Stalled plans in Richmond are giving Berkeley the edge in the effort to land the East Bay’s first new ferry stop in years. 

With funding secure for one East Bay ferry stop and partial funding for a second, the San Francisco Bay Water Transit Authority (WTA) is inching toward site selections. 

While putting one ferry stop in Berkeley or Albany has long been the plan, new doubts have surfaced about opening a second terminal in Richmond—where city officials are devoting their attentions to another, and potentially more profitable, use at the site. 

“We’re going to build a terminal somewhere in the East Bay,” said WTA Chief Executive Officer Steven Castleberry. “It could be in Berkeley, Albany or Richmond.” 

While Richmond had been an early and ardent advocate of a terminal in Marina Bay, City Councilmember Tom Butt said enthusiasm has waned in light of a proposal by Toyota for the property. 

The Japanese car maker wants to use much of the site as a vehicle storage lot as its expands its current import operations at the port. 

“Right now, Toyota and the ferry seem to be on a collision course,” Butt said. “Up until the Toyota thing, everyone on the council was a huge cheerleader for the ferry. When the Toyota thing came along, everyone else lost interest in the ferry except for me and [Councilmember] Gayle McLaughlin.” 

Castleberry said his staff will present a report on developments in Richmond at the next WTA board meeting on June 23.  

Berkeley developer James D. Levine has said that he intends to bring ferry service to his proposed casino and resort complex on Richmond’s Point Molate should the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs approve the site as a reservation for the Guidiville Rancheria of Pomos. 

“We’ve talked to a consultant for Levine and took a cursory look at the site, but we think Marina Bay would better serve the needs of commuters while Point Molate would provide good access to the casino,” Castleberry said. “If the city wants us to move to another site, it’s got to be close to houses and have adequate parking.” 

Marina Bay also makes sense as a transit-oriented development hub, said the WTA executive. Transit hubs are eligible for federal funding programs, making them attractive to developers. 

Berkeley sites 

While Richmond’s interest is momentarily diverted, Berkeley is pressing forward with its own push for a ferry terminal. 

Castleberry said the city’s Waterfront Commission has scheduled a ferry site discussion for its June 8 joint meeting with the Transportation Commission. 

Waterfront Commission Chair Paul Kamen has recommended three options for a new terminal, all at the Berkeley Marina. The sites include incorporating the ferry into the existing fishing pier; a location west of Seawall Drive between the fishing pier and H’s Lordship’s restaurant; and adjacent to the east side of H’s Lordship’s parking lot. 

While fond of ferries himself, Kamen said he is skeptical of the WTA’s emphasis on it as a means to reduce traffic congestion. 

“The best reason for ferries is that people like them,” he said. “They improve the quality of life.” 

Kamen also questions the WTA’s push for the $6 million ferries with the heavy, fuel hungry engines that will travel at 25 knots per hour. The Berkeley commissioner favors 18-knot boats which can still travel from the Berkeley terminal to the San Francisco ferry pier in 20 minutes. 

Ridership estimates 

Both Kamen and the WTA agree that a new Berkeley/Albany ferry stop would produce about 500 to 700 daily trips over the next few years. 

History shows that ridership has remained low since the construction of the Bay Bridge eliminated the need for water transit, Kamen said. He pointed to what happened when ferry service was reintroduced to Berkeley after the Loma Prieta earthquake closed the Bay Bridge. Daily ridership from Berkeley, Vallejo, Alameda and Oakland combined was at more than 20,000 while the bridge was closed, but dropped sharply after the bridge was fixed. Berkeley service was soon discontinued. 

Alternative sites 

“If the [Berkeley] City Council endorses a proposal, we will start the environmental review process,” Castleberry said. “I haven’t talked to the mayor’s staff, but I’m assuming the chosen site will be on the waterfront” at the foot of University Avenue. 

Two other proposed local locations have triggered strong opposition: The foot of Gilman Street in Berkeley and the end of Buchanan Street in Albany between Golden Gate Fields and the Albany Bulb. 

The Bulb itself is about to join the Eastshore State Park, and environmentalists, who battled for the inclusion, have announced their intent to oppose ferry service there or south of the race track on Gilman Street. 

While the WTA has the legal power to pick a site unilaterally and take it through eminent domain, Castleberry said, “We are working as partners with the communities, and we have no interest in forcing anything on them.” 

Through a polling firm, the WTA in April surveyed 600 registered voters proportionately distributed throughout Berkeley and Albany. The results revealed strong support for ferry service in both communities. 

According to the poll, which offered multiple options for a new ferry terminal, citizens in both cities gave an 82 percent approval to the University Avenue terminal, with 72 percent support for Gilman Street and 61 percent for Buchanan Street. 

Political findings 

The poll also found that Albany residents were significantly happier than Berkeleyans with the way their cities seem to be headed. While half of Berkeley residents said they were pleased with the city’s direction, 69 percent of Albany voters thought their community was doing just fine. 

Those same figures were reflected in citizen attitudes towards their respective city councils. While 71 percent in Albany gave their council a hearty thumbs up, the number dropped to 53 percent for Berkeleyans. 

Pollsters also asked for citizens’ ratings of BART, the Sierra Club and AC Transit, three entities that will have a role in the location of ferry terminals. BART came out on top (91 percent favorable in Berkeley and 88 percent in Albany), followed by the Sierra Club (75 percent and 74 percent respectively) and then AC Transit (71 percent and 72 percent). 

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The Alameda County Medical Center (ACMC) Board of Trustees voted last week to replace 45 staff doctors at John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro with contracted psychiatrists and physicians, but a motion for a preliminary court injunction filed by the employees’ union could scuttle the deal. 

The John George facility provides psychiatric inpatient and outpatient services, psychiatric emergency services, and substance abuse treatment for Alameda County residents. 

The board voted 8-2-1 to tentatively approve a 25-month $9.5 million contract with Pleasanton-based Becton Healthcare Resources for John George after ACMC CEO Claude Watts told trustees that the move would save the medical center $1.8 million over two years. 

The decision affects 40 staff psychiatrist and five staff physician positions who currently manage inpatient care at John George. A spokesperson for ACMC said in a telephone interview that doctor employees at hospitals are now the exception rather than the rule, and that most hospitals contract out for services by doctors who are employed by physician associations. 

Whether the contracted services will equal a reduction in staff is unclear. 

In an accompanying letter to the board, Watts said that Becton currently provides oversight management for some John George services, and that an agreement with the company for all of John George care would “provide consistency in care and a single point of reference of patient care issues.” 

But Trustee Dr. Floyd Huen of Oakland disputed the savings figure, saying that the “full cost of the proposed contract needs to be more fully investigated.” He said he feared a loss of inpatient coverage if the service contract is ratified. 

“Even if it turns out that the Becton contract is cheaper, we don’t just want a cheaper contract,” Huen said. “We want one that works.” 

Watts told Huen, “If you look at the individual line items on the Becton proposal, it looks as if their proposal would result in higher costs,” but said that the savings would come from Becton’s ability to consolidate services between the different portions of John George care. 

Huen, the husband of Oakland City Councilmember Jean Quan, voted against the proposed contract along with Board President Dr. Theodore Rose of Oakland. Former Pleasanton Mayor Tom Pico, a new member of the board, abstained. 

In a letter to the trustees, one of the John George psychiatrists, Dr. Judy Bertelsen, had said that the Becton proposal could not be trusted. 

“Previous experience with Becton has involved contracting to provide services at a specified rate and then presenting ACMC with an emergency demand for large amounts of additional funds or threatening to pull out within 30 days,” she said. 

The contract had been scheduled to begin on June 1 and run through June 30, 2007, but immediate implementation was blocked by court proceedings even before last week’s trustee vote was taken. On a motion filed by the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD) for a temporary restraining order against ACMC, Superior Court Judge James Richman ruled that the proposed contract could not be ratified until a June 7 hearing in Superior Court in Oakland. 

UAPD attorneys are arguing that contracting out the John George inpatient services violates UAPD’s labor agreement with the County Medical Center. UAPD and ACMC are presently in the meet and confer process over the proposed Becton. 

A UAPD representative told board members that it was “improper for the board to make a decision on the contract before the union and the center decide whether a contract should be let out.” 

In its decision, ACMC trustees went against the wishes of a string of professional speakers talking against the contract, as well as a petition opposing the contract signed by 35 ACMC psychiatrists. 

In their petition, the psychiatrists said they were “deeply troubled” by what they called the “rapid decision to contract out our services.” 

One of the psychiatrists who signed the petition, Suzanne Bruch, suggested to trustees that if they wanted to save money at John George “you could allow us to bid on the contract as a physician-run group. That would eliminate the middle man, and we could pass on the savings to the hospital.”.

Berkeley’s outgoing health officer has charged that her bosses have mismanaged a bloated department and are jeopardizing services by using public health funds to pay for unnecessary bureaucracy. 

“We know the level of administrative support we need and it’s less than what we are paying for,” said Dr. Poki Namkung. After 10 years as Berkeley’s health officer, Namkung departs today (Friday) to take a similar post in Santa Cruz County.  

She contends that the budget proposed for Berkeley’s Health and Human Services Department overestimated funding from the state and federal governments to justify raiding the city’s public health reserve fund to pay for staff costs this year.  

When she presented city brass with a less rosy budget forecast, Namkung said she received a memo from City Manager Phil Kamlarz ordering her not to further disclose her concerns to the City Council. 

Berkeley’s public health program provides health services, such as medical care and disease prevention programs to city residents.  

HHS Director Fred Madrano, the target of much of Namkung’s and the commission’s criticisms, said the department’s proposed budget was based on sound accounting and that proposals to streamline it would not save money.  

In her final months on the job, Namkung hasn’t just critiqued her department, she has sought to dismantle it. 

With Namkung’s assistance, Berkeley’s Community Health Commission in April unanimously recommended splitting the department into two autonomous programs: a Mental Health Department and a Public Health Department. 

The health commission’s proposal is based on findings that since 1999, while HHS’s scope of responsibilities has decreased, the department has not done enough to cut down on administrative staff. 

HHS now oversees public health, mental health, environmental health and senior programs. Before 1999, it was also responsible for programs serving the homeless, city youth and the unemployed. 

With fewer responsibilities, Namkung said that Madrano no longer needs four staffers working directly under him. “Look at any other department director in the city. They don’t have that kind of support,” she said, adding that the state health officer, with a staff of 2,000, manages with only one administrative secretary. 

The restructuring proposal would save Berkeley’s general fund an estimated $900,000, in part by reducing the need for administrative staff including the department’s director and deputy director, according to Tom Kelly, the commission chair. 

The City Council is scheduled to review the plan later this month, but it likely won’t come with a recommendation from city leaders. 

“I don’t think it’s realistic,” said City Manager Phil Kamlarz. “In my experience when you make things smaller, it costs more money.” 

Kamlarz said he was hesitant to reorganize HHS because the department, which receives nearly two-thirds of its funding from outside grants, requires extra accounting support. 

“I don’t think [the commission] appreciates the administrative burden it takes to do the accounting,” he said, adding that he thought centralizing the administration under Madrano had helped the department function better. 

Another skeptic is Mental Health Manager Harvey Turek. He said he thought the department’s structure was sound and commission report was “vague” about the expected cost savings. 

According to the commission report, since 1999, HHS administrative costs have risen 66 percent from $801,165 to $1.328 million while the scope of responsibilities decreased because of the transfer or elimination of over $11 million for programs and services.  

“This begs the question of whether or not we need the same degree of administrative support,” Kelly said.  

Madrano countered that since 1999, the department had reduced its overall administrative staff from 19 full-time positions to 15.8 next year and that administrative staff has held steady at about 7 percent of the total department workforce. 

Namkung and the commission have challenged Madrano’s figures, arguing that administrative staff has in fact increased over the past six years. According to department budget reports, HHS has cut its administrative staff from 16.5 positions in 1999 to 15.8 positions this year. 

Namkung and the health commission raised their objections after HHS revealed its proposed fiscal year 2006 budget. Required to reduce spending by 10 percent and minimize staff cuts, the department shifted $304,248 in employee costs from the city’s general fund to a city reserve for pubic health programs. 

The reserve, funded by state money, is currently $3.3 million in the black. Madrano projected that with the cost shifts the fund would remain healthy enough over the next five years to support programs should their costs rise or funding decline. 

Namkung countered that with state money less certain, federal funds dwindling and employee costs on the rise, the department would eat up the reserve within three years, placing programs at risk. 

As the city manger tried to mediate between dueling departmental budgets, according to Namkung, he also tried to keep Namkung’s analysis from going public. She said that in a letter dated May 3, Kamlarz reminded her that under Berkeley’s form of government she was not to have written or oral communication with the mayor or council. 

“To be told that I can not speak about these issues to policy makers who have control over the funds, I think is unethical and wrong,” said Namkung, who had previously copied councilmembers on a letter to Kamlarz about the budget. 

Kamlarz said Thursday that city policy was for employees to take their concerns to him first, rather than going public. 

Berkeley has a track record of misappropriating public health money. In 2000, the city had to backfill the public health reserve fund $2.4 million after the state determined that since 1993 Berkeley had illegally used the money to pay for other city expenses. 

The commission’s proposal would not end the practice of shifting employee costs to program grants. The plan would eliminate several administrative positions and then shift the rest to the newly created Public Health and Mental Health departments. Administrative staff under the new departments could be paid from grants, rather than the city’s general fund. 

According to the report, Public Health, the largest division in HHS, would require 3.5 full-time employees to carry out its administrative tasks. 

Kelly, fearing that city leaders would be hostile to such a major upheaval, hoped that the city would allow an independent analyst to review the commission proposal. 

“I think the city is obligated to at least take a look at this and see if there is a way to save money without cutting services,” he said. 

With students leading the way, 57 percent of the Jefferson Elementary School community voted Tuesday night to change the name of the school to Sequoia Elementary. 

The recommendation now goes to the Berkeley Unified School District Board, which makes the final decision on school names. 

If the name change is approved, school officials expect a minimal expense for implementation. 

The school was originally named for Thomas Jefferson, the second president of the United States and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. But some teachers and parents began pressing for a name change last year over concerns about another Jefferson legacy: the fact that he kept slaves on his Virginia plantation. 

The final vote was 239 to 177 for the name change. Students supported the change 161 to 111, while staff supported the new name 11 to 5. The vote was considerably closer among parents and guardians, 67 to 61 in favor of Sequoia. 

Jefferson Principal Betty Delaney, who remained neutral in the vote, said that she was pleased with the way the school’s children handled the months of sometimes heated debate and controversy preceding the vote. 

“I think they took it very seriously,” Delaney said. “It was an educational experience.” 

Delaney said that she expects some of that educational process to continue in the next school year. 

“We’re not going to have an ongoing dialogue on Jefferson as Jefferson,” she said. “But we have certain building blocks of our educational process here. Being safe, being responsible. One of those building blocks is being courageous. One of our learning processes with the students that will continue out of the debate over the Jefferson name change will be what do you do when you have a difficult decision to make. How do you take a stand? How do you make courageous decisions?” 

Delaney also said that she expects the educational process will continue with the adults associated with Jefferson school. She pointed to what most participants called a “positive” meeting last month when parents/guardians and staff members met at Jefferson to debate the name change. 

“The vote has just taken place, so we haven’t had the chance to decide the form, but there definitely will be a follow-up that takes place in the fall,” she said. “That sort of community dialogue should continue. It doesn’t just stop with one vote.” 

A few tossed chairs and a sidewalk showdown are the latest signs that Berkeley’s peace-loving, left-wing radio station, KPFA, is in the throes of another civil war. 

The latest casualty of the station’s battles may soon be General Manager Roy Campanella II. 

On May 5, Campanella, who has made enemies with several staff members during his short tenure, got into a screaming match with Weyland Southon, the co-host of KPFA’s “Hard Knock Radio” show. 

According to Southon, Campanella, in an expletive-laced harangue, ordered him outside to settle their differences. “I felt like he was going to swing on me,” he said.  

The two didn’t come to blows, but Southon said he didn’t return to work for over a week out of fear for his safety. 

Campanella, under pressure from the KPFA board that had considered placing him on administrative leave, took three days off last week to reflect on the confrontation. 

Campanella said Pacifica, KPFA’s parent network, wouldn’t let him comment for this story. The incident remains under investigation. 

On the day of the fracas, Campanella sent out an e-mail to KPFA staff reminding them that “Pacifica has a policy of zero tolerance for violence in the workplace.”  

The reason for the e-mail was that two days earlier a station engineer hurled four metal chairs during a meeting of the KPFA Program Council. The employee, who has not been disciplined, was furious that the council was set to give a new show to Bill Mandel, a former host who lost his previous show a decade ago.  

For many, Mandel represents the predominantly white old guard at KPFA that younger broadcasters say is keeping them from getting shows, said board member Joe Wanzala. 

“At KPFA, programing is the third rail,” he said. 

In the battle for limited air time, a war has broken out between listener activists who want to change programming they see as either too moderate or stale, and the KPFA staff who feel under siege from their attacks.  

“There is no recognition among the listeners about what is working at the station,” said Susan Stone, the station’s former director of arts and humanity programming. She added that the station’s “culture of complaints” had left staff feeling besieged and the quality of programming lacking. 

“We’re missing the opportunity to develop quality radio because there is so much acrimony over what is owed to whom,” she said.  

Six years ago KPFA had what many consider its finest hour. Faced with a move by Pacifica to moderate the station’s left-wing shows, listeners and staff took to the streets and later the courtroom to win back control of the station, and the four-station Pacifica network. 

Activist listeners who fought the war to democratize Pacifica expected to get a stronger say over programming. But instead they say the staff has succeeded in stonewalling efforts to reform the station.  

“Ther seems to be some [staff] at KPFA that are very suspicious of democracy,” said Stan Woods, a member of People’s Radio, a Pacifica faction that represents listener activists on KPFA’s Local Station Board. The group is opposed by KPFA Forward, which includes staff members and their supporters.  

The staff’s clout, Woods said, was illustrated by the attempt to change the time of Pacifica’s flagship show “Democracy Now.” Despite the support of the program council on which Wood serves and former General Manager Gus Newport, staff resistance has kept the show from moving, Woods said. 

Although staff said there was no connection between the Campanella incident and the programming battle, some People’s Radio members say the two are related. 

“There hadn’t been managerial oversight for quite some time, so the staff could do what they wanted,” said board member and listener activist Chandra Hauptman. “Now that a manager is trying to set up a structure and protocol, the staff is resisting.” 

According to Wanzala, staff opposition forced out Newport after less than a year, and Campanella might meet the same fate. 

“There’s a big push among the staff to get rid of Roy,” he said. 

Although several listener activists gave Campanella lackluster reviews, Wanzala said they fear ousting him would concentrate further power in the staff. 

“If Roy is forced out, it will make it more difficult for listeners to have input on the station,” he said.  

The strife at KPFA so far hasn’t seemed to have cost the station the support of its listeners. The station raised over $1 million during its recent spring pledge drive. 

But Sherry Gimbelman, of KPFA Forward warned that ultimately listeners would not stick around if the station’s behind-the-scenes drama proved more compelling than its shows. 

“Eventually if KPFA doesn’t deliver dynamic programing people will go elsewhere,” she said. “They’re not interested in the 100 years war.”

Hamaseh Kianfar, the former mental health worker at Alameda County Juvenile Hall, pled not guilty Wednesday to charges that she helped a teenage girl flee after slashing a 75-year-old woman in the throat outside the Berkeley Rose Garden in March. 

Kianfar is free on $15,000 bail. 

Kianfar, 30, a resident of San Rafael, is charged with one count of accessory to attempted murder. Police say she drove the attacker away from the scene after the slashing and then lied about her involvement in the incident. 

The attacker, a 16-year-old girl, has been charged with attempted murder and is undergoing court-ordered psychiatric evaluations. She is being held at Juvenile Hall. Authorities believe Kianfar and the attacker met at Juvenile Hall when the attacker was held there for an earlier transgression. 

Kianfar resigned her part-time job at Juvenile Hall in April after charges were filed against her. 

The Berkeley school district released its master plan for its West Campus site along University Avenue Thursday without major alterations, angering several neighbors who had demanded several revisions to the plan’s draft. 

The West Campus Neighbor-Merchant Alliance (West NEMA), a group formed in response to the Berkeley Unified School District’s planning effort, had demanded keeping more open space on the site and finding ways to reduce traffic and parking on residential streets. The neighbors also asked the district to move some services, such as the kitchen and the building and grounds facility to another site. 

City Councilmember Darryl Moore said he was “very disappointed that there is very little change.” He said he agreed with the alternative plan developed by West NEMA. 

“There was resounding neighborhood support for the West NEMA plan and its call to move the district kitchen and building and grounds facility to [the planned district bus yard on] Gilman Street, and for no parking south of Addison Street,” Moore said. 

Prepared by David C. Early in his role as head of Design, Community & Environment—the same firm that prepared UC Berkeley’s Long-Range Development Plan—the district plan retains features that neighbors denounced during a series of earlier meetings with Early and district officials. The master plan is now posted on the district’s website. 

Of the 12 buildings now standing on the West Campus site, Early’s plan calls for the elimination of five: the cafeteria, library, girls’ gym, a classroom building and two portable structures while calling for construction of one new building to house the district kitchen, building and grounds department and a district warehouse. 

The plan calls for a three-story addition to the south of the existing auditorium along University Avenue, plus a small child care/development structure on Browning Street and a future private mixed-use development to the south of the auditorium along University. 

Both the WestNEMA and district plans spell an end to the ball fields and tot lot at the corner of University Avenue and Curtis Street, earmarked as the site of private development in both plans, with the addition of the kitchen/ building and grounds/warehouse building in the BUSD plan. 

The district plan was scheduled to be formally unveiled to neighbors at a Thursday night meeting, after the Daily Planet’s deadline for today’s paper. Neighbors indicated that reaction would be harsh. 

“They did it again, just like we said they would,” said neighbor Sam Bridgham, who helped organize area opposition to the plan. “Pretty much the last thing anyone wanted on the site was the building and grounds facility. That was the key piece. And if they hadn’t included it, there would’ve been room for parking by the existing buildings.” 

“The neighbors are really gearing up for the June 29 (BUSD) meeting on the plan, where they’ll make a more extensive presentation,” said Kristen Leimkuhler. 

The neighbors’ alternative, available on their website (www.westnema.org), calls for maintaining open space on the large portion of the site, south of the existing boys’ gym between Curtis and Browning streets, except for a small preschool facility. 

In the Early plan, most of the existing green space is filled with a pair of parking lots and a daylighted stretch of Strawberry Creek. Opening the creek would be dependent on available funding. 

Neighbors are also angry that the plan includes access to parking lots along both Addison and Curtis after they stressed that they didn’t want more traffic in a residential neighborhood. 

Early and the school board said that the West Campus would incorporate all district offices and functions now occupying Old City Hall and annex, the so-called Oregon/Russell Street Site, and uses currently in effect at the West Campus site. 

The two main buildings at Oregon/Russell began as the gymnasium and auditorium on the site of the former Edison Junior High School and have been substantially altered, although portions of a 1915 design by noted Berkeley architect W.H. Ratcliff Jr. remain. 

Both Old City Hall and the Oregon/Russell site have been rated as seismically unsafe. While the district owns the Oregon/Russell site, the Old City Hall and annex are leased from the city. 

First leased in 1980, the district has announced plans to abandon the Old City Hall buildings when the current lease expires in 2009. 

Early’s potential conflict of interest as both advocate for the district and as head of Livable Berkeley was raised by site neighbors Rachel Boyce and Leimkuhler. A Daily Planet reporter followed with questions about Early’s provision of DCE office space for a Livable Berkeley committee meeting held, in part, to address the West Campus project. 

Early promised to recuse himself from any of the advocacy group’s meetings that dealt with the project and not allow any other meetings at his office. 

The district plan and its supplements plus detailed accounts of the public meetings and related documents and images are available on a page of the BUSD website, www.busd.us/westcampus 

For Bridgham, the West Campus struggle was the last straw, and now he said his family are planning to move to Durango, Colo. 

“We’re looking for a place where people aren’t at war with their city government and the school district,” he said. “If there was any single reason for the move, it’s because our elected officials don’t act like the public servants they’re supposed to be. Despite their rhetoric, there’s nothing progressive about them.” Ã

Troubled by the city’s bloody history of black-on-black youth violence, the Richmond Improvement Association is sponsoring an all-day conference Saturday aimed at ending city murders within three years. Rev. Andre Shumake Sr., who heads the organization modeled after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Montgomery Improvement Association, said the community-wide gathering is focused on solutions to the city’s notoriously high murder rate. 

Last year, Richmond, a city with about 100,000 residents, recorded 35 homicides, the vast majority black-on-black crimes, he said. “That’s one every 10 days.” 

Participants include 35 community groups, featuring clergy, top-ranking police officials, neighborhood associations and others. Members of the public are welcome to attend. 

“At the end, we will launch a three-year initiative to reach a goal of a zero homicide rate,” said the cleric. 

The program, held at Lovonya Middle School, 3400 Macdonald Ave., opens with registration at 8 a.m., followed by a morning program starting at 9. 

“Our morning sessions will focus on crime and violence, cultural awareness and spiritual response, and in the afternoon will focus on political action, economic development and education and youth,” Shumake said. 

The noon interlude will feature both music and an address by African-American best-selling author Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, who has written several books devoted to the plight of young black males. 

The program will conclude at 5 p.m. with a review of the day’s events. 

The need for community action is clear, said Shumake. 

“I got a call from the son-in-law of a man who was murdered in Parchester Village who was killed as he was dropping off a friend. He was glad someone was finally doing something,” said the minister. 

One of the inspirations for Saturday’s session was August’s murder of De La Salle High School football star Terrance Kelly, who was gunned down two days before he was to leave for the University of Oregon on a full-ride scholarship. 

That killing resulted in the formation of a “Blessed are the Peacemakers” campaign, created by Shumake, Richmond NAACP branch President Rev. Charles Newsome and Minister David Muhammad of the Richmond Nation of Islam Mosque. 

That campaign led to Saturday’s meeting. 

Shumake stressed that black-on-black shootings, often highly territorial in nature, threaten the whole community. 

“Many residents have a false sense of security because they think these things can’t happen in their neighborhoods,” he said, “but whenever one of these young men sees someone he doesn’t like, he may shoot without any regard for those around him.” 

The program is focused on finding jobs since many young men have said they would give up their guns if they had a decent job, Shumake said. 

The lack of jobs is the main reason many Richmond clergy members have endorsed the plans for casinos in North Richmond and at Point Molate, where Native Americans and developers have promised an abundance of jobs for local residents.

When it comes to the environment, Berkeley has won the bronze medal. 

On Thursday, Berkeley was named the third most sustainable city in the country by SustainLane, a national organization dedicated to sustainable development and living. 

San Francisco and Portland finished ahead of Berkeley. Seattle finished fourth. 

Berkeley was praised for its work in transportation, planning and energy policy. 

SustainLane reported that Berkeley had more workers who either walk or bicycle to work than any city in their survey. The organization also praised Berkeley’s system of bicycle boulevards and its high number of green businesses.  

Mayor Tom Bates said he was honored by the distinction and that Berkeley would “continue to roll out the green carpet” to lure environmentally friendly companies. 

The award follows a non-partisan, peer-reviewed analysis of U.S. cities across 12 categories including transportation and land use. 

DEAD SEA, Jordan—In a region where hardly anyone can agree with anyone about anything, the governments of Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority recently signed an agreement to save the magnificent and strangely silent desert sea where Jesus once walked.  

Just a few feet from where the Jordanian-hosted World Economic Forum met on May 20-22, an environmental disaster is unfolding. The Dead Sea, a place of immense historic and spiritual significance to much of the world, is dying. In living memory, the great salt lake has shrunk by a third. And each year, its shoreline recedes by another yard.  

The Dead Sea is actually the deepest part of the Jordan Valley. Renowned since ancient times as a fertile oasis, the valley became a vital crossroads for three of the world’s great religions—Judaism, Islam and Christianity.  

Yet, partly because today’s incessant appetite for oil has made the Middle East a cauldron of chaos, developers left the Dead Sea alone and mostly untouched, leaving it almost unchanged since biblical times.  

In 1994, though, the peace agreement signed by Jordan and Israel ended this isolation. Soon, dozens of resorts sprouted on the Israeli shore. The Dead Sea’s unique water and its famous black mineral-packed mud now draw hundreds of thousands of affluent tourists annually. Some visitors are so-called medical tourists, who seek unique treatments for arthritis or dermatological diseases. Many others arrive simply to experience the strange, oxygen-rich air, where an extraordinary spirituality seems to float among ancient desert cliffs.  

The Jordanians have been relative newcomers to tourism, but are now in fast-forward mode. Today, their side of the Dead Sea boasts four lavish international resort hotels. Tourism now accounts for 11 percent of Jordan’s GDP, and a record 1.8 million tourists, many from the United States and Israel, are expected this year—a whopping 40 percent increase over 2004.  

Despite the boom, however, Jordanian officials say they are determined to protect the region’s fragile environment. “The Dead Sea is the world’s largest natural spa,” says Akel Biltaji, King Abdullah’s tourism advisor. “But it does not belong just to Jordan, or just to Israel. It belongs to the whole world.”  

“For us,” Biltaji says, “tourism is an important tool for peace. But at the same time we realize that this is a fragile part of the world, and so Jordan wants a niche market—not mass tourism.”  

The decade-long peace dividend that’s led to such economic benefits, however, is now jeopardizing the Dead Sea. Its sole source of water, aside from sparse rainfall, is the Jordan River. But the Israeli and Jordanian governments have long diverted 90 percent of the river’s water for agricultural and industrial use. Dead Sea water levels have dropped by 80 feet. King Abdullah has now declared that saving the desert sea a national priority.  

The plan calls for construction of a 130-mile channel linking the Red Sea with the Dead Sea, an audacious scheme that would bring millions of gallons of water into the Dead Sea and ensure its survival.  

Aside from rescuing the Dead Sea by taking advantage of the 1,200-foot difference in altitude between the two seas, the channel would also provide energy for hydroelectric plants that in turn would power desalination plants— providing fresh water for millions. Jordan and Israel are two of the world’s most water-poor countries, and neither nation has any oil with which to buy water. But when the “Peace Channel” is built (on the Jordanian side of its border with Israel) both countries will share the 870 million cubic meters of fresh water gained annually from the desalination facilities.  

Assistance from the World Bank would help finance the $3 billion project, as well as EU and U.S. loans.  

The plan is not without opponents. Some environmentalists suggest that building such a lengthy waterway across the desert might harm rare Jordanian wildlife, such as ibex, leopards and hyrax. It could also risk pristine coral reefs in Jordan’s shimmering Gulf of Aqaba.  

Manqeth Mehyar, Jordanian country director for Friends of the Earth, expresses cautious support for the plan. “I myself look at the Red Sea as the only hope for the Dead Sea,” she says. “But we really need to study the project properly. [But] if the impacts are tolerable, we can work around them. My worry about the Dead Sea is that we will sit and do nothing. At the rate we are going we are losing a very beautiful and important place.”  

Steven Knipp is the Washington, D.C., correspondent for the South China Morning Post. He was recently in Jordan for the World Economic Forum.  

l

Berkeley High has produced a number of outstanding individuals over the years and Joel Kaji is no exception. After graduating from BHS in 1981 Joel attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania, graduating in 1985 with a degree in political science. 

Joel then attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he received his MA and Ph.D. also in political science. 

While at Michigan, Joel met his future wife Marjorie and they have been married for 13 years. In 1993 Joel and Marjorie moved from Michigan to Long Island, N.Y.,where Joel taught political science and statistics at State University of New York, Stony Brook until 1997. 

In 1998, Sports Illustrated hired Joel as a market research manager in the New York City office. There he took part in the development of editorial, marketing programs and advertising sales. 

Currently Joel is director of market research for Time magazine in New York. Joel, his wife and 5-year-old son Jeffrey live in Manhattan.  

Joel was active on the debate team at Berkeley High School. Though he didn’t play any organized sports he was then and still is a huge sports buff. This writer and Joel used to play softball and basketball together at Le Conte Elementary School in Berkeley. 

“Berkeley High was a launching pad for me,” Joel said. “Berkeley High was also the place where I excelled academically and socially. I will always view Berkeley High as a place where I came into my own.”p

Click here to view the latest work by Justin DeFreitas

SAVING OZZIE’S 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In July of 1971 I moved into the Elmwood with my 11-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter. Within 24 hours of our move the three of us were sitting on stools at Ozzie’s Fountain relishing our sodas, PB&Js and friendly inclusive banter with other customers and Ozzie alike. I was almost immediately made to feel, along with my children, not strangers, but welcomed new residents. In the intervening 34 years many stores and people have come and gone, but the nucleus of community and neighborhood that the fountain provides has not wavered. 

Ozzie’s is a happy destination whether you have errands to do or not. If you are there often enough you will over time hear creative, cranky, funny, brilliant, bombastic, boring, sobering, political (remember the business rent control petition?) gossip and inspiring talk: You know I could go on—and on! And the kids, oh the happy kids getting endless treats and some coming back as adults five, 10, 20 years later, overjoyed to find the place still going and sharing it with their kids. You can see dogs with great hats, go caroling, help deliver neighboring merchants’ lunch orders, share sadness over the passing of a regular and joy at new babies. No cell phones allowed and great funky artifacts to admire as you chat and chew, or you can read without being disturbed. 

What in heaven’s name is going on that we would let this treasure slip away? There are very few places left for any of us that make us feel that we are an important part of a community. Ozzie’s, through the good and creative care of Michael Hogan, carries on the 82-year tradition of friendship, inclusion, community and neighborhood (and good food!). 

Whatever it takes—go in, talk to Michael, talk to Vickie, talk to each other and find the way that we can all still be together on those red stools! 

Nancy Jaicks Alexander 

Fountain employee, 1976-80 

• 

UC HOTEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Robert Clear’s May 31 commentary piece, “The Costs of Vehicle Use,” was very helpful in describing the challenges and tradeoffs involved with urban infill growth. But it contained one inaccuracy—the prospective downtown hotel will not be another instance of UC taking property off the tax rolls. In this case the university is only acting as “facilitator” of a project which will be constructed and owned by a private developer on private land (now owned by Bank of America). At last year’s meetings of the citizens’ task force, established to propose parameters for the project, proponents and city officials estimated the hotel would generate roughly a million dollars in property, hotel and sales tax revenues for the city. 

As for Mr. Clear’s other concerns—building height and lot coverage—we’ll still have to wait and see. An actual proposed plan is due to be revealed within the next couple of months, but on the evidence so far, this project is a rare exemplar of how the city and university can work well together on a mutually advantageous development. 

Alan Tobey 

• 

BAD DEAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Daily Planet’s front-page story about the Albany Waterfront Park—known to aficionados as The Bulb—being absorbed into the Eastshore State Park was a nice lead in to the story on the next page about the Magna Corporations greedy designs for the area right next door to the new state park.  

The mayor’s secret deal with the university—facilitated with the questionable assistance of the city attorney and affirmed by a majority of the City Council—is a disgrace. 

These people in their infinite (or is it somehow self-serving?) wisdom have in essence given the city away to the university. What did they get for their trouble? A few hundred thousand dollars to help the university make a plan for Berkeley’s downtown, two square blocks of which are already going for a university “hotel” and associated complex. And a few hundred thousand more for some sewers and traffic lights.  

We can thank Councilmembers Betty Olds, Dona Spring, and Kriss Worthington for refusing to go along. At least three on the council could see this deal, wreaked upon us by the mayor out of public view, for the disaster it is. 

Sharon Entwistle 

• 

CALLING DEEP THROAT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What America needs today is a Deep Throat II so we can get rid of George W. Bush. 

Molly Fullerton 

Age 13 

• 

THE COMING OF WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice: “This war came to us, not the other way around.” That’s not the way it was. Showing up the lies a Downing Street memo points out that intelligence and facts were fixed and spun to warrant military action in Iraq. The president and America are now reaping the results of this deceit, with U.S. soldiers and Iraqis paying the ultimate price. 

As early as March 2002 British Prime Minister Tony Blair had been told that war with Iraq might be illegal but Bush and Blair were resolved to go to war. 

More than 1650 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives based on a falsehood perpetrated at the highest levels of government. Bush has the blood on his hands for those who have died in Iraq and more and more Americans become disaffected daily, having been lied to by the Bush administration. 

Won’t someone please out Bush the way Deep Throat did Nixon! 

Ron Lowe 

Nevada City 

• 

WHITHER MARTY? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have for many years had taped to my filing cabinet a piece from the Berkeley Express, dated Feb. 7, 1986, on Marty Schiffenbauer’s (presumably) abortive run for Berkeley City Council. The piece has always epitomized for me the politics of Berkeley in the ‘80s. Asked for his qualifications to represent Berkeleyans, he replied, “I don’t smoke, I jog four times a week, I recycle, floss every night, live in a rent-controlled apartment, listen to KPFA, shop at the Co-op, drink Peet’s coffee, and have never eaten downstairs at Chez Panisse. I sign every petition put in front of me, hang out at the Med, sleep on a cotton futon, have a Ph.D., never shave, almost never watch TV, and my best friends are therapists or lawyers.” 

Sadly, on reflection this morning early in the 21st century, I realized that rent control and the Co-op have gone the way of the Department of Genetics, and the Med is no longer in the forefront of the revolution. My dinner downstairs at Chez Panisse was delightful. My wife’s back can’t take a futon, and we got cable. 

Under my wife’s influence, I jog (at the club), floss (usually), and recycle (same). I do still listen to KPFA via the Internet and NPR, and mail-order Peet’s First Flush Darjeeling (coffee’s not on the Atkins). 

Marty, if you’re still there, how’s it with you? 

Steve Carr 

• 

VAN HOOL BUSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Someone on one of the Van Hool buses was saying that in Belgium buses are free, so passengers can get on at any one of the doors, not just the front door. It makes sense—the front aisle is very narrow, at the space between the steps to the driver’s seat and the front right seat. It doesn’t look designed for a general entrance. Perhaps someone knows more about this. 

H. Granger 

• 

ARMING SPACE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

The U.S. Air Force has at last popped the question that George Bush II enabled and implicitly invited in his first major deed as president: abrogation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Defense Treaty, signed and honored by the nuclear powers for nearly 40 years. The Air Force has asked for official U.S. ratification of development of both offensive and defensive missiles in space. 

Since the Air Force itself, after 20 years and 100 billion dollars has demonstrated the clumsy inefficacy of defense systems, the ratification is, most importantly, a signal to proceed with the easier technology of attack. Characterization of the weapons as “precision-guided” sounds spurious, when both precision-guided missiles from the ground and precision bombing have had wide margins of error in much shorter trajectories. 

There is, of course, a solution. It was deployed effectively during the Cold War. The solution is Mutual Assured Destruction. A decision to commit this unfortunate country to development of the Death Star is wasteful and dangerous. Committing the entire world to the inevitable Arms Race is obscene. 

Ariel Parkinson 

• 

HOUSING AUTHORITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am very interested in learning more about Helen Rippier Wheeler’s comments in a May 27 letter concerning the Berkeley Housing Authority. I am curious about what it is she’s asking for and what her goals are in regarding the “duality structure of the BHA” (Section 8 and public housing). Which tenant member position is vacant? What is not being done that should or could be being done? 

As a senior reliant on Section 8, I am constantly monitoring the shifting sands of HUD across the country, and want to do all I can to help us save housing in Berkeley for those of us who will be suddenly homeless if HUD pulls one of its neocon tricks here. 

Frances Hailman 

• 

LET DOWN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is sad to think that Berkeley Housing Authority thinks a person does not qualify for a one-bedroom apartment just because it is for just one person. Whoever thought of this idea is surely not thinking of the people and public at all. 

I am a 53-year-old single woman who has raised four children, mostly alone. I have down-sized from a four-bedroom townhouse to finally a one-bedroom just for me, I thought. Last year I lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Richmond, Ca. I was in Berkeley shopping at the Ace Hardware store on University Avenue. I looked up and noticed a “for rent” sign at this new apartment building I had never seen before. I decided to call the number because I needed to downsize to a one-bedroom apartment. I called the number and I found out the real estate company accepted Section 8 vouchers. I filled out the paperwork and it took me awhile, but I got together the $1,500 move-in fee. I hooked up with Berkeley Housing Authority, filled out the long trail of applications, and a representative went to the new apartment on Haste Street to inspect it before I moved in. I moved in on Sept. 4 of 2004. On Jan. 11, 2005 I received a notice from the manager of the Berkeley Housing saying I did not qualify for a one-bedroom apartment, I only qualified for a studio apartment. This was four months into my new apartment. I’ve unpacked and thrown boxes away and I’m just settling in, and I get this notice in the mail. I’ve felt very uneasy and unsettled since then. I know when my one-year lease is up in August, I will have to move. Since when can one person with a Section 8 voucher rent a one-bedroom apartment? I have a complete bedroom set, where am I supposed to put it? I’m missing something here! I’m a very decent person who has a low income and who also has a Section 8 voucher for a one-bedroom. I feel Berkeley has failed me and others just like me just because we don’t have as much money as the next person. I always looked forward to retiring in Berkeley in a one-bedroom apartment. But now I feel so let down by the City of Berkeley. There’s all kinds of programs a drug addict or a disabled person can have access to, but working in special education (for 21 years) and I have a one-bedroom apartment to rent. How unfair can it get?  

Feeling really let down by the City of Berkeley. 

Le Ester Pritchett 

?

Stick Beating 

Berkeley police arrested a 60-year-old man last Thursday morning on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon after a fight in north Aquatic Park that escalated beyond mere fisticuffs. 

Moving up from fists to a stick elevated the charge from battery to the more serious felony, but the injuries to the 46-year-old victim weren’t bad enough to involve paramedics and an ambulance, said Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

Curried no Favor 

A belligerent bandit stormed into the Naan ‘N Curry restaurant at 2366 Telegraph Ave. shortly before 2 p.m. last Thursday and forced a woman behind the counter to hand over the contents of the till. 

Police have identified a potential suspect in the crime. 

Armed Backpack Heist 

A man dropped by the Berkeley Police Station last Friday afternoon to report that a gunman had robbed him of his backpack and wallet as he was walking along Center Street the night before in the vicinity of the new Vista College building. 

Rat Pack Robbery 

A gang of four teenagers cornered a pedestrian in the 1300 block of Rose Street early Friday evening and forced him to hand over his wallet before fleeing the scene. 

Women Stick-up Woman 

Two women in their 20s pulled a pistol on another woman in the 2300 block of Durant Avenue just after noon Saturday, forcing her to hand over her purse. 

The duo was last seen speeding away down Bancroft in a light-colored four-door compact, possibly a Honda, said Officer Okies. 

Edgy Settlement 

An argument between two fellows was quickly resolved when one pulled a knife on the unarmed other in the 1800 block of Berkeley Way at 3 p.m. Saturday. 

Officers summoned to the scene were quickly able to arrest a 29-year-old suspect on suspicion of brandishing a deadly weapon. 

Firearm Resolution 

An argument among a group of young fellows in the 3100 block of California Street just before 7 a.m. Sunday was growing steadily more heated until one of the disputants pulled a piece and flashed it at his confreres before boogying away on his bike. 

Sports Car Bandits 

Two men in a red sports car confronted a man in the 2900 block of Allston Way just before 8:30 p.m. and forced their 49-year-old victim to fork over his camera and wallet. 

Angry Bandit 

A 57-year-old woman was walking along the 2100 block of Walnut Street talking on her cell phone early Monday afternoon when man tried to wrestle her phone away, threatening life and limb in the process. 

The woman held on to the cell, calling police who arrived in time to confront the 35-year-old suspect, who managed to add an additional charge of resisting arrest to his robbery count before officers got the cuffs on him, said Officer Okies. 

Knife vs. Card Table 

When a stabbing victim arrived at Alta Bates Hospital early Monday evening, emergency room personnel called Berkeley police. 

What emerged was the story of yet another argument between acquaintances that took a nasty turn. During the spat, one fellow stabbed the other, who promptly responded by picking up a card table and clocking his assailant. 

Police are still sorting out the threads, and no arrest(s) has/have yet been made. 

Suspect Said Oops? 

A Berkeley police officer recognized a 27-year-old man walking along the 2300 block of Telegraph Avenue and stopped to ask if he’d recovered a bag he’d lost in a previous incident. 

As the two were talking, the hapless fellow was decidedly unpleased and a massive and quite illegal eight-inch, four-bladed throwing star dropped out of his jacket, earning him an immediate arrest. 

His situation became still worse when a search of his car turned up an illegal switchblade and a quick frisk turned up both an illegal syringe and a small quantity of marijuana. 

The fate of the bag remains unclear. 

Sexual Battery, Botched Robbery 

Police arrested a 24-year-old man Tuesday afternoon on charges of battery, sexual battery, attempted grand theft and probation violation after a boggled effort to boost the belongings of a couple who were walking along the 2400 block of Dwight Way. 

Woman-on-Woman Heist 

A 69-year-old woman waiting for a bus near the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Vine Street was confronted by a knife-wielding woman in her 30s who forced her to surrender her valuables. 

Fists for Food 

A young man stormed into the 76 Station at 849 University Ave. Tuesday afternoon, punched out the clerk and escaped with a free meal.m

Malcolm Gladwell. Ever heard of him? He’s been written up in several national publications, all applauding this bright young New Yorker staff writer and his unique analysis of why and how we think. His two books, The Tipping Point and Blink—which explore the value of first impressions—have become bestsellers. 

But, Gladwell’s literary accomplishments are not what I’m focusing on here. A San Francisco Chronicle article on Gladwell (published Jan. 30) revealed that his mother is black and therefore responsible for the curliness of his hair. When he grows it long, it turns into an Afro. While sporting this Afro, Gladwell was pulled over by cops more frequently than he ever was without the wild, nappy hair. Gladwell decided to cut his locks and it is implied in the article that he did so in order to avoid being harassed for driving while black. 

Which brings me to the subject of Ward Connerly and what I suspect is one of the primary, though unspoken reasons for his advocacy of mixed race classifications: his children and his desire to insulate them from racist behavior such as that experienced by Malcolm Gladwell and countless others who cannot or choose not to disguise the African part of their ancestry by the mere trimming of their telltale hair (a la the action movie star, Vin Diesel, for example, whose head would sprout quite a kinky ‘do if it were allowed to grow any hair at all). 

Now, I don’t know Ward Connerly or his children, however, given that he has light brown skin and wavy hair and that his babies’ mama—pardon me, I mean his wife—is white, I would guess that these young adults look more white than black. Perhaps being subject to the first (negative, erroneous) impressions of racist cops is not an issue for them because there is no trace of Africa in either their hair or skin. Whatever their appearance, I doubt that Ward Connerly’s offspring identify themselves as black or African American not only because that is not all they are but because of the negatives they associate with being black. 

Many years ago I attended a multi-ethnic support group in Berkeley called I-Pride, the “I” stood for “international.” This particular meeting consisted primarily of white women who had given birth to brown babies and did not want their children to be identified as black. During a break I wandered over to the host’s young son who was standing next to his class photo. I asked him to point out his friends in the photo. He named only the white and fair skinned children. Each time I pointed to a brown skinned or more African looking child and asked if this was also one of his friends, he assured me that no, not one of them was. Now, I could be reading into this but I sensed a bit of South Africa in that room, a feeling that the coloreds, while not on equal footing with the whites were at least superior to the blacks. 

And that’s the part that Ward Connerly leaves out of his discussion. He’s from Louisiana so I know he knows better. The black/white/Creole divisions in that state are rooted in slavery, wherein the darker skinned, more African blacks were forced to work the brutal fields while the lighter skinned, straighter haired Creole and mixed race slaves—mixed due to the widespread raping of black women—usually worked in the “big house” and were treated in a slightly more humane fashion when it came to food, clothing and the chance of being educated. For generations, lighter skinned blacks throughout the United States have been given preference over those with dark skin, particularly in the areas of education and employment and have been considered to be more attractive. Many of these race-based attitudes and practices persist to this day, both within and outside of the black community. 

My children have two multi-ethnic parents; a Creole father and me. Even though I have Native American, French, English and Irish ancestry along with the African, I think of myself primarily as a black woman. In the ‘70s I was proud to identify as black, not only as an act of defiance against the dominant culture but to embrace the beauty and true history of African roots we had been taught to disdain. 

My 15-year-old daughter, on the other hand, is equally proud of her Native American, European and Spanish ancestry. Liana considers herself to be “mixed.” She insists that the differences among her friends have to do with personalities, not race. “That’s old stuff,” she says. “That’s your generation, not mine.” Ward Connerly would be proud. And I am hopeful. But I am not naïve and neither is she. When probed, Liana acknowledges that racism does exist—in films, on television and in the classroom—the places where her world is focused right now. For example, she says that some of her teachers tend to only call upon white students and that some white kids receive better grades when they don’t deserve it. And she wishes there were more color-blind casting in films and on TV; casting people of color not only when race is an issue. When asked what she thought should be done about racism, Liana’s reply was that there should be a mass campaign to educate people about racism and its effects. 

Back to Gladwell and his first impressions. What do we base them on when assessing other human beings? Personal experience. Media influence. Peer pressure. Familial and cultural traditions. Instinct. How nice it would be if they weren’t based upon pigment and hair texture as well. ›

Well, you absolutely knew this one was coming, didn’t you, friends? 

“Following up on promises to crack down on ‘sideshows,’” we learn in last week’s Oakland Tribune, “Mayor Jerry Brown introduced an ordinance Thursday that would make attending the reckless driving exhibitions a criminal offense. … The Oakland City Council will consider the ordinance at its next meeting, June 7. Although such a measure typically would first be considered by the council’s Public Safety Committee, it will go directly to the full council because several large sideshows are expected in the coming weeks, officials said.” 

This raises some interesting questions. 

The first one is, hasn’t the mayor and the City of Oakland been “cracking down” on sideshows for some time now? Shouldn’t we discuss the results of the previous “crack downs” before embarking on a new one? (For example, we keep hearing that the sideshows are becoming more violent and dangerous. It would be instructive to find out what effect the “crack downs” have had on that, wouldn’t it?) 

The second question is, since sideshows are spontaneous events with no organization and no leaders and nobody putting out leaflets or notices on the radio, how is it that “officials” can predict that several large ones are expected in coming weeks? Presumably, it is because sideshows are primarily warm-weather events, and warm weather is now upon us, so it seems like a prudent prediction. But it leads to a third question, which is, since everybody knows it starts warming up around mid-May—it’s been happening this way every year about this same time for quite a while, now—why did Mr. Brown wait until the end of spring before introducing a new “emergency” law aimed at curbing warm weather activity? 

One answer might be to avoid a full hearing before the Public Safety Committee. 

At first glance, you might wonder why the mayor would even think avoiding the Public Safety Committee necessary. Oakland City Councilmember Larry Reid, the chairperson of the Public Safety Committee, is a vocal and ardent—one might even say fanatical—opponent of Oakland’s sideshows, and so presumably, any new “crack down” on the events would find a welcome forum there. (The other members are Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and Councilmembers Nancy Nadel and Jean Quan.) 

The answer might be in the differences between the forums provided by the committee and the full council. 

Because of the large numbers of participants and the wide range of subjects to be considered, most city councils limit the time that anyone can testify at its regular meetings on any given subject. At Oakland City Council, speakers are generally given two minutes to speak by rule, and that amount of time can be lowered to one minute on subjects that draw a large number of speakers (Interesting, isn’t it? The more interest there is in a subject, the less time an individual is given to talk about it). Anyway, in two minutes you can hardly give your name and your organizational affiliation—much less provide an intelligent argument. If the councilmembers appear to have already made up their minds, which is too often the case, then frustrated opponents end up complaining rather than explaining, often sounding merely shrill or angry or, worse yet, just dumb. 

When the committee system was put in place, from Congress down to city councils, it was always envisioned that this is where the real give and take of participatory government would take place. With fewer subjects to discuss, City Council committees, if they so choose, can allow extended public testimony in order to gather more information before they vote on their recommendation to the full council. 

In the recent past, that hasn’t happened on the Oakland sideshow issue. The Public Safety Committee of the Oakland City Council has discussed the sideshows only three times in the past year—odd, one would think, considering that we keep hearing that this is a serious public safety issue in Oakland, costing us millions of dollars in police overtime and other expenses. In any event, in none of those cases did the committee actively solicit public testimony from citizens on solutions to the sideshow conflict. You could come and talk if you wanted, of course, but that wasn’t what the agenda items were for. The purpose of two of the sideshow agenda items was to receive semiannual enforcement reports from the police department. The third was to approve a contract with the California Highway Patrol for increased sideshow-related traffic patrols. Since neither of these actions appeared (on the surface) to be especially controversial, the press didn’t report them in advance, and the general public wasn’t moved to attend and participate. 

That would presumably be much different if the mayor’s proposed “arrest the spectators” sideshow ordinance went through the normal committee procedure, since it involves the highly controversial new step of arresting spectators. 

What would I expect would happen at such a Public Safety Committee hearing? 

Possibly the same thing that happened four years ago, in the beginning of the summer of 2001, when Councilmember Reid convened a town hall meeting at Eastmont Mall to discuss the sideshow problem. 

Sideshow participants weren’t specifically invited to that June 2001 town hall meeting, but it was a public meeting, so they showed up anyhow, and talked, and participated, and gave their point of view. Most of the older East Oakland neighbors had come out to express their opposition to the sideshows, and I’m sure most of them left just as adamantly opposed, but midway through that meeting, an interesting thing happened. The sideshow participants turned out to be people. With faces. And names. And families. And homes where they lived, many of them in the same neighborhoods as the older East Oakland neighbors. The sideshow participants stopped being simply grinning, gyrating, shadowy figures on that sideshow video footage that Channel 2 keeps showing over and over and over again. The sideshow participants started being our own children. 

I think this may be one reason why Mr. Brown waited until the last minute to try to bumrush this new “arrest the spectators” sideshow law through City Council without the normal chance for public discussion and debate. Oakland’s law-and-order sideshow policy has continued for so long, not because it has worked—if it has worked, why would we need a new “crack down,” after all?—but because Mr. Brown and other Oakland city officials have successfully dehumanized the sideshow participants themselves, keeping them in the shadows, keeping them out of the public debate. They are the unknown. The dark figures of the night who invade our dreams and invoke our fears. The enemy from whom we must be saved. And Mr. Brown casting himself, as always, as the savior. 

Keeping these participants as a nameless, anonymous threat is the key to a continued law and order “crack down” because if we begin seeing them as people, we might begin to talk with them like people, and then we might begin to find that there might be a solution to the sideshow conflict besides throwing as many of them in jail as we can, and running the rest out of town. 

And so another reason for this last-minute rush to push through Mr. Brown’s “arrest the spectators” law is that if we got a chance to take a serious look at it, we might not think it’s such a great idea. What helps Mr. Brown in his run for California Attorney General is not necessarily what is best for Oakland. 

But that’s got to be the subject of another column. 

›

The agreement we recently approved with UC Berkeley does much more than simply end a lawsuit. It welcomes a new era of cooperation between our city and the campus. 

Thanks to good-faith resolve on everyone’s part, the pact we signed both defends our city’s right to control development inside our borders and allows the university to advance its academic mission. The key: closer partnership and better cooperation. 

Although it was tense at times, the agreement takes a giant step forward towards a lasting and equal partnership between one of the world’s great universities and one of its most livable and progressive cities. 

Several years ago, the mayor and City Council set out to establish a new partnership between the city, our community, and the campus—a partnership built on mutual respect and substantive collaboration.  

We were deeply disheartened in January when the campus unveiled a Long-Range Development Plan (LRDP) that rebuffed our efforts to be a true partner. For months, we had worked hard to get the chancellor and UC Regents to modify the 15-year plan. Having exhausted all other options, we felt the only way to demonstrate our seriousness and to ensure a fair outcome for Berkeley residents was to take the step of filing a lawsuit to halt the LRD P. 

Specifically, we raised concerns in three areas: 

• Insufficient Voice in Planning. The campus’ plan gave the university unilateral control to build whatever it wanted, wherever it wanted, with virtually no opportunity for community input. 

• Too Much Parking. The 15-year plan relied too much on building new parking spaces that would add to our traffic congestion, and too little on workable alternatives to single-passenger automobiles. 

• Too Little Compensation. We said the city should be fairly comp ensated for services it provides to the campus.  

The agreement we reached last week—the best agreement ever between any public university campus and its host community in the state—is vastly improved in all the areas we identified: 

• On planning, the agreement calls for the city and university to work together to develop a Downtown Area Plan that will guide all new development projects. This plan—which will be developed and implemented by our commissions and approved by the City Council—guarantees that the city will maintain its control over the zoning process, ensures public input, and requires a new environmental impact report. (UC has already agreed to limit development in the Southside per a similar plan developed by the community, the city and the university.) The university also agreed to prioritize new development on properties that are already off of the tax rolls, which will significantly limit expansion into the city.  

• On parking and traffic, we reduced the number of new parking spaces allowed through 2015 without additional review to 1,270 from 2,300—a 45 percent reduction from the university’s original proposal.  

• On finances, the university has agreed to more than double its annual direct compensation to the city from $500,000 to $1.2 million plus a 3 percent annual cost of living adjustment. Beyond this annual payment, the university will work to develop a “use tax” program we expect will direct an additional $200,000-$500,000 in new revenue to the city each year. In total, the city w ill likely receive well in excess of $20 million over the life of this agreement. 

Beyond these core issues, the agreement spells out a number of new joint efforts. These include working together to increase local purchasing by the campus, efforts to hire Berkeley residents for university jobs, and create new incentives for businesses resulting from UC research to locate in the City of Berkeley. 

Is the deal perfect? No. Is it a much better outcome for our city than we were likely to achieve in the courts? The answer clearly is yes. Let’s consider the principal issues that have been raised. 

Some ask why the city didn’t hold out for more money. We do not dispute that the agreement falls short of full compensation for services the city provides to the camp us. But even if the city had prevailed in court, no court could have compelled the university to pay a penny to the city for basic services. In fact, the $500,000 we currently receive as part of the 1990 agreement would have been lost. 

The state Constitu tion explicitly exempts UC campuses from nearly all local laws and taxation. Until the Constitution is changed—for which the City Council continues to advocate—even the courts are hamstrung. In the meantime, the only way to win more resources for our community is through direct negotiation with the campus and by working together to find new ways to generate revenue for the city, like the use tax recovery program we’ve agreed to work on together. 

Some say the public should have had a chance to review the deal before it was adopted. We agree. Early in the process, the city entered into a confidentiality agreement with the campus to prevent the university from using items discussed in negotiations against us in a subsequent trial. This is a common and prude nt means to protect the public interest in high-stakes negotiations. Once a tentative settlement was reached, the City Council unanimously asked the campus to suspend the confidentiality agreement to allow public review. Regrettably, the university said it would not do so until after UC Regents voted on the proposed settlement and that the Regents could not vote until the City Council approved the agreement.  

Ultimately, the choice was to take the best agreement between any city and UC campus or to roll the dice on a multi-year series of angry court battles in an effort to impose “solutions” to our concerns. Given these constraints, we believe it was far better for the city and the university to find creative new ways to work together as partners rather than dig in our heels as adversaries. 

Tom Bates is the mayor of Berkeley. Linda Maio, Laurie Capitelli, and Max Anderson are members of the Berkeley City Council. 

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As members of BudgetWatch we carefully monitor the development and adoption process of each budget cycle. We appreciate the work that city staff and the City Council must undertake to balance each budget. That being said, we want to say that we were st unned by the council’s action on April 19 to eliminate the Citizens Budget Review Commission. We strongly protest this action on the following grounds: 

• It was probably illegal due to lack of adequate notice on the agenda.  

• It eliminated on-going co mment by an official citizens body regarding the city’s most pressing and important issue.  

• It is discourteous to every citizen who gives service to the community as a member of a board or commission.  

• It is discouraging to members of the public who want to believe that a citizen can have some impact on what is contained in the budget. 

The City Council’s action was probably illegal due to lack of adequate notice on the agenda. The report, City Commissions—Reducing Staff Support and Frequency of Meetings as a Cost Reduction Measure, placed on the City Council agenda by City Manager Kamlarz, placed four recommendations before the council. While two of those recommendations referred to consolidating two commissions, neither of which was the Citizens Budget Review Commission (CBRC), no recommendation referred to elimination of any board or commission. The only mention of the CBRC is in Attachment 1 in which it appears as one in a list of 45 boards/commissions for which “Current Frequency of Monthly Meetings” and “Proposed Frequency of Monthly Meetings” are shown in detail for each.  

An e-mail dated April 18 from Sandy Englund on behalf of Phil Kamlarz to various staff members requested that staff members “view the staff report (mentioned above) an d proposed recommendations that may or may not affect your commission.” The e-mail transmitted the exact four recommendations as contained in the manager’s April 19 report.  

In neither of these documents is there any mention of the elimination of any b oard or commission, or even of consolidation of the CBRC with any other commission. The Brown Act requires sufficient notice to the public of a possible action by the City Council. No such notice was given to members of the public or to members of the C BRC that it was to be eliminated. We, therefore, believe that your sudden action to eliminate the CBRC violated both the intent and spirit of open government as required under the Brown Act. 

The City Council’s action eliminated on-going comment by an of ficial citizens body regarding the city’s most pressing and important issue. BudgetWatch believes that the most important problem before the city at this time is the budget. The council in eliminating the CBRC seems to be saying that they do not want com ment from a citizen commission about this most important issue, even while they keep in place dozens of citizen boards and commissions on every other subject. Doesn’t the budget as a whole deserve the same careful scrutiny from an official citizen body a s the other subjects for which they maintain boards and commissions? Doesn’t the very importance of the subject require a citizen’s commission regarding this subject? 

The thrust of comments made during the discussion about eliminating the CBRC was that members of CBRC simply could not have the depth of knowledge about the budget that comes from the long hours that councilmembers have been putting into the subject. If they truly believe this (and we hope that they don’t), are the public hearings on the budget simply window dressing? Why does the council spend time and money holding community meetings on the budget even when ordinary citizens don’t attend? Less than a dozen citizens have attended the Town Hall Meetings held in West and South Berkeley. Is this a process just for show? Since there is no assurance that any citizen who addresses the council by mail or in public comment has substantial and accurate information on the budget, does that mean the council feels they don’t have to listen? 

The opportunity to address the council is fairly limited—three minutes during public comment periods, and the public hearing held on the budget is late in the process when many decisions have already been made. The best opportunities for citizens to have input into the budget early on in the process when it matters the most is through the meetings of the CBRC meetings. These meetings are more open and “comment friendly” than council meetings. The CBRC has taken these comments and officially forwarded the m to the council carrying with them the highest hopes of citizens that the council will listen to them. The City Council has closed this important avenue. 

The council action was discourteous to every citizen who gives service to the community as a membe r of a board or commission. BudgetWatch well understands the important of and agrees with looking at each and every aspect of city operations for possible savings. We also highly value the need to obtain continuous citizen input through our board and co mmission system regarding a variety of subjects. Berkeley has been fortunate in having many citizens willing to give their time and professional expertise to work on community issues as members of boards and commissions. The way to bring these two conc epts together is to work carefully and deliberately, establishing priorities, formulating clear policies and expressing rationales for proposed actions to retain, consolidate, reduce or eliminate various aspects of the official citizen participation syste m. No member of any board or commission wants to be taken lightly or have their hard work dismissed out of hand, for most the greatest reward for their participation is to know that their work is taken seriously and has an impact on city policies and pr ograms. Abrupt elimination of any board or commission is not only discourteous to the members of the board or commission that was being eliminated, it leads all members of boards and commissions to wonder who is next so why should they pour their work into something so tenuous. 

The council action is discouraging to members of the public who want to believe that a citizen can have some impact on what is contained in the budget. There is no denying that the adoption of the budget is a difficult process. It is also a clouded process in which information seems to be fully provided only when the right question is asked. Yet, we citizens keep on trying to deal with this difficult and complex subject because we understand the importance of the budget on our daily lives. We don’t want drastic service cuts but the tax/fee burden has become too great and a large number of us are hurting because of employer cutbacks, rising health care costs, retirement shortfalls, and increased fees for everything from college to transportation. Many on the City Council seem to attribute the defeat at the polls of your ballot measures to some external factors such as the number of measures on the ballot or the campaigns around those measures. Few counclmembers seem to have fi gured out that the message from the voters had to do with two factors: 1) the lack of balance between services and what ordinary people can reasonably afford; and 2) the feeling of powerlessness in dealing with their government. There is a growing fee ling that decisions have been made before council meetings begin. Yet, we all keep trying to get the message to the council but increasingly feel that the council does not hear. Whether it is a paternalistic “don’t- bother-us-we-know-better” or an autho ritarian “don’t-bother-us-we-don’t-need-you” approach, it stops the building of community understanding and consensus that is essential, particularly in crafting a budget in these difficult times. 

BudgetWatch: Barbara Allen, Kent Brown, Shirley Dean, La ura Menard, Dean Metzger, Bob Migdal, Terrylynne Turner, Trudy Washburn. 

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I think we were right to attack the former Iraqi regime because: 

• That Iraqi regime had a terribly unfriendly, oppressive, opaque, and scientifically skilled government with plenty of money. 

• Modern technology gives any such government global reach f or terror of the most horrific variety. 

• Unlike some regimes satisfying the first two, this regime was both located in a strategically significant region and was vulnerable—they were a soft spot to begin to attack a larger problem. (One should note that there is an available distinction between a “war for oil profits” (which doesn’t seem to be going on) and a “war over the globally significant control over energy resources” (which, in small part, does seem to be the case). 

Game over. The risks of not r esponding to those conditions exceed the risks of responding, big-time. More than a decade was spent trying lesser responses than the current offensive and, at the policy level, our nation’s patience was exhausted and trumped by simple prudence. 

As far a s I can tell—yes, the current administration played quite fast and loose with the truth in an effort to build political support for the war. Whose fault is that? I blame the Left who gave the administration no other option because of the Left’s predictable, consistent, and mindless (yet ruthless and tactically nasty) resistance to anything and everything that the Right might have put on the table. In our collective interest, the Right had to lie to the Left in order to save the asses of both the Left and Right. 

To borrow a sentiment from Christopher Hitchens: “The Left” should be embracing and applauding this war since it is an efficient, responsible, and proactive answer to the oppression which the Left so relentlessly (and virtuously) criticizes. (Wasn’t it the Left who used to chant “up against the wall, M.F.”?) The Right’s calls for civility and their indignance at the Left’s response is entirely understandable in this light. Meanwhile, the Left’s tiring rehearsals of weak criticisms of the Right’s t actical deceptions along the way do little but give unexpected credence to rightist comments about “latte liberals.” Far, far, too much of the criticism from the Left seems to come from a sheltered, passive, and ultimately selfish perspective—not “progres sive” at all when seen that way. 

Here are some suggestions for members of the Left who are unable to reconcile themselves to their recent political disadvantages: start volunteering. Volunteer for military service. Volunteer for “blue star” support services. Volunteer on homeland security issues. Volunteer on domestic economic issues. If the Left is to restore itself, politically, such grass-roots efforts are the surest foundation on which to build public support and I can not imagine a single non-petty reason why these would be bad ideas. Moreover, volunteerism will help to ground the Left back among “the people” about whom the Left generally claims to have such an important perspective. 

Take your lumps, latte liberals, and move on. Wake up and get wit h program. Get on the march and embrace those values the Left and right have in common. 

Tom Lord is a Berkeley resident. 

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Suddenly they’re everywhere. After weeks of heavy equipment churning up the asphalt and concrete pours between thunderstorms, my neighborhood is surrounded by “traffic-calming” round traffic barriers studded with curious signs. The symbol on the signs, w hich has a resemblance to elemental symbols from native cultures, is apparently an effort, occasionally successful, to keep drivers going in a uniform direction. 

The first truck I watched trying to navigate the circle couldn’t figure out whether he was s upposed to stop at some point, and nearly got rear-ended by the car behind him. Cars routinely stopped the first few days of the traffic circle’s birth, and skirted their remaining way around the concrete barrier in an almost majestic sweep through the ad jacent crosswalks before they got the trick down. Now they rip down the street like slalom skiers on an Olympic course. 

If you’re an adventurous driver, of which we have several in my neighborhood, you can sail a good foot over two striped street humps a nd leave rubber patches in concentric circles around the “traffic-calming” barrier, which will direct you straight into the bike lanes on Delaware Street that used to provide a small measure of safety, or the illusion of safety, when bicycling through tow n. 

I’m a bike commuter, and not the brave kind that rides without a helmet on the main roads and takes left turns from the traffic lane no matter who’s honking. I’m the kind that walks their bike through busy intersections, hunts down the empty side road s, and never uses the main traffic arteries. The bike lanes near my home were my bread and butter. Now they’re full of “calm” traffic, which curls around the concrete tubs of cedar chips like standing waves over a river rock. 

This wouldn’t bother me as m uch if I didn’t distinctly remember attending a neighborhood meeting where these traffic circles, obviously the favorite toys of the town traffic engineers, were hooted and laughed at by people who knew what they wanted was a stop sign and said so. We wer e an unfashionable group, to be sure. We didn’t care about the latest planning fashion. We didn’t want what we have now, an endless river of unstoppable cars skirting the backlogged traffic at San Pablo and University Avenue on its way to the freeway. 

We showed up, we spoke up, our city council representative managed to give us the impression that she listened to us, and then she let the traffic engineers build their favorite toys anyway. We’re showered now with the rhetoric that the cedar chip-filled obstacle course our neighborhood used to be will have enhanced property values. Maybe so. And if not, we certainly can host a rocking demolition derby. 

Carol Denney is a local activist and the author of the Pepper Spray Times. 



Last fall the Berkeley City Council created a Creeks Task Force (CTF) to review and make recommendations to the Planning Commission and City Council about the Creeks Ordinance and overall City policy regarding creeks and culverts. The CTF is a broad-based, 15-member body, representing several diverse points of view. 

To prepare these work products, the Task Force faced a steep learning curve. They began meeting last Feb. 7 and met every week through April 4. The CTF is composed of one member each from councilmembers, one each from Planning, Parks and Recreation, Public Works, and Community Environmental Advisory commissions, and one representative each from the creeks community and a creek property owners group, Neighbors on Urban Creeks. Mayor Tom Bates appointed myself as chair. Planning Department staff support the work of the task force. 

The basic challenge of the Work Plan is to strike a balance between creek protection, creek property owners’ rights and new scientific information about creeks. Specifically seven key issues are to be addressed: 

• Definition of a Creek. The current definition of a creek is very broad, including depressions or swales and culverted creeks that run in the location of the original watercourse. The task force will look at what definitions other jurisdictions have used and what experts suggest to see what definition is appropriate for Berkeley. 

• Setbacks. The current ordinance includes a 30’ setback requirement for new development from the centerline of a creek. This was an arbitrary number in the original ordinance which seemed to make sense at the time. The task force will look at how this setback has worked in Berkeley and at what other jurisdictions use to determine what seems right for Berkeley. 

• Regulated structures. Currently the Creeks Ordinance regulates roofed structures within 30 feet of a creek centerline. That means that a homeowner is prohibited from building most additions, garages or covered porches within 30 feet of the creek centerline. The CTF will consider whether to expand regulated structures to include parking lots, kids’ play areas, and open decks and porches. 

• Daylighting. The city’s General Plan encourages daylighting where safely feasible as well as restoration of natural watercourses in a former culvert location. The ordinance is not clear on priorities for potential projects, criteria for determining feasibility or how such projects could be implemented. The CTF will look at these factors. 

• Maintenance and Repair. Culverts have been around a long time in Berkeley, and many are failing. Although the CTF is specifically prohibited from addressing the question of financial responsibility for failing culverts due to on-going litigation on this subject, the CTF will look at ways to evaluate the condition of culverts as well as possible sources of funding. 

• Mapping and Ordinance Administration and Enforcement. The CTF will review the current creeks map for accuracy and determine whether improvements can or should be made. The CTF will also address the administration and enforcement of the ordinance. 

• Overall Watershed Policy. Creeks and culverts are part of an overall watershed management policy in Berkeley. The CTF will consider the role of creeks and culverts in this broader context, including non-point source pollution. 

In April the Work Plan, budget and timeline were unanimously adopted by the CTF and the Planning Commission. On May 10 the Berkeley City Council approved the Work Plan and timeline by an 8-0 vote with one abstention. The 0.5 FTE request was tentatively approved by the City Council, and the $100,000 request for consultant funding was referred to the budget review process. 

The CTF meets the first and third Monday at North Berkeley Senior Center from 7-9:30 p.m. Meetings are open to the public, and public participation is welcome. All agendas, meeting minutes, the creeks map, the Work Plan, timeline and budget may be found on the CTF’s website: www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/creeks/default.html. Secretary Erin Dando can be contacted at 981-7429. 

Helen Burke is chair of the Creeks Task Force.  

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin survived a razor-thin vote of confidence on May 17 when the House of Commons voted 152-152, putting his minority government in peril. It survived by a single vote when the Parliament speaker gave the minority government its one-vote victory. 

A few months earlier, Canadian citizens opposed to a secret National Missile Defense (NMD) agreement between Martin and President George Bush, forced Martin to reverse the agreement contributing to the crisis in his government. 

After the Berkeley City Council passed a resolution in 2002, “Endorsing the Space Preservation Act and Companion Space Preservation Treaty to Permanently Ban the Weaponization of Space,” the resolution swept through cities in Canada and helped gather thousands of signatures opposing Canada joining NMD. When citizens appeared in the Canadian Parliament with piles of paper covered with thousands of signatures, Martin was forced to reverse his secret agreement with Bush and the Canadian government rejected NMD.  

For several years I had wanted to thank the mayor of Bowen Island, the first municipality in the world to adopt the Berkeley resolution. In the summer of 2002, with the help of Vancouver lawyer Alfred Webre Jr., we created the space preservation resolution, which was introduced by Berkeley City Councilmember Dona Spring, and passed by the Berkeley City Council on Sept. 10, 2002. 

The resolution was in part a response to the bill and the “definitions” of weapons intended for space as described in HR 2977, the “Space Preservation Act of 2001,” introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, which included the following: 

• Inflicting death or injury on, or damaging or destroying, a person (or the biological life, bodily health, mental health, or physical and economic well-being of a person). 

• Directing a source of energy (including molecular or atomic energy, subatomic particle beams, electromagnetic radiation, plasma, or extremely low frequency (ELF) or ultra low frequency (ULF) energy radiation) against that object [individual or targeted populations]. 

• Through the use of land-based, sea-based, or space-based systems using radiation, electromagnetic, psychotronic, sonic, laser, or other energies directed at individual persons or targeted populations for the purpose of information war, mood management, or mind control of such persons or populations.  

I suggested at the time that it seemed impossible that these weapons were even possible, but Kucinich, a member of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, assured me that these weapons exist and “those people who control them are deadly serious and intend to use them if we don’t stop the weaponization of space.” 

In early April I was traveling to Vancouver to meet with Lisa Barrett, mayor of Bowen Island. Martin’s Liberal Party government was embroiled in a corruption scandal. The opposition insisted he no longer had enough support to govern, which threatened a government crisis. I was unaware of the impact the Berkeley resolution had on the Canadian decision to reject NMD, and how it tied into the minority government crisis. But a few days later during my visit to Bowen Island, I discovered just what role the Berkeley resolution had played in Canadian Foreign Policy.  

On April 10, Webre Jr., his wife Geri, and I traveled from Vancouver to meet Barrett. Bowen Island is a town much like Berkeley, with an interesting mixture of writers, artists, musicians, lots of bicycles, and a progressive flavor to the political landscape. We met in an art gallery where a local artist was having an exhibit, and together we nibbled on the artist’s homemade gingerbread cookies while mingling with citizens and artists. I even talked physics with another city councilmember.  

Barrett was very pleased to hear that Berkeley had adopted the Kyoto Protocol. She pointed out that even though the Canadian government had already signed on, it was still necessary that locally, towns like Bowan Island, must also make efforts to meet the standards. She said it was important for cities like Berkeley to act when the United States government refuses to sign the Kyoto protocol. 

It was energizing to realize that citizens of Canada and the United States can work together. We can learn from each other by implementing and sharing our ideas on issues such as energy choices, divesting pension funds from weapons manufacturers, stopping the U.S. Navy from shooting depleted uranium weaponry in United States and Canadian coastal waters, and sharing information about the spider web relationships between United States and Canadian corporations. 

Barrett told us that the U.S. Navy is shooting depleted uranium weapons into the waters around Nanaimo, poisoning their fisheries just as they did around Seattle and in California. Lockheed Martin Marietta has bought a controlling interest in the ferry systems of British Columbia, privatizing an essential public transportation system—and raising the cost of the services.  

The next day, Afred and I were interviewed on CO-OP radio CFRO 102.7 FM in Vancouver with Gail Davidson, co-founder of Lawyers Against War. We discussed the extent of Canadian government pension fund investments in United States weapons manufacturers and the Carlyle Group. Gail explained the extent of pension fund investments in United States corporations and weapons manufacturers by the British Columbia pension fund, called the British Columbia Investment Management Corp. (BCIMC), and Vancouver City pension funds. 

As of March 2004, investments were estimated to be $4.6 billion in 251 companies that provide goods and services to the US Department of Defense or are otherwise involved in military production. Missiles (17 kinds), bombs (16 types), and bullets (300-500 million per year by SNC-Lavalin alone) are produced for the U.S. armed forces by Canadian corporations.  

Vancouver antiwar activists wrote in an April 26 letter to New Democratic Party leader Carole James, “What this means is that every nurse, physiotherapist, floor cleaner, and pharmacist in every hospital in the B.C. health care system, every kindergarten teacher, college instructor and university professor, every city worker, garbage collector, computer programmer, firefighter, ferry worker, B.C. transit driver, ICBC employee, B.C. Hydro worker—in fact, virtually every municipal and provincial public sector employee—is involuntarily supporting the U.S. invasion and occupation, because of decisions taken behind closed doors by the BCIMC.” 

U.S. war crimes and the use of illegal weapons such as depleted uranium was also a top concern. Gail described how she had filed a lawsuit against Bush in a Vancouver court. This action discouraged and impacted his visit to Canada, and he did not visit the Canadian Parliament nor make any public appearances except in a small town in eastern Canada—for a photo op with the media. She was a party to a second lawsuit filed in Germany charging Rumsfeld with war crimes, preventing Rumsfeld from visiting Europe in February 2005 with Bush and Rice. 

This trip to Canada made me realize that the need for citizen oversight and participation in local government is greater than ever before. Many things that we see happening locally such as election fraud are actually broader trends, the result of global corporatization and militarization. 

The vast looting of pension funds began about eight years ago and will continue until we stop it. Enron was just the beginning and CalPERS, the California state government workers pension fund, is in the crosshairs now for privatization and looting. The extent of pension fund investment in the U.S. military industrial complex is shocking. We are actually unknowingly supporting and benefiting from wars we oppose. 

Divesting from weapons of death takes the profit out of war. Subtle implementation of police state policies—such as RFID tags in the Berkeley library—must be stopped. There are many things that can be done locally and through “cross fertilization” of ideas across borders. We are the only ones who can make this happen. And it can start with something as simple as a Berkeley resolution, Canadian paper ballots, and a determined citizen lawyer. 

Leuren Moret is a member of Berkeley’s Community Environmental Advisory Commission.›

On the day before the conclave to choose a new pope began, future pontiff Joseph Ratzinger led a liturgy that reassured the church’s believers that the Holy See was not giving up on them and was prepared to fight for the salvation of their souls. He surely meant to allude to the fight against moral relativism, but he also had his sights set on evangelicalism. 

Indeed, during the first mass held by Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, he strongly implied that the Catholic church is the rightful House of Christ, and said that his first commitment was toward “the full and visible unity of Christ’s followers.” 

Today, to regain ground in the first world and continue to expand in the Third World, the Roman Catholic Church, more than fighting secularism, must counteract the expansion of evangelical groups. It is a silent clash that could be compared to the protracted, mostly slow-burning feud between capitalism and communism during the Cold War.  

According to some researchers, evangelical Christianity is expanding three times faster than the world population and is the only existing religious group showing a significant growth through conversion. By contrast, the Roman Catholic Church is expanding at a slower pace than the population, which will mean an overall decrease in the number of Catholics worldwide. 

In addition, the dissolution of the Berlin Wall not only reinvigorated the Orthodox church, but also saw huge numbers of believers from the former Socialist bloc—where the church had been persecuted—move into evangelical groups.  

There are currently more evangelicals in Asia than in North America. Singapore’s churches are among the most active in the world, sending one missionary abroad per every 1,000 members. Seven of the world’s 10 largest evangelical churches can be found in Seoul alone, a city in which 110 years ago there was none.  

In Latin America, a mostly Catholic region for the past 500 years, the number of evangelicals has grown from under 250,000 in 1900 to over 60 million in 2000. Critics of the Vatican say the vacuum left by Pope John Paul II’s disavowal of the “basic Christian communities” movement has been filled by the evangelicals. 

In 1960, the number of evangelicals living in the developing countries were one-half of those in the West; in the year 2000 they were four times more and in 2010 they will be seven times as numerous. 

In America, where even Protestant groups have lost 5.4 million members over the last decade, evangelicals have enjoyed a growth rate of 40 percent. They have become the largest religious force in the United States, with 26 percent of all believers—and they wield undeniable political clout. 

“The current pope is a renovator. But there cannot be renovation without tradition,” says Father Joseph Fessio, founder of Ignatius Press and Chancellor of Ave Maria University in Florida. “I don’t have any doubt that he’ll realize the full spirit of Vatican II, of unifying all of Christ’s believers under the benevolent care of the Holy See. 

“He has already laid the doctrinal ground for the renaissance of the church—he did it when he was at the helm of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. Under Benedict XVI the world will know that the Roman Catholic Church has Christ’s message at its core and follows his teachings closely,” adds Fr. Fessio. 

The battle for the soul of believers in developed countries, particularly the United States, is also critical—most of the funds used by alternative evangelical churches to send missionaries and proselytize in the poorer countries come from there. 

The appointment of San Francisco Archbishop William Levada to the previous position held by Pope Benedict XVI himself can be better appreciated in this light.  

Levada’s appointment sends the message that the church entrusts its doctrines to a prelate who had led a diocese in America’s most secular humanist and morally relativistic city. Levada has dealt firsthand with the legacies of free love, feminism, the gay movement and the evangelical juggernaut. 

“Benedict XVI has chosen Levada specifically because he knows how to face these challenges,” says Father Labib Kobti, pastor at St. Thomas More in San Francisco and U.S. Representative for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.  

“When Levada expressed his surprise at his appointment, the Pope responded that he was in fact the right man for the task because he came from a world where evangelical groups were a challenge, where the message of Christ was being distorted, and that he had provided a compassionate but firm rebuttal to the many assaults that the church of San Francisco had faced during his years as head of the diocese.” 

Under Levada’s almost decade-long tenure, San Francisco’s Catholic church regained a religious presence that had been faltering under the more politically adaptable administration of Archbishop John Quinn. 

Father Kobti, however, dismisses suggestions that the Vatican is more than alarmed at the growing influence of evangelicalism. “In the past the church has been given for dead more than once,” he says. “Take for example the rise of the Baptists and of the Lutherans.” 

PNS contributor Paolo Pontoniere is a correspondent for Focus, Italy’s leading monthly.  

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From tango to reggae, Big Bones’ blues to Celtic rock. With the sound of Steel Drums, electronics, Indian flute, hip hop and musical saw the second annual Berkeley World Music Weekend will make a joyous noise on and around Telegraph Avenue during this weekend, all for free (except a Saturday night show at Larry Blake’s for $8), with a little bit more than something for everybody—from everywhere. 

With 27 performances featuring more than 70 musicians at over a dozen venues (including People’s Park), World Music Weekend goes into its second year with a great deal of ambition and local talent. 

“The Taarka Quartet is the only non-Bay Area group we’ve booked,” says event organizer Gianna Ranuzzi, who described the band’s music as Gypsy hypno-jazz. “They’re playing both days for free and have been great to work with. The musicians advise us on the shows, tell me what worked for them and what didn’t last year, turn me on to the best people to bring in, then throw their own parties by bringing in friends and special guests to jam at their performances.” 

Ranuzzi said one of the best aspects of the music weekend is that people can enjoy the avenue and see how beautiful People’s Park can be. 

The shows begin at noon Saturday with Zulu Spear’s Khumbala Dance Company. A double concert with Reggae City Band and Groove.Org will play in People’s Park from 3-5 p.m. Other performances in and around cafes and businesses include La Peña favorite Rafael Manriquez, as well as saw player Morgan Cowin and others at Julie’s Healthy Cafe. Salaat will play Arabic and Turkish Sufi music in a dual show with Spirit of Ireland, featuring Melanie O’Reilly at Raleigh’s. Glenn Morgan will play at Cody’s on his hammer dulcimer. 

Other shows around the avenue include The Shots (an Irish/Bluegrass/Cajun band), Peter MacDonough and Quiet Dignity (paying Brazilian-Afro-Cuban music), Alan Smithline (on acoustic Steel Guitar), Bokei Steel Drums, and Islands Of Fire Drum Ensemble. 

Also on Saturday, Laurie Chastain on fiddle and Ed Sherry on guitar, mandolin, and bouzouki will play at Baguette at 5 p.m. with a reading of Julia Vinograd’s poem, “Limbo Town,” about Berkeley. 

Sunday’s music begins at noon, with harmonica ace Big Bones on the plaza in front of Cody’s, while Cortez Harmon will play Latin jazz trumpet with his ensemble at the Durant Food Court. Annette Bauer will play the North Indian sarod at The Musical Offering at 1 p.m., while Fredi Bloom sings traditional Jewish Song at C’Est Cafe. Blues and Americana This Old Band plays on the street, and Sandeep Bhatt sings devotional and Bollywood with Robin Sukhadia. Others include Jeff Whittier on Indian flute, and The Toids (New Balkan).  

Sunday also will bring Venezuelan rhythms with flute Snake Trio at the Beau Sky Hotel at 2 p.m. and DJ Cheb i Sabbah, who plays an African, Arabic, Indian mix, with a dancer at 4 p.m. at Amoeba. The festival closes with Tango No. 9 at The Village at 6 p.m. 

“Many of these musicians are trained in a classical tradition, carrying it further through improvisation,” Ranuzzi said. “They’re rooted in that, but are also entertainers and this is an intimate event where the performers are available; you can talk to them.” 

For more details, see www.telegraphberkeley.org of for day-of-event information, go to the event table outside Cody’s Books, 2454 Telegraph Ave. 

So, naturally, what you’re asking is why on earth is the Subterranean Theatre Company producing Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew—arguably the best-known, supposedly funny, and longest-running assault on women’s human rights on the English-speaking s tage—and they’re committing this outrage firmly in the middle of Berkeley?  

The short answer is that in no way is this your father’s Shrew. Truth to tell, it’s almost certainly unlike any version that’s ever been staged before, even though theater people have been struggling with the play ever since Shakespeare died. (According to the renowned Shakespearean scholar David Bevington, English audiences didn’t get to see a version close to Shakespeare’s original until 1844).  

But the real answer lies with t he multi-award winning Canadian director Tom Bentley, who came to Berkeley planning to devote himself exclusively to his own writing. He was suffering from a bad case of theater burnout, but Bentley’s a guy with really strong views, one of which is his de ep concern about what he sees as the increasing political strength of the religious right.  

When Bentley realized that Shrew provided an almost perfect setup from which to attack what he calls “these righteous men who have gone back to the Bible to bolst er their manhood” he set to work. He’s quite up-front about what he’s done with the play.  

He says quite explicitly in the program notes, “This production is inspired by The Promise Keepers and other similar men’s groups that promise easy answers for men seeking to define a superior place in the family.”  

It should not be surprising that Bentley has edited the play to present a cleaner plot movement through the story he has in mind. It’s still a fairly long presentation—there’s always more than enough p lay in an Elizabethan drama for a modern audience to work with. But what is there makes sense. 

One of the production’s great strengths is the ensemble of men formed from the collection of various “friends,” and other roles. The men make a tremendous impa ct from the moment they open the door and come down the aisle, two by two, holding small books to their eyes, blocking off the world. The men are dressed completely in black: shirts, socks, everything. The only touch of color distinguishing one man from another is in his satin tie, and they’re identical except for muted colors, slightly different with each man.  

And then there’s the most daring act of the production: A fairly small structure sits at the center of what would be a stage if the Art Gallery co-opted for this production had such a luxury. It serves as a theatrical “flat” where actors can go “off stage.” 

There’s a large white cross painted on it.  

So the short version of this review is to say that it’s a powerful and very effective productio n, but the truth of the matter is that it’s also pretty scary. Watching someone lose her strength, her will, her very “self,” is terrifying; there’s nothing funny about it at all. Mary Mackey has a full grasp of both parts of her role as Katherine, and her deterioration from the powerful—albeit unpleasant—woman at the opening of the play to the pathetic dependent at the end, desperately agreeing to any irrational statement thrown at her, is entirely too convincing to forget. 

Scott Nordquist is Petruchio, a man who knows what he wants. He’s the one who unblushingly declaims the famous lines “I come to wive it wealthily in Padua/ If wealthily, then happily in Padua.” His role requires a wide range of behaviors, from “Good Buddy” with his friends, to explos ive, frightening rages specifically designed to break Katherine’s will.  

It’s successful. And in this version of a very old play, it’s no longer funny at all. It is, however, fine acting. 

Subterranean Theatre Company presents The Taming of the Shrew, Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, Live Oak Park, through June 24. For reservations, call 276-3871.

FRIDAY, JUNE 3 

THEATER 

Berkeley Repertory Theater “The People’s Temple” at the Roda Theater and runs through June 5. Tickets are $20-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Rep, “Honour” opens at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. and runs through July 3. Tickets are $20-$39. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Private Lives” Noel Coward’s comedy. Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through June 12, at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. Tickets are $10. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Shotgun Players, “Arabian Night” Thurs.-Su. at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. until July 10. Tickets are $10-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Subterranean Shakespeare “The Taming of the Shrew,” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, through June 24. For reservations call 276-3871. 

Un-Scripted Theater Company “The Short and the Long of It” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., through June 25 at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St., Oakland. Tickets are $7-$10. 415-869-5384. www.un-scripted.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

Gallery Talk with Sculptor Bruce Beasley discussing his 45-Year Retrospective at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $4-$8. 238-2200.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Myrlie Evers-Williams presents “The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero’s Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters and Speeches” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High Dance Projects Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Berkeley High. 

Berkeley Edge Fest 70th Birthday Celebration for Terry Riley at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$32. 642-9988.  

Pacific Collegium “Couperin le Grand: Grand Motets” at 8 p.m. at St. Paul’s Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$20. www.pacificcollegium.org 

Galax Quartet, consort music for strings and voice by John Dowland and Roy Wheldon at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10-$15. 601-1370.  

Hide Date at 8 p.m. and Ed Reed and his Trio at 9 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Cowpokes for Peace at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Lalo Izquierdo and Rompe y Raja, Afro-Peruvian music and dance at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Vince Wallace Quintet at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 763-7711.  

Tom Paxton at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Houston Jones at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Jeff Kazor and the Swerve Beats at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

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

Todd Boston at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

The Push at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Eileen Hazel and Helen Chaya at 8 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

A.D.D., Riot Au Go Go, False Alliance at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Paquito D’Rivera and members of the Turtle Island String Quartet at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $15-$24. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, JUNE 4 

THEATER 

Bembero Mudengu: Telling My Story Zimbabwean dance, music, ceremony and storytelling with Julia Tsitsi Chigamba at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $12-$18. 925-798-1300. 

California Shakespeare Theater, “Othello” at 8 p.m. at Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., between Berkeley and Orinda, through July 3. Tickets are $10-$55. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“New Work” paintings by Yasuko Kaya, Chung Ae Kim, Mitsuyo Moore opens at 4th Street Studio, 1717D 4th St. and runs to June 17. 527-0600.  

East Bay Open Studios Sat. and Sun. and June 11-12. Maps available at www.proartsgallery.org 

FILM 

International Disability Film Festival Sat. and Sun. from 1 to 5 p.m. Reception Sun. at 6 p.m. at La Peña. 849-2568.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Mike Marriner, Brian McAllister, and Nathan Gebhard describe their cross-country road-trip and interviews with notable leaders in “Finding the Open Road: A Guide to Self-Construction Rather Than Mass Production” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

“Blind at the Museum” sign-language gallery talk at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Terry Riley and the Last Half Century of American Music” A discussion with Paul Dresher, Joan Jeanrenaud and others at 4 p.m. at 125 Morrison Hall, UC Campus. Part of The Berkeley Edge Fest. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Punnany Poets at 7:30 and 9 p.m. at Black Repertory Theater, Adeline St. 652-2120. www.blackrepertorygroup.com 

Bay Area Poets Coalition open reading from 3 to 5 p.m., on the front lawn at 1527 Virginia St. 527-9905. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Edge Fest “The Music of John Zorn” at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$32. 642-9988.  

Pacific Mozart Ensemble, “A Capella Jazz & Pop” at 7:30 p.m. at The Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $15-$20. 415-705-0848. www.pacificmozart.org 

Kensington Symphony, “Tribute to French Music” at 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Donation $8-$10. 524-4335. 

Trinity Chamber Concerts: Bellavente Wind Quintet at 8 p.m. at 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864.  

“Tribute to the Divas” with Faye Carol singing Billie Holiday, at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

World Music Weekend on Telegraph Ave., between Bancroft and Parker, from noon to 8 p.m. 

Jason Martineau, Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Bokei, The Taarka Quartet and Islands of Fire Drum Ensemble from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Caribbean Cove, 2556 Telegraph Ave. 981-8476. 

Norton Buffalo at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Lua, a quartet of voices, at 6:30 p.m. at Cafe Valpariso, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 841-3800. 

Mitch Marcus Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Tracorum at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 763-7711.  

Los Mapaches at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $4-$8. 849-2568.  

The Unravellers, The Kissers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

Braziu with Sotaque Baiano at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $15. 548-1159.  

Matthew Sperry Memorial Festival with Triaxium West Large Ensemble at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St. Oakland. Tickets are $6-$50.  

Samantha Raven and Friends at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Hali Hammer & Randi Berge, folk rock, at 7 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Mouth Harp Music at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

Larry Stefl Jazz Trio at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473.  

Kenny Brooks Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373.  

Candice & Company at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Little Brown House, Hong Kong Sit, Dink at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. Benefit for Stand Up for Kids. 525-9926. 

Famous Last Words, acoustic americana, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. www.epicarts.org 

SUNDAY, JUNE 5 

EXHIBITIONS 

“From Isolation to Connection” works by artists with psychiatric disabilities at the Berkeley Art Center. Curator’s walk-through at 2 p.m. 644-6893. 

“Sustainable Energy” photographs by Martijn Mollet at 2 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Berkeley Edge Fest Discussion with the composers at 6 p.m. at 125 Morrison Hall, UC Campus. 642-9988.  

Poetry Flash with Gerald Fleming and Maria M. Benet at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Edge Fest The Music of John Zorn at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$32. 642-9988.  

Berkeley Edge Fest The Music of Jorge Liderman, Fernando Benadon and others at 7:30 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$32. 642-9988.  

World Music Weekend on Telegraph Ave., between Bancroft and Parker, from noon to 8 p.m. 

Prometheus Symphony Orchestra at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland.  

Frankye Kelly sings Ella Fitzgerald at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Central Reading Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

Cantabile Choral Guild “Winds of Time” at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Chiurch, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $6-$25. 650-424-1410. www.cantabile.org 

Community Women’s Orchestra performs music by women at 4 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 5201 Park Blvd. Piedmont. Donation $5-$10, children free. 6899-0202. 

Fourtet with Brendan Millstein at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Carlos Oliveira and Ricardo Peixoto, Brazilian jazz guitar, at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373.  

The Twang Cafe, Americana, at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Austin Lounge Lizards at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Americana Unplugged: Loaded Ponies at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Matthew Sperry Memorial Festival at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St. Oakland. Tickets are $6-$50. www.21grand.org 

MONDAY, JUNE 6 

CHILDREN 

Family Music Night World music with Amber Hines from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. To register call 658-7353. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Punim: Our Spoken Treasures” An exhibit of photographs at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St., through June 7. 848-0237. www.brjcc.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Actors Reading Writers “American Folktales” at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Bring a book for the book exchange. 

The Last Word poetry reading with Louis Cuneo and Diana Quartermaine at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Meredith Maran and friends introduce “50 Ways to Support Lesbian and Gay Equality: The Complete Guide to Supporting Family, Friends, Neighbors or Yourself” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Poetry Express with Avotcja at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Matthew Sperry Memorial Festival with Phase Chancellor, John Bischoff at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St. Oakland. Tickets are $6-$50. www.21grand.org 

Molehill Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. 

Eldar, jazz pianist, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, JUNE 7 

FILM 

Berkeley High School Film Festival at 7 p.m. at the Little Theater, Allston Way between Milvia and MLK. Tickets are $8 adults, $5 students.  

Alternative Vision: “Lo-Fi Landscapes: Pictures form the New World” with filmmakers Bill Brown, Thomas Comerford, and Melinda Stone at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jean Schiffman, author of “The Working Actor’s Toolkit” in discussion with actor Lorri Holt at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Central Library, Community Room, 2090 Kittredge. 981-6100. 

“Oakland’s Chinatown” with William Wong at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512.  

James Howard Kunstler describes “The Long Emergency: Surviving Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Marcus O’Realius & The Transplantdentalists at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50- $17.50. 548-1761.  

Duncan James, jazz guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Singers’ Showcase at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Ledisi with the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra in a tribute to Sarah Vaughn at 8 and 10 p.m. through Thurs. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Matthew Sperry Memorial Festival with Johannes Bergmark at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St. Oakland. Tickets are $6-$50.  

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8 

FILM 

Seventies Underground: “The Remake” with filmmaker RIck Schmidt at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Elijah Wald reads from “The Mayor of MacDougal Street,” a memoir by folk musician Dave Van Ronk, which Wald completed after Van Ronk’s death, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Aaron Glantz describes “How America Lost Iraq” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Music for the Spirit” harpsichord concert at noon at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555.  

Ned Boynton Trio at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Sonic Camouflage at 8 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 763-7711. www.cafevankleef.com  

Calvin Keys Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Orquestra America at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Paul Geremia at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

THURSDAY, JUNE 9 

EXHIBTIONS 

June Garden Show with works by Carol Bevilaqua, Marlie De Swart, Kim Webster, Bella Bigsby and Vicki Breazeale. Reception at 6 p.m. at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. Exhibit runs to July 1. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

“Familiar Faces, Distant Lands” Oil Paintings by Susan Hall, Mary Jonlic and Nika. Reception at 6 p.m. at Addison Street Windows, 2018 Addison St. Exhibit runs to June 30. 981-7546. 

Alvarado Artists Group Show with works by Marilyn MacGregor, Barbara Werner, Joan Lakin Mikkelsen, Carla Dole and MJ Orcutt at the Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Reception at 6 p.m. 848-1228.  

THEATER 

Traveling Jewish Theater, “Cherry Docs” at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $23-$34. www.atjt.com 

FILM 

Anime: “Howl’s Moving Castle” at 6 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sally Woodbridge will discuss and show photographs from “San Francisco Architecture: An Illustrated Guide to the Outstanding Buildings, Public Artworks, and Parks in the Bay Area of California,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

“One Teacher in Ten” contributions of LGBT educators at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Liz Plummer, soprano, at 12:15 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck. 981-6235.  

Devil Makes Three at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50-$17.50. 548-1761.  

Mitch Marcus Quintet at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 763-7711.  

Palindrome with Bryan Girard at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Hot Club Sandwich, Klezmania!, Barbary Coast Guitar Duo at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082.  

Anton Schwartz and Bill Bell at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.

Adagia, the new restaurant at the corner of Bancroft Way and College Avenue, looks like the dining hall of an East Coast prep school. Luckily, the food doesn’t follow suit. The restaurant, opened in February after months of planning, permitting, and delays, is located in Westminster House, a 1926 Tudor-style building designed by Berkeley Architect Walter Ratcliff, with an enormous fireplace in the dining room, wood panelled walls, and stained-glass windows. 

The restaurant has swept the old space with a breath of decidedly modern air. Chef Brian Beach, formerly of Aqua, brings a steady hand to a menu that shows both French and Italian influence. A plate of prosciutto and manchego cheese with a scattering of toasted almonds and dates is one of the tasty, straightforward appetizers. Asparagus risotto and duck confit are among the stable of entrees. 

“We’ve been waiting for a place like Adagia to open on the southside,” said Susan Dennehy, a Jurisprudence and Social Policy Ph.D. student. “It’s nice to have a place to go where the food is good and you can get away from all the undergraduates. I think it’s filling a void near campus.” 

Dennehy, who praised the lamb pasta dish, represents the market that owner Daryl Ross is targeting with Adagia, his latest restaurant in the area. Ross also owns Caffe Strada across College Avenue from the restaurant. He also runs Café Muse in the UC Berkeley Art Museum, Café Zeb in Boalt Hall, and the Free Speech Café on campus. 

“Everyone who opens a food place around here thinks students because that’s where the numbers are. They think “Let’s do a Fat Slice,’” said Ross. “But for faculty and staff looking for a place to eat there’s really only the Faculty Club on campus, which has sub-par food.” 

At lunch, Adagia offers a bubbly tartine of ham and Gruyere on Acme levain bread, green garlic and potato soup, and Caesar salad. At night, the menu features cod with artichokes, lamb shank over polenta and spaghetti with tomato, basil and garlic bread. Adagia also serves weekday breakfasts and weekend brunch with dishes like poached eggs with toast, Greek-style yogurt topped with poached fruit and well-executed espresso drinks. 

Ross said his target audience at lunch, when items on the menu are less than $12, is faculty and staff from the university with a few students mixed in. At night when prices run higher, Ross said he hopes to lure residents from the Berkeley hills and people coming to attend Cal Performances programs. 

“Our space seemed conducive to the nicer menu,” said Ross. “Here we have this elegant space and that’s really where the idea came from.” 

The dining room décor is simple so the natural beauty of the room is undisturbed. During the day, light pours in through the diamond shaped windowpanes and bounces off the hardwood floors and high ceiling. At night, a gas fire and cream-shaded wall sconces illuminate the room, which feels like a cozy cave. A few purple orchids punctuate the space and a long, handsome table, made from recycled wood by The Wooden Duck in Berkeley, sits at its center. 

The building is owned by a Presbyterian Ministry, which uses the rest of the facility to house more than 100 students and host conferences and events. During the 1960s, Westminster House was a gathering place for student organizers of the free speech movement. 

The idea for Adagia began about five years ago when Ross approached Westminster’s executive director and campus pastor, Randy Bare. The two discovered they share an interest in philosophy, and in the writings of Erasmus of Rotterdam. Ross convinced Bare that opening a restaurant would be the perfect way of welcoming the public to Westminster House and settled on Adagia, a Latin word meaning slow, as a name for the restaurant. The name seemed perfect because it recalls Erasmus’ famous book of Latin and Greek adages, as well as the Slow Food Movement, to which Ross ascribes. 

Chef Beach gets much of the produce through organic distributor GreenLeaf. “All of our lettuces come in whole head,” said Beach. “All of the herbs are organic. We don’t put fish like swordfish and Chilean sea bass on the menu.” 

Adagia’s hard-won liquor license allows them to sell beer and wine but no hard alcohol. Former Chez Panisse pastry chef Charlene Reis consulted on the dessert menu: a caramel apple tart served with zabaglione and an almond cake with strawberry rhubarb compote both are delightful. 

A lovely garden with benches graces the corner outside the restaurant’s door. 

“It’s just such a beautiful place to sit,” said grad student Dennehy. “And that’s worth paying a dollar or two more for your food.” 

Adagia Restaurant 

2700 Bancroft Way 

647-2300 

To the delight of environmentalists and the dismay of anarchists, artists and dog-lovers, the Albany Bulb is one major step closer to joining the Eastshore State Park. 

The Bulb was created in 1963 as a landfill for construction and demolition debris ext ending out into San Francisco Bay north of Golden Gate Fields in Albany. The land fell under the water board’s jurisdiction because investigators discovered it was leaching out toxic concentrations of metals and ammonia. 

When dumping ended in December 19 83, the water board ordered that before the site could be developed as a marina and park along with commercial uses, a leak-proof protective cap would have to be installed. The city later decided to preserve the Bulb as a wildlife or recreational area, th en settled on including the site in the state shoreline park. 

And there things stood, until the water board determined earlier this month that the site isn’t leaking toxics into the bay and lifted its closure order. 

But dog lovers and East Bay sculptors loved the legal limbo the site was in all those years and cherish it as haven for their works and their pets. For years, homeless people turned the area into encampment of sorts (the subject of the documentary film Bum’s Paradise, by Tomas McCabe and And rei Rozen) until more aggressive policing began in 1999. 

While the homeless are largely gone and their former habitations abandoned, dog lovers and their off-lease pets seem to be everywhere, along with the artworks, including paintings ranging from abs tract squiggles to elaborate murals on plywood panels as well as sculptures, running the gamut from miniature metal bas reliefs to near-monumental creations of wood and Styrofoam. 

Many of the artworks are the creations of SNIFF, an artists’ collective wh ose members include Berkeley attorney Osha Neumann. Their works inspired the attorneys for Scott Peterson to suggest that the murder of Laci Peterson might have been the work of those strange artists from the Albany Bulb. 

But before the state will accept the land into the park, the art collection has to go, along with the dogs that owners and professional dog-walkers bring to site, said Brian Hickey, Bay Sector superintendent for the state parks system. 

“The general plan (for park development) calls for the art to be removed, but that hasn’t happened,” Hickey said. “The property was intended to operate in conformity with state regulations, particularly with regards to dogs. We’re in discussion with Albany, but we haven’t heard what their proposals are yet.” 

“The state is out to destroy our art,” said Jill Posener, a Berkeley artist and animal rights activist. “The state is deep in debt and their can’t run the schools, but they can find the time and money to do this. The Albany Bulb is the last outpost of civil liberties, a park maintained by the people who use and love it.” 

Not only will the art have to go, but also non-native plants like the roses and irises planted by Bulb habitués. 

While Posener blames “wacko environmentalists” for the restriction s that will kill the Bulb’s charms for sculptors and dog-lovers, attorney and former Albany Mayor Robert Cheasty, co-founder of Citizens for Eastshore Parks, says state regulations require formal authorization to install art in state parks, just as they bar off-leash canines. 

Albany Assistant City Administrator Judy Lieberman acknowledged that off-leash dogs are generally banned from state parks, but noted that the park’s general plan offers a program for the arts. 

“The city is waiting to hear what the state and the East Bay Regional Parks District has to say,” Lieberman said, adding that she has had no contact with Hickey as yet.  

Currently the parks district has jurisdiction over much of the site. The state also wants the site cleared of the large qu antities of metal reinforcing bars that came in with the rubble and pose the threat of lethal puncture wounds. 

Sasha Futran, a professional dog trainer and walker, was out on the Bulb last Friday exercising a pair of unleashed dogs. 

“This is my favorite place,” she said. “It works. We all come out here, and in all the time I’ve been coming here, I’ve never seen a dog fight.” 

While she admits that many of murals lining part of the shoreline on the north side of the Bulb are dreadful. “I still love them because they’re fun,” she said. “And there’s always something new out here. The other day, I discovered a tree that’s been turned into a mobile. It’s delightful. For almost two years there was a hut out here that was woven out of the fennel that grows wild all over the Bulb. It was wonderful. Why can’t they just leave it alone. It works, and we all love it.” 

To visit the Albany Bulb, take the Buchanan Street exit from the Eastshore freeway or turn left on Buchanan from San Pablo Avenue and head towards Golden Gate Fields. Park in one of the spaces along the road. Walk toward the bay until the road turns into a trail along the neck and follow the dog walkers out onto the Bulb. 



Some neighbors of the old Berkeley High School East Campus say they are afraid that a BUSD school board decision last week on whether to close a block of Derby Street might mean the campus will long remain an abandoned, empty lot instead of the promised multi-purpose athletic fields and community park space. 

Carlton Street resident Peter Waller made that observation in the hallway outside the Old City Hall Wednesday night shortly after BUSD board members accepted a staff recommendation to hold off on ap proving final plans for the South Berkeley property while a new proposal is developed that considers a closed Derby Street option. 

Those closed Derby Street plans are expected to be completed in August. Meanwhile, demolition of the old East Campus buildi ngs will not be delayed, school officials said. 

The BUSD board supports the closure of Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street in order to unite two adjoining district-owned lots, one of which formerly housed East Campus, the ot her occupied by the Berkeley Alternative High School. Board members and district officials have said that the united lot is the only district-owned space large enough to accommodate a regulation sized baseball field for Berkeley High School, which does no t have one. 

But Derby Street can only be closed by the Berkeley City Council—not the BUSD board—and the council has balked at approving the closure. In addition, many neighbors have expressed opposition both to a regulation-size baseball diamond in the a rea and to the street-closure. 

Last fall, the BUSD board appeared to reach a compromise when it authorized the demolition of the abandoned East Campus buildings—which neighbors support—while hiring WLC Architects of Emeryville to develop a temporary solution for use of the East Campus property alone while Derby Street remains open. Last week, after a series of community meetings, WLC presented the board with plans that included a multi-purpose athletic field, basketball courts, a community garden, and a toddlers’ play area. 

At the meeting, several neighbors urged the board to move forward with both the demolition and the development plans. 

Carl Reeh, president of the LeConte Neighborhood Association, wrote that association was asking the district “to f orgo any further study of the closure of Derby Street. Studying Derby closure would derail immediate improvement of the East Campus site.” 

But District Facilities Director Lew Jones told board members that the multi-purpose field alone would eat up the entire budget presently allocated for the East Campus temporary development project. 

Saying that there has been a lot of discussion within his department “about not putting the tot lot in that area,” Jones recommended “not doing any more design of r estroom facilities and the community area at this time because it doesn’t fit within the budget.” 

Jones also asked for approval to develop numbers for a closed Derby Street plan, saying it “makes some sense” to do so. Board members agreed unanimously, di recting Jones to do no further design work on East Campus development until he comes back to the board in August with budget figures for a closed Derby plan. 

Board President Nancy Riddle said that while the district “needs to come to a resolution on this issue,” she hinted that the district may have other possibilities in mind for the East Campus land presently earmarked for the tot lot. 

“I’m reluctant to build any permanent non-field structures until we decide on a location for the early childhood deve lopment center, which we might want to put on that site,” she said. 

Board director John Selawsky voted for the resolution calling for the closed Derby Street study. 

“Although I don’t support the closure of Derby Street,” he said, “I don’t want to want t o withhold any information from the board.” 

Selawsky promised that when the issue came back before the board, “I’m going to make a pitch that the basketball court should be a priority. The Alternative High School needs those courts. There are presently n o on-site PE facilities at the alternative school, and they don’t have access to the facilities at Berkeley High.” 

Outside the meeting, Carlton resident Waller said he didn’t see the sense in halting any further design work on the multi-purpose field whi le the demolition goes forward, saying that was an unnecessary delay. 

“There’s just going to be an empty, unused space there where the buildings now stand,” he said. “Maybe they don’t want people to get comfortable with a big, grassy field until they dec ide what to do.” 

Praised by citizen activists in Richmond, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) got a less than friendly reception Thursday night in Berkeley. 

While activists in Richmond fought a hard battle to get the DTSC to take charge of cleanup e fforts at Campus Bay and UC Berkeley’s Bayside Research Campus, also known as the Field Station, their Berkeley counterparts are unhappy with the agency’s handling of cleanup efforts at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). 

The gathering at t he North Berkeley Senior Center was held to answer questions and take public testimony on the latest round of LBNL cleanup efforts, which center on four areas of soil contamination and 11 areas of groundwater pollution. 

Chaired by DTSC Public Participation Specialist Nathan Schumacher, the initial part of the meeting focused on specific cleanup plans and featured a panel that included representatives from the agency, the lab, the San Francisco Water Quality Control Board and Nabil Al-Hadithy, Berkeley’s hazardous materials supervisor. 

Al-Hadithy presented a letter from City Manager Phil Kamlarz, written after the City Council voted Tuesday to urge that cleanup efforts target the highest possible remediation standards. 

Site investigations by the DTSC be gan in 1991, followed by a 1993 permit that requires LBNL to investigate and clean up all historical releases of pollutants on the site. The full site investigation was completed in November 1993, and a formal risk assessment was issue two years later. Th ursday’s hearing focused on the proposed remedies approved by the DTSC. 

Most of the contaminants are industrial solvents and chlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. 

But many of those who came to offer questions and testimony were worried about radioactive conta mination, specifically the presence in groundwater of tritium, a manmade isotope of hydrogen first isolated by UCB’s Nobel-winning physicist Luis Alvarez. 

Unfortunately, cleanup of radioactive waste isn’t the province of DTSC but of the U.S. Department o f Energy, which has ultimate jurisdiction over the lab. 

“I believe your assessment of risk is inaccurate if all the radioactive exposure is left out,” declared Pamela Shivola of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste. 

Dr. Mohinder Sandhu, chief of DTSC’s Standardized Permits & Corrective Action Branch, acknowledged, “We don’t know what is happening with tritium” contamination. 

The element has a half-life of 10 years, meaning that after a decade only half the radiation remains in a given sample, and half of that remains after another decade, and so on. 

“The source of the tritium has been eliminated,” said Iraj Javandel, LBNL’s site restoration program manager. “The facility closed four or five years ago, and contamination is reduced to five percent of w hat it was. We have about 55 (monitoring) wells in the area, and only one has tritium at levels above the state drinking water standard, and that’s now on the boundary.” 

LA Wood, a member of Berkeley’s Community Environmental Advisory Commission, and fel low Commissioner Leuren Moret charged that radioactive monitoring wasn’t sufficient. 

Several speakers also charged that wells for monitoring for chemical and radioactive pollution should be extended throughout the site, and not just in relations to known releases. 

Cleanup plans call for a variety of remediation efforts based on the nature of contamination and the characteristics of individual sites. Methods include hauling contamination to toxic waste containment sites, purification of soil solvents in water by chemical oxidation, soil flushing, degradation by native or introduced bacteria, evaporation, pumping and treating of groundwater, monitored natural attenuation. 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington asked why DTSC couldn’t create a Community Adv isory Group (CAG) for the LBNL cleanup. 

A similar panel composed of citizens and business and community leaders was formed after DTSC took control of Campus Bay from the water board in Richmond. 

Worthington suggested a similar panel at Tuesday’s council meeting, only to be voted down by the majority. Others echoed his call Thursday, a move strenuously opposed by DTSC and the university. 

Members of the public have until June 8 to offer comments to the DTSC. 

For more information on the cleanup, see the DTSC’s website at www.dtsc.ca.gov/hazardouswaste/lbnl/index.html.

Without granting a hearing, a superior court judge Friday denied the petition of three Berkeley residents, including a city councilmember, seeking to ultimately undo a settlement agreement reached last week between the city and UC Berkeley. 

Judge James Richman rejected a petition to intervene as a third party in the lawsuit made by Carl Friberg, Anne Wagley (an employee of the Berkeley Daily Planet) and Councilmember Kriss Worthington. Judge Richman refused the hearing because the city had already dismissed its lawsuit against the university, his research attorney Chad Finke told two of the petitioners and their attorney Friday. 

Although Friberg had first filed the petition with the court clerk on Wednesday, hours before the city dismissed the lawsuit, that did not give him legal standing under state law, Finke said.  

“It’s not enough to have to have it on file before the case is dismissed,” he said. “It has to be granted.” 

Stephan Volker, representing Friberg, said his client was considering appeali ng Richman’s ruling. Had Richman accepted the petition, the settlement agreement between the city and the university could have been placed on hold. 

The petitioners were seeking to join the lawsuit as a third party on grounds that the city failed to adequately represent their interests as Berkeley residents in settling the city’s lawsuit against the university. They argued that the campus growth projected under the university’s plan would further strain city services and leave taxpayers with the bill.  

The settlement agreed to last week calls for the city to drop its lawsuit against UC Berkeley’s 15-year development plan and for the university to pay more for city services and enter into a joint planning process for the downtown.  

“I don’t think the issues raised [about the UC plan] should be abandoned,” said Councilmember Worthington, who voted against the deal and argued that the city could have squeezed more concessions out of UC. “If the city doesn’t address them the community should be allowed to pursue them.” 

Volker argued Friday that the petitioners effectively were given no opportunity to intervene because the City Council, despite public pledges to the contrary, refused to disclose the terms of the deal until after they approved it Tuesday night. 

“As a result, the petitioners were led to believe that they would have an opportunity to intervene in this matter in the event the proposed settlement agreement failed to adequately protect their interests and those of other Berkeley citizens from the environmental impacts of the university’s [plan],” he wrote in his legal memo. 

The council was prohibited from releasing details of the agreement until the UC Regents approved the deal Wednesday under a confidentiality agreement signed by both partie s in April. 

Michelle Kenyon, the city’s outside attorney in the case, reiterated in an interview at the courthouse Friday that the confidentiality agreement was legal under state law. In her memo, she argued that the petitioners “had an obligation to pur sue their claim [earlier] and failed to do so.” 

Besides an appeal, Volker said the petitioners could also choose to file suit against the city over the provision in the settlement giving the university a say over the future downtown plan. 

“The agreement hijacks the city’s ability to plan for Berkeley’s future growth and holds it hostage to the university’s pocket veto,” he said.l|

A Los Angeles mega-mall developer is pushing forward with his plans for an up-scale shopping complex and a hotel at Golden Gate Fields. 

Developer Rick Caruso and his staff have been talking up ideas for the track’s shoreline property through meetings with environmental and community groups, City Councilmembers in Albany and Berkeley’s Mayor Tom Bates. 

Caruso Affiliated has partnered with Magna Entertainment, the Canadian company that owns the Albany track and some of the nation’s premiere horse-racing venues. 

Plans for the bayshore track parallel those now underway at Magna’s fabled Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia. Caruso’s plans for the two tracks include high-end shops along with entertainment venues and possible housing units. Also, a hotel on the Berkeley portion of the East Bay site has been discussed. 

Matt Middlebrook, former deputy mayor to the recently defeated Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn (a beneficiary of Caruso’s campaign contributions), has joined Caruso’s team and has been meeting with local officials to generate support for the Golden Gate Fields project. 

“We’re meeting with residents and leaders in the business community,” Middlebrow said. “We’re interested in doing a potential development, and we’re meeting with the community about the size of the project, the shops and the amenities.” 

Whatever happens, Middlebrook said, Caruso would complete the Bay Trail through the site and offer significant amounts of open space. Middlebrook also said that one desire which has been consistent from community members is for a hotel on the property. 

While Albany Chamber of Commerce members have said they see the mall as a threat to local businesses, Middlebrook said views are mixed on the Albany City Council. 

“I think the people are, hopefully, open-minded and will allow us to show them a project based on their feedback,” he said. 

Caruso and Middlebrook met with Robert Cheasty, co-founder of Citizens for Eastshore Parks, Sierra Club activist Norman La Force, Save the Bat co-founder Sylvia McLau ghlin and others, but failed to win them over. 

The Sierra Club has offered a proposal that included closing of the ailing track, with a smaller shopping complex and a hotel adjacent to the I-80 frontage road while leaving the bay frontage for park and re creational activities. 

“Feedback has been very positive,” Middlebrook said. “People are interested in seeing something more than makes the site more attractive to the community. 

The financially troubled Magna Entertainment has been seeking ways to impro ve its ailing bottom line. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported Saturday that Magna has lost over $215 million (Canadian dollars) in the last three years. 

While horse racing accounted for 80 percent of gambling revenue in the 1960s, it’s now do wn to about 2 percent, the CBC reported. Race track attendance, the source of admissions revenue has plunged at most tracks as betting has shifted to off-track betting shops and the Internet. 

Magna, owned by auto parts giant Frank Stronach, has been shif ting to so-called “racinos,” which feature slot machine and other gambling games at race tracks. 

Earlier this month, Magna officials warned Maryland that they may move the Preakness, the second leg of horse racing’s legendary Triple Crown from their tra ck at Pimlico to their recently remodeled Gulfstream Park in Florida unless they’re allowed to install slot machines at Pimlico. 

Magna is also negotiating with a Native American tribe about opening a racino at their Meadows track in Portland, Ore., and h as won approval for similar casinos at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, The Meadows in Pennsylvania and Lone Star Park in Texas. 

Magna is also building a major new racetrack at Dixon in Yolo County, one specially designed for the closed-circuit televisio n used at off-track betting parlors and the wagering lounges at other tracks. 

To stage races at the new track would require a shutdown at either Golden Gate or Bay Meadows on the peninsula, a track once operated by Magna. 

Magna has allocated a $1 millio n to aid in development of their joint projects with Caruso at Golden Gate and Santa Anita, and Caruso recently spent $1 million on a successful ballot measure to let him build one of his malls in Glendale. 

Albany City Councilmember Robert Lieber, a trac k opponent, said Golden Gate Fields pays about $500,000 a year in taxes to the city. 

“Their revenue has been going up in recent years, but our (share) has been going down because the Internet handle isn’t subject to the city tax,” he said. ›

Recent actions at Peralta Community College Trustee meetings may be signaling a new era of increased financial scrutiny within the four-college district. 

Under former Peralta Chancellor Ron Temple, public attention to Peralta affairs seemed to surface o nly when the district was hit with periodic financial controversies. A 2003 East Bay Express article summed up the scandals, noting that “After virtually bankrupting community college districts in Detroit and Chicago, Dr. Ronald Temple took over Peralta a nd promptly threw the door open for his cronies.” 

But Temple is gone, replaced after his retirement in 2003 by former Oakland mayor and California Assemblymember Elihu Harris. The Peralta Board of Trustees is significantly altered from the Temple days. T rustee Vice President Linda Handy was elected in 2002 in part because of community sentiment against Temple’s fiscal policies. And last November, four of the seven-member board chose not to run for re-election, and were replaced by newcomers. 

While the n ow veteran Handy has often clashed with newly elected trustees Cy Gulassa and Nicky Gonzalez Yuen on some board policy matters, the combination of changes has brought the district a long way from the Temple era. 

The changed Peralta fiscal picture was nev er more evident than at last week’s trustee meeting, when Harris gave a public scolding to contractors of the new Vista College construction in Berkeley for tardily reported cost overruns, and trustees approved a policy that requires additional staff sign-offs on what they called “significant issues” coming before the board. 

On Tuesday, Peralta Director of General Services Sadiq Ikharo asked for board’s approval for an additional quarter of a million dollars for professional testing services for HP Inspections, Inc. in the Vista project and a $176,000 fee increase for additional work by Ratcliff Architects. 

The overrun requests came without the usual recommendation of approval by Chancellor Harris. A representative of Swinerton Management & Consulting, which is overseeing part of the Vista construction, said that the testing overtime was necessary because of steel shipments that came in two months early. 

Harris said he had not had time to investigate their validity, and said he only included them on th e agenda “because of their possible time-sensitive nature, and because the board has requested that they be immediately informed when such matters come to our attention.” 

The chancellor appeared to grow annoyed after Swinerton senior project manager Mich ael Raven said that some of the work by HP Inspections had been done as early as last December, and that the information had been passed on to the district office some weeks before. 

“I just found out about this last week,” Harris snapped back, “and now I find out that these things have been going on for months? Tell me who was supposed to contact me, and we’ll hang him in the morning.” 

As late as last winter, trustees were grumbling about some of the Vista overruns, but approved them anyway. But on Tues day night, on a motion by Trustee Bill Withrow, the board voted to hold over the items for two weeks “until the chancellor can get more information.” 

Last January, after hearing repeated requests for change orders asking for more money for the multimilli on dollar Vista construction project, trustees passed a new policy mandating increased board oversight for such change orders. 

On Tuesday, trustees also passed a new board policy mandating that any board agenda items involving what they called “significa nt issues” will now require the approval of the district’s general counsel and the chief financial Officer for “fiscal soundness and legal form, respectively.” 

The policy defines significant issue items as those involving expenditure of bond funds, excep tions to bidding requirements, non-routine and non-predetermined legal procedures, or contracts with rights or commitments extending for three or more years. The policy also says that the CFO and general counsel signoffs will be required for any other iss ues if requested by one or more trustees. 

The new policy replaces a procedure in which the general counsel or chief financial officer sometimes did not even view items until the agenda and board packets were released a few days before trustee meetings, a nd were often not asked for their opinions on items until the actual night of the meeting. 

In another measure of the Peralta Board of Trustees’ increasing financial oversight, trustees asked that Peralta Chief Information Officer Andy DiGirolamo return w ith more information in two weeks on district-wide information technology projects in the next two years. Trustee Nicky Gonzalez Yuen had complained that a spreadsheet provided by DiGirolamo for the briefing did not provide any background detail. The spre adsheet listed such items as “PeopleSoft Phase II, Fiscal Year 2005-06, $1,200,000” without giving any further information as to how the money was intended to be spent. 

›h

The Zoning Adjustment Board ruled Thursday that the cottage resting atop a weathering plywood shell that dominates the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Emerson Street, known as the “flying cottage,” now complies with city zoning laws.  

The vote of 6-1-1 (S prague, no; Judd abstain) means that property owner Christina Sun won’t need to go through the lengthy processes of seeking a use permit for a project that most of her neighbors oppose. 

The victory doesn’t, however, guarantee that the building will be co mpleted. 

Now that ZAB has ruled that Sun’s proposal adheres to zoning rules, the battle shifts to aesthetics. Sun still needs to win approval from city staff on the building’s appearance. 

If staff approves the design, opponents could appeal the ruling t o the city’s Design Review Commission. If the DRC backs the plan, neighbors could appeal the decision to ZAB, then to the City Council, and from there to Alameda County Superior Court. 

“We’re going to keep fighting this,” said Les Shipnuck, who lives nea r the building. “We don’t want it in our neighborhood. There’s not a chance that this could ever be built in North Berkeley.” 

Sun’s latest plan calls for building two floors of residential units above a retail shop and turning the back yard into a two ca r parking lot. The proposed structure would tower over nearby homes. However city zoning laws permit three story houses with commercial frontages along the southern section of Shattuck. 

Neighbors have fought the building since 2003 when they say that Sun, without informing them, raised up her one-story cottage above two stories of plywood. Upon discovering that Sun illegally planned to make the building a boarding house, neighbors succeeded in stopping development by persuading ZAB to declare it “a nuisa nce.” 

Sun’s architect, Andus Brandt, has since retooled the project to meet city codes, while neighbors have pointed out deficiencies every step of the way. 

Most recently neighborhood leader Robert Lauriston successfully showed that a recent building re design was illegal because it included tenant storage space on the first floor. Such storage space is considered a residential use, which is not allowed on the ground floor of buildings that have residential units above ground-floor commercial space. 

Lau riston’s finding left Brandt in a fix. He couldn’t simply fold the space into the proposed ground floor shop because the extra square footage would have triggered a city requirement for an additional parking space. Sun can’t fit another space in her backy ard and refuses to add one on the ground floor. 

At 1142 square feet, the ground floor commercial space is just eight square feet shy of requiring an extra parking space should Sun open a restaurant on the ground floor, and 108 square feet shy of the requ irement for a standard retail shop. 

In an alteration presented to ZAB Thursday, Brandt proposed reconfiguring the ground floor to include a 120-square-foot garbage recycling and garden storage room, a 92-square-foot storage room for the owner and an unus ually large utility room. 

Under city zoning rules, Senior Planner Debbie Sanderson said, those uses don’t count as commercial or residential space, so the new design conforms to zoning rules, but doesn’t trigger the extra parking space. 

Neighborhood rep resentatives said they smelled a rat. 

“It’s a very creative design. The utility room is the size of my office,” said Rena Rickles, the attorney representing the neighbors. Besides challenging the building in design review, Rickles said neighbors were als o considering filing suit over whether the building is permitted to have any parking in the back yard. 

According to city zoning law, parking spaces are not allowed in “rear yards.” However, Sanderson has maintained that the prohibition was actually a dra fting error in the code. Historically, she has maintained, the city has permitted parking in rear yards, and couldn’t all of a sudden change course in Sun’s case. 

Accepting staff’s interpretation, ZAB concluded that the latest design complied with city z oning requirements. 

“The real issue is it’s ugly, it’s big, but unfortunately that’s not what we’re voting for,” said temporary ZAB Commissioner George Beier, sitting in for Dean Metzger. “I don’t like it, but I can’t find anything wrong with it.” 

s

Click here to view the latest work by Justin DeFreitas

MODERN-DAY SLAVERY 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Instead of trying to dredge up ancient history on slavery, how about a story on current day slavery alive and well in African and Asian countries today. Where children and women are bought and sold daily. Arab countries do it in what I have been told is the underground white slavery market—usually light-skinned women who foolishly travel unescorted in Arab countries. They just disappear. I do wish I knew if this is truth or legend. Our step daughter has been missing for almost four years. 

If we want to stop enslavement why not expose countries doing the deed today. And boycott their products and services.  

Furthermore, enslavement can be by drugs, gambling, chatrooms, ebay or video game junkies and the like. Since it is not possible to legislate morality and good sense, lets concentrate on showing people a good example, positive role models—no more dark heroes where what is good may or may not be good. How about good guys who wear white hats and truly do good and know what is right from wrong and are not afraid to do something about it.  

Robin Berry 

Cody, Wyoming  

• 

EMERGENCY SYSTEM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Unless citizens act quickly, a little-known emergency information system that can quickly contact thousands of Berkeley residents may be terminated in early June in spite of its effectiveness and low cost. 

The system is to be used during emergencies such as natural disasters, hazardous material incidents (biological, chemical or radiological releases), wildfires, criminal activity, and evacuations. All Berkeley landline phone numbers are presently in the system headquartered in Louisiana. Staffed 24 hours a day, the system can send out recorded warning messages to selected areas, calling up to 11,000 local telephones in 10 minutes. 

Continuance of this service is uncertain, despite local satisfaction with it. Renewal of the contract for this service was supported by the Berkeley City Council, but renewal has moved into the “budget process” where it might lose out in competition with better-known programs. 

The annual costs total about $17,600. Put differently, that’s just 17 cents (that’s right—17 cents) per Berkeley resident. This system is Berkeley’s only city-wide emergency warning system, since its 1610 AM radio station is just a travel advisory system, and a proposed city-wide siren warning system has been abandoned for a variety of good reasons. 

To keep this information lifeline, which can save lives anywhere in Berkeley, ask the mayor and your city councilmember to support it. You might even send your 17 cents to the city clerk’s office with an explanatory note of support. 

Dick White 

Member, Berkeley Disaster Council 

• 

ONE MAN’S PLAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My fondest wish is that the board of directors of PG&E would consist of the Berkeley mayor and City Council.  

Here’s what I would do:  

I’d get my bill and pay about one-quarter of what was due. Then, instead of cutting off my power, the PG&E run by the city fathers and mothers of Berkeley would sue me for the remainder of what I owed. I would then negotiate with them, threaten to buy more appliances and cut down their poles to use in the manufacture of hockey sticks. We’d enter into long negotiations and finally agree that for the next 15 years, I would pay 30 percent of what I owed instead of 25 percent. In turn I would promise not to buy more appliances and not to use their utility poles to make hockey sticks, neither of which I ever intended to do in the first place. I’d also promise that if I ever wanted to collect the copper from their wires to sell on the open market for a profit, I’d discuss it with them if I wanted to do that.  

Then they could write a press release saying how they’d brought peace in our time. 

Paul Glusman 

• 

STOLEN TREE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Just read Matthew Artz’s May 27 piece on the stolen traffic circle tree. He got carried away a tad, I think. 

Karl Reeh is not learning to “negotiate with terrorists.” He said that as with terrorists, the treenapper raises the stakes each time he concedes. Just because Bush lies like a rug doesn’t mean he’s a rug. 

The treenapper isn’t a terrorist; he’s a neighbor who stole a damn tree. Artz’s twist ratchets up the conflict way out of proportion. 

And somehow Mr. Artz got hold of an e-mail I sent to friends written tongue-in-cheek about life in Berkeley. If he had been one of the intended recipients, he would have known I was laughing, not fuming. “What a low-life. A tree-stealer… scuzzbag,” I said when I first heard the news and thought it was a vandal. If Mr. Artz had read (and cited) the whole message, the Planet’s readers would now understand that as soon as I found out it was a neighbor and not a vandal, I stopped thinking “scuzzbag” and started thinking “wacko.” 

And if the Artz had dug a little more, he would have learned that as more information came in, I realized it’s not even a wacko, but simply a person in the neighborhood who acted on a questionable impulse and is probably trying to find a way to repair his/her damage without losing too much face. 

It’s a great neighborhood, LeConte is. I wish the Planet hadn’t sent out the impression we’re fighting over this. We’re not. We’re just getting to know each other better and trying to learn how to work together at a whole new level of community involvement! 

Alan McCornick 

• 

WHAT HAPPENED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Concerning lawsuit over UC’s Long-Range Development Plan, I would like to let the public know my view of what has happened on the legal front since the settlement agreement was approved.  

Carl Friberg, the head of a local group called BLUE, filed an ex parte motion to set aside the dismissal and then intervene in the case. He was joined in his motion by Anne Wagley and Kriss Worthington. The motion was denied by Judge Richman. Judge Richman cited a case, O’Dell v. Freightliner Corp. (1992) 10 Cal.App.4th 645, which clearly refuted the argument proffered by the attorney that Friberg and the others had hired.  

That attorney had come into the case like a hijack program, and he quickly defocussed the attention away from the criminality of the settlement agreement under the Brown Act. The resulting arguments were almost frivolous and had no chance of succeeding. But the hapless litigants had surrendered their self-reliance and were unable to see that. C’est la vie. 

There is still a strong case to be made based on the criminality of the settlement agreement. If any citizens feel as outraged as I do about the death of democracy in Berkeley and are interested in joining a lawsuit that stays focussed on that theme, they are invited to contact me at pjmutnick@sbcglobal.net. 

Peter J. Mutnick 

• 

AL AND SON’S 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Friends and neighbors on Milvia Street are losing an important part of our community. The closing of Al and Son’s parking lot and Baskerville’s hot dog stand due to a lost lease brings a sad closure to 40 years of a family business in downtown Berkeley. 

Generations of Berkeley High School kids lined up daily for hot dogs served by the Martinez family. Jeanie and son Allen in the stand taking orders at the window with a friendly word to neighbors as we scurry to start our business day. Dennis and his dad Al Martinez creatively directing traffic into the small parking lot with a cheery “Take care, have a nice day.”  

Through the years Al’s has been the sounding board of our neighborhood with lively discussion about the weather, sports, the economy and the state of the nation. Many of us don’t know each other but we know the Martinez family and they know our names.  

Thanks and appreciation to Al, Jeanie, Dennis and Allen. Your many friends in downtown Berkeley wish you well. We will miss you. 

Pat Hanscom 

• 

HISTORY LESSON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The May 20 commentary by Christian Hartsock illustrates two things: his extreme political bias and his ignorance about the purpose and history of the unique nature of the U.S. Senate.  

First: What the Senate is most emphatically not about is a majority up-or-down vote. The Senate was designed by the framers of the constitution to do just the opposite! States with very tiny populations were granted the same number of representatives as the most populous states. One vote in the Senate may represent a few thousand voters or millions. Under the rules adopted 200 years ago, a senator representing the least populated state could bring the business of the Senate to a standstill. The reasons for this system were very clear and well thought out. 

First, the framers did not want the larger, more powerful states riding roughshod over the smaller states. Secondly, it was intended to slow down over hasty decisions and thereby force opposing factions to work out compromises. 

The Republican majority has been systematically attempting to destroy this system of safeguards. Rather than meeting with the Democrats to work out compromises, they have been acting in secret and abusing the system to get what they want. 

The argument that their candidates deserve an up-or-down vote is ludicrous! The did not allow 60 of Clinton’s well qualified, moderate candidates to ever reach the floor for a vote by abuse of the system. Their reasons were obvious: By delaying these appointments, they could hold the positions open until they could appoint someone to their liking. The overwhelming majority of these candidates have been approved by the Democrats. The candidates who have not been approved are those who, based up their past behavior, would seek to legislate their extreme views from the bench rather than fulfilling their correct function of enforcing the law. 

The actions of the Republicans threaten our Constitutional system of government. They would tear down the great system represented by the U.S. Senate and concentrate all of the power in a single branch of government, thereby destroying the system of checks and balances so carefully devised by our Founding Fathers and placing our democracy in serious jeopardy. 

Daniel W. Julian 

Readers Sound Off on New AC Transit Buses, Policies 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Just before the AC Transit directors are set to consider proposals for fare change, brochures explaining the proposals began to appear in the buses. 

The brochure displays a complex set of five proposals, the effect of which is to diffuse attention from the most realistic proposals. 

When you look at it, two of the five proposals are rather unrealistic in that it eliminates transfers and passes for adult commuters entirely, and another one, by its own admission, “does not fulfill the revenue objectives of the fare change” (it says so in a footnote to the proposal). 

So we are left with two realistic proposals: either to raise the fare to $1.75 with 50 cent transfers, or to $2 with free transfers. In any case, it seems that the board is set to increase fees, though this time riders had few time and little clarity to notice what was coming. 

Given numerous complaints over the safety and comfortability of the Van Hool buses that are being introduced and the lack of accountability to these steady complaints, perhaps management reform should be considered before another fare raise. 

Takeshi Akiba 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read with great interest Gerald Mannell’s letter about a “massive financial crisis” in the transit systems of the Netherlands and France, because too many people just don’t pay on the proof-of-payment system. Yet Robert R. Piper (who was Berkeley director of transportation a quarter-century ago?) knows better. He informs us Berkeley primitives that POP “has been used in civilized countries for decades.”  

Let me add my voice to Mannell’s.  

I just got back from New York City, where I walked and rode buses and subways with my cousins visiting from Italy. Their opinion of “proof of payment” in Italy? A disaster. People don’t pay. When a rare inspector catches one, he tries to collect a fine, but invariably the cheater says he has no money. So, the inspector writes and hands him a citation to pay, which the non-paying rider ignores. On rare occasions the government goes after a non-payer—adding yet more costs to a transit system in financial collapse. 

By the way, it was a delight to ride the New York buses (plenty of hand-holds, most seats on the side to make wide aisles) and absolute heaven to ride one of their new electric (not trolley) buses with NO steps up from either entry or exit, a couple of steps up to a few seats in the back of the bus where the floor is higher to accommodate the batteries. A smooth, quiet, non-smelly, comfortable ride, with no need to climb up unless you are willing an able to take those few raised seats at the back. I didn’t manage to get the name of the company that makes them, but I assume the AC Transit officials must know about them—I’d like to know why AC chose the Van Hool buses instead. Could it be because these “civilized” European countries don’t want them anymore? 

Dorothy Bryant 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While I appreciate the Daily Planet’s coverage of soon-to-be-voted on AC Transit fare proposals (“AC Transit Directors Ponder 5 Ways to Increase Bus Fares”), the article left out the impact that each proposal will have on very low-income, transit-dependent riders. How much AC Transit stands to make on each proposal is mentioned, but at what cost? 

At the request of AC Transit, the UC Transportation Center published an analysis of the five proposals and the impact each will have on the community. It is important to note that a large percentage of riders need to take more than one bus, making transfer costs an important element in determining impact. The center’s analysis showed that proposals 1 and 5 were financially detrimental to households making less than $10,000, possibly increasing transportation costs by 32-38 percent. Proposals two and three and had a lesser but still significant impact, roughly 14-25 percent, largely due to keeping discount passes and transfers. The analysis states that AC Transit can expect a revenue of $6-12 million dollars under proposals two and three. 

No matter which proposal is chosen, the community should insist that youth, senior, and disabled passes remain reduced and affordable for very low-income individuals and families, that transfers should be offered, and that the “pay per ride” fares only be raised enough to assist AC Transit with their deficit but not cause undue hardship on the very poor “transit dependent” (many more low-income AC Transit riders depend on it for daily transportation than do riders of other systems—61 percent as opposed to 22 percent for BART and 14 percent for CalTrans). 

AC Transit is a lifeline to jobs, housing, school, and services for the poor, and as such fare increases should be a last resort. The fact is, the annual revenue from fares currently totals $40 million. AC Transit’s entire budget is $250 million with an anticipated shortage of $8 million. To look only at fare increases to offset the deficit is extremely unfair. AC Transit can and should examine other avenues to save and/or make money. 

Janny Castillo 

Community Organizer 

Building Opportunities for  

Self-Sufficiency 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding Edith Monk Hallberg’s May 13 letter on the quality of Van Hool buses on the AC Transit system: 

I don’t think it’s right to say that the reason Van Hool buses work better in Europe is down to the manners of the people on this continent. In Birmingham, the dominant bus group, Travel West Midlands, uses a combination of buses from LDV, Scania, Ford, Van Hool, and Wolff. Van Hool buses were brought in a few months ago at the behest of activists who called for better transport access for the wheelchair-bound and parents with children in strollers. Most buses here are double decker and these buses have extremely limited space for the large number of parents with strollers and for disabled passengers. Van Hool buses have provided ample space and mobility for these users and are added as a supplement to normal bus service rather than replacing buses already used on the line. I would suggest that the reason for the fast take-up of Van Hool buses at AC Transit is a marked activism by disability patrons to improve access to services. The unintended consequence of this arrangement is a forced adjustment for regular passengers. It is probably in the best interest of riders who will continue to use services unassisted to lobby for the re-implementation of smooth-ride buses and look into companies that can supply them to contract. 

Many countries in Europe have the advantage of home-grown bus and truck companies that supply state of the art transport. Germany has MAN, Slovakia has Skoda, and so forth. The United States is a country with many domestic transport suppliers and I am certain that if a concerted effort was made, a supplier of smooth-drive buses could be found. Perhaps even in California. 

John Parman 

Birmingham, England 

If you have flown the polar route, from London to San Francisco, you may have had the opportunity to look down on the arctic ice cap from 35,000 feet. In the summer the vast span of perennial sea ice—some 1.7 billion acres—begins just west of Greenland a nd extends for hundreds of miles, ending in a span of open water off the coast of North America and Eurasia. The next time you fly this route, take a long look at this endless expanse of whiteness. Before the end of the century the ice cap will be gone, a victim of global warming or, more precisely, the anthropogenic forcing of global climate change. 

Although the scientific evidence of global warming seems incontrovertible, the Bush administration determinedly ignores it and proceeds with business as usu al. The trillion-dollar question is why?  

Of course, if you are an American who lives in an area that traditionally suffers through savage winters, weeks on end of gray skies and freezing temperatures, then the prospects of global warming may not seem that dire to you. The problem is that global warming is a systemic change, and while there may be some positive short-term outcomes—the introduction of golf to Iceland—the long-term consequences are dire.  

In a recent series of articles in the New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert brings the problem of global climate change into sharp focus. Over the last million years the temperature of the world has been remarkably stable. However, since 1769, and the invention of the steam engine by James Watt, the planet has b een getting warmer—the 15 hottest years have occurred since 1980. Pollution is a side effect of the industrialization launched by Watt’s invention; transportation and business daily generate “greenhouse gases,” notably carbon dioxide and methane, whose in creasing levels drive the rise in temperature. Scientists predict that by 2050, carbon dioxide levels will double, pushing the average global temperature up by 4.9 to 7.7 degrees Fahrenheit. As a consequence, sea levels will rise as much as two feet, glac iers will melt, ocean currents will change, and weather systems will become more savage and unpredictable. 

Despite the fact that each year produces more evidence of unstable climactic conditions, the Bush administration pooh-poohs concerns about global c limate change. The president’s official position is that there is no scientific “consensus” that supports a presumption of global warming. As a result, his administration has refused to sign the Kyoto Accords and to participate, meaningfully, in global ac tion to halt these alarming trends. Bush believes that reducing the level of our carbon-emissions would be “bad for business.” 

But an overwhelming majority of earth scientists believe that we are steaming towards disaster. Recently, UC San Diego professo r Naomi Oreskes reviewed almost 1,000 scientific papers on the subject of global climate change—roughly 10 percent of the total. She found 75 percent of her sample provided evidence of anthropogenic forcing, i.e. a relationship between human-created green house gas emissions and temperature rise. Amazingly, she found no articles that argued to the contrary.  

Thus, the contrarian “experts” cited by the Bush administration come from outside the reputable scientific community—they are “junk scientists.” Amon g those whose opinions are cited by the administration are writer Michael Crichton—whose only scientific credentials are a stint in medical school—and policy analysts, such as Sallie Baliunas and Steven Milloy—employees of conservative think tanks such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute, funded by Exxon-Mobil and General Motors.  

The burning question remains, why does George W. Bush rely on such hacks for the basis of his policy on global warming? Most probably it is because they are telling him som ething that he is already inclined to believe. There are two possible reasons for this predisposition. One is that, as an article of his Christian faith, the president believes that God created planet earth for man’s dominion and, therefore, would not per mit environmental changes that threaten the existence of the species. If this is the case, Bush’s belief is at odds with that taught by mainstream Christianity, which admonishes believers to be good stewards of the earth. 

The other explanation is that Pr esident Bush sees no political upside to changing his position, as his two strongest constituencies support him. Economic conservatives favor business as usual; they don’t want to pay for the changes that would be necessary to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Social conservatives, particularly apocalyptic Christians, simply don’t care. They believe that we are in the “end times;” they expect that the final judgment, the “rapture,” will happen in the next couple of decades and, therefore, concerns about global climate change are irrelevant. 

Whatever his reasoning, President Bush is doing Americans and the planet a great disservice with his ostrich-like posture on global warming. It’s as if he is betting that the full extent of this catastrophe won’t become apparent on his watch, thereby forgetting a lesson that most of us learned in school: It isn’t smart to mess with Mother Nature. 

Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer and activist. He can be reached at bobburnett@comcast.net. 

9r

I read in the paper that front row tickets for the upcoming Rolling Stones concerts are selling for over $5,000 a piece. That’s a lot of money to shell out to see four geezers prance arthritically around on stage. 

So I guess you won’t see me there unless, of course, I’m able to score a free ticket. Chances of that are slim, but I managed to procure one the last time Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie were in town, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed. They won’t be arriving at SBC Park until November. I’ve got some time to scheme. 

Six years ago the Rolling Stones launched their No Security Tour at Oakland’s Coliseum. I was there, not in a front row seat, but someplace so far away from the main stage, it was easier to watch them strut their stuff on the big scr eens hanging from the ceiling than to look down upon their actual minuscule, wrinkled selves. I had come by a ticket in an unusual way. I had published an article about my husband’s accident in the San Francisco Chronicle a few weeks earlier. A reader fro m Alameda contacted me via e-mail. “I’d like to help you in some way,” wrote my anonymous, soon-to-be benefactor. “I run a small non-profit dedicated to giving family care providers a respite. I have restaurants, hotels, theaters and spas who donate servi ces, an evening on the town, or a weekend getaway for someone like you, someone who needs a break.” 

At the time I received this kind offer, I was overwhelmed with my husband’s care. I could not imagine spending an evening out, or going on an overnight adventure. I declined, but the benefactor was insistent. “Maybe I can get a restaurant to donate two meals so that you can take your husband,” she wrote. “Thank you,” I replied, “but going out for dinner is something we already do together. There’re plenty of people who need this service more than me.” 

“Stop with the martyr business,” admonished my patron. “Think of something for you.” 

I called her. “I’d like to see the Rolling Stones this weekend. Can you get me a ticket?” 

There was silence on the other end of the line. “Are you crazy? That concert has been sold out for months.” 

“Look,” I said. “I’m a middle-aged woman taking care of a C-4 quadriplegic. Mick Jagger understands my lack of satisfaction.”  

Twenty-four hours later the phone rang. “I got you a ticket,” she said, “but there’s a catch.” 

“What is it?”  

“You’ll have to go on something like a date to get it. A friend of mine has two nosebleed seats. He just broke up with his girlfriend. He’ll take you in her place.” 

“Confirmed!” I shouted. “Tell me where to meet him and I’ll be there.” 

“You have to go to his home two hours before show time. He doesn’t want to risk missing any of the concert by trying to find you in the Coliseum parking lot.”  

She gave me his number and I called him. He gav e me directions to his apartment and warned me not to be late. I explained to my husband where I was going. He was happy for me, and not the least bit interested in going himself. 

“Have a good time,” he said as I was leaving. “Don’t get arrested.” 

Thirt y minutes later I was sitting in my escort’s small, cramped living room. It was cramped because, among other things, it housed a full-size Harley Davidson motorcycle. “The safest place to keep a classic hog like this,” explained my host, “is as close to y our bedroom as possible.” His walls were lined floor-to-ceiling with records from the ‘60s. 

He offered me a drink while we waited for his friends. “No thanks,” I said, exactly the way I would’ve in 1967 when I was still in high school and about to attend an Iron Butterfly concert at the Electric Light Factory in Philadelphia. I was scared, but optimistic. 

His friends arrived and we piled into a windowless paneled van. It was eerily familiar, like 1972 when I was headed for a Procol Harum concert in the rear of Donnie Rowland’s Ford Econoline. I felt claustrophobic and slightly unhinged. I hoped the driver, whoever he was, knew the way to the coliseum. 

We arrived early. We took our seats. The Stones came on. I was not disappointed. 

We got lice. We got staph. We were temporarily brainwashed by an amateur cult leader. We paid our own way, took semesters off to travel and took in homeless veterans. We learned that, sadly, sometimes things do need to get worse before they get better.  

With the closing of Le Chateau Residence Club, a student co-op on the south side of the UC Berkeley campus, I can’t help but feel fewer and fewer institutions remain for idealist college students. It was at Le Chateau where my cohorts and I got early tra ining in tempering our idealism—an important step away from quashing it. We learned that consensus doesn’t really work. But neither does anything else if you don’t try.  

The current neighbors, who successfully sued the co-op for damages resulting from noise, garbage and disruptive behavior and forced its closure, don’t want to know that the shaping of community leaders and good neighbors has been happening right under their noses.  

In the early 1990s, when I lived in the three-house complex on Berkeley’s Hillegass Avenue, we weren’t shameless hippies and slackers—we were working it out. In a culture where middle-class, college-aged youth are expected to move far from home and achieve great things, self-sufficiency is top dollar. We were not ready to succumb to a decade of segregated apartment living, but neither could we get comfy in the ennui of towering dormitories.  

We chose, instead, a living arrangement based on the principles of cooperation established by a group of weavers in Rochdale, England, in 1844. Those same principles have been adopted by thousands of residential, food and industry co-ops across the world.  

We were drama geeks, bicycle activists, former Marine doctors, Vietnamese boat children and The Naked Guy. Today, we are midwives, t eachers, musicians, therapists and candidates in local elections. We work in affordable housing, pursue Ph.D.s in literature and film. We compost our garbage and drive biodiesel-fueled cars. We did work it out.  

I remember a morning when The Naked Guy qu ietly walked into the dining room and delicately put a small towel down on his chair before joining me for breakfast and a section of the newspaper.  

I remember how clean the house would be right before a big party—as everyone (well, almost everyone) chipped in to create the zone.  

I also remember the summer one resident adopted a runt pig named Bella that roamed the main house second floor. In a moment of poor judgment, the resident fed her magic mushrooms. Bella stumbled, snorting and scared, past my room, tripping out on the graffiti-covered walls that will be painted over this summer.  

Talking to current residents on a recent Saturday night, along with 25 or so alumni who joined together to watch the Last Chateau Sunset from the rooftop patio, I tr ied to find out what went wrong. “Was there really a meth lab in the basement?” I asked. Instead of confirming my worst fears—that the current generation was somehow louder, dirtier and less cooperative than us—these 20-somethings sounded a lot like me. T hey spoke passionately about the impact Le Chateau had on their worldview and their aspirations. They articulated clearly the Bay Area’s housing price crisis, conflicts between the co-op and its parent University Students Co-operative Association, and the ir own commitment to the house despite its problems.  

The noise and detritus that emanate from Le Chateau’s grounds hide the important work going on among and between and inside its residents. As one fellow alum on the rooftop said, “It was at Chateau th at I learned to get along with people I can’t stand.” If only the neighbors had learned that lesson when they were in college.  

Watching the light fade from the same roof where we had watched fires devastate the Oakland Hills in 1992, I was reminded of s ome important Chateau vocabulary. After a long, unsuccessful attempt to negotiate installation of a backyard hot tub, “Let’s hot tub it” became synonymous with postponing a difficult issue to a later meeting. I guess the house hot-tubbed one issue too man y with the neighbors.  

Still, I wonder what these homeowners expected when they bought property next to a student housing complex, four blocks from a public university and political hotbed People’s Park. Quiet neighbors? Next-door role models and reliabl e babysitters for their growing children? Surely they knew they were buying homes already discounted for location. Do they now get to change the neighborhood to increase their financial return?  

The answer seems to be yes—and Chateauvians suddenly know what gentrification feels like.  

The USCA has 17 co-ops still standing in Berkeley. The University of Michigan has an extensive co-op system, and in New Haven, Conn., a small, independent co-op on Elm Street is named proudly after the Rochdale principles. I hope these institutions and their peers can escape the fate of sky-rocketing property values and encroaching yuppie neighbors eager to live in hip college commercial districts with cafes and used bookstores.  

At Le Chateau we prided ourselves on feeling like we were on the cutting edge of something new. As the house’s doors are closed to undergraduates, scrubbed and re-opened for studious graduate students under a less majestic name, this time I hope we’re not.  

Patricia Johnson lived in Le Chateau Residence Club from 1993 to 1995.i›

Thanks to the Daily Planet, it has now become an open secret that Tom Bates is extending his heavy hand to thwart the efforts of the Berkeley Unified School District to begin construction of the transportation facility that was to be located on Sixth and Gilman streets. (A faded poster containing the formal legal announcement of the district’s plans for the project is still affixed to the anchor fence on the site.) 

Instead, under pressure from Bates, the district now wants to locate its motor pool vehicles including heavy equipment, and its central kitchen facility in a residential neighborhood on the West Campus next to a community swimming pool. 

In addition to the practical, social and ethical issues raised by these machinations, there are serious legal issues surrounding the disposition and use of land purchased with bond issue monies—land that legally belongs, not to the district, nor to the City of Berkeley, but to the citizens of the state of California. It appears  

that no one has raised these issues with the mayor or the district—at least not until now. 

West Berkeley has little open space and few recreational facilities. Many west campus neighbors, including the private schools, head start facilities and Berkeley Youth Alternatives, are concerned about the adverse impact on the seniors and children who use the pool and gymnasium if the district converts the West Campus site to the light industrial uses now proposed. (The West Campus out door pool is supposed to remain, but residents are concerned about the environmental impact on it of the proposed uses. To date the district has failed to conduct or agree to conduct an environmental impact study in connection with its proposed plan.) 

For undisclosed reasons, the district is determined to push through its plan in record time (less than six months), despite the recommendations of its legally appointed Construction Advisory Committee that the process should take at least 18 months. 

The Gilman-West Campus switcheroo also involves possible misapplication of funds intended by tax payers for school safety, not administrative upgrades, circumvention of environmental regulations and state laws governing the use of district property not required for district uses. These issues too, seem to have been glossed over—at least until now. However, West Campus neighbors are digging in for a fight, including legal battles, if necessary. 

Ruchama Burrell is a Berkeley resident.  

E

For the past 10 years California population has grown at an average rate of 1.3 percent a year, with the result that the state is now adding almost 500,000 people per year. However, from 2000 to 2003 (the years for which I found data) Alameda County grew by only 0.4 percent per year, and Berkeley actually shrank at a rate of 0.3 percent per year. There are many in Berkeley who have fought hard to achieve this. We have a zoning ordinance which limits new building heights to one-half that of some existing buildings. We have people who appeal to have buildings landmarked in order to block development plans. We have people who protest when plans trade-off an increase in units against a decrease in parking places. We have people who want an environmental impa ct report for any large, or medium-sized development. We have succeeded in halting growth in Berkeley, despite the growth in the state as a whole. 

Unfortunately, this success comes with a cost. In fact, it comes with several. The growth that didn’t occur in Berkeley and Alameda County appeared instead in Contra Costa and the Central Valley. Growth is not occurring by increasing density, but by sprawling outward, and covering over agricultural and wild land. Animals and plants are losing habitat, and, mor e directly, animals are being killed by increased vehicular traffic. Population growth is occurring in the parts of the state with the worst air quality, with the predictable consequences to public health. 

Studies have shown that vehicular use is inverse ly related to population density. Low density growth in the valley results in more vehicular use than infill that increases density in an already moderately dense city like Berkeley. We don’t even get the full benefit of at least having the traffic increa se occur somewhere else, as cars aren’t restricted to a given city. One of the subcontractors working on my recent bathroom remodel was driving in daily from Modesto, and I am sure others can tell similar stories. 

There are more direct costs too. Berkele y purports to value diversity, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for any but the rich to live here. Berkeley is a desirable place to live, but there is shortage of space, so land costs are high. In order to make prices more affordable the land cos ts could be spread out over more units. But this means covering a larger fraction of the lot or building higher, both of which are precluded by zoning ordinances meant to restrict growth. Another option is for the builder to reduce building costs, but thi s runs the risk of shoddy construction and long-term maintenance problems. One can only wonder whether the well publicized problems of our most infamous local developer might be in part due to our unrealistic building height restrictions. We seem to be managing the worst of all possible worlds; the construction is shoddy, but it is still too expensive to encourage diversity. 

If the city had the money it could maintain diversity by paying for subsidized housing, but the city gets its money in the form of property taxes. Currently our city is running severe budget short-falls. Major new construction could result in substantial increases in our property tax base, but that is currently not allowed—or at least it is not allowed by city rules. The university i s evidently not bound by our rules, and is contemplating a major hotel/convention center that presumably will violate the city building height and lot coverage rules, and won’t pay property taxes. The irony makes me gag. 

We are perhaps past the point whe n can talk about “smart growth.” At this point, it is crisis management. Do we deny that there is a problem, or do we start trying to create a sustainable future? If you believe that there really is a global warming problem, and that there really is a pot ential resource scarcity problem, then you should trying to do something about it. And locally one of things you can do is speak up for higher height limits, and more sensible restrictions on landmarking and demolition. 

Robert Clear is a Berkeley resident. 

I’ve been hearing a lot of foolishness and hypocrisy about parking in Berkeley. 

The most notorious example is the recent sneaky agreement between the city and UC. It “settles” the lawsuit about the Long-Range Development Plan by letting UC get away with building a vast amount of new parking to support UC’s expansion. Oh, UC claims they will cut back new parking plans by 45 percent, but it turns out this is “by 2015,” a decade away. 

UC will continue to expand, and the cars driven by the additional staff will clog the streets of Berkeley and befoul the Bay Area’s air. Our foolish city has effectively signed off on 2,060 new spaces at UC, even though doing this directly conflicts with city policy. The university itself has made absolutely no commitment to reduce automobile trips and traffic, and the pollution that goes with them. 

Stanford, when it grew, committed to no net increase in peak hour auto trips. There is no similar commitment coming from UC. 

There’s nothing being done to reduce driving to the Berkeley campus. Adding more parking spaces increases driving. I guess the student Class Pass will keep going, so UC students will still throng the buses, but it looks like UC is considering dropping the recently introduced “Bear Pass” for staff. Why doe s UC “Parking and Transit” want to spend $65,000 per parking space but less than $100 per transit rider? UC Berkeley’s efforts to reduce congestion look pretty poor when compared with what’s been done at Stanford, or University of Washington, or even UCLA. 

I heard some more parking foolishness last Thursday (May 26). I arrived for the Zoning Adjustments Board meeting while someone from the DBA was calling for ZAB to require an extra level of underground parking at the proposed Brower Center. He wailed ab out the “precedent” that would be set if the Brower project didn’t have enough parking. He said that Berkeley’s General Plan calls for more parking. Well, it doesn’t; the transportation element of the General Plan calls for shifting people away from drivi ng cars; it calls for people living and working downtown to make use of public transit. 

A few years ago, the city and UC jointly funded the Transportation Demand Management (TDM) study. The two main TDM recommendations called for better signage about lot space and to motivate all-day parkers to ride the bus and quit taking away short-term spaces from shoppers and visitors. As far as I know, city staff is currently only looking at the signage, paying no attention to making all-day parking into short-term. 

We need to stop the onrush of cars, slow our consumption of non-renewable oil energy and do something to hold back the approaching disaster of global warming. 

Both the city and UC should put a cap on parking, and give priority on spaces to people who m ust use their car during the day, or really can’t use public transit. Public money should be spent on public transit, not parking lots. 

It seems that the “parking lobby” (largely downtown business people) has been engaging in a little hypocrisy. At a rec ent Transportation Commission meeting, UC Professor Betty Deakin showed that parking-metered spaces are regularly filled by employees of downtown businesses. Those same businesses that claim more parking is needed, have employees feeding meters and owners parking in front of their own businesses. Some Berkeley businesses are shooting themselves in the foot. 

At that same TC meeting, somebody in the audience declaimed to the effect that perception is reality. His idea was that if people think they have a right to drive for all purposes, then they have a right to a parking space. He was asked why we should build more parking spaces when we don’t make use of all the spaces we have; he didn’t have an answer. 

We really should stop this foolish self-defeating promotion of parking. The Brower Center doesn’t need any more parking. Neither does UC. What we need is fewer cars and more use of public transit. There are really very few people who “must” drive and “can’t” use public transit. The reason why so many peo ple drive is that they know they can find a parking space. 

Let’s stop being hypocritical. Let’s stop bypassing the General Plan. We need to limit parking and to motivate people not to use cars to commute to work. Two good places to start are with the people who work at the UC Berkeley campus and with the people who will work at the center named for the great environmentalist David Brower. 

Steve Geller is a Berkeley resident. 

h

As a fan of the Berkeley Daily Planet, I was worried when I learned that Knight Ridder was starting a free daily newspaper in the East Bay. I had just finished reading Davis Merritt’s new book, Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the Erosion of Newspaper Journalism Is Putting Democracy at Risk. The story he tells does not inspire faith that, when Knight Ridder moves in, good journalism will prevail. 

Himself a former Knight Ridder editor, Merritt draws on a store of personal experiences to make his point: that selling newspaper stock on Wall Street undermines newspapers’ ability to operate in the public interest.  

When newspapers become public companies, the business side sets profit goals, and editors have to meet them. They try: They plump up their “sof t” coverage of food, fashion, lifestyles, homes, and cars to appeal to baby-boomers and advertisers. They cut hard news, especially foreign news. They cut staff. 

As Merritt tells the story, the staff cuts were the hardest changes for top Knight Ridder editors to take when demands for higher revenues sharpened in the 1990s. Starting in the mid-1990s, seasoned Knight Ridder editors and publishers began jumping ship.  

Merritt understands the anguish of the editors who left—he was one of them. He had spent a year away from his job as editor of the Wichita Eagle in the mid-1990s to promote the idea of “public journalism,” and when he came back, he found his world “totally changed.”  

Knight Ridder executive Jim Batten, supporter of journalism in the public interest, was near death, leaving Knight Ridder chairman and CEO Tony Ridder free to realize his own vision for the company. What Merritt saw disturbed him: “Creeping corporatism was at its height, with every news decision having a marketing subtext.” 

As newsprint costs soared, the company still wanted Merritt to produce a 22.5 percent return in 1996. He could not see where the money would come from. 

“There was no fat left; we had cut through muscle and maybe chipped some bone in preparing the 1996 budge t….” 

He made the decision to cut circulation outside of metropolitan Wichita: 10,000 readers learned they would no longer receive the paper. 

Explaining the decision, he wrote in a column, “If you and I owned the Eagle, we might make a different decision. We might conclude that continuing to circulate in those distant areas, even at a loss, was important to us as a matter of conscience, and important to the affected people, to Wichita, to the state, and to the moral imperative of keeping people informed in a democracy. We could choose to accept less profit. 

“But you and I do not own the Eagle. It is part of Knight-Ridder, Inc., a publicly held company that is owned by shareholders all across the nation.” 

Merritt was swiftly eased out of the top job and into a senior editor’s slot. He retired early two years after that. 

Other top executives departed with more sound and fury. Jay Harris, chairman and publisher of the San Jose Mercury News, resigned in 2001 with a parting blast. Speaking to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Harris granted that good journalism had to be underwritten by good business but asked, “What is good enough in terms of profitability and sustained year-to-year profit improvement?… 

“When the interests of readers and shareho lders are at odds, which takes priority? When the interests of a community and shareholders are at odds, which takes priority? When the interests of the nation in an informed citizenry and the demands of shareholders for ever-increasing profits are at odds, which takes priority?” 

I remember e-mailing that speech to my journalism students, or, I should say, the students in my journalism classes. Only a few of them want to be journalists. In a worrisome sign of the times, they’re more interested in public relations and advertising. Some would like to go into magazines and television, but few want work for newspapers. Like others in their generation many don’t even read newspapers.  

Desperate to reach younger readers, newspaper companies across the country are taking a new tack, as Editor and Publisher reported recently: free dailies filled with snappy news (and, of course, ads)—dailies like Knight Ridder’s new East Bay venture. 

Announcing its launch of the East Bay Daily News, Knight Ridder promised, in its press release, to offer local news—always a good thing; there’s plenty to go around, and I expect Daily Planet readers could read both the Daily Planet and the new daily and still not get enough. 

But Knight Ridder also promised to “offer results—low-cost advertising programs that are affordable for even the smallest businesses.” 

That sounds like the Daily Planet’s advertisers to me. Even newspapers published in the public interest need to pay for themselves, eventually. I worry about the effects Kni ght Ridder’s competition could have on the Daily Planet’s modest income. 

I remember the independent bookstore that a young man who loved books started up not long after I moved to Bloomington, Ind. For the first time, the town had a bookstore bigger than a hole in the wall: It was almost like being back in Berkeley. 

Within a couple of years, Borders had moved in—right next door, offering its books at the cut-rate prices the bookstore chains can afford. Within months, the independent was dead in the wate r. In place of Morgenstern’s bBooks, selected with some understanding of what the community is like, we have a corporate outlet. 

That’s the logic of the marketplace. 

Does the logic of the marketplace have to rule newspapers? Merritt suggests not. He off ers alternatives—companies that refuse Wall Street’s demands for astronomical profits; newspapers published by nonprofit foundations; boards of directors that include representatives who would defend journalism. 

There are many other alternatives, some of them being explored by the growing independent media movement. What these alternatives have in common is a concept of journalism, not as consumer product, but as empowerment. In the eyes of the indie movement, corporate journalism is a contradiction in t erms. The best way to fix corporate journalism may be to nurture newsrooms of our own.  

That is what Becky and Mike O’Malley have done in Berkeley. I’ve known Becky since we worked together in the Bay Area Writers Union in its earliest days, and I understand the O’Malleys’ commitment to journalism. After reading Merritt’s Knightfall, I can’t say I have the same faith in Knight Ridder. 

Carol Polsgrove, a journalism professor at Indiana University, is the author of It Wasn’t Pretty, Folks, But Didn’t We Have Fun? Surviving the ‘60s with Esquire’s Harold Hayes (RDR Books). 

KNIGHTFALL: KNIGHT RIDDER AND HOW THE EROSION OF NEWSPAPER JOURNALISM IS PUTTING DEMOCRACY AT RISK 

By Davis Merritt 

AMACOM, 256 pages, $24.95?Ì

One hundred years ago poet George Sterling arrived in Carmel on the cusp of a storied era for the Monterey Peninsula.  

He wrote in his diary, now in the Bancroft Library, “June 30, 1905. Fine weather. Put up small tent.” The next day’s entry reads “Fine weather. Put up large tent.” Later, he’d write, “This is a fine place for cheap grub,” referring to the opportunity to freely collect abalone and mussels and hunt small game on the Monterey peninsula. 

Such simple beginnings marked the start of a migrati on of kindred bohemians, artists, and authors from Mary Austin to Robinson Jeffers, who would shape the little town and its environs into a storied artist colony. 

Those early days in a region now dominated by some of California’s most expensive and exclu sive coastal real estate, restaurants, and resorts, are evoked in an attractive new book, The Monterey Peninsula: A Postcard Journey, by Berkeleyan Burl Willes. 

A retired Berkeley travel agent, traveler, and author, Willes drew extensively on private and public historical and postcard collections to organize this attractive image-filled book. 

Willes particularly credits collector Pat Hathaway’s extensive Monterey postcard collection for the images in this book. The postcards, most in color, are reproduc ed near actual size, or enlarged, typically no more than two to a page, to create a lavish display. 

Chapters are generally geographical, from Monterey through Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach and Carmel, and south to Big Sur. The postcards profile each region in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A page or two of text at the beginning of each chapter introduce themes and give historical context and local anecdotes, but this is primarily a book of visual display. 

Here, for example, are pages on Monterey’s Hotel Del Monte, with its greenswards, tennis courts, outdoor maze and pools, and indoor plunge. Built in 1880, the sprawling complex attracted well-heeled vacationers, including many East Bay residents, who arrived by train or yacht and put Monterey on the map as an “internationally acclaimed tourist destination.”  

Other postcards evoke not only that early 20th century era of mid-coastal California bohemians and recreation, but periods and peoples that Californian’s majority American-era population replace d and displaced.  

One postcard displays “the Largest Collection of Indian Mortars and Pestles in the World,” the artifacts piled high against a flag-bedecked wall. And there are several images of a Chinese coastal fishing village whose residents were dri ven out by arson in 1905. 

There are pages displaying what Willes calls “the crumbling remains of [Monterey’s] rich cultural heritage,” encompassing Spanish, Mexican, and pre-Gold Rush American eras.  

Humble and stately adobes are shown, along with the C armel mission, then a picturesque unroofed ruin, where Americans would make a holiday of unearthing Father Serra’s grave. Other postcards trumpet “The First Brick Building” and the “First Frame Building” in California, the latter looking on the verge of c ollapse, and Monterey’s first prominent literary landmark, the house where Robert Louis Stevenson stayed. 

The early natural abundance of the Peninsula is also captured in postcards of sardine canneries, fishing fleets, and an immense pile of thousands of abalone shells on a postcard advertising “Porter Bro’s. Pioneer Preparers of Abalone Steaks.” All would eventually be decimated by overuse. 

Local events important and unusual were frequently recorded in special postcards, from a huge beached basking sha rk surrounded by spectators, to shoreline storm damage, a ship run aground, and local festivals and celebrations.  

There’s a splendid two-page spread showing the 1908 visit by Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet to Monterey Bay, juxtaposed one sheet over, with a two-page view of the same bay more typically and tranquilly dotted with tiny fishing boats.  

There are also numerous images of families in Victorian swimming gear and attire for hotels, hot springs, fishing, and country jaunts, all just having a good time as families still do today when visiting Monterey.  

Little country cabins, early golf courses, the one lane dirt coastal road to Big Sur, rustic mansions, unpopulated beaches, quiet small-town streets, the outdoor Forest Theatre, and an early Asilomar populated with canvas fronted sleeping cabins are all shown, along with images of country life such as “milk shrines,” little covered stands where neighbors left their money for milkmen who dropped off the daily delivery. 

The Monterey Peninsula stands as a nice companion to another history organized and edited by Willes, Picturing Berkeley: A Postcard History. That volume has just been reissued in a softcover format and is now in local bookstores (Gibbs-Smith, $24.95. Copies of the original, 200 2 hardcover edition are still available from the Berkeley Historical Society and Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.) 

Picturing Berkeley contains a splendid array of handsome and nostalgic views of early Berkeley, both town and university.  

Cha pters were authored and organized by several local historians and collectors, and the book provides not only good written and visual profiles of the evolution of the community, but a precise and compact explanation of the different sorts and uses of early picture postcards.  

Graphic designer Kathleen Tandy created the handsome look of both postcard books. 

The Monterey Peninsula is the third local history by Willes, a quiet supporter of numerous historical enterprises. He also authored the popular Tales of the Elmwood: A Community Memory. 

Useful for historical reference, pleasure reading, or gifts, all the Burl Willes volumes should be on a well-stocked Berkeley bookshelf, coffee table, or nightstand. 

THE MONTEREY PENINSULA:  

A POSTCARD JOURNEY 

By Burt Willes 

Gibbs-Smith, 208 pages, $29.95

Gothic columns of petrified motion, 

graceful as a chorus of dying flowers 

So go Owen Hill’s lines over Robert Eliason’s image of the northeast corner of Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street. With bright sunlight in the vacant lot where once the Berkeley Inn stood and on the fading Victorian behind, the foreground a silhouette of the spiked iron fence with a shadowy but youthful feminine figure hurrying past—overlays of what the avenue’s once been, is now, and always seems to be. The two Moe’s booksellers’ collaborative series of photos with words, The Telegraph 3 p.m. Project, is now on display inside and out businesses up and down the avenue and on various websites, including the City of Berkeley’s. 

“Main Street U.S.A. on the surface/Belies an Emma Gold man dream-world.” 

The project began with Eliason’s afternoon breaks from the bookstore, walking the avenue and taking pictures with a digital camera. “For about 25 years, I’d been taking pictures on Telegraph, mostly black and white, with every kind of c amera you’d imagine. A year ago, I got a digital and went crazy with it.” He took more than 45,000 photos over the past 10 months, boiled down to about 200 in the project, 81 with lines of verse superimposed. 

“I look for movement, colorful groups; holdin g the camera at chest-level—sneaky,” he says. “I just react, wherever my eye goes. I don’t even have to look for every picture.” 

Indeed, he shows an Eadweard Muybridge-like sequence of stills that give the impression of motion, pointing to the one that m ade the cut. “That’s why there’re so many, as many as 600 in a half-hour. If I can get a couple out of all those.”  

Eliason says, “I’ve really admired Owen’s writing for a long time, and threw lots of ideas at him for some kind of project to do togethe r. Finally, these pictures of the street just hit.” 

“These pictures were just too good,” Owen Hill said. “I had to do something. We’ve been looking out the same window at the avenue for about 20 years. I wasn’t confident I could write enough—and, once th e Telegraph Business Improvement District backed us to hang the pictures up and down the street, I was writing under deadline—writing poetry under deadline is interesting.” 

Walking north on the avenue, the 11”x17” prints come into view discretely, same a s the moving tableaux that inspired them do. Strolling by Tandoor Kitchen, two of them attract attention in the side windows on Parker Street. 

“Two kinds/of spirals/helix/& volute:/the spontaneous/feats of/the sidewalk/saltambiques” are the words imposed over a streetlife picture, and another, “Often when the community/comes together to/celebrate/itself things get/kind of/messy,” with a group of happy, messy faces. 

In the window at Moe’s Books, above the “Almost Moe” bust of the store’s founder sporting his cigar is a picture of the same window and sculpture with the following verse, “it is generous/and democratic/that there is a saint/for almost every situation/there is even a saint for/second-hand bookstores.”  

Concentrating more on democracy and p oetry than beatitude is another, appropriately opening with words Allen Ginsberg quoted from Whitman in a Beat poem written in Berkeley: “to lie/between/the bride/and the bridegroom/as the poet said/after eyeballing/the coeds.” 

Some storefronts bear imag es of the storefront itself, without any text. There are a few verseless pictures of life on the street (a group of kids playing a sax, flute and keyboards on the sidewalk). Others focus in both words and image on the younger denizens: “Youth/hits the wal l and bounces/away barely scathed/leaving behind a few loose bricks” over a photograph of sun-drenched figures casting lush shadows on a glaring brick wall. 

The two collaborators are now recognized on the street. 

“Famous on my own block,” says Hill, who lives around the corner from the avenue at the Chandler Apartment, which is also the title of his detective novel (of a private eye working in a bookstore). 

There are plans to exhibit all the pictures and a book proposal is in development. On July 11, a t the celebration of Moe’s birthday, there will be slides shown of the project, with Telegraph Avenue street poet Julia Vinograd reading.  

“We have precedents,” says Eliason, “That landmark ‘60s book of Richard Misrach photos, Telegraph 3 a.m., was an inspiration for the title of the project. As Owen said, we want to show the sunnier side. But that’s the time of my break, too, when I’m out shooting. 

“And about 10 years ago, there were photos of storefronts exhibited in those same windows, like some of ours are.” he continues. “We hope to help raise the consciousness of the street a little, spruce it up, in Owen’s words. Change the way you look at everything that’s going on out here a bit.” 

The complete Telegraph 3 p.m. Project can be seen at http://l ostinthestars.com/telegraph.Se

The wild turkeys continue to expand their presence in the Berkeley hills. Some of their new neighbors have mixed feelings about these large untidy and sometimes aggressive birds. And the turkeys may be impacting other species, either through predation (on salamanders and the like) or displacement. 

On the other hand, they are without question interesting creatures, with surprisingly complex behavior patterns. UC-Berkeley graduate student Alan Krakauer has shown just how complex in his recent article, “Kin selection and cooperative courtship in wild turkeys,” in the prestigious journal Nature. Krakauer did his field work at UC’s Hastings Reservation in Carmel Valley, but his observations may apply species-wide; he says similar behavior has been documented throughout California and on the east coast. 

Almost 40 years ago, a Utah State University doctoral candidate named C. Robert Watts went to the Welder Wildlife Refuge in south Texas to study the local population of turkeys. What he found, as reported in a 1971 piece for Scientific American, was a rigidly hierarchical society. Social rank, Watts claimed, was everything to a wild turkey. A bird’s status was set for life during its first year. He described groups of males, which he believed to be siblings, displaying to females together—a behavior called lekking, also found among prairie grouse, birds of paradise, sandpipers, and other groups of birds. Most of the time, only the dominant male in the dominant group got to mate. His coalition partners displayed for all they were worth, but never got any action. 

If evolutionary fitness is all about passing on as many copies of your genes as possible, the behavior of a subordinate male turkey doesn’t make a lot of sense at first glance. Remember that the turkeys are presumed to be brothers, though, with each individual sharing half his genes with his siblings. If only the top-ranking bird mates, he still acts as his brothers’ representative. By helping him attract females and face down rival males, they ensure the perpetuation of those shared genes.  

This is the essence of British geneticist W. D. Hamilton’s concept of “kin selection,” widely invoked to explain altruistic behavior in animals—like the self-sacrifice of the worker honeybee—and, by some, in humans. Another Briton, J. B. S. Haldane (or, by some accounts, R. A. Fisher), once did a back-of-the-envelope calculation in a pub and announced: “I will lay down my life for two brothers or eight cousins.” 

Watts’s turkeys looked like a classic case of kin selection in action. His study was cited by E. O. Wilson in his magisterial Sociobiology, and referenced in textbooks. There was one problem, though: Watts had never established that the display partners were brothers. Critics argued that since hen turkeys pooled their broods after hatching, young male turkeys grew up in the company of non-siblings and might join display groups with them. And later researchers at the Welder Refuge were unable to corroborate Watts’s observations, possibly because the turkey population had crashed. 

Alan Krakauer says he took on the turkey project at the urging of his advisor, Walt Koenig, whose own work at Hastings involves the social life of acorn woodpeckers. “With the complex social system and the mystery about why they’re cooperating, I got hooked,” Krakauer says. Having verified that the Hastings turkeys displayed in groups, he set out to measure the relatedness of the display partners and their contribution to the next generation of hatchlings. That required trapping the wary birds to take blood samples, using a contraption resembling a giant lobster pot baited with cracked corn. “They never really got used to my presence,” he recalls. “They became harder to trap over time.” 

Using genetic tools not available to Watts in the ‘60s, Krakauer found that the display partners were indeed bands of brothers. The bond is life-long; coalitions change only when a member dies, and subordinates never strike out on their own. Beyond confirming that only the dominant bird got to mate, his observations showed that dominant males in a coalition mated with more females than solitary males did, and paternity tests established that dominants fathered more offspring than solitaries. Score one for kin selection. 

Biologists have documented kin associations among other lekking birds, but none has a system quite like the wild turkey’s. “In black grouse, peafowl, and some manakins, related males display together but each has his own territory,” Krakauer explains. Manakins are small, brightly colored birds of the New World tropics whose courtship routines include an avian version of the moonwalk. Males of some manakin species pool their talents to singe and dance in tandem. “The long-tailed and lance-tailed manakins have a partnership like the turkeys, but the males aren’t related,” he says. “The subordinates don’t get matings, but they may inherit the dance perch or get the opportunity to practice their dances.” 

The nearest analog to the turkey brotherhoods may occur in mammals like the African lion and bottle-nosed dolphin. Sibling lions band together to take over prides of females. However, the dominant lion doesn’t monopolize mating opportunities. “Some populations of bottle-nosed dolphins have teams of related males that pester females until they’re ready to mate,” Krakauer says. “It’s not clear whether the males are sharing.” 

“We wouldn’t have known about the turkeys without being able to look at their DNA,” he concludes. “It’s a real boon to behavioral ecology.” Finally, the textbook case is bolstered by hard genetic data.  

Krakauer’s next project, after finishing his thesis, will involve another lek-displaying bird, the greater sage-grouse. He’ll be working with UC-Davis’s Gail Patricelli, inventor of the robogrouse—a radio-controlled dummy female sagehen that she sends out onto the lek to interact with the males. Patricelli has previously used this technique with satin bowerbirds in Australia. The robotic turkey is still some distance in the future.  

TUESDAY, MAY 31 

Morning Bird Walk in Tilden Park Meet at 10 a.m. at the Nature Center. 525-2233.  

Berkeley Marina Walk with the Solo Sierrans at 1:30 p.m. For information and reservations call Betsy, 620-9424. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. In case of questionable weather, call around 8 a.m. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Green City Visions A conference on how to rebuild our human habitat to save the environment from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1547 Lakeshore Drive, Oakland. Sponsored by Oakland’s Office of the Mayor and Ecocity Builders. http://ecocitybuilders.org/greencity 

Backpacking 101 Review the fundamentals of gear, water purification, bear-proofing food and first aid kit essentials at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

“Globalize Liberation” an evening of ideas and inspiration with Marina Sitrin, Elizabeth Martinez, and others at 7 p.m. AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St. Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito Plaza. 433-2911. 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Sing-A-Long every Tues. from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic. All ages welcome. 524-9122. 

Brainstormer Weekly Pub Quiz every Tuesday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Pyramid Alehouse Brewery, 901 Gilman St. 528-9880. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

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

“Shavuot: A Meeting Point between Cyclical and Linear Time” with Avital Plan at 7:30 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0237. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1 

“The Witness” a film on rescueing abandoned animals, and the meat and fur industries, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. www.HumanistHall.net 

Walking Tour of Oakland Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 10 a.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Volunteers are needed to support the more than 40 blood drives held each month all over the East Bay. Advance sign-up needed 594-5165. 

American Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Alta Bates Summit Auditorium, 2450 Ashby Ave. To make an appointment call 1-800-448-3543. www.BeADonor.com 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Action St. 841-2174.  

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7:15 a.m. at Au Cocolait, 200 University Ave. at Milvia. 524-3765. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. 548-9840. 

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

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

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JUNE 2 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7 a.m. at Kennedy Grove off San Pablo Dam Rd. to look for woodland and chaparral birds. 525-2233. 

Condominium Conversion Public Hearing on proposed amendments to the Berkeley Ordinance at 7:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5431. 

Friends of Faith Fundraiser in honor of KTVU reporter Faith Fancher at Scott’s Seafood Restaurant, Jack London Square. For more information and reservations call 204-1667. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 3 

“The Iraq War: Domestic Costs” with William Rivers Pitt at 7 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. Cost is $5-$15, no one turned away. 524-4244. 

“Speaking Out Against the War Machine” a discussion with Cindy Sheehan of Military Families Speak Out, Donna Foley of Pax Christi, and Cathy Orozco of CCCO at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 482-1062. 

“An Evening with Iyanla Vanzant” at 6:30 p.m. at Black Repertory Theater., Adeline St. 652-2120. www.blackrepertorygroup.com 

Water Safety Day Learn how to keep your child safe in the water, at 11 a.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

Yoga with Baby Learn yoga stretches and techniques that you can do with your baby. Mats provided. At 6 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 658-7353. 

Kirtan, improvisational devotional chanting at 7:30 p.m. at 850 Talbot, at Solano, Albany. Donation $10. 526-9642. 

“Three Beats for Nothing” a small group meeting weekly at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center to sing for fun and practice, mostly 16th century harmony. No charge. 655-8863, 843-7610. dann@netwiz.net 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 8 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. Players at all levels are welcome. 845-1041. 

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. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

SATURDAY, JUNE 4 

Family Fun Day at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Civic Center Parrk, with performances, hands-on activities and informational booths. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Spring Faire at Washington Elementary School, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2300 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Activities for kids, health and education booths, food, raffle and performances. Free. 486-1742. 

Sacramento Street Community Cleanup, from Oregon St. to Alcatraz. Meet at 9 a.m. at the El Nopal Restaurant parking lot, 3136 Sacramento, to help sweep, weed, pick-up litter and remove graffiti. Bring gloves if you have them. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley Neighborhood Services, 981-7000. 

National Trails Day Service Project Join REI for a day of trail maintenance in Tilden Park, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For ages 14 and up. Registration required. 527-4140, ext. 259. 

Bird’s Eye View Hike to the top of Wildcat Peak from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bring your lunch and something to drink. For information and meeting place call 525-2233. 

Sick Plant Clinic UC plant pathologist Dr. Robert Raabe, UC entomologist Dr. Nick Mills, and their team of experts will diagnose what ails your plants from 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755.  

Build a Pond for Wildlife Learn about the design and features, including native pond plants and maintenance, from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the VIsitor Center, Tilden Park. Optional tour to Big Nest Wildlife Pond in Sebastopol from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Cost is $30-$35. Bring your lunch. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

“Eating Wild Foods” Learn about the edible native plants and common weeds and how to gather and prepare them. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10-$15, no one turned away. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Nature Survival For Kids from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. For ages 8-12. Learn what to eat, how to make shelter and first aid techniques. Registration required. 525-2233. 

East Bay Atheists meets at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., Third Floor meeting room. Burt Bogardus will speak about the separation of religion and government, with particular attention to faith-based initiatives. 222-7580. 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of the “Square Block” in West Berkeley at 11 a.m. Cost is $8-$10. Call for meeting place. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around the restored 1870s business district. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of G.B. Ratto’s at 827 Washington St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

“Anti-War Activities in the Bay Area” A forum on the laws, anti-recruitment efforts and the Central Committee of Conscientious Objectors from 1 to 3 p.m. at Temescal Library, 5205 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 601-6456, 525-6105. 

California Writers Club hosts fifth-graders reading their prize-winning work at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. 482-0265. www.berkeleywritersclub.org 

North Berkeley Block Party from 4 to 8 p.m. on Delaware, between Shattuck and Milvia. Potluck/bbq with music. Benefit for Vitamin Angels. Donation $5. 

Record Show with hard to find LPs, 45s soul, jazz, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2318 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $2. 452-2452. 

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 5 

A Taste of Albany: A Small Town Walkabout from 1 to 7 p.m. on Solano and San Pablo Aves. Tastings at 18 restaurants, music and arts and crafts show. Tickets are $20 in advance from participating restaurants. www.albanychamber.org 

Compost Critters An afternoon of exploration for ages five and up. Learn what animals do the dirty work of turning leftovers into rich soil, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Hands-On Bicycle Clinic from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

Afternoon in the Garden with Anne Lamott with a reading, silent auction and refreshments, fom 1 to 4 p.m. at 485 Ellita Ave. on Lake Merritt, Oakland. Tickets are $50. Benefit for Jesuit Volunteers. 415-522-1599. www.jesuitvolunteers.org 

Good Night Little Farm Help with the afternoon feeding, learn about our rare breeds and help tuck the animals in for the night, at 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Little Farm, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

“Being Gay, Jewish and in an Interfaith Relationship” A discussion with Rabbi Allen Bennett at 11:30 a.m. at Temple Sinai, 2808 Summit St., Oakland. 547-2250. 

Tibetan Buddhism with at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, JUNE 6 

Tea and Hike at Four Taste some of the finest teas from the Pacific Rim and South Asia and learn their natural and cultural history, followed by a short nature walk. At 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $5-$7, registration required. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Charles Ostman, cofounder of Fourth Venture, a company formed to convert former Soviet military technologies into applications for water treatment and alternative energy at 7 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Non-member donation $5. 527-0450.  

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60 years and over meets Mondays at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Join at any time. Cost is $2.50 with refreshments. 524-9122. 

Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Membership Meeting with discussion on the Elmwood shopping district, at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 

Free Women of Spain Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women with Martha Ackelsberg at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

Sufi Teachings and Zikr at 7 p.m. at the MTO Center, 2855 Telegraph Ave., Suite 101. 704-1888. 

Trivia Cafe at 7 p.m. at Ristorante Raphael, 2132 Center St. Cost is $10. 644-9500. 

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

TUESDAY, JUNE 7 

“Introduction to California Birdlife” a conversation with field biologist Jules Evens and nature photographer Ian Tait, at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. In case of questionable weather, call around 8 a.m. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Trekking in California with guidebook author Paul Richins at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

Quit Smoking Class meets Tues. evening from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at South Berkeley Senior Center for six evenings. Sponsored byt he City of Berkeley. To register call 981-5330. 

“Police Practices” A panel discussion with Doris Brown, former Richmond Police Commissioner, James Chanin, civil rights attorney, Sgt. Alan Normandy, South SF Police Dept. and Mark Schlosberg, ACLU Police Practices Dept. at 7 p.m. at the Richmond Main Library Community Room, 325 Civic Center Drive. Sponsored by the ACLU. 558-0377. 

Choke Saving Skills Day Learn these important skills at 11 a.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

Mid-Day Meander Meet at 2:30 p.m. at the Alvarado/ 

Wildcat Staging Area off Park Ave. for a history walk to the Belgum Estate. 525-2233. 

Tilden 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. Girls and boys ages 8-12, unaccompanied by their parents. From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $6-$8. Reservations required. 636-1684. 

Apartment Building Management For Women A class on Tues. and Thurs. evenings at 6 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Building Education Center Cost is $250 or sliding scale. To register call 525-7610.  

Young Leadership Division Jewish Federation meets at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Hillel. RSVP to 839-2900 ext. 216.  

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Brainstormer Weekly Pub Quiz every Tuesday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Pyramid Alehouse Brewery, 901 Gilman St. 528-9880. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Sing-A-Long every Tues. from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic. All ages welcome. 524-9122. 

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

ONGOING 

Summer Camps for Children offered by the City of Berkeley, including swimming, sports and twilight basketball, from June 20 to August 12, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For details call 981-5150, 981-5153. 

Find a Loving Animal Companion at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society Adoption Center (open from 11 a.m. - 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 Society low-cost veterinary clinic. 2700 Ninth St. For appointments call 845-3633. www.berkeleyhumane.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., June 1, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5347. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., June 1, at 7:30 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/firesafety 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., June 2, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/environmentaladvisory 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., June 2, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housing 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., June 2, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks

TUESDAY, MAY 31 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: “The Lost Generation” with filmmaker Jack Walsh at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Golden Bowl” adapted by Isabelle Rogin read by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Patricia Rain discusses “Vanilla: A Cultural History of the World’s Favorite Flavor and Fragrance” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Dylan Schaffer introduces his new mystery “I Right the Wrongs” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The People’s Jazz Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Randy Craig Trio at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Bill Frisell with Brian Blade & Sam Yahel at 8 and 10 p.m. through Thurs. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $16-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Gary Rowe, solo jazz piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1 

EXHIBITIONS 

Alvarado Artists Group Show with works by Marilyn MacGregor, Barbara Werner, Joan Lakin Mikkelsen, Carla Dole and MJ Orcutt opens at the Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. 848-1228.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Eric Dyson asks “Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sonic Camouflage at 8 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 763-7711. www.cafevankleef.com  

Ned Boynton Trio at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Paul Arnoldi at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Quimbobo, salsa, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159. 

THURSDAY, JUNE 2 

CHILDREN 

Kid’s Musical Theater “Finding My Own Rock and Roll” with students from the Park Day School, at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $5-$10. 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players, “Arabian Night” opens at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. and runs Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. until July 10. Tickets are $10-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Real World” An exhibit of carbon copies and simulations, reproductions and scale models. Reception at 6 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibit runs to July 16. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

FILM 

“Goodbye, Dragon Inn” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Free screening. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Tribute to the Divas” with Dee Spencer at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Community Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

Jeanne Wagner featured poet at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Kevin Smokler reads from a collection of contemporary writers, “Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New Century Chamber Orchestra “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis” at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $18-$39. 415-357-1111. www.ncco.org 

“Tribute to the Divas” with Denise Perrier at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Central Reading Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

Ro Sham Bo and The Irrationals, a cappella at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568.  

Rafael Manriquez Trio, guitar and vocals, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

John Reischman & The Jaybirds at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jackpot, Nik Freitas at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Paul Mehling and Will Bernard at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Nathan Clevenger Group at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 763-7711.  

Akosua, African folk fusion, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

FRIDAY, JUNE 3 

THEATER 

Berkeley Repertory Theater “The People’s Temple” at the Roda Theater and runs through June 5. Tickets are $20-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Rep, “Honour” opens at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. and runs through July 3. Tickets are $20-$39. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Private Lives” Noel Coward’s comedy. Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through June 12, at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. Tickets are $10. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Shotgun Players, “Arabian Night” Thurs.-Su. at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. until July 10. Tickets are $10-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Subterranean Shakespeare “The Taming of the Shrew,” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, through June 24. For reservations call 276-3871. 

Un-Scripted Theater Company “The Short and the Long of It” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., through June 25 at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St., Oakland. Tickets are $7-$10. 415-869-5384. www.un-scripted.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

Gallery Talk with Sculptor Bruce Beasley discussing his 45-Year Retrospective at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $4-$8. 238-2200.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Myrlie Evers-Williams presents “The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero’s Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters and Speeches” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High Dance Projects Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Berkeley High. 

Berkeley Edge Fest 70th Birthday Celebration for Terry Riley at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$32. 642-9988.  

Pacific Collegium “Couperin le Grand: Grand Motets” at 8 p.m. at St. Paul’s Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$20. www.pacificcollegium.org 

Galax Quartet, consort music for strings and voice by John Dowland and Roy Wheldon at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10-$15. 601-1370.  

Hide Date at 8 p.m. and Ed Reed and his Trio at 9 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Cowpokes for Peace at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Lalo Izquierdo and Rompe y Raja, Afro-Peruvian music and dance at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Vince Wallace Quintet at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 763-7711.  

Tom Paxton at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Houston Jones at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Jeff Kazor and the Swerve Beats at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

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

Todd Boston, singer-songwriter, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Eileen Hazel and Helen Chaya at 8 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

A.D.D., Riot Au Go Go, False Alliance at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Paquito D’Rivera and members of the Turtle Island String Quartet at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $15-$24. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, JUNE 4 

THEATER 

Bembero Mudengu: Telling My Story Zimbabwean dance, music, ceremony and storytelling with Julia Tsitsi Chigamba and the Chigamba family at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $12-$18. 925-798-1300. 

California Shakespeare Theater, “Othello” at 8 p.m. at Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., between Berkeley and Orinda, through July 3. Tickets are $10-$55. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“New Work” paintings by Yasuko Kaya, Chung Ae Kim, Mitsuyo Moore opens at 4th Street Studio, 1717D 4th St. and runs to June 17. 527-0600. www.fourthstreetstudio.com 

FILM 

International Disability Film Festival Sat. and Sun. from 1 to 5 p.m. Reception Sun. at 6 p.m. at La Peña. 849-2568.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Mike Marriner, Brian McAllister, and Nathan Gebhard describ their cross-country road-trip and interviews with notable leaders in “Finding the Open Road: A Guide to Self-Construction Rather Than Mass Production” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

“Blind at the Museum” sign-language gallery talk at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Terry Riley and the Last Half Century of American Music” A discussion with Paul Dresher, Joan Jeanrenaud and others at 4 p.m. at Elkus Room, 125 Morrison Hall, UC Campus. PArt of The Berkeley Edge Fest. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Punnany Poets at 7:30 and 9 p.m. at Black Repertory Theater., Adeline St. 652-2120. www.blackrepertorygroup.com 

Bay Area Poets Coalition open reading from 3 to 5 p.m., on the front lawn at 1527 Virginia St. 527-9905. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Edge Fest “The Music of John Zorn” at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$32. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Pacific Mozart Ensemble, “A Capella Jazz & Pop” at 7:30 p.m. at The Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $15-$20. 415-705-0848. www.pacificmozart.org 

Kensington Symphony, “Tribute to French Music” at 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Donation $8-$10. 524-4335. 

Trinity Chamber Concerts: Bellavente Wind Quintet at 8 p.m. at 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. http:// 

trinitychsmberconcerts.com 

“Tribute to the Divas” with Faye Carol singing Billie Holiday, at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Central Reading Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

World Music Weekend on Telegraph Ave., between Bancroft and Parker, from noon to 8 p.m. 

Jason Martineau, Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Bokei, The Taarka Quartet and Islands of Fire Drum Ensemble from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Caribbean Cove, 2556 Telegraph Ave. 981-8476. 

Norton Buffalo at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Lua, a quartet of voices, percussion and strings at 6:30 p.m. at Cafe Valpariso, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 841-3800. 

Tracorum at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 763-7711.  

Los Mapaches at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $4-$8. 849-2568.  

The Unravellers, The Kissers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

Braziu with Sotaque Baiano at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $15. 548-1159.  

Matthew Sperry Memorial Festival with Triaxium West Large Ensemble at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St. Oakland. Tickets are $6-$50.  

Samantha Raven and Friends at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Hali Hammer & Randi Berge, folk rock, at 7 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Larry Stefl Jazz Trio at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473.  

Kenny Brooks Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373.  

Candice & Company at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Little Brown House, Hong Kong Sit, Dink at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. Benefit for Stand Up for Kids. 525-9926. 

Famous Last Words, acoustic americana, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. www.epicarts.org 

SUNDAY, JUNE 5 

EXHIBITIONS 

“From Isolation to Connection” works by artists with psychiatric disabilities at the Berkeley Art Center. Curator’s walk-through at 2 p.m. 644-6893. 

“Sustainable Energy” photographs by Martijn Mollet at 2 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Berkeley Edge Fest Discussion with the composers at 6 p.m. at 125 Morrison Hall, UC Campus. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Poetry Flash with Gerald Fleming and Maria M. Benet at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Edge Fest The Music of John Zorn at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$32. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Edge Fest The Music of Jorge Liderman, Fernando Benadon and others at 7:30 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$32. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

World Music Weekend on Telegraph Ave., between Bancroft and Parker, from noon to 8 p.m. 

Prometheus Symphony Orchestra at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Admission is free, donations accepted. 

“Tribute to the Divas” with Frankye Kelly singing Ella Fitzgerald at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Central Reading Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

Cantabile Choral Guild “Winds of Time” at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Chiurch, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $6-$25. 650-424-1410. www.cantabile.org 

Community Women’s Orchestra performs music by women at 4 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 5201 Park Blvd. Piedmont. Donation $5-$10, children free. 6899-0202. 

Fourtet with Brendan Millstein at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Carlos Oliveira and Ricardo Peixoto, Brazilian jazz guitar, at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazz 

school.com 

The Twang Cafe, Americana, at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Austin Lounge Lizards at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Matthew Sperry Memorial Festival at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St. Oakland. Tickets are $6-$50. www.21grand.org 

MONDAY, JUNE 6 

CHILDREN 

Family Music Night World music with Amber Hines from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. To register call 658-7353. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Punim: Our Spoken Treasures” An exhibit of photographs at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St., through June 7. 848-0237. www.brjcc.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Actors Reading Writers “American Folktales” at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Bring a book for the book exchange. 

The Last Word poetry reading with Louis Cuneo and Diana Quartermaine at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Meredith Maran and friends introduce “50 Ways to Support Lesbian and Gay Equality: The Complete Guide to Supporting Family, Friends, Neighbors or Yourself” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Poetry Express with Avotcja at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Matthew Sperry Memorial Festival with Phase Chancellor, John Bischoff at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St. Oakland. Tickets are $6-$50. www.21grand.org 

Molehill Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. 

Eldar, jazz pianist, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

`

Today’s lesson in comparative local government in university cities (a putative excuse for our trip to Oxford) started with a two-hour walking tour of Oxford’s university, including seven or eight of its colleges and some principal university buildings. We were lucky to have as our guide the retired university marshal (head of its police and security services), previously superintendent with the fabled Oxfordshire police force of Inspector Morse fame. Besides giving us a capsule history lesson at every s top, he entertained us with anecdotal asides about how public relations image diverges from reality, here as in Berkeley.  

For example, pedestrianized streets: He led our tour group skittering across one of them in the rain, dodging trucks, busses and al so plenty of speeding luxury cars. “Not supposed to be here!” he muttered. Why, we asked, were private cars allowed to use this street, even though the signs clearly said they couldn’t? “Enforcement,” he said, “I’m not running things anymore—I didn’t allo w it.”  

The tour ended in front of Oxford Town Hall, which presented further research opportunities. Soaking wet and probably suspect-looking, we asked the woman at the reception desk if we could talk to someone about how government works in Oxford. “You need to talk to the information office,” she said. This seems to be the new world standard—anyone who’s anybody anywhere has a hired buffer between them and the questioning public. She sent me to a telephone booth to call the PR person, whose message machine, of course, said that she was “away from her desk.”  

Maybe I’ll call back tomorrow, but in the meantime I grabbed a handful of printed material that told me more about what’s going on here.  

First, a little flyer photocopied onto cheap green paper informed me of the existence of the Oxford Civic Society. It started in 1969 “as a protest group to stop the wholesale destruction of the City by those determined to strangle us with roads and destroy our heritage...the Society believes that it is only by concerted action that our City can be defended from poor planning, pollution, and the mass invasion of cars.” Noble goals, suitable for most cities these days, even for Berkeley—and a look at their web page, www.oxfordcivicsoc.org.uk, has many particulars about how much they’ve accomplished and how they’ve done it. 

Next, some pamphlets from the Oxford City Council: The one entitled I Want to Make a Complaint, your guide to the Council’s complaints procedure, said earnestly that “our aim is to provide a quality service to you, our customer.” A full page flow chart detailing many ways citizens might register complaints gave the impression that they really mean what they say. Another one, aimed at dealing with citizen fears about cell phone towers, showed that some things are the same everywhere. Not the same: Oxford Shopmobility, a service which provides free wheelchair or motorized cart use for anyone with a temporary or permanent mobility difficulty while they’ve shopping in Oxford. That’s something Ber keley could use. 

But the best information, of course, was only available after we got back to our friends’ flat, on the Internet, increasingly the major means of communication for those who can afford it. I learned that Oxford is a city of 134,000 reside nts, and I found out that I was wrong about details of how the Oxford City Council works. 

There are 48 (!) Councillors, representing 24 Wards (2 Councillors for each Ward), with half elected every two years. Councillors are said to be “democratically acc ountable to residents of their Ward....the overriding duty of Councillors is to the whole community, but they have a special duty to their constituents, including those who did not vote for them.” The full council decides on policies and budgets, and elec ts an executive board which makes day to day decisions. There are also six area committees with additional citizen members and a variety of special purpose committees which have powers and budgets of their own. 

Oxford is like Berkeley in one way: There’s no interest here in right-wing politics. After the 2004 elections, Labour holds 20 seats on the Oxford City Council, Liberal Democrats have 18, greens seven, and something called the Independent Working Class Association captured three seats. No Conserva tives need apply, evidently.  

Government funding has been much more centralized in Britain than in the United States in the past, with less of the budget raised and spent locally, but California cities have almost lost control of their own budgets in the past few years. Our tour guide told us he still pays about $5,000 a year in local “rates,” besides what I assume was a hefty income tax when he was a wage-earner.  

Does a much bigger pool of active citizen participants in government make for a more demo cratic city, or is Oxford, like Berkeley, increasingly controlled by the managerial class despite apparent citizen power? That’s not easy to figure out in a short visit like this. The only local paper I’ve seen so far is a community weekly, much bigger than the Daily Planet, with many more ads from local merchants, but not much local hard news. Berkeley being Berkeley, there are probably Planet readers who know more about local government in Britain than I do—maybe they’ll write with their analysis. 

Well, we don’t take many trips, and it’s a good thing for the public interest that we don’t. Every time we leave the country, it seems that something happens. We were in France when Watergate broke. We were in England during Tianamen Square. We were in Italy at the time of 9/11. And those are just about all the vacations we’ve taken in the last 30 years, so we sometimes feel that we’re influencing the course of world history every time we go somewhere.  

The debacle this time—assuming it’s the only one—was on a lower level. Thanks to the Planet, we read on the Internet that the Berkeley City Council has taken the widely predicted dive in its sham contest with the giant U. It looks like the mayor is still playing tight end for the Bears, just as he did in the famous Rose Bowl game of, was it 1955? (Or maybe it was ‘56 and he wasn’t a tight end…but he’s definitely playing on their team, not ours, this time.) 

Granted, the vote last Tuesday wasn’t 9-3, as the new cheap sheet reported it, but it must have felt like that to the stalwart Berkeley Three who stood up for the citizens in the final vote. Berkeley used to have the Moderates and the Progressives, but now we have the Timid and the Tough factions on the City Council.  

The e-mail reviews of their performance, addressed both to opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com and to me personally, have been quite one-sided so far. The Timids are losing badly in the informal poll. The Toughs (Worthington, Spring, Olds) are being proposed for the new edition of Profiles in Courage.  

There’s a special subset of letters from lawyers whose jaws are dropping at what appears to have happened. (Only a few of these were submitted for publication.) They are aghast at the role played by City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, who seems to have entered a confidentiality agreement on behalf of the city without the council’s explicit authorization. To lawyers this looks like a breach of her duty to her immediate client—the City Council—and to the people of Berkeley. The lawyers think it’s wrong for the city attorney to have created this situation, depriving the council and public of the opportunity to participate in the agreement as CEQA intended that they should. In the real world outside Berkeley politics a lawyer wouldn’t presume to make such a decision on behalf of a client. 

Now, there’s some evidence that the desire for secret negotiations originated with the mayor, who seems to like going mano-a-mano in these show matches. But even if it did, Berkeley is chartered as a “weak mayor” city. He’s supposed to be not much more than an at-large councilmember, and it was an abrogation of the city attorney’s duty to the council and the citizens to indulge him in such foolish desires by providing and securing the confidentiality agreement. 

My research on this trip is being done in the historic city of Oxford, in England. Battles between town and gown here used to feature weapons more serious than words. My Introduction to Oxford, by Chris Andrews and David Huelin, says that disputes started as early as 1192, when locals complained that scholars had “turned a borough into the semblance of a lodging house.” That seems to be a good description of what Tom Bates has in mind for Berkeley. He and his campaign contributors have already built an enormous number of luxury student tenement lodgings. UC’s new downtown plan, which the council has signed up for without input from the Planning Commission or the citizens of Berkeley, promises to bring many more, along with a new hotel. 

Oxford today looks like the poster city for all of the ideas that are being touted for Berkeley. Main streets have been pedestrianized (Newspeak is local dialect for planners, of course.) This is accomplished by what signs call “rising bollards.” No, that’s not a new faintly dirty Monty Python song—they’re posts which appear and disappear at intersections to restrict vehicles at certain times of day. Other streets feature “humps,” also not a dirty term. Busses travel on the restricted streets in enormous flocks, which is why public transit really does work, as it doesn’t in Berkeley where they’re few and far between. Bicycles are everywhere, but seem to be regarded by many as being in the same category as pigeons. Our hosts, avid bicyclists, are collecting photos of signs on walls, doors and fences warning that bicycles must not be left there or they will be moved, confiscated or summarily demolished. 

All I’ve learned so far about governance in Oxford was gleaned from reading one leaflet posted on the bulletin board at the city’s information centre. In addition to a city council roughly the size of Berkeley’s, Oxford has area committees, perhaps 10 people on each one in every council district. They seem to be able to make all sorts of zoning and other decisions, and even control spending budgets. Area committee members are identified by party on the leaflet: Laborites, Liberal Democrats, Greens, even Conservatives. All in all, it seems that more than a hundred citizens take an active role in running Oxford. This is just what the leaflet says—the reality in Oxford may turn out to be quite different when I look at it more closely next week. But if true, it’s quite a contrast with Berkeley, where the mayor is increasingly unable even to speak courteously to councilmembers at meetings, and is trying to do away with commissions which are only advisory anyway. 

Note to burglars reading this: My house sitters have a big, fierce dog, so don’t even think about it. 

—Becky O’Malley 

.

FRIDAY, JUNE 3 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Tom Goldstein on “What Journalism Does Right and What it Does Wrong.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925. 

“The Iraq War: Domestic Costs” with William Rivers Pitt at 7 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. Cost is $5-$15, no one turned away. 524-4244. 

“Speaking Out Against the War Machine” a discussion with Donna Foley of Pax Christi, and Cathy Orozco of CCCO at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 482-1062. 

“An Evening with Iyanla Vanzant” at 6:30 p.m. at Black Repertory Theater., Adeline St. 652-2120. www.blackrepertorygroup.com 

Womansong Circle Potluck snacks at 6:45 p.m., music at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing. Suggested donation $8. 525-7082. 

Water Safety Day Learn how to keep your child safe in the water, at 11 a.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

Yoga with Baby Learn stretches and techniques that you can do with your baby. Mats provided. At 6 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 658-7353. 

Kirtan, improvisational devotional chanting at 7:30 p.m. at 850 Talbot, at Solano, Albany. Donation $10. 526-9642. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 8 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. Players at all levels are welcome. 845-1041. 

SATURDAY, JUNE 4 

Family Fun Day at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Civic Center Parrk, with performances, hands-on activities and informational booths. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Spring Faire at Washington Elementary School, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2300 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Activities for kids, health and education booths, food, raffle and performances. Free. 486-1742. 

Longfellow Middle School Fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a flea market, music, dance, games, food. 883-5258. 

Sacramento Street Community Cleanup, from Oregon St. to Alcatraz. Meet at 9 a.m. at the El Nopal Restaurant parking lot, 3136 Sacramento, to help sweep, weed, pick-up litter and remove graffiti. Bring gloves if you have them. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley Neighborhood Services, 981-7000. 

Bateman and Willard Neighborhood Planning Meeting with City Council member Kriss Worthington to prepare for a City meeting to discuss traffic calming, traffic circles, and proposed Ashby & Hillegass traffic light. At 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, Benvenue at Ashby. 981-7170. 

National Trails Day Service Project Join REI for a day of trail maintenance in Tilden Park, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For ages 14 and up. Registration required. 527-4140, ext. 259.  

“Eating Wild Foods” Learn about the edible native plants and common weeds and how to gather and prepare them. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10-$15, no one turned away. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Bird’s Eye View Hike to the top of Wildcat Peak from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bring your lunch and something to drink. For meeting place call 525-2233. 

Build a Pond for Wildlife Learn about the design and features, including native pond plants and maintenance, from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Visitor Center, Tilden Park. Optional tour to Big Nest Wildlife Pond in Sebastopol from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Cost is $30-$35. Bring your lunch. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Sick Plant Clinic from 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755. 

Nature Survival For Kids from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. For ages 8-12. Learn what to eat, how to make shelter and first aid techniques. Registration required. 525-2233. 

East Bay Atheists meets at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., third Floor meeting room. Burt Bogardus will speak about the separation of religion and government, with particular attention to faith-based initiatives. 222-7580. 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of the “Square Block” in West Berkeley at 11 a.m. Cost is $8-$10. Call for meeting place. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around the restored 1870s business district. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of G.B. Ratto’s at 827 Washington St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

“Anti-War Activities in the Bay Area” A forum on the laws, anti-recruitment efforts and Conscientious Objectors from 1 to 3 p.m. at Temescal Library, 5205 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 601-6456, 525-6105. 

California Writers Club hosts fifth-graders reading their prize-winning work at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. 482-0265. www.berkeleywritersclub.org 

North Berkeley Block Party from 4 to 8 p.m. on Delaware, between Shattuck and Milvia. Potluck/bbq with music. Benefit for Vitamin Angels. Donation $5. 

Record Show with hard to find LPs, 45s soul, jazz, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2318 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $2. 452-2452. 

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 5 

A Taste of Albany: A Small Town Walkabout from 1 to 7 p.m. on Solano and San Pablo Aves. Tastings at 18 restaurants, music and arts and crafts show. Tickets are $20 in advance from participating restaurants. www.albanychamber.org 

Compost Critters An afternoon of exploration for ages five and up. Learn what animals do the dirty work of turning leftovers into rich soil, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Afternoon in the Garden with Anne Lamott with a reading, silent auction and refreshments, fom 1 to 4 p.m. at 485 Ellita Ave. on Lake Merritt, Oakland. Tickets are $50. Benefit for Jesuit Volunteers. 415-522-1599. www.jesuitvolunteers.org 

Good Night Little Farm Help with the afternoon feeding, learn about our rare breeds and help tuck the animals in for the night, at 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Little Farm, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Hands-On Bicycle Clinic from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

“Being Gay, Jewish and in an Interfaith Relationship” A discussion with Rabbi Allen Bennett at 11:30 a.m. at Temple Sinai, 2808 Summit St., Oakland. 547-2250. 

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

MONDAY, JUNE 6 

City of Berkeley Walking Group walks Mon.-Thurs. from 5 to 5:30 p.m. Meet at 830 University Ave. All new participants receive a free pedometer. 981-5131. 

Tea and Hike at Four Taste some of the finest teas from the Pacific Rim and South Asia and learn their natural and cultural history, followed by a short nature walk. At 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $5-$7, registration required. 525-2233.  

Charles Ostman, cofounder of Fourth Venture, a company formed to convert former Soviet military technologies into applications for water treatment and alternative energy at 7 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Non-member donation $5. 527-0450.  

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60 years and over meets Mondays at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Join at any time. Cost is $2.50 with refreshments. 524-9122. 

Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Membership Meeting with discussion on the Elmwood shopping district, at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 

Free Women of Spain Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women with Martha Ackelsberg at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

Sufi Teachings and Zikr at 7 p.m. at the MTO Center, 2855 Telegraph Ave., Suite 101. 704-1888. 

Trivia Cafe at 7 p.m. at Ristorante Raphael, 2132 Center St. Cost is $10. 644-9500. 

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

TUESDAY, JUNE 7 

“Introduction to California Birdlife” a conversation with field biologist Jules Evens and nature photographer Ian Tait, at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. In case of questionable weather, call around 8 a.m. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Trekking in California with guidebook author Paul Richins at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

“Police Practices” A panel discussion with Doris Brown, former Richmond Police Commissioner, James Chanin, civil rights attorney, Sgt. Alan Normandy, South SF Police Dept. and Mark Schlosberg, ACLU Police Practices Dept. at 7 p.m. at the Richmond Main Library Community Room, 325 Civic Center Drive. Sponsored by the ACLU. 558-0377. 

Quit Smoking Class meets Tues. evening from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at South Berkeley Senior Center for six evenings. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley. To register call 981-5330. 

Choke Saving Skills Day Learn these important skills at 11 a.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

Mid-Day Meander Meet at 2:30 p.m. at the Alvarado/ 

Wildcat Staging Area off Park Ave. for a history walk to the Belgum Estate. 525-2233. 

Tilden 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. Girls and boys ages 8-12, unaccompanied by their parents. From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $6-$8. Reservations required. 636-1684. 

Apartment Building Management For Women A class on Tues. and Thurs. evenings at 6 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Building Education Center Cost is $250 or sliding scale. To register call 525-7610.  

Young Leadership Division Jewish Federation meets at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Hillel. RSVP to 839-2900 ext. 216.  

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Brainstormer Weekly Pub Quiz every Tuesday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Pyramid Alehouse Brewery, 901 Gilman St. 528-9880. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Sing-A-Long every Tues. from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic. All ages welcome. 524-9122. 

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

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around Preservation Park to see Victorian architecture. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of Preservation Park at 13th St. and MLK, Jr. Way. Tour lasts 90 minutes. For reservations call 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

GPS Navigation with Steve Wood, REI guide, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. If you own a GPS unit, please bring it. 527-4140. 

“Lolita: Slave to Entertainment” a documentary on our relationship with wildlife at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

East Bay Gebealogical Society meets at 10 a.m. in the Library Conference Room, Family History Center, 4766 Lincoln Ave., Oakland. Mary Jo Wainwright will speak on the history of the Peralta family. 653-6692. 

“Senior Injury Prevention Project: Falls” at 10:30 a.m. at Summit Campus, Merritt Pavilion, 350 Hawthorne Ave., Oakland. Free for Health Access members, $5 for others. For reservations call 869-6737. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Action St. 841-2174.  

Home Buyer Assistance Information Session at 6 p.m. at 1504 Franklin St., Oakland. Sponsored by the Home Buyer Assistance Center. Reservations required. 832-6925, ext. 100. www.hbac.org 

Poetry Writing Workshop with Alison Seevak at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

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

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

Stitch ‘n Bitch Bring your knitting, crocheting and other handcrafts from 6 to 9 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198. 

THURSDAY, JUNE 9 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools during the summer, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Hidden Lodges of Berkeley A lecture on Bernard Maybeck’s Great Hall, at 7:30 p.m. at the Faculty Club, UC Campus. Cost is $10. For information contact Berkeley Architectural Heritage at 841-2241. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

“In Rachel’s Name” with the parents of Rachel Corrie at 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. Donation $10, no one turned away. 415-255-7296, ext. 261. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers meets at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave. Jeff Miller will speak on the efforts to restore steelhead to Alameda Creek. 547-8629. 

Caldecott Tunnel Fourth Boor Expansion Project Meeting at 6 p.m. at the Bentley School, 1 Hiller Drive, Oakland. 286-6445. www.dot.ca.gov/dist4/caldecott 

“Juice Fasting and Rejuvenation” with Ed Bauman, Director of Bauman College at 5:30 p.m. at Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

East Bay Mac User Group with Linden Siahaan, Software Design Engineer, Microsoft Corp who will present the Virtual PC at 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Expression Center for New Media, 6601 Shellmound St. www.expression.edu 

Beginning and Intermediate Computer Workshop for all ages, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Free, but registration required. call after 6 p.m. 540-0751. 

ONGOING 

Summer Camps for Children offered by the City of Berkeley, including swimming, sports and twilight basketball, from June 20 to August 12, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For details call 981-5150, 981-5153. 

Barrington Collection Free Skool holds summer classes in the East Bay. Classes include “Buying Your First Home,” “Beer Brewing,” ”Grant Writing,” “Yoga” and classes for children. http://barringtoncollective.org/FreeSkool 

CITY MEETINGS 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon. June 6, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Creeks Task Force meets Mon. June 6, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Erin Dando, 981-7410. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/planning/landuse/Creeks/default.html 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon., June 6, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Mon., June 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks 

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., June 6, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Manuel Hector, 981-5510. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/peaceandjustice 

Youth Commission meets Mon., June 6, at 6:30 p.m., at 1730 Oregon St. Philip Harper-Cotton, 981-6670. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/youth 

Commission on Disability meets Wed., June 8, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Don Brown, 981-6346. TDD: 981-6345. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disability 

Homeless Commission meets Wed., June 8, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/homeless 

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed. June 8, at 7 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, Jackie Y. Griffin, 981-6195. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/library  

Planning Commission meets Wed., June 8, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., June 8 at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/policereview 

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., June 8, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti, 981-6740. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/waterfront 

Community Health Commission meets Thurs., June 9, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Kristin Tehrani, 981-5356. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/health 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thurs., June 9, at 7 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. Iris Starr, 981-7520. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/westberkeley  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., June 9, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/zoning ?