Berkeley Fire Chief Reginald Garcia, 56, called it quits Thursday in an e-mail to his fellow firefighters, announcing that on Sept. 17 he’ll leave the office he’s held for the last seven years. 

“I am officially announcing my planned retirement,” Garcia wrote. “It is with mixed emotion that I make this announcement.” 

Garcia was forced to make his decision known to his department after the rumor mill kicked into high gear with speculation about his plans, said one firefighter. 

Before coming to Berkeley, Garcia had been Oakland’s assistant fire chief in charge of operations, and he played a major role in the hills fire of 1991 and in the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. 

Garcia was no stranger to Berkeley, having attended Cal as an undergraduate in the 1960s and earning his M.B.A. here in 1984. 

He joined the Berkeley Fire Department in June, 1997, after retiring from his post in Oakland. He was one of 10 finalists selected from a nationwide search after Chief Gary Cates announced his retirement. 

“He’s been responsible for a number of big advancements here,” said Deputy Fire Chief David Orth. “All of the engines were replaced under his tenure, and we’ve made a lot of progress in disaster preparedness.” 

The Berkeley Fire Department includes 142 personnel staffing seven stations with a total of seven engines, two hook and ladder trucks, a hazardous materials truck and three ambulances.  

“During my time here as chief I have been fortunate to have worked with and been supported by the great Berkeley Fire Department family,” Garcia wrote. “Words cannot express how much this has meant to me or how much I will miss all of you.” 

Garcia said his decision wasn’t based on any personal conflicts or “any particular problem or incident. It is simply time for me to begin a new phase of my life.” 

The departing chief said he will continue to serve until Sept. 17. “Sometime within the next few days or weeks at most, I expect the city manager will announce plans for my successor,” he said. ?

Maudelle Shirek, the 93-year-old matriarch of Berkeley’s left, will face stiff competition from a former protégé this November when she seeks a tenth term on the City Council. 

Max Anderson, the outgoing chairperson of the Rent Stabilization Board and Shirek’s former appointee to the Planning Commission, told the Daily Planet he will challenge Shirek in Berkeley’s Third Council District. 

Anderson’s candidacy reveals mounting frustrations with Shirek among Berkeley progressives, many of whom revere her for her work in the civil rights movement and battling housing discrimination in Berkeley.  

In recent years, however, progressives have watched as Shirek’s attention span has appeared to waiver at council meetings and her voting record has closely mirrored those of more moderate councilmembers. 

While Shirek has faced competition in past elections, no candidate with Anderson’s pedigree has dared to challenge her. 

“It’s not an easy thing to do,” Anderson said. “I’ve always deferred to Maudelle’s leadership in the community.” 

Anderson said he had waited eight years for the chance to succeed Shirek, who has served on the council since 1984, but with Shirek intent on standing for re-election, he decided his time was now. “I thought things weren’t getting better in the district and I could step up and hopefully offer more energetic representation,” he said. 

Aware that challenging a Berkeley icon will require a deft political touch, Anderson, a registered nurse who moved to Berkeley 19 years ago, said he wouldn’t criticize Shirek during the campaign. 

“I’m not running against Maudelle, I’m running for the seat,” he said. 

Shirek’s office declined to comment for this story. 

Some progressives have been urging Anderson to run for months. Earlier this year, they held informal meetings at the public library to gauge his interest in becoming a candidate. 

Councilmember Dona Spring, one of Anderson’s biggest supporters, said the time had come for Shirek to step down. 

“Maudelle deserves a lot of kudos for her legacy, but now is the time to make a change,” Spring said. “She’s been much more of a moderate vote the past couple of years.” 

The famed progressive/moderate divide on the council has blurred in recent years. Spring and Kriss Worthington, the two most progressive members of the council, have at times found themselves with little support among their colleagues. 

But the progressive mantle could end up a burden for Anderson. Some neighborhood groups have been skeptical of progressive politicians who they fault for dumping unwanted city services into their neighborhoods and failing to take a tough stance on crime. 

Although candidates for the November election cannot formally declare until July 13, Anderson is one of several who have filed non-binding statements of intent to run or have taken out papers in lieu of filing. Joining him in District Three is Jeffrey Benefiel. 

In District Two, also expected to be a competitive race, only Peralta Community College District Trustee Darryl Moore has filed a statement of intent. Mel Martynn, an aide to District 2 Councilmember Margaret Breland, said Wednesday that Breland had not decided whether or not to run for re-election.  

Councilmember Betty Olds is the only candidate to file a statement of intent to run in District 6. 

In District 5, where Councilmember Miriam Hawley is not running for re-election, Jesse Townley (a punk rock singer and secretary of punk venue 924 Gilman), as well as Hawley’s preferred successor, Zoning Adjustment Board commissioner Laurie Capitelli, have both filed letters of intent.  

Both incumbent school board members, John Selawsky and Joaquin Rivera, intend to run for re-election. Karen Hemphill, a parent at Washington Elementary School and the Emeryville town clerk, and Merrilie Mitchell have filed letters of intent to challenge them. Mitchell, however, said she doesn’t plan to formally enter the race. 

Candidates have until Aug. 9 to file nomination papers. 

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In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the City of Berkeley does have the right to demand businesses at the marina pay their workers a living wage. 

The decision was the latest in an ongoing battle between the city, proponents of the living wage, and Skates by the Bay restaurant, which has objected to the city’s attempt to impose the living wage law. 

The court’s decision can now be appealed by Skates’ parent company, RUI One Corporation, to a hearing en banc, which would place the case in front of an 11 judge Ninth Circuit Court, or directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

According to RUI One Corporation’s attorney, Zachary Wasserman, of Wendell, Rosen & Black LLP, the company is currently “analyzing what to do now,” but is “disappointed with the results” of the court’s ruling. 

The living wage ordinance in question was originally passed by the city in June of 2000 and forced employers doing business with the city or leasing property from the city to pay their employees a living wage, which at the time was determined to be $9.75 per hour plus an additional $1.62 if the employer did not cover health benefits. The amount has subsequently been raised to $10.75 with benefits, or $12.55 without. 

The law was amended in September 2000 to include businesses in the marina zone which employed six or more employees and generated $350,000 or more in annual gross receipts. The City Council said they included the marina because it is public trust land and wanted to ensure businesses were not able to exploit the privilege of using the land, while receiving city resources, and then escape the duty of paying their employees a living wage. 

The fight for a living wage and then the subsequent marina amendment have been brought to the City Council by the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), a non-profit organization made up labor, community, and faith-based organizations concerned with poverty and economic equity in the East Bay. 

Skates by the Bay has become the focal point of the fight because other Berkeley Marina businesses including Hs Lordship’s and the Radisson Hotel have unionized labor. 

RUI has argued that the city’s attempt to impose the living wage law at the marina creates an unconstitutional change of the 50-year lease between RUI and the city. But according to city attorney Manuela Albuquerque, the Ninth Circuit court found that the ordinance did not change the lease, and instead showed the lease holds the business subject to city law. 

RUI also argued before the Ninth Circuit that the law created a denial of equal protection, claiming that the marina was being singled out. Because the city cited their contributions to the marina as part of the reason for demanding a living wage, RUI argued that all other areas in Berkeley that have also received city money for improvement and development should be held to the same standards, such as the fourth street area. 

The court did not uphold this argument either, stating, “It is more than reasonable that the city should expect marina businesses, which receive so many benefits from the city in the form of improvements and lack of competition due to the development moratorium, and which operate on land held in the public trust, to contribute to the welfare of the surrounding community and not to exacerbate its problems.”  

The third and final argument, which was also overturned by the court, was a claim of denial of due process. 

The Ninth Circuit decision is not the first one won by the city. Back in March 2001, the city also won a decision in a U.S. District Court that upheld the city’s right to impose the living wage. According to city Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, that decision allowed the city to demand the restaurant comply or have their contract terminated.  

But through an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court, she said, the restaurant forced the city to stay their ability to enforce the lease provision. In the meantime, however, the U.S. District Court has forced the restaurant to pay the difference between current wages and living wage wages into escrow until the case is officially finished.  

According to Wasserman, RUI’s attorney, the amount paid into escrow each year before the living wage was recently raised was around $121,000 a year. Since it has been raised, he estimated that amount to be around $135,000 a year. Martha Benitez, the lead organizer with EBASE, said she suspects that the amount is even more.  

Many cheered the decision by the Ninth Circuit but have said they know the battle could continue if RUI appeals. Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the councilmember who introduced the original living wage proposal to council, said the decision helps build momentum for those fighting for a living wage around the country. 

“I think a living wage should be the policy for employees in the whole country,” he said. “Winning this one little part of Berkeley is one small step for having a living wage for employees in Berkeley and beyond. It’s not a giant victory, but it’s one small step.” 

Benitez from EBASE said the decision is a positive step in a fight that she says is more about big business than legal technicalities. 

“The fight has been really about a multi-billion dollar national corporation refusing and denying their employees the right to a living wage,” she said. “Basically this a huge company that with impunity since 2001 has taken it upon themselves to break the law.”  

“We are very pleased about the decision because it sets yet another strong president for the living wage movement. It defends the right of the city to expect some minimum standards and decent wages from their corporate citizens.” 

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Last Saturday, Assemblymember Loni Hancock, in partnership with the Greenbelt Alliance, the East Bay Community Foundation, AC Transit, and Caltrans, kicked off a public campaign/planning process whose goal is to make San Pablo Avenue, in Hancock’s words, “a world-class boulevard.”  

In the morning, about 60 people, mostly public officials, attended a by-invitation-only briefing session in San Pablo at Contra Costa College. The group then boarded an AC Transit Bus for a guided tour of San Pablo Avenue south to its terminus in Oakland. The afternoon featured a community meeting and “envisioning workshop” attended by about 100 people from the nine cities—Hercules, Pinole, San Pablo, Richmond, El Cerrito, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville and Oakland—traversed by the 20-mile long street.  

The day-long event was designed to introduce the San Pablo Corridor Project to its stakeholders and to sample local sentiment at an early stage in the undertaking. I was able to attend only the 90-minute morning briefing (on a press pass). The three speakers at that session—Hancock, the Greenbelt Alliance’s Lisa Schiller Tehrani, and Caltrans consultant and Oakland architect Phil Erickson—all cited as inspiration the tenets of Smart Growth and the New Urbanism. 

To wit: If we want to revitalize our cities and to preserve open space and farmland, we need to end sprawl and lose our dependence on the private automobile. The way to do this is through transit-oriented development. Which means beefing up—or in many suburban locales, instituting—ample public transit on heavily traveled streets. At the same time, we ought to be concentrating new businesses and residences on or near those streets, bringing people closer to their jobs and shopping and thus enabling them to cut their commute time. To achieve the population needed to support the expanded transit and retail, we should zone the areas along and adjacent to transit corridors for greater density.  

Transit underpins everything else here. One reason, then, that the backers of the San Pablo Corridor Project think their chosen street is ripe for a Smart Growth/New Urbanist makeover is that even as AC Transit has been losing riders systemwide, patronage along San Pablo has recently increased seven percent. A major factor in this growth is the inauguration last June of AC Transit’s 72 Rapid Bus, an express line that, by making only 21 stops on San Pablo Avenue between Oakland and the city of San Pablo, covers the same distance as the prior Limited bus service in 17 percent less time.  

These are impressive figures. But Assemblywoman Hancock and her partners want people to feel as good about getting off the bus as they do about getting on. They’re looking to make San Pablo Avenue a stretch of urbanity as vibrant as the Ramblas in Barcelona. To that end, their vision of a new and improved corridor includes trees and other plantings, public art, street furniture, inviting bus shelters, plazas, gateway monuments and back-of-the-building parking. “We want bread and roses,” says Hancock. 

That’s a mighty appealing formula. Nevertheless, the presentations at Contra Costa College left me feeling apprehensive as well as intrigued. What stirred my misgivings was the sense that the backers of the San Pablo Corridor Project are as yet insufficiently attuned to the redeeming particulars of the place as it now exists—at least in Berkeley.  

To be sure, “[m]aintaining a strong sense of the history and character of the local community” was one of the major themes of the “envisioning” process. And, it’s to be hoped, on the bus tour, which I missed, that theme got fleshed out in relation to specific venues. 

But what was missing from the morning briefing was an adequate acknowledgment that the San Pablo Corridor Project is likely to create gentrification, bringing higher land values, higher rents, and ultimately the forced displacement of those who can no longer afford to stay.  

If this scenario comes to pass, Berkeley’s portion of San Pablo Avenue’s 20 miles will be diminished, not enhanced. For the truth is that the street is already one of the most interesting and vital thoroughfares in town. To paraphrase a song that Alice Stuart used to sing at Freight and Salvage (when it was still on San Pablo), our piece of the avenue is in large part funky but clean, home to destination establishments small and large—the Japanese tool shop, the Ecology Center, East Bay Nursery, the custom-made coat shop, the lighting store—to name just a few. All are there not in spite of, but because of the “underutilized” (as developers like to say) nature of the property they inhabit.  

While gentrification and its discontents were barely mentioned on Saturday morning, another related issue—local resistance to “densification”— got more attention. “We want development on the street to be a good neighbor,” said Caltrans consultant Phil Erickson. This salutary sentiment, however, was accompanied by a characterization of neighbors as ignorant and/or irrational when it comes to increasing height and density. Erickson told of quelling objections to the proposed height of a project on San Pablo in Berkeley by pointing out to local residents that “some of the trees might be violating the height limit,” as if the height of a tree and a building were equivalent. “Through design,” he said, “we need to work with people to not be afraid of density.”  

That assurance was not enough for Berkeley developer Ali Kashani, who raised the most pointed question of the morning. Referring to the current efforts to implement the University Avenue Strategic Plan, Kashani observed that a major issue was the transition between four- and five-story buildings on University and single-story homes behind them. Developers, he said, can’t afford to incorporate rear setbacks, and neighbors don’t want four-story walls towering over their backyards. What’s the solution?  

“It’s possible,” said Erickson hopefully, “that residential units on the other side of the block are rentals in decline that will create other opportunities.” In other words: When the neighbors are just tenants, they will have less rights in the matter. “Not in Albany,” murmured the two Albany City Councilwomen who were sitting next to me. Not in Berkeley, either. 

In this context, it was disconcerting to hear Assemblymember Hancock ask, “How can we extend our view past our own zoning ordinance and our own piece of the pie and make a street that exemplifies the New Urbanism?”  

When I asked her about this comment a few days later, Hancock said that she “did not mean that everybody should rewrite their zoning laws.” What she meant, she explained, is that she’d like the people living along the San Pablo corridor to suspend their assumptions long enough to contemplate some alternatives to “the planning that we’ve all done.” Not necessarily legal alternatives. “This is not a governmental effort to regulate people,” she said, “as much as it is an effort get people thinking about what a world-class boulevard would be like.” She noted that on Saturday she herself had expressed concern about the relation of building heights to street width. Her thought, she said, was to begin the revitalization of San Pablo with some “easy things” like street trees and public art.  

I’m hoping that Hancock’s partners in the San Pablo Corridor Project share her perspective. That would go a long way toward earning the community goodwill that will be necessary to make their dream of a world-class boulevard a true urban success story.  

Zelda Bronstein served on the Berkeley Planning Commission from 1997 to 2004.ª

Notification is the lifeblood of community participation. On this score, the organizers of last Saturday’s community workshop on San Pablo Avenue revitalization had good intentions. They hoped to involve the community in the early stages of the project rather than, as is too often the case, bringing them in near the end when all the important decisions had already been made. Hence workshop organizers made a serious effort at community outreach, mailing out 510 letters to community-based organizations in or within a mile of San Pablo.  

It’s odd, then, that neither the Berkeley Association of Neighborhood Associations (BANA) nor the Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) nor Plan Berkeley—all of whom have members who have been intensely involved in high-visibility planning issues around San Pablo Avenue in recent years—were invited to the event. Representatives of each of these groups say that they would have participated had they known about the workshop beforehand. Invitations did get sent out to other groups associated with San Pablo Avenue. And many groups whose interests lie far afield—such as Campus Drive Neighbors, the Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Association (TONA), and the Downtown Berkeley Association—were also asked to attend. A friend of mine who lives near Indian Rock and belongs to no neighborhood association at all got a notice in the mail.  

Granted, when the item on the agenda is something as big as revitalizing San Pablo Avenue, it makes good sense to cast a very wide net. The net cast in Berkeley for last Saturday’s community meeting was certainly wide enough; the problem was that it had some conspicuous holes.  

According to Kristin Warren, the Sacramento-based consultant whose firm, Jones & Stokes, facilitated Caltrans’ public outreach on the San Pablo Corridor Project, “planning departments from each city along the corridor were contacted for more information about neighborhood associations along San Pablo Avenue.” Warren noted that “staff from the Berkeley Planning Department’s Land Use Division provided contact information about neighborhood organizations in Berkeley.” At the workshop itself, 16 of the 73 people who signed the voluntary sign-up sheet were from Berkeley. They included “several area residents as well as representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, the city government, the Transportation Commission, the City Council, and various other community-based organizations.”  

How did BANA, CNA, and Plan Berkeley get left out of the loop? Part of the answer has to do with the badly outdated list of community organizations maintained by the city. The invitation to the Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Association, for example, went to the home address of a former president of the group who hasn’t held the office since fall 2000. Since then, I myself have been president of TONA and have repeatedly asked city staff to be listed as such in the city’s directory, to no avail. I’ve given up asking.  

The Berkeley Planning Department is also at fault here. It’s not clear whether Land Use Planning Manager Mark Rhoades was contacted by Jones & Stokes, or if so, whom he might have contacted in his office. In any case, Rhoades needs to make sure that in the future, what happened last Saturday doesn’t happen again, and that everyone in town who needs to know about events such as the San Pablo Corridor community meeting and workshop finds out about them in a timely manner. And how about notifying the Planning Commission, which was also left in the dark about last Saturday’s proceedings?  

3

After some discussion and parliamentary confusion, the Berkeley Housing Authority board Tuesday night passed both a budget and a reorganization plan proposed by the city housing director. In addition, the authority learned that it was in better financial shape than previously believed. 

The authority, which oversees the city’s stock of public housing and manages the federal Section 8 housing program, received welcome news this week from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

After dire warnings from a HUD-appointed consultant that the federal agency was not going to fund any of the authority’s 1,841 Section 8 housing vouchers that weren’t leased before last August, HUD announced it would in fact provide funding. 

Under Section 8, a tenant pays 30 percent of monthly income and HUD provides the balance to the housing authority, which then pays the entire monthly rent to the landlord. Had HUD withheld voucher payments, the housing authority could have been forced to drop people off the program.  

HUD funding will come in at nearly $10 less per month for the average Section 8 rental, resulting in a $196,000 deficit. However, Berkeley will be permitted to use its money in a HUD reserve account to meet the shortfall. 

HUD did deliver some bad news. The agency will follow through with a previously-proposed 13 percent reduction in annual administration fees offered to housing authorities. The cut will cost the Berkeley Housing Authority $73,000 this year and $212,000 in fiscal year 2005, according to City Housing Director Steve Barton.  

Despite the fee reduction, the BHA projects a year-end $31,000 surplus for fiscal year 2004. 

That’s good news for the Housing Authority, which last month was the target of a scathing report from HUD. A consultant for the federal agency found that the authority was mismanaged, poorly staffed, and on the brink of insolvency. 

In responding to the consultant’s report and diminishing HUD resources, Barton proposed a staffing reorganization that would have shuttled three clerks to different city jobs and eventually have added a new employee who could help over-worked housing representatives oversee the voucher program. 

However, Barton never had an opportunity to run the plan through the clerks’ union—SEIU Local 535—and at Tuesday’s meeting, a union member raised concerns to the housing authority’s board, comprised of the City Council and representatives Pinkie Payne and Zelda Clark. 

Worried about the union jobs and the lack of time to consider the proposal, the board voted 7-6 (Spring, Worthington Breland Shirek, Clark and Payne, yes) not to accept the authority’s staffing chart that accompanied its $3 million budget. 

Barton, however, warned that the authority couldn’t implement its HUD-required reforms without approval of its proposed reorganization. 

“I would like to remind everybody of the consultant’s recommendation that the manager of the housing authority be allowed to manage the housing authority and let there be a minimum of interference in that management,” he said 

Councilmember Maudelle Shirek quickly offered a motion to reconsider the vote, and in a confusing roll call, where two members accidentally voted against their previous vote, the housing authority board reversed itself. Then by a 7-6 margin, with Shirek casting the deciding vote, the board approved both the BHA’s budget and organizational restructuring.

The City Council Tuesday formally kicked off a drive to welcome UC Berkeley into its “tax paying family.” 

In a four-hour session filled with lots of talk and few concrete actions, the council also bandied about ideas to soften planned budget cuts for city nonprofits, fine-tuned tax measures expected to go before voters in November, passed a series of fee hikes, unanimously approved the long-awaited Hills Fire Station, and adopted a resolution calling for the state and federal governments to amend their constitutions to limit the rights of corporations. 

Tuesday marked the council’s first chance to discuss a city-commissioned report released last week that put an $11 million price tag on UC Berkeley’s exemption from city taxes and assessments. 

UC contests the fiscal impact report’s findings and methodology. Speaking to the council Tuesday, Vice Chancellor of Capital Projects Edward Denton questioned how the report could conclude that UC costs to the city rose over 600 percent for sewer services, 300 percent for fire services and 200 percent for police services since a previous study in 1989, when the consumer price index (CPI) during the past 15 years rose only 48 percent. 

Jason Moody of Environmental Planning Specialists, Inc., the consulting firm that prepared both reports, replied that costs to the city have increased by more than the CPI and that the new report is more comprehensive than its predecessor. 

While Councilmember Gordon Wozniak said hosting UC definitely costs the city money, he agreed with university officials that the city study used flawed methodology. 

“Some of the assumptions in this model are not justifiable at all,” Wozniak said. “We need to get a bottom line we can seriously defend.” 

One of the more glaring inconsistencies Wozniak said he found was that in estimating the cost of UC commuters to the city, the report assumed they would be on campus 365 days a year, but in determining the tax revenue they would provide, the report assumed they would come to Berkeley only 250 days a year. 

Other councilmembers praised the report as a good starting point for negotiations. 

“You can quibble with a few things, but you can’t contest that the city is subsidizing the university,” Councilmember Miriam Hawley said. 

Assistant City Manager Arrietta Chakos said both the city and university have selected negotiating teams that will start meeting next week to hammer out an agreement for university mitigations. 

The city’s fiscal impact study was timed to coincide with the release of UC Berkeley’s 2020 Long Range Development Plan, which, much to the city’s chagrin, projects large increases in new buildings, parking lots and student dorms. 

City Planning Director Dan Marks said Berkeley’s formal response to the UC Plan wouldn’t be available until Friday, June 18, the deadline for submitting comments to the university’s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) that accompanies the plan. 

Mayor Tom Bates, who has urged the city not to take too hard a line against the university, asked to view the city’s response before Friday, but was told by Marks and City Manager Phil Kamlarz that it wouldn’t be ready and that past mayors haven’t been given an opportunity to sign off on similar documents. 

Marks said he believed the city had raised enough valid concerns in the report to force the university to recirculate its DEIR for the plan prior to bringing it to the UC Board of Regents for approval it in November. 

On the budget, the council will leave the final wrangling over cuts to community nonprofits for next week when it’s scheduled to adopt a budget that will erase a $10.3 million shortfall. 

A proposal from Mayor Tom Bates that would use one-time money to partially restore funding to numerous nonprofits for six months appears likely to be approved. Councilmember Dona Spring urged adding to the mayor’s proposal with money for creek restoration, traffic circles and more nonprofits. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington called for more money for independent arts groups and street festivals. He also wanted a report on how much overtime expenses the city would face if it follows through on its plan to cut 88 vacant positions. 

At its 5 p.m. work session on Tuesday, the council moved forward with four tax measures for the November ballot. As they stand now, the measures include a 1.5 percent increase in the Utility Users Tax (projected to add $2.7 million for general fund programs over four years), a $1.9 million increase in the Library Tax to erase the deficit in the library fund, a $2.2 million increase in the property transfer tax to fund youth-related programs, and a tax of either $1 million or $1.2 million to erase the deficit in the city’s paramedic fund. The extra $200,000 would pay for enhanced life support capacity. 

The council also approved fee hikes for ambulance use, fire inspection, marina use, false alarms for burglaries and holdups and animal adoptions. In all, the fees will add about $300,000 to the city’s general fund, most of which has already been budgeted.+

MIAMI—If José Miguel Pizarro has his way, he will recruit 30,000 Chileans as mercenaries to protect American companies under Pentagon contract to rebuild Iraq. And undoubtedly, within those ranks will be former members of death squads that tortured and murdered civilians when dictatorships ruled in Latin America.  

“There is no comparison with what they can earn in the active military or working in civilian jobs, and what we offer,” José Miguel Pizarro, Chile’s leading recruiter for international security firms, says. “This is an opportunity that few in Chile can afford to pass up.”  

Pizarro’s firm, Servicios Integrales, was contracted by Blackwater USA to recruit the first batch of Chileans in November 2003. By May 2004 he had placed 5,200 men who, after one week of training in Santiago, head to North Carolina for orientation with Blackwater, the private security firm that made headlines when four of its employees where killed in Falluja, their bodies mutilated and hung from a bridge. After training, Blackwater flies the men to Kuwait City to await their assignments in Iraq. 

As democratic governments were voted into office throughout Latin America in the 1990s, Latin militaries were downsized. Thousands of military officers lost their jobs.  

“This is a way of continuing our military careers,” Carlos Wamgnet, 30, explained in a phone interview from Kuwait while awaiting his assignment in Iraq. “In civilian life in Chile I was making $1,800 a month. Here I can earn a year’s pay in six weeks. It’s worth the risks.”  

At 30, Wamgnet is too young to have participated in any crime of the Pinochet regime. But not all the Chileans in Iraq are guiltless. Newspapers in Chile have estimated that approximately 37 Chileans in Iraq are seasoned veterans of the Pinochet era. Government officials in Santiago are alarmed that men who enjoy amnesty in Chile—provided they remain in “retirement” from their past military activities—are now in Iraq.  

In an interview with the Santiago-based daily newspaper La Tercera, Chilean Defense Minister Michelle Bachelet stated that Chilean “mercenaries for American firms doing business in Iraq” may be subject to “arrest or detention in third countries,” a reference to recent arrests in Spain and Mexico of South Americans with war-crimes pasts. South American media report that Chileans have requested travel from Chile to the United States and then directly to the Middle East, to bypass Mexico and the European Union. 

The thousands of Chileans in Iraq have been nicknamed “the penguins” by American and South African soldiers for hire, a reference both to Chile’s proximity to the South Pole and the fact that many Chilean mercenaries are of mixed race.  

Not everyone in Chile is opposed to the presence in Iraq of former Chilean army members. “It is true that the majority [of Chilean recruits] see this as an opportunity to earn money,” La Tercera columnist Mauricio Aguirre wrote. “But it is also an opportunity for our soldiers to prove themselves on the ground, and to put to use the skills for which they trained in the Armed Forces over the years.” 

“Blackwater USA has sent recruiters to Chile, Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Guatemala for one specific reason alone,” said an intelligence officer in Kuwait who requested anonymity. “All these countries experienced dirty wars‚ and they have military men well-trained in dealing with internal subversives. They are well-versed in extracting confessions from prisoners.”  

As the security situation in Iraq deteriorated in the spring of 2004, more “dedicated recruiting” began.  

Though Chile is in vigorous debate about the role of military servicemen becoming hired guns in Iraq, in Argentina there is virtual silence. Several Argentine mercenaries have made their way to the United States to meet with American security firms before heading to Iraq.  

“No one wants to discuss what is becoming clear,” says Mario Podestá, 51, an independent Argentine journalist. “I know of seven military officers responsible for disappearing opponents of the dictatorship” who are now in Iraq.  

During Argentina’s “Dirty Wars,” opponents of the military regime were “disappeared” (abducted), tortured and then killed.  

Podesta spoke to this reporter in early April. He was in Jordan preparing to travel by road to Baghdad, along with Mariana Verónica Cabrera, 28, an Argentine camerawoman.  

“I want to find these men,” he said of the Argentine Dirty War criminals he had identified as being mercenaries in Iraq.  

It was not to be. Podestá and Cabrera were killed, along with their Iraqi driver, in an automobile accident before reaching Baghdad. 

Å

Sweeps and detentions of undocumented immigrants far from the Mexican border have sparked “hysteria,” “terror,” and “panic” in Southern California Latino communities, according to recent Spanish-language media headlines.  

With fear of the U.S. Border Patrol still rippling through Inland Empire cities in Southern California, Spanish-language media—the main news source for many recent immigrants—are caught in a dilemma. While eager to inform, media outlets also are concerned about needlessly fueling hysteria or serving as megaphones for the rumor mill.  

“’La Migra’ (immigration authorities) has become this bogeyman that is everywhere,” says Orlando Ramírez, editor of the Spanish-language weekly La Prensa in Riverside, Calif. “There is an unnecessary fear being fueled by radio and some TV and print media. As a journalist, I don’t want to make something more dramatic than it is. We’re trying to provide accurate information so people don’t get frightened.” 

Sweeps of the kind that took place June 4 and 5 in the Inland Empire cities of Ontario and Corona have not been reported for six or seven years, he says. “The INS says it’s a matter of homeland security. That’s bullshit. These are just working people.” 

Hector Villagra, counsel for the Los Angeles office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), told the Press-Enterprise, the English-language daily parent newspaper of the Spanish weekly La Prensa, that the Border Patrol must have a reason to suspect people of being undocumented before stopping them for questioning beyond 100 miles of the border. 

The same June 11 article quotes Rep. Joe Baca, a Democrat from Rialto, Calif., describing the sweeps as illegal because they single out Latinos, who comprise 40 percent of the Inland Empire’s population. Protestors marched from Ontario to Pomona on June 13, calling the interior sweeps “racial profiling.” 

Raúl Villareal, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman, confirmed that 410 people have been detained in the raids since June 4, and warned operations would continue, the Los Angeles daily La Opinión reported on June 16. 

La Opinión, the largest Spanish-language paper in the country, has avoided reporting on every rumored raid as fact. On June 15, the paper noted that it received reports of detentions in Pomona, Ontario, Perris and the San Fernando Valley, but it scrupulously added that the U.S. Border Patrol officially denied being in those areas. 

Meanwhile, some editors at Latino newspapers criticized Spanish-language radio stations for failing to verify the validity of sightings and indiscriminately broadcasting call-ins by people who said they had seen “La Migra.” 

The Border Patrol says it has stopped its sweeps in the Inland Empire, the region east of Los Angeles that includes Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and that for now it is only conducting raids in neighboring San Diego County. But sightings of “La Migra” continue to pour into Spanish-language radio stations from throughout Southern California.  

“The position that we have taken is to provide (general) information” such as legal advice, says Vicki Bails, general manager of Lazer Broadcasting’s Spanish-language radio stations KXSV, KXRS, KBTW and KCAL based in San Bernardino. 

José Gadea, a DJ for a Spanish-language FM radio station in San Diego, says the number of calls the station receives from frightened listeners who have spotted immigration agents has increased from one or two phone calls a day to 10 to 15 a day. 

The station’s morning call-in show informs people of reported sightings and warns them to bring their documents with them. “Our only purpose is to open the phone lines,” he says. He adds that 99.9% of the time they can tell the sighting is real because many people report it. 

“The radio reflects what is happening in the community,” he says. “Right now the community is very worried.” 

Ruddy Bravo, publisher of El Sol in Fontana, Calif., says that unlike print media, live radio lacks the time to put a story together and verify sources and may sometimes be putting out erroneous information. Still, Bravo, who used to work in radio, says stations do have a duty to report sightings of immigration agents or U.S. Border Patrol officers.  

“Even though (radio) may be seen as alarmist, the fact is these detentions are happening and it’s not a bad thing to inform residents of what’s going on in the community,” he says.  

Meanwhile, “shock jocks” on English-language radio stations in Los Angeles and some anti-immigration websites have sought to capitalize on the confusion and fear by encouraging listeners to make phone calls to immigrant rights groups.  

Some DJs gave out the number for Hermandad Mexicana Nacional in Ontario, Calif., one of the organizers of a protest against the raids. The organization has received hundreds of offensive phone calls from anti-immigrant listeners.  

As rumors fly, the panic has cooled local economies. Businesses have seen a drop in sales as a result of the sweeps; the fear has kept many residents indoors, the Los Angeles-based immigrant voting organization PROVOTO told Univision Online on June 15.  

“Stores were empty, public transportation nearly empty, and many children were missing from school, because the community is panicked that the patrol could detain them if they leave to go shopping or take their kids to class,” reported PROVOTO. 

La Prensa’s Ramírez says Spanish-language media needs to exercise discipline when covering stories like the Inland Empire raids.  

He believes editors must think carefully about whether they are “providing accurate information or just adding to the hysteria.” V

Sisters Held in 1970 Killing of Berkeley Police Officer 

Two sisters—one said to be a substitute teacher in the Berkeley Unified School District—were in Berkeley City Jail Thursday, charged as accessories in the 34-year-old murder of a Berkeley policeman. 

Joyce Gaskin and Joy Hall, both Oakland residents, surrendered to police Tuesday after warrants were issued for their arrests in connection with the Aug. 20, 1970, slaying of Officer Ron Tsukamoto, BPD’s first Japanese-American officer and the first Berkeley policeman slain in the line of duty. 

Each was held in lieu of posting $250,000 bail.  

The arrests follow the May 24 arrest of Don Juan Graphenreed in his Fresno jail cell on charges of murder and conspiracy to murder in the Tsukamoto murder. 

The charges against Graphenreed, who was jailed on an unrelated burglary charge, were dropped two days later in a joint decision by Berkeley Police and the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. 

Graphenreed remains a suspect, police said. 

Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies said the two sisters currently face one charge each of violating California Penal Code section 22, which identifies accessories to a crime as anyone who knowingly harbors, aids, or conceals a felon. 

Okies said he could offer no more information about where Joyce Hall has taught in Berkeley. 

Published reports have linked Graphenreed and the two women with Black Panther activists during an era when inflammatory rhetoric was erupting in both the minority and law enforcement communities. 

Berkeley Man Charged in Kidnap, Sexual Assault  

A 45-year-old Berkeley man was charged with kidnap and assault with intent to commit rape after he grabbed a girl at Dwight Way and San Pablo Avenue shortly after 10 p.m. Monday. 

“The juvenile was walking into a store when he tried to abduct her,” said Officer Okies. 

The young woman was unharmed. 

Trio Charged with Serious Felonies 

Berkeley Police serving a search warrant on a residence at Blake and Milvia Streets Tuesday afternoon recovered quantities of rock cocaine packaged for sale, firearms, and a bulletproof vest—the latter a felony for a suspect on probation. A probation violation charge was also added to the mix. 

Two of the suspects were 24 years old and the third was a month shy of 21. ?

Council to Discuss Hotel Task Force Report 

The UC Hotel Task Force report, a document hammered out by a Planning Commission subcommittee and a panel of representatives of community interest groups, heads to the Berkeley City Council next Tuesday. 

Votes of the planning and transportation commissions have already endorsed forwarding the document to the university and its developer, and City Manager Phil Kamlarz has concurred. 

The final say is up to the council. 

The university plans a massive hotel, convention center and museums complex for the two-square block downtown Berkeley site between Shattuck Avenue and Oxford Street and between Center Street and University Avenue. 

The city Landmarks Preservation Commission voted last week to landmark two buildings in the project site. 

Nobelist Takes The Reins at LBNL 

UC Regents Thursday picked Stanford physics professor Steven Chu to run the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The appointment was approved by U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. 

UC President Robert C. Dynes said Chu will take over from outgoing director Charles V. Shank on August 1. 

Chu is no stranger to the Berkeley campus, where he earned his doctorate. But it was at Stanford where he won his Nobel Prize, shared with two other physicists, for developing ways to cool and trap atoms with lasers.  

The new LBNL head chaired the Stanford Physics Department from 1990 to 1993 and again from 1999 to 2003. 

Residents Face Parking Permit Re-Up Time 

While Residential Preferential Parking Permits (RPPs) are to Berkeley parking ticket dispensers like garlic to a vampire, the current crop is fading fast. 

To avoid those ever-present uniformed folk in their ubiquitous motorized tricycles, it’s time to buy a fresh RPP. Those who wait beyond July 6 will soon find crops of green envelopes sprouting beneath their windshield wipers. 

Existing RPP-holders should’ve received renewal forms, but for anyone who hasn’t, a trip to the city Customer Service Center at 1947 Center St. is in order. 

For more information, call 981-7200 or see www.cityofberkeley.info/finance/residentialparking.html. 

Clif Bar Founder Hands Over Helm 

Gary Erickson, founder and CEO of Berkeley’s Clif Bar Inc. has resigned as CEO, handing the helm to Sheryl O’Loughlin, who joined the firm in 1998 as brand executive vice president. 

Erickson, 46, founded the energy and nutritional food firm in 1992. He said he will devote his new free time to new product development, package design, and spreading the corporate story. 

He and his spouse Kathleen Crawford will also focus more on the firm’s corporate philanthropy. 

—Richard Brenneman

Two of the G Street regulars sat on their plastic milk crates on a summer afternoon, sipped from their cans of Budweiser, and watched an old Buick pass by. The engine sputtered, the car lurched, then died. The driver got out, one of those tiny ball-pene hammers clutched in one fist. He hiked the hood, peered into the engine well for a moment, and then—with a big overhand swing—gave the engine block a mighty lick with the hammer. The driver closed the hood, got back in the car, started the motor, and pulled off. He went about a half a block before the engine sputtered, the car lurched, and then died again. The driver got out, lifted the hood, and gave the engine block another whack with the hammer. As the driver was getting back in the car, one of the streetside observers took a sip of beer, sucked his teeth, and muttered, “Lookit that ass-backwards son-of a bitch. He’ll never get it fixed, that way.” 

“How you figure he should do it?” his friend asked. 

“Obvious,” the first man sniffed. “How’s he gonna work anything with that little ball-pene? He need him a bigger hammer.” 

Thus does Oakland—having so far failed to solve the problem of violence among its dark-skinned youth with its existing force of police—looks to effect the cure by hiring more cops. 

The mistake is that we have treated this as a law enforcement situation, whereas in most cases, we’re facing a social problem. And so we reach for the wrong tool, as if making a bigger mistake this time around will somehow alter the original outcome. 

Need examples? Let’s dredge up the usual ones. 

In the spring of 2003, violence broke out in the late afternoon and early evening among young African-American latecomers to the popular Carijama Festival at Mosswood Park in Northwest Oakland, just as it had at the festival the year before. Everyone—police, politicians, and festival organizers—agreed that the violence was centered around young people who did not participate in the main festival activities...in fact, who had not even been present most of the day. In fact, the festival itself has always been a lovely, lively family-friendly event. In response to the continuing problems, Oakland adopted a wall-city response. The police forced Carijama to be moved this year from its longtime Mosswood Park home and down to the Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall, where police said they could better provide security. More cops. More security. More violence. In fact, the 2004 Carijama troubles reportedly almost escalated into a mini-riot, with police lobbing tear-gas grenades into the crowds to break them up. 

So what is the result? Oakland police officials—with some support at City Hall—are now advocating that Carijama be shut down altogether, just as the popular Festival At The Lake was shut down under similar circumstances more than a decade ago. Many observers are merely putting their hands in the air and proclaiming, “What else can we do? We can’t stop the violence. We can’t stop these kids from acting up.” 

For starters, on the theory that it’s difficult to prevent something you don’t understand, Oakland needs to find out exactly how the Carijama violence happened during the last three years, and why. For a city so plagued by violence, and where violence is so often the subject of our public discourse, Oakland is remarkably uninterested in conducting investigations into its causes. And for the record, statements to the media by police officials—some of whom may be interested in justifying their own actions—do not constitute an investigation. A City Council public hearing into the causes of the Carijama violence—especially including testimony from citizens (both youth and adult) who observed the events—would seem to be in order. 

Meanwhile, just off the top of our heads, there are two suggestions the city might consider: 

• Take the young folks at their word that there is little for African-American and Latino youth to do in Oakland, and provide some alternatives. One idea would be to revive the long-dormant proposal for legalized sideshows in the city, to be held in sanctioned venues. For two years, now, the city has been sitting on proposals from licensed promoters to put together such events in Oakland. The promoters have indicated that they would be willing to put up the venues and negotiate the insurance for such legalized sideshows, while partnering with local organizers—the young folks who started the street sideshows. Such sanctioned, legalized sideshows would have a threefold purpose: They would provide recreation outlets for a good portion of the city’s youth population, they would help develop a new class of local youth entrepreneurs (of which Oakland is desperately in need), and they would be a source of new tax revenue for the cash-strapped city. 

While Oakland diddles around on the legalized sideshow issue, other communities are taking full advantage of a cultural event that was born and bred in this city. For an example of such enterprises, you can take a look at the website at www.drifting.com/index.php, where a motor sport called “drifting” has been discovered and adopted by communities far away from here, complete with videos, rules, a performance circuit, and prizes reaching up in the $10,000 level. If “drifting” seems reminiscent of the Oakland-based phenomena of “sliding” and “siding,” well, one wonders if that is a little bit more than coincidental. 

• Develop an African-American-based business district in the city of Oakland. Although this may seem like race-based economics to some, it is something which is of considerable interest to the city as a whole.  

For a number of years, violent actions among Latino youth plagued local Cinco de Mayo festivals in much the same way as violent actions among African-American youth has plagued the predominantly African-American Carijama. Unlike Carijama, the Cinco de Mayo celebration has remained in its Fruitvale home, has flourished, and the violence has subsided. This is primarily because the Latino-based Fruitvale-area businesses—which derive considerable benefit from both Cinco and Dia de Los Muertos—exerted their influence to both keep the festivals intact and in place and to find solutions to the violence. If Carijama had such a home in an African-American business district—perhaps somewhere along Market or San Pablo, or International or MacArthur Boulevard up past Castlemont—there might be similar results. And that would be a benefit to us all. 

That’s a lot to talk about. More on these thoughts, later.?

The funeral ceremony for ex-President Ronald Reagan had all the usual symbolic gestures that are now standard for departed presidents—the flag-draped casket with honor guard, the riderless horse with boots reversed, the later line of mourners underneath the Capitol Rotunda. Most of us have seen the ceremonies on television before. And there have always followed multi-page obituaries in the major newspapers recounting the political career and life story of the departed chief executive.  

All that is stand ard and part of the national tradition. What is not in the national tradition of these obituaries, but what we read in the case of President Reagan, is fudging the facts. The missing or slighted elements for Ronald Reagan did not err in being incomplete a nd one-sided because they were done in haste. These long obituaries of the famous are done carefully and far in advance, even when the subject is not known to be gravely ill, though in Reagan’s case, he was known to be suffering for several years. It is s tandard on major papers to assign someone far in advance long before the famous person has reached “a certain age,” even in good health.  

As a reporter, I remember being assigned to do a four-page life history-obituary of Winston Churchill while he was s till vigorous, writing, and established as a magnificent hero in American eyes for his World War II wartime insistence on combating Hitler. His oratory rallied the entire anti-Nazi world and that alone made him worthy of one of these massive obituaries. But along with that, there was no question that the obituary also detailed his dismal earlier mistakes: his pre-World War I plan for invasion of the Dardanelles that was a bloody disaster of death and disease for his soldiers; his going against all advice to revert to the gold standard that resulted in unemployment and national strikes in Britain; his tendency to approach anti-Nazi strategy in World War II gingerly and in piecemeal, that had to be overruled by Roosevelt and Eisenhower. All that, warts and all, was in all the major papers when Churchill finally died in 1965, his place as a hero established in 20th century history. 

So there is nothing considered disrespectful or unnecessary when historically accurate major obituaries are done when famous fi gures die. But those for President Reagan departed from what most journalists expected to be the best history possible, while still honoring the dead man. 

In Reagan’s case there was mostly his various acts approved by most of the country—like opening the contact with the Soviets that led to ending the Cold War, and the impact of his cheery, special personality that comforted an extraordinary number of Americans despite their own economic unhappiness. But blatantly missing was proper attention to the usual negative portions of major obituaries. You had to remember (or look closely) that it was Reagan who established what has become the cynical cover for reactionary program-cutting now masquerading under “compassionate conservatism”; the lasting damage of Reagan’s trillion-dollar national debt; that he, along with his cheery personality, also brought us Oliver North, John Poindexter, illegal acts in the Iran-Contra scandal, and official lies or silence about atrocities committed in our name in Central Amer ica. 

I am particularly sensitive to the absence of any explanation of his invention of homelessness, because it’s major cause originated under Reagan but continues to be treated by our standard news media to this day as a mystery, or drug and alcohol add iction or mental illness—problems just as evidence in 1970 as today. But silence on the major cause has become commonplace in most United States journalism. To this day, homelessness, which began as a national phenomenon in the early 1980s under Reagan, i s treated as though the sudden appearance in the world’s richest nation (and in no other developed democracy) was, in the United States, an act of God. It was not an act of God. It was an act of Congress. Up until 1980, it had been standard national polic y to support low-cost affordable housing with subsidies that paid landlords the difference between charging rent that low-income individuals and families could afford, and what the landlord would have received if he or she charged the full market price fo r those rooms and apartments.  

It was not a radical policy. No country has been able to create enough homes for all its citizens at every income level without subsidies because private landlords have always preferred building and renting dwellings for the middle-class and wealthy. But in the United States, the Reaganite (and present conservative) policy is opposed to all social programs and favor cutting back government to make Washington less able to support social programs for the middle-class and the poor.  

Cheery personality and all, this, too, was part of the Reagan legacy that damages social justice policies to this day. But the voluminous obituaries of the 40th President of the United States skimmed over or remained silent about those less-than-heroic contributions of President Reagan. That 25-year silence still haunts contemporary politics. 

Ben Bagdikian is the author of the recently issued book The New Media Monopoly.  

In Berkeley, the community is hard pressed to make its voice heard on development issues, despite a few recent successes. So I’m sorry to report that on June 10, good process took a baby step backward at the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) Blood House hearing. But the improprieties were more subtle than usual, and perhaps arose as much from an atrophied understanding of public process as from bad intentions.  

In fact, it appears that ZAB is now inclined to kill the Blood House with a most expedient kindness, “rescuing” it from the shadow of a potentially damaging development on Durant and moving it to a more “suitable” location, where it won’t be in anyone’s way. Whether the Blood House, Durant Avenue, the new location, or the public would actually benefit from this move, I’ll leave to other writers, along with the daunting task of separating ZAB and the “developer-preservationists” from their rationalizations. 

On April 8, ZAB balked at demolishing the 1891 Blood House to make way for a five-story development project between two other two-story landmarked sites at 2526 Durant Ave. Although not fond of the Blood House, ZAB bowed to the historical resource protections of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The applicant was encouraged to return with a building plan that would preserve the Blood House on site, generally the preferred solution under CEQA.  

But the applicants didn’t like this alternative and apparently abandoned it. Instead, they decided to pursue another alternative: moving the Blood House and another Victorian to a small lot on Regent Street at Dwight Way. While a couple of the participants apparently believe this will improve our historic legacy, make no mistake about it: The new alternative will damage at least three (and maybe four) historic buildings and one streetscape on Southside—our common, irreplaceable cultural heritage—to further the immediate business interests of three developers and UC Berkeley.  

On June 10 the potential Blood House move was officially presented for the first time to both ZAB and the public, without any supporting details or paperwork for anyone’s review or response. The applicants and staff then asked ZAB to “signal” how it felt about the general idea of moving the Blood House. Since this is a departure from standard procedure, ZAB seemed slightly confused. But there was no confusion on the part of the staff. To encourage the developer to proceed, they needed a significant de facto action on an entirely new and vague project, but had to avoid a legal “action” that would require agendizing, public noticing, or a new application. And staff deftly guided ZAB toward this goal. But the reason it was wrong for ZAB to act formally at this meeting—i.e. questionable process—also made it wrong to act informally. No matter how you slice it, an important new action occurred without public notice or a meaningful hearing. 

To me this exemplifies just how atrophied our sense of public process has become in Berkeley. This is far from the worst thing the Planning Department has ever done; in fact, there is an appealing rationale for it. The Mayor’s Task Force on Permitting and Development had recommended “establish[ing] a formal pre-application process,” which would facilitate community discussion of, and provide early guidance for, “conceptual plans” through early interactive meetings with ZAB and all stakeholders. Here the applicant would find out if his idea was a non-starter with ZAB before he spent a lot of resources on it. Director Marks views this Blood House hearing as step toward this new process. But unfortunately, it was not ready for prime time. 

The reason is that no “formal process” has yet been thoughtfully developed to govern this early input, so the “signal” was given by the wrong body, at the wrong time, and without enough information. I think the “pre-application process” will work someday, but fair process cannot suddenly arise in a vacuum without addressing other existing dysfunctions in the system. Therefore—predictably—five persistent problems played themselves out on June 10. 

First, the “signal” was an inappropriate form of early decision making. Front-loading the process grossly disadvantages neighbors because of their inability to gather, understand, and present information like professionals. Nor are complex arguments quickly digested. If good process had been followed, historians and others who have thought deeply about siting in preservation would have had the chance to weigh in, educating all concerned. In addition, the Task Force envisioned ZAB giving direction in matters within their own purview such as height and density. In historic matters, ZAB follows the direction of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). Leapfrogging the matter to ZAB was inappropriate and removed the time and expertise necessary to thoroughly examine the issue. 

Second, ex parte speech limitations and the short speeches at public hearings both now prevent the meaningful discussion the Task Force envisioned. Why it is damaging to move historic buildings around is not readily apparent nor easy to explain in three-minute sound bites without dialogue. In fact, all unconventional, non-intuitive, and complex thoughts are disadvantaged by current procedures in this muzzled “Athens of the West.”  

Third, surely the task force hoped that informal interactive meetings would reduce the natural tendency for ZAB to favor their acquaintances in the development community, while viewing “those other people” as annoying party-poopers. On June 10, ZAB dialogued at length with the enthusiastic developers, but I was not permitted to respond briefly to even one point. After all, they had already heard 12 minutes from us! How much more could they endure? So in effect there was an informal workshop for the applicant, and a constrained formal “hearing” for the public. As long as these old habits are in place, new types of hearings will be a step backward, not forward, for fairness. 

Fourth, in the “formal process,” staff would not act as advocates for developers as they do now. But to pave the way for the largest possible building on Durant, the staff encouraged ZAB to approve the move alternative. They failed to point out that this proposal had had no public notice or previous discussion, instead placing it on equal footing with the other options that had been fully aired. The staff also glossed over the applicant’s failure to research the CEQA-preferred on-site option as earlier requested by ZAB.  

Finally, no procedures are in place to prevent early “buy-in” by ZAB. Now that ZAB has encouraged the applicant to expend resources exploring this option, how will it feel about turning it down six months from now? And psychological buy-in begins once people make a decision, no matter how many caveats they attach. 

But if I were the applicant, I would not take this “signal” to the bank. It is the Zoning Ordinance, the LPC, CEQA, and eventually the City Council that will decide whether Ruegg & Ellsworth will continue their 40-year cannibalization of Southside, not off-the-cuff opining from ZAB. As it is, the signal that this overeager and underinformed ZAB sent to observers was that our planning community still has a lot to learn—about both process and preservation. 

Sharon Hudson is a tenant in Berkeley’s Southside. 

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Local coverage of the city’s budget over the past few months has increasingly targeted city employee salaries as the source of the city’s budget problems. An example of this appeared in the April 20-22 issue of the Daily Planet, where the “Citizens Budget Oversight Committee,” a self appointed committee, authored an article about grossly overpaid and benefited employees. This was presented as fact in a fictionalized account of a “typical” city employee and accounting expert.  

The article made inaccurate assumptions about median age of retirement, life expectancy and median years of employment in order to create an outrageous retirement package. In truth, few employees remain with the city for 28 years, life expectancy calculations were overstated by 20 percent, only upper management make the salaries cited, and in fact, some city employees die shortly before receiving their pension or just after retirement and therefore never draw down their pensions.  

Despite assertions to the contrary, the cost of the city’s pension is part of the entire benefit package, not in addition to it. This is important because, in lieu of a pension, city workers will receive no Social Security benefits for their years of work. The article used a pension of $74,000 per year and thus an annual salary at retirement of more than $98,000, even though less than one percent of miscellaneous union employees make anywhere near that much. Finally, the article has its fictional employee receiving an additional $6,000 a year for medical costs for 25 years. In truth, workers receive this benefit for five years and employees paid for this benefit by forfeiting a pay increase in the previous contract.  

Local coverage has not mentioned the other points of view. City of Berkeley employees are real people with families to support. Many live in Berkeley while others cannot afford to buy homes anywhere in the Bay Area, much less in Berkeley. The vast majority of city employees receive compensation comparable to the median compensation of five neighboring cities. These cities are not high paying cities and include Hayward, Oakland and Vallejo. Senior executive staff such as the city manager and department heads who are NOT represented by unions, receive compensation comparable to top wage earners in high paying municipalities and in most cases make over $145,000 per year. 

In addition:  

• Unions submitted 135 cost-saving proposals and management has not implemented any of them, preferring instead to allow city employee salaries to take the blame for the budget problems.  

• Top wage earners in the City publicly stated that they forfeited 3% of their salary to address the budget problem when in fact, that forfeiture has not occurred.  

• City policy prohibits employees from speaking to Council members and media outlets making it difficult to relay accurate information to the public.  

• There is an ever-increasing salary gap between unrepresented senior management and employees within the miscellaneous unions.  

• City workers voluntarily gave over $3 million in retirement cost savings to the City of Berkeley during better budgetary times. The city did not bank those dollars but spent them. Had the city saved or invested those dollars, we would not be faced with this budgetary situation.  

• There is a significant resistance on the part of the city to tackle real organizational reform or big money items.  

Let’s get real. Making false characterizations regarding ”typical” city salaries is political and unproductive. Citizens, along with employees, should demand that the city commit itself to progressive organizational reform efforts that improve service to the community instead of the city spending valuable time and resources avoiding systemic change and fallaciously targeting staff salaries. City employees deserve fair and equitable salaries and benefits consistent with negotiated contracts in the same way that citizens deserve excellent and efficient city services. Employees have and will continue to offer viable solutions to creatively address budget problems, while maintaining a commitment to high quality and innovative programs for this community 

—Public Employees Union Local One, City of Berkeley. 

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RESPONSE FROM AHA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A letter by Phillipa Freneau in the Daily Planet’s May 18 edition stated that Affordable Housing Associates (AHA) “is being paid over $400 per unit per month” to manage the Housing Authority’s Public Housing. This is incorrect. In fact, AHA, who has been managing the Berkeley Housing Authority’s Public Housing since January 2004, receives $55 per unit per month as a management fee, plus $7.50 per unit per month as a bookkeeping fee. 

Angela Cavanaugh 

Property Supervisor, AHA 

• 

METHODIST RESPONSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am an active United Methodist. I didn’t vote for George W. Bush, I don’t support him, and I don’t support his war in Iraq. I hope to see him un-elected and out of office without a second term. Those Nashville folks you uncovered are an embarrassment (“Truth, Power, American Way,” Daily Planet editorial, June 11-14). You did at least mention that the local United Methodists are different, which is a fact. That being so, why do you ignore us locally in favor of non-news off the Internet about some misguided people on the other side of the country? 

David Coolidge 

• 

TOWN-GOWN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s ludicrous for UC’s Hagerty to assert that the university’s contributions offset the city’s losses. Despite having among the highest taxes and fees in the state, the city’s budget is a mess—and it is not the city’s fault. UC shortchange of Berkeley and other cities pits the residents, businesses, property owners, tenants and city against each other, with the biggest beneficiary feasting on the spoils. 

If other businesses backfilled UC properties, the city will realize property, business license, and sales tax, and user fees far in excess of the contributions and calculated shortfall. There will also be more that enough CEO’s and single proprietors that will make up the “goodwill” that UC so benevolently bestows.  

It’s time for UC to owe up to their responsibility, and get off this free ride. 

Ignacio Dayrit 

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DOG PARK DITTO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I wish to ditto Ariel Parkinson’s wonderful letter to the Daily Planet, May 28-31. I too am an elderly widow with a dog as a housemate. The Albany Bulb is a rare urban treat that reflects the best in human ingenuity. Wild flowers tumbling over concrete rip-rap, palm trees next to oak and laurel, paths leading nowhere, art made of everything from driftwood to old bicycle parts , and dogs swimming and running free. Please, whoever you uptight commissioners are, just let it be! 

Mary Kent 

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TOO KIND, TOO BLIND 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your editorial on Ronald Reagan (“That Good Old Hot Air,” Daily Planet, June 8-10) was too kind, too blind, too dismissive of his mass murder of thousands of peasants in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua; his racist support for apartheid in South Africa and white supremacy in the American South; his opposition to reparations for Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II; his homophobic dismissal of the AIDS epidemic until thousands had died; his union-busting firing of thousands of air traffic controllers; his fascist honoring of Nazis at the Bitburg cemetery; his sexist opposition to abortion rights; his gassing of the UC Berkeley campus; his emptying of California’s mental hospitals, forcing countless sick and homeless onto the streets; his nefarious promotion of the Cold War; his illegal Iran-Contra drug trafficking; and on and on. You heap vitriol on overdevelopment in Berkeley but lob pablum on the Reagan monster, progenitor of the Bush disaster. Shame, shame! 

Estelle Jelinek 

• 

THANKS, JOE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I always enjoy Joe Eaton’s articles on various facets of our local natural world, and particularly liked the June 15 piece on the “mule” deer hill-dwelling gardeners love to hate and the rest of us tend to regard with delight or awe. 

I learn a lot from Joe. This time, it included gleaning the origin of the Abbots Bromley horn dance, which has for seventeen years or more been my VERY favorite recurring element in that wonderful winter solstice pageant, “The Christmas Revels”, held over two long weekends in mid-December at the Scottish Rite Temple on the shore of Lake Merritt. 

The dance is performed by local Morris dancers who take pride in carrying on a very old English tradition, and it always begins the second half of the show. The music that accompanies it is simply enchanting, and the sound of those antlers clicking in that massive domed hall is one that you don’t forget. 

There’s lots more that has made the Revels a crucial December ritual for our family and friends. (Each year features a different culture and time period, but certain songs, dances and dramatic features recur each time.) You can learn about this year’s theme and dates on their Web site, www.calrevels.org. 

Incidentally, you won’t find much that relates to Christmas. I once asked the artistic director, Elizabeth Mayer, why they don’t call it the Solstice Revels, and she said that one year they tried and lost audience. It seemed some people were scared off by the fear of “pagan” rituals... 

Again, thanks, Joe, for this and all your articles. 

Donna Mickleson 

• 

CITIZEN REA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a 24-year-old progressive libertarian who is seriously considering a run against incumbent City Councilmember Betty Olds of District 6 this November. The major obstacle I foresee in running a successful campaign is raising enough money to get my name and message out against such a seasoned politician.  

I am interested in running a very aggressive campaign which will inform the constituents of District 6 of the councilmember’s many shortcomings with respect to the duties they have entrusted her with and which will also emphasize her reckless self-serving approach to local legislation. I will do this primarily by illuminating the facts around her involvement in the misleading legislation dealing with the new fire department designed to protect Berkeley residents from wildfire threats, her personal attack on the freedom of speech and the offensive language she used in the Berkeley Free Speech Tango Debacle, and her dealings with the legislation concerning the Waterfront Commission, among others. I need your help in the form of printed articles which will enable me to conduct an aggressive campaign and outline my message to the constituents of District 6. Being that I will never be able to raise enough money to fight it out with Councilmember Olds via radio and TV adds I, need an alliance with a powerful media outlet such as yourself to help me publicize the campaign. I assure you that there will be plenty of sparks and that if you give me the appropriate support I will give Councilmember Olds a serious run for her money.  

I look forward to your response. 

Ryan Rea  

• 

HATE DEBATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to thank Jakob Schiller and the Berkeley Daily Planet for the excellent piece “UC Hate Debate as Complex as Mideast Conflict,” (Daily Planet, June 8-10). Especially after reading the horrendously inaccurate article in the East Bay Express, I am glad a paper decided to take a rational look at such claims. Slapping the “anti-Semite” label on anyone who steps out of line when it comes to Israel is not only incorrect and rude, but deflates the meaning of any actual anti-Jewish behavior that takes place.  

Gordon Gladstone is wrong when he says that criticism of Israel as a Jewish state is anti-Jewish. A “democratic Jewish state” is an oxymoron, when 17 percent of the population is not Jewish and do not have the same rights as their Jewish counterparts. Such a claim is similar to calling the Vatican a democratic Catholic state or apartheid South Africa a democratic white state. 

My thanks again for the excellent journalism. 

Scott Campbell 

Oakland 

• 

SUMMERTIME TERROR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The exceedingly convenient timing of latest Bush administration hysteria about those darned summertime terrorist threats (do they only attack in nice weather or are they guided by holiday greeting card fanatics?) is not hard to understand. After all, public support for Bush has been dropping steadily since the mass torturing and unseemly abuse of Iraqi prisoners was revealed to the world in April. However, I could not understand how the London-based Institute for International Baloney got their asserted number of 18,000 “potential terrorists.” (What exactly is a “potential terrorist” anyway?) This morning, one of the local papers said that the FBI was going to notify some 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies of this new supposed terror threat. So it all adds up, one “potential terrorist” per American state and local law enforcement agency. One on one, I think that we can handle that.  

And exactly how are these potential terrorists crossing our national borders after three years of the draconian internal security rules set up by Attorney General John Ashcroft? In donkey carts overland from Canada or Mexico? By plywood gliders flown 5,000 miles from their mountain redoubts in Afghanistan and Pakistan (against the prevailing Westerly winds, to boot)? And how is an alleged threat with “no time, no place and no date” qualify as being called “intelligence?” It sounds more like finely tuned propaganda to scare us into supporting our heroic warmonger to me.  

James K. Sayre 

• 

KPFA KUDOS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Congratulations to KPFA for airing the New York City portion of the Kean Commission 9/11 hearings. No other media organization would touch it, not even CSPAN. 

One issue that has me seriously concerned, if we are to believe Larry Bensky’s unflinching support of the Bush administration’s account of what happened on that day, is the strength of our steel frame buildings. 

On 9/11, two 60-ton jets slammed into the towers near their points of greatest leverage and thinnest steel, yet despite no visible movement of the buildings less than an hour later, the South Tower (WTC2—the second building to be hit) collapses, according to the Kean Commission in 10 seconds. The upper floors, which were on fire and which were lighter and, according to the Bensky/Bushco model, lost all their strength from the fires, traveled through the lower floors, which were constructed of thicker steel and had no fires in seconds. WTC2 was 1362 feet tall. Freefall in a vacuum from a height of 1362 feet is 9.2 seconds. This means that the steel structure of the twin towers offered little more resistance than the air surrounding the buildings in it’s vertical direction. 

One can only conclude from the Bensky/Bushco New Physics Order, that steel frame buildings have incredible horizontal strength and almost no vertical strength. I submit that we immediately stop all construction of steel frame buildings as they are prone to instantaneous collapse from the forces of gravity. 

David Heller 

?

If you don’t have a serious religious ceremony to attend on the Summer Solstice—next Monday, June 21—but would still like to mark the longest day of the year with something special, head over to Oakland’s mortuary row for a unique musical event. Each year, dozens of musicians and singers assemble for the annual “Garden of Memory” concert in the venerable Chapel of the Chimes on Piedmont Avenue. 

Every nook and cranny of the extensive columbarium complex should be alive with music from the horn-like hoots of Australian didgeridoos to Balkan folk singing, classical and contemporary piano, koto players, percussionists, guitarists, choirs, and the wielder of a musical saw. 

It reads like a cacophony but it all comes together in harmony, due to the setting. The Chapel of the Chimes contains scores of ceremonial spaces, arcades, courts, alcoves, and corridors, each with its individual performing artist or group this one night.  

The event runs from 5 to 9 p.m. You arrive when you wish, pay $10 ($5 students and seniors) and receive a chart showing who’s located where. The groups perform separately, just out of easy hearing distance of each other. Some stage rehearsed pieces while others strum, keyboard, bow, or blow away experimentally. 

You can listen to the same musician over and over, or take in as many of the performances as possible, slipping quietly from one setting to the next. Some of the performances are in chapels with pew seating, others have folding chairs temporarily set up, and not a few are standing room only. 

In some spaces the music is broad and energetic; choirs sing, chords resound, instruments boom. Other performances are solo, ethereal.  

For example, in a skylit alcove beyond a tiny, exquisite, plant fringed pool there’s typically a haunting performance by ‘glass artist’ Miguel Frasconi who draws wonderful sounds from goblets and vases partially filled with water. Each year I also make certain to catch one of the performances by Jason Serinus, who whistles like no one you’ve ever heard. 

This year’s performers include 10 or more composers, the William Winant Percussion Group, the Cornelius Cardew Choir, Lines Ensemble, Ya-Elah, trombonist Monique Buzzarte, the Natto Quartet, and guitarist Henry Kaiser, among others.  

The event was founded and is annually organized by Berkeley’s nationally known pianist, Sarah Cahill (see “Renaissance Woman Combines Music and Journalism,” Daily Planet, May 11-13), and New Music Bay Area. Co-sponsors this year are the American Composers Forum and the Berkeley Arts Festival. 

Much of the magic of the occasion comes from the setting. Depending on your frame of reference, the Chapel of the Chimes may seem like an Arthurian fantasy, Edwardian mansion, or Harry Potter set. Winding staircases, arching corridors, and spacious courts connect spaces with names like Serenity, Eternal Wisdom, Truth, Gentle Spirit, the Chapel of Patience, Sanctuary of Compassion and Garden of Life Eternal.  

Everywhere there are the interment niches, thousands upon thousands of them from floor to ceiling, inscribed with the family names of Oakland’s past and containing urns with the ashes of the deceased. Many of the interior spaces are carefully planted—one year the courts were ablaze with coleus—and the place is a lesson in indoor gardening.  

Julia Morgan designed much of the building in the 1920s and her exquisite touch is seen in Gothic inspired cloisters, glowing stained glass skylights, and tranquil chapels. The complex climbs up a hill to a late 1990s addition, with each sequence of spaces reflecting the changing tastes of American interment.  

When I first went to this event I was a bit cautious about the propriety of performance in a columbarium. Mindful of generations of my family interred in a similar space, I worried about the event trivializing such a solemn setting.  

A very few scenes raised my eyebrows in past years, including a set-up of toy electric trains on the floor of one large court and a musician who climbed on top of a set of niches during his performance.  

But by and large the performers and performances are respectful of this setting and Julia Morgan’s halls can be a luminous place to hear music. The deceased deserve peace, but quiet isn’t always necessary, especially when the music is this good. 

There’s a storyteller loose on the stage at Berkeley Rep. People who have seen him perform 21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com probably want to call him a comedian. Whatever… maybe it’s most accurate to think of Mike Daisey as something of a walking work-in-progress—a very funny and very polished work-in-progress.  

Daisey is a rather short, tubby guy with a guileless look, who manages to keep the audience’s full attention (laughing all the way) for an unbroken spiel of some 90 minutes. He’s alone on the stage with a chair and a table made out of a door—and, of course, a laptop. Gotta have a laptop handy when you’re talking about life in Seattle.  

The present version of Dog Years is the result of slightly more than three years of Mike Daisey telling the (hopefully somewhat exaggerated) tale of his labors at Amazon.com. “Labors” doesn’t seem to be quite the word. Perhaps “activities?” Or, maybe “hysterics?” Although he makes it clear that he spent a lot more time at work than the traditional eight hours a day, he is equally clear that he wasn’t really doing anything which could actually be identified as “work.” 

Daisey wandered into the dot-com world because he had a toothache; he needed a job with dental benefits. He claims that Amazon hired him because they were looking for freaks. This may not be an exaggeration since, from what he says, he may well have been one of the sanest people on the grounds. Perhaps the most remarkable part of the experience was that when he finally fled the company, he was deluged with job offers.  

He says he got rid of them by accepting them all.  

Daisey’s director/stage manager/wife, Jean Michele Gregory, swears that he alters his performances to fit the different audiences he has faced along a road that started three years ago at an unheated, beer-serving, garage theater in Seattle. Since then, Daisey’s made the rounds of theaters around the world with Dog Years, including, of course, New York’s Off-Broadway. 

Dog Years must be pretty much finished. It’s a very smooth performance; there’s not a single hesitation, or an “Uh!” or a search for the next word or idea in the whole evening. And Jean Michele Gregory puts some real effort into persuading the audience to come back and see Wasting Your Breath, the new piece Daisey’s working on. It’s playing on June 28 and 29, immediately after Dog closes, and it might be kind of fun to compare the two. 

It’s no wonder they make the pitch. After all, Daisey’s way of “writing” must make an audience even more essential for him than it is for most performers.  

Amazingly enough, this is the show’s only appearance in the Bay Area. One would expect Daisey to have taken it straight into Silicon Valley early on in his career. And why Berkeley and not San Jose or Palo Alto?  

Funny as Daisey is, it does seem that our neighbors on the peninsula and in San Jose would take the dot-com insanity to heart in a way that just isn’t quite Berzerkeley’s passion. Don’t take this wrong, this is a hilarious evening for anybody. But this town can’t be expected to produce an audience as stuffed with dot-commers filled with first-hand knowledge of the madness of the Big Boom era as are our neighbors in the South Bay. 

Do you suppose that the Seattle people landed here by mistake? 

›

From Celtic fiddling to Brazilian samba, from Congolese song and dance to bluegrass and Cajun, a world of music awaits visitors to Telegraph Avenue Saturday and Sunday. 

The Berkeley World Music Weekend will offer something for everyone—and in places where live performances are the exception, rather than the rule. Musicians will display their prowess in bookstores and coffee shops, pizzerias and Peoples Park. 

The festival kicks off at 11 a.m. Saturday with the South African vocal rhythms of Zulu Spear’s Khumbala, performing through noon in the Naan N Curry at 2366 Telegraph. Performances continue through 8 p.m. and resume on Sunday from 11 a.m. 

The official grand finale commences at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Casual Gourmet and Beau Sky Hotel at 2529 Durant St. featuring Borrina Mapaka, appearing fresh from Paris with a program of Congolese and Afrofusion song and dance. 

Then, from 5 to 6:30, participants will hold a post event party in the basement of Blake’s, 2367 Telegraph Ave., with The Real Tom Thunder offering a program of Blues and Rock. 

One of the most versatile performers on the program is Berkeley’s own Tim Rayborn, who plays “about 30” instruments, including a variety of flutes, drums, lutes and harps. He sings as well, and has written scholarly papers on songs of the Crusades—not surprising, given his doctorate on Islamic/Christian relations during the early crusader era. 

Rayborn will be playing Turkish, Arabic and Sufi music with the group Salaat at Rasputins from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, then offering his own Medieval and Middle Eastern instrumentals from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday at Musical Offering, 2430 Bancroft Way. 

Big Bones, a remarkable one-man band, will offer his own “Blunk” (a meld of Blues and Funk) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday in the Food Court at 2519 Durant Ave. 

Berkeley High’s renowned Jazz Combo will perform from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday in Peoples’ Park, and versatile Berkeley musician Stephen Kent will treat listeners to riffs on the didjeridu at Cody’s from noon to 1 p.m. on Saturday. 

Gianni Ranuzzi, the driving force behind this weekend’s festivities, knows Telegraph first-hand, having worked as a street artist for 15 years selling jewelry she’d made. Though she quit six years ago, she says, “I still see people wearing earrings I made.” 

Ranuzzi spent the next three years working full-time for the Telegraph Area Association. She’s now freelancing and working for the association—organizing, among other things, this weekend’s festivities. 

“We’re trying to bring back a renaissance, where art is supported by the community and its residents,” she said. “We’re showcasing how great Berkeley is, while building community and helping out our musicians.” 

Ranuzzi singled out City Councilmember Kriss Worthington for special praise. “He’s been very helpful in putting this together,” she said. 

A unique feature of the weekend program is the first-ever World Lyric Slam, emceed by Charles Ellick, the host of the weekly Wednesday evening poetry slams at the Starry Plough. 

Poets will offer their music and lyrics at the slam, competing for $150 in cash prizes at Blake’s. “We’re hoping this can become a monthly event,” Ranuzzi said. “We have a lot of wonderful talent here, and a unique forum to showcase their talents. Telegraph Avenue’s a wonderful place, full of dynamite people with wonderful stories to tell. This festival will show the avenue at its finest.” 

For more information on the weekend’s festivities and a complete schedule of performances, see www.telegraphberkeley.org. and click on “Berkeley World Music Weekend,” or see the information booth in front of Cody’s Bookstore at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street.›

FRIDAY, JUNE 18 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Betrayal,” by Harold Pinter, directed by Tom Ross, opens at 8 p.m. and runs through July 25. Tickets are $28-$36. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org  

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

Berkeley Rep, “21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com” Thurs., Sun. at 7:30 p.m. and Fri. and Sat. at 8:30 p.m. through July 2. Tickets are $25-$35. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Black Repertory Group Theatre “Come Back Annie Gray” June 18, 19, 25, 26 and 27 at 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $15-$20, available from 408-615-1194. www.comebackanniegray.com 

California Shakespeare Theater, “Comedy of Errors,” Tues.-Fri. at 7:30 p.m., Sat at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. at the Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, through June 27. Tickets are $13-$32. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Prescott-Joseph Center, “Raisin” an adaptation of “A Raisin in the Sun” Fri. and Sat. at 7:30 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. to July 11, at the Sister Thea Bowman Memorial Theater, 920 Peralta St. West Oakland. Theater is outdoors, dress for cooler temperatures. Tickets are $5-$15. 208-5651. 

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

Wilde Irish Productions, “Eclipsed” by Patricia Burke Brogan, at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Runs Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through June 27. Tickets are $15-$20. 841-7287. www.wildeirish.org 

“18 Mighty Mountain Warriors,” an Asian-American comedy at 8 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Also on Sat. at 8 p.m. Tickets are available from 547-2662. www.museumca.org 

FILM 

“Band of Outsiders” presented by Craig Seligman at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Old Oakland Outdoor Cinema on Washington St., between 9th and 10th Sts. Music at 5 p.m., and film, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” at 8 p.m. Bring your own chairs and blankets. Sponsored by the City of Oakland and the Old Oakland Historic District. 238-4734. www.filmoakland.com 

Readings on Cinema: “Band of Outsiders” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Oakley Hall gives advice to writers in “The Great American Writing Road Trip Adventure” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“Reflections” John Neumaier will speak on the exhibition “A Voice Silenced” at 2 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra “Missa Solemnis” at 8 p.m. in Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $21-$45 available from 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

“Forbidden Christmas or The Doctor and The Patient” by Rezo Gabriadze, featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Also Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sun at 3 p.m. Tickets are $65 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Earl Davis, trumpet-led jazz, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $10. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Freight 36th Anniversary Concert hosted by Phil March at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Steve Lucky & Carmen Getit Show at 10 p.m. at the Ivy Room, 860 San Pablo Ave., Albany. 524-9220. 

Juanita Ulloa en Concierto for the whole family at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $6-$16. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Mark Karan and Jemimah Puddleduck at at 8 p.m. at Ashkenez. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Poetz4Peace Concert with special guests Stand Out Selector, Jah Minds Eye Soundsystem and more, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down 

low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

20 Miles, Richmond Fontaine, Farma at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com  

Regina Wells in concert at 7:30 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $12-$20. Reservations recommended. 655-2045. 

Le Hot Jazz at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Timothy Daniel and Lia Rose, singer-songwriters, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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

Kaos Pilot, Takaru, Van Johnson, An Arrow in Flight at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Kirtan with Arjun An evening of call and response eastern/ 

Sanskrit chanting, beginning at 8 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St., between Eighth and Ninth. Donation $5-$12. 843-2787 www.studiorasa.org 

SATURDAY, JUNE 19 

CHILDREN 

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

Embark on a Reading Safari with an Oakland Zoo Safari Guide and live animals at 1 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

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., lower level. Suggested donation $3. Children under 3 free. 549-1564. 

FILM 

Los Angeles Plays Itself: “Crime Wave” at 5:30 p.m., “Hollow Triumph” at 7:05 p.m., “Criss Cross” at 8:45 p.m at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

David Sedaris on “Dress Your Family in Corderory and Denim” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. Admission by ticket only. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Flash with Nanos Valaoritas and Thanasis Maskaleris reading from “Modern Greek Poetry: An Anthology” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley World Music Weekend with continuous music and dance performances on Telegraph Ave. between Bancroft and Parker St., from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. www.telegraphberkeley.org 

Phan Quang Minh, guitarist, performs “Bach, Albeniz, and the Berkeley Suite” at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Free with Museum admission. 642-8344. 

Oakland Youth Orchestra at 12:30 p.m. at The Crowden School, 1475 Rose St. Admission is free. Donations welcomed. 

Los Gatos in a live recording session at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jeb Brady Band “History of the Blues” at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

Liz Phoenix and The People at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Asylum Street Spankers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $14. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Fiddelkids’ Camp Faculty Fiddlefest at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Dick Conte Trio with Steve Webber and Bill Moody at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Jerry Kennedy, singer-songwriter, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Pitch Black, Lemora, The Faeries, Static Thought at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 20 

CHILDREN 

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

Celebrating Fathers, Families and Communities with African music by Fua Dia Congo, the Love Center Choir and drummer Kokomon Clottey. From noon to 4 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Razzamadaddy Storytime in celebration of Father’s Day at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

THEATER 

“Journeys: Going Local” Interactive theater with storytellers, artists, beat boxers, and musicians. Audience members are given the opportunity to share stories. From 7 to 11 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale. 843-2787. www.studiorasa.org 

FILM 

Los Angeles Plays Itself: Model Shop” at 5:30 p.m., “Zabrinski Point” at 7:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Eccentrics and Court Painters in 18th Century China” gallery talk at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Poetry Flash with G.C. Waldrep and Mark Yakich at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley World Music Weekend with continuous music and dance performances on Telegraph Ave. between Bancroft and Parker St., from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. www.telegraphberkeley.org 

Bernard Winsemius, from Holland, will perform on the baroque organ, at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. A reception will follow. Donations will be gratefully received. 845-6830. 

Spring Concert/Music Festival at 5 p.m. at El Cerrito United Methodist Church, 6830 Stockton Avenue, El Cerrito, between Richmond and Everett Sts.  

Golden Gate Boys Choir Spring Concert at 2:30 p.m. at Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church, corner of Broadway at Lawton, Oakland. Cost is $5-$10. 887-4311. 

311 at 2 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, UC Campus 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Borrina Mapaka and Luzolo at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Congolese dance lesson with Indirah at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jacopo Andreini & Friends, part of ACME Observatory Contemporary Composer’s Series, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15 suggested. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Kiki Ebsen, Kenny Edwards and Suzanne Paris at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

MONDAY, JUNE 21 

THEATER 

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

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Why You Should Give A Damn About Gay Marriage” Booksigning and discussion on same-sex marriage with author Davina Kotulski, Ph.D. at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, Piedmont Branch.  

Dylan Schaffer introduces his thriller “Misdemeanor Man” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Express featuring Julia Vinograd, recipient of the Berkeley Poetry Festival 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Anton Schwartz Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, JUNE 22 

THEATER 

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

FILM 

Los Angeles Plays Itself: “Los” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Greg Behrman describes “The Invisible People: How the U.S. Has Slept Throught the Global AIDS Pandemic, and Greatest Humanitarian Catastrophe of Our Time” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Joel L. Widzer reveals “The Penny Pinchers Passport to Luxury Travel” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

The Whole Note Poetry Series, in rememberance of Richard “dixi” Cohen, at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave. 549-9093. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

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

Tom Dimuzio at 8:30 p.m. at Oakland Box, 1923 Telegraph Ave. www.oaklandbox.com 

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

Steve Smith & Buddy’s Buddies in a tribute to Buddy Rich at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Wed. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

E.J. Dionne instructs us how to “Stand Up Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and the Politcs of Revenge” at 12:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Dan Chaon reads from his new novel, “You Remind Me of Me” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

Thomas Frank discusses “What is the Matter with Kansas? Middle America’s Thirty-Year War with Liberalism” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Israel Powerhouse, Culture Canute, Mr. Major P at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

Roy Book Binder, Del Ray and Steve James at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

THURSDAY, JUNE 24 

THEATER 

California Shakespeare Theater, “Comedy of Errors,” Tues.-Fri. at 7:30 p.m., Sat at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. at the Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, through June 27. Tickets are $13-$32. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

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

Wilde Irish Productions, “Eclipsed” by Patricia Burke Brogan, at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Runs Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through June 27. Tickets are $15-$20. 841-7287. www.wildeirish.org 

“18 Mighty Mountain Warriors” an Asian-American comedy at 8 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Also on Fri. at 8 p.m. 547-2662. www.museumca.org 

FILM 

“Lula, a Jounada de un Vencedor” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $6-$8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Los Angeles Plays Itself: “Bush Mama” at 7 p.m., “Bless Their Little Hearts” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Art as Poetry” “Art and Meaning Series” with artists Mildred Howard and Richard Berger, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Kala Salon Series with artists Nathaniel Russell and Justin Walsh at 7:30 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. www.kala.org  

Tim Gautreaux reads from his novel, “The Clearing” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-5900. www.codysbooks.com 

“Messages from Amma” A reading with editor Janine Canan at 7 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured reader Wordslanger, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985, 205-1749.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert with Pamela Rose and Danny Caron at the Berkeley BART. Sponsored by Downtown Berkeley Assoc.  

Tom Russell with Andrew Hardin, roots country originals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Eric McFadden Trio at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Dee Dee Bridgewater at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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



Finally, we come to tomatoes. We know they will not do well in Berkeley. Tomatoes are simply the breath of summer, inevitable, irreplaceable, and so each year, we plant them like visionaries and reap them like sinners.  

What after all would we do without this most gorgeous of fruits? Pizza would be unrecognizable, the Bloody Mary a thing of the past, or the future. Can one imagine the BL without the T? Tomatoes are an addiction, an unrequited love, a chimera leading us down the garden path in all ways. 

It is probably too late in June to sow tomatoes from seed. We are never in the mood in April, the best month for this, because it is not yet summer. Never mind, by June there are hordes of varietal seedlings in nurseries and farmers’ markets to feed our delusions. If these are labeled determinate or indeterminate, this simply means sturdy bush-type, or a vine needing support. We are bound to plant too many and space them too closely. However tenderly we care for them, however early we plant them, we still will not see ripe fruit until August in Berkeley. Unless one lives in a banana belt with a brick patio, there just is not enough heat. 

Tomatoes do best in plain soil, with moderate, regular watering. Enriching the ground with compost and giving lavish supplies of water will produce large healthy plants with an abundance of green leaves and no apparent intention to produce flowers or set fruit. Be mean to your tomatoes and you might be able to bite them back, too. 

When (not if) you do plant, be careful to refrain from planting in the same place as in the previous year. A four-year rotation plan is ideal, intercropping with peas and beans whenever possible.  

Gardeners who enjoy composting their kitchen trimmings often come across tiny seedlings in the garden in June, with leaflets like little propellers. These junior tomatoes are worth cultivating, because they have chosen their environment, and even if they appear late in the season, will often catch up with store-bought plants, and produce interesting fruits. One such unknown variety in my garden a few years ago looked barely edible, misshapen in form and with deep fissures radiating from the stem, definitely not supermarket perfect. It was, however, juicy, tender and richly flavored, with an excellent balance of sweet and tart. 

Sometimes it is worthwhile to dry seeds of an especially good tomato, by placing them on a paper towel in a sunny window for a few days. Cut apart and kept in an envelope, labeled, they can be sown in small pots the following April, paper and all. By April, though, not only will we not be in the mood, we will have forgotten where we put the seeds, if we remember them at all. 

Such is the tomato, fata morgana. 

Tomatoes rarely suffer from pests. I once came eye to eye with a well-fed horn worm, Manduca sexta, which gave me a jolt. That was before I knew better than to fertilize the plants, so there were plenty of leaves to spare. Its destiny at the end of the usual stages of metamorphosis was another surprise, a colossal hawk moth. I was privileged to watch its maiden flight. Starting at one end of a brick it revved up its wings and trundled along to the other end like an overloaded jet, barely achieving take-off. Insects are harbingers of summer and add a special, indeed an important, dimension to gardening. According to Powell and Hogue in their California Insects, its wing span would have been at least 10 centimeters, and it would have repaid its debt to the garden by being a pollinator. 

We have come finally to the tomato because in Berkeley, June is the last month of the vegetable grower’s year. Not until late August or September does the cycle of cultivation begin with the sowing of winter greens. In July one waters the garden early and then one goes off to the beach. The Mediterranean Salad dish above can readily accompany the picnic chicken, the sunscreen, and the latest Sue Grafton. 

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FRIDAY, JUNE 18 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Yuri Slezkine, Prof. Dept. of History, UCB, on “Current Events in Russia” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

The Wall Around and Through the Holy Land East Bay residents share their experiences in Palestine at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free. 845-4740. 

Great American Writing Road Trip Adventure stops at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. at 7:30 p.m. with mystery novelist Oakley Hall talking about how to get published. 845-7852. www.livetowrite.com 

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

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 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 at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, JUNE 19 

Summer Solstice Celebration and 15th Anniversary of the Saturday Berkeley Farmer’s Market at Civic Center Park from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with live music, crafts fair, and a solstice ceremony at 11:30 a.m. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:15 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Sproul Conference Room, 1st Floor, 2727 College Ave. www.berkeleycna.com 

Grand Opening of the Strawbale Visitors Center at the Shorebird Park Nature Center, at noon at the Berkeley Marina, 160 University Ave. 644-8623. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/marina/ 

marinaexp/newbldging.html 

Know Your Soil Workshop Understanding soil qualities and soil health will enable gardeners to grow plants that are comparable with each other and match water requirements to infiltration and drainage. Come to hear why soils differ and how they can be managed for better health. From 10 a.m. to noon at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Free. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Marsh Restoration for Wildlife Join an exciting project to restore a tidal marsh and improve wildlife habitat, on the south Richmond shoreline along the Bay Trail, from 9 a.m. to noon. No special skills or experience required, but a willingness to work with plants, soil, pull weeds, and an interest in bay wildlife and plants will be helpful. Tools, gloves, and snacks provided. Registration required. Sponsored by the Watershed Project. For more information, contact Martha 231-5783. martha@thewatershedproject.org 

Dynamite History Walk at Point Pinole from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Discover the park preserved by dynamite! On this flat, easy-paced walk we’ll be joined by Norman Monk, former Atlas Powder Company employee. 525-2233.  

Garden Party 2004 from 3 to 6 p.m. Savor the solstice in the summer garden. Wine, food and music, walks led by garden experts, silent auction and raffle. Botanical Garden, UC Campus. 643-2755. www.botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu  

Gardening with Succulants with Hank Jenkins at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

A Free Day of Dog Athletics featuring dogs performing flyball, disc catching and agility. Attendees are asked to leave their own dogs at home. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Oakland Animal Shelter, 1101 29th Ave. 535-5604. www.oaklandanimalservices.org  

Bread Baking Learn about bacteria and grass seeds with freshly baked bread as the end result of an afternoon of discovery, measuring and kneading. We will take a short walk on the mystery of grains while our bread rises. For all ages from 1 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $5-$6. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Car Wash to Benefit the Homeless from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Augustine Church, 400 Alcatraz Ave. in Oakland. All proceeds go to help the homeless families with children and the single women and men who call Harrison House their home temporarily. 

“Speaking about the Unspeakable: Koan Practice in Zen Buddhism” with Albert Low at 7 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. Free. 843-6812. 

Celebrating Fathers at the Berkeley Kids’ Room, 2472 Shattuck Ave., with Make a Bookmark at 11 a.m., Armin Brott booksigning at 1 p.m. and Margaretta Mitchell on photographing children at 2 p.m. 841-5068. 

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

Vocal Jazz Workshop with Richard Kalman from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. followed by jam session, at the Albany Community Center. 1249 Marin Ave. 524-9283.  

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

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

SUNDAY, JUNE 20 

Juneteenth Celebration from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. along Adeline St. between Ashby and Alcatraz. 655-8008 or 654-1461.  

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. Enter by the dirt road on Derby. Free, wheelchair accessible. Sponsored by the East Bay Labyrinth Project. 526-7377.  

“Basking in the Light” an afternoon/evening interfaith celebration of the Summer Solstice and Father’s Day, from 3 to 9:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. at Walnut. Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale, no-one turned away for lack of funds. www.chaplaincyinstitute.org/baskinginthelight.html 

Summer Story Hour for all ages at 10:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Babes in the Woods for the whole family. Dads (Moms welcome too!), bundle your baby in a backpack and join a Father’s Day walk to explore the sights, smells, and sounds of nature with your little one. From 3 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. 525-2233. 

Summer Solstice Gathering at 7:45 p.m. in Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley Marina. www.solarcalendar.org 

Bike Trip to Explore Historic Oakland on the third Sunday of the month through October. Tours leave the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Fallon Sts., at 10 a.m. for a leisurely 5-mile tour on flat land. Bring bike, helmet, water and snacks. Free, but reservations required. 238-3524. 

“Wildflowers and Special Habitats of the Sierra Butte” a trip to Sierraville from Sun. to Fri. sponsored by the Regional Parks Botanical Garden, Tilden Park. Cost is $450. For details and registration call 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

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 

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 

“Criminal Justice and Prison Reform” A panel presentation with representatives from Books not Bars, Critical Resistance and Prison Activists Resource Center, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Road, Kensington. 525-0302.  

Introduction to the TaKeTiNa Rhythm Process from 1 to 4 p.m. at Ashkenaz Back Dance Studio, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $25-$35 sliding scale, no one turned away. To register call 650-493-8046. 

Tibetan Nyingma Open House from 3 to 5 p.m. with prayer wheel and meditation garden tour, yoga demonstration, and information on classes at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

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

MONDAY, JUNE 21 

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

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

TUESDAY, JUNE 22 

Insects and Crawling Creatures Educators Workshop From Tues. though Thurs. You will discover the world of insects and their relatives by visiting Tilden and Briones parks where you will collect, observe and release insects. You’ll get 101 new ideas for K-5th grade classes and outdoor activities. Credit available from Cal State, Hayward for additional fee. Cost is $100-$110. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Mini-Rangers Join us for an active afternoon of nature study, conservation and rambling through woods and waters. Dress to get dirty; bring a healthy snack to share. For 8-12 year olds, unaccompanied by their parents, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Environmental (In)Justice in South Africa Today Join four visiting South African activists in a discussion about South Africa today. At 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cosponsored by GroundWork: Environmental Justice Action in Southern Africa and Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Defeating George Bush A conversation with Walter Riley, Matthew Hallinan and Vicki Cosgrove at 7 p.m. at Humaist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Sponsored by the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club. 418-2760. 

East Bay Communities Against the War presents a video of Michael Moore on his book tour promoting “Dude, Where’s My Country?” at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Neighborhood Center, 530 Lake Park Ave. $1 suggested donation. www.ebcaw.org 

“Medicare Drug Discount Cards” with HICAP volunteer, Alex Esparza at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

“Weight-Loss Surgery: Is it for You?” a free presentation by the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center at 6 p.m. at the Health Education Center, Bechtel Room, 400 Hawthorne Ave., Oakland. 869-8972. 

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.  

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. Charles Fitch will show travel slides at 11 a.m. We always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

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

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23 

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

Downtown Oakland Walking Tours every Wednesday and Saturday at 10 a.m to 11:30 a.m. Discover the changing skyline, landmarks and churches. For details on the different itineraries call 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/wallkingtours 

“Gangs of America: The Rise in Corporate Power and Disabling of Democracy” with author Ted Nance, at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Sponsored by the Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

Bay Area Writing Project presents “Teachers as Writers” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

“Paradise with Side Effects” a film describing the lives of two Ladakhi women in England, at 7 p.m. at the Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. 393-5685.  

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

vigil4peace/vigil 

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

THURSDAY, JUNE 24 

“The End of Suburbia, Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream” A film presentation, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5-$15 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds. Co-sponsored by the Post Carbon Institute 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Livable Berkeley hosts Green Building pioneer and author David Gottfried at 6:30 p.m. at the Downtown Berkeley Public Library Community room. Refreshments will be served. 898-8777.  

Bash Bush Bash A fundraising event for John Kerry at the Kress Building, 2036 Shattuck Ave. from 7 to 10 p.m. Speakers include Daniel Ellsberg, David Harris, Michael Lewis and others. $50 minimum donation. 

BBQ and Marinade Taste Fair, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Whole Foods Market, 3000 Telegraph Ave. 649-1333, ext. 261. 

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

Appreciating Diversity Film Series presents “You Don't Know Dick,” followed by a community dialogue at 6:30 p.m. at Ellen Driscoll Theater, Frank Havens Elementary School, 325 Highland Ave., Piedmont. 763-9301. www.diversityworks.org  

Travel Photography, a seminar with Jerry Dodrill at 7 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose. Cost is $20. 843-3533. 

Playing host to UC Berkeley costs the city $10.9 million a year—nearly the same amount as the city’s current budget deficit—according to a recently released city-commissioned fiscal impact analysis. 

Berkeley intends to use the $50,000 report from Economic & Planning Systems, Inc. to strengthen its hand as the city prepares to enter negotiations with the university for mitigations to pay for city fire, police and sewer services. 

A 1990 deal, set to expire next year, requires the university to pay approximately $500,000 a year, mostly for use of the city’s sewer system. 

The fiscal impact report, released Friday, puts the city’s cost of providing the university sewer services at $2.7 million, fire services at 5.7 million and police services at $3 million. In total, the report estimates UC costs the city $13.5 million in unpaid services, while supplying only $2.1 million back in tax revenue and $500,000 in mitigation payments. 

Should UC achieve its 2020 development goals outlined in its Long Range Development Plan, the city would be saddled with an additional $1.6 million in costs, according to the study.  

In a separate analysis, the report found that the city loses out on $10.8 million in tax revenue annually because the university—the city’s largest landholder—is exempt from local taxes and fees that pay for city services. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington called the report a good beginning, but said it failed to account for all of the city’s expenses. Worthington and Councilmember Dona Spring both said they intend to seek more than $11 million per year from the university. 

UC Berkeley, however, contested the report’s findings and refused to use them as a baseline in future negotiations. The fiscal impact report is “one-sided, and I don’t think it’s accurate,” said Irene Hegarty, the university’s Director of Community Relations.  

Hegarty said the report undervalued UC’s contribution to the city economy and overstated its costs. 

Citing a 2001 UC Berkeley study, Hegarty said the university employed one out of every six Berkeley residents for a total of $228 million in payroll, and spent roughly $70 million with Berkeley-based businesses. UC estimated that its direct payments generate another 6,600 jobs and $170 million for the city’s economy. 

Additionally, Hegarty said, the university provides Berkeley with free technical and policy advice, numerous volunteers, free recreation space, contributions for streetlight and traffic light improvements, and a stable employer that has safeguarded the city economy from harsh economic downturns. 

UC officials also questioned the methodology used in the city’s fiscal impact report. In calculating the cost of fire services, for instance, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Physical and Environmental Planning Thomas Lollini said the report failed to track the source of calls for service. Instead, he said, the report placed a “blanket” cost on UC, based on its proportion of the city population, without taking into account that students were far less likely to request emergency medical assistance which, he said, account for 70 percent of calls to the fire department.  

Long-simmering town-gown differences have flared recently as Berkeley’s budget deficit spiraled to $10.3 million this year, with some city residents and politicians blaming the university for not paying its fair share. Assistant City Manager Arrietta Chakos said the UC fiscal impact report, approved two years ago, was not politically motivated. Chakos added that the city was merely trying to recoup its losses, not seek political cover. 

As for the indirect benefits UC provides, Chakos said they were too difficult to quantify so they were excluded from the report. 

The university will be in the driver’s seat for any negotiations. Although the city believes it can compel UC to pay for more of the cost of transporting its sewage to treatment centers, as a state entity UC Berkeley is exempt from local assessments that would pay for other services. 

A bill authored by Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) that passed the Assembly last month wouldn’t force UC to offer mitigations, but would prohibit UC from certifying environmental reports for new projects—including its in-progress Long-range Development Plan—until a deal with the city was reached. 

Ultimately the city hopes that the California Legislature will follow the example of other states and offer payments in lieu of taxes to cities that house large public agencies. For example, Mansfield, Connecticut, home to the University of Connecticut, will receive $6 million from that state this year to offset 45 percent of what the city would receive if the university paid taxes. 

“If they didn’t give it to us, we’d go broke,” said Jeff Smith, Mansfield’s director of finance. 

For UC, any settlement would need approval from the University of California Board of Regents. Other UC towns, none of which has sought such extensive compensation, will be monitoring the negotiations. 

“We’ll have our eye on it,” said Santa Barbara County Administrator Mike Brown. He said a recent county survey put the price tag of housing UC Santa Barbara at $4.2 million. 

“We’re worse off than Berkeley,” Brown said. “At least they have a mitigation agreement. We don’t have anything like that.” 

Three years ago the city of Santa Cruz reached an agreement with UC Santa Cruz to pay the city $70,000 a year in return for the university buying a hotel and taking it off the city’s tax rolls. 

The university made its first payment three years ago, but hasn’t paid since, said Santa Cruz Assistant City Manager Martin Bernal. 

“It’s a difficult issue,” Bernal said. “They are a burden, but overall it’s better to have a UC than not have one. “It’s what’s made the city.” 

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The next move in the struggle over Berkeley’s troubled Blood House may be a physical move from its present location. 

That’s what a majority of Zoning Adjustment Board members hinted Thursday night when the Blood House made its fifteenth appearance on ZAB’s agenda, two days short of a year since the first hearing on the historic house’s future. 

Though no formal proposal was on the table, ZAB members indicated they’d look favorably on plans to move the house, provided the new location proves suitable and the historic structure is restored. 

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the 1891 Queen Anne Victorian a Structure of Merit five years ago—a move that places formidable obstacles in the path of anyone intent on tearing it down. 

Developer Ruegg & Ellsworth wants to build a five-story, 44-unit apartment complex at the Blood House’s current location at 2526 Durant Ave., but plans to demolish the 113-year-old dwelling foundered on strong opposition from preservationists. 

On March 13, ZAB members voted unanimously to deny demolition of the house and signaled they wouldn’t look favorably on any plans that didn’t spare the dwelling—leading to Thursday night’s new proposal. 

The move was floated jointly by Brendan Heafey, project manager for developer Ruegg & Ellsworth, and Burton Edwards, an architect who recently resigned from the LPC. Edwards was speaking in his capacity as a consultant to Berkeley real estate seller and developer John Gordon. 

Gordon proposes to relocate two landmarked houses onto two lots he owns at Dwight Way and Regent Street, a block north of Telegraph Avenue. The property currently houses a parking lot and a small structure. 

Besides the Blood House, Douglas proposes to bring in the UC-owned John Woolley House—now at 2509 Haste St. and adjacent to People’s Park—which dates from 1876 and is on the California State Historic Resources Inventory. It would be the first move for the Blood House and the second for the Woolley home, Edwards said. 

“We request that ZAB consider the lot a suitable location. That’s all we’re asking tonight,” Heafey said. “We’re just testing the waters.” 

Debra Sanderson, the city principal planner advising ZAB, said she couldn’t make any recommendations because neither Ruegg & Ellsworth or Gordon had submitted anything to city staff. 

Before Heafey had even risen to declare “I’m happy to report we’ve found a way to save the Blood House,” preservationist Doug Buckwald—who lives just three blocks from the house—had already risen to protest the idea of a move, which he said would diminish the historic character of the neighborhood. 

Heafey said Gordon first suggested to him that the Blood House moved on March 24, when both were attending a convention in Monterey. He said the option to move the home “has been available all along in the Environmental Impact Report” prepared for the original project. 

Heafey said the developers had already received assurances from movers and public utilities with wires and cables along the path of the move that the house could be safely transported down city streets once its roof was removed. 

“At the end of the day you get a house that’s moved three blocks south and restored by a respected preservation architect,” Heafey said, calling his solution “a pretty neat concept.” 

Edwards told ZAB members that Gordon plans to convert both houses into multiple residential units, with the final number to be decided by economic factors. “It could require some addition to the Blood House,” he acknowledged. 

The degree of restoration of the Blood House depends on finances and on the amount of original detail still present beneath a stucco finish that was added sometime after the house was first built, Edwards said. 

The architect also acknowledged that Gordon would need zoning variances to site the two structures on a pair of lots totaling 5,800 square feet. 

ZAB member Laurie Capitelli said he’d want to make sure that any permit to building the new apartment complex was contingent on a simultaneous approval for the Blood House move. 

One possible glitch is that Douglas’ lots may be substandard for houses as large as he proposes to site on them. 

“We need to analyze the property under” the California Environmental Quality Act “and our zoning ordinances to see how it fits under them,” Sanderson said. But that can’t happen until the developers submit a formal proposal. 

Under CEQA, moving a historic structure is equivalent to demolition and constitutes an alternative available only if there are no other options to keep the building intact. 

Three months ago, the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association submitted an alternative proposal to leave the house on its original site, subdividing it into five apartments and adding an L-shaped 35-unit building nearby on the same lot.  

Developer Patrick Kennedy, who had earlier praised the concept, rose Thursday night to endorse the proposed move and declare that the BAHA plan “does not work financially. I am confident it will never get built.” 

Kennedy also said he didn’t favor limiting the move to the Dwight and Regent property “because that gives John Gordon too much power in this decision, and it might cause the deal to go sideways.” 

Gordon handles many of the commercial leases in Kennedy’s own mixed-used projects. 

Several prominent preservationists rose to attack the proposed move. 

Sharon Hudson said “the developers and the university have come up with a plan that furthers all their development desires and the Blood House is a pawn,” and declared that “we should not be playing musical chairs with our historic buildings except in the most extreme circumstances.” 

BAHA President Wendy Markel said the house “shouldn’t be moved,” but retained on site “as an example of what used to be in that neighborhood.” 

Lesley Emmington Jones, a member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission and a BAHA staffer, complained that the landmarks panel wasn’t being kept in the loop. She also requested financial projections demonstrating the developers’ claims that the Durant Street project would fail unless the Blood House is moved. 

Heafey and Rick Spickert of Oliver & Co., a construction firm, said their analysis showed that the project wouldn’t work without a move. 

By the time the hearing drew to an end, only ZAB member Carrie Sprague was voicing unequivocal opposition to a Blood House relocation, with the other members indicating they’d look favorably on a proposal that guaranteed a move. 

Member Dave Blake said any proposal he could accept would have to include secure funding for restoration. 

Though member Christina Tiedemann said she wasn’t pleased to be asked to consider a move without having more information on the BAHA proposal, she said “moving could be a terrific solution.” 

Sanderson said a mitigation measure in the project EIR would allow the developer to make the house available for a move by another developer, but she couldn’t comment further until city staff had a firm proposal in hand. 

At Sanderson’s urging, the Blood House was removed from ZAB’s calendar until such time as the developers return with a firm proposal. 

This report was based on a video recording of the ZAB meeting. i

After temporarily being saved from total elimination, the UC Institute for Labor and Employment (ILE) is on the chopping block again as part of what institute employees say is an attack on labor rights and the interests of working people across California. 

Calling their department the only office in the University of California system dedicated to labor research, ILE employees expressed outrage last year when their operating budget was written out of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget. Because the ILE was the only UC department to be completely eliminated in the Schwarzenegger budget, the institute’s employees branded the cut a political attack. 

The ILE, which runs offices at UC Berkeley and UCLA, was given a temporary reprieve earlier this year when the university gave them operating money from its own budget. In the meantime, the ILE and their supporters successfully lobbied both houses of the state Legislature, eventually winning legislative approval for $3.8 million of the institute’s original $4 million budget. 

But before the money is guaranteed, it has to be approved by the governor, and ILE employees are rallying support to ensure Schwarzenegger comes through. 

“This is not a budget cut,” said Peter Olney, the director for the ILE office at UC Berkeley. “This is a clear political attack on an institution that has been there for the labor movement and the working people of California.”  

Since forming in 2000, the ILE has issued a number of reports concerning labor and California workers, many of which have made their way into important policy decisions made by the state. The ILE, while not the only public university labor think tank in the country, is the largest, according to Olney. 

And while unabashedly pro-labor, the ILE says that since its inception, it has been struggling to balance out a system that continues to fund pro-business think tanks across the country. 

According to Katie Quan, chairperson of the UC Labor Center at UC Berkeley, the service arm of the ILE, the institute was established in 2000 during a period when California’s budget was still operating with a comfortable surplus. Thanks to heavy lobbying by groups representing workers across the state, Quan said, ILE’s budget was approved by the Legislature and signed by then Gov. Gray Davis. But when the state economy began to nose-dive shortly afterwards, she said, the ILE began to suffer cutbacks. From 2000 to 2003, the institute’s operating budget was cut by 33 percent. 

“Schwarzenegger's elimination of the ILE set us back to where we were three years ago and widens the gap in funding between management education research and labor education research,” said Quan. 

ILE representatives said they were not sure whether Schwarzenegger directly negotiated the cuts to the ILE, but said it is well-known that his chief financial advisor and other finance staff members are both fiscally and politically conservative. 

Representatives form Schwarzenegger's finance office did not return calls about the ILE cuts. 

Among the issues that ILE research covers are living wage laws, work and family issues, immigrant workers, and the health care crisis. Each year, the institute publishes the “State of California Labor” report.  

Among the most recognized research and policy contributions the ILE has made since 2000 include work during the legislative debate over SB2, a bill passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Davis that requires businesses over a certain size to pay a significant portion of employee health benefits. The ILE released a report in the middle of the debate that showed widespread support for the bill among California employers, even though big business groups lobbied against it. It was a revelation that many said was crucial in getting the bill passed. 

The ILE has also recently released a report called “The Hidden Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in California.” The report documents the tax burden placed on California tax payers by low-wage employers who force their employees to rely on public assistance to stay afloat. According to the report, $10.1 billion of the $21.2 billion in public assistance allotted to low income families in 2002 went to families with at least one working adult, rather than for emergency assistance for families that are unable to find work. 

In particular, the report found that workers in the retail industry collectively received $2 billion in assistance, which is over twice the amount received by workers in any other state industry. According to Quan of the Labor Center, the report uncovered programs—such as the one run by Wal-Mart—that provide counseling to employees on how to receive public aid as a supplement to their wages. 

Those who rely on ILE research and reports such as the one on low-wage work, call it “imperative” to insure that they continue to have an operating budget. 

“This is an invaluable resource for working people of California,” said Nathan Ballard, the spokesperson for the California Labor Federation, the clearing house for all the unions in California. 

Ballard said the ILE’s contribution to the policy work done for and by the working people of California is “vital.”  

Several academics have also weighed in on the debate, calling the ILE cuts a threat to academic freedom. 

“The ILE was a fairly innovative attempt to try and bring more resources to the university to help us understand California workplaces, California families and how policy might improve each of these,” said David Levine, a professor at the UC Berkeley Haas School Of Business and one of several UC professors who has worked with the ILE. “It [the ILE] didn’t last very long, and I think its disappointing that the governor zeroed it out without the normal review process that academic institutions undergo.” 

According to Quan of the Labor Center, the budget proposal rescuing the ILE from extinction is in the governor’s office and will be decided upon within the next few days. t

Youth was served Sunday when progressives nominated their slate of four candidates for the Rent Stabilization Board who promise to keep the board decidedly pro-tenant and a spring board for politically active UC students. 

Two 19-year-old students, Jesse Arreguin and Jason Overman were nominated, along with incumbent Eleanor Walden and retired attorney Jack Harrison. 

The four are almost certain to win election to the nine-member board, which holds staggered elections every two years. Landlords have not run candidates since they were swept in 1998. 

Commissioners Paul Hogarth and Judy Ann Alberti opted not to run for a second term, and Chairperson Max Anderson is prohibited from seeking a third term. Rent Board Commissioners receive stipends of $6,000 per year. 

The victors were among five candidates that sought the nomination to oversee the city’s 500-page rent control ordinance, manage the board’s $3 million budget, and act as an appeals court in tenant/landlord disputes.  

Joe Crowder, a former candidate for City Council and mayor, came up 18 votes shy of winning the final slot. 

While the rent board is firmly under the control of pro-tenant advocates, its power has been curtailed in recent years. In 1995, the state Legislature passed the Costa-Hawkins Act that ended rent control on vacant units and single-family dwellings. Since the law went into effect, 61 percent of Berkeley rental units have turned over and have experienced market rate rent increases.  

Also, if voters approve this November, the board will no longer set annual rent increases. A settlement reached earlier this year to a lawsuit filed by the Berkeley Property Owners Association would fix rate increases at 65 percent of the Consumer Price Index. 

Despite reduced clout, the nominees outlined agendas to expand the board’s purview.  

Walden said her biggest priority would be to campaign for an item on the November ballot that would extend rent control to federally subsidized Section 8 housing units in cases when the landlord raised rents, forcing tenants to pay more than 30 percent of their income. 

Citing concerns over the habitability of apartment units, Harrison called for the board to organize tenant complaints so residents in substandard housing could win rent reductions. “It would be a short-term improvement to get places fixed up,” he said. 

Arreguin, the ASUC Housing Director, said he would push to further tenant outreach and rebuild the tenants union, which emerged in the 1970s to press for rent control and was eventually disbanded after voters passed the ordinance in 1979. Despite a more favorable rental market in recent years, Arreguin said he has heard from numerous UC students that unjust evictions, uninhabitable apartments, and unaffordable rents remain a problem in Berkeley. 

Overman, who bested Arreguin by one vote at a student nominating convention last month and was nominated by acclamation Sunday, also backed efforts to better educate and organize tenants and urged the rent board organize a campaign to overturn Costa-Hawkins. 

“Students don’t know what rent control is,” he said.  

With landlords now free to charge market rates for vacant units, the primary benefactors of rent control are long-term Berkeley tenants. 

Arreguin and Overman—the latest in a long line of student advocates to seek a seat on the rent board—are products of an improved Berkeley rental market that has produced little outward protest from students in recent years.  

In contrast, commissioners and recent UC Graduates Howard Chong and Paul Hogarth both made headlines long before they were voted to the board, leading student protests during the housing crisis, when tenants complained that landlords were evicting tenants en masse so they could capitalize on market rate rent hikes. 

In addressing the convention Sunday, Hogarth said rent control was “the only thing keeping Berkeley from being another bland, boring suburb,” and referred to some landlords as “salivating to get rid of long-term tenants.” 

Hogarth said the pro-tenant majority is pushing the City Council to provide more money for tenants forced from their homes by a state law that allows owners to vacate the rental business and has secured services to renters including counseling services, a lobbyist in Sacramento, and direct grants to non-profits that serve low-income tenants. 

How the rent board spends its money—which comes from landlord fees—is a major source of irritation to the Berkeley Property Owners Association (BPOA). While the number of appellate decisions made by the rent board declined from 280 in 2001 to 216 in 2003, landlord fees rose eight percent last year. 

“Paying for this bureaucracy is a joke,” said BPOA President Michael Wilson. “They refuse to come to grips with the fact that instead of spending $3 million on a program that is less and less important, the money should go directly towards needy tenants.” 

So does Wilson plan on running a landlord slate to regain a foothold on the board for the first time since 1998? 

“People would rather have their fingernails pulled off with rusty pliers than sit through those meetings,” he said. “The answer is no.” 

ô

The students might have gone home for the summer, but concerns about UC Berkeley will be front and center at tonight’s (Tuesday, June 15) City Council meeting. 

Just days after councilmembers received a study spelling out UC’s cost to the city in unpaid services and taxes, the council is set to receive the city manager’s still-unreleased final report on the university’s Long Range Development Plan. 

Two weeks ago, city staff joined a chorus of criticism lambasting the university for a plan that—by the year 2020—pro-jects 30 percent more parking spaces, 18 percent more building space, 26 percent more staff, 22 percent more dorm beds, and five percent more students, than UC currently has. 

Among the chief complaints included UC’s intention to build 2,300 new parking spaces, 1,900 of them on property beside the main campus, and 100 new units of faculty housing in the university’s hill campus. In addition, staff questioned the lack of public input in crafting the development plan, and UC’s decision to separate the long range plan for the campus from that of the neighboring Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

If the UC Board of Regents approves the long range development plan as currently proposed, it will cost the city an additional $1.6 million in unpaid services, according to the fiscal impact study released last week.  

Meanwhile, with one week left until the city is scheduled to pass its fiscal year 2005 budget, councilmembers will get a final opportunity to propose amendments to help close the city’s $10.3 million shortfall. Two proposals on the table include a recommendation from Mayor Tom Bates to provide six months of additional funding to several nonprofit community agencies before voters decide on tax measures that could sustain funding for the agencies indefinitely, and a recommendation from Councilmember Dona Spring to restore money to several community organizations and add money for traffic circles and creek restoration. 

At its 5 p.m. work session tonight before the regular meeting, the council will discuss four proposed tax measures for the November ballot that would raise about $7 million. 

At the 7 p.m. meeting, the council is scheduled to conduct six public hearings, five on new fees for ambulance use, fire inspection, marina use, false alarms and animal adoptions, and the sixth on the proposed Berkeley Hills Fire Station.  

Peter and Andrea Cukor have led a long and lonely battle against the proposed fire station at 3000 Shasta Road, which would be built near their home. The couple lost a court battle last year trying to stop construction of the fire house, first planned in 1992, which the Cukors say is poorly designed and not worth the estimated $3 million cost to build. 

The firehouse, which would be paid for with money from a 1992 city bond measure, enjoys widespread community support, however, and the council is expected to deny the Cukors’ appeal of a use permit granted by the city’s Zoning Adjustment Board.  

At tonight’s regular meeting, the council will also get to weigh in on an issue that extends far outside of Berkeley’s city limits.  

The Peace and Justice Commission is asking the council to adopt a resolution to recommend amendment of the federal and state constitutions on corporations. The commission wants the federal and state governments to retract clauses that grant corporations the protections or rights of persons. In addition, the commission wants a declaration that the expenditure of corporate money is not a form of constitutionally protected speech. 

If the council passes the resolution, a copy would be sent to local, state and federal legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. City Manager Phil Kamlarz took no position on the commission’s recommendation. 

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Berkeley Police are asking the public to help them identify and apprehend the two men who abducted a woman pedestrian last Wednesday and forced her into a car where she was raped, then dropped off in Oakland. 

Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies said the kidnapping occurred around 3 p.m. on June 9 at the intersection of University Avenue and Bonar Street. 

One of the men flashed a pistol as they forced the woman into their car, a late model silver Mercedes or similar vehicle with shiny chrome tire rims and a gray interior. 

The driver sped away, and the assault occurred inside the vehicle, Okies said. 

One of the assailants is described as a short—5’3” to 5’4”—slight African American man, age 18-20, weighing about 140 pounds with untinted hair in one-inch twists. He was wearing blue jeans, a black T-shirt with red lettering on the back, and extensive jewelry.  

The second assailant is described as a slim African American male wearing a white baseball cap with yellow trim on the bill and clad i n number necklaces and rings. 

Okies urged anyone with information on the crime to e-mail tips to police@berkeley.ci.us or call the Berkeley Police Robbery Detail at 981-5742. 

—Richard Brenneman›o

SAN FRANCISCO—In the 1980s, as a Nicaraguan child, I had dreams of Presidente Reagan dying of a heart attack in the middle of a speech. I thought his death would bring the war to an end. Then there would be no more low-flying “black birds” (spy planes) breaking the sound barrier several times a day during school hours.  

One spring morning in 1981 I saw my mother and some neighbors digging a big hole in my beloved rose garden. “There’s a new president in the United States,” she said. “And he doesn’t like the Revolution. Almost certainly, we’re going to have a war. The hole is going to be our refugio (refuge) if their airplanes come looking for us. We’ll hide in there.” 

Later, when the terrible war did come and the United States put up and armed the counterrevolutionary Contras, I dreamt that if Reagan died there would be no more bombed health clinics or hospitals. There would be no more empty shelves in the supermarket. And most important, the “Death Truck” wouldn’t drive down my street every week.  

The Death Truck was a big military truck, Russian-made, that delivered the corpses of young soldiers. My neighborhood was overwhelmingly Sandinista, hence, many of the youth in my barrio volunteered before they were old enough to get drafted. The truck would drive by slowly, staining the air with the stench of rotten humans wrapped in black plastic bags. Everyone froze while that damned truck drove by. Folks prayed it wouldn’t stop in front of their house.  

The most disgraceful assignment for anyone in the Ejercito Popular Sandinista (the Sandinista armed forces) was to be the young man on the passenger seat of the Death Truck. His job was to notify the family he was delivering a corpse. Before the kid could hop off the truck, somebody’s mother, wife, sister, uncle, brother, son or daughter was already on the sidewalk weeping.  

“Oh! No not my husband!! God, tell me it isn’t so!”  

I recall my 19-year-old neighbor, seven months pregnant, screaming so loud the sky was gonna crack.  

The delivery soldier was required to make a dreadful speech as the black plastic bag was laid on the sidewalk in front of the house. While a Nicaraguan flag was draped on the body bag he would recite: “In the name of the People’s Sandinista Revolution, we sadly inform you that (rank and name of person being delivered) has fallen (circumstances of death, i.e. ambush, ground combat, land mine, air raid...) in defense of the freedom and dignity of the Nicaraguan people. In the name of the Ejercito Popular Sandinista, we express our deepest regret and condolences to your family.”  

The soldier would then salute the wailing mother, wife or whoever was there and hand them the dog tag, some paperwork, and any personal effects the soldier might have had.  

Then everyone knew what to do—collect coffee, sugar and bread among all the neighbors to pull together a wake. The neighborhood carpenter would improvise a coffin with wood that sometimes came off somebody’s wall or chicken coop. A man once told me that he made over 700 coffins during the war for young men he had seen grow up.  

My black mourning clothes turned gray from wearing them so much. By the time I turned 12, I had five dog tags hanging from my neck. The guys’ moms or wives or sisters gave them to me in appreciation for help I might have given in organizing the funeral—collecting the sugar, washing the coffee cups, or walking long distances to get bread from a relative in a different neighborhood.  

There weren’t many girls my age in my neighborhood, so I hung out mostly with the boys. After Hurricane Joan left Nicaragua flooded in 1988, all the boys in my neighborhood vowed to serve. My boys all got up on one of those military trucks, with their camouflage pants and green T-shirts, with red bandanas tied to their necks (worn by youth volunteers, ages 16 to 18), and their AK-47s. They waved good-bye and blew kisses. The truck disappeared, and all the women hugged each other and wept.  

My boys came home one by one, most of them dead, one without legs, and another insane.  

Information that has come out since the Iran-Contra arms smuggling scandal has documented how the Reagan administration actively tried to overthrow the Sandinista government. Back then, I could only dream of Presidente Reagan’s death. I dreamt his body would be inside those makeshift coffins.  

Sixteen years later, he has finally died.  

But Reagan would need to die 60,000 more times, to make up for the lives lost during his watch. God forgive me, but I hope hell has a VIP lounge for him to suffer the torture and terror he imposed on us. Our only sin was to be living in Nicaragua. 

“La Segua,” a 28-year-old Nicaraguan woman now living in the United States, has written for YO! Youth Outlook, a magazine by and about Bay Area Youth and a project of Pacific News Service. 

BUENOS AIRES—In April, approximately 150,000 Argentines filled the streets of downtown Buenos Aires in one of the country’s largest demonstrations since democracy was restored 20 years ago. The organizer did not belong to any of the county’s internationally renowned human rights groups, however. Juan Carlos Blumberg was virtually unknown until the murder of his 23-year-old son Axel, the latest casualty in Argentina’s growing crime wave. 

The turnout stunned Argentine President Nestor Kirchner. The demonstration that Kirchner had anticipated and wanted to capitalize on occurred one week earlier at the ESMA Navy Mechanics School, the most notorious torture center during Argentina’s 1976-83 Dirty War, a military crackdown that resulted in 30,000 deaths. Here, Kirchner converted ESMA into a museum of remembrance for the families of the victims, known as the disappeared. The famous human rights group Madres de Plaza de Mayo co-led the march, yet only 35,000 Argentines attended.  

The relatively small ESMA turnout has forced the Argentine president to rethink his priorities. Kirchner, who completed his first year in office last week, had tried to make the Dirty War’s unfinished business a signature issue. However, many ordinary Argentines have neither the interest nor the luxury to get caught up in the politics of the past. Surviving the present is their concern, and Blumberg’s son, not the disappeared, is on their minds. 

Jorge Delprato, a restaurateur in the upscale neighborhood of Belgrano, welcomes the change, saying that by comparison, “the ESMA event was political demagoguery with no relation to the priorities of my customers.” 

The economy is poor Argentines’ main concern. Alberto Aguero, 72, scavenges the trash each night for cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, anything recyclable that will fetch him a few pesos. He says he is worse off than he was one year ago. About Kirchner’s revisiting the past, he says, “I don’t care about that stuff. I want my job back.” 

One of Kirchner’s first official acts requested that Congress annul a law passed during the 1990s granting immunity to high-ranking military officials from the Dirty War. The ESMA dedication continued his reckoning with the past. 

To Kirchner’s credit, many Argentine political analysts testified to the event’s symbolic importance. Family members of the disappeared were visibly moved. Maria Laura Gullo’s grandmother was murdered at ESMA. “It was important to be there,” she says, “to support the President’s decision, and finally have somewhere I can take flowers to my grandmother.” 

Julio Burdman, a political analyst with the polling firm Nueva Mayoria, says his most recent data showed 54 percent of Argentines support Kirchner’s position on human rights and 77 percent support his overall performance. Kirchner was elected with 22 percent of the vote.  

Alicia Ocariz also attended the ceremony. Her husband disappeared when their daughter was two months old. But, she says, “I don’t belong to any human rights organizations. I don’t have time.” 

Argentina, many Argentines say, has had 20 years to deal with its past. While its professional human rights activists are admired from London to Los Angeles, its citizens have had to navigate one financial meltdown after another. Nueva Mayoria’s poll that gave Kirchner high marks also showed that among Argentines’ priorities, human rights did not make the top ten. Kirchner’s signature issue was a priority for only one percent of Argentines.  

Instead, along with the economy, crime is a top concern, particularly among the middle class. In addition to the sheer numbers who took to the streets during the Blumberg march, many were first-time protesters. Absent were the usual political banners. Ubiquitous were Argentine flags and photos of young Blumberg.  

Blumberg’s murder has galvanized the country and has given his father unprecedented access to politicians. Within eight days of the march the Argentine Senate passed a sweeping anti-crime bill. Julio Burdman observed that for the first time in 17 years, Argentine legislators worked the day before the week-long holiday Semana Santa. 

While many Argentines want to move forward, Alberto Amato, a journalist with the Argentine daily Clarin, says, “We cannot deal with present problems until we deal with the past. It is impossible to forget the past.” 

He argues that one march is no substitute for creating institutions of a civil society. The Argentine middle class is not known for embracing participatory democracy, ironically, perhaps another reason that many of the past’s human rights issues remain unresolved. Amato adds, “The middle class has never taken responsibility for its government. It should take more interest in the country.” 

When Patrick Kennedy rose to address Zoning Assessment Board members about the Blood House during ZAB’s regular meeting last week, David Blake took advantage of the controversial developer’s presence to ask Kennedy about the long-empty “cultural use space” in the Gaia Building on Allston Way. 

By devoting the ground floor to cultural use, Kennedy was able to add extra height to the building under city regulations that give additional “bonus” space for cultural uses and dedicated low-income housing. 

The Gaia’s first projected tenant, the Gaia Bookstore, declared bankruptcy before the building was finished, and two other tenants fell through because of the high costs of finishing the space. The Gaia is now projecting using the space to house a jazz cafe to be owned and operated by local businesswoman Anna De Leon. 

Unlike the earlier would-be tenants, De Leon’s cafe is not a nonprofit organization. 

“You sent Anna De Leon here to argue successfully that we reduce” the building’s first floor cultural use space, Blake said, “and she hasn’t moved in yet. When is that going to happen?” 

When Kennedy said De Leon “is doing her improvements right now,” Blake again pressed for a date. 

“In as much as I’ve been saying this for the past three years, I’m reticent to suggest an actual date,” Kennedy responded, “but I think its safe to say that sometime soon after August she plans to be opening.”

In most countries it is recognized as one of the world’s most powerful organizations. This spring, it is celebrating its 100th anniversary with pomp and circumstance, including photo exhibitions, emotive tributes and a flurry of press attention.  

Yet FI FA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, international soccer’s governing body, is virtually unknown here in the United States.  

Almost everywhere else—in France, Brazil or Iran—soccer fans regard the acronym with a mixture of dread an d respect. FIFA’s sole business, since it was launched in Paris in 1904, is overseeing the corrupt and unruly multi-billion dollar business of international soccer.  

The federation has a classic pyramidal structure. It grants membership to one soccer ass ociation from any “independent state recognized by the international community.” A new state, like East Timor (which still has not been accepted into the “FIFA family”) must apply to FIFA for recognition if it wants to participate in world soccer. This st ructure guarantees FIFA monopoly power over the sport.  

Today, it has 205 members—New Caledonia being the most recent addition—all associations. These, in turn, typically field national teams and organize internal leagues and club teams.  

With this stru cture, FIFA was global long before globalization became a buzzword. Before World War II, then-president Jules Rimet was fond of pointing out that FIFA already had more members than the League of Nations.  

FIFA exercises incredible influence over a countr y’s international image as it suspends and sanctions members or hands out its greatest plum: the World Cup, which it organizes every four years.  

It’s no surprise then that federation executives normally have access to the highest levels of political pow er. Last month, in an announcement timed to coincide with its centennial celebrations, FIFA picked South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup, the first time world soccer’s signature event will be held in Africa.  

According to South Africa’s Sunday Argus newspaper, few of the jubilant South Africans knew that their President Thabo Mbeki and greatest statesman Nelson Mandela helped clinch the deal in closed-door meetings with FIFA executive committee members.  

Yet the federation’s leaders are equally adept at bestowing sanctions as favors, and are jealous of their power. On June 2 FIFA announced Kenya’s suspension from international soccer and the next World Cup because of the Kenyan government’s decision to “interfere” in the country’s national soccer asso ciation. Many Kenyans were outraged by the FIFA ban, saying the government had intervened only to stamp out corruption.  

When he travels, FIFA President Joseph “Sepp” Blatter is received with the same protocol as a head of state, “something that only ha ppens with the president of the International Olympic Committee,” writes Elizabeth Mora Mass, columnist with New York City Spanish-language daily El Diario/La Prensa.  

Yet unlike a head of state, she says, the federation’s president “gives little public accounting of his activities.”  

FIFA’s lack of transparency is well known to soccer journalists worldwide. In addition to the absence of real oversight of its activities, FIFA is headquartered in Zurich, where the Swiss legal system that prizes financia l privacy acts as a further deterrent to scrutiny.  

Not surprisingly, FIFA powerbrokers are too often the targets of accusations of mismanagement, cronyism and corruption as hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts are negotiated, including th e lucrative TV rights to World Cup games, which are watched by over 30 billion people.  

Since the organization’s beginning in 1904 it has had only eight presidents, and the last two, Brazilian João Havelange and Blatter, a Swiss, have helped transform FI FA into a global sports juggernaut but also imbued it with an imperiousness that is now part of its organizational culture.  

As an Associated Press reporter I covered the 2001 FIFA under-17 soccer world championship in Trinidad and Tobago. Jack A. Warner, a Trinidadian tycoon and FIFA vice-president, was accused of playing favorites by funneling lucrative contracts to family and cronies.  

During a testy press conference, Warner and Blatter lashed out at reporters (Warner insinuated I wasn’t old enough t o be challenging his management of the championship) and refused to answer questions about why Warner’s family was raking in millions of dollars in tournament-related business.  

If Blatter was reluctant to investigate there were ample reasons. He was fac ing an election and needed Warner’s support to fend off a challenge to his presidency, tainted by charges of financial mismanagement, cash-for-votes allegations, and the still murky collapse of FIFA’s marketing arm, which controlled television rights to t he 2006 World Cup in Germany.  

With Warner’s help, though, Blatter was re-elected the next year; both he and Warner still hold on to their posts today and still are among the most powerful officials of the 24-member Executive Committee. The next election s are in 2007.  

Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona, who led his team to win the 1986 Mexico World Cup, famously called FIFA a “mafia, a sect.” The accusation may be exaggerated, but it is not off the mark in at least one sense: Like a criminal organization or a cult, FIFA answers to no earthly power. 

Marcelo Ballve is a former reporter for the Associated Press in Brazil and the Caribbean and covered international soccer. 

?

Burning Ivy Razes the Roof 

A Berkeley man learned a harsh lesson Saturday: It’s a bad idea to try to blowtorch the ivy off your walls. 

Berkeley firefighters were summoned to the residence at 2907 Forest Ave. Saturday after a neighbor spotted white smoke billowing from the attic. 

As they prepared to battle the flames, firefighters plucked a stranded painter from an exterior platform. 

Before the fire was doused, firefighters had to cut a major hole in the roof to contain a blaze that had damaged the att ic and one room beneath, said Deputy Fire Chief David Orth. 

Investigators learned that the painting crew had already finished the interior and was starting on the outside when the owner took a blowtorch to some obstinate paint and to some ivy tightly cli nging to the walls. 

The fire then followed the ivy through a breach in the walls and into the attic. 

“People shouldn’t be using torches to burn away weeds or paint,” said Orth, “especially when we’re already into the fire season.” 

Orth estimated the da mage to the home at $50,000. 

Students Graduate Fire Department Program  

The Berkeley Fire Department held graduation ceremonies of its own last week, honoring the 23 high school-aged youths who attended the department’s Third Annual Youth Academy. 

Students spent 14 Saturdays with engine crews, learning the day-to-day routines of Berkeley firefighters and receiving introductory training in deploying hoses and the art of spraying water and earning their CPR certifications. 

“They get to do ride-alongs,” too, said Orth, “but the highlight of the class is when they get to rappel off our training tower.” 

The course is so popular that one graduate had attended both previous sessions and another graduate had attended last year’s program. 

“It’s a great program,” said Orth. “We hope to expand it next year.”

Gang Attacks, Victim Loses Wallet 

Four young males, one clad all in pink, attacked a hapless pedestrian last Thursday near the corner of Arch and Cedar streets. 

After taking a punch, the pedestrian gave over his wallet and the quartet fled. 

Another Gan g, Another Wallet 

A teenager confronted by an ethnically mixed band of fellow teens at the corner of Prince Street and Claremont Avenue did the wise thing and relinquished his wallet. 

Less wisely, he waited more than two hours before calling the cops—by which time the Future Felons of America had long since vanished. 

Bandit Makes Collection at Church 

Police were summoned to Northbrae Community Church early Friday afternoon after a church worker discovered that someone had slipped into the office and slipped out with the cash. 

No one saw who did it, said Berkeley Police Spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

Booster Grabs Costly Blender 

A shopper gave himself a five-finger discount on a very expensive blender at Berkeley Sur La Table shortly after 1:30 Friday afternoon. Police have a description of the suspect. 

Another ‘Rat Pack’ Robbery 

“Rat Packs” are what police call the gangs of juveniles who commit robbery by swarming their suspects—apparently the crime de jour in Berkeley of late. 

A gang of five assailed a hapless pedestrian at Dohr and Oregon, shoving and strong-arming until he did the smart thing and parted with his wallet. 

WorldCom Loses a Laptop  

The communications giant that perpetrated a multi-billion-dollar accounting fraud to hype its s tock price became a victim in Berkeley Friday when someone walked into the telecom’s 831 Gilman Street offices and walked out with one of their laptop computers. 

Beyond that, police have little 4-1-1. 

One Last Gang of Four Report 

Four brazen bandits co nfronted a pedestrian at the Ashby BART station shortly after 2 p.m., strong-arming their prey until he handed over his money.ôµ

My father left for work at dawn, wearing dungarees and a blue button-down cotton workshirt. On his feet he wore heavy woolen white socks and brown scuffed round-toed boots. He walked fast with a slight bend forward across the front yard and driveway and entered a nearby red barn. That is how he began every day, for more than 40 years—sprinting across grass and gravel to an outbuilding where he raised rodents for a living. 

It may seem a peculiar occupation for those whose fathers wore ties, carried brief cases and took the bus to Philadelphia or drove in the morning carpool to a modern office building in a sterile suburban center. My daddy didn’t go far. He was always home for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He never owned an attaché case and he never wore a suit to work. 

My father built a small eclectic empire of rats and mice, guinea pigs, hamsters and gerbils. It was hard physical labor, but work that he enjoyed. He cleaned rat boxes, fed and watered mice, bred guinea pigs and hamsters, and tried to keep his gerbils happy. He kept records with thick black Magic Markers on the sides of plastic rat and mice boxes, recording the approximate dates of conception, birth and separation. Hamsters and guinea pigs were more difficult to keep accounts for as they d idn’t mate with just anyone. And gerbils were impossibly monogamous. With rats and mice it was one male to three females, six days of wild, orgy-like sex, four weeks of gestation, one month before mother and babies were divided. But gerbils were persnicke ty. They had to be friends in order to copulate. 

Gender was identified by lifting up hairless tails, except for the guinea pigs and hamsters who were turned over and studied. The animals were segregated by sex, age, weight and health. Rodents who were si ck or vicious were disposed of by a yank of the tail and a swift whack on the head against a building support beam. It was a violent ending, but quick and efficient. 

The rooms where my father toiled were covered in sawdust and grime. They smelled of ammonia and rot from urine and feces and they were forever dusty and hot. When you walked up the wooden steps to the outer chamber where the guinea pigs and gerbils lived in wooden boxes with screen tops, your eyes began to water and your nose filled with an acrid, unpleasant smell. The mouth became parched and it was difficult to breathe. A constant scratching noise and high-pitched peeps and squeals let you know that the animals were busy. A thousand pairs of curious pink and pale blue eyes peeked out of sm all holes, whiskers quivering, tails vibrating and thumping. Every day my father was greeted with the sounds and scents of breeding and birthing, life and death. 

Because of my father, once a year, between second and fifth grades, I was the most important kid in my grammar school class. My teachers would arrange to bring my classmates to dad’s rodent ranch to learn about the facts of life. Other kid’s dads might teach their school chums how to throw a football or when to swing a bat, but my daddy shared w ith my schoolyard friends life’s most important, sacred secrets: furry mothers caring for their naked pink babies, fastidious hamsters building soft round nests, immaculate gerbils self-cleaning their cages and falling in love. 

Other kids’ dads came home at precisely six o’clock, irritable from a day watching the stock market go up and down, or selling car insurance, their eyes tired and their fingers cramped. My father returned to our house late in the evening, often after dark, smelling of sweat and sa wdust and domesticated guinea pigs. He provided a safe, loving and prosperous home for my brothers and me. And I will always be grateful for his important gift to my childhood development and later fragile adult psyche by making me the most popular kid in my class, for one day of every year.›

“Our class is run like a college studio with college-level projects, medium, and materials,” Cragmont Elementary School art teacher Joe McClain explained. He was busy readying the classroom for the third and fourth graders who were about to appear. In hi s Bermuda shorts and abstract art t-shirt he hurried around the room, which was colorfully jumbled with student art, easels and supplies, throwing me information along the way. 

The Cragmont art program is paid for by the Berkeley Schools Excellence Proje ct (BSEP), a Berkeley property tax originally approved by Berkeley voters in 1986. BSEP supports class size reduction, music, libraries, as well as allocating funds to each school to use as it sees fit for enrichment programs. Cragmont’s art program comes out of the school’s site enrichment funds. 

BSEP will expire in 2006. In anticipation of the fast approaching time for renewing this important tax (the district will put it on the ballot this year), I decided to visit a few of the programs schools are cu rrently providing with their site enrichment funds, to see how things are going.  

Joe enlisted my help distributing cut and ripped pieces of magazine paper, pastels, and glue, around the tables. This week’s project would be making collages in preparation for an upcoming field trip to the Romare Bearden exhibit at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art. The students filed quietly into the room. Joe showed them where to sit, leaving room for expected students from the special education class to intersperse. Joe took a quick few minutes to explain Bearden’s “scrap art” techniques. Then he set them loose: “Lay out your scraps, fill in the blank spaces with whatever you want.” The students dug into the pile of paper scraps, picking through and selecting, some d iscussing their approach with others at their table. Every student was on task. Joe wanted me to make a collage, too, so I found a seat and joined in. The art class lasts an hour and a half and as its end approached, Joe cheerfully began a countdown. We a ll worked madly in productive frenzied harmony. Those who finished early began cleaning up, in the midst of others still gluing and coloring. When time ran out, everyone turned in their completed collage, said goodbye to Joe, and returned to their regular classroom.  

Meanwhile, at King Middle School, Jan Sells, a licensed psychotherapist, has been counseling students for 15 years with BSEP site enrichment funding. Jan has bootstrapped her half-time BSEP-funded position (with another portion of her salary cobbled together from other sources) into a counseling program with 11 therapists, including seven interns who she supervises (she started out at King as an intern, herself) and three volunteer licensed therapists. That’s a lot of bang for the buck! “The reputation is, kids this age don’t open up, and it’s the opposite,” Jan said. More than 100 students out of a school of 875 are seeing counselors. That’s a lot! Their backgrounds represent the demographics of the school. Most are self-referred, having le arned about the program through Jan’s extensive outreach to sixth grade classes, as well as word of mouth. “Kids talk about suicide a lot…running away from home, …issues of sexual identity, physical abuse, a lot of bereavement and grief issues, … sex, pre gnancy, bullying, and just your day-to-day issues of social acceptance, peer pressure, loneliness, and feeling left out.” Counselors work with families when appropriate, and utilize conflict resolution when students involved agree. Students apparently fin d the counseling helpful, with most returning for multiple sessions. 

We took a tour of the counseling annex. The offices have been colorfully painted by interns in lavender and beige, electric turquoise and mint green. Comfy looking couches are covered w ith flowered throws. Posters, drawings, feathers, sand trays with accompanying toy figures, and art supplies fill the walls and countertops 

As Jan walked me out she called to a student on the playground. It was time for his counseling appointment. She ex plained that this procedure was O.K. because at King, there is no shame in seeing a counselor. He ran up and greeted her with a huge smile.  

Le Conte Elementary School uses some of its BSEP site enrichment funds to support its long-standing farm and gard en program. I visited on one of those first warm days in March. The main garden area is long and lush with a variety of vegetables, climbing roses, and other plants, all in the central courtyard of the school building. Hens pecked along one side of the ga rden while a denim capped scarecrow oversaw the other side. This program, like many others, is pieced together from a variety of sources. “Farmer” Ben Goff who runs the program is paid out of grant funds. BSEP site enrichment funds help pay for AmeriCorps Volunteer Tanya Stiller, Ben’s assistant. Here’s another example of how a small sum can literally blossom into a substantial program. The class began with students flopping down at the picnic table in the cool shade under an awning. Ben helped students l isten to their hearts with stethoscopes before and after doing jumping jacks. Tanya then took them into the garden where they began preparing beds for planting. As they cut up “cover crop” to turn it back into the soil, a licorice-like aroma wafted throug h the air. This particular class was “dual immersion,” with each student speaking English and Spanish, and the chatter in both languages intermingled. One boy teased about whether he should kill a ladybug (“No!”). There were a few shrieks over snails. 

“T he kids love it because it’s a different way of learning…an experiential opportunity,” Tanya told me. Students experience all aspects of gardening, as well as anatomy and physiology of plants, respect for living things and the environment, nutrition and h ealthy lifestyles. They taste everything they grow, and contribute lettuce to the school salad bar. “Those days it gets eaten up,” Tanya said.  

Our schools have been relying on local funding from BSEP for many years to provide valuable and critical progr ams that because of inadequate state funding, the district could not otherwise afford. This is money that is carefully and well-spent. BSEP is up for renewal soon. We can’t afford not to support it. 

Miriam Rokeach Topel served on the Berkeley School Board 1990-98. 

Berkeley has always supported the protection of the natural habitat for wildlife and creeks. Now others are joining the fight to preserve our open spaces and creeks. Friends of Garrity Creek are fighting a proposed 40-home development that will destroy 1 0 beautiful acres and threaten Garrity Creek that is fed by two natural springs at it’s headwaters and ends when it flows into the San Pablo Bay. The proposed subdivision is SD 01 8533 and is on very steep land behind Hilltop Drive in El Sobrante.  

Almos t 400 residents signed petitions in addition to the 540 homes in Hilltop Green with 2,000 residents opposing this development. The Richmond City Council voted for requiring an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in addition to the Hilltop Green Homeowners a ssociation, Manor Neighborhood Association, Friends of Garrity Creek, Hilltop Neighborhood Association, and the El Sobrante Planning and Zoning Advisory Committee. The county ignored the request and issued a negative declaration stating that no significan t impact or no impact would result to the traffic, environment and a host of other conditions including building on steep land in violation of the county’s own ordinance that says land with slopes of 26 percent or more shall remain as open space.  

The 10 acres and Garrity Creek should remain in their natural states and should be acquired for a neighborhood park. Residents are willing to raise the required funds to purchase the property.  

The first public hearing before the Contra Costa County Planning C ommission to approve the 40-home development was held on May 25 and was well-attended, with standing room only. The hearing was continued to June 8 because so many people spoke against the project and for an EIR due to the significant damage that will occ ur as a result of traffic, drainage, unstable steep slopes, environment, wildlife, habitat that is now food for wildlife, and to the Creek. At the June 8 meeting, the Planning Commission voted 4-2 in favor of the subdivision (Hyman Wong, Richard Clark, Ma rvin Terrell and John Hancock in favor, Len Batagglia and Steven Mehlman against). Steven Mehlman and Planning Commission Chair Len Battagglia requested an EIR.  

Friends of Garrity Creek have hired a well-known law firm noted for it’s understanding of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and will appeal to the county Board of Supervisors by the June 18 deadline.  

El Sobrante resident Barbara A. Pendergrass is a member of Friends of Garrity Creek. For more information and ways you can help, visit www.geocities.com/hilltopcreek or call Barbara at 223-6091.  

›

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s not just drivers going crazy these days. Parkers have reached a point where they’re a danger to life and limb. As far as customer service, forget it. 

Recently my battery failed at Berkeley Bowl parking lot. I had more than $1 50 worth of perishable food in my steaming trunk. The Berkeley Bowl’s customer service employee, a younger woman, added to my problems, insisting that she couldn’t help me and that after all, I didn’t need to shop there. Her only advice to me was to ask s omeone in the parking lot for a jump, which resulted in my tying up the time of a very nice young man, who was finally unable to help and nervously left after a half hour when another customer went into road rage and called the police on us. So much for a good Samaritan. 

Yes, I admit, by this time I was swearing. 

Another employee, realizing that customer service had failed totally to help me, took my ice cream into the cooler, guided me to a pay phone and spoke soothing words.  

I decided after witnessi ng a bad scene in the parking lot months ago that Berkeley Bowl needed to hire a parking attendant. The fact that they don’t is one reason I limit my shopping there. In discussing these happenings with other group members of my organization of elderly peo ple, the Gray Panthers, I found that one of the members had earlier written to Berkeley Bowl about hiring an attendant who could solve these matters quickly and with only a few words. Long’s Drugs, for instance, has an attendant in a very small lot. I spo ke to him today and he said that, yes, people get crazy in parking lots.  

Life is too short to spend two hours wrangling in the parking lot. I don’t know if it is possible to pass a city ordinance requiring lots with a large degree of traffic have an att endant, but I will certainly suggest it. 

Once I was able to telephone AAA and rescue my melting ice cream, my problem was easily solved. 

Avis Worthington 

ROSA PARKS AD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I recently signed a copy of the ad supporting Rosa Parks School. I made the mistake of signing without carefully reading the full text of the ad. Had I done so, I would not have signed. 

While I support and applaud the efforts of the circulators to improve the image of our school and to recruit families to the school, I do not believe that it is appropriate to promise specific things, such as a science fair. A science fair may be desirable, but the decision to have a fair rightly lies with the entire school community; teachers (especially the science teacher), parents and principal. 

Our school is hopefully coming out of a period of distrust and in order for healing to take place, all voices must be heard and decision s must be based on a transparent process. If a decision has already been made that there will be a science fair, it was made in private and with no transparency. Such a lack of process will not help. 

Joseph Brulenski 

Rosa Parks School teacher 

• 

TRASHED P APERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I like the Berkeley Daily Planet, and pick it up on the days it comes out. However: I walk in the morning for exercise, and on corners where the Berkeley Daily Planet is in boxes, on Tues. and Fri. the old Daily Planets are i n the trash receptacle nearby. At Derby and College, I often pick up 10-17 old Planets and recycle them in the paper bin our co-op received from the City of Berkeley. 

Berkeley has been a leader in recycling. Would it be so difficult for the person who pu ts those old Planets in the trash to put them in the truck and take them to the paper recycling bin that you, I hope, have near the place where the papers are printed? 

Julia Craig 

• 

WHY RUMMY? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m against any casinos, Indian or not. From the tone of Richard Brenneman’s article (“Richmond Plans Massive Casino on the Bay,” Daily Planet, June 11-14), he is also against casinos. However, I fail to understand the relevance of the reference to Donald Rumsfeld in the very first sentence. Former Defense Secretary William Cohen’s part in the casino effort seems to stand on its own, so I wonder at the relevance of Donald Rumsfeld to this discussion. 

Vince Swanson 

• 

RICHMOND CASINO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you, Richard Brenneman, for your coverage of the possible casino at Winehaven on Point Molate. Anyone who has not seen this enormous crenelated brick building should go look. It is one of the most amazing buildings in the Bay Area and the views aren’t bad either. Across the street is a group of worker’s cottages, one of the last cohesive groups of such buildings. All are listed on the National Register of Historic Places which hopefully might save them. 

Some issues, such as this casino and also the three 18-story residential towers p roposed on the bay side of the Bayview exit off 580, have impacts that are regional and not just local. (Thank you for that article also.) Yet only the Richmond City Council has direct control over them. Competition for the almighty tax dollar has the po tential for some serious planning mistakes. Where is regional land use planning? I believe there isn’t any.  

Susan Cerny 

• 

BUILDING TRUST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your recent article on Point Molate in Richmond was apparently based upon confidential infor mation recently revealed to a small group representing the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, Save the Bay and Trails for Richmond Action Committee. As an attendee, my impression was that the developers were making an honest attempt to receive feedback fro m the environmental community in order to more carefully tailor the project to meet those concerns before going public. The article seems to suggest that developers and politicians are devious. The one thing that is clear from your article is that certain members who are thought of as spokespersons for the environmental community are devious, dishonest and lacking in moral turpitude. The pity is the actions of perhaps one person will raise doubts about the honesty of the other groups at the meeting and the environmental community in general. So much for trying to build trust. Public beware.  

David Dolberg  

Vice chair,  

Trails for Richmond Action Committee 

• 

QUESTIONING VALIDITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Daily Planet’s recent article about the proposed development of Point Molate has several factual errors and the author uses descriptive adjectives that seem to slant the article towards a specific audience. 

I am always concerned when I read articles that have easily verifiable errors stated as fact. It makes me wonder about the validity of the rest of the article that is not as easily verifiable. 

In particular: 

1. The caption under the photo states “A large casino has been proposed for this ridgetop site on Point Molate in Richmond where the Navy once stored underground fuel containers.” 

To begin with, the Navy never owned the ridge and no casinos have ever been proposed for this location. All development has always been slated for the flat area at the bottom of the slopes. Chevron has always owned the ridge. 

Secondly, the Navy never “stored” fuel tanks. These tanks were the storage vessels. 

2. The property was purchased by the Santa Cruz Oil Company in November of 1941 and not “early 1941” as stated. 

3. The Navy didn’t latch onto the site until June 25, 1942 and not later in 1941 as the article states. 

4. Significantly more than eight miles of underground pipes have already been removed with another 16-18 miles of pipes remaining, so the statement that “The site was criss-crossed with eight miles of fuel lines” seems to be in error. 

5. “The 22 massive underground fuel tanks” is a judgmental description that may have ulterior motives aimed at stirring up the masses against any development (Has the Planet become the mouthpiece for Chevron?). If a 50,000 barrel tank were in my own backyard I might think of it as “massive.” However, aboveground tanks on the other side of the ridge on Chevron’s property are routinely 10 times that size. By today’s standards, the Point Molate tanks are very small. 

Furthermore, no mention was made that these underground concrete tanks were designed to withstand the bombing from Japanese planes and have recently been verified and certified as being considerably stronger than designed. Structural load tests have deter mined that sealing them in place poses no environmental or health risks.  

6. The Winehaven building is actually 10 times the size stated in the article. At 198,000 square feet, it’s significance to the proposed development has a larger importance and wil l be prominently featured. Furthermore, it’s historical value will also be prominently featured. 

7. Lastly, if the Daily Planet has any evidence that Upstream Development is buying politicians in Richmond, stand up and make the accusation. Back it up with reporting forms and hard data. If you want to make backhanded suggestions that this is the case (as you have in this article) then stop calling yourself a newspaper and reserve space at the grocery store checkout counters where you can compete with the other rags that sell articles on Elvis sightings and the latest news on eight-headed babies. 

Don Gosney 

Community co-chair, 

Point Molate Restoration Advisory Board 

• 

THANKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Tuesday, June 8, I was at Cesar Chavez Park with my 5-year-old year old grandson at about 7 p.m. when I had a low blood sugar reaction because of my diabetes and became disoriented. Fortunately there was someone in the area who asked my grandson if I was all right and then called 911 to get me help. Because I was disoriented I do not remember much of the incident, and I have no idea of who called 911 for me. By the time help came I had become stable, and whoever called 911 had left. I would like to express my thanks to whoever helped me.  

Eugene Turitz 

• 

ON REAGAN’S LEGACY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While many who would deify Ronald Reagan praise his being “tough” against communism and terrorism, I am thinking about the 241 Marines who were killed when their barracks were bombed in 1983. President Reagan’s tou gh response was to abandon Lebanon. It is only now that we know this was a seminal event in Osama bin Laden’s career; it was the moment he saw the United States as a paper tiger. The larger-than-life image of a president who secretly sold missiles to terr orists in exchange for hostages and who used the money to conduct a war prohibited by our United States Congress deserves adulation for just one thing: the stagecraft of a Hollywood icon. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

• 

UC HATE DEBATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I wo uld like to thank Jakob Schiller and the Daily Planet staff for running his article “UC Hate Debate as Complex as Mideast Conflict” (Daily Planet, June 8-10) As a former member of Students for Justice in Palestine when I attended UC Berkeley, I was alarme d at the sloppy and inflammatory reporting done by the East Bay Express, and its baseless claims of anti-Semitism in SJP and pro-Palestine solidarity organizations. I was especially appalled to note the conflation of anti-Semitism and pro-Palestine activi sm, especially when real anti-Semitism is on the rise among white supremacist groups in European countries. Baseless claims such as the ones states as fact by Micki Weinberg set de-legitimate true acts of racism and discrimination, at the same time as the y quash thoughtful dissent against Israel’s many, many violations of International human rights. Thank you, Jakob, for setting the record straight.  

Meera Vaidyanathan 

member, Stop US Tax-funded Aid to Israel Now! 

• 

JEWISH LIFE AT CAL 

Editors, Daily Plan et: 

In case there are any doubts raised by your article (“UC Hate Debate as Complex as Mideast Conflict”), prospective students and parents should know that Jewish life at Cal flourishes and that Cal is a welcoming place for Jews of all political and religious orientations. 

However I must take issue with the central assertion of those identified by the article as “pro-Palestinian.” The claim that they are working to combat anti-Semitism could be no more false than an assertion that Ward Connerly favors affirmative action. There has been no instance that any of these groups has disavowed or condemned the actions and words of their supporters who arrive at each and every event with signs and handbills that employ racist language and symbols. 

In case ther e is some confusion, a good gauge for whether actions and statements rise to the level of anti-Semitism is to remove the words “Jew,” “Zionist” or “Israel” and substitute any other racial, religious or ethnic group. If you would think twice about saying i t in public then it’s probably racism. Racism in all its forms is wrong. 

Gordon Gladstone 

Berkeley Hillel, Israel Initiatives Coordinator 

• 

INSENSITIVE T-SHIRT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a longtime Berkeley resident, I have learned to be greatly proud of what this place truly represents. I have seen and experienced the sensitivity to respect the original ancient people of this country and continent. This city was this first one to straighten out the Columbus holiday issue, among other significant and end less good deeds to protect the Native American culture. 

However, I am completely taken aback by an insensitive Telegraph Avenue vendor whose permit to sell his self-made products allows him to offend the Native American spirituality, the only we continue to have. 

He is currently selling a t-shirt lampooning the “Native American Spirit” cigarette brand. The logo shows a dignified Native American in full regalia smoking his Kalumet, the most ancient symbol of peace and an important part of this land’s spi rituality. The t-shirt depicts the logo with a water glass pipe smoking marijuana, instead of the sacred pipe with pure tobacco as it must be. The letters of the logo are replaced by “The Original American Stoner.” 

When I first saw this desecration, my f irst reaction was to politely inform the vendor of how disrespectful his t-shirt is. He refused to understand me, then as I walked away, he shouted the four letter word at me. 

Since then, I avoid walking the sidewalk where his vending table is located. I find it very difficult and painful to learn that his business is protected by a City of Berkeley vendor’s permit, which allows him to desecrate my religion. 

Bernardo S. Lopez 

• 

WAR IN IRAQ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Shame!  

Our nation has been shamed. We have been misled into a bad war, “preemptive” of imagined threats, promoted dishonestly to the American people and to the Congress and to nations once our friends. A war conducted truculently in the face of sober world skepticism, lacking planning and man power to assure a peaceful outcome, at a cost of thousands wounded and killed and of treasure still uncounted. And at the cost of precious status in the eyes of the people of the world, for many of whom we once stood “a shining city upon a hill.” Before t hem we now stand shamed, for some even an object of hate, at a cost of security lost.  

Morris Berger 

• 

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding Kenneth Theisen’s June 11 commentary piece (“U.S.-Mexico Border Patrol Abuses Greater Than Abu Gh raib”): 

Operation Gatekeeper needs stronger enforcement and the adults taken into custody need to be prosecuted for trespass, destruction of private property and any other crimes they commit. Their children should be returned to the Mexican government. I t’s their problem, not ours.  

Regardless of their motives, some of which are also illegal in nature, this continuation of illegal entry into our country must not be tolerated. The illegal are breaking American laws without penalty, yet an American citize n breaking the same law is prosecuted. Why???  

If illegals die in their attempt to illegally enter our country, it’s unfortunate. However, I do not believe any American citizen is forcing them to enter our country illegally. If they choose this method in stead of using the proper processes already in place, then let them be responsible for the consequences. It is not the fault of the INS. Why can’t Mr. Theisen and other bleeding hearts focus their efforts on the needy inside our country? I haven’t even ad dressed the illegal entry into our country by “terrorists.” I pray that if anyone in the U.S.A. is harmed by persons who have entered illegally, let it be Mr. Theisen or the other anarchists who agree with his doctrine. 

I’d love an answer to my two quest ions. 

Ron Wagner 

• 

MOUTHPIECE FOR LIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Absolutely ridiculous article (“UC Lecturer’s ‘Intifada’ Comment Brings Death Threats,” Daily Planet, May 25-27). First of all, he didn’t say “political intifada.” I heard an audio recording of the event. But more importantly, he didn’t mean it in a political sense, either. It strains common sense to think that he was talking about some sort of benign political realignment by using that word, especially since he explicitly related it to the Palestinian intifada and claimed that it would be more “radical” even than the murder and terrorism going on in Israel. 

I also find it rather sad that Mr. Schiller blindly accepted and parroted Bazian’s silly claim to multitudes of death threats. Death t hreats are illegal. One might think that just maybe if someone was getting deluged with serious threats of harm, he would report them to the police and they would be investigated. But of course, actually looking into such a thing to see if there was any credibility to the those claims would be too taxing for Mr. Schiller, I suppose. By the way, saying someone ought to be shot in the head, while not a particularly nice suggestion, is not a death threat. I strongly suspect that most of the claimed “threats” against Bazian were of this degree, if not much less.  

This is truly the worst sort of shoddy reporting. The article failed to look at Bazian’s dissembling with any kind of critical eye. You have effectively become a mouthpiece for his lies. Congratulations.  

Russell Wardlow 

Y

A coincidence, raising some eyebrows and concerns in musical circles: 

Exhibit A: Just three weeks ago, the San Francisco Symphony presented a concert version of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio, with a narration, a running commentary that reviews called everything from “incongruous” to “demeaning.” 

Exhibit B: On Friday, June 18, Kent Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony perform Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in Zellerbach Hall... to be accompanied by a “dramatic reading.” 

Oops. 

“No comparison,” says actor-director Joy Carlin, who will recite the text, “Kent’s idea is not to interpret Beethoven. The spoken texts should give a non-musical point of view to help heighten the experience of the Mass.” Nagano lets the concert speak for itself, but he does ask, rhetoricall y: “Are you up for this wild ride?” 

Missa is a complex masterpiece, infrequently performed in comparison with the contemporaneous Ninth Symphony. Beethoven—at least for his time—wrote relatively few ecclesiastic works; his relationship to religion was u n clear. He was a nominal if not terribly observant Christian, something that could be called, anachronistically, an early Unitarian. 

The work’s ambiguity is reflected in its performance history. Beethoven originally offered it as a High Mass, to be perf or med at the installation of Archduke Rudolph as Archbishop, in 1820. Far from finishing in time, Beethoven continued to work on Missa for years. 

An incomplete version, under the title of Three Grand Hymns with Solo and Chorus Voice, in German, premiere d a t the 1824 concert which introduced the Ninth Symphony. The entire work, with the proper Latin text, was not performed until 1845, almost two decades after Beethoven’s death. 

Historically, the high mass (missa solemnis) consisted only of singing by t he c elebrants (priests) and chanting or polyphonic singing by the choir, in contrast to the low mass (missa privata) in which everything was spoken. The spoken text to be introduced by the Berkeley Symphony between sections of this sung Mass will be, app arent ly, more “spiritual” than “religious.” Carlin says she will recite some scriptural passages, along with excerpts from ancient Greek drama. 

For Carlin, this is a reunion with Nagano and the BSO. She acted as narrator for the Bartok opera Bluebeard’s Castl e and performed at the symphony’s young people’s concert in two commissioned works by Jean Pascal Beintus, The Butterfly Tree and The Animal Singers of Bremen. 

“It was a great thrill for me to stand in front of an entire orchestra and speak,” Carl in says. “Kent is a fine director of drama as well as music. I know he believes that Missa is a masterpiece, and his interpretation is going to be inspired by the vitality and humanity of the piece.” 

Carlin, who has been called “the first lady of Berkele y theat er,” was born in Boston, grew up in Chicago, attended Yale Drama School, and studied with Lee Strasberg in New York. An original member of Chicago’s Playwrights’ Theater, she has appeared on Broadway in From the Second City, in off-Broadway produc tions, w ith regional and summer theaters and in television and films. 

Her local career began in 1964, as a lecturer and acting teacher in the Drama Department at UC Berkeley. Since 1969, she has been a leading actress, director and teacher with the Amer ican Cons ervatory Theater, where she also served as Associate Artistic Director, heading up A.C.T.’s Plays-in-Progress program. She directed many plays in the Geary Theater—including Golden Boy, Hapgood and the premiere of Jane Anderson’s Food and Shelte r. She won 18 Bay Area Critics Circle and L.A. Dramalogue Awards. 

With Berkeley Rep, Carlin has acted, directed and served as Resident Director and Interim Artistic Director in the early 1980s. She has also directed and performed in several productions f or the Aur ora Theater in Berkeley’s downtown arts district. Her next project with Aurora is directing Conor McPherson’s “Dublin Carol.” 

Singing with the BSO at Zellerbach on Friday at 8 p.m. will be the Oakland Symphony Chorus, under the direction of Ma gen Solomon, with soloists Shana Blake Hill, soprano; Miriam Abramowitsch, mezzo-soprano; Bruce Sledge, tenor; and bass-baritone Philip Skinner. 

The concert will open with a piece by UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) compo ser-in-resi dence, Edmund Campion, featuring Rova Saxophone Quartet’s Steve Adams. 

S

Americans struggle each generation with the political, social, and economic issues and impacts of immigration. When these often divisive debates occur, it is worth recalling the experiences of previous eras of immigration. 

A century and more ago, recent ly arrived “foreigners” searching for a place in California’s economy and society included many Irish, Germans, Scandinavians, and European Jews, as well as Italians. 

The lives, experiences, and traditions of one of those groups—Italian Americans who set tled in the East Bay—are thoughtfully explored in “‘Con Le Nostre Mani’ Italian Americans at Work in the East Bay,” a photographic exhibit now at the Berkeley Public Library through June 30. 

The display is on the ground floor of the Central Library on Ki ttredge Street. Enter the main entrance, turn left, and go towards the end of the building. The exhibit panels are hung on walls and columns around an area of study carrels. 

Major Italian immigration to the United States got underway in the late 19th cen tury and would last through 1910. More than two million Italians left Italy, primarily the northern regions, for America. Today, about 1.5 million of their descendants live in California alone. 

The exhibit is organized around panels of black and white ph otographs, most obtained from local families and Italian American social clubs, showing men and women at work in the East Bay in the first half of the 20th century. Careworn, hopeful, proud, confident, determined, these Italian Americans photographed at t heir shops, stores and other job sites look back at the exhibit visitor.  

“By the early 20th century, most East Bay towns featured streets or entire neighborhoods predominately inhabited by Italian Americans. Oakland boasted one of the largest Italian Am erican populations in California,” the exhibit notes. 

Many newcomers settled in the Temescal neighborhood of North Oakland which “offered sunshine and soil for fruit and vegetable gardens; elbow room and affordable housing; easy street car access; and mo st vitally, job opportunities.” 

Italian immigrants often found themselves restricted by education, language barriers and prejudice to jobs, usually manual labor, that longer-established locals considered less desirable; hence the exhibit title, “With Our Hands.”  

The East Bay economy in that era provided opportunity for many such jobs including those in the garment trade, window washing and janitorial services, laundry work, seasonal food canning, the burgeoning automobile service industry as well as the fading livery stable business, work in restaurants and food markets, truck farming, and construction.  

Sometimes the job opportunities became quite selectively regional; the exhibit notes that, for a time, one had to be from the Genoa region to have a decent chance of getting a job in the Oakland scavenger industry. 

Sometimes the discrimination encountered by Italian immigrants in employment was re-directed at other groups. One photograph of an Oakland market shows a sign reading “This market does not sell any meats purchased or handled by Chinese or Asiatics. We believe in America for Americans.” As the exhibit organizers note, “ironically, at times Italian Americans themselves were not considered white by Anglo Saxon society.” 

Food was at the cente r of many Italian-American enterprises. “Delicatessens, produce shops, and retail food import shops owned by Italian Americans were (and still are) a common sight in East Bay streets.” A number of successful Italian owned bakeries were started, although t hey were often called “French-Italian” in an effort to attract non-Italian customers. 

Oakland’s Rivoli Deli, G.B. Ratto & Company, and the Colombo Bakery are still familiar names. And remember Bertola’s restaurant at Telegraph and Shattuck in Oakland, Gr antata’s in West Berkeley, or Ravazza’s in Emeryville? Restaurants and other food industries gave cash poor Italian immigrants a chance to use one of the assets they had brought with them, their recipes and food traditions from home.  

Some Italian immigr ants took up truck farming, supplying East Bay cities with fresh produce. They found good farmland on Bay Farm Island in Alameda and other southern Alameda County sites where subdivisions sprout today. 

Before municipal garbage collection, Italian immigra nts developed private routes, collecting garbage from East Bay homes and businesses—“a horse, a wagon, a strong back, and you were in business.” Operations were consolidated by 1920 into one major scavenger company, headquartered in Temescal, whose blue p ainted vehicles—often called “blue taxis” or “honey wagons”—roamed East Bay streets.  

The company followed meticulous recycling practices nearly a century ago. In addition to separation of glass and metals, food scraps were sold as hog feed, buttons were cut off old clothes and re-sold to laundries and tailors, scrap cloth and old clothes went as rags to auto repair shops and janitorial businesses, and newspapers and cardboard were recycled at local paper mills. 

The construction industry also provided employment as “countless Italian American craftsmen took their Old World construction skills and applied them to the needs of their newly adopted country.” Some started out as laborers and later organized their own contracting firms. 

“Providing labor for roadways was a major source of employment,” as was quarry and mason work. Skilled Italian-American artisans worked on the massive stone buildings of the UC Berkeley, campus. 

Two big local quarries, the Bilger Quarry, “la Cava,” in Oakland and the Hutchin son Quarry, “la Cava di Berkeley” at the top of Schmidt Lane in what is now El Cerrito, employed large numbers of Italian immigrant men who often lived on site in boarding houses.  

The Bilger Quarry is still visible from the Rockridge Long’s Drugs/Safewa y complex, so the next time you shop there, recall the hundreds of Italian American men—many from the regions of Piemonte and Liguria—who labored there in the Bilger works for two dollars a day and slowly reshaped the southern end of the aptly named Rockridge district. 

“Con Le Nostre Mani” was curated in 2002 by the Italian American Heritage Committee of the East Bay, and has been shown in several Bay Area museum and library venues. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 15 

FILM 

“The Corporation” Featuring interviews with Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Howard Zinn and many others, opens at Act I and II Theater on Center St. and runs though June 17. 464-5980.www.thecorporation.tv/usa/index.php 

FILM 

Los Angeles Plays Itself: “Tarzan and Jane Regained” at 7:30 p.m.at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Charles Derber describes “Regime Change Begins at Home: Freeing America from Corporate Rule” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

David Brooks takes a satirical look at middle class America in “On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Lee Gaines, jazz pianist, a regular performer at the Cheese Board, in honor of Lesbian and Gay Pride month. Everyone welcome. At 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. corner of MLK. 

Ray Abshire and the Aux Cajunals at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun zydeco dance lesson with Diano Castillo at 8 p.m. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

Steffon Harris and Blackout at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Also on Wed. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jamison Green, an activist in the transgender movement describes his experien ces in “Becoming a Visible Man” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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

Geoff Nunberg, Stanford Prof. of Linguistics, raises concerns in “Going Nucular: Language, Politics and Culture in Confrontational Times” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Wayne Bernhardson introduces “Handbook Buenos Aires” with slides and discussion at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Forbidden Christmas or The Doctor and The Patient” by Rezo Gabriadze, featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Also Thurs. and Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sun at 3 p.m. Tickets are $65 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Dezarie at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13 in advance, $15 at the door. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

Ray Abshire and the Aux Cajunals, Cajun accordionist, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

THURSDAY, JUNE 17 

FILM 

Los Angeles Plays Itself: “A Certain Kind of Death” at 7p.m., “The Loved One” at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Arthur Balustein, Skip Robinson and Michael Rosenthal, three of the contributors to “MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com  

Chris Colins describes “What Really Happened to the Class of ‘93: Start-Ups, Dropouts, and Other Navigations Through an Untidy Decade” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.co m 

Christopher Baker introduces us to “Cuba Classics: A Celebration of Vintage American Automobiles” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

Oakland Poetry Slam Semi Finals at 9 p.m. at Oakland Box Theater, 1928 Tel egraph Ave. 331-5665. 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured readers Dale Jensen and Kathleen Wood, followed by an open mic at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. 526-5985, 205-1749.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert wi th Dynamic at the Berkeley BART. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association. 

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

Avalon Rising, Druid Sisters Tea Party at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.sta rryplough.com 

Kelly Takunda Orphan CD Release Tour at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

The Dirk Powell Band, leading old-t ime fiddler and his band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Piano Summit, an evening of solo and ensemble piano pieces to benefit the Jazz House at 8 p.m. a t The Jazz House. Donations of $10-$20 suggested. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Joe Sample at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, JUNE 18 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Betrayal,” by Harold Pinter, directed by Tom Ross, opens at 8 p.m. and runs through July 25. Tickets are $28-$36. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org  

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

Berkeley Rep, “21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com” Thurs., Sun. at 7:30 p.m. and Fri. and Sat. at 8:30 p.m. through July 2. Tickets are $25-$35. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Black Repertory Group Theatre “Come Back Annie Gray” June 18, 19, 25, 26 and 27 at 3201 Adelin e St. Tickets are $15-$20, available from 408-615-1194 or ultimatejesse@yahoo.com, www.comebackanniegray.com 

California Shakespeare Theater, “Comedy of Errors,” Tues.-Fri. at 7:30 p.m., Sat at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. at the Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, through June 27. Tickets are $13-$32. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Prescott-Joseph Center, “Raisin” an adaptation of “A Raisin in the Sun” Fri. and Sat. at 7:30 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. to July 11, at the Sister Thea Bowman Memorial Theater, 920 Peralta St. West Oakland. Theater is outdoors, dress for cooler temperatures. Tickets are $5-$15. 208-5651. 

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

Wilde Irish Productions, “Eclipsed” by Patricia Burke Brogan, at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Runs Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through June 27. Tickets are $15-$20. 841-7287. www.wildeirish.org 

“18 Mighty Moun tain Warriors,” an Asian-American comedy at 8 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Also on Sat. at 8 p.m. Tickets are available from 547-2662. www.museumca.org 

FILM 

“Band of Outsiders” presented by Craig Seligman at 7:30 p.m. at the Pac ific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Old Oakland Outdoor Cinema on Washington St., between 9th and 10th Sts. Music at 5 p.m., and film, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” at 8 p.m. Bring your own chairs and blankets. Sponsored by the City of Oakland and the Old Oakland Historic District. 238-4734. www.filmoakland.com 

Readings on Cinema: “Band of Outsiders” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Oakley Hall give s advice to writers in “The Great American Writing Road Trip Adventure” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“Reflections” John Neumaier will speak on the exhibition “A Voice Silenced” at 2 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Ru ssell St. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra “Missa Solemnis” at 8 p.m. in Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $21-$45 available from 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

“Forbidden Christmas or The Doctor and The Patie nt” by Rezo Gabriadze, featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Also Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sun at 3 p.m. Tickets are $65 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Earl Davis, trumpet-led jazz, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $10. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Freight 36th Anniversary Concert hosted by Phil March at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Steve Lucky & Carmen Getit Show at 10 p.m. at the Ivy Room, 860 San Pablo Ave., Albany. 524-9220. 

Juanita Ulloa en Concierto for the whole family at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $6-$16. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Mark Karan and Jemimah Puddleduck at at 8 p.m. at Ashkenez. Cost is $12. 525-5 054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Poetz4Peace Concert with special guests Stand Out Selector, Jah Minds Eye Soundsystem and more, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down 

low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

20 Miles, Richmond Fontaine, Farma at 9:30 p.m. at T he Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com  

Regina Wells in concert at 7:30 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $12-$20. Reservations recommended. 655-2045. 

Le Hot Jazz at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Timothy Daniel a nd Lia Rose, singer-songwriters, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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

Kaos Pilot, Takaru, Van Johnson, An Arrow in Flight at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Kirtan with Arjun An evening of call and response eastern/Sanskrit chanting, beginning at 8 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St., between Eighth and Ninth. Suggested donation $5-$12. 843-2787 www.studiorasa.org 

SATURDAY, JUNE 19 

CHILDREN 

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

Embark on a Reading Safari with an Oakland Zoo Safari Guide and live animals at 1 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

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., lower level. Sug- 

ge sted donation $3. Children under 3 free. 549-1564. 

FILM 

Los Angeles Plays Itself: “Crime Wave” at 5:30 p.m., “Hollow Triumph” at 7:05 p.m., “Criss Cross” at 8:45 p.m at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AN D LECTURES 

David Sedaris on “Dress Your Family in Corderory and Denim” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. Admission by ticket only. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Flash with Nanos Valaoritas and Thanasis Maskaleris reading from “Modern Greek Poetry: An Anthology” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley World Music Weekend with continuous music and dance performances on Telegraph Ave. between Bancroft and Parker St., from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. www.telegraphberkeley.org 

Los Gatos in a live recording session at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jeb Brady Band “History of the Blues” at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

Liz Phoenix and The People at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Asylum Street Spankers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $14. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Fiddelkids’ Camp Faculty Fiddlefest at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Dick Conte Trio with Steve Webber and Bill Moody at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Jerry Kennedy, singer-songwriter, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6 500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Pitch Black, Lemora, The Faeries, Static Thought at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 20 

CHILDREN 

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

Celebrating Fathers, Families and Communities with African music by Fua Dia Congo, the Love Center Choir and drummer Kokomon Clottey. From noon to 4 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Razzamadaddy Storytime in celebration of Father’s Day at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Los Angeles Plays Itself: Model Shop” at 5:30 p.m., “Zabrinski Point” at 7:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Eccentrics and Court Painters in 18th Century China” gallery talk at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Poetry Flash with G.C. Waldrep and Mark Yakich at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley World Music Weekend with continuous music and dance performances on Telegraph Ave. between Bancroft and Parker St., from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. www.telegraphberkeley.org 

Bernard Winsemius, from Holland, will perform on the baroque organ, at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. A reception will follow. Donations will be gratefully received. 845-6830. 

Spring Concert/Music Festival at 5 p.m. at El Cerrito United Methodist Church, 6830 Stockton Avenue, El Cerrito, between Richmond and Everett Sts.  

Golden Gate Boys Choir Spring Concert at 2:30 p.m. at Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church, corner of Broadway at Lawton, Oakland. Cost is $5-$10. 887-4311. 

311 at 2 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, UC Campus 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Borrina Mapaka and Luzolo at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Congolese dance lesson with Indirah at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jacopo Andreini & Friends, part of ACME Observatory Contemporary Composer’s Series, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $8-$15 suggested. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Kiki Ebsen, Kenny Edwards and Suzanne Paris at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

MONDAY, JUNE 21 

THEATER 

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

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Why You Should Give A Damn About Gay Marriage” Booksigning and discussion on same-sex marriage with author Davina Kotulski, Ph.D. at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, Piedmont Branch.  

Dylan Schaffer introduces his thriller “Misdemeanor Man” at 7:30 p.m. at C ody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Express featuring Julia Vinograd, recipient of the Berkeley Poetry Festival 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUS IC AND DANCE 

Anton Schwartz Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

ª.

We don’t get many mule deer in my current neighborhood. But some years back, when I lived in a rickety in-law apartment near the Berkeley Rose Garden, they—along with the raccoons, skunks, and possums—were regulars. They would bed down in the ivy-covered gully below the house, or placidly consume the few things we had managed to grow in the garden (a challenge at best, since it had the kind of drainage you would expect from a former fishpond.) Mostly they were does, sometimes with fawns in tow. Bucks wer e rarer—more circumspect around people, maybe—but a few showed up from time to time. I would admire their racks from a discreet distance, and wonder about the whole antler thing. 

If I were a stickler, I’d call them black-tailed deer—the semi-official mon iker for Odocoileus hemionus columbianus, the Pacific coast subspecies of the mule deer. But I’ve seldom heard that term used around here. Mulies from the Sierra and the Rockies have black-tipped tails and large white rump patches, whereas our coastal rac e has a smaller white patch and an all-black tail. Blacktails also tend to be darker and grayer than interior populations. But they share with all other mule deer the habit of stotting—bounding stiff-legged, with all four feet touching down at once—when alarmed, and the way the antlers branch. 

When you think about it, antlers are among nature’s most extravagant inventions. They started small; the most primitive deer species have modest spikes. But millions of years of evolution have elaborated them into the dichotomous-branching racks of the mule deer, the sweeping tines of the elk, the massive palmate structures of the moose. The extinct Irish elk, not an elk at all but an oversized fallow deer, had to schlep around antlers with a 12-foot span and a wei ght of 90 pounds. 

And the remarkable thing is that deer—mostly male deer, although both sexes of caribou are antlered—have to produce these baroque structures every year. With the exception of the oddball pronghorn, deciduous horns are unique to the dee r family. A bull buffalo or kudu or a bighorn ram wears the same set of horns for life. But a mule deer casts its antlers after the fall rut and grows a new set during the long run-up to the next mating season. Each year’s rack is larger and more impressi ve than the last, at least until old age (if the deer is that lucky) sets in. 

Antler formation is a big deal. Triggered by hormonal surges, growth starts at the bony nubbins called pedicles on the skull’s frontal bone. Cells from both the pedicle and the overlying skin multiply like crazy to make cartiliginous antler tissue, which then hardens to bone. It’s not dead bone, though; antler is laced with nerves and contains pockets of living cells. 

Testosterone is important in pedicle growth, but not in the making of the antler itself; other substances, such as insulin-like growth factor one, are implicated there. The process demands lots of calcium and phosphorus. Some comes from the deer’s skeleton, mostly the ribs; osteoporosis is a byproduct of peak antler growth. But the buck (or stag, or bull) can’t always satisfy the antlers’ mineral requirement by resorbing its own bones. 

The need for extra minerals has led deer to some very undeerlike behavior. Although we like to put animals in neat little boxes labeled “carnivore” and “herbivore,” their actual behavior often defies those categories. Deer sometimes turn predator. On the Scottish island of Rum, red deer have been documented as eating the nestlings of a small seabird, the Manx shearwater. A Midwest ern ornithologist once caught a white-tailed deer eating a warbler that was snagged in his mist-net; others have witnessed whitetail predation on young songbirds. And I remember reading somewhere about calcium-starved deer munching on box turtles. 

Why go to all this trouble, though? Charles Darwin gave some thought to that in the portion of The Descent of Man that is not actually about the descent of man, but about the evolution of secondary sexual characteristics. He acknowledged that antlers could be f ormidable weapons in combat between stags (or bucks, or bulls) for access to females. But they seemed to him to be overdesigned for that. Remember the sets of interlocked deer skulls in the Academy of Science’s recent “Skulls” exhibit, whose owners had be en unable to disengage and had presumably starved to death? Darwin, noting the risk of such fatal entanglements, commented: “The suspicion has therefore crossed my mind that [antlers] may serve partly as ornaments.” 

That suspicion has found support in subsequent research. Antlers, like the lion’s mane and the peacock’s tail, are signage. They signal fighting ability to potential male rivals, and fitness—in the Darwinian sense of the ability to sire lots of healthy fawns—to potential mates. Even in macho species like deer, female choice is important. Big antlers might also signal that a buck is good at metabolizing calcium, a crucial trait to any of his female offspring who will become nursing mothers. And antlers are honest signals. Males of some animal species can make themselves look larger, stronger, more imposing than they really are. But you can’t fake antlers. 

The semiotics of antlers go beyond species boundaries. Humans have been looking at them and thinking “Power” for a long time, at least sinc e that Cro-Magnon artist painted an antlered god or shaman on the wall of Les Trois Freres cave. Every September in the Staffordshire village of Abbots Bromley, costumed men wielding reindeer horns still perform a stately Morris-type dance ending in ritua l horn-to-horn combat. 

The symbolic function of antlers and the high cost of growing them makes sense of the fact that aging bucks have smaller antlers. Their days of dominance are over; their change of signals may exempt them from the young bloods’ challenges while giving their old bones a respite. 

?

TUESDAY, JUNE 15 

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

“Oakland to Argentina on Vegetable Oil” Dav id, Mali, and their son Emilio tell amazing stories of their veggie oil trip adventure from Oakland to Argentina in their 1980 VW Dasher this past winter, at 7 p.m. at Biofuels Oasis, 2465 - 4th St. 665-5509.  

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

American Red Cross Blood Services is holding a volunteer orientation from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at its office, 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Volunteers are needed to support the more than 40 blood drives held each month. Advance sign-up needed. 594-5165. 

Death Penalty Vigil, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the North Berkeley BART station. Sponsored by Berkeley Friends Meetin g. 528-7784. 

Wellness for Life with Vanessa Anderson at 6 p.m. at Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Leonard Joy, UN Consultant will spe ak at 11 a.m. 845-6830. 

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

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

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16 

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

Downtown Oakland Walking Tours every Wednesday and Saturday at 10 a.m to 11:30 a.m. Discover the changing skyline, landmarks and churches. For details on the different itineraries call 238-3224. www.oaklandnet.com/wallkingtours 

Berkeley Gray Panthers with KPFA’s Jennifer Stone of “Cover to Cover” at 7 p.m. at 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

Peralta Hopkins Garden Tour with the North Berkeley Senior Center. Advance sign up required. 981-5190. 

Advocates Forum: Legal Rights Training at 6:45 p.m. at the Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave. Attorney Angelo Butler will lead a free legal rights training covering freedom of speech, unreasonable searches and seizures, and questionning by law enforcement. Sponsored by East Bay Animal Advocates. 925- 487-4419. www.eastbayanimaladvocates.org 

“Ancient Futures: Learning From Ladakh” a film describing Helena Norberg-Hodge’s experiences living in Ladakh, at 7 p.m. at the Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. 393-5685. 

Sons In Retirement, East Bay Branch No.2 Annual Spring Ladies Day, at 10 a.m. at the Galileo Club, 371 South 23rd Street, Richmond. Cost is $18, For reservations call Dick Celestre 925-283-1655.  

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geociti es. 

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

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

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

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

Free Feldenkrais ATM Classes for adults 55 and older at 10:30 and 11:45 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1 414 Walnut at Rose. 848-0237.  

THURSDAY, JUNE 17 

“So How’d You Become an Activist?” with Hal Carlstad and Debbie Moore at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Suggested donation $5. 528-5403. 

Building a Sust ainable Economy in Chiapas The Ecology Center and International Development Exchange (IDEX) is proud to host the visit of Pedro Zaragoza of DESMI, a community-based organization in Chiapas that provides technical support to over 150 indigenous cooperative s. From 7 to 9 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, near Dwight Way. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

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

Preparing for Your Remodeling Project A two evening class to demystify the design and construction process. Offered by Imagine General Contractors, Inc. June 17 and 24, at 6:30 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Cost is $57-$67. To register call 524-9283. 

“Defining Personal Priorities” Eric Barr will talk about his experience examining and redefining his personal priorities; and how the Simplicity Forum has helped him in the process at 7 p.m. at the Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 549-3509. www.simpleliving.net 

“Woman of Vision” Create a color Vision Plan with Shiloh McCloud , from 6 to 9 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $40, materials $20. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

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

Karate for Kids at 6 p.m. at Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 18 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Yuri Slezkine, Prof. Dept. of History, UCB, on “Current Events in Russia” 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. 

Out Fro nt for Kerry, a fundraiser for John Kerry sponsored by the LGBT Community from 2 to 4 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel at the Berkeley Marina. RSVP to 644-0172 or OutFrontforKerry@lgbt4Kerry.com 

The Wall Around and Through the Holy Land East Bay residents sha re their experiences in Palestine at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free. 845-4740. 

Great American Writing Road Trip Adventure stops at Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. at 7:30 p.m. with mystery novelist Oakley Hall talking a bout how to get published. 845-7852. www.livetowrite.com 

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

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

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

Overeaters Anonymous meets every Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. Parking is free and is handicapped accessible. For information call Katherine, 525-52 31. 

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, JUNE 19 

Summer Solstice Celebration and 15th Anniversary of the Saturday Berkeley Farmer’s Market at Civic Center Park from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with live music, crafts fair, and a solstice ceremony at 11:30 a.m. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:15 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Sproul Conference Room, 1st Floor, 2727 College Ave. www.berkeleycna.com 

Grand Opening of the Strawbale Visitors Center at the Shorebird Park Nature Center, at noon at the Berkeley Marina, 160 University Ave. 644-8623. www.ci.berkel ey.ca.us/marina/ 

marinaexp/newbldging.html 

Know Your Soil Workshop Understanding soil qualities and soil health will enable gardeners to grow plants that are comparable with each other and match water requirements to infiltration and drainage. Come to hea r why soils differ and how they can be managed for better health. From 10 a.m. to noon at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Free. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Marsh Restoration for Wildlife Join an exciting project to restore a tidal marsh and improve wildli fe habitat, on the south Richmond shoreline along the Bay Trail, from 9 a.m. to noon. No special skills or experience required, but a willingness to work with plants, soil, pull weeds, and an interest in bay wildlife and plants will be helpful. Tools, glo ves, and snacks provided. Pre-registration required. Sponsored by the Watershed Project (formerly Aquatic Outreach Institute). For more information, contact Martha Berthelsen 231-5783. martha@thewatershedproject.org 

Dynamite History Walk at Point Pinole from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Discover the park preserved by dynamite! On this flat, easy-paced walk we’ll be joined by Norman Monk, former Atlas Powder Company employee. Call 525-2233 for information. 

Garden Party 2004 from 3 to 6 p.m. Savor the solstice in the summer garden. Wine, food and music, walks led by garden experts, silent auction and raffle. Botanical Garden, UC Campus. 643-2755. www.botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu  

Gardening with Succulants with Hank Jenkins at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

A Free Day of Dog Athletics featuring dogs performing flyball, disc catching and agility. Attendees are asked to leave their own dogs at home. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Oakland Animal Shelter, 1101 29th Ave. 535-5604. www.oaklandanimalservices.org  

Bread Baking Learn about bacteria and grass seeds with freshly baked bread as the end result of an afternoon of discovery, measuring and kneading. We will take a short walk on the mystery of grains while our bread rises. For all ages from 1 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $5-$6. Registration required. 525-2233. 

“Speaking about the Unspeakable: Koan Practice in Zen Buddhism” with Albert Low at 7 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. Free. 843-6812. 

Celebrating Fathers at the Berkeley Kids’ Room, 2472 Shattuck Ave., with Make a Bookmark at 11 a.m., Armin Brott booksigning at 1 p.m. and Margaretta Mitchell on photographing children at 2 p.m. 841-5068. 

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

Vocal Jazz Workshop with Richard Kalman from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. followed by jam session, at the Albany Community Center. 1249 Marin Ave. 524-9283. ENDS July 17 

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, c all Karen Ray at 848-7800. 

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

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

SUNDAY, JUNE 20 

Juneteenth Celebration from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. along Adeline St. between Ashby and Alcatraz. 655-8008 or 654-1461.  

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

“Basking in the Light” an afternoon/evening interfa ith celebration of the Summer Solstice and Father’s Day, from 3 to 9:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. at Walnut. Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale, no-one turned away for lack of funds. www.chaplaincyinstitute.org/baskinginthelight.html 

Summer S tory Hour for all ages at 10:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Babes in the Woods for the whole family. Dads (Moms welcome too!), bundle your baby in a backpack and join a Father’s Day walk to explore the sights, smells, and sounds of nature with your little one. From 3 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. 525-2233. 

Summer Solstice Gathering at 7:45 p.m. in Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley Marina. www.solarcalendar.org 

Bike Trip to Explore Historic Oakland on the third Sunday of the month through October. Tours leave the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Fallon Sts., at 10 a.m. for a leisurely 5-mile tour on flat land. Bring bike, helmet, water and snacks. Free, but reservations required. 238-3524. 

“Wildflowers and Special Habitats of the Sierra Butte” a trip to Sierraville from Sun to Fri sponsored by the Regional Parks Botanical Garden, Tilden Park. Cost is $450 For details and registration call 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

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 

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 

“Criminal Justice and Prison Reform” A panel presentation with representatives from Books not Bars, Critical Resistance and Prison Activists Resource Center, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian U niversalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Road, Kensington. 525-0302.  

Introduction to the TaKeTiNa Rhythm Process from 1 to 4 p.m. at Ashkenaz Back Dance Studio, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $25-$35 sliding scale, no one turned away. To register call 650-493-8046. 

Tibetan Nyingma Open House from 3 to 5 p.m. with prayer wheel and meditation garden tour, yoga demonstration, and information on classes at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

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

ONGOING 

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 or visit www.peralta.cc.ca.us/interntl/studyabr.htm. 

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

Find a Loving Animal Companion at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society Adoption Center, open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. 2700 Ninth St. 845-7735. www.berkeleyhumane.org  

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

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

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

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., June 15, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city cler k, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycoun 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., June 16, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., June 16, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., June 16, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. ww w.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/welfare 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs. June 17, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/designreview  

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., June 1 7, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/transportationªe

It’s not traditional, or at least not a recent tradition, for competing publications to critique each other in print. In the glory days of the old Hearst chain, of course, wars between newspapers made life fun for readers. But the Daily Planet is not, as regular readers may have noticed, exactly a traditional community paper. We’re not shy about either praising or blaming other papers when the opportunity presents itself. 

In that spirit, we’d like to direct your attention to the June 16 issue of the Eastbay Express, the local outlet for Phoenix’s New Times chain, which also fronts the SF Weekly. It’s not really competition for the Planet, occupying, as one of its column titles confesses, the bottom-feeder niche in the journalistic feeding chain. The corporate empire doesn’t understand why Berkeley isn’t Hayward or Concord, but that’s just fine with us. In between the articles about sex triangles in the suburbs it occasionally offers a story about happenings that affect the kind of people who read the Planet, and when such a story surfaces we feel obligated to call our readers’ attention to it.  

In the current issue Chris Thompson offers the kind of hyperbolic overwritten hysterical take on the university’s long range development plans which he pretends to despise in other contexts. Presumably in order to placate his corporate masters, he structures his piece in the form of pitting the genteel tactics of a hills resident who opposes the university’s plan for building housing in her upscale neighborhood against the tackier efforts of the flatlands residents who have long been wary of a variety of projects in their neighborhoods.  

Here’s a sample: 

“For too long, reactionary NIMBYs have hijacked the planning process in Berkeley, stifling the most modest and sensible apartment complexes with petty complaints and trumped-up appeals to the city’s historical heritage. Today, Mayor Tom Bates and UC Berkeley officials are working to build a downtown hotel, convention center, and new home for the university arts museum—a project that will flood the city’s coffers with tax revenue, transform the ugly half of Center Street into a wonderful new arts and retail corridor, and establish a constructive tone for future town-gown relations. But a small cadre of nit-picking harpies has swarmed around the proposal, using absurd ad hominem attacks to denounce it at public meetings and in the pages of the Berkeley Daily Planet. In search of allies to help her fight against the hills housing project, Andrea Pflaumer has lately been talking to members of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste, that tiresome group of hysterics who endlessly carp about Lawrence Berkeley Lab—not to get anything done, but merely to hear themselves squawk.” 

Huh? Nice hills lady good, flatlands environmentalist folks bad? I suspect Ms. Pflaumer (whose sensible opinions were first printed in the Planet, of course, way back on June 11) will be quite uncomfortable with the style of the Express’s ringing endorsement of her cause. She is wise to seek out her logical allies, and even wiser not to be suckered by politicos who have a record of delivering not much more than promises.  

Chris, on the other hand, is lining up, tin plate in hand, for his pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by: 

“But UC Berkeley’s days of reshaping the city with impunity may be coming to an end—and just in time for the great town-gown wars to begin anew. East Bay Assemblywoman Loni Hancock is pushing a bill that would fundamentally change the way the universities build in their host cities. If the bill passes, whenever a UC building project identifies significant impacts on city infrastructure, university officials must sit down in a public hearing, identify how much it will cost to deal with the problem, and either cough up the money or explain—before a crowd of potentially angry citizens—why they can’t afford to. Berdahl and his successors will still be able to cram projects down their neighbors’ throats, but now at least they’ll have to do it in public.” 

Oh, swell. I’ve lived in Berkeley a lot longer than anyone at the Express, and I’ve heard this song before. I remember Ms. Hancock’s sweetheart deal, when she was mayor, with cuddly Chancellor “Mike” Heyman, which accomplished almost exactly zilch. Now that her husband’s mayor, he’s got a better sweetheart deal? Don’t count on it. 

Maybe Hancock will get it right this time, but even according to Thompson’s account her bill seems to promise not much more than another opportunity to gripe, for all the good that does. We need a bill with real teeth in it, which this one isn’t. 

Thompson doesn’t agree. He advises Ms. Pflaumer to rely on the Hancock bill, and against forming common cause with other Berkeleyans: 

“If she wants the university to take her seriously, Pflaumer would do well to be more choosy about the company she keeps. Indeed, so could every reasonable Berkeley resident. If Hancock’s bill passes, the university will finally be forced to deal with its neighbors in good faith. If the neighbors expect any progress with the university, they had better learn to do the same.” 

We could go on with the foolish quotes, but hey, the Express is free and widely available everywhere. Though we think Thompson’s anti-NIMBY name-calling is, to put it mildly, labored, we nevertheless support his hyberbolic hysterical over-written call to arms against university encroachment. But we don’t have to tell our readers that. As usual, you read it first in the Planet. 

—Becky O’Malleyô

Last November, the Daily Planet got a phoned-in tip that six members of the Richmond City Council had taken part in a meeting, “over wine and cheese,” with people the caller identified as “Las Vegas types,” with the subject matter being the possibility of turning Point Molate over to casino gambling interests with Native American connections. The tipster, who identified himself as a rank-and-file environmentalist, said he’d heard a guy talking about the meeting in a bar, and that he loved Point Molate’s natural and historical splendors and was outraged at the idea of putting a casino there.  

We assigned a reporter to the story, who made inquiries in the Richmond area. Nothing. She asked politically savvy people, who said that six councilmembers at an off-site meeting would be a violation of the Brown Act, so it couldn’t have happened. She talked to business people, who said that Chevron, the nearest neighbor, wouldn’t allow it, because it would threaten the security of their refinery. She asked environmental activists, who said that the property was too important for anyone to get away with a major development there. So we dropped it. For the record, we’ve never confirmed that the particular meeting our caller described took place, with or without a Brown Act violation. 

However. In May, Richard Brenneman, who has many years of experience as an investigative reporter, started work on a story about an 18-story apartment complex planned for the old Stauffer plant site in Richmond. In the course of working on it, he picked up some of the same casino rumors that we’d heard in November, and he followed up on them. They included names this time, in particular the name of Jim Levine, of the Levine-Fricke firm. As we say in the trade, BINGO. Levine, reluctantly, confirmed that the casino plan was in the works, and asked the Planet to hold the story in return for an exclusive in July. Dick relayed the request to me, knowing full well what I’d say. No. Of course not. The public’s right to know, and all that good stuff.  

Instead, we rushed the story into print, confident that it was only a matter of time before other media beat us to it. In our haste, we made a couple of editing errors, for which we apologize to Dick, who got the story right. Editors, not reporters, write captions at deadline time. The front page photo was not shot from the casino site as the caption said, but from a ridge overlooking the bay. Also, the size of the historic winery was understated by a factor of 10 because of a typographical error. 

(I do wonder if some of our big-time competitors might have fallen for the Levine deal, since rumors have been flying for months without a word in print. Channel 2 News picked up the story on Friday night, after our weekend issue came out, though of course without credit to the Planet.) 

Today’s paper contains letters from outraged insiders who were hoping to get their story straight before the public heard it. Don Gosney, an official of one of the big construction unions, Plumbers and Steamfitters Union Local 342, kindly points out errors major and trivial in our information about the casino proposal, hoping to discredit the story (see Page Fourteen). Clearly, he must be in a position to know a lot about the actual plans. Another letter writer is annoyed that information seems to have leaked from a private meeting staged for the benefit of local environmental honchos. 

Here’s the thing: It’s the public’s right to know. What’s been happening, clearly, is the old Community Leader dodge. The developer comes into town, picks out key people, and makes them feel special, so that when the plan finally gets into the public realm the deals have already gone down. Construction unions of course benefit from massive construction projects, and they are within their rights advocating for them—in public. Some environmental benefits have come from tradeoffs with developers, but big mistakes have been made by self-styled environmental leaders who aren’t experienced at negotiating with sophisticated developers.  

Coincidentally, today’s paper also contains a letter (at right) from an eagle-eyed reader who noticed that someone has been throwing copies of the paper in a trash can again, this time at the corner of Derby and College. She thought, mistakenly, that our carriers were responsible, when in fact they dutifully remove old copies from the distribution boxes and bring them back to our office to be recycled. Another reader actually saw a respectable looking grey-haired man with a beard taking fresh papers from our box and putting them in a trash can on South Shattuck—presumably a form of censorship of the content. This seems to happen regularly, with the location of the trashing related to what stories are in the issue.  

Readers sometimes suggest that we shouldn’t cover sensitive issues at all. A letter in today’s paper, for example, submitted at the start of our 30-day cooling off period for letters regarding the Israel-Palestine struggle (mistakenly describing it as “a moratorium on all references to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in the paper”) suggests that we should self-censure all news of the controversy for at least six months (see Page Fourteen. 

If there’s any reason for this paper’s existence, it’s to support the proposition that democracy just works better if everyone knows what’s happening. What’s been going on in Richmond is what’s sometimes described sarcastically as “mushroom planning: where everything is done in the dark, packaged in the dark and then sold as a final product.” We at the Planet think that public policy is best made in the sunshine, with many eyes on the decision-making process. 

—Becky O’Malley 

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