested and certified, there is no way to know that every time a vote is cast, the machine will do what is it told. 

Storage on computers is also a problem because even if the vote is recorded correctly on the touchscreen, the data is transferred to another central tabulation machine that can also switch the vote. 

The third and final phase—tabulation—has errors on both systems. Counting paper ballots is slow if done by hand and often inaccurate. Machine is quicker, but—in the case of punch card ballots—can vary widely from the original count to the recount. Counting on a computer is almost instantaneous, but there is no record to prove the votes were cast and counted the same. 

What Silverstein and his co-authors have proposed is system that casts votes electronically and produces a paper trail and signs both using cryptography to produce a digital signature, setting up multiple ways to ensure the ballot has been recorded accurately while facilitating the counting process. 

Silverstein says his cryptographic techniques are similar to the technology used to ensure an on-line purchase is secure. He says the technique ensures a vote can’t be switched because the cryptographic signature (which locks the ballot) is based on codes that he says would take the next 1,000 years to crack and, therefore, change. If the vote comes into a central tabulation site different than it was cast, that is an indication that something in the voting system has been tampered with. 

At the same time, there is also a paper printout of the vote with the same digital signature, which Silverstein envisions as something similar to the magnetic ink numbers at the bottom of a check. With this digital signature at the bottom, voters can verify that the vote is theirs and make sure all the data is accurate. 

The project, said Silverstein, comes one step closer to ensuring a quick and accurate vote. 

f

The proposed fiscal year 2005 City of Berkeley budget presented to the City Council by City Manager Phil Kamlarz Tuesday night erases Berkeley’s $10 million general fund deficit without reducing—as some citizens had feared—fire services or eliminating school crossing guards. What it does to other city jobs is another question.  

The budget calls for the elimination of 78 full-time equivalent positions, 63 of which are already vacant or filled by temporary workers. By the city’s calculations, that would leave approximately seven career employees and 15 contract employees without work. 

Nearly $6 million of the city’s projected budget shortfall comes from spiraling employee retirement costs (see accompanying story), while a loss of tax revenue and state funding have also contributed to the $10 million gap. 

With a budding taxpayer revolt last year causing Mayor Tom Bates to withdraw a proposed budget-balancing parcel tax ballot measure, City Manager Kamlarz set out to close the shortfall primarily through a $6.7 million cut to city programs. The cuts include $5.1 million to departmental programs, $1.2 million in savings from employees, and $400,000 in contributions to Berkeley nonprofits. 

The closure of one of the city’s two fire truck companies was expected to be on the list of cuts. However, Kamlarz said the fire department was able to save $500,000 by eliminating two positions through retirement and assigning a lower paid civilian employee to a third position. The school crossing guards will be funded by an extra $300,000 allocated from the city’s reserve fund.  

The $115 million general fund budget—up $2.8 million from last year—restored partial funding to the Sustainable Development Program, Berkeley Community Media, the Berkeley Alliance and the Berkeley Boosters and the Berkeley Guides. 

Berkeley libraries remain slated for cuts this year and senior centers are still targeted for cuts during fiscal year 2006. 

To save $1.2 million in employee costs, Kamlarz is asking city workers to contribute three percent of the city’s contribution towards their pension funds this year. If they refuse, Kamlarz has threatened to close city hall one day a month to save an equivalent amount of money. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington doesn’t think job losses are on the horizon despite the elimination of positions.  

“They’re using the threat of layoffs to threaten employees to give up millions in benefits,” Worthington said. 

City staff handed councilmembers the budget immediately before at the 5 p.m. meeting, so few members had time to ask substantive questions and only Worthington called for specific alterations to the proposal, including a request to spare cuts to the nonprofits. The seven percent cut, he said, would devastate several groups and prevent the Quarter Meal Program from any hope of revival. Quarter Meal, which feeds the homeless, is scheduled to close in June from a lack of funds. 

The council will hold public hearings on the budget on May 18 and June 8 and present proposed amendments May 25. The council is scheduled to adopt a final budget on June 22. 

In addition to cuts, Kamlarz proposed raising $300,000 in new fees and spending $1.3 million from city reserves.  

Kamlarz expects to save $1.7 million from government restructuring, most of which has come from refinancing part of the city’s retirement obligations to police officers. The program will save the city $1.2 million this year, but could cost it more in future years depending on the performance of the State Retirement Fund. 

Part of the restructuring plan included placing the city’s Office of Economic Development under the city manager’s office and eventually folding the transportation department into public works. 

Kamlarz also said the city would provide financial bonuses for nonprofits that can achieve savings by consolidating their operations. 

In addition, the city manager’s proposed budget increased capital funding in the general fund by $600,000 and restored $75,000 for sidewalk repairs. 

The proposed budget doesn’t include four taxes the city council is considering taking to voters in November. They include: 

• A $1.2 million emergency medical services tax that would fund paramedic services at an annual cost to the average homeowner $30. 

• A $1 million tax clean water and storm drain tax that could include money for unearthing creeks at an annual cost to the average homeowner of $25. 

• A $1 million youth services tax that would restore cuts proposed in the general fund and also include money for the crossing guards. The tax would likely be levied on property transfers. 

• A $1.2 million library tax that would restore proposed service reductions in the general fund at an annual cost to the average homeowner of $30. 

Revenue from those tax measures wouldn’t reach the city treasury until the 2006 budget year. 

The city is also considering a hike in the Utility Users Tax, which could go into effect immediately after voter approval. The tax has received increased attention as a possible replacement to a proposed surcharge for 911 services that had been projected to raise $2.5 - $3 million dollars. Questions have since arose over the legality of the fee. 

After the budget overview, the council reconvened for its regular meeting. Asked by the Transportation Commission to include Dwight Way on a list of streets that would limit the allowable truck weights from five tons to three, the council did the commission one better. They implemented the three-ton limit for Dwight, Cedar Street and the Derby/Warring Corridor. 

Although Berkeley police don’t assign officers to enforce the rule, supporters of the change say that by imposing stricter weight limits, police will better be able to identify which trucks are in clear violation of the rule. 

s

FRIDAY, MAY 7 

“So How’d You Become an Activist?” with Utah Phillips, singer/songwriter and Karen Pickett, Earth First! organizer, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Suggested donation $5. 528-5403. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Tim Holt, environmental writer on “Should California Be Split in Two?” Luncheon 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. 

Womansong Circle Singing for the mothers and the mother of us all at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $8. 525-7082. 

Nabalom Bakery Collective Benefit with live music, silent auction and refreshments at 7 p.m. at Transparent/Ashby Theater, across from the Ashby BART. Tickets are $20 at the door. 845-BAKE. 

All-Oakland Talent Show at 7 p.m. at Oakland Box Theater, Telegraph Ave. between 19th and 20th. Tickets are $10. Sponsored by Oakland Leaf, which brings afterschool programs to school children. 

Tibetan Aid Project Spring Benefit Dinner A vegetarian culinary experience in support the continuation of Tibetan Buddhist culture, at 6 p.m. at The Brazilian Room, Tilden Park. For tickets call 800-338-4238.  

“Anarchist Cookbook” a comedy about living on an anarchist commune in Dallas, Texas at 8 p.m. at The Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. www.longhaul.org 

“The Personal Grail and the Public Wasteland” with Jeremey Taylor in a workshop from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Naropa Oakland University, 2141 Broadway. Cost is $50-$80. 835-4827, ext. 19. www.creationspirituality.org 

Hawaiian Cultural Practices and The Struggle for Independence Workshop and “talk story” about the Akaka-Stevens bill, Hawaiian soveriegnty, and the Hawaiian cultural renaissance, from 7 to 9 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Language Studies International, 2015 Center St. Cost is $75 for both days, $20 for Fri. only. Registration recommended. 525-7257.  

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

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

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

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

Herbal Tea at Three Learn tea lore, medicinal properties, and taste familiar and exotic varieties from 3 to 4 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy. 549-9200. www.elephantpharmacy.com 

SATURDAY, MAY 8 

Town Hall Meeting on the California Budget Crisis with Assemblywoman Loni Hancock from 10 a.m. to noon at Rosa Parks School, Multipurpose Room, 920 Allston Way. 

Bike Day at Berkeley Farmers’ Market in Civic Center Park from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with presentations on locking your bike, bike repair, and safe commuting. Sponsored by Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition. www.BFBC.org 

Green Home Expo and Energy Symposium in Civic Center Park. From noon to 5:30 p.m. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley. www.greenhomeexpo.org 

Remember the Meaning Behind Mother’s Day and honor all mothers who have lost children in Iraq, Israel and Palestine from noon to 1 p.m. at 51st St. and Broadway in Oakland. Sponsored by Bay Area Women in Black. www.BayAreaWomenInBlack.org 

Celebrate Mother’s Day Canoeing with Save The Bay A scenic canoe tour of Goodyear Slough. We will wind through the native tule reeds and discuss the importance of this arm of the Bay to migrating wildlife. All equipment and instruction included. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mothers and Save The Bay Members $30, Non-members $40. To register or for more information call 452-9261. www.savesfbay.org 

“California Butterflies, Host and Nectar Plants” A class and garden tour from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Cost is $30-$40. Advance registration encouraged. 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

Kids Garden Club Discover non-native plants and help remove these invasives, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. For ages 7-12. Cost is $3, registration required. 525-2233. 

Junior Skywatchers We’ll learn about the mysterious forces of gravity. We’ll do experiments and then do some moonless stargazing, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. For ages 8-11. Cost is $4. 525-2233. 

A Walk Through the Garden of Old Roses with UCBG horticulturist and rose expert, Peter Klement. Discover the rich historical background of the collection, including how Chinese, Persian and European cultures created the parents of the roses we grow today. From 10 a.m. to noon at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Cost is $12-$17. To register call 643-2755. http:// 

botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “The Finnish Community in Berkeley” led by Harry Siitonen from 10 a.m. to noon. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

East Bay Connection College Fair from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at Saint Mary’s College, 1928 Saint Mary’s Road, Moraga. More than 170 schools will be represented. 925-631-4224. www.stmarys-ca.edu/ebcc 

Oakland Day of Percussion with world-class drummers and persussionists presented by the Percussive Arts Society from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Alice Arts Center, 1428 Alice St. Oakland. Cost is $7-$10. 415-296-0454. www.pas.org/chapters/california/oak.html 

Wheat Weaving Craft Day from noon to 2 p.m. at the Albany Library. Create simple beauty and celebrate a history that goes back to early human’s appreciation of wheat. Free and open to all ages. 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext 20.  

Cragmont Elementary School Spring Carnival and Auction Performances, crafts, food and games. Help us in this partnership with local merchants for an easy and rewarding way to raise money for a Berkeley public school. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 644-8811. 

Healthy Street Fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Longfellow Middle School, 1500 Derby, with food, prizes, health screenings and entertainment. 883-6504. 

LeConte Elementary School’s Cinco de Mayo Celebration with food, dancing, music and games, from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 2241 Russell St. Admission is $1-$10. 644-6290. 

Friends of Kensington Library Annual Book Sale from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Blvd. 

Crowden Music School Gala, honoring Gordon Getty, at 6 p.m. at the Rotunda, 1501 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $150. 559-6910. 

A Celebration of Traditional Asian Arts and Culture from noon to 4 p.m. at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. 637-0455. 

Oakland Museum of California Gala After Hours at 9 p.m. with food and dancing. Tickets are $75. 238-6711. www.galaafterhours.com 

Pro Arts 30th Anniversay Gala from 5 to 9 p.m. at 550 Second St. Oakland. Tickets available at www.proartsgallery.org 

Festival of Body-Mind Movement celebrating the 100th birthday of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 830 Bancroft Way at 6th St. Cost is $5-$20. 594-4048. www.SpringIntoMotion.org 

Shamanic Journey Class from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Anam Cara House, 6035 Majestic Ave., Oakland. 415-333-1434. 

SUNDAY, MAY 9 

Berkeley Architectural Hertitage House Tour “Berkeley 1890 - At Home” from 1 to 5 p.m. featuring ten Victorian-era houses along Berkeley’s Fulton St. Tour information and ticket order form are at www.berkeleyheritage.com/housetours/2004_spring_house_tour.html  

Mother’s Day Celebration at the Judah L. Magnes Museum at 2911 Russell St. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Family treasure hunt, docent tours of exhibit “Brought to Light,” gift shop sale, and free admission. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

“Designing Your Garden with Natives” from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Field trip to Pt. Reyes on May 16. Cost is $75-$85. Registration recommended. 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

Shear Fun Where did your wool clothing come from? Join Judd Redden who has been shearing sheep for ten years to learn about this remarkable, renewable resource. From 10 a.m. to noon at The Little Farm in Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Dreaming in Nature An 8-week class meeting Sundays, from 10 a.m. to noon at Tilden Park. Cost is $160. 636-1684. www.ebparks.org 

John Kerry for President Party with Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and author of “Why Liberals Will Win in America.” Sponsored by The Berkeley Democratic Club. From 5 to 7 p.m. at 21 Tanglewood Rd. Donation $50 to the Kerry campaign. Please RSVP to BerkeleyDemocraticClub@comcast.net 

Maganda Magazine Celebration with spoken work and readings celebrating this Pillipino literary arts publication. At 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568.  

Friends of Kensington Library Annual Book Sale from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Blvd. 

”A Transylvanian Unitarian Minister Comes to Berkeley” with Maria Pap at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

Favorite Hymn Sing-A-Long at 7 p.m. at St. Cuthbert’s, 7900 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 367-9145. StCuddy@aol.com 

Tibetan Buddhism, with Sylvia Gretchen on “Wisdom of Buddha: The Samdhinirmocana Sutra” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, MAY 10 

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

Berkeley Community Gardening Collective with Babak Tondre speaking about EcoHouse at 6 p.m. at the Peralta Community Garden, Peralta and Hopkins St. Potluck. 883-9096. 

Non Profit Organization Orientation How to get your group publicized on B-TV Channel 28 using the media facilities at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Community Media. 848-2288 ext. 12. www.betv.org 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center, volunteer training, every second Monday of the month, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 5741 Telegraph Ave. To sign up call Emily at 601-4040, ext. 109. emily@wcrc.org 

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

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

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

TUESDAY, MAY 11 

Morning Birdwalk Meet at 7 a.m. at the pull-out on Wildcat Canyon Rd., east of Grizzly Peak Blvd. 525-2233. 

Public Hearing on UCB’s Long Range Development Plan at 5:30 p.m. at the Krutch Theater, CLark Kerr Campus. Copies of the plan and the draft Environmental Impact Report are available at http://lrdp.berkeley.edu 

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

Phone Banking to ReDefeat Bush from 6 to 9 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Bring your cell phones. Please RSVP if you can join us. 233-2144. dan@redefeatbush.com 

“The Evolution of California Water Policy” with David Kennedy, former director of the California Dept. of Water Resources at 5:30 p.m. in 105 North Gate Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Water Resources Center Archives. 642-2666. 

“Evolution’s Rainbow” Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People, with Dr. Joan Roughgarden at 7:30 p.m., 2050 Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Campus. 643-7008. bnhm@berkeley.edu 

Writer’s Workshop: Crossing Genres with Melita Schaum at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Goddess Grace Moving Meditation at 10 a.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $7-10, bring a yoga mat or blanket. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

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

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Joan Sinon will speak on Home Instead Senior Care at 11 a.m. 845-6830. 

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

WEDNESDAY, MAY 12 

Fresh Produce Stand Grand opening from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center, with home-cooked food and festivities. Sponsored by Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

“Free to Fly: The US-Cuba Link” a documentary on the efforts of people to maintain links after 16 years of no direct travel, at 6:30 p.m. at the South Branch Library, 1901 Russell St. 981-6260. 

“Miel de Oshun” a film about a Cuban American who goes back to Cuba to search for his mother, at 7 p.m. at Fellowship of Humanity, 390 7th St., Oakland. Donations accepted. 393-5685. 

East Bay Genealogical Society meets at 10 a.m. with speaker Diane Rooney on research on Eastern European families. Library Conference Room, Family History Center, 4770 Lincoln Ave., Oakland. 635-6692. 

The Knitting Hour at the West Branch of the Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave., at 7 p.m. Come and learn to knit, regain old skills, and get inspiration for new projects. Limited supplies are available. Please feel free to donate. For beginners, we recommend a pair of size 8 needles and one skein of yarn. All ages welcome. 981-6270. 

Poetry Writing Workshop, led by Danna Zeller, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 20. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, MAY 13 

“There’s No Place Like Home” a fundraising event for First Place Fund for Youth, for youth who “age out” of the foster care system, at 5:30 p.m. at Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Tickets are $50. 272-0979. www.firstplacefund.org 

Berkeley Adult School Career Fair from 9 a.m. to noon at 1222 University Ave. Free admission. 644-8968. 

“Election” the political comedy will be shown in a benefit for the John Kerry campaign at sundown at the outdoor cinema, Pyramid Alehouse, 8th and Gilman. Bring your own seating: blankets, lawn chairs, etc. Suggested donation is $20 or whatever you can afford. All donations go Kerry's campaign. apbeahrs@mac.com.  

Embracing Diversity Films and Albany High School PTA present “Bums’ Paradise” at 7 p.m. in the Albany High School Library, 603 Key Route Blvd., Albany. 527-1328. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers monthly meeting at 7 p.m at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave. 547-8629. 

East Bay Mac User Group meets to discuss MacWireless at 6 p.m. at Expression Center for New Media, 6601 Shellmound St. www.expression.edu 

ONGOING 

Free Community Yoga Workshops with David Korman, every Wed. on the grounds of Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., North Berkeley. Next session starts May 19th. 649-1664. 

Vista College Study Abroad in Mexico Live with a family and learn language skills in a two-week session in July in Guadalajara. 981-2917. www.peralta.cc. 

ca.us/interntl/studyabr.htm 

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

Radio Summer Camp, four day sessions from June 4 through Sept. 6. Learn how to build and operate a community radio station. Sponsored by Radio Free Berkeley. 625-0314. www.freeradio.org 

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

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon., May 10, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Four by Four Joint Task Force on Housing Members of City Council and the Rent Board meet Mon. May 10, at 5:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Stephen Barton, 981-5400. http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/4x4/default.htm 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Mon. May 10, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks 

Public Housing Resident Advisory Board meets on Mon. May 10, at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Housing Authority, 1901 Fairview St. Angellique DeCoud. 981-5475. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publichousing 

Commission on Disability meets Wed. May 12, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Paul Church, 981-6342. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disability 

Homeless Commission meets Wed., May 12, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/homeless 

Planning Commission meets Wed., May 12, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruth Grimes, 981-7481. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets May 12, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Barbara Attard, 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview 

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., May 12, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti. 644-6376 ext. 224. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/waterfront

Nothing seems to represent the philosophy of Berkeley better than the combination of good pastries and a non-hierarchical work environment.  

You’ll find both at Nabalom Bakery off of College Avenue, which, since 1976, has been both baking up their famous cinnamon twists and doing it in an equitable way. Over the years, the practice has helped Nabalom become one of Berkeley’s more well-known institutions. 

But not necessarily an institution on the soundest financial foundation. 

In an oftentimes cruel world, even an attempt to do things the right way doesn’t ensure smooth sailing. Mired in a financial slump recently, Nabalom has been slowly trying to pull themselves back into solvency.  

Toward that end, the bakery holds a benefit today, Friday, at the Transparent Theater in South Berkeley with entertainment, live music, Nabalom treats and a silent auction.  

Throughout the hard times, Nabalom stuck to its original philosophy. Originally started by a group of local neighbors, the bakery has been owned by the employees since the start. At that time, there wasn’t even a business classification for a worker-owned “collective.” This focus on workers’ rights and control allowed Nabalom to attract workers who both love baking and have a commitment to reform and improve the world. 

“My sense is that people at the bakery are committed to creating a more egalitarian society,” said Jim Burr, one of the collective members. “A lot of people have ingrained skepticism of the U.S. government. [There is] a certain militant pacifist streak to some of us.”  

As a collective, Burr said they’ve tried to turn their political and social philosophies into reality, creating a social niche where many of the rules of the outside world don’t apply. 

Crow Bolt, another collective member, said he’s at Nabalom because he does “work that is good, with people that I care for in an environment of mutual respect. [But] first and foremost we are a bakery. We have some really qualified people with several years of baking experience.” 

Lately, the collective has been trying to come up with healthier baked goods, a move that combines their baking and their politics. One of their newer collective bakers is an Italian pastry maker who specializes in vegan and macrobiotic products. 

Over the years, Nabalom has also established a firm clientele. While employees can’t name all of the regulars, they know who they are and exactly what they want. 

Moira Roth, an art history professor at Mills College who lives nearby, said Nabalom has been her “regular morning haunt” for years. Every morning she comes to order something tasty, read the New York Times, write, and relax. 

“The staff (always a magnificent group of highly interesting and passionate folk), the coffee and baked goods (the best in the world—and I travel a lot!), the general ambiance (changing art on the wall, the piano, the scatterings of tables and chairs…) and the regular customers (a marvelously mixed group) are very central to my sense of well being and community,” wrote Roth in a statement she prepared for Nabalom’s upcoming oral history project. 

“There is not a baked good you can go wrong with,” said Mark Nielsen, a regular who comes from North Berkeley to get his treats. Like Roth, he said he likes the ambiance, especially the swinging screen doors that lead into the bakery. He said they remind him of the corner shop in the small town he grew up in Iowa. 

Unfortunately, along with the benefits of a collective come the problems. The responsibility of running a business sits squarely on everyone’s shoulders. That means that if everyone doesn’t do their part, things quickly fall apart.  

Burr said problems are usually caused when someone doesn’t carry their load. Because the person is a friend, people often wait to confront them about the problem until it’s too late, when their slacking off has hurt the business. At that point the only way to solve things is often to let the person go. 

Burr said he once had to fire one of his best friends. The whole process was full of long, awkward silences and when the former employee walked out, Burr said he burst into tears and had to hide in the bathroom. Burr and the former employee are still friends, but he confessed that for a while it was not pleasant. 

Nonetheless, the problems with a collective are not outweighed by the perks, according to the employees.  

“I have a lot of love for collectives,” said Bolt, covered in flour, but smiling as he rolled out the dough for croissants and pizza Wednesday morning. Bolt said he is part of several other collective including a housing collective and the food program, Food Not Bombs. 

Burr said even though it’s a struggle, baking and being able to run a business he feels good about, where he can enjoy just smiling at customers, is worth it. He says the best way to describe it is with a paraphrased quote from Moby Dick: “Despite all the chaos and murderous insanity, while constellations of woe revolve around us, deep within lies an isle of silent joy.”   

The Nabalom Bakery Collective Benefit starts at 7 p.m. at the Transparent/Ashby Theater, across from the Ashby BART. $20. For more information call 845-BAKE. 

›

Berkeley’s budget mess is proving difficult to solve, but easy to trace. The city, like 248 other local agencies, has gambled and so far lost on a hastily passed 2000 state law to boost employee retirement benefits on the promise that the state retirement fund had the cash reserves to cover their short term costs. 

But when the stock market tanked, Berkeley—like many of its neighbors—has had pay up almost immediately. In the upcoming fiscal year, the combination of increased pension fund obligations and plummeting investment returns amounts to $6 million of the city’s $10 million general fund deficit. 

Those figures only scratch the surface of Berkeley pension problems. 

In fiscal year 2005, according to a report released in November by former city Budget Director Paul Navazio, $15 million of Berkeley’s $115 million general fund will pay for contributions to the California Public Employees System (PERS). Last year, the city spent $8 million on retirement benefits. The year before, when the state Legislature passed the bill that allowed Berkeley to improve the pension benefits, the city spent only $2.8 million. 

A lot of that money is going to cover stock market losses, but a good chunk will pay for improved pension benefits to Berkeley’s growing ranks of retirees—72 left the city’s employment ranks last year alone—who threaten to strangle the city’s general fund for the foreseeable future. 

Berkeley Police Lieutenant Sherrie Aldinger, who is retiring after 28 years on the job, will receive 84 percent of her highest annual salary from the city for the remainder of her life. The salary for a Berkeley Police Lieutenant ranges from $104,568 to $119,136. 

“Basically they’ve given away the store,” said Ron Roach of the California Taxpayers Association, one of the few groups to oppose the bill—SB 2000—which passed nearly unanimously through the state legislature. 

The legislation granted generous new benefits for state public employees, and in a last minute addition, he said, gave local agencies the option to negotiate the benefit into their union contracts. 

For local police and firefighters the bill meant they could now bargain to retire at age 50 with a pension that equaled three percent times their years of service—75 percent of his or her highest yearly salary, for instance, for an officer who retires at age 50 after spending 25 years on the force.  

Subsequently the state passed a law allowing police and firefighters to receive a pension as high as 90 percent of their highest annual salary. 

Once the city grants the benefit, it becomes binding for all current officers. 

The bill’s passage wasn’t a proud moment for the legislative process, said Steve Keil, legislative analyst with the California State Association of Counties. “They jammed it through without any debate,” he said. 

Tom Branan, owner of the Public Retirement Journal, said the bill was the product of a mutual campaign by the unions who came forward with the idea and the PERS board which was selling the benefit.  

“They were being overly optimistic,” he said. “The whole thing was based on a continuation of what everyone said was unprecedented market growth.” 

After 10 years of flush investment returns, PERS told lawmakers and local officials that the fund had enough reserves to cover the more costly retirement formulas for several years. But just as former Gov. Gray Davis signed the legislation, the bottom fell out of the stock market. From June, 2000 through June, 2003 the value of the PERS fund dropped by $28 billion, leaving employers like Berkeley to make up the difference. 

Despite the alarming stock market returns, Keil said that once a few localities negotiated the generous new benefits, “a panic started driving the rest of them to follow.” 

The pressure was especially strong when it came to police contracts, Keil said. Cities typically spend about $100,000 training a new recruit before the recruit actually joins the force. With the state already offering the new benefits, Keil said, the highway patrol began luring away recent hires from local agencies rather than paying to train their own officers. 

Berkeley faced a uniquely severe recruitment problem, said City Manager Phil Kamlarz. Not only did the city pay below the Bay Area median wage, but it required officers to have a two-year degree without added compensation, a distinction for which other localities offered a bonus. 

“They told us you guys aren’t matching apples for apples,” he said.  

So in 2001, when it was time for Berkeley to negotiate a new police contract and replace its aging force, the city granted officers the improved retirement formula on top of a hefty raise. 

That contract has had a snowball effect. A year before, the city had granted firefighters the new pension benefits in return for giving up cost of living raises. The firefighters protested the new police contract and ended up with a 7.6 percent raise as part of a contract extension to achieve parity with the police. At the same time, the city negotiated a new contract with its non-public safety employees and improved their pension formula. 

The combination of the improved pension benefits and poor investment returns have been staggering.  

Since 2000, according to the Navazio report, the percentage of the personnel costs the city pays in pension benefits have soared from 2.5 percent to 20 percent for non-uniformed employees, 3.63 percent to 40 percent for police, and 3.63 percent to 25 percent for firefighters. The city subsequently used an option to refinance their police pension obligation which lowered its 2005 contribution rate to 33 percent.  

Total benefits for police, including pension, social security, insurance, now amount to 58 percent of an officer’s salary. 

Other cities have suffered the same dilemma. Last year, Lodi had to contribute 48 percent of firefighters’ pay and 42 percent of police officers’ pay to PERS and the city of Orange last year announced it was experiencing a 384 percent increase in pension costs for police and fire employees. 

Darin Hall, a PERS spokesperson, said better news might be on the way. Since PERS factors in a two-year lag in calculating contribution rates, this year’s shortfall is tied to the poor performance of the stock market in 2001 and 2002. Hall said the fund reaped strong returns in 2003 which will help bring down future contribution rates. 

But the burden of higher pension payouts to increasingly younger retirees could still leave Berkeley perpetually in the red, even if the market recovery continues.  

According to a PERS Actuarial report provided to Berkeley, even if PERS earns a 8.25 percent return over the next six years, Berkeley PERS contributions to its firefighter’s pension would increase from 25 percent to 40 percent. 

“This problem doesn’t completely go away,” said City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, who has generated a report that tracks expense rate increases for the average Berkeley homeowner since 1993. If current trends continue, Wozniak contends that by 2009 the cost of employee salaries and PERS contributions will have increased by 87 percent, while the Consumer Price Index will have risen by 55 percent. 

The new benefits are permanent for all active city workers, but the city does have the option of unilaterally imposing a reduced pension rate for new hires.  

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is lobbying to roll back the benefit for state workers, and Kamlarz said it remained an option for the city as well. 

“That’s something we have to think about,” Wozniak said. “We have to look at this because it’s what’s driving up our costs.” 

ˇ

Stumble leads to traffic fatality 

An 83-year-old man who had paused in the center island as he crossed Shattuck Avenue at Kittredge Street shortly before 4 p.m., Thursday, lost his balance and stumbled backwards into traffic on Shattuck, where he was struck and killed by a passing truck, according to Berkeley Police spokesperson Kevin Schofield. 

“The truck had the green light,” Schofield said. He added that the truck driver “pulled around the corner and waited after the accident.” 

The victim’s name was withheld pending formal identification by the Alameda County Coroner’s office. 

Bystanders Chase, Catch Teenaged Purse-Snatchers 

When a pair of teenagers strong-armed a purse from a woman pedestrian on Dana Street near Durant Avenue early last Saturday evening, irate passers-by set off in pursuit, capturing a pair of 15-year-old bandits. Berkeley police scooped them up and took them to city jail. 

Gunshot Victim Reports Robbery 

Berkeley Police were summoned to Highland Hospital in Oakland Tuesday night after a man appeared with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound and reported he’d been shot by a robber near the intersection of Sacramento Street and Alcatraz Avenue in Berkeley. 

The victim told Berkeley officers he’d been shot by a man in his mid-20s, said BPD Spokesperson Kevin Schofield. No suspect has been arrested.

There is videotape of the beatings by the six guards, available on the Internet for download. Soft and grainy and shot from a distance, still, what is happening is unmistakable. Two prisoners are lying sprawled on the floor, face down, unresisting. An L.A. Times news article graphically describes the scene: “[One of the guards] sits astride [one of the prisoners and] begins punching him with alternating fists, landing a total of 28 blows. At one point, [the guard] can be seen lifting [the prisoner’s] head by the hair in what looks like an effort to get a better angle for his punch. A few feet away, the tape shows [a second guard] slugging [the other prisoner] and using his right knee to pummel him in the neck area as the [prisoner] lies motionless. … One [guard] is seen shooting the [prisoners] with a gun that fires balls of pepper spray, while another sprays their faces with mace.” 

The video also shows one of the guards giving a kick to the head of one of the prisoners with the toe of his boot. 

No, the videotape is not of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. So far as I know, no such videos exist. The video of which I speak documents the beating of two United States citizens—juvenile prisoners under the control of the State of California—by guards of the California Youth Authority at the Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton, California. Chaderjian. Abu Ghraib. It is easy to get them confused, I suppose. 

(Both the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s office and the office of California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, by the way, have declined to bring charges against the guards in the incident, citing their contention that there was “no reasonable likelihood of conviction” of the guards in a California courtroom.) 

This week, President George Bush went before representatives of various Arab-language television stations and stated—in reaction to the photos of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers coming out of Abu Ghraib—that “[this] does not represent the America that I know.” 

No, I suppose not. Mr. Bush has never been a black or Latino kid, locked up by the CYA. 

What one finds most disturbing about the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses is this national display of collective shock and surprise as television commentators pass serious comments about the meaning of it all—the widened eyes—the caught breath—the hand over open mouth—the calling in of the multitude of expert commentators—the incredulity that Americans, of all people, could be the author of such acts. Has no-one been paying attention? 

“[This] does not represent the America that I know,” says Mr. Bush. 

The president must, one must guess, therefore never watch broadcast television. The physical abuse by United States guards of prisoners incarcerated in United States jails is so well-known and widespread that it is a running, national joke. Watch any sitcom long enough, and sooner or later someone will make a threat about someone going to prison and having to “do the laundry of a 300-pound cellmate named Bubba.” It is a joke—if one misses the point—about people being raped in United States prisons, a condition that does not invoke calls for investigation, intervention, and reform, but merely a David Letterman or Jerry Seinfeld smirk. 

Yes. How very funny. 

America shocked—shocked!—at the Abu Ghraib humiliations? Why should we be? The humiliation of individuals has become an American obsession…it is, in fact, the growing American pastime, surpassing football and baseball as our national sport. We used to hold contests in which people competed, and then judges awarded a prize to the person who they thought performed the best. It was the thrill of the victory in which we wanted to share. The camera focused on the joyous, beaming Star Search winners while the second- and third-placers, mercifully, were hustled offstage before their frozen smiles shattered and their tears flowed over the loss of just-missed dreams. Now, voyeurs of despair, it is the agony of the losers on which we dwell. Televised contest after contest—from ESPN’s new announcer to Donald Trump’s “You’re fired!” to American Idol to Elimidate—puts the spotlight not on just the losing, but the degradation of those who lose. 

Our reveling wallow in the culture of suffering has become so widespread that now one national automobile manufacturer—I cannot recall their name because having watched it once, I have to turn it quickly off because I do not want the sickening images in my head—begins with a montage of horrific, swollen knots on people’s heads, then moves to a young yuppie admiring a car and, turning, still distracted, busting his head on an overhanging fixture, knocking himself to the floor. My god. It is the equivalent of selling hamburgers by watching photos of the carnage resultant from highway accidents. America’s Funniest Home Videos—the once-backchannel program where we became comfortable in snickering at people’s pain like a kid thumbing through porno locked in the bathroom—has now come out of the closet and moved into the mainstream. 

But “[this] does not represent the America that I know,” says Mr. Bush. 

Oh. Really? 

“That the way the United States treated its prisoners in occupied Iraq would become a focal point of international scrutiny, and perhaps a critical element in winning the confidence of the Iraqi people, should not have been a surprise to anyone,” the San Francisco Chronicle writes in an editorial. “From the top down, the message from U.S. commanders should have been crystal clear: Humane treatment of prisoners is essential to our mission.” 

No, actually, it’s more fundamental than that. How we treat prisoners under our control is indicative of who we are. It is essential to our very humanity. It is how we are defined, both by ourselves, and by others who either observe or interact with us. Christian doctrine—and the right insists, with pounded breast, that we are a Christian nation—teaches in Matthew 25:40 that “the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” That, again according to New Testament Christian doctrine, is how we are to be judged. 

“[Abu Ghraib] does not represent the America that I know,” says Mr. Bush, in all seriousness. 

If so, he must not have been paying attention. 

ABU GHRAIB 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

George Bush says that the reprehensible behavior of American soldiers (under the guidance of U.S. intelligence officials) at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq does not represent “the America I know.”  

It’s a disconcerting statement to say the least, but not inconsistent of a man who boasts that he doesn’t read newspapers. 

It’s tempting to hope that now he does know a bit more about his, er, America, he’ll change course—after all, he certainly knows that the Senate Armed Forces Committee is at this moment investigating reports of rampant torture and murder in U.S. prisons in Afghanistan and Cuba. 

But that would be most unlikely; it certainly wouldn’t be the president I know. 

Sheila Newbery 

• 

BICYCLES 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

Ask a silly question, get a silly answer. In regards to Mr. Garden’s question: “Have you ever tried carrying a TV or a kitchen table on a bike?” My answer is not only “yes!” but also “so have a lot of people, how long have you lived in Berkeley?” I have participated in assisting several friends move their homes and with enough people, bicycles and bicycle trailers, we have successfully moved them without the aid of fossil fuels. Berkeley Critical Mass, on a monthly basis, moves a sofa and large amounts of stereo equipment from downtown Berkeley BART to other locations around the city. Friends of mine regularly carry large construction materials on their bicycles, which is how goods are also usually transported in so-called developing countries. I specifically moved to the Bay Area from Southern California so I would never have to own a car. In the 10 years I have lived here I have bicycled not only to go to school, jobs and errands, but also to radiation and chemotherapy appointments for the cancer I was diagnosed with seven years ago. When I am too sick or tired to bicycle, my friend transports me on his tandem or I use public transportation, as do most of the people who also cannot drive: the disabled, the elderly and children. Anyone who pursues an auto-centric society is clearly opposed to the concerns of some of the neediest people in our society. 

Jennifer Dieges 

• 

PARKING 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

In support of his proposal to further limit parking in downtown Berkeley, Charles Seigel states in his letter that was published in the Daily Planet’s May 4-6 edition that there is “relatively little parking” in the Union Square area of San Francisco which he classifies as the “most successful shopping district in the Bay Area.” To the contrary, what sits under Union Square is a large, relatively low priced parking garage. As a result of this, Union Square is the one part of San Francisco where I am willing to shop. Convenient parking is essential to any retail business district.  

When I worked in San Francisco and made the same trip into and out of the city every day at the same times, I used public transportation. For non-routine trips or trips where I have substantial amounts of purchases to get home such as grocery shopping, I need to be able to drive and park near to where I am going. Would that we lived in a paradise where everyone was young and fit and every store delivered. But until that world arrives, I will continue to need to drive my car and will need parking for it.  

Mary Oram 

• 

WARNING SYSTEM 

Editor, Daily Planet: 

Suppose you’re having a family barbecue in your West Berkeley back yard when a railroad car carrying 90 tons of cooled liquified chlorine derails on the western edge of Berkeley. The liquid turns to a gas almost instantly and the prevailing wind off the Bay moves the dense poisonous cloud toward your house. If you are warned in time, you can get your family into the house, close it up, and shelter in place until the cloud passes by. If you stay outdoors and are close enough to the release point, mere breaths of the gas can kill you, each member of your family, and your pets. 

Or suppose you live in a house near Tilden Park or Strawberry Canyon by the Cal stadium when coals from a campfire built by someone living in the woods blow into dry weeds and brush, igniting a blaze that moves rapidly uphill, turning within minutes into an inferno roaring toward your house. 

A way of warning Berkeley residents of such impending disasters in time for many to take protective action has been under study by the Office of Emergency Services, a division of the Berkeley Fire Department. It is an outdoor siren system that would alert people and give them verbal instructions on what to do. A sonic survey to determine coverage in Berkeley, an important step in the design of this outdoor warning system, was conducted on April 22, 2004. Many people complained, both before and after the survey tests. Comments included “The sirens are loud” (put your fingers in your ears as you do when a fire engine passes you on the street), and “It reminds me of the use of sirens during the unrests here in the late ‘60s” (face it—this IS different). 

In Berkeley we’ve experienced disastrous wildfires and we are aware of, but sometimes try not to think about, the terrible damage that earthquakes can cause. We seldom consider terrorist events in Berkeley, which are not only conceivable—they’ve actually occurred here: bombs at a bookstore, two Unabomber attacks that injured people on the UC campus, and more. Think what publicity would follow from a successful terrorist act on the West Coast, near San Francisco, in world-famous Berkeley.  

How big could the tank-car event be? EPA studies indicate that the toxic plume in this case could reach more than six miles into the city. To a terrorist, the resulting deaths and serious injuries would be attractive newsworthy results. 

Please support the OES outdoor alerting and warning initiative to provide our citizens with the early emergency warnings that could greatly reduce loss of life and the number of serious, long-lasting injuries. 

For more information on the spread of poisonous gas see material on chlorine under “technical background” at http://yosemite.epa.gov/oswer/ceppoweb.nsf/content/EPAguidance.htm#Ammonia. 

Dick White 

Member, Berkeley Disaster Council 

• 

GAY MARRIAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Marlene Friedlander, in her letter of April 23, quotes “no less a civil rights icon than Jesse Jackson” as saying that “’gays were never called three-fifths human in the Constitution,’” as a way of claiming that the black struggle for equality is more valid than the gay struggle for equality and therefore same sex marriage cannot be a right. Does being hounded, beaten, lynched (yes, I said lynched), and made a social pariah count? Does having to spend one’s life hiding the truth for fear of being fired, ostracized, compared to a pedophiliac count? Does living under a constant stereotype count? Do the horrendous murders of people like Gwen Araujo and Matthew Shepherd count? Marriage is a ceremonial union between two people that on the one hand automatically provides important legal rights granted in no other union and on the other, announces to the world that two people have sworn to love, care, and respect each other for as long as each shall live. I don’t need to go into the state of opposite sex marriage in the United States today; just look at the statistics for divorce and abuse. Is anyone suggesting that is due to the existence of people whose sexual orientation may be different from theirs? I do find it encouraging that people—any people, any color, any sexual orientation—care enough about each other to want to live together under law, their religion, and in the eyes of society, with mutual honor and love, and I find it repugnant that ignorance denies love because it doesn’t match some definition from so-called civil rights icons or for that matter, religious sources like the Bible—Genesis 29:17-28, for example, sets the precedent that marriage shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women, especially if the first wife is guilty of barrenness, and Deuteronomy 22:13 makes it clear a valid marriage is between a man and a woman who’s a virgin—and if she’s not a virgin, she must be stoned to death. 

Many people still do not have equal rights in this country, including immigrants, women, the poor, gays and lesbians, and people of color. No one group has any business declaring that they and only they have suffered enough to be worthy soldiers in the struggle. An amendment was necessary to overturn the injustice and wrongness of the three-fifths human definition. No amendment is necessary to deny people the right to love and marry. 

Jacquelin Bautista 

• 

UC ADMISSION FEES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a law student at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall. I am writing to voice my concern about the proposed fee hikes facing all students enrolled in a public institution of higher learning in California as part of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget. In short, the cuts are unfair and shortsighted. 

If the governor’s budget is approved, all UC professional school students will face a $5,000 increase in fees, on top of a $2,500 increase implemented three weeks before the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year. This would be a total 80 percent increase since enrollment began for the class of 2005. None of these increases come back to our own schools—the money goes to the California general fund, making the hikes a de facto direct tax on a population least able to afford it—graduate students already massively in debt.  

The governor is asking students to shoulder a great burden. Under the proposed budget, fees will also soar by 10 percent for undergraduates and 40 percent for students in graduate liberal arts and sciences programs. At the same time, key university programs continue to be under-funded. These increases are in addition to recent cuts we’ve already suffered, including faculty-hiring freezes, no cost-of-living salary increases for faculty or staff, the elimination of vital community outreach and retention programs, and cuts to financial aid. 

These increases will hurt Boalt, the UC flagship law school, in some special ways. Right now Boalt is able to offer a top legal education at a competitive price, making it accessible to students from many economic backgrounds. In addition, I think I am justified in saying that Californians are proud of the quality of its public higher education institutions, including Boalt. If fees continue to increase, disadvantaged students won’t be able to afford Boalt, and talented students who can may stop choosing Boalt because of its comparative value in favor of other top schools like Stanford, Harvard, and NYU. Boalt’s prestige will decline, deterring talented faculty and students from coming to Boalt and causing a vicious downward cycle. Greater student debt will also discourage Boalt graduates from pursuing lower-paying public interest careers, which will tarnish Boalt’s reputation as a leader in the field of social justice and public service. 

UC Berkeley graduates drive the California economy, constantly producing new ideas, technologies, and innovations that improve the quality of life in California. We provide social services as doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, social workers, psychologists, and health workers. If Gov. Schwarzenegger makes the U.C. inaccessible (by hiking grad and professional fees), he’ll be taking away the social infrastructure that keeps Californians healthy and safe. 

But what disturbs me even more about the drastic proposed cuts to public higher education is reneging the promise made to all qualifying high school students who graduate in the top 12.5 percent of their class of a guaranteed place at UC The governor’s “solution,” offering these talented and dedicated students two years at a community college with the “promise” of later enrollment at UC, is a paltry substitute and a complete failure to uphold the state’s end of the bargain it has made with all California students. 

The California legislature has not finalized the budget yet, and there is still hope that our legislators will listen to our demands that California continue to provide its citizens with top-notch, accessible public education. Our future depends on it. 

Jamie Crook 

Law student, UC Berkeley 

Millions of witnesses were shocked by the graphic photographs of American soldiers reveling in the vicious torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib, a U.S.-run prison outside Baghdad, notorious for torture and massive executions under Saddam Hussein. The photographs depicted images of a prisoner, his head covered in a Ku Klux Klan-style hood with wires fixed to his fingers, toes and genitals; nude inmates piled in a human pyramid; a triumphant soldier named Chip Frederick sitting on top of a naked prisoner while Private Lynndie England shows a “thumbs up” sign while pointing to the genitals of a detainee forced to masturbate; a dog attacking a prisoner; stripped inmates being forced to simulate sex with each other and beat one another.  

In a Muslim society, where modesty is a prized basic value, to force men and women into public nudity is humiliating enough, let alone torturing them into committing overt sexual acts. In Abu Graib, however, U.S. military police were required to “loosen up,” or “break down” the inmates to “make them talk” to military intelligence agents and private contractors by subjecting them to deprivation from food, water and sleep; intimidation; taking away their clothes, mattresses and sheets; handcuffing and shackling them while repeatedly beating them.  

Systematic illegal abuse of detainees was routinely perpetrated at all levels against more than 900 detainees crammed into small cells, most of whom were innocent women and children picked up in random military sweeps. Investigators admit that most did not pose a threat to society but were detained indefinitely, without keeping any record of their imprisonment. Abu Ghraib had become a replica of Guantanamo Bay. No wonder the Pentagon quickly dispatched Major General Geoffrey Miller, former commander of the Guantanamo detention center to head Abu Ghraib! 

Disciplinary measures are pending against six low-ranking soldiers charged with abusing and sexually humiliating detainees. These, however, are merely used as scapegoats to blow smoke over a horrendous institutionalized system of torture in the Army prison system. The way the high ranking military “intelligence” personnel and the Pentagon’s hired guns methodically train our “liberation forces” to de-humanize, demonize, torture, and violate the very integrity of modest Iraqi Muslims is truly horrifying. What is more appalling is when we condone the torture and killings by closing our eyes and ears, remaining silent for fear of retribution and keeping the real perpetrators in power. The main responsible culprits are higher up.  

On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 men crashed four hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, both symbols of U.S. Imperialism. Nearly three thousand innocent people from across the globe were brutally set ablaze. Our government emphasized ad nauseum, that all 19 men were Muslims. Hence, all Muslims were portrayed as terrorists, denigrated to enemy status and became the object of hundreds of untold hate crimes, many of which go unpunished. When President Bush himself uses 19 men to represent over one billion Muslims in the world, against whom to wage his “Holy war for freedom,” what can be said about his subordinates?  

When 9/11 occurred, the whole world cried out against the perpetrators of the WTC disaster. This included rallies in support of Americans by tens of thousands of people in Muslim countries including Iran, later blacklisted on George Bush’s “axis of evil.” In less than one year, we managed to arouse the outrage and ridicule of people worldwide by empowering a president who is on a crusade to create an empire through pre-emptive strikes and “shock and awe” at our expense. It didn’t take long before we fueled the anger of average Iraqi people who are not afraid to fight to the last breath to reclaim their country from foreign occupation. As a former Marine Lieutenant Colonel Bill Cowen said of the tortured prisoners, “These people at some point will be let out. Their families are going to know. Their friends are going to know. We will be paid back for this.” 

We went to Iraq as “liberators.” We showed the world our twisted and tortured notion of freedom by killing, maiming, torturing and raping the powerless under our control. We sent our innocent, uneducated and ill-trained youth to bring freedom and democracy to an oppressed nation, but ended up piling their innocent naked bodies into pyramids like Saddam’s piles of bones. Yet when Ted Koppel, a responsible journalist who defies the censorship of mass media owners, went on “Nightline” on April 29, 2004, some networks balked at the mere mention of the names of “the fallen.” They called it “unpatriotic” to show the faces of those who gave up their lives to wage Bush’s war. They deem it “disloyal” to dissent against wrong government policies that undermine the Constitution.  

Whatever happened to our loyalty to individual and collective human rights, our respect for freedom and justice for all? How can we distinguish between “good Americans” and “bad” ones who violate every moral value when we ourselves are incapable of distinguishing good Muslims who struggle against dictatorship in their own countries from “bad” ones who terrorize a nation? 

When are we going to wake up and bring the real offenders to justice? The blame needs to roll uphill. We should bring to account not only the ill-trained soldiers, mercenaries and private contractors who are paid out of our tax dollars to commend the “Chip Federicks” for their “great job,” but also bring to justice the unelected president and his notorious attorney general who have torn to shreds our hard-won Bill of Rights. Each time we go to the polls, we need to remember our roles as free citizens and elect individuals who truly care about our interests, not the value of their stocks or the balance of their bank accounts. We must empower those who let their actions speak for their values, those who prove patriotic by honoring human integrity, those who respect the right to dissent against losing our basic freedoms in the guise of “national security,” those who refuse to use our youth as human shields in legally and morally wrong wars which lead to lamentable bloodshed.  

We need to remember that freedom, justice, love and compassion for all are the only true American values. Not hatred, vengeance, torture and destruction. We must lift our voices and let our leaders know that we will not forget or forgive what they have done in our name. If not now, then when? If we, the ordinary citizens don’t do anything, who will?  

Ramona Shashaani 

8750-67 Villa La Jolla Drive 

La Jolla, CA 92037 



The recent commentary in the Berkeley Daily Planet by opponents of the new Shasta Fire Station is proof that anti-civic behavior does not die easily. These opponents, having watched a failed appeal to the City Council and a failed law suit against the city (by individuals) to block construction of the fire station, are now attempting a last stand by discrediting the results of an exhaustive four-year public process that produced the program and final design for the new fire station. They are now arguing that the station is unnecessarily large and that the city should not be spending money in tight financial times. They say that the new station will be “an oversized, exorbitantly expensive building” even though it is being built in an area where some of the houses are larger then the size of the new station. Let’s be clear: this is not a group of concerned citizens trying to protect the city’s financial interest but some of the same group that have argued that “a fire station is inappropriate in our bucolic neighborhood.”  

The funds for this station were approved by Berkeley voters in 1992, as part of Measure G which called for the upgrading of all of Berkeley’s fire stations and for the construction of this new station. Work on all of the stations in the city has been completed with the exception of Station No. 7 (to be used for storing wildfire firefighting equipment) and the New Shasta Station. Those who continue to oppose the construction of the station had the opportunity for participation in the public process that established this program, and to attempt to discredit the final results only reflects on their own selfish interests in not wanting the station built. 

The program for the new fire station was carefully developed by the Berkeley Fire Department in cooperation with East Bay Regional Municipal Parks Fire Department and was scrutinized and modified through a public process that included an Environmental Impact Report and 24 public meetings and hearings. The station includes a three-bay (three-truck) facility, two bays for city and one bay for an East Bay Parks truck, living facilities for the three rotating crews and a public meeting room which doubles as a dorm for the East Bay Parks crew during the summer fire season. The fire department originally requested a 10,000 square-foot facility on the 19,000 square-foot property. This was reduced after public input to 6,800 square feet. The size of each individual component matches or is smaller then the Alameda County Fire Department construction standards being used by other municipalities throughout the county. In fact, while the new three-bay Shasta Station is now programmed at 6,920 square-feet, a three-bay station was recently built in Dublin which is 12,800 square feet, 5,880 square feet larger than the new Shasta Station.  

It is important to understand that the living and equipment storage requirements of a fire station are substantively different from those of an ordinary house. Three crews will rotate through the station and that requires uniform and clothing storage as well as food service facilities for three “families” of three. The crews are required to be physically fit to perform their most demanding duties, so like other modern stations the new Shasta Station will provide a fitness room. In addition this station will house a full crew from the East Bay Regional Park District during the wildfire season. Currently that crew spends their nights on duty in sleeping bags in the East Bay Park’s corporation yard. In addition the truck bays require special storage and washing facilities for fire fighting clothing and equipment to separate out toxic materials that are inherent in fire scenes. All told, a fire station has very special requirements and safety demands that require special facilities to meet those demands. It is simply not responsible to claim that the new station is oversized. 

The current Station No. 7, at Shasta and Queens Road, which is seismically unsafe, was built in 1939, 65 years ago. We should expect the new Shasta Station to serve the city for at least that long. Reducing the size of the new station that will be the only Berkeley station east of the Hayward Fault and which we will be expecting to serve us for perhaps, the next 100 years would be folly. Instead of asking why can’t we reduce the size of the station we should all be asking “is it large enough”? Are we providing everything we need in this facility that will be our first line of defense against the next, inevitable fire storm? Are we building a facility that will be adequate 50 or 100 years from now? 

Yes, the station will go before the Zoning Adjustments Board on May 13 and we urge the board to sustain their previous support for the construction of the station. Perhaps at that meeting the opponents will explain how the costs the city sustained in defending against the suit to block the project and the increased construction costs brought on by the unnecessary two year delay caused by opposition to the project has been in the city’s financial interest.  

Neighbors for Fire Safety: Eric Arens, Barbara Allen, Steve Beckendorf, Gloria Bowles, Jay and Zee Claiborne, Art and Sue Day, Jean and John DeWitt, Rex Dietderich, Tom Edwards, Bob Flasher, Genevieve Dreyfus, Vonnie Gurgin, Erwin and Natalie Hahn, Vic Kley, Collin Murphy, Austin Olson, Bob Schneider, Trudy and Jack Washburn, Holly Wilson

When the Berkeley Youth Orchestra takes the stage this Sunday for their final program of the season, it’s quite possible that no one will be having more fun than the performer in the spotlight, 13-year old Jasiu Purat. The winner of the orchestra’s concerto competition, Purat defies cliches of the talented young musician under pressure to excel. Instead, he simply describes his musical activities as opportunities to enjoy himself. 

Purat will be playing the first movement of the Violin Concerto in C Major by Russian composer Dmitri Kabalevsky. “I really like playing a lot,” he says. “It’s fun for me. This was one of my first solo pieces, so it’s really interesting for me to play.”  

The concerto will be the centerpiece of the BYO’s program at 4 p.m. at the Laney College Theatre in Oakland. The program will also include works by Beethoven, Bizet, Grieg, Gliere, O’Reilly and Lotti. 

BYO Music Director Jay Lehmann says of the piece, “The tempo is very rapid, and it’s very exciting. It’s neat because it has so many folk elements, so it’s fun for the orchestra as well as the violinist to play. It’s exciting how Kabalevsky weaves the melody through the piece, and many instruments get featured spots in addition to the violin.” 

Purat adds, “The piece interchanges lyrical and fast passages. I don’t know if it’s very showy. I kind of choose pieces because they’re fun to play or they help me play better.”  

The BYO is comprised of students between the ages of 10 to 15, and provides an outstanding opportunity for young musicians to further their studies. The ensemble draws dedicated young musicians from as far as Vallejo and Castro Valley, although the majority come from the Berkeley-Oakland area. 

Purat has played in the orchestra for two years, and his musical progress has taken him from the principal second violin seat last season to this year’s concertmaster, the leader of the first violin section. Lehmann says of the orchestra’s section leaders, “I gave them the challenge to serve not only as a principal but as a leader to the section. We have coaches who come, too, and they support the coach. Jasiu is willing to fill his traditional role of leading the section, but he goes beyond that. He’s really personable and helps the kids out.” 

Although musical competitions can be high pressure affairs, Purat took the process in stride. “We chose an audition time, we warmed up, and then we went in there and started playing, and two judges gave me comments. I guess I was pretty comfortable. It was my first real competition. I had only played in concerts, so I guess I was a little nervous, but it turned out fine, and I played really well.” 

Purat’s rapid progress has been supported by his attendance at the Crowden School in Berkeley, where music is at the center of a rigorous academic curriculum for fourth- through eighth-graders. Michael Taddei, the school’s Administrative Director, who is also the Berkeley Symphony’s principal bassist, explains, “At Crowden, the first two periods are devoted entirely to music, as well as work on bowing, intensive chamber music, orchestral coaching, and music history and theory.” Purat says he tries to practice the violin two hours a day in addition to his activities at Crowden, and credits his teacher, Berkeley violinist Debbra Wood Schwartz.  

Taddei is also Purat’s chamber music coach, and enjoys his student’s varied abilities and enthusiasm. “Jasiu has always shown a great deal of promise, and it’s very gratifying to see that fulfilled. He started at Crowden in the fourth grade and he’s now in the seventh. He’s a very gifted improviser. His ease and ability to improvise and play in different styles really gives him confidence and the ability to dig in.” Working on a difficult new work by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov, Taddei adds Purat “has torn into it like a starving person at a buffet table.” 

Of his varied musical interests, Purat says, “I went to an alternate styles camp last summer and it was really fun because I already had a basic idea of improvising, and it’s really fun to make up your own tunes. I like classical and I like alternate styles equally. They’re both fun to play.”  

Lehmann seconds Taddei’s opinions on Purat’s approach to music. “Jasiu is really strong and he’s got a lot of energy. The kids really look up to him, and he plays with a confidence that really helps the orchestra stay together. Sometimes the kids will spontaneously break into applause for him at rehearsal.” 

One of Purat’s most enthusiastic supporters is, not surprisingly, his mother, Katie Mangotith. Of his studies, she says, “The Crowden School is a great place for kids. I went through music as a kid, and I put my kids into the music program because it’s such a great experience. It changes their lives.”  

On his future musical plans, Purat says, “I really like playing chamber music. I really like everything. I was thinking of joining another orchestra next year, and we were thinking of putting together a string quartet at Crowden. We’re hoping to find a high school with a music program. Berkeley High is a pretty good possibility.” Will he aim to become a professional? “It would be fun,” Purat says, “because it’s one of the things I enjoy doing.” 



Impact Theatre is up to another one of its delightful pieces of nonsense, the three part Money and Run, staging it—as usual—at La Val’s Subterranean Theatre. That’s what the pizza parlor on Euclid Avenue has dubbed the small black stage in its basement where so many good theater companies spend time while they work their way up the theatrical ladder to more awe-inspiring quarters. But Director Christopher Morrison isn’t much interested in that stepping-stone kind of thing. 

Morrison, who helped found the company, sees La Val’s as an ideal venue for the audience Impact Theatre is designed to attract: 18- to 35-year- olds. He’s in favor of an atmosphere where people might feel like taking some pizza and beer down to catch the show. There’s idealism, as well as fun, in Morrison’s madness. He’s after the group of people who have to be wooed into live theater if there is going to be live theater at all in a few decades. 

And Christopher Morrison is legitimately proud of Impact’s success at reaching that goal. He says that at least 80 percent of their audience is from their young adult target group. He’s even prouder of the fact that he always gets at least one enthusiastic audience member after a production who tells him that it was the first live production that she, or he, has ever seen. 

This time, Impact is actually doing three different plays—separate episodes of the outrageous antics of “Money,” aka Robby Jean Marshall, played by Alexandra Creighton, and “Run,” (short for Jimmy Jake Mcallister, played by Casey Jackson) and the various villains and weirdoes they encounter as they struggle to keep the main nemesis, “Big Momma Bob,” from making good on various nefarious plans. (One of Bob’s more ambitious ideas is to tear down a Catholic orphanage in order to build “Liquor World,” the nation’s first and only alcohol-themed family fun park.) 

The three episodes are staged in sequence on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Money and Run meet in Episode 1 (Money, Take Run), when they both try holding up Big Mama’s Premium Liquor and Wine Emporium at the same time. However, it isn’t at all necessary to see the plays in any particular order. They aren’t going to make much more sense one way than they do another—good sense isn’t the point of these bubbles. You will, however, save yourself five bucks if you decide to get a “season pass” for all three. 

Impact has already established a reputation for reliably good productions, but Morrison is extraordinarily satisfied—as well he should be—with the cast. He says that “From top to bottom, this is the strongest cast we’ve ever had.” Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that they have actors for the lead roles who are even astonishingly appropriate physical fits for their roles. Alexandra Creighton and Casey Jackson appear to have been born to play Money and Run.  

The plays have been so successful in their home base of Seattle, Washington, that at least three more episodes have been written, including A Very Special Winter Holiday Special and A Terribly Spooky Halloween Special. Maybe we’ll be able to persuade Impact to pull these out of their bag of tricks when the right time comes.  

In the meantime, you could bank on a highly amusing evening (or three of them!) by checking out La Val’s. Oh, and by the way, don’t let that “18-35” demographic stuff scare you off. The humor is perfectly good grown-up stuff and Impact doesn’t check your age at the door.  

Impact Theatre’s Money and Run shows at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through June 5 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. For tickets and information call 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com. 



FRIDAY, MAY 7 

CHILDREN 

We Love Our Mamas with Audrey Penn at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-3635. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Transformation” works by Lanny Weingrod, Mayumi Hamanaka and Taro Hattori. Reception from 6 to 9 p.m. at Nexus Gallery, 2701 8th St. Exhibit runs to May 9.  

Richmond Art Center, reception for artists, with music by Faun Fables, from 6 to 8 p.m., at 2540 Barrett Ave. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

“Animal Art” by Kay Bradner, Ketzia Schoneberg, Jathy Sheehan, Rita Sklar and Heidi Wyckoff. Reception 6 to 8 p.m. Exhibition runs to May 27, at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave. 601-4040, ext. 111. www.wcrc.org 

FILM 

A Mother Should be Loved: “Woman of Tokyo” at 7:30 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “The Sisters Rosensweig,” a comedy by Wendy Wasserstein, at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman, and continues on Fri. and Sat. through May 15. Tickets are $12. 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 

Berkeley High School “Man in the Musical” premiere of an original musical theater piece by Phil Gorman and Lila Tschappat at 8 p.m. at the Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Allston and MLK Jr Way. Also May 8 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5-$10. 332-1931. 

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

Impact Theatre “Money and Run” an action serial adventure with different episodes on Thurs., Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Runs through June 5 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. For tickets and information call 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lolly Winston looks at loss in “Good Grief” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Ellen Oppenheimer, quilt artist, talks about the work she created as artist in residence at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Maxine Alexandra Bernstein, sporano and Sergei Podobedov, piano at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Reception follows. Benefits the restoration of the Julia Morgan landmark. Tickets are $35. Reservations required. 883-9710.  

UC Men’s and Women’s Chorales Spring Show at 7:30 p.m., Room 20 Cesar Chavez Center. Cost is $5-$8. 643-2662. 

Ricardo Lemovo and Makina Loca, Afro-Cuban music at 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. Tickets for the previously scheduled Cubanismo will be honored at the door.. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

(R)evolutionary (Id)entity presents “Any King, Any Path,” ambient poetry and accoustic rock at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Susan Getz, jazz vocalist, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Djialy Kunda Kouyate plays music from Sengal at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Austin Lounge Lizards at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Baby Jaymes, Dynamic at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Pacific Sound Collective at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

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

Jackie Ryan at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Dr. Masseuse at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

René Marie Fri. and Sat. at 8 and 10 p.m., Sun. at 7 and 9 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Drunken Cat Paws at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Plot to Blow up the Eiffel Tower, The Raking Bombs, Brilliant Red Lights at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, MAY 8 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Colibri and music from Latin America at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $3-$4. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Home is Where the Art is” Opening reception from noon to 5 p.m. at the Art of Living Center, 2905 Shattuck Ave. 848-3736. 

FILM 

Jacques Tati: “Playtime” at 6:30 and 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Karen Joy Fowler introduces the comedy set in the Central Valley in “The Jane Austen Book Club” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Olive Gallagher introduces “A Simple Path to the Good Life” at 2 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-3635. 

Poetry Concert with Jami Sieber, electric cello and vocals, Kim Rosen, poetry, Michelle Goerlitz, percussion, at 8 p.m. at Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1606 Bonita Ave. Tickets are $18-$20 available at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra performs Verdi’s “Requiem” at 4 p.m at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St., at 8 p.m. and Sun at 4 p.m. Free, donations welcome. 964-0665. www.bcco.org  

Showtime at the Apollo presents the Bay Area finalists at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$42 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Opera “Acis and Galatea” under the musical direction of George Thomson at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

American Bach Soloists Choir and Orchestra with soprano Marguerite Krull and tenor Gerald Thomas Gray at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. 621-7900. www.americanbach.org 

Baroque Etcetera “A Telemann Celebration” at 8 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 5201 Park Blvd., Oakland. Donation $10. 540-8222. www.baroquetc.org 

Oakland Day of Percussion with world-class drummers and persussionists from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Alice Arts Center, 1428 Alice St. Oakland. Cost is $7-$10. 415-296-0454. www.pas.org/ 

chapters/california/oak.html 

“Off Our Rockers” Lu Mitchell in concert at 7 p.m. in the Redwood Gardens Community Room, 2951 Derby St. Donation $5-$15, no one turned away. 848-6397. 

West Coast Live with Austin Lounge Lizards, the Cowlicks and others at 10 a.m. at the Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18. 

Maria Marquez at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

Cal Jazz Choir Spring Show at 8 pm in the Choral Rehearsal Hall in the basement of Cesar Chavez Center, UC Campus. Tickets are $5-$8.  

Youth Movement Records Artists at 8 p.m. at Youth Radio Cafe, 1801 University Ave. Cost is $3. 435-5112. 

YWCA Dance Performance at 7 p.m. at 2600 Bancroft at Bowditch. Free. 848-6370. 

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

David Siegel, Machingura & Folk This! at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. All ages welcome. Donation $7-$10. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Lithium House at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

House Jacks, a cappella quintet, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50. 548-1761.  

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Andre Thierry performs Cajun/Zydeco at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, with a dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jackeline Rago and the Venezuelan Music Project at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Apocalipstick, Castles in Spain at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Shanna Carlson, jazz vocalist, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Tickets are $15-$20. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

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

Scott Amendola Trio at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

The Phenomenauts, Jason Webley, Harold Ray, The Mothballs at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, MAY 9 

CHILDREN 

Mary Miché on Mother’s Day with music for children and the whole family from 3 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233.  

Kathy Kallick Band in a Mother’s Day Family Show at 1 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $6.50-$8.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Cycles of Gentrification” reception 3 to 9 p.m. at the Longhaul Infoshop, 3124 Shattuck Ave.  

THEATER 

Acme Players Ensemble “Martha Stewart in Hell” at 7 p.m. at APE Space, 2525 8th St. at Dwight. Free but donations welcome.  

“INsight” a Destiny Arts Youth performance of spoken word, theater, hip hop, modern and aerial dance by youth age 13-18 at 3 p.m. at McClymond’s High School Auditorium, 2607 Myrtle St. Tickets are $6-$12. 597-1619. 

FILM 

A Mother Should Be Loved: “The Only Son” at 5:30 p.m. and “A Hen in the Wind” at 7:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with D.A. Powell and Mark Bibbins at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“Mothers Remembered,” a reading of poetry and prose at 2 p.m. at Change Makers Bookstore, 6536 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 655-2405. 

“Eccentrics and Court Painters in Eighteenth-Century China” a Gallery Talk with Lee Patterson, at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Youth Orchestra with 13-year-old Jasiu Purat, winner of the Concerto Competition, at 4 p.m. at the Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St. Oakland. Tickets are $5 at the door. 663-3296. wwwbyoweb.org 

California Revels Mother’s Day Showcase at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $5-$10 available from 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Cornelius Cardew Choir Spring Concert at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Admission is $8-$10. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Organ Concert with Jonathan Dimmock performing the music of Copland, Reger, Vierene and Bach, at 6 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bancroft and Ellis. 

Americana Unplugged: The Squirrelly String Band at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience in a benefit for Albany’s Public School Music Program, at 7 p.m. in the Albany High School Gym, 603 Key Route Ave. Tickets are $10-$35. 527-7320. www.albanymusic.org 

Art Lande Quartet at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com  

Jazz Party Project 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 

MONDAY, MAY 10 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Al Honig “Constructions: Robots and Beyond” opens at Oakland Museum of California, Sculpture Court, 111 Broadway. 283-6836. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Paul and Anne Erlich discuss their lastest collaborative work, “One With Ninevah: Politics, Consumption and the Human Future” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Ilana de Bare discusses “Where Girls Come From: The Rise, Fall, and Surprising Revival of Girls’ Schools in America” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Paul Krassner writes on “Magic Mushrooms and Other Highs” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Paul Krassner, investigative satirist, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Faye Carol at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$15. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, MAY 11 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Douglas Unger reads from his new collection of short stories “Looking for War” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Michael Eric Dyson introduces “Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Oliver Chin, author and artist of graphic novel, “A Window to the World,” a story of a diverse group of Bay Area teenagers struggling with the aftershocks of 9/11, at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512.  

James Lilley introduces “China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage and Diplomacy” at 1:30 p.m. at the Women’s Faculty Club, UC Campus. Part of the New Perspectives on Asia Series from the Institute of East Asian Studies. 549-2668. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

Ursula Schultz and Cathy Goldberg of Berkeley’s Cheese Board Collective take us on “A Tour of Old and New World Cheeses” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

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

www.thejazzhouse.com 

Sauce Piquante at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz, with a Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mingus Amungus, 10 year anniversary party at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 12 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Con le Nostre Mani” photographs of Italian Americans at work in the East Bay opens at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6233. 

Rogen Ballen “Photographs” opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant. 642-1295. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Carl Pope on “Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Bill Caldwell discusses “Oakland: A Photographic Journey” at 7 p.m. at L’Amyx Tea Bar/Spectator Bookstore, 4179 Piedmont Ave. 653-7300. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with Charles Ellik at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Acis and Galatea” under the direction of George Thomson at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Jordi Savall, viola da gamba virtuoso, at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

West Coast Swing Dancing with the NC Blues Connection at 9 p.m. with a swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Hawaiian Music’s Next Generation with Keoki Kahumoku, David Kamakahi, Herb Ohta, Jr., and Patrick Landeza at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Brasil Brazil at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $20 in advance, $22 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ducksan Distones explore the creative concept of dissonance in music at 8 and 10 p.m. at The Jazz House. $5 donation. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Roy Hargrove Quintet at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

The Drouges, The Slandt, Cargo at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Jules Broussard at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Phil Thompson Group at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277.V

“…piecin’ a quilt’s like living a life…the Lord sends us the pieces, but we cut ‘em out and put ‘em together pretty much to suit ourselves…”  

Anonymous 

Drop by the Berkeley Public Library, North Branch, between now and May 29 and you’ll see just how true this quote rings. Sixty-one antique, traditional, contemporary, and vibrantly eclectic pieces of art hang from the rafters and walls of this well-loved library during its 25th annual Quilt Show. Follow the self-guided tour throughout the premises and learn the history behind each quilt. You’ll be moved and amazed, smiling and teary-eyed at the same time, as you gaze up and around at the colorful, touching display. 

Starting in the lobby, Call Me Doctor, a quilt made and loaned by Dorothy Vance, is a playful patchwork that depicts irreverent visits with the medical community in every square. Spin around to view The Shirt Off His Back, a soft, passionate quilt made by Fern Royce in memory of her father. The muted orange, gold and brown plaid pieces are scraps from her father’s favorite wool shirt. Included within the work is a pocket and cuff. Ms. Royce explains that when she wraps the quilt around her it brings back many fond, warm memories of her father. 

On display in the Adult Reading Room are numerous quilts made from a variety of materials and patterns. Some—like Vortex 2002 pieced together by Bess K. Chin, Fan Quilt stitched by Phyllis Partridge, Ajisai by Mieko Taketa, and Crazy Quilt created by Fumi Hayashi—have a distinctly Asian feel. Be All That You Can Be, designed by Sue Astroth, has sewn within it a collection of quirky, oddball objects and photos, including medals, flags, and bric-a-brac picked up at thrift stores and antique shops. Chili Pepper Passion, loaned by Madeline Wolf, celebrates her husband’s love for chilies, and his fiftieth birthday.  

In the nearby display case is Miniature Matrix, a tiny 14” x 17” meticulously hand-stitched piece of art that tried the patience of its creator, Angie Woolman. Below it is Quilted Pillow, an unusually shaped fabric sculpture crafted from Tahitian pareo textiles and designed and sewn by Madame Puaniho of Tautira, Tahiti. 

In the Children’s Room are many more quilts, some of them dedicated to specific individuals and events such as Elizabeth’s Quilt (made to commemorate Elizabeth Minor’s 1999 graduation from Berkeley High School), Michael’s Quilt by Jeanie Minor (celebrating the college graduation of her daughter’s boyfriend), T-shirt Quilt (patched together from creator Tina Krietz’s daughter’s old cotton shirts), Quilt (the vibrant, colorful sea and sky creation made by Monica Gyulai for her 5-year-old son, Sebastian), and Ruby’s Quilt (sewn by the friends and relatives of Ruby Bianca Triest and dedicated to her memory). 

Also in the Children’s Room are quilts and works-in-progress constructed by some very young artisans. Spare Change is by Sydney Carson, age 11, Puppy Paws, was stitched together by third grader Zoey Wolinksy, and Summer Fun was sewn by nine-year-old Raven Carson. 

I’m Not Carrying Your Brand, an unusual quilt researched and designed by Olaitan Callender-Scott, depicts America’s obsession with labeling—starting with African slaves branded with a hot iron, imprinting the mark of French, English and Dutch companies on their chests, to the modern day advertising efforts of companies such as Gloria Vanderbilt, Gap, Levi’s, Old Navy, and Tommy Hilfiger. 

Included in the display are three beautiful quilts to be raffled off on May 8. Created by the students, faculty and family members of Jefferson Elementary, Cragmont Elementary, and Berkwood Hedge, proceeds from the raffles will benefit a variety of programs at each school. A fourth quilt, pieced together by students of Thousand Oaks Elementary, has already been won in the raffle and removed from the show. Raffle tickets for the remaining quilts can be purchased at the library. Don’t miss this lovely event, funded, in part, by the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library, curated by Teen/Reference Librarian Debbie Carton, and created and generously shared by the local quilting community. 

The North Branch Library open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 1170 The Alameda. 981-6250.  

Cartoon by Justin DeFreitasÅ

Sunday afternoon was lovely, as Berkeley afternoons in the spring often are, and like another 200 or so lovely Berkeley residents we attended a lovely garden party at a lovely home in one of Berkeley’s loveliest (and most expensive) neighborhoods. The purpose of the event was to raise money for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, and since all of us in Berkeley are pretty smart and know that we’re really at the water’s edge this time, we were all on our very best behavior. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who’s been wintering in Berkeley, gave a stirring speech, complete with convincing pragmatic answers to a few challenging questions about Kerry’s somewhat pallid campaign to date. A pitch was made, with the comment that Marin Republicans has already raised, was it $80k, for Kerry at one party, and couldn’t Berkeley Democrats do as well? Eyeballing the crowd, with some knowledge of the net worth of some attendees from Piedmont, the goal seemed possible. Checks and credit cards were accepted. Everyone went home smiling: a lovely event.  

As Berkeley completes its transition from the bastion of rent control to a lovely city of million dollar homes for those who are both politically correct and comfortably fixed, such events are becoming a staple of the social calendar. Which is as it should be, and no complaints. Professor Reich assumed that many attendees might have some, as we say in California, issues with some of Kerry’s record, but that we’d donate now and ask questions later. As we will, by and large. But some partygoers seemed to hope that if they “maxed out” as requested ($2k) they might have some influence on the policies of the longed-for Kerry administration. And they might. Or might not. 

Case in point: The next lovely Berkeley garden fundraiser. Sponsors were handing out invitations at the Kerry event to a garden party next Sunday to raise money for Senator Barbara Boxer’s re-election campaign, with the senator herself in attendance. Berkeley has always given, and generously, to Boxer’s campaigns, and until recently Berkeleyans probably felt that they’ve gotten their money’s worth in her public stances on issues they cared about. But when I asked the woman who handed me the invitation flyer what she thought about Boxer’s recent endorsement of the death penalty, she blanched. She’s a good-hearted soul from one of my favorite Berkeley categories, a red diaper baby who made some money in real estate which she cheerfully contributes to worthy causes. I know at least three of them, and they are pillars of local political fundraising.  

She hadn’t heard that Boxer is in full-throated cry against district attorney Kamala Harris’s decision not to seek the death penalty against the accused killer of a San Francisco police officer. Like most good Berkeley liberals, she thinks the death penalty is unnecessary and therefore immoral.  

The hostesses for the Boxer fundraiser are listed as Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, neither one likely to be a supporter of the death penalty. Their invitation to contribute money to Boxer creates a real dilemma for anti-death Democrats. Should they contribute the requested $250-$1000, go to the event and tell Boxer that they’re shocked? Or should they perhaps boycott the event, and stand outside with tasteful signs saying why they’re not attending? My friend was so conflicted that she stopped handing out invitations while she thought about it, even though she’s already put her name on the sponsor list. I don’t know what she finally decided to do. 

We got a phone message from the Boxer campaign last week, asking for a repeat contribution. I returned the call and left an anti-death-penalty diatribe in the caller’s voice mailbox, asking to be taken off the contributor’s list, though I doubt that it will derail the Boxer campaign. On the other hand, it’s better than doing nothing. Those of you who have opinions on this matter might like to have the RSVP information for the Boxer campaign event. The campaign phone number is (415) 734-9040. Tell them, if you want, why you will or won’t be attending. 

—Becky O’Malley 

Wow. It looks like the aging but still potent Disney megacorp might finally have met its match. Here at the Daily Planet alone we got a bunch of letters expressing outrage about Disney’s decision to bar its subsidiary Miramax from distributing Michael Moore’s new movie Fahrenheit 911. It’s an expose of, among other things, the Bush family’s long history of palling around with the Bin Ladens of Saudi Arabia. (Yes, those Bin Ladens.) Hot stuff. The New York Times has already written an editorial denouncing Disney. Maureen Dowd has made a skewering comment in her column. FAIR, the very effective media criticism organization, has taken up the cause. The FAIR e-mail newsletter quotes Moore’s agent, Ari Emanuel, about the reason for Disney’s action: “According to Emanuel, he had a conversation last spring with Disney chief executive Michael Eisner, who asked him to cancel his deal with Miramax and ‘expressed particular concern that it would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush’s brother, Jeb, is governor.’” 

Well, maybe, but maybe not. Disney has owned a big hunk of Florida politics for a long time, and a little thing like a critical documentary probably won’t change that. The first magazine article I ever wrote, now about 25 years ago, was an expose of how Disney circumvented Florida’s environmental laws to build Disney World, mainly by acquiring a few legislators. It’s hard to believe that brother Jeb would get unbought just because of a little ol’ movie distribution deal.  

The Disney Corporation has a history of fighting long and hard for what it wants. Our beloved op-ed page comic strip author Dan O’Neill had an epic battle with Disney over whether he had the right to satirize Mickey Mouse. It’s almost enough to make one believe in the arcane branch of political thought which holds that corporations are living Frankenstein’s monsters, capable at the drop of a comma of running wild and devouring everything in their paths. It’s true that the big bad Disney Corporation legend has gone on for a long time. Many people who grew up in Los Angeles in the 40s and 50s knew cartoonists who were victims of the battles to unionize the Disney studio, which Disney won.  

But Michael Moore has won a few battles too. He relishes the role of David to the corporate Goliath, and is a master at rallying the supporting legions. This promises to be a worthy sequel to Dan O’Neill’s epic, and it should be fun to watch. 

—Becky O’Malley›