Meleia Willis-Starbuck always stood up for herself and loved ones, her friends said. 

Whether she disagreed with someone in her classes at Berkeley High or Dartmouth, or happened upon someone mistreating her mildly-autistic half-brother Jack, Willis-Starbuck, 19, was never afraid to speak her mind or try to change other people’s way of thinking. 

So when a group of young men early Sunday morning “disrespected” Willis-Starbuck and her friends, they weren’t surprised to learn that she took the time to explain to them how to respectfully talk to women. 

But as Willis-Starbuck was ending her conversation with the five men in front of her apartment near the intersection of College Avenue and Haste Street, a gunman opened fire on the group. One bullet struck Willis-Starbuck in the chest. She was the only person hit and stopped breathing before an ambulance arrived. It was the second homicide in Berkeley this year. 

Police have not determined if the murder was random or somehow connected to the argument between the groups of young men and women, said Berkeley Police Officer Joe Okies. The gunman, believed to be a male in his 20’s, remains at large. 

“We’re just numb right now,” said John Starbuck, Meleia’s step-father from the family’s home in Atlanta. “Right now we’re trying to figure out a way to use all the goodwill and energy she put in the world for all our betterment.” 

Outside the College Avenue apartment Willis-Starbuck was renting for the summer, loved ones continued to mourn at a makeshift shrine. They recalled a loyal friend, who they all believed would one day make her mark on the world. 

“She wasn’t a person who lived for herself,” said Mercedes Hong, 20. “Everything she did was to help others. “She was my only friend I thought could really change the world.” 

In high school, Willis-Starbuck worked as a peer advocate teaching sex education to fellow-students. She was the president of the Black Student Union and as a member of the school’s Communication’s Arts and Sciences Program, she traveled to Cuba and Vietnam. 

At Dartmouth where she was majoring in sociology and African American studies, she was president of the Black Student Union her sophomore year. She returned to Berkeley this summer to work as an intern in the women’s Daytime Drop-In Center, a program for homeless women. 

For her friends though, she was more than a fighter for social justice, she was someone they could both laugh with and trust to speak from the heart. 

“She loved people and was always down for anything fun,” said Tara Singh, who recalled the two of them hopping on a motorcycle during the Cuba trip. “Her cell phone was always ringing.” 

“If you ever needed to talk to someone you called her. She was a really good listener,” said Perry Kramer. 

When Hong found out last year she had unexpectedly become pregnant, she called Willis-Starbuck first. “She told me I’ll always be there for you and your child will be my child,” Hong said.  

Willis-Starbuck also wasn’t shy about sharing her own fears. Hong said she adjusted slowly to Dartmouth, where she had a full scholarship, and sometimes said she felt alienated at the school where there were so few minorities or students from working class backgrounds. 

“I think she thought, I’m going to go there and be myself and show everyone there what needs to be done in the world, but it wasn’t always easy,” she said. 

The Starbuck’s moved from Berkeley to Georgia last year. Meleia’s mother Kimberly Willis-Starbuck had worked worked many years in Berkeley’s City Manager’s office. 

Starbuck said he and Kimberly had urged her to stay at school for summer classes, but his step-daughter insisted on returning to Berkeley. “She was so happy to be back,” he said.  

“She was a catalyst for a lot of the best discussions that ever occurred in my classroom,” said Bill Pratt, one of her history teachers at Berkeley High. “She was fearlessly willing to challenge people, but she was also conciliatory and understood how to mediate conflict,” he said. 

Willis-Starbuck wasn’t much different at home, her stepfather said. “She had a mouth. She would come out with opinions and I would try to poke holes in what she said. She was my political child.” 

She could be very honest with you without ever being offensive,” said Molly Dutton-Starbuck, Meleia’s half sister. “No matter what she always could make me laugh at myself.” 

“I had so much respect for her because she never took shit,” Singh said. “That’s why she was telling those guys not to talk to girls that way.” 

Willis-Starbuck was spending last Saturday night with friends, when they decided to stop at her apartment for a bathroom break before heading off to another friend’s house, according to Dana Johnson, 20, who was with Willis-Starbuck when she was murdered. As the girls approached Willis-Starbuck’s apartment, a group of five young men “acted disrespectfully” towards them and an argument ensued. 

Willis-Starbuck went inside during part of the dispute, according to her step-father, but then returned and resumed talking to them, while the people she was with were getting inside Johnson’s car. 

“Then someone came out of nowhere and fired shots,” Johnson said. The five young men raced from the scene, Johnson recalled, and one friend tried to administer CPR to no avail. Johnson said the gunman shot from the parking lot at corner of College and Dwight, while they were standing on College closer to Haste Street. Okies confirmed that the shots came from “some distance”. The gunman, he said, fled by car heading east on Dwight. 

Johnson questioned the response time of Berkeley Police and Fire. She said the girls managed to flag down a passing police car, but that other police units and fire-fighter paramedics were late to the scene. 

According to dispatch reports the first 911 call reporting the shooting came in just after 1:47 a.m. A minute later officers were dispatched to the scene, Okies said. The first officers arrived within a minute, according to Okies. 

Deputy Fire Chief David Orth said and a fire engine company and ambulance both arrived at 1:54 a.m., five minutes after they were notified of the shooting. The fire department’s goal is to arrive on the scene of an emergency within six minutes after the call comes in. 

A memorial for Willis-Starbuck is being planned for 11 a.m. Friday at Berkeley High School.  

Starbuck said the family has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of sympathy from his step-daughter’s friends in Berkeley. “My wife has been on the phone all day today,” he said. “What we’re finding out is just how many people had bonds with her.” 

Hong, who had planned to make Willis-Starbuck the godmother of her daughter expected to be born around the end of the month, now intends to honor her friend the best way she can. “We haven’t quite figured it out yet, but Meleia is going to be part of the name.” 

Among other relatives, Willis-Starbuck is survived by her mother Kimberly, step-father John, step-sister Molly, step-brother Jack and half-brother Zachary. 

A memorial scholarship account has been set up in Meleia's name for Berkeley High graduates who wish to pursue work in social justice. Those interested in contributing should send checks to The Mechanics Bank at 2301 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, 94704. Checks should be made payable to 'The Meleia Willis-Starbuck Memorial Fund.'"

The City Council is poised Tuesday to restore fire service after an uproar earlier this month over the closure of the Berkeley hills fire station.  

Four councilmembers are sponsoring a proposal that would require Berkeley to spend up to $300,000 to ensure that the city closes no more than one fire company at a time and Berkeley hills Fire Station 7 to remain open through the fire season, which ends Oct. 31. 

In June, the council agreed to close as many as two fire companies at a time to save an estimated $1.2 million in firefighter overtime. The council expected that double closures would be rare and that fire station 7 would be exempt, but that wasn’t how it turned out. 

Because of summer vacation schedules, 11 vacant firefighter positions and two firefighters on injury leave, the department now says that without more money to pay for overtime two companies would be closed three out of every four days over the summer, including Station 7. 

The $300,000 will be taken from $4.3 million put aside for street repairs. Fire Department officials have said that staffing shortages are expected to diminish by the end of the year when the city brings on 12 freshly-trained new firefighters. 

Landmarks Preservation Ordinance 

After a two-hour public hearing last week, the council is scheduled to debate proposed amendments to the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. 

Before the council are overlapping recommendations from the Planning Commission, which has proposed amendments that the State Office of Historic Preservation said would weaken protections for historic buildings, and a proposal from the Landmarks Preservation Commission calling for the council to bring in an independent consultant to offer amendments. 

Cisco De Vries, chief of staff to Mayor Bates, said the city would likely work with interest groups on ordinance revisions over the summer in hopes of striking a compromise between the Planning Commission’s recommendation and amendments which were put forward by the LPC before it reversed course and called for the city to bring in a consultant.  

De Vries said there was a good chance that the council would not approve either commission’s recommendation in full. He added that any compromise recommendation would require a public hearing before the council acted. 

Although the item is on the council’s action agenda Tuesday, De Vries said he does not expect the council to vote on the issue until September. 

Tune Up Masters Appeal 

The council will again consider an appeal for a use permit for a condominium project at 1698 University Ave, the site which fomerly held Tune Up Masters. Earlier this year the council granted an appeal on grounds that the Zoning Adjustment Board approval violated state law. 

The ZAB granted the developer a 25 percent size increase (density) bonus for including condominium units to be sold at a price affordable to people making at or below 125 percent of the average local median income.  

But it turned out that for condominiums, the state only allows a 10 percent state bonus.  

The new project, approved by the ZAB, looks nearly identical to the old one because staff identified another section of state law requiring that builders who add units for low income tenants be granted concessions to make the building as profitable as it would have been without the cheaper units.  

Staff calculated that to make the developer’s venture profitable, the building would have to be 25 percent larger than otherwise allowed in the zoning ordinance. 

Density Bonus Subcommittee 

With projects like the Tune Up Masters site development frequently raising the issue of the state density bonus, city staff is asking the council to approve a joint subcommittee to look into how Berkeley should apply a state law giving developers bonus space for projects that include affordable housing. 

The current city interpretation of the density bonus has been criticized by residents who charge that it is a tool to help developers build more massive buildings than local zoning rules or state law would permit. 

A four-member subcommittee of the Zoning Adjustments Board, which is responsible for implementing land use, has been meeting with city staff on the issue. The city has proposed combining that subcommittee with one from the Planning Commission, which is responsible for developing land use policy. 

Councilmember Dona Spring, the council’s staunchest critic of the current density bonus, opposed bringing the Planning Commission into the process. “The Zoning Board knows the problem because they deal with it every meeting,” she said. “The planning commission is out of the loop.” 

In the staff report, Land Use Manager Mark Rhoades reasoned that a joint subcommittee made sense because, “it is highly inefficient for two or three different board or commission subcommittees to review the same information and develop their own overlapping procedural recommendations.” 

Other Issues 

With the Elmwood Theater slated to reopen July 28, the council is being asked to nearly double its loan to the theater’s ownership group for seismic repairs. Cost overruns and delays have sent costs spiraling from $90,000 to $170,000. 

The council will consider a proposal to give the city manager authority to approve capital improvements for up $200,000 without council approval. Currently the city manager can independently authorize expenditures of up to $50,000. 

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The only way for listener-sponsored KPFA radio to move forward is to show General Manager Roy Campanella the door, according to the 70 members of the station’s paid and unpaid staff who have signed a letter of no confidence in Campanella. 

The letter, claiming the manager created a hostile work environment, was presented at Saturday’s Local Station Board meeting. Some at the LSB meeting called for the return of former General Manager Nicole Sawaya, now station manager at KALW in San Francisco.  

But former local and national board member and professional mediator Tomas Moran argued the focus should not be on the individual who leads the station. 

“It’s a feudal system,” where programmers defend their territories, he said. 

KPFA-Berkeley is one of the Pacifica Foundation’s five community stations. As a result of lawsuits between the governing Pacifica Foundation Board and local stations, resolved about three years ago, the radio network is now run by elected local boards made up of listener-sponsors and staff, and a national board of representatives from local boards.  

But democratic governance has failed to ease internal tensions at 56-year-old KPFA, whose diverse programmers pride themselves on delving deep into local and global concerns and showcasing a broad range of music, touched little by other media.  

At Saturday’s LSB meeting, attended by most of the 23-member board and more than 80 members of the pubic, seven female staffers called on the board to recognize Campanella’s “unfitness” to run the station. 

The women complained of “instances of hostility and gender-based treatment” by the general manager. (Campanella has conceded that he asked subordinates—men and women—out to movies, but denies these were “dates.” The women allege retaliation for their complaints.) This letter was in addition to the letter of no confidence signed by 70 of the 300 paid and volunteer staff.  

Moran believes the accusations are relatively minor and should not cloud the larger, systemic issues plaguing KPFA for years. It is likely that Ambrose Lane, interim national director, will mediate the underlying issues, Moran said. 

“It’s not just putting out one fire to go to the next,” he said.  

The mediation would be transparent and include listener forums. 

“It takes courage to put the conflicts out in the open,” Moran said. “It’s going to be painful for the station.”  

Areas of conflict include questions of governance: who is in charge? Another issue is the role of independent activism—an individual or group may successfully lobby for a program, but is the activism appropriate? A third problem area is the need for program evaluation. And fundraising questions need clarification: can individual programmers raise their own funds? How should station funds be distributed?  

Local Station Board member Joe Wanzala also says mediation is the way to move forward, unless further investigation shows that the general manager’s misdeeds are such that his removal is necessary. Investigating the complaints has become an issue of conflict in itself. “We haven’t done enough due diligence,” Wanzala said.  

Oakland attorney Dan Siegel was hired to conduct an investigation. However, Wanzala contends that Siegel, one of the attorneys challenging the Pacifica Foundation during the 1999-2002 station crisis, was an inappropriate choice. 

“Some thought he was too close to KPFA,” Wanzala said, adding, “And he’s running for mayor (of Oakland).” The board may decide whether to accept Siegel’s report at its closed-door meeting July 24.  

Like Moran, Wanzala stressed that any investigation should go beyond Campanella. “I thought we needed an institutional audit,” he said. “There’s a pattern of the staff resisting efforts by the general manager ... It’s not a question of getting the right person and all will be well.” 

The claims of a hostile working environment mask long simmering tensions, he said.  

Staff and their supporters who spoke out at the July 16 meeting say the public airing was the only avenue through which they could be heard. (Local Board Member Sepideh Khosrowjah said staff could have addressed the board in closed session, but failed to go through procedures to do so.)  

In addition to reading the letter accusing Campanella of creating a hostile work environment, others spoke out individually. “People shouldn’t have to work in an environment of fear,” said Gary Niederhoff, subscriptions editor.  

On the other hand, Peter Franck, chair of Media Action Marin, called on the board to work with Campanella. “You should not wait for a Messiah to rescue you,” he said.  

But when it was her turn to speak, seventeen-year staffer Jan Etre responded to Franck: “There was a Messiah; her name was Nicole Sawaya.”  

Sawaya was a popular KPFA manager in 1999 when the Pacifica National Board removed her. Although Pacifica banned staff from talking about Sawaya’s termination on the air, various programmers did just that. This led to their removal and to the events culminating in the national board hijacking the station and the staff and listeners fighting back on the streets and in the courts.  

While one of the staff and community demands had been Sawaya’s reinstatement, she was passed over in April 2003, when the job was given to Gus Newport, who left the post after about nine months.  

An unsigned flyer distributed at the Saturday board meeting addressed one of the complaints by the listener-sponsor group, Peoples’ Radio, which charges programmers with refusal to follow management directives.  

The flyer said it’s a myth that the staff doesn’t want to be managed. “KPFA workers desperately want good management. That’s why they risked their jobs to protest Sawaya’s termination on the air in 1999. And that’s why they made Sawaya’s reinstatement one of their key demands after they were locked out for doing so. Sawaya’s reinstatement is the only such demand that has not been met since the takeback of KPFA in 2000.”  

Sawaya did not return calls for comment.  

In a telephone interview, Susan Stone, 25-year staffer who recently left the station to become a mediator, called Sawaya “a bright light.” Stone said Sawaya “made people feel visible and valued. That was something she had a talent for. She even won over diehard critics. It was staggering that she wasn’t brought back.”  

Campanella, who sat quietly through the public condemnation—and support—at the Saturday meeting, said he’s frustrated because personnel rules prevent him from defending himself in public. However, he said he’s open to mediation and has begun the process with staff.  

“We’ve had one group session. I hope there will be others,” he said, “I’m very sincere about having a healthy dialogue.” 

He said that he hoped the mediation would eventually extend to sessions that include the board and himself, then to the board, the staff and himself. “That would be a powerful healing experience,” he said.  

Asked if staff would be open to mediation, shop steward Lisa Ballard responded by e-mail: “Roy sent Pacifica’s Zero Tolerance for Violence policy out to the entire staff list, and hours later instigated a fight in our workplace kitchen.” 

This was the widely-reported incident between Hard Knock Radio producer Weylan Southon and Campanella. While Campanella admits he called Southon outside to fight, he says he wasn’t being serious; no blows were exchanged. 

“We had already been in mediation with Roy for inappropriate behavior and creating a hostile workplace for women,” Ballard continued. “This was the last straw. This is a community of over 300 people, producers, hosts, support staff, engineers. We need someone who will set the bar on workplace safety, who will not escalate conflict. Programmers have been permanently banned from the station for similar behavior. He has only been with us for seven months. It is not a matter of forgiveness or counseling at this point. We made a mistake with this hire and he needs to go. It is evident to a wide cross section of workers, which is why over 70 staffers signed a vote of no confidence.”  

As the internal conflict rages, programmer Khalil Bendib says it’s important to put it in perspective. “Six years ago, we could have lost KPFA,” he said. The internal problems are real, he said, “but not comparable” to the earlier crisis.  

Still, Susan Stone wonders if the internal conflict won’t escalate and eventually spill over onto the airwaves. “What about the listener in all this?” she asks.  

Even though she is not a professional tour guide or travel agent, West Oakland resident Rehema Gueye was not surprised when a Laney College student approached her earlier this year about arranging a student educational trip to West Africa. 

Because Laney students were involved, they decided to make a request that the trip be sponsored in part by funds from the Associated Students of Laney College (ASLC). 

What surprised both Gueye and Imani Williams—the ASLC treasurer who made the request to Gueye—was the confusion and controversy it generated within both Laney and the entire Peralta Community College District. 

Married to a Senegalese husband and fluent in Wolof, one of West Africa’s major languages, the 45-year-old Mississippi native is a highly visible regular in the Malonga Casquelord Center (formerly Alice Arts Center) African/African-American cultural circle, where African dance classes and performances intermix with an extensive social network and intermingling between the two groups. 

Gueye has been to West Africa eight times, usually to the countries of Senegal and Gambia on the extreme western tip, the ancestral home of many African-Americans. Mostly she travels in connection with her business as a seamstress of African clothing—bringing back fabric or finished goods—but she doubles it up with visits to an extensive network of in-laws and friends. 

Besides operating her seamstress business out a room at her West Oakland home, Gueye is a registered nurse, a service worker for troubled youth, and gives lectures at West Oakland’s McClymonds High School and other Oakland public schools on cultural awareness and traditional African dance. 

In 2003, for the first time, Gueye agreed to take along several friends—some of them fellow dancers at the Casquelord Center—who wanted to go to West Africa with someone who was familiar with the culture and knew the area. The visitors stayed and ate their meals with Senegalese and Gambian families. 

“I didn’t take them to the places where the tourists go, around the hotels and resorts,” Gueye explained. “I took them to be around regular people.” 

Gueye did take her friends to one of the regular and most emotional stops on Senegal’s tourist circuit. On Goree Island, just outside of Dakar, they visited the slave-station where many of the ancestors of African-Americans went out the infamous “Door of No Return” to be put on Middle Passage slave ships, seeing their last view of their native Africa before embarking in chains to North American plantations.  

The 2003 trip generated much positive talk around Oakland’s Afrocentric African-American community, eventually reaching Williams. 

“I saw this as a chance for a 22-year-old African-American single parent to go to Africa,” Williams told Peralta College trustees last month, referring to herself. “That doesn’t happen very often for low income, community college students.” 

But Gueye was not so well known in the Laney College and Peralta College District hierarchy, and that’s when the controversy began. 

“There were originally eight students who were interested in going,” Williams said. “But eventually, we determined that only four of them were attending Laney.” 

Williams and Gueye approached the Associated Students of Laney College for assistance in funding the trip. Eventually, the ASLC allotted $4,500 on a divided vote to assist the Laney College students participating in the trip , with ASLC President and Peralta Student Trustee Lisa Watkins-Tanner voting against the allocation. 

With $1,125 going to each of the four Laney students, Gueye said that the allotment did not even cover the $1,680 San Francisco to Dakar round trip air fare that the trip will eventually cost. And that also did not cover the guaranteed room and board once the students got to West Africa. 

Gueye said that she began organizing fund-raising activities among the students to pay the balance. She said that none of the money will go towards her share of the trip or that of her husband; they are paying for that out of their own funds. 

Gueye also says that the delay in the release of the Laney funding—it took the ASLC two meetings to eventually vote for approval—caused two of the Laney students to have to drop out of the trip. That caused a further complication. 

When Laney Vice President of Student Services Carlos McLean released the ASLC travel money this month, he said that the $4,500 stipend had been based on the eight students that had originally intended to go on the trip. Since only two students were now going, McLean told Williams, he was only going to cut a check for $1,124—$562 apiece. 

That left Williams discouraged and almost in tears. 

“We thought the trip was going to be off,” she said. 

Their salvation came from an unexpected source.  

“When I told [Laney College] President [Odell] Johnson how much we’d been given, he told me that wasn’t right,” Williams said. “He went into his pocket and wrote us a check for $3,000. Without that, we wouldn’t have been able to go.” 

The trip also faced expressions of concern and skepticism from Laney College trustees and administrative staff members at the board’s June 28 meeting, even though trustees admitted that they had no sayso over how the ASLC spent their funds. 

She said that after the group returns in mid-August, they will prepare a presentation for Laney College students, faculty and administrators and any other group within the Peralta colleges that is interested. 

“I think the students will have a lot to share, and I want them to share it,” she said. “They’ll be immersed in language and culture and customs. They’re going to experience African life. That’s something they’re going to want to talk about. That’s the whole purpose.” 

With University of California Regents preparing to vote on proposed increases in professional degree fees at this week’s meeting, four UC professional degree students have filed a class action lawsuit in San Francisco against the regents to prevent those increases. 

The regents meeting will be held July 20-21 on the campus of UCSF-Laurel Heights, 3333 California St. in San Francisco. 

UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law student Freeda Yllana of San Jose and UC Berkeley joint Ph.D and J.D. candidate Ross Astoria of Berkeley—along with an UCLA Law School student and an UCSF School of Medicine student—are asking that the California Superior Court issue an injunction preventing the university from “collecting professional degree fees [from professional degree students] in amounts greater than those at which they first enrolled in their respective programs.” 

The university has not yet answered the complaint, which was only filed last week. University representatives could not be reached for comment. 

In their complaint, the four students say that they and all other professional degree students were promised by the university when they enrolled that their professional degree fee would not be raised during their enrollment in the university’s program. The four students each enrolled in 2003. 

In November 2004, however, university regents voted for professional degree fee increases that included existing students. The complaint estimates that fee increase at between $2,690 and $6,570 above the previous year’s amount. The complaint claims the increase was a breach of contract. 

The students are being represented by the Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Rubin & Demain law firm of San Francisco and Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP of Baltimore. 

At its 10:30 a.m. Thursday session on July 21 trustees will consider a proposal to increase fees for selected Professional School Students by 7 percent over and above the 3 percent increase approved in November of 2004, bringing the total proposed increase this year to 10 percent. 

In addition, trustees will consider a temporary increase—$700 in 2005-06 and $1,050 in 06-07—to offset costs of another lawsuit injunction. If passed, that “temporary” increase will be reevaluated by the spring of 2007. 

For Boalt Hall students, if both increases pass, that would mean that regular fees would take a one-year jump from $33,776 to $36,231 next year, and to $36,581 the year after. Similar increases would also occur in UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and the School of Medicine, with increases also being considered in graduate schools of optometry, public health, and public policy. 

In other items of interest at this week’s meeting, UC regents will: 

• Hear and update from the Eligibility and Admissions Study group on undergraduate eligibility admissions issues facing UC in the coming years (10:30 a.m. on July 20 in the Committee on Educational Policy); 

• Hear a report on the status of competition at Department of Energy laboratories as well as consider modifications to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory contract with the department (9:20 a.m. on July 21 in the Committe on Oversight of the Department of Energy Laboratories); 

• Discuss the impacts of the 2005-06 California budget agreement on university finances, as well as begin a preliminary discussion on the university’s 2006-07 budget (9:30 a.m. on July 21 in the Committee on Finance).›

The proposed new Berkeley Bowl planned for 9th Street and Heinz Avenue in West Berkeley is nearing the initial phase of the environmental review process. 

Glen Yasuda’s plan to open a second version of his highly popular Shattuck Avenue grocery store has run into several snags along the way, and critics successfully fought for a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR). 

The first step in preparing an EIR is the scoping process in which community members and others are invited to make suggestions about issues to be raised in the preparation of the report. 

Written comments will be accepted until Aug. 5, said planner Allan Gatzke, and a scoping meeting at which members of the public can present written or spoken presentations has been scheduled for July 27 at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

Plans call for a total of 97,970 square feet in two buildings and 201 parking spaces, 99 of them in an underground lot. 

Neighbors are worried about increased traffic and parking that the store could bring to the already congested Ashby Avenue corridor and to other surface streets in the area. 

For more details on the project, see www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/eirs.html#IS and click on 920 Heinz St. General Plan Amendment and Rezoning and the links below. 

To submit comments by mail, write to City of Berkeley, Land Use Planning Division, ATTN: Allan Gatzke, 2118 Milvia St., 1st Floor, Berkeley 94704.›

The recent 2005-06 California State budget passed by a legislative conference committee and signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger eliminated the governor’s shift of teacher retirement costs to local school districts, but what effect it will have on Berkeley Unified School District’s finances is yet to be determined. 

BUSD Deputy Superintendent Glenston Thompson was poring over budget information last week, and said he didn’t want to comment on possible effects until he’d worked out all the numbers. 

In his original budget, Governor Schwarzenegger had proposed that local school districts pick up—for the first time—the government’s portion of State Teacher Retirement Systems (STRS) costs which had previously been paid for out of the state budget. That proposal would have shifted $700 million in costs from the state budget to local school districts. 

In May, under pressure from school districts, the governor cut that shift, proposing that $469 million of the STRS costs come from the local districts. 

Relying upon those May figures, the BUSD 2005-06 budget, passed by the school board last month, included close to a million dollars in additional STRS costs to Berkeley Unified. 

But after the BUSD budget was passed, the legislative conference committee reversed the governor’s actions completely, putting all of the STRS payment responsibility in the hands of the state. 

Does this mean that BUSD’s budget now has close to a million dollars in “extra money” that was originally budgeted for STRS, but can now be shifted over to other district programs? 

Thompson says that such a conclusion can’t be drawn because it is still unclear how much the new state budget actually earmarks for distribution to local districts. Such state aid is set out in complicated formulas, and those formulas have yet to be worked out into actual numbers by BUSD staff. 

California Federation of Teachers Media Consultant Steve Hopcraft outlined one of those complications in a telephone interview: in making up the money in the state budget from the reversal of the governor’s STRS proposal the conference committee eliminated at least $235 million in state reimbursements to local districts for programs mandated by the state. 

BUSD had not counted on any of that money (the district’s 2005-06 budget notes that “no amount has been projected in the budget” for state-mandated costs reimbursement), but Thompson said that other state aid listed in the district’s budget might be affected. 

School board directors are expected to receive an update on the budget numbers sometime after their monthlong summer meeting break.

Members of the Zoning Adjustments Board’s subcommittee on the city’s controversial application of the density bonus are beginning to see the light, they told fellow ZAB members Thursday. 

ZAB member Rick Judd said that after the panel met June 6 with Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan and three members of the Planning Commission he realized that “a lot of avenues are foreclosed to us by the city attorney’s view of the law.” 

“It was fairly clear from the meeting that Berkeley’s approach to the law was fairly unusual,” Judd said. 

Instead of awarding the bonus based on the actual project presented in the application, ZAB member Dean Metzger said, city staff calculates the maximum size the project could be if all the zoning strictures were relaxed and adds the density bonus on top of that, “creating huge projects that the neighbors don’t like.” 

To get sanity back into the process, Metzger said, “staff needs to develop what the project size would be if all zoning ordinances were applied, then add the density bonus on top of that.” 

State law decrees that developers who include condos or apartments with prices limited to what low- (or, in the case of condos, middle-) income tenants can afford to pay are allowed to make up for lost profits by enlarging their projects beyond normal limits. 

Subcommittee member Dave Blake said Monday he is particularly concerned with two modes city planning staff use in calculating the extra space a developer receives as a result of adding such “inclusionary” units into a project. 

By deciding to allow a building’s roof space as the building’s so-called “open space” requirement, builders are allowed to submit plans for projects that extend to the full dimensions of their lot. 

Another innovation is allowing parking spaces to be defined by the sometimes-three-high electrical lift parking spaces incorporated into many buildings rather than by floor area, which bestows even greater density. 

By incorporating lifts and rooftop open space, Blake said, developers can achieve densities beyond those allowed by a more conventional applications of the bonuses law. 

ZAB members noted Thursday that the interpretations used in Berkeley lead developers to submit two projects, the first to maximize density bonus space, and the second which reflects the final project as ultimately submitted for ZAB approval. 

“Every project becomes two projects, and my hope is that the mission of the Density bonus Subcommittee is to get it back to one project,” Blake said at the close of the meeting. 

The subcommittee’s next task is an examination of how other cities approach the density bonus—which revised state law has recently boosted from 25 percent to 35 percent. 

Other business 

Several neighbors of a construction project at 2844 Derby St. asked ZAB members to intervene in the case of a building project in a case that they said Senior Planner Greg Powell told them was wrongly approved. 

An Arts and Crafts home at the site had been severely damaged by a Dec. 24, 2001, blaze and had remained unrepaired and unoccupied for nearly three years until a new owner started work last November. 

Neighbors were startled so see the structure being expanded to three stories in the rear, acting on a permit application that listed the work as restoration rather than addition. A stop-work order issued in April has suspended the project. 

Senior Planner Debbie Sanderson told ZAB that her department is in the middle of dealing with the site, and said no decision has been made on the status of the use permit. 

Over the protests of one neighbor, ZAB authorized construction of a detached three-car garage at 1734 La Vereda Trail. 

Leo Simon, who lives next door said he was worried about soil stability, parking and other issues, but ZAB members unanimously approved a mitigated negative declaration that said all environmental concerns had been adequately addressed, then voted to authorize construction.

After calling a temporary halt to plans to demolish the landmarked building she owns, Kathleen Garr said she’s about to give up—forced to surrender by the heavy costs she’d incur should she break her contract with developers. 

The Lafayette woman is the owner of the former dried coconut warehouse at 740 Heinz Ave., which once housed part of Durkee Famous Foods’ now-vanished Berkeley processing plant. 

“I was trying to work something out,” Garr said, “but the attorneys I’ve talked to said it would be very expensive.” 

City officials had suspended “red tag” fines imposed on the building because the structure is deemed seismically unsafe, thanks to the pending applications to demolish the structure and replace it with a new and much larger laboratory and manufacturing building. 

The package was assembled by developer Darrel De Tienne, who teamed up Garr with Wareham Development, the firm that owns buildings on either side of the building where Garr’s late husband once ran a plastics recycling business. 

“I couldn’t afford the fines, and I can’t afford to retrofit the building, so I may just have to go ahead and make this deal,” she said. 

Garr said she wished she’d known earlier that she could have found support from neighbors and West Berkeley activists who turned out to oppose the demolition at last Monday’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). 

“Had I known about them, I would have done something earlier with their support,” she said. 

Garr cited ongoing health problems as another reason that adds urgency to her decision. 

“I just can’t afford the struggle,” she said. 

Garr’s building is one of three former Durkee’s structures the LPC landmarked on Aug. 6, 1985. 

Betsy Strange, a 27-year tenant of the former Durkee margarine plant at 800 Heinz Ave., remembers the process quite well. 

She moved into the building after earning a graduate degree from UC Berkeley in 1978. Along with other tenants, she chose the former processing plant because rents were cheap for space large enough to use as live/work units. 

When her corporate landlord went bankrupt and the land was sold at auction to Wareham in the first part of 1980’s, a five-year battle ensued in which landmarking played a significant role. 

The tenants were able to win the support of then-Mayor Loni Hancock and other city officials, eventually resulting in a formal agreement that placed the existing tenants under permanent protection of the city rent board for as long as they remain tenants of the building. 

Because the whole building is earmarked as affordable housing, rents for those who qualify for vacated spaces average between $700 and $900, while Strange and the remaining three originals pay less than $500. 

And while three buildings were landmarked, the agreement allowed demolition of two others, as well as the city’s last remaining industrial brick smokestack. 

Garr’s building was landmarked but was not involved in the Wareham settlement because it was the only former Durkee property under separate ownership. 

One aspect of the deal was never realized. The city awarded Wareham the first-ever cultural density bonus for setting aside one building for a theatrical troupe. 

“They were never able to find a tenant, so they were eventually allowed to rent it to Bayer for offices,” Strange said. 

Two of the original tenants testified at last Monday’s LPC meeting, John Shea and Weezie McAdams. Neither liked the current plans for the 105,800-square-foot four-story structure Wareham wants to build. 

“I’m appalled at the extra height and lack of setbacks,” said Shea. “After all these years of silence, this is what’s being offered.” 

“It’s very demoralizing and disturbing to see these plans,” McAdams told the LPC. “Basically, it’s a brick behemoth 81 feet high. “Our building would fall into shadow. It’s also very disturbing to think about that building (Garr’s) being demolished.” 

With other neighbors, she complained that she’d had trouble getting a look at any plans for the project, and saw her first draft at a meeting on July 7 attended by LPC Chair Jill Korte. 

“There were lots of concerns expressed by the tenants” of 800 Heinz, Korte told the LPC meeting. 

The commissioner also noted that the LPC can’t approve demolition without finding that it’s not feasible to preserve or restore the building. 

Corliss Lester, a post-accord tenant of 800 Heinz, said her unit would be cast into darkness if Wareham gets their way. “It’s three times larger than the landmark structure,” she told the LPC, “and it’s not being built for a specific tenant.” 

Lesser pleaded with the commissioners to scale down the plans to fit the character of the neighborhood. 

De Tienne filed an application to demolish the building in May, and city staff deemed it complete the following month. 

“We need to have a public hearing,” said Giselle Sorensen, the planning staffer assigned to the LPC. 

After hearing initial testimony, the commission continued the hearing until its next meeting on Aug. 8. 

Four people were killed in two fiery weekend collisions on I-80. 

The first crash at 2:30 a.m. Saturday at the Ashby Avenue interchange resulted in the deaths of the driver and two passengers in one car and shut down the freeway in both directions for seven hours. 

The second, a three-car crash at the Powell Street interchange in Emeryville at 2:15 a.m. Sunday, claimed the life of one of the motorists who extricated himself from the wreck only to be struck down by a passing vehicle. 

Berkeley firefighters, who have a reciprocal agreement with Emeryville, responded to both crashes, said BFD Deputy Chief David P. Orth. 

California Highway Patrol officers are seeking witnesses to the first crash, in response to reports that the another vehicle may have forced the 1995 Toyota in which the eastbound victims were riding into the path of a tractor-trailer rig traveling in the same direction. 

No formal identification of the three fatalities had been made as of press time Monday. 

Both the truck and the Toyota burst into flames on impact, and the truck hurtled over the center divider and into the path of two oncoming cars, both of which also caught fire, said Orth. 

The flames spread to grass next to the Ashby on-ramp, where they were extinguished without further damage. 

Orth said three people were hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries: the truck driver, the driver of another westbound vehicle which became entangled in the crash and the driver of one of the eastbound vehicles that hit the truck after it leapt the divider. 

Berkeley firefighters remained on the scene until 6:51, when the crumpled Toyota had yielded the last of the victims. 

Eastbound traffic, the last to be restored, resumed at 9:20 a.m. 

The Highway Patrol requests anyone with information about the motorist who may have caused the crash and escaped unharmed to call the Oakland CHP office at 510-450-3821. 

Emeryville crash 

Berkeley firefighters were summoned to the Powell Street interchange at 2:23 a.m. Sunday to help battle another car fire. What they found was a two part-accident that had happened a few minutes earlier. 

The original two-car collision, between a westbound motorist and a parked car, ended with both vehicles on the shoulder and the driver of one standing outside his car, which was then hit by an oncoming Toyota. 

The impact hurled the driver into the roadway, where the Toyota, which had swerved away from the vehicle, ran over the him, killing him instantly. 

Orth said one patient was rushed to Highland Hospital for treatment of serious trauma, and three others were treated for minor injuries. 

Traffic was reopened at 4:35 a.m.

If all goes well in a Thursday night hearing at the Design Review Commission (DRC), construction of an 80-unit low-income senior housing project at 1535 University Ave. can start soon. 

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

The project by Satellite Housing, a Berkeley-based builder of low-income housing, received the last of its needed funding in June, and construction is scheduled to begin in late October or early November. 

The design by Berkeley architect Erick Mitiken of Mitiken Associates, won high praise in earlier appearances before the panel, which nonetheless asked for minor changes. 

The project’s studio and one- and two-bedroom apartments are reserved for tenants making from 30 percent to 60 percent of the Oakland-area average median income, with rents ranging from $435 to $931 monthly. 

The four-story, 80,501-square-foot project at the northeast corner of University Avenue and Sacramento Street features 33 parking spaces, 12 for commercial tenants and 21 for residents. 

The project will also feature colorful murals by noted Berkeley artist Juana Alicia. 

The Zoning Adjustments Board gave the project its approval in February. 

DRC is also scheduled to give its final verdict on Prince Hall Arms, a proposed four-story housing structure with ground floor retail and space for a Masonic lodge at 3132 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

The long-delayed project has had a tough time winning DRC approval. 

Also on the agenda is a preliminary review of designs for seismic and accessibility upgrades of a 55,831-square-foot mixed use building at 2424 Ridge Road.›

MENTAL HEALTH SURVEY 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

If residents of Berkeley and Albany have not weighed in on the Mental Health Services Act (voted in as Proposition 63 by the state of California voters in 2004), we would appreciate your input in the next few weeks. You can fill out a survey on line at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/mentalhealth/mhsasurvey.html or you can call Ericka Leer at 981-5222 to request a paper copy or to find out when and where meetings are still being held. A progress report on information collected so far is scheduled on Wednesday July 27 at both 3-5 and 6-8 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. (at Ashby). It is near the Ashby BART station and is one block west of the 15 bus stop at Martin Luther King and Ashby. There will be refreshments. We are looking forward to seeing as many residents as possible.  

Trish Thomas 

• 

HOGWASH ON HILLARY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Please use your liberal platform to do more than just mirror, though I guess you were trying to be subtle, the Republican “hogwash” about Hillary (“Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign Already Underway,” July 12). Who cares about why she’s with Bill. How many disinterested political spouses have decided to keep their mouths shut about their mates or their opinions unknown in order to protect their reputations? Hillary’s out there, not hiding somewhere to protect herself. I just want to know what she thinks and about how hard she works. Watch C-SPAN sometime when she’s at a committee hearing. Pleeeease do better next time when you talk about her. She is a great lady! 

Catherine O’Neill 

Austin, Texas 

• 

ROOT OF EVIL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The question has arisen, “How did our political system get to this point?” The Bush administration’s propensity for lies and secrecy is the easiest explanation. The love of secrecy is the root of evil and secrecy defines the Bush administration; secrecy defines the anti-abortion movement; secrecy defines the anti-gay crusade and these three are interwoven. This has led to an administration that pitches division, deception, demonization of any opposition and has programmed a whole legion of right-wing and religious converts. 

Ron Lowe 

Nevada City  

• 

BOBBY SANDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In Homayon’s recent commentary “Bobby Sands and Akbar Ganji,” the author states that IRA prisoner Bobby Sands went on a hunger strike with the demand that he be released. This is not correct. Bobby Sands was one of a number of IRA and INLA prisoners who went on a hunger strike, and he was the first of 10 to die. These brave prisoners were not demanding release, but rather were rightfully demanding to be recognized as the political prisoners they were, rejecting an attempt on the part of the British government to regard them as common criminals. Their five demands were: 

1. The right not to wear a prison uniform. 

2. The right not to do prison work. 

3. The right of free association with other prisoners. 

4. The right to organize their own educational and recreational facilities. 

5. The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week. 

Also worth noting is that the street the Iranians named “Bobby Sands Street” is the street on which the British embassy in Tehran sits—a fact which pleases many people, myself included, greatly. (It was formerly known as Winston Churchill Street.) 

I’d not been aware of Akbar Ganji. My thanks to Homayon for sharing the story, and to the Berkeley Daily Planet for publishing it. 

Robert Fitzgerald 

Rochester, Minnesota 

• 

TWO BIRDS, ONE STONE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

To Parks and Recreation and the Civic Arts Commission, I would like to propose the following location for the David Brower globe sculpture: Civic Center Park fountain! Although I was lucky enough to dabble my feet in the fountain as a child, we all know that the city will never be able to afford flowing water there again, and we don’t want to provide a public urinal anyway. Let’s cap the plumbing and create the perfect venue for the Brower globe. It’s the ideal setting: a) downtown and central to Berkeley; b) appropriate scale to the setting; c) viewable from a distance and many angles; d) circular fountain base complementing the design of the sculpture; e) blue background of tiles on the walls tying into color of the globe; and f) the city officials that wanted to have this white elephant can see it every day on the way to work. 

Carolyn Sell 

• 

ANTI-MALE RHETORIC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I continue to greatly enjoy your newspaper and its unusual blend of thoughtfulness, open-mindedness, and political awareness. Regrettably, you continue to see fit to occasionally publish anti-male rhetoric. Under today’s reigning political ideology, males seem to be the last safe whipping dog for all of society’s ills, as well as a seemingly reliable target for inaccurate or exaggerated facts. 

I have learned to expect more from the Daily Planet than P.M. Price’s remarkable question (The View from Here, July 15), “Has testosterone outgrown its usefulness?” Well, let’s see .. Are we ready to give up all the comforts and conveniences of modern urban life that were invented and built primarily by men, including our roads, our cars, our houses, the buildings in which we work, our electrical and sewer systems, and on and on? Whoever is ready to do so, feel free to bash males with relative impunity. The rest of us need to start respecting males as well as females. Would any author writing, let’s say, about Susan Smith, mass murderer of her own children, have leapt to a parallel query, “Has estrogen outgrown its usefulness?” Unlikely. How many people even realize that mothers, not fathers, not step-fathers, not male strangers, commit the majority of physical violence against their own children? These facts don’t fit the reigning ideology and so somehow never get discussed. 

Let’s talk about Price’s rape “statistics.” Only a definition of rape so liberal as to encompass cases where a woman willingly, voluntarily has sex but then has regrets months later can lead to a conclusion that “one out of 12 male college students has committed rape.” Despite all the misplaced outcry, most university campuses remain phenomenally safe place for women. (Some semi-hidden classism is doubtless lurking in the disproportionate attention paid to university students relative to other people.) Price would have us believe that “one woman is raped every two minutes in the United States.” The Department of Justice (DoJ) reports that some 72,240 rapes occurred in 2003, the last year for which statistics are available. This breaks down to one rape every 7.5 minutes, a bit different from the reported number. One further hidden fact about rape: According to Human Rights Watch and other concerned and reputable organizations, a high percentage of rape victims are 

male prisoners. Somehow empathy seems to be lacking for these folks above all others, and they also don’t show up in the DoJ’s statistics. 

Authors whose articles diverge from accuracy and fair treatment of people should have their work edited or in extreme cases, rejected. Women expect (and receive) no less. Isn’t it time we started treating all humans with the dignity and respect we all deserve, regardless of the sexual equipment with which we happen to have been born? 

J. Steven Svoboda 

Public Relations Director 

National Coalition of Free Men 

• 

ALBANY BULB 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

First a disclaimer: My experience of the Albany Bulb is limited to one afternoon hike to see the scrap-art mentioned in a Daily Planet article. On the basis of that sparse observation, I want to comment on the second, July 12 article by John Geluardi with commentary by Osha Neuman. 

The immediate concern seems to be the use of heavy equipment to remove re-established squatters’ campsites, instead of removing things “by hand.” Public Works Supervisor John Medlock (as quoted by Mr. Geluardi) seems to make a good point about “a lot of broken glass and needles. We are trying to handle the debris as little as possible.” I did not see the squatters’ encampments, but if my husband or son were hired to do any clearing work on any part of the Albany Bulb, I would hope Mr. Medlock would stick to this position. 

Mr. Geluardi’s report of “concern among [unnamed] landfill visitors that mature trees and wildlife habitat will be destroyed,” along with Mr. Neuman’s use of phrases like “environmental damage,” the military euphemism, “environment as collateral damage,” “reduce biodiversity,” and “leave ugly scars,” could convey the mistaken image of a green, flourishing, unspoiled, natural area. That’s what I would think if I had not visited the site. It is an industrial construction-material dump. The scruffy bushes twisting over concrete blocks and rusted metal show only the persistence of life throughout decades of “environmental damage.” 

The art is impressive, in a dark way, quite unlike the whimsical Emeryville Mud Flat sculpture of 30 years ago. Much of the Bulb art depicts nightmarish and sado-masochistic fantasies. (Perhaps the materials at hand, as well as other aspects of our world have give inspiration toward the sinister.) 

If you decide to go to see the art, I offer some advice: 

1. Wear sturdy shoes with thick, protective soles. 

2. Once you have left the short, paved road keep your eyes on the ground. You will be walking on crude, rutted paths where partly concealed spears of construction rebar may stab through running shoes or (god forbid) thongs. 

3. Do not take small children with you unless you are willing to tether them to you at all times, and watch every step they take. 

4. Do not take older children either, unless they are so unadventurous as to stay on the “path.” On all sides there are large concrete blocks spiked with rebar, plus large, rusted, sharp clusters of metal, plus unidentifiable remains of destroyed buildings and roads. 

5. If you are over 60, bring your treking pole to steady you over the frequent ruts, dips, rocky ups and downs--studded, of course, with hazardous debris. 

6. Hope and pray that the county and the state come through with money and plans to do whatever it takes to clean up the Bulb and turn it into a shoreline park like our wonderful Caesar Chavez Park (which was once the Berkeley Dump). 

Dorothy Bryant 

• 

RESPONSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Robert Clear in his July 15 letter to the editor would like a response from “Hudson or Thomas” to his commentary on the “urban infill problem.” He juxtaposes urban infill and preservation issues and apparently sees a conflict. He suggests that preservation has gone too far and that the result has been a “social burden.”  

He is hereby referred to the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association website where a pro-preservation perspective on many of the more controversial recent development issues can be found: www.berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/discourse.html.  

For those who believe Berkeley has been “excessive” (Mr. Clear’s word, not mine) in its landmarking decisions, please visit the photo gallery at the same website (www.berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/all_landmarks.html) to be sure you know the scope and nature of what’s at stake.  

Let it be said that infill development does not have to be at odds with preservation principles. Rather it is insensitive infill development that has caused ire among residents and preservationists.  

To its credit, a preservation perspective is sometimes solely about individual structures and their inherent worth. But equally often, preservation is a planning tool which affects a livable, quality environment that is inherently attractive. Its effects are beyond the landmarked building to the streetscape, neighboring structures, and community at large.  

Finally, as discussions about the Landmark Preservation Ordinance bring these issues to the fore, we would do well to take note of landmarked structures and their environs in order to evaluate preservation’s salubrious reach. Developers might do well to consider financial perks, e.g. the federal income tax credit, for rehabilitation of National Register properties. Homeowners might well investigate Mills Act tax benefits for qualified maintenance to locally landmarked homes. In short, a fair study of these issues would show preservation as friend and not foe and not intrinsically at odds with development.  

Janice Thomas 

• 

FIRE STATION 7 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Our pleas to city officials to refrain from enforcing rolling brownouts obviously fell on deaf ears. And now the threat of a major catastrophic fire is becoming a hard reality in the wake of recent fires in the city (including one yesterday near Fish Ranch Road). Despite assurances by the mayor’s office, the City Council and the Fire Department that Station 7 on Shasta Road was going to be staffed for the entire fire season, Berkeley hills residents were put in a perilous situation on July 6 when Station 7 was closed until 5 p.m. It was only through the diligence of its residents that the station was staffed after 5 p.m., following angry calls to the mayor’s office and the Fire Department. 

To place Berkeley residents in this precarious situation is not only irresponsible, it is highly negligent and constitutes a breach of trust by city officials who place greater priority on their pet projects over basic necessities like public safety. The threat of a major catastrophic fire hangs over us like the sword of Damocles and our city officials have acted like Dionysius by cutting our fire services. Alas, the sword hangs only by a strand of a horse’s hair.  

Cecilia Gaerlan 

Co-Captain, Shasta-Sterling Neighborhood Group 

• 

FORGET ROVE! 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When the day is done I have four choices for news in prime time (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox), five if your include PBS. Actually “news” is somewhat inaccurate; “news bites” would be better. But, come to think of it, the news on any given day occupies a tiny portion of the half-hour allotted; reports of actual events get squeezed by the weight of advertising, pseudo entertainment and prophesies of “experts”—“Well, professor, tell our audience what you think the next move of X will be.” [Replace X with Bush, the Democrats, the terrorists, the insurgents—whatever.] Lately I’ve begun to ask myself “Why bother?” 

Consider how the issue involving Rove, Bush’s main man, has been hogging the news. Everybody has something to say. Did he leak? Did he lie? Did he violate the law? In spirit? In fact? Such questions are minuscule when compared to the Watergate potential of the Downing Street Memo—documented evidence that the Bush network was fixing the case for war, promising one thing while planning another.  

Karl Rove may be a liar, a thug, a genius. He may be fired. He may keep his job. He may get the Medal of Honor. The point, unacknowledged by newspersons everywhere is that Rove is alive and almost 1,800 of his fellow citizens, soldiers mostly in their early twenties, are not. Karl Rove is healthy but several thousand of his countrymen are permanently maimed.  

Newspersons, forget Rove! We belittle ourselves as a nation by spotlighting his venial sins rather than the grievous sins of George W. and his prompters.  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo  

• 

STATIST RESPONSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What a clever title for Lin Biao’s letter (“Statist Quo,” July 12). And oh how bad it makes me feel to have come to that from a guy that was considered a (rhetorical) bomb-thrower in my distant youth. Age has its definite drawbacks. 

But wait. Taxes in society are quite analogous to club dues. Those that don’t like them can vote out the rascals that installed them. And there ain’t no free lunch in this or any other society. Those folks that don’t like taxes are sure interested, for the most part, in the services they buy. 

Just one example: The U.S. just lost a Toyota assembly plant to Canada despite several American states offering more financial incentives. It seems Toyota found that Canadian workers were better educated than American workers, so Toyota needed to spend less in training (and Toyota liked the lower health care cost per employee hour—about $5—that Canada’s national health plan offered) So we spend money on education and health care, and we get good paying jobs; we don’t spend that money, we lose the jobs.  

Mal Burnstein 

• 

POLICE BLOTTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a loyal reader of the Daily Planet, I, unlike most people, like the way Richard Brenneman writes the Police Blotter. I appreciate the sardonic wit. He seems to write with a good slant on things. Crimes are just that, crimes. Granted, they are not too often made light of, but Richard’s airy attitude towards them is a breath of fresh air. If you do not appreciate his style, then just ignore it. I’d rather read his Police Blotter than read readers’ thoughts and opinions on his writing. Stop crying about it. 

Richard, keep up the good work, there are those of us out here that don’t take your light-hearted observations as offensive. What’s offensive is the crimes themselves, not the manner in which it is reported. Naysayers please shut up already and let the man do his job, because I like the way he reports and not the way you mercilessly assault the man. 

Kudos, Richard, kudos. 

Dave Schwartz 

• 

STUDYING SLAVERY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his recent column about the proposal to change the name of Jefferson Elementary School, J. Douglas Allen Taylor most unfortunately persists in viewing all black persons as a homogeneous mass of people rather than the individuals that we are. His suggestion about studying more about slavery could accomplish nothing that would be of benefit to anybody, black or white. It is like he wants to blame today’s white people for what some of their remote ancestors did. I remember some time ago meeting a very lovely young woman who was a direct descendant of a Civil War Confederate general. I did not, and I do not blame her for what her distant ancestor did in fighting to preserve slavery. That is what he, not she, did; however, from the time I met her I had such great admiration for the very nice and gracious and energetic young woman she is that instead of blaming her for the slavery of so many centuries ago, I am sure that it would have been all right with me if she had made me her slave. 

It is only as individuals that any person, black or white, can achieve anything, and persons who do not know anything about Thomas Jefferson except that he owned slaves are incapable of offering any ideas that would be of benefit to themselves or anyone else. Mr. Taylor should study enough American history to know and appreciate the good things Thomas Jefferson did, such as drafting the Virginia Statute of Religion that dis-established the Anglican Church in the Virginia colony and proclaiming that all men are created equal and are endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights. Jefferson inherited slaves, as did George Washington, and Virginia law at that time made it impossible for them to free their slaves as both wanted to. 

Andrew Jackson did not inherit slaves; he bought slaves and became a slave-trader and he killed many black persons and many Native Americans and fought in several duels. What he did was far worse than what Thomas Jefferson did and I would like to replace his portrait on the twenty dollar bill with a portrait of our Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That would be more beneficial to the country than changing the name of the Jefferson School. 

Charles J. Blue 

• 

AL QAEDA DOESN’T EXIST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Jalal Ghazi blames a fanciful “Cold War within Islamic forces” for the London bombings. That’s only credible if you believe a gang of “Islamic terrorists” is out to get you. Ghazi’s elaborate constructions and name-dropping may be impressive but they don’t jibe with what most dedicated researchers have been saying for the past few years. Nowadays nobody knows where “Osama bin Laden” is and nobody cares.  

It’s clear by now that “al Qaeda” doesn’t exist. Whole shelves of books debunk the 9/11 Islamic conspiracy theory. Dozens of websites will fill you in on all the details about collapsing buildings blown into dust, controlled demolitions, “suicide pilots” who are still alive, “Boeing 757s” swallowed up by tiny holes in the Pentagon, etc. Those doing the hard work have already concluded that 9/11 was an inside job, along with the anthrax scare, the “Washington sniper”, the multiple bombs that took down Okie City, and the Madrid operation, which is similar to the London attacks. Just recently revelations have come out about British MI5 and other double agents’ responsibility for so-called “IRA bombings” in Britain in the 1990s. Seems the “Real IRA” was not so real after all.  

All of this is phony nonsense designed to make people fear enemies from the outside when the real enemies are already in power, feeding off tax money, with the full CIA/DIA apparatus at their disposal. Bush and Blair will continue to stage these attacks whenever they feel their grip on power loosening. As long as people continue to believe in official fairy tales, their political will to challenge those in power will be sapped and they’ll be sitting ducks for more police oppression and military raids on the public treasury. It’s an old old game, easily seen through.  

Our media should not simply repeat government propaganda as if it were fact. Intelligent analysis of government motives and practices is necessary. Don’t bother printing Ghazi’s idle musings unless he’s ready to debunk government lies and help us turn the game around. No, there are no wild-eyed bearded Muslim scholars living in caves who are out to get you. And young students in Leeds are not capable of obtaining military explosives and blowing up trains. That’s the job of Special Forces troops and radio-controlled “suicide bombers” programmed in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. It’s time to wake up and smell the gelignite and phosphorous, for YOU may be Bush-Blair’s target next time.  

Steve Tabor  

Alameda 

POEM 

Whistle, horn, let’s end this twaddle once and for all. 

When I was younger than I am now, my lover stirred next to me deep in the night down here in West Berkeley, and whispered, half asleep, “Wow, that train is going really fast!” 

Now I am alone and much older, and since America invaded Iraq for false reasons, I hear the trains at night, still down here in West Berkeley, and I sense, half waking, “America is finished.” 

I have always loved the mournful sound of trains in the night, and how I would love to be wrong now. 

Patrick Fenix 

?

A VALUABLE ASSET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The purpose of a commission is to serve the citizens of Berkeley as best it can in the way it seeks to. It is healthy to have controversy and debate on issues from commissioners, but it is unhealthy when a commissioner is attempting to undermine a commission’s purpose as Commissioner Wornick is doing. His article stresses important points, but his arguments have little to do with the Peace and Justice Commission or its main goals. Relating fire stations and schools to Peace and Justice makes me wonder if perhaps Wornick is a bit confused. He opposes the issue which is good for establishing new strategies to work for Peace and Justice, but perhaps Wornick is looking at other issues, and needs to be a part of a commission that deals with issues like state of our schools and fire stations. It solves no problems, and eases no tensions between political ideologies when individuals seek only to criticize and undermine without looking to build.  

The Peace and Justice Commission is a valuable asset to our city and continues to serve the Berkeley community and to reflect Berkeley’s ideas in our nation and world. I am extremely grateful to have those commissioners working for efforts such as the Department of Peace, and hope the ideals of Peace and Justice we all strive for can be met with healthy debate and cooperation. 

Chris Howell 

• 

ALL POLITICS ARE LOCAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing to you from the far away land of Michigan, where I currently enjoy wonderful weather, beautiful fresh water lakes, and am surrounded by the greens that our summers bring. However, it was not long ago that I had the pleasure of visiting your beautiful city when things were not so pleasant in my home town. I thank the citizens of Berkeley. You have a lovely community. 

I would like to respond to an op-ed piece by Jonathan Wornick, that was recently published in your paper with regard to the Department of Peace Resolution your City Council recently passed. It simply astounds me that someone so interested in seeing that city resources be well spent does not seem to have the insight to recognize the basic tenet of this bill, which is fiscally conservative in nature. Meeting violence at the causal level saves dollars now spent on the symptoms, while not solving any problems. Our jails, health care system, military expenditures are all examples of major expenses that could be mitigated addressing the problems of violence at the front end of the equation, rather than trying to poorly manage the symptoms of the underlying causes of violence at a cost we are increasingly unable to afford. Budgets are tight, schools are closing, billions are being spent overseas on a war largely admitted to have been based on “bad intelligence”...and we are paying the price at the local level, are we not? 

Having a Department of Peace at the federal level to research the underlying causes of violence both in this country and abroad, and using best practices to address conflict with non-violent solutions, certainly is an issue that would and should affect every town, city and municipality in our country. It follows that the citizens of this country should have an impact through their local governments on what the national politicians do or omit to so do. 

If there is any room for criticism it may be that the citizenry, through its local elected officials, has failed to be vigilant with regard to our federal government, and should become more involved, not less. It would do us well to follow Jefferson’s words carefully: “All politics are local.” Nothing that has ever been accomplished in terms of social justice issues has been done from the top down. Growing grass roots efforts have been at the forefront of every meaningful demonstration of social justice on the planet. 

The cities of Hamtramck and Detroit, Michigan have also passed similar resolutions in favor of a cabinet level Department of Peace. We do not advocate an unrealistic ideal, but propose a very practical and fiscally responsible law which makes these issues a national priority that would have as its goal the purpose of better enabling and expanding the chiefly ad hoc programs that currently attempt to deal with violence in our cities, states, country and the world, all of which affect each and every one of us. 

As an attorney, I cannot imagine anyone, who feels remotely responsible as a citizen in a democracy, advocating that one should not be concerned about national politics because it is not their job on the local level to so involve themselves, as politicians or otherwise. Quite the contrary...it is your job Mr. Wornick. Et tu, Councilman Wozniak? May I suggest that if you are uncomfortable with where you are sitting, that you consider changing your seat. 

Bravo to the Berkeley City Council for understanding its role. Keep shining your light—we can see by it all the way over here in the state of Michigan! 

Linda Henderson 

Lansing, Michigan 

• 

MISINFORMATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

People wondering why Berkeley took longer then neighboring cities to endorse the creation of a federal Department of Peace should understand that some people oppose Berkeley’s proud history of speaking out on national issues, a point driven home by the commentary “Opposed to a Department of Peace” (Daily Planet, July 12), which was riddled with misinformation that this reply seeks to address. 

The statement that the Peace and Justice Commission reviewed the “…legislation to save our elected officials from wasting their time and our money” is factually incorrect. First, a resolution is not legislation, it is a recommendation. By law of the Peace and Justice Commission act as a liaison between “…groups organizing around issues of peace and social justice and City government…” and advises the City Council on matters related to “…issues of peace and social justice, including …ending the arms race, abolishing nuclear weapons…and the reallocation of our national resources so that money…is spent on…the promotion of peace.” (Berkeley Municipal Code § 3.68.070) 

Saying his vote against a Peace Department was a message that City Council should do their job is ironic considering that a Peace and Justice Commissioner’s job is to read and apply the law quoted above and anyone properly doing that job would understand reviewing the Department of Peace proposal was based on our statutory responsibility, not some unsubstantiated notion that it might save time or money. I respect Mr. Wornick’s right, as an appointed official, to vote however he desires. Just as he should respect the competence of Kriss Worthington to decide which issues merit consideration by the City Council, since Mr. Worthington, was, after all, elected to make such decisions. 

Berkeley was the first city in the nation to divest from South Africa and pass economic sanctions against the repressive regime in Burma. In both cases other communities, and eventually Congress, modified these Berkeley-born ideas to create National Policy. In 1986 the voters adopted the Nuclear Free Zone Act, which specifically calls for City Council to work for peace. The council also enacted the legislation quoted above creating a Peace and Justice Commission for the specific purpose of advising the City Council on issues of Peace and Justice. And the Berkeley City Council unanimously voted, not once, but twice, to oppose the invasion of Iraq. This is powerful historic evidence that Berkeley voters want our local officials to promote peace and social justice, so the commentary’s premise that the job description of the mayor or City Council does not include taking such positions is clearly erroneous. 

Commissioner Wornick also states “… we already have a Department of State working for peace all over the world…” causing one to wonder if Wornick is aware that Secretary Powell went before the U.N. to justify war with Iraq based on the false premise that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The commentary also ask how Department of Peace supporters would feel if Donald Rumsfeld was appointed to run it. Recent pharmaceutical scandals involving Vioxx as a cause of heart attacks and stroke, and Viagra for causing blindness show how wrong things can go when the wrong people are placed in positions of power, but without a Food and Drug Administration things would be far worse. Should we really abolish the National Parks Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Forestry Service, and every other department in government because the president can make bad appointments? 

Indeed, we need not go to Washington. Right here in Berkeley some Peace and Justice commissioners oppose virtually every resolution calling for peace. That hasn’t dissuaded citizens from approaching the Peace and Justice Commission to get the City Council to endorse efforts toward peace and social justice, nor should it. And if they fail to get the commission recommendation they seek it remains their First Amendment right to go directly to their elected officials, as they did with the Department of Peace item. This, despite the displeasure it causes politically conservative folks, is how representative democracy is supposed to work. 

Elliot Cohen 

• 

BERKELEY’S VALUES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Like most Berkeleyans and our mayor, I am proud of Berkeley’s progressive tradition. From his editorial, “Opposed to a Department of Peace,” it appears Peace and Justice Commissioner Wornick is directly opposed to the mission and values of a commission he is responsible to uphold. A diversity of viewpoints on a commission is expected, but it is counterproductive for a commissioner to undermine a commission’s very mission. Since “Warnik” is more concerned about school and Fire Department issues, why not resign and offer his services instead to a PTA or the Fire Safety Commission? We call on Mayor Bates; Councilmembers Wozniak (who appointed him) Capitelli, and Olds; and School Board members Riddle and Rivera to appoint Commissioners who support citizen efforts towards peace. We are appreciative of the cooperative Peace and Justice commissioners who do our city proud by donating hundreds of hours to worthy efforts such as the Department of Peace, saving city staff both time and money. Of course the City Council focusses on practical local needs, and can also address global issues of local concern, without spending inordinate amounts of time thanks to the work of dedicated commissioners. 

Scott McCandless 

So Jonathan Wornick opposes the idea of a Department of Peace. As they say, it’s a free country. Mr. Wornick can have his opinion while the rest of Berkeley has theirs. But judging from the vehemence of his letter, it seems to me that the only reason he’s on Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission is so that he can fight against everything it stands for. Not very community spirited.  

Personally I think that the idea of a Department of Peace is a brilliant and revolutionary idea whose time will come. Think of it, a cabinet level officer to advise the president concerning, non-violent solutions to world problems. And if the U.S. does this, will not other nations follow? And if the Department of Peace idea catches on world wide, could war become obsolete? A brave dream but one worth dreaming. If you think about it, it’s Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission expanded to the federal level.  

People like to make fun of Berkeley with its own “foreign policy,” but Berkeley’s caring international activism helped bring down apartheid. We will help make this dream come true as well.  

Blaine Brende  

• 

DEPARTMENTS OF WAR 

Wornick has it wrong. 

The State Department is actually the second Department of War, the first being the Department of “Defense.” 

We need a Department of Peace. 

David Wald?

It’s not often that I discover a rich new metaphor in a bureaucratic memo. So it was a pleasant surprise to come across the image of the planner as alchemist in the California Senate Local Government Committee’s analysis of Assemblymember Loni Hancock’s Assembly Bill 691.  

AB 691 would make it easier for counties and cities to designate existing land use plans, including redevelopment plans, as transit village plans and thereby easier to create transit villages—dense, mixed-use developments within walking distance (a quarter-mile) of transit stations. “The bill,” writes Senate staff analyst Peter Detwiler, “lets local officials practice a bit of planning alchemy, converting existing plans into golden opportunities.”  

Clearly, Mr. Detwiler intends his magic trope as a high compliment. Metaphors are however notoriously unstable things, susceptible to multiple, indeed conflicting, interpretations. To my mind, the image of the alchemist-planner wonderfully captures some of the more dubious aspects of the planning profession, particularly as that line of work is pursued in the Land Use Planning Division of the Berkeley Planning Department.  

For starters, it exposes the pretension of planners’ claims for the objective, not to say scientific, character of their work. That pretension is legitimated by claims for the value-free authority of professional expertise in general.  

During the City Council’s recent public hearing on the budget, City Manager Kamlarz shot down the money-saving idea of having the minutes of commission meetings taken by citizen volunteers instead of paid staff. Official minutes have to be taken by a neutral party, said the city manager, and that meant that only staff could take them.  

In the nearly seven years that I served on the Planning Commission, staff-taken minutes accurately reflected the commission’s proceedings. As far as I know, that’s still the case. But the fairness of those records stands in stark contrast to the partiality that skews so much of the other work done by the city’s planning staff.  

As documented in numerous articles, editorials, commentaries and letters in the Daily Planet, the Planning Department is heavily biased toward development. And not just any development: it favors big over little; urban amnesia over historic preservation; housing and retail over development that benefits light industry, artists and artisans; transit-oriented projects over those geared to the private automobile. Some of these preferences, such as transit-oriented development, are generally desirable. But that’s beside the point, which is that our officially neutral civil servants have their own agenda.  

That agenda also includes a cause that staff pursue with greater zeal than development of any sort: the aggrandizement of staff authority and power. Because it’s members of the public who most often challenge both the development promoted by the Planning Department and staff per se, a top priority of the Land Use Planning Division is the suppression of citizen participation and influence.  

Mind you, I’ve worked with Berkeley planning staff who serve the community with dedication and respect, and who welcome citizen participation. Unfortunately, the leadership of the Planning Department has cultivated a model of civil service in which the public figures principally as an adversary. Since Berkeley is professedly a democracy, the adversarial model can’t be openly acknowledged. Instead, planners pay lip service to the public while subverting its prerogatives.  

Like the alchemists of yore, their strategems include mystifying language and esoteric procedures. To be sure, some of these expedients are based in city, state and or federal laws not of their own making. The complex process and abstruse terminology associated with environmental impact reports, for example, are stipulated by the California Environmental Quality Act.  

But how CEQA and other laws get interpreted and implemented is largely determined by city staff. Again and again, citizens find themselves flummoxed by staff machinations: selective and/or prejudicial readings of the law, cooked data, weird schedules that fast-track controversial projects, manipulative meeting formats and prevarication that sometimes verges on mendacity.  

The most potent deterrent to public influence, however, is secrecy. Standard dodges include inadequate notification, untimely reports, withheld or buried information and—perhaps staff’s single most effective expedient—secret meetings.  

It’s a major flaw of California’s sunshine law, the Brown Act, that it applies only to elected officials and their appointees, not to professional staff who work for public entities. Unlike their nominal bosses, our civil servants can and do take their decisions behind closed doors. Presumably their exemption is justified by the mistaken belief that staff are singularly disinterested parties. Whatever the rationale, this huge loophole shields our bureaucrats from public scrutiny, thereby giving them undue power over the people they’re paid to serve.  

Getting rid of voodoo expertise will involve a lot more than training sessions in customer service. Berkeley residents may think that city staff’s principal duty is to the citizenry, but it’s not. The staff’s first obligation is to the city manager.  

That was made painfully obvious in June, when Berkeley’s outgoing health officer, Dr. Poki Namkung, publicly charged the city’s Health and Human Services Department with fiscal mismanagement. According to the Daily Planet, on May 3 City Manager Kamlarz sent Namkung a letter reminding her “that under Berkeley’s form of government she was not to have written or oral communication with the mayor or council.”  

In other words, staff secrecy and non-accountability to the public are embedded in Berkeley’s city manager system itself. If we want staff to be open and accountable, we need to rethink and then reform the very foundations of Berkeley municipal governance. The first step is to stop believing in magic.  

Taking that step, by the way, means casting a wary eye on AB 691. The downside of this bill, as noted in Peter Detwiler’s admirably evenhanded analysis, is that it “limits public participation.” To designate an area a transit village—the phrase itself qualifies as planner mumbo jumbo—cities and counties now have to go through two noticed public hearings, the first at the planning commission and the second at the city council or county board of supervisors. AB 691 requires only that a public notice be issued ten days before the new designation is enacted.  

The assumption here is that transit village-ization is unquestionably a good thing. But planners’ alchemy can run in reverse, turning urban gold into the equivalent of base metal. Would ten days have been long enough to mobilize the hundreds of north Oakland residents whose protests have delayed the Oakland Redevelopment Agency’s plan to declare their neighborhoods a blighted redevelopment area so as to subsidize, among other things, a transit village at MacArthur BART?  

?

I’m sitting in the middle seat of an Alaska Airline flight from Seattle to Oakland. An hour ago I arrived at SeaTac on a much smaller prop plane that had taken off from Spokane. Before that I was in the backseat of a Ford Explorer “taxi” owned by the Moose Express. I’ve been in Sandpoint, Idaho, for a week visiting friends. Now I’m heading home. 

On my lap I hold an ordinary gray cardboard egg carton. But within the box is something extraordinary. Every so often I open the lid and peek inside. 

The carton contains a dozen chicken eggs. 

But these are not ordinary, run-of-the-mill, factory-produced eggs. These are Northern Idaho Panhandle eggs, or more exactly, eggs from the Arucana chickens owned by Lois Clizer, who lives in the Cabinet Mountains near the Montana border, below British Columbia. These are, in all respects, magic eggs. 

And they are blue. 

Lois Clizer has homesteaded 40 acres of land along Flume Creek for the past 35 years. She is 74 years old and resides in a cabin once shared by the Hucklebery Duckleberry Commune. Down the road lives her daughter Ann and Ann’s husband, Chris. Beyond them lives another daughter, Janet and her son, Aza. Scattered up and down the mountainside are more relatives and friends. The Clizers are a big clan, composed of eight siblings and a slew of grandkids and great-grandkids. Most of them were involved in the logging business at one time or another. But now that logging is on a downswing, they make livings doing whatever needs to be done. Chris works with metal and engines. Janet cleans houses. Aza is a carpenter and mechanic. Ann writes. 

I am coming home from a visit with Ann. We met eight years ago at a writers’ conference on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. Ann mesmerized me with stories of her mountains and way of life. For years she lived in a two-room cabin with no electricity or running water. Twenty-one years ago she gave birth to her daughter Maya in one of those rooms. She baked bread from scratch, raised horses, and dozens of dogs and cats. She fought off skunks, cougars, porcupines, and the deer who tried to enter her garden and take off with her tomatoes, peppers and squash. 

Year after year she watches the snow fall, the spring ice melt, the summer solstice come and go, the leaves change as fall approaches. It’s a world so different from the East Bay it is mind boggling. The pace is slow. You can hear the roar of bumblebees among the blackberries, the honk of geese migrating down from Canada, thunder claps across the valley above the southwestern Selkirk Mountains. At dusk moose amble in the lower marshes and in the early morning hours a lone grizzly bear has been seen sniffing around the old woodshed and outhouse. 

I take another peek at the eggs. Each one is a different shade: pale blue, cerulean, aqua, azure, turquoise, light green, olive. Some are speckled with flecks of brown and gold. They are of varying size and shape, not smooth and perfect like Safeway eggs, but rough and luminous, so dazzling they hurt my eyes. 

I don’t usually speak to my seatmates while flying. I prefer to remain quiet, catching up on reading and crossword puzzles. But today is different. Today I hold in my lap a small piece of untamed Idaho, 12 fabulous gems. I want to share their beauty with everyone. 

“Look,” I say to the man and woman on either side of me. “Look what I have.” I open the box. Both of them lean forward and stare. “Blue eggs,” I say. “From Idaho.”  

“Remarkable,” says the man. 

“Fantastic,” says the woman. 

“Magic,” I say, and then I close the box, squeeze my eyes shut, and try to conjure up the sweet pine and weedy heat of wild Idaho before my plane sets down in Oakland.

Range fire 

A quick response by Berkeley firefighters to a residence at 1510 Olympus Ave. last Monday morning, July 11, caught a kitchen range fire before it had time to do more than $1,000 in damage, said Berkeley Fire Department spokesperson Deputy Chief David P. Orth. 

Nursing home blaze 

It sure helps to have a fire station next door, as residents of St. Rafael’s Nursing Home at 2628 Shattuck Ave. discovered last at 6:05 p.m. last Tuesday. 

Smelling smoke, residents called the fire department, and soon folks were arriving from Station 5, which is one door to the south. 

The location of the blaze proved to be something of a mystery, and tenants were relocated to areas away from the site of the suspected blaze, and plans were made to relocate them to other homes. 

Firefighters finally found the cause of the blaze—an electrical short in wiring buried deep under attic insulation, and they had to remove the ceiling from one room to bring it under control. 

Orth said the fire and necessary ax and saw work caused an estimated $100,000 in damage to the structure and $15,000 in damage to contents. 

The fire was out before it became necessary to move the tenants to other homes, he added. 

Stairway arson? 

A blaze of suspicious origins did $500 in damage to an exterior wooden stairway on a building at 1733 San Pablo Ave. shortly after 4 a.m. Wednesday.›

Our lively and well-read local Berkeley newspaper, the Berkeley Daily Planet, and its eminences grises, the O’Malleys, are apparently under sustained assault by some city politicians and officials who do not like their attitude and who neither understand nor respect the role of a free press. Newsracks and newspaper copies have mysteriously disappeared, city public noticing has been pulled, certain insider local businesses have pulled advertising (or decline to advertise in the first place), and there is extensive and inappropriate badmouthing of the paper and its management. 

Is our press once again being stolen and recycled, as happened in the 2002 mayoral election with the Daily Cal? Are the current events a more subtle version of this prior regrettable but actual, factual incident? 

We live in an era of incredible information flow. There is a plethora of news sources and opinions—Internet newspapers and blogs, e-mail, websites, talk radio, teleconferencing, cellphones, cable coverage, videostreaming, traditional print media and journals, and probably many other venues that I have not yet discovered. Interested members of the public are now able to hear many voices and opinions and make up their own minds, and spreaders of information and misinformation, including government and politicians, are likely to encounter immediate response and argument. This is our information world and those of who are in public life had better get used to it. 

In my opinion, the Planet has provided an incredible public service to Berkeley residents in a professional, lively, and up-to-date manner. Yes, the owners/editors have their opinions, but they have every right to print them in their editorials. Yes, there are a lot of critical and carping signed opinion pieces and letters by civic activists, but so what? If members and supporters of the current civic establishment have something to say, they too are free to write opinion pieces and letters and have them published in the Planet. And yes, there are signed news stories with lively headlines that pretty accurately report on the issues and voices heard at public meetings. I have not yet heard of any instance where an “establishment” article or letter or news “correction” was turned down by a biased Planet staff. Is it possible that the those who are now running Berkeley have nothing (more) to say, or are afraid of putting their thoughts out in black and white in the Planet for all to see and respond to? Or do they already have a built-in spin machine, paid for by us taxpayers, and taking the form of press releases, city-sponsored websites, city-sponsored newsletters, city-sponsored public meetings, City Council meetings, and so on?  

I know that our politicians and city officials mostly believe that they are doing the best that they possibly can and making the best possible decisions on the basis of the best possible facts. They still need to hear from the public and the press, who sometimes know and think things that officialdom does not. I know that Berkeley issues are tough and serious, but this is exactly why a free press and many public opinions are so important. I know that it is hard for public officials to be criticized, corrected, and satirized, but that is in the nature of our lively information system and democracy.  

So, my plea to local officialdom and its supporters is to cease attacking the messengers, listen more closely to the messages, and engage more fully and honestly in the dialogue about vital local issues. With respect to the Berkeley Daily Planet in particular, instead of trying to discredit and undermine it, please join its lively exchanges and give us all more opportunity to engage in thoughtful discussion.  

Barbara Gilbert is a Berkeley civic activist who is grateful to live in a free society with a free press and without fear of a Gulag for her opinions. 

›

Unfortunately, the only thing that can be said for the school district in how it goes about wasting our tax monies in doing construction is that it does not learn from past mistakes. 

While in the city, six-figure salaries are justified because they pay for highly qualified staff, with the school district, six-figure salaries continually pay for poorly educated and incompetent staff. BUSD continually hires and promotes people who do not have the ability to do a good job. BUSD hired a food services manager, who was only a high school graduate, and had never run a food services department. She lost over $3 million dollars before she “voluntarily” left to run a prison cafeteria. The manner in which construction in this district is mismanaged is another case in point 

One year ago, BUSD began a landscaping project at Willard Middle School, projected to take two months. Fourteen months later, they’re still constructing. Anyone in construction knows that there is an appropriate sequence of steps. First, you build your all hardscape, and then you put in your plants and other softscape. But not BUSD. First, they trenched the asphalt and installed irrigation pipes. Then they patched up the asphalt, laid pavers and sod and plants. Now, they are tearing up the asphalt, and putting in a fence. Why wasn’t this coordinated? Why pay for trenching and patching? Why put in grass which is now being trampled, and irrigation boxes, which are now being cracked? Despite the fact that knowledgeable folks pleaded with BUSD, BUSD insisted on installing sprinkler heads that are 12 inches above the ground, especially along busy Telegraph Avenue and a bus stop. No wonder, the sprinkler heads are continually being broken and vandalized. The BUSD staff manager said, it’s no big deal. Hey, a $200 irrigation box here, a thousand dollars there. After all, BUSD has had $275 million of our money to burn. 

Several years ago, against the recommendation from the Maintenance Advisory Committee, BUSD installed wood parquet floors at Cragmont Elementary School in the lunchroom. Lunchroom floors need to be mopped daily. Wood and water, especially in a highly used area are not good partners. Three years later, that floor had to be removed and replaced. 

Yet, BUSD continually cries poor and asks for tax increases, it is also installing a new fence at Willard that is costing a mint—with over a dozen brick pillars and a custom wrought iron. Why? There isn’t enough money to retrofit some classrooms, or to meet all the teachers’ requests for inside the classroom, but we’re building brick-pillared custom wrought iron fences and gates? Aesthetically attractive material can be inexpensive and sturdy. Just look at Koolhaus’ fabulous public library in Seattle, made out of industrial materials. 

A week or two ago, an opinion in this paper excorciated the school district for waste. What will it take for the school district to pay attention? In November 2006, BUSD will be asking us again for more money. Maybe it is time to turn off the funding spigot and insist on performance audits. 

Yolanda Huang is chair of the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission.›

A proud history of evoking an entire disability movement for equal rights is coming to shame at the Center for Independent Living. Its executive director, Jan Garrett, seems bent on abandoning doctrines of fair treatment for employees and absolute fairness, efficiency and dedication to providing excellent service above all—in favor of wielding personnel policies, overlooking inefficiencies and making the bottom line the primary consideration in decision making. 

I worked there for three years, some two years ago now, coordinating an independent living services program for the disabled community. The program, with me at the helm, profitted financially and in its reputation for the first time since its inception in the ‘80s. I worked very hard to do this; did nothing illegal or unethical; kept accurate records. What I also did was to work pretty independently. As long as the money rolled in, I was a hero. The Moving On program at CIL is the only one which has to support itself and it does so with individual contracts for consumers paid for by either the Regional Center of the East Bay or The State Department of Rehabilitation, which working relationship I established while working as coordinator. 

Today, I learned that I have been and it is the prevailing lore, that I was successful in my job because I was “unethical.” Last month, a 30-year employee of CIL was dismissed—his counselling service discontinued—for what were called financial reasons. Phil Chavez is a cornerstone—a lynch-pin—of CIL. I attended a board meeting following his being given notice of termination. There were many members of the community present—at least 15 of whom were present or past recipients of the counselling group he coordinated—telling how valuable the service had been to them and how could Phil Chavez be fired? He is synonymous with the Center for Independent Living. 

Many months ago, another employee was summarily dismissed with no warning and no explanation. In a letter subsequently received by her, it was stated that she could no longer be trusted with inventory—i.e. she was accused of stealing. If you knew her, you knew her to not be capable of stealing. Just that simple. The accusation was never proved; she denied any such acts in a letter to the board of directors; and went on to seek other employment and early retirement.  

It happens that I shared an office with this person for the three years I worked as a coordinator at CIL. Imagine, a thief and a slime both in the same office. Imagine what crimes they cooked up between them. 

I am writing this letter because I am angry at having been referred to as unethical. Because I think of myself as one of the most creative people I know and certainly one of the most honest—in the ways I express myself and in just the conduct of my life. I have lived in Berkeley for almost 40 years and done lots of things; participated in a changing community and tried to contribute the best of myself, which is what I did while at CIL. If I could afford it, I would sue Jan Garrett. I would force a showdown in this old Western town. But I can’t afford it. CIL can continue to let itself be oblivious to the dictates of what is true and to its own growing disrepute and inefficiencies. It can’t afford it either, though.  

It is my opinion that if Jan Garrett can’t dictate the terms, she terminates the agreement—if she can’t be successful in wielding power over an individual—if they stand up to her or don’t ask her permission to exist in their function—they go. I was not fired; my position was not eliminated; but I could no longer tolerate the environment of having me do all the work to make a program successful and then be criticized for doing so. 

Iris Crider is a Berkeley resident. 

3

While some of the specific intelligence regarding Iraq has proven false, and some of it controversial, it may be helpful to look at just the intelligence that nobody seems to disagree with. The controversies make the front page more often but the non-controversial material is heavy stuff. 

One frightening fact is that with access to raw materials, knowledge, and a few simple tools, a resourceful and intelligent organization can produce weapons of mass destruction cheaply, quickly, and stealthily. With a little work, they can likely transport them globally and deploy them, undetected until the moment of deployment. This fact is uncontroversial since it is just a summary description of a pretty obvious property of the state of humankind’s technological and economic development. (Here is proof that this fact is uncontroversial: When Colin Powell told the U.N. of trucks converted to biological weapons labs, not a single scientist in the entire world said “Oh, that’ s not feasible.”) 

We also all seem to agree, although individual reports are sometimes wrong, that there certainly exist s a large, international black market for the raw materials, technology, knowledge, experts, and finished products of WMD production. In economic terms: Demand is up for the means to end the world! 

And we know, sadly, that asymmetric warfare has been declared on the U.S. by a collection of private organizations who control lots of money and do things like set up training camps to prepare fighters with precisely the kinds of skill needed for stealthy WMD materials gathering, improvisation, construction, and deployment. 

Nobody contests, either, that certain governments clearly harbor, assist, and otherwise link up with these private organizations. That’s because it’s not surprising: governments are points of control for otherwise largely unregulated and sometimes difficult-to-observe international commerce, travel, and communication. If one wants to participate in or help run a black market, one could hardly do better than to operate with the cover of a government office. Governments and black markets and private armies have a natural symbiotic relationship.  

Now, Iraq certainly had a fine resume as one of those nations that reached out to terrorists and dabbled in black markets. That is interesting but not distinguishing. Iraq had other qualifications: 

Other properties of Iraq nobody really argues about: The tyrannical nature of Saddam’s regime; the mass killings; the attempted territory grab of Kuwait; the systematic, vast, and unchecked prisoner abuse that makes Abu Graib look like a night out at the Power Exchange; the control of citizens via terror; procurement of women for rape by members of the elite; forcing Keystone Cops games with U.N. inspectors; redirecting aid and letting citizens starve; and ... maintaining a hostile posture towards the U.S. 

Nobody seriously argues (any more): sanctions weren’t even close to working—they just helped filter all commerce through Saddam’s government thus giving him more power. 

It’ s not controversial, either, that Iraq was weak in conventional military terms and is located in a key region that is central to the war on terror. 

Although programs such as Oil for Food failed and experienced some discredit, we can say at least this much about them: For 10 years, the U.N. tried its damnedest to help Iraq “come in from the cold” and distinguish itself from those governments who, by their actions, promote terror. That program and other efforts didn’t have to end in corruption. Saddam had years and years in which to just say “Screw it. You guys are right. Let’s clean up this place.” Instead, he flung the occasional rocket at a U.S. fighter jet and tried to engage the U.N. in a little crude embezzlement scheme. If, during those 10 years, the top ranks of the Saddam regime had been replaced by, say, the Berkeley City Council—who had to operate under all the same sanctions and threats and trade opportunities—where do you think Iraq would be today? Do you think the U.N. or even the U.S. was making it hard for Saddam to transform Iraq in a positive direction? 

So: We were (and are) faced with an overall enemy which is a strange mix of private organizations and governments and parts of governments. We are certain that that enemy is making alarming progress at training and deployment and the creation of a black market for trade in war materials. In Iraq we have a strategically inviting target (geographically, governmentally, politically, morally, economically, etc.) against which, we on the left must remember, an attack spells the end of an obscenely oppressive regime. We made all of this explicitly clear to the regime in question who had, in effect, but to lift a finger to free his people and avoid the present conflict. Our failure to act would have enabled our enemies to close the military vulnerabilities of Iraq and secure the black market of war as an impregnable force. There is no other conclusion but that we would have had to be suicidal to not attack Iraq at this particular point in history—by his actions, Saddam was promoting the devastation of our society and the efforts to which he contributed were and remain a significant threat. The reasonable person principle applies here: he had more than a decade to avert the present outcome. 

Having attacked Iraq we see imperfect progress but progress nonetheless. The roots of a more individualistic, egalitarian, democratic, and free society are clearly taking hold, by all accounts. A region of people once enslaved to warring elites unified by their hostility to the U.S. is being transformed into a democratic region, ultimately to be governed, policed and protected by it’s own. 

Towards a Progressive Agenda, Given War 

There is no use crying over spilled milk. Of all possible outcomes to the conflict in Iraq, progressive values are certainly best served by a just, efficient, and swift suppression of the insurgency and an intensive, multi-modal integration of the new Iraq into the civilization of coalition forces. All other plausible outcomes harm progressive causes in deep ways. The left, as much as the reddest of red-state citizens, has a strong interest in supporting and helping the coalition to complete the victory, and helping to integrate the new Iraqi people with the rest of peace-oriented civilization. 

Domestically, we are missing an opportunity. Progressives should be demonstrating their intellectual prowess by presenting the nation with a clear economic vision—worked out math, rough plans of action—for a just and sustainable domestic economy (or at least for an economy which trends in that direction). At this point in history we have a conjunction of domestic investment capital with not much to invest in, large numbers of un- or under-employed workers, and ecologically dubious consumption patterns. The left needs an intellectual center within which economic planning can contemplate that conjunction and propose steps that address all three problems at once with, dare I say it, marketable solutions. 

Finally, the popular-media dialectic—red vs. blue states, left vs. right, conservatives vs. liberals—has got to go. A large, coherent, and justifiably angry coalition has formed largely in response to the soap-box politics of blue state newspapers and other media producers. In all our public forums it is de rigeur to make fun of right wingers and red staters to the point where we are practically denying their essential humanity. Then we turn around and are surprised when the large number of (often) hard-working, (often) family-oriented, (frequently) joyful, (fundamentally) loving people referred to in our snide remarks get wind of them, take note, and express alarm and organized resistance. The public image of the left in the U.S. is largely constructed by would-be progressives and is just about the opposite of an image consistent with being a leadership movement. In that sense, it's time for “the left” (such as it is) to apologize to the red states, embrace the common causes, and starting bringing diplomatically marketable good ideas back into politics. 

Tom Lord is a Berkeley resident.?

I live on Spruce Street between Cedar and Vine. As a result of construction for the Beth El Temple, many, many construction vehicles, trucks and heavy equipment trailers are going up and down our residential street at very early hours of the morning—before 8 a.m. I am further concerned that there will be more through traffic on Spruce as a result of the exit planned onto Spruce from Beth El.  

Our street is a residential street, not a “collector” or through street and little has been done to enable us to enjoy the quiet residential aspect of the neighborhood since the barrier was removed at Rose and Spruce. I would like to see our street returned to its original status as I am concerned the problem will worsen once Beth El funnels its traffic on to Spruce Street. 

I had no idea how massive the Beth El project was going to be. Now that I see it, I am very concerned about the traffic on Spruce street as a result. I was under the impression that all traffic would go to Oxford Street, the through street in the area.  

I also understand that the Beth El leaders have failed to live up to their agreement with our neighborhood association and that despite that, the city is preparing to issue a certificate of occupancy for the project. 

I pay taxes to the city, and in return I expect the city to provide essential services and protect my interests. The Beth El project will have major negative impacts on my neighborhood.  

It was to mitigate those impacts that LOCCNA went through a long and hard negotiation with Beth El’s leaders. After many compromises, a deal was reached, a legally binding agreement signed, and the language of that agreement incorporated into the conditional use permit issued for the project. 

That deal was a compromise. To preserve the creek and minimize parking and traffic impacts on our neighborhood and our daily lives, LOCCNA’s negotiators yielded on a number of key points.  

Since that deal is written into the city’s permit conditions, if the congregation’s leaders fail to live up to the deal they signed, it is the city’s responsibility to enforce it. 

I demand that the city require full compliance with the conditions it specified before allowing the buildings to be occupied. 

In particular: 

• The city must require an adequate, detailed parking plan that complies with the language of the agreement and the permit. 

• The city must ensure the protection of Codornices Creek by requiring bank-stabilization and other landscaping before permitting occupancy. 

It is self-evident to anyone looking at the buildings being constructed that this is a massive addition placed in the middle of a residential neighborhood—my neighborhood. It is time for the city to show that it means what it says about neighborhood preservation by enforcing its own rules. It would be a shame if we citizens had to sue our own city to make it do what is right and what the city said it would do to support our agreement. 

Mary Ciddio is a 20-year Berkeley resident and taxpayer.›

At one end of the room by the patio in the Berkeley City Club that serves as theater for Central Works Ensemble, a rough-hewn cross studded with spikes adorns the wall above a gothic chair, a wooden ecclesiastic throne. A lamp hangs by a chain, guttering. To Gregorian chanting, a wry, acerbic figure in plain habit and shaved head looks upward, fixedly, as if staring at the light from a mullioned glass window we see reflected on the walls. 

“Have mercy on me, o God,” the man intones. “I have done such evil in your sight, you are just in your sentence.” There’s the sound of flames crackling, and the man faints, awakened later by a black man, a Moor, in a more elaborate robe: “Don’t you recognize me, Your Eminence? ... You’re the Grand Inquisitor of Spain!” 

These two are the only two performers the audience will see over the following hour and a half. But not the only two characters. 

Dostoevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor was originally a story within another story. In The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan the skeptic tells his pious brother Alyosha a parable: what would happen if Jesus came back to the world at the point of the Church’s greatest moment of power and authority? How would the judge and torturer of those wayward from the Church’s teachings react to his crucified god? 

Dostoevsky intended it, at least in part, as a parable of the division between the authority of the Roman Church and the Protestant call to the grace of God as the only authority—thereby justifying the Eastern Church as the only one preserving the integral Christian message. There have been many stagings of this story, abstracted from its context in the novel, and Central Works has come up with one that’s uniquely successful, a truly imaginative adaptation that expands on the situation for a contemporary audience. 

Dostoevsky’s little tale centers on a one-sided dialogue between a silent Christ and an admonitory Grand Inquisitioner who has had Jesus dragged in from the streets of Sevilla where he has been working miracles. Decades before August Strindberg came up with the kind of one-sided monologue delivered by one actor to another: “silent one,” a form of exposition that bears Strindberg’s name and has been a mainstay of American theater since Eugene O’Neill. Dostoevsky realized the same innovation in his story. 

“The trouble with that,” laughed Central Works director Jan Zvaifler, “is what actor’s going to want to play a part with no lines, listening to another actor constantly talking?” 

In the unique collaborative style Central Works has developed, Zvaifler and adapter Gary Graves (both co-directors and founders of the Ensemble—Graves also plays the Grand Inquisitor himself) worked with actor David Skillman (a first-timer with the company, a stunning debut) and the production staff to come up with what might be called an improvization on the theme in four scenes, each featuring a different character collateral with the Grand Inquisitioner, all played by the shape-shifting Skillman. 

The story gradually unfolds as the Moorish “familiar” to the Inquisitor, who finds him on the floor, victim of a fit, tells him of the latest auto-de-fe and execution of heretics, all of whom confessed—except for a certain Verazuela, who the Inquisitor, once alone, wrily addresses in absentia, saying he’ll be missed. The others—the Jew “who wore his circumcision on his sleeve;” the Moor’s own cousin, a false convert from Islam—were merely garrotted; the unrepentent one burned at the stake, unnervingly serene. 

The Inquisitioner ferrets it out of the familiar: An apparent mountebank, who the crowds seem to believe is Christ come again, has worked a miracle, giving sight back to a blind beggarwoman on the cathedral steps. “An old wives’ tale!” barks the Inquisitor, “I know every beggar in Sevilla!” 

The subsequent scenes bring Skillman back again and again in different roles to be confronted by Graves’ relentless yet subtle Inquisitor. As the ironically-named beggarwoman Magdalena, Skillman clutches his ragged shawl over his head and asks, “I hear people in pain; is this a prison?”—“Oh no, no, my dear; this is much more than a prison!” The beggarwoman confesses her own deceptiveness, but won’t surrender her belief that she met—“Him!”—at least, not until threatened. 

Skillman later reappears as the executioner, in masked leather hood and apron, leading the Inquisitor through self-mortification that mimicks the grisly fate of the confessed heretics. And finally, in what would be merely a tour-de-force, if it weren’t for the light touch of ambiguity in the adaptation and the extreme sensitivity of Skillman’s interpretation in subtle expression and gesture, this exceptional “utility man” appears as “Him!”—returning Christ or itinerant imposter?—to face the outpourings of the Inquisitor. It could ironically be either a self-contradictory confession (almost at once denying God, yet announcing the stranger as Christ—before changing his tack again) or a clever baiting of the prisoner to react, to declare himself and be condemned. 

Gary Graves plays the title character he’s adapted with an almost reptilian twist and leer, an exceptional person who feels himself close—and superior—to both man and God. David Skillman is the soul of the unspoken thoughts and emotions that play across his face, underpinning his spoken words, eloquent in silence. Jan Zvaifler’s direction furthers Central Works’ tradition of a thorough, imaginative combination of a few spare elements (and players) on a small stage in an intimate room—as does the work of Robert Anderson, Gregory Scharpen and Tammy Berlin, in light, sound and costume design. 

Central Works presents The Grand Inquisitor through July 31 at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and at 5 p.m. Sundays. Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. $9-25 sliding scale. For more information, call 558-1381 or see www.centralworks.org. r

TUESDAY, JULY 19 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Official Pep Talks” installation and interactive project by The Susan O'Malley Research Team opens at 5 p.m. at ProArts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland, and runs through Aug. 7. 763-4361. www.proartsgallery.org 

FILM 

Eyeing Nature “Proteus: A Nineteenth-Century Vision” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wild Catahoulas at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Brian Kane, solo guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Sarah Manning Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Latin Youth Ensemble of San Francisco at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, JULY 20 

FILM 

For Your Eyes Only “Darling Lili” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

Arab Women Film Festival “Wild Flowers: Women of the South” at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Latin American Working Class Film Fest with three short films from Mexico and Argentina at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donations of $5 accepted. 415-642-8066. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rebecca Solnit discusses “A Field Guide to Getting Lost” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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 hosted by Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Meistersinger” at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $10-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Curtis Woodman Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Balkan Folkdancing at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lessons at 7 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

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

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

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

Bryan Girard Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

Palenque at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $8-$12. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, JULY 21 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Wholly Grace” works by Susan Duhan Felix. Reception at 4 p.m. at the Badé Museum, 1798 Scenic Ave. 848-0528. 

Residency Projects by Kala Fellowship artists. Reception at 6 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibit runs to Sept. 3. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

FILM 

Pre-Code Hollywood “Skyscraper Souls” at 7:30 p.m. and “Lady Killers” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Betsy Burton reads from “The King’s English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller” at 7 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Margot Pepper, journalist, reads from “Through the Wall: A Year in Havana” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. Sponsored by Global Exchange. 415-575-5534. 

Mark O’Connell introduces “The Good Father: On Men, Masculinity, and Life in the Family” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Word Beat Reading Series with Steve Arntson & Christopher Robin at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert with the David Thom Band at the Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza.  

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

Richard Kalman & Con Alma Vocal Jazz Septet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Kid Beyond at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Pete Madsen at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Peter Barshay/Rich Kuhns Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Bobby Watson & Horizon at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $14-$20. 238-9200.  

FRIDAY, JULY 22 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “A Murder is Announced” at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman. Runs Fri. and Sat. through Aug. 13. Tickets are $10. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theatre “The Thousandth Night” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. 2 and 7 p.m., through July 31, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $36. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Central Works, “The Grand Inquisitor” Thurs - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through July 31. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381. www.centralworks.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “Anything Goes” Cole Porter’s musical, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through Aug. 13 at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

“Livin’ Fat” a comedy about an African American family struggling over a financial blessing, Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m., through July 30, at Sweets Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $12.50-$35. 233-9222. 

FILM 

Pre-Code Hollywood “The Spy in Black” and “Q Planes” at 9:10 p.m. at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Paul Buhle describes “Wobblies! A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Meistersinger” at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $10-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Jazzschool Summer Youth Concert at 6:30 p.m. at the Jazz 

school. Free. 845-5373.  

Hungarian and Night Music with tango lessons at 7 p.m. at the Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Benefits the Latin American Music Scholarship Fund. Cost is $12-$15. www.berkeleymusiccooperative.com  

Caimalantin Latin Jazz Quartet at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Terry Rodriguez, Buford Powers Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Free Peoples, bluegrass/jazz at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Andrew McKnight at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

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

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

Sara Leib Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Echo Beach, jazz, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Penelope Houston, Moore Brothers, Willow Willow at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Bafabegiya, Disconnect, The Sweethearts at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Radical Politics and Folk Music with David Rice, Robert Temple and Folk This! at 7 p.m. at AK Press, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. Cost is $5. 208-1700.  

Beenie Man at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. 548-1159.  

Du Uy Quintet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Bobby Watson & Horizon at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $14-$20. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, JULY 23 

THEATER 

“The Ugly American” Created and performed by Mike Daisey at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through Aug. 13. Tickets are $30-$35. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Woman’s Will, “Richard III” Sat. and Sun. at 1 p.m. in Mosswood Park, Oakland. Free. 420-0813. www.woman’s will.org 

Big City Improv, comedy, at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby at MLK. Tickets are $15. 595-5597. www.ticketweb.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Ceramic Art of Vivika and Otto Heino” opens at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts., Oakland. Gallery talk at 2 p.m. Cost is $8 adults, $5 seniors and students with i.d. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Clay Song” A 40-year retrospective of the work of Diana Bohn. Reception at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Potters Guild, 731 Jones St. 524-7031. www.berkeleypotters.com 

FILM 

Pre-Code Hollywood “Baby Face” at 7 p.m. and “Night Nurse” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm & Muse with poet and musician Avotcja at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Free. 527-9753. 

Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng and Bejamin Ajak describe, “They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“Official Pep Talks” Gallery talk on the installation and interactive project by The Susan O'Malley Research Team at 1 p.m. at ProArts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. 763-4361. www.proartsgallery.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wild Mango & The Kelly Takunda Orphan Project 8:30 p.m. Conversation with the artists at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $14-$16. 849-2568.  

Harry Best and Shabang, Caribbean music from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Bay Street Plaza, (near Old Navy) Emeryville. 

Gaucho, Gypsy jazz, at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Ellen Hoffman, Darryl Rowe with Yancie Tayllor Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

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

Beenie Man at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. 548-1159.  

The McGinty Brothers at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Djialy Kounda Kouyate at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

“Women in Global Perspective” A benefit for the Supressed Histories Archives, with Luisah Teish, priestess, Matu Feliciano, drummer, and Julie Hammond, singer and harpist, at 7:30 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento. Cost is $10-$30, sliding scale. www.supressedhistories.net 

Forthmorning, Unjust, Sleep in Fame at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Dale Miller, finger-picking blues, at 7 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Walter Savage Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Altamont Pass, singer-songwriters,at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Jessica Lurie Ensemble, Mushroom at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Katherine Peck at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. www.epicarts.org 

Lack of Interest, Reproach, Haymaker at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

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

SUNDAY, JULY 24 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Blind at the Museum” guided tour at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu  

THEATER 

Berkeley Rep, “The Ugly American” opens at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2929. www.berkeleyrep.org 

FILM 

Harold Lloyd “The Freshman”at 3 p.m., Pre-Code Hollywood “Employees’ entrance at 5:30 p.m. and “Two Seconds” at 7:25 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash Thicket Press reading with Virginia Westover, Jennifer Sweeny, Annie Stenzel, V. Moralex, Tricia Caspers, Katherine Case, and Jennifer Arin at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Meistersinger” at 2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $10-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Midsummer Mozart Concerto in B flat major, Mass in C minor, at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $28-$48. 415-627-9145. www.midsummermozart.org 

Josie Morgan, viola with Miles Graber, piano, perform works by Enesco, Bach, Schumann at 3 p.m. at The Crowden School, Sacramento and Rose Sts. 

The Jazz House Benefit for Teach the Kids, with The Al Lazard Quartet and Muisi-Kongo Malonga at 3 p.m. at Kimball’s Carnival, 522 Second St., Oakland. rob@thejazzhouse.com 

100 Years of Struggle A celebration of the IWW and the American Labor movement with readings by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, and music by Folk This! and Allegro Non Troppo at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568.  

Sol Do Brasil at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Tres Almes at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Bandworks at 2:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $4. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Shotgun Ragtaime Band at 10 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Americana Unplugged: Homespun Rowdy at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Look Back & Laugh, Violent Minds, Jealous Again at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, JULY 25 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Blair Tindall describes “Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs and Classical Music” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Poetry Express “Dead Poets Night” with friends of David Lerner at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Songwriters Symposium at 8:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. 848-0886.  

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Uri Caine Trio with Drew Gress & Ben Perosky at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $7-$14. 238-9200.  

TUESDAY, JULY 26 

CHILDREN 

Nick Barone Puppets with a cast of over twenty friendly dinosaurs dressed as cowboys at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

FILM 

Eyeing Nature “Proteus: A Nineteenth-Century Vision” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tell it on Tuesdays Solo performer storytellers share their work at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $5 at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

David Ewing Duncan introduces “The Geneticist Who Played Hoops with my DNA” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

The Whole Note Poetry Series with Eugene David Parch and Jim Barnard at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave., near Ashby. 549-9093. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tee Fee Swamp Boogie at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dan Zemelman Trio with Dayna Stevens at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Melissa Ferrick at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761.  

Randy Craig Trio, jazz, at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Django Reinhardt Festival with the John Jorgenson Band and David Grisman at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20. 238-9200.  

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Eric Shrifrin, solo piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

As far as I know, there’s only one Erythrina crista-galli living as a street tree in Berkeley, though I’m sure there are others in people’s gardens. There used to be another in front of a house just over the Oakland line on MLK—just south of the infamous “Here/There” sculptures—but it got taken out for construction. A pity; most of the year that one looked like an accident in a stick factory, but when it bloomed, wow.  

The surviving street tree is a lot like that. It’s gawky, runtish, and oddly placed, uncomfortably elbowing a stop sign. Most of the time it’s a presumptuous shrub. But when it blooms in summer, it’s quite the looker.  

Its leaves are OK, nice strong-green pointed ovals, rather like lilac leaves. Its pale tan, deeply furrowed bark is actually handsome, especially on the trunk. But those flowers, now that’s a show; that’s what makes it worth stopping to see.  

They’re red and another red, one of those combinations only a diva like Mother Nature can get away with wearing, two shades of coral red. This plant has more “common” names than you can shake a stick at: cockscomb coraltree (a literal translation of the species binomial), cockspur coraltree, crybabytree, fireman’s hat, Brazilian coral tree, ceibo, and variations on most of those. The “cockspur” salutes the little tree’s thorns, which can be rather fierce. They’re strategically placed along the leaf “stem” and rather wickedly backward-pointed.  

The species hails from South America, from the rainforest-ish parts of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. It’s the national flower of the last two.  

There’s individual variation among the flower colors in these plants, and some correlation with the part of their ancestral range they come from—scarlet south to pink north. They bloom in long, loose, cone-shaped racemes at the ends of twigs, and a close look reveals a resemblance to wisteria blossoms, held at very different angles. Like wisteria, this is a pea.  

But don’t be deceived. The flowers are reportedly edible when cooked—though I haven’t found any recipes—but the seeds, brown-on-brown mottled beans, are toxic. If you eat them, your guts will have extremely strong objections in every direction, and you might get some neurological nastiness too.  

There’s a more benign culinary use for coraltrees: they’re planted to shade coffee and cacao bushes. Shade-grown chocolate, like shade-grown coffee, is a lot easier on the land and wildlife of its region, and self-help movements are just beginning to allow small-scale farmers and co-ops to grow premium cacao in the shade of planted and natural local trees, conserving those trees, the soil and some of the understory with them, and the birds and other animals native there. Even the mycorrhizae that mediates nutrients between roots and soil prospers better in a relatively undisturbed place, and the experts are beginning to conclude that the best cacao is what grows in concert with this soil-fungus net.  

By the way, the chocolate exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences’ temporary home at 875 Howard Street in San Francisco isn’t half bad, managing as it does to incorporate veterans of the Academy’s previous ants exhibit, South American history and pre-Columbian technology, anthropology and politics, bits of furniture that I truly covet, and just plain sensual fun. 

It runs through Sept. 5. Admission is free on the first Wednesday of each month; otherwise it’s $7 for non-members; hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. They won’t tell you about coraltrees, though. 

Seeing the tree in bloom, you won’t be at all surprised to read that hummingbirds are attracted to coraltree flowers. The plant’s tough for a tropical, too. In some places, people grow it as a houseplant or bring it indoors in winter; in such cold places, and sometimes here, it’s deciduous in winter. But it can freeze and die back all the way to its roots and still regenerate in spring, with winter temperatures all the way down to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.  

Might be an interesting small tree for your backyard. Certainly the example on Bancroft Avenue shouldn’t be completely lonesome in our adventurous town.  

TUESDAY, JULY 19 

Peach Tasting plus other stone fruits, from 2 to 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Derby St. at MLK, Jr. Way. Cooking demonstration at 11:30 a.m. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

“Creating a Non-Violent Peaceforce” with Mel Duncan at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. Donation $5 and up. 533-4732. 

Community Family Dance from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Live Oak Park Recreation Center, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5 per peron or $10 per family. Sponsored by the Berkeley Folk Dancers. 841-1205. 

Healthy Eating Habits and Hypnosis A free seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 465-2524. 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss “Craig’s List: Has it Changed Your LIfe?” from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Please bring snacks and soft drinks to share. No peanuts please. 601-6690.  

Magic Show with Norman Ng at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

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. 524-9992. 

Parenting Class: Living with Ones and Twos, with Meg Zeiback, nurse practitioner at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Registration required. 658-7353.  

Fast-Packing An evening with GoLite founder Demetri Coupounas at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

“A Fat Nation in a Thin World” video and discussion at 1 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

“Pain Relief through Guided Visualization” with Clinical Hypnotherapist Jerry Ziegler at the Berkeley Fibromyalgia Support and Education Group at noon at Alta Bates Herrick Campus, 2001 Dwight Way. 644-3273. 

Brainstormer Weekly Pub Quiz at 7:30 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. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Buddhist Meditation Class at 7 p.m. at The Dzalandhara Buddhist Center. Cost is $7-$10. For directions and details please call 559-8183. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. At 11 a.m. Laurabeth Nelson will talk about the Asian Art Museum’s exhibit “Tibet Rooftop of the World.” 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 20 

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock will speak at the Current Events class at 1 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave., Albany. All interested community members are invited to attend this discussion on the Campus Bay toxic cleanup, Clean Money campaign, urban casinos and other local issues of interest. 524-9122. 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters welcomes curious guests & new members. Meets at 7:15 a.m. at Au Coquelet Cafe, 2000 University Ave. at Milvia. 435-5863. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland “New Era/New Politics” highlights African-American leaders who have made their mark on Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. at the African American Museum and Library at 659 14th St. 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Latin American Working Class Film Fest with three short films from Mexico and Argentina at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donations of $5 accepted. 415-642-8066. 

Arab Women Film Festival “Wild Flowers: Women of the South” at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“How do Independents Affect the Political Landscape?” with Harriet Hoffman of the Committee for an Independent Voice at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

“Fellowships and Grants for Writers” A panel discussion sponsored by the American Society of Journalists and Authors at 6 p.m. at India Palace, 2160 University Ave., upstairs banquet room. Cost is $5-$10. Please RSVP to 530-6699. laird_harrison@hotmail.com 

Insects for Kids A free class for children ages 5-10, at 9 a.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. www.barringtoncollective.org 

Parenting Class: Potty Training with Meg Zeiback, nurse practitioner at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Registration required. 658-7353.  

JumpStart Entrepreneurs share information at 8 a.m. at A’Cuppa Tea, 3202 College Ave. at Alcatraz. Cost is $5. 541-9901. 

“Don’t be Six Feet Under Without a Plan” Learn more about creating a Living Will, Powers of Attorney, and making final arrangements at 6 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Oakland. 562-9431. 

American Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Albany YMCA, 921 Kains Ave. To make an appointment call 1-800-448-3543. www.BeADonor.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. 

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. 548-9840. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Action St. 841-2174.  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JULY 21 

LeConte Neighborhood Association meets at 7:30 p.m. at the LeConte School. Agenda items will include the Berkeley City/UC Agreement, Proposed Changes in the City’s Preservation Ordinance and Traffic Circle Garden guidelines. No meeting in August. The next meeting will be on September 15. 843-2602.  

Quit Smoking Class meets for six Thurs. evenings from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. To register call 981-5330. quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Parenting Class: Sleep for new and expecting parents at 10 a.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Registration required. 658-7353.  

Parenting Class: Chosing a Preschool at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Registration required. 658-7353.  

World of Plants Tours Thurs.-Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Bo- 

tanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $1-$5. 643-2755.  

FRIDAY, JULY 22 

Reduced City Services Today Call ahead to ensure programs or services you desire will be available. 981-CITY. www.cityofberkeley.info 

Bearded Iris Rhizome Auction at 7:30 p.m. at 666 Bellvue Ave. Lakeside Park, Oakland. Free growing instruction and advice from experts. Sponsored by the Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society. 277-4200. 

“Tigers Forever” with filmmaker Anthony Marr, followed by a talk on “Omniscientific Cosmology” at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. 

Radical Politics and Folk Music with David Rice, Robert Temple and Folk This! at 7 p.m. at AK Press, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. Cost is $5. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

Activism Series with Gulf War Vet Dennis Kyne and Pat Sheehan of Gold Star Families for Peace at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. 528-5403. 

Harry Potter Read-a-Thon A two-week program at the Jefferson School focusing on literacy and creative writing for children ages 6-13. For information call 835-2215. www.teachacademy.org 

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 1 to 7 p.m. at Church of Jesus Christ of LDS, 1501 Walnut St. 527-6215. 

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 

Kol Hadash Shabbat, nontheistic, Humanistic, with Rabbi Jay Heyman on “The Making of a Humanistic Rabbi, Part 2,” at 7:30 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring finger dessert to share for Oneg, and non-perishable food for the needy. 428-1492. info@kolhadash.org  

Salsa Dancing at “The Beat” Dance Studio at 8:30 p.m. Lessons with Joseph Gallardo. 2560 9th St. at Parker. 472-2393 www.wildsalsanights.com 

SATURDAY, JULY 23 

Town Hall Meeting with Barbara Lee, Medea Benjamin, and Daniel Ellsberg at 11 a.m. at Grand Lake Theater, Oakland. 415-235-6517. 

Kid’s Garden Club for ages 7-12 to explore the world of gardening, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $5-$7, registration required. 525-2233. 

Bearded Iris Rhizome Sidewalk Sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Rockridge Mall, Broadway at Pleasant Valley Rd., Oakland, near Starbuck’s. Free growing instruction and advice from experts. Sponsored by the Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society. 277-4200. 

Vegetarian Cooking Class: Burgers and Backyard Bites at 10 a.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Wheelchair accessible. Sponsored by Compassionte Cooks. Cost is $35. Registration required. 531-COOK. www.compassionatecooks.com  

Fundraiser for BayIT Help send at child to summer marine biology camp. Raffle and silent auction from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Shorebird Park Nature Center, 160 University Ave. in the Berkeley Marina. 981-6720. 

SpiritWalking at the Berkeley Warm Pool Ability to walk on land not necessary. Sat. from 10 to 11 a.m., to Aug. 11. Cost is $3.50 seniors/disabled, $5.50 others. Bring a towel and deck shoes. 526-0312. well-being@pacbell.net 

Breast Not Bombs Parade for Peace Meet at noon at People’s Park for a walk to Cedar and Bonita to the Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists. 848-1985. 

Child Car Seat Check with the Berkeley Police Dept. from 10 a.m. to noon at the UC Garage on Addison at Oxford. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

Sushi Basics Learn the natural and cultural history of this ancient and healthy cuisine. You will prepare and taste many types of sushi. Parent participation required for children ages 8-10. Cost is adult, $35, senior $30, child age 8-12 $25. registration required. 636-1684. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Butterfly Gardening Learn what plants are important and how we can encourage butterflies to visit our garden, at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Walk Oakland...For Life Special events celebrate health, peace, and life at 11 a.m. throughout Oakland. To participate call 444-9655. www.walkoakland.org 

Free Help with Computers at the El Cerrito Library to learn about email, searching the web, the library’s online databases, or basic word processing. Workshops held on Sat. a.m. at 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. Registration required. 526-7512.  

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of the Produce Market and the Waterfront Warehouse District. Cost is $5-$10. For details call 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Presbyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/ 

walkingtours 

NIAD Summer Art Sale, Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 551 23rd St., near Barrett Ave., Richmond. 620-0290. www.niadart.org 

“Women Make it Happen” Luncheon with Brenda Knight, Oakland’s Woman of the Year for 1995 at 10 a.m. at Linen Life Gallery, 6635 Hollis St., Emeryville. Tickets are $39. For reservations call 776-4992. 

Ohtani Summer Bazaar from 4 to 8 p.m. and Sun. noon to 6 p.m. at the Berkeley Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple, 1524 Oregon St. Food, children’s games and crafts. 843-6933. 

“Women in Global Perspective” Benefit for the Supressed Histories Archives, with Luisah Teish, Matu Feliciano, and Julie Hammond, at 7:30 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento. Cost is $10-$30, sliding scale. www.supressedhistories.net 

Books by the Bay Bay Area independent booksellers outdoor celebration of writers, books at bookstores, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco. www.booksbythebay.com 

Child Car Seat Check with the Berkeley Police Dept. from 10 a.m. to noon at the UC Garage on Addison at Oxford. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

“True Stories of Travel with Man’s Best Friend” with editor Christine Hunsicker at 3 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 525-6155. 

“Creating Conditions for Peace” a symposium on Buddhist spiritual activism from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd. 655-6169, ext. 304. www.bfp.org 

“East Meets West” Integrative Medicine Open House at AIMC, 2550 Shattuck Ave. To RSVP call 666-8248, ext. 106.  

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, JULY 24 

Pancake Breakfast on Board the Red Oak Victory Ship, moored in Richmond Harbor, Berth #6 off Canal Blvd. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cost is $6. 237-2933. 

Berkeley Rocks, a Greenbelt Alliance hike that features volcanic rock formations. From 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. To register call 415-543-6771, ext. 321. www.greenbelt.org 

Snake Secrets See a serpent up close and learn how they move, eat and age without wrinkles. At 1 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Story Hour at 3 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

100 Years of Struggle A celebration of the IWW and the American Labor movement with readings by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, and music by Folk This! and Allegro Non Troppo at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Oakland’s first suburb and Preservation Park. Cost is $5-$10. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Donations welcome. The Berkeley City Club is located at 2315 Durant Ave. 848-7800. 

Social Action Forum With Rita Maran, on recent developments at the United Nations, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

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 

MONDAY, JULY 25 

“Time Bomb” A documentary that spotlights America’s exploding national debt. Filmmaker John Ince will be present. At 7:30 p.m. at The Hillside Club. Cost is $5. Free for members. 527-0450. 

Stress Less with Hypnosis A free seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 465-2524. 

“Natural Advocacy in the Medical Labyrinth” with Ed Bauman, Director of Bauman College, at 10 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

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. 

ONGOING 

Halogen Torchiere Swap!!! California Youth Energy Services is offering an on-going Torchiere Swap. Swap your halogen torchiere for a brand new energy saving torchiere for only $15! Please call CYES at 665-1501, ext.10. 

Summer Camps for Children offered by the City of Berkeley, including swimming, sports and twilight basketball, to August 12, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 981-5150, 981-5153. 

Free Lunches for Berkeley Children Mon.-Fri., 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Frances Albrier Center, James Kenney Center, MLK, Jr. Youth Services Center, Strawberry Creek, Washington School and Rosa Parks School. 981-5146. 

Albany Summer Youth Programs including basketball, classes, bike trips and family activities. For information see www.albanyca.org/dept/rec.html 

Bay Area Shakespeare Camp for ages 7 to 13, two week sessions through Aug., at John Hinkle Park. Cost is $395, with scholarships available. 415-422-2222. www.sfshakes.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., July 19, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Commission on Aging meets Wed. July 19, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. William Rogers, 981-5344. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed. July 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed. July 20, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Kristen Lee, 981-5427. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/welfare 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., July 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/designreview  

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., July 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., July 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/transportation?

The City of Richmond and the National Park Service are looking for people who lived in Richmond’s 11 World War II-era housing projects in the 1940s and 1950s. 

The history project—which is being coordinated by Berkeley resident Donna Graves—is part of an ongoing national-local effort to document the story of the effects of the massive war effort on mid-20th Century Richmond. 

One community session was held earlier this summer. A second one has been planned for 2 p.m. Saturday at the Booker T. Anderson Co mmunity Center, 960 S. 47th St. in Richmond. Participants are asked to bring any photographs or other documentary evidence of their stay in the Richmond housing projects, as well as to tell stories that will be videotaped. 

Richmond’s Kaiser Shipyards wer e a major portion of the enormous American military buildup that followed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and America’s entry into the war. 

Tens of thousands of new workers poured into Richmond for employment at the shipyards, many o f them directly from the South. Most were white, with as many as 23 percent African-American, and an unknown number of Mexican Americans and Chinese Americans. The sudden influx transformed overnight what had been a small, country town—72,000 people, more than half of Richmond’s population, were poured into 25,000 housing units by 1943. It has been called the largest public housing project in the nation. 

Graves says that the wartime housing project boom had some of its greatest effect on the city’s black workers, as well as on Richmond as it is known today. 

“Housing was strictly segregated in Richmond at the time,” she said. “And that got reflected in the wartime housing projects. Some of them were all-black, and some of them were set up as segregated u nits where African-Americans were confined to only one portion of the project. The Housing Authority had a quota of 20 percent of the units set aside for African-Americans, but they didn’t take into account the fact that housing wasn’t available for blacks anywhere else in Richmond.” 

Graves said that as far as she could determine, Mexican Americans did not face housing discrimination in Richmond during the war, and most of the Chinese American workers lived in San Francisco and took the ferry across the bay to Richmond. 

With the housing projects overflowing and nowhere else to live in the city limits, Graves said, African-Americans went across the city line to build homes in unincorporated North Richmond, which continues to be heavily black. 

Another ca rryover from the wartime housing was that in order to gain city approval for the projects, the federal government had to agree that most of it would be temporary and would be torn down after the war. 

“At least 90 percent of the projects were built out of flimsy materials and they were, indeed, destroyed as soon as the war ended,” Graves said. “The idea was that with the projects torn down, the workers would go back South after the war, or wherever else they came from. But most of them stayed.” 

Only thre e of the projects were built as permanent structures, she said. Two still remain and one of them, Atchison Village, is now part of Richmond’s Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park. 

Graves says that the loss of most of the Wor ld War II housing structures makes oral histories and collection of memorabilia all the more important. 

“We heard wonderful stories at the first session,” she said. “One black woman told of coming up on the train from Texas and having to stand for four d ays straight because troops were occupying most of the train. When she got to Richmond she had to borrow somebody’s baby so that she and her husband could qualify for a one-bedroom apartment. She said she was in fear that somebody would ask her the baby’s name, because she had no idea what it was.” 

Graves said that the woman and her husband ended up having five children, but kept the one-bedroom apartment. 

For now, there are no definite plans for presenting the material once it is compiled. Graves said that between three and four professionally videotaped full oral histories are planned and they, along with a report on the history project, will be turned over this fall to both the Richmond Public Library and the Park Service. 

“We’re hoping that this will be used in presentations on the World War II period,” she said. “For now, it’s just important that we gather the information before the residents pass on.”i

A packed house loaded with questions about UC Berkeley’s new role in the downtown planning process greeted City Planner Dan Marks and Tom Lollini, his university counterpart, at the Planning Commission Wednesday. 

The occasion was the commission’s first discussion of the implications of the May 25 accord between the city and the university, reached as a settlement of the city’s suit challenging the legality of the school’s 2020 Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). 

By the time the discussion finished more than 90 minutes later, the only firm decision reached had been to continue the issue at the commission’s next meeting on July 27. 

The audience, which included members of the School and Zoning Adjustments Boards, the Landmarks Preservation, Housing Advisory and Peace and Justice Commissions and a host of well-known activists, made their skepticism clear from the onset. 

Because their comments were limited to the outset of the meeting, they weren’t able to address the duo directly—reluctantly leaving that job to the commissioners themselves. 

The two principal sources of alarm involved the city’s surrender of autonomy in the downtown planning process, and the creation of a greatly enlarged “downtown planning area” formed to include the university’s area of potential interest. 

While the maximum north/south reach of the current irregular downtown plan is a seven block stretch along Shattuck Avenue and Oxford/Fulton Street, the new rectangular planning area extends from Hearst Avenue on the north to Dwight Way on the South. 

The current east/west maximum is a three-and-a-half block stretch from Oxford Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, while the new western boundary extends for the entire 11-block north-south dimension. 

Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair Jill Korte, who said she had been stunned to find that the new planning area came within two blocks of her home, said she was concerned about the potential impact on the historic character of the city center. 

School Board member John Selawsky began by declaring that while he couldn’t speak for the board itself, many members agreed with him that “the City Council seems to have abrogated its authority, so it’s important that this commission (planning) exerts its own.”  

He singled out clause L of the city/UC agreement, which states that the Downtown Area Plan authorized in the pact “shall be comprehensive, and shall encompass the entire scope of future downtown development, including all public and private landowners and developers. . .” 

“On the face of it, it’s unenforceable,” said Selawsky, noting the presence in the planning area of institutions like Vista College, the property of another governmental agency which would answer only to the state, not to either the city or the university. 

“This settlement has basically eliminated you and the rest of us from what’s happening in Berkeley,” said Zoning Adjustments Board member Dean Metzger. 

“(City) staff and the University of California will try to bully you into doing whatever they want to do,” he said. “You are representatives of us as citizens of Berkeley and we’re here to get you to act that way. It’s up to you to decide what’s right or wrong.” 

Clifford Fred, a longtime Berkeley activist who has served on both the planning and landmarks commissions, denied that the current Downtown Plan was out of date. 

When the City Council adopted the current General Plan in December 2002, he said, “they pointedly reaffirmed the height limits and boundaries of the Downtown Plan, despite the recommendations of the city manager to increase the height limits.” 

Fred said he saw the new city/UCB accord as “a deal to get high-rises built throughout Central Berkeley and destroy the character of the downtown.” 

Jesse Arreguin, a member of the Housing Advisory Commission, spoke in his role as civic affairs director of the Associated Students of the University of California. 

“This agreement does not represent the interests of the students and the community,” he said, urging planning commissioners “to be very cautious and deliberate.” 

Several speakers specifically called for a public participation forum modeled on the UC Hotel Task Force, a panel formed by the planning commission to make recommendations to the university on their as-yet-unrealized plans to build a 12-story hotel and accompanying conference center at the northeast corner of the Shattuck Avenue/Center Street intersection. 

Actor Gregory Pedemonte, play in the role of a planning bureaucrat, offered a moment of comic relief as he read from a script about the agreement which used planners’ characteristic upbeat language, with various audience members tossing back equally scripted cynical quips about their concerns. 

It took Chair Harry Pollack a moment to catch on to the joke and stop telling the interrupters to play by the rules.  

Marks and Lollini 

Once the public had their say, Planning Commission Pollack handed the floor over to Marks and Lollini.  

Marks said he was there to offer “some very preliminary thoughts,” adding that he and Lollini have had little time to address the implications of the pact. 

“We are just getting started, and there is no agenda here, at least on the staff’s part,” he said. 

Marks said the expanded area was created because the newly included properties are affected by what happens in the downtown. 

When he added that “the university’s interest extends beyond downtown,” he drew a burst of applause from the audience, which in turn earned another admonition from Pollack. 

Marks noted that the agreement calls for creation of still-to-be-defined “development envelopes and design guidelines,” which several members of the public had questioned earlier in the evening. 

Noting that the LRDP calls for creation of 1200 parking spaces, Marks said the “vast majority” would be created in downtown Berkeley, though just where has yet to be determined. 

The plans also calls for 1.2 million square feet of new construction in Berkeley itself. (A second plan calls for nearly double that at the UCB Richmond Field Station.) 

Marks said the planning process is scheduled within a four-year framework, with the first six months spent on a work plan that will require approvals both from the City Council and the office of UC Chancellor Robert Berdahl. 

“There will be a three-and-a-half year group work program with some kind of community participation,” Marks added, noting that Mayor Tom Bates favors something modeled on the current city Creeks Task Force that would include one member appointed by each city councilmember as well as various stakeholders. 

Besides the council appointees, that task force includes members from several city commissions and one member each appointed by property owners and by creeks advocates. 

Helen Burke, a creeks advocate on the planning commission, said she favored the UC Hotel Task Force model. 

Marks said planning commissioners would probably have their own ideas as well, which they could forward on to the City Council. 

“There’s clearly a spirit of cooperation,” said Lollini, calling himself and Marks “collaborators”. 

Then it was time for the commissioners to ask questions. 

Gene Poschman, the panel’s acknowledged policy wonk, told the pair “I appreciate your mentioning ‘public participation’ 14 times.” 

Asked how the preliminary work will occur, Marks said city and university staff would meet privately. “Secretly” was the word Poschman applied. 

Poschman noted that the public couldn’t be informed of the shape of any draft agreement unless the city and UC both agreed to its release. 

“It sounds like a gag order,” said Commissioner David Stoloff. 

Planning commissioner Sara Shumer suggested that the group promptly appoint its own subcommittee to study the implications of the agreement, but colleague Rob Wrenn said that should be done in September, after the vacation season and August recess ended. 

But Marks noted that plans called for assembling the draft work program by September, something he said was essential to accomplish the planning process in the mandatory four-year framework. 

“The consensus is that the stakeholders need to be involved,” said Commissioner David Tabb. “If we wait until September, are we limiting the nature of the framework” for involvement?  

Pollack announced he’d scheduled the continued discussion for July 27, despite Poschman’s observation that several commissioners won’t be able to attend. 

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State regulators Tuesday backed a recommendation by Berkeley preservationists in the raging battle over a city ordinance designed to preserve historic buildings. 

In a July 12 letter, the State Office of Historic Preservation recommended that Berkeley hire an impartial consultant to prepare a single draft of Landmarks Preservation Ordinance revisions for public review—a recommendation that mirrors that of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. OHP Supervisor Lucinda Woodward added that the state would assist the city with the process.  

The letter was made public at Tuesday’s Berkeley City Council meeting that was dominated by a two-hour public hearing over proposed changes to the city’s landmarks ordinance. The council declined to vote or comment on the ordinance and will take it up again on Tuesday. 

Woodward, citing specific provisions of the state’s Environmental Quality Act, wrote that a competing proposal from the city’s Planning Commission, although acceptable under state and federal law, would “reduce the level of protection currently afforded historical resources in Berkeley” and would appear to require an environmental review. 

In 2000, the city asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to revise the ordinance to conform with state law requiring speedy decisions for applicants. The LPC completed and approved a new ordinance draft in 2004, which was forwarded to the Planning Commission for comment and passage of implementing Zoning Ordinance language. But the Planning Commission entered the fray with its own draft LPO, which preservationists say would weaken protection for historic buildings. 

The existence of dueling recommendations, Woodward continued, “brings into question the healthiness of the city’s historic preservation program. I find it unusual for one city commission to prepare an ordinance that would be administered by another city agency if adopted.” 

Berkeley is not required to follow the OHP’s recommendation to hire a third-party consultant and Planning Director Dan Marks advised the council against it. 

“After five years ... of intense effort, no outside party will be able to unilaterally resolve all these issues,” he said. 

Marks added that Woodward “provided no basis for her assertion and had not contacted city officials to discuss the matter.” 

Proposed changes to the city’s 31-year-old Landmarks Preservation Ordinance have garnered attention because developers say the LPC uses the ordinance as a tool for delaying and derailing projects while preservationists insist the ordinance is necessary protection for structures they say are esthetically and historically significant.  

“The LPC is all that stands between historic resources and their destruction,” said Laurie Bright, a former LPC member and the president of the Council of Neighborhood Associations. 

Stephanie Manning, a resident of the Oceanview Historic District, said the commission’s regulations helped revive the neighborhood. “Many of the buildings were saved through the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance,” she said. 

Lise Blumenfeld, a West Berkeley resident, credited the LPC for establishing the Sisterna Tract Historic District in West Berkeley, which she said would preserve the integrity of her residential neighborhood. 

Preservationists take issue with the Planning Commission’s recommendation that would allow property owners and developers to get a binding decision their site’s historical significance before having to introduce any new development plans. Also they oppose a provision transferring authority for minor alterations of structures of merit from the LPC to a zoning officer.  

Proponents of the change contend that under the current ordinance there is little difference between landmarks and structures of merit, which are buildings considered historically or culturally significant because of their context but are not landmarks in their own right. 

Such critics called on the council to go beyond the Planning Commission’s recommendation and outlaw structures of merit altogether.  

“It’s not about preservation anymore. It has now been hijacked to be obstruction,” said Oakland land use attorney Rina Rickles, who frequently represents developers. 

“The problem with a structure of merit is that it reaches all the way down to a tin shack,” said Michael Brodsky, the co-owner of a West Berkeley tile store, who said the LPC delayed the expansion of his shop by declaring his building a structure of merit. However he said the council eventually overturned the LPC’s ruling.  

While the Downtown Berkeley Association came out in favor of the LPC recommendation, some West Berkeley businesses strongly endorsed the Planning Commission version. Builder Darrell de Tienne, representing Wareham Development, warned the council that further landmarking in West Berkeley would stall economic development. 

“I’m not talking about saving houses, I’m talking about jobs,” he said. 

Tim Rempel, a West Berkeley architect and developer, said, “The LPC has been used as an instrument to prevent development in industrialized areas.” 

West Berkeley property owner Scott Christensen said, “After five years it seems unnecessary for the city to hire someone to go over the same stuff.” 

J. Michael Edwards, who initiated the landmarking of a home in his neighborhood, called on the council to bring in a consultant to put an end to the dispute. 

“The first thing the arbitrator should say to these warring parties,” he said, “‘It’s not about you, it’s about Berkeley.’" 

Berkeley High sophomore Rio Bauce, 15, has assigned himself a daunting task: winning the right for 17-year-olds in the city to vote in school board elections. 

On Tuesday, Bauce and four fellow Berkeley members of the National Youth Rights Association announced they were starting a ballot drive to lower the voting age for school board. 

“Seventeen-year-olds know the schools as well as anyone and they have the biggest stake in them,” Bauce said. Currently students elect a non-voting representative to the board. 

The NYRA is hoping to convince five city councilmembers to place the issue on the ballot in November 2006. If the council declines, the students could still take their initiative to the voters by collecting approximately 3,000 signatures from registered voters. Signature gatherers must be registered voters, and thus over 18, meaning that the students proposing the initiative couldn’t collect signatures. 

Laura Menard, the parent of a high school sophomore, said she didn’t want her son voting as a 17-year-old. 

“High school is still primarily a popularity contest,” she said. “I don’t think high school students have any idea of what goes into a proper education and how to administer it.” 

The school board is divided on the issue. Bauce said the two most left-leaning members, John Selawsky and Terry Doran, have come out in support of the ballot measure, while Shirley Issel is opposed.  

School Board Director Joaquin Rivera didn’t take a stand on the initiative, but expressed some doubts. 

“It might sound really nice,” he said, “but there are a lot of implications that need to be looked at like the legality and cost issues.” 

State law defines an eligible voter as a U.S. citizen age 18 or older. Andrew Lachman, a Los Angeles-based attorney specializing in youth voting issues, predicted that if voters approved the initiative the issue would quickly end up in court. 

“Either the city would enforce the will of the voters and an opponent would sue, or the city would declare it illegal under state law and a supporter would sue,” he said. 

It would be up to the court to rule whether a Berkeley school board election was considered a state election, subject to state laws, or a municipal election, he said. 

While the cost of allowing 17-year-olds to vote in school board races is unknown, earlier this year the city projected that giving 16-year-olds the vote for all city elections would cost around $38,000 for extra ballots, new voting rolls and more poll workers. 

For students, the drive to lower the voting age to 17 for school board is just a baby step. 

“Our goal is still for 16-year-olds to be able to vote in every election,” said Berkeley High junior Zach Hobesh. “But there is no way we are going to get that unless we start with a smaller victory.” 

Last month the group suffered a stinging defeat, when the City Council voted 5-4 against asking the state to let cities lower the voting age to 16. 

“After that we decided to be a little be more practical,” said Robert Reynolds, an 18-year-old Berkeley High graduate who last year founded the local NYRA chapter. 

Reynolds said the current board largely ignored student concerns, especially about class sizes in the high school. “I’ve had to sit on the floor in government class because there were not enough desks.”  

Private school students would also be given the vote under the initiative. 

Bauce contended that 17 is an appropriate age to get students in the habit of voting since they are still in high school and their lives are reasonably stable. 

“At 18 a lot of students are leaving town,” he said. 

One downside to the ballot initiative the students acknowledged is that since school board elections are held in even years, not every seventeen-year-old will get a chance to vote. Those who turn 17 before Election Day in odd years when there are no school board elections would not be eligible to vote. 

Although NYRA could only muster five students for Tuesday’s announcement, Berkeley High junior Chris Howell insisted that if given the vote students would pack polling stations. 

“They would feel so empowered, of course they would vote,” he said. 

Although young voters are still the least likely to cast a ballot, the percentage of 18-24-year-olds voting jumped from 36 to 47 percent in 2004, according to a report from the University of Maryland’s Center For Information and Research on Civil Learning and Engagement. 

Berkeley students are hardly alone in lobbying for suffrage. On Tuesday the City Council voted to support a bill in the state legislature making California the 14th state to allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they turn 18 by the time of the general election. Last year, a bill in the state legislature giving 14- and 15-year-olds one-quarter of a full vote and 16 and 17 year olds one-half of a full vote died in committee. 

In 2002, Cambridge, Mass., city leaders voted to lower the local voting age to 17. But the state legislature, which has the final say, has not approved the change. 

While minors have failed to win the right to vote, a few cities, including Chicago and Takoma Park, Md., have enfranchised non-citizen parents for school board elections. San Francisco voters narrowly defeated a similar measure last year.›

Plans to demolish a West Berkeley landmark and replace it with a manufacturing plant came to an abrupt halt Wednesday morning after the building’s owner intervened. 

But when the physical dust had settled, the fate of the Garr Building at 740 Heinz Ave. remained uncertain. 

The structure is part of the Durkee’s Famous Foods complex, which was landmarked in 1985. It was used as a warehouse for copra, dried coconut flesh from which coconut oil was extracted for use in food products. 

The building boasts a vast four-story high interior space with no pillars except at either end and no floors, forming a cathedral-like space upheld by an Art Nouveau-like system of braces. 

Darrell De Tienne, a San Francisco developer who is frequently involved in Berkeley projects, teamed with Wareham Development to propose demolition of the structure. 

The cleared land would be consolidated with adjoining property Wareham already owns to create the site for a 105,800-square-foot laboratory and/or manufacturing building. 

But owner Kathleen Garr, a Lafayette woman whose late husband once ran a plastics recycling business out of the warehouse, said Tuesday that she derailed the deal following a Landmarks Preservation Commission meeting the night before. 

During the meeting, which included a hearing on the structural alteration permit that would allow demolition, former planning commissioner and preservationist Zelda Bronstein introduced Garr to artisans who live in the nearby former Durkee Building at 800 Heinz that Wareham restored as low rent live/work spaces. 

As a result of that meeting, Garr said Wednesday she decided to call a halt to the project. 

She installed new locks on the gates of the property, but Wareham workers cut the locks so they could retrieve construction materials stored in the structure and on the adjoining parking lot. 

A massive scoop loader and two smaller front end loaders were busily at work when Garr arrived at the site Tuesday morning.  

Garr would offer little on the record. “I’m afraid of what they might do,” she said. 

But De Tienne said Thursday afternoon that he was moving ahead on the project. “We were paying for using the site as a construction staging area, so I called and told them to clean it out,” he said. 

While Garr said Tuesday that she loved the building and didn’t want to see it demolished, the mass of the structure is constructed from unreinforced masonry and would require an expensive seismic retrofit before it can be used. 

Wareham is one of Berkeley’s major industrial and research site developers, and their largest project is the 15-acre Aquatic Park business and research center. They own the buildings on either side of Garr’s building, including offices that house the state Departments of Health Services and Toxics Substances Control. 

Other Berkeley tenants include a Bayer research unit, Xoma pharmaceuticals, Sybase software and the California State Automobile Association. 

While Garr was unavailable for comment Thursday, De Tienne said that project was continuing. 

“It’s still deemed incomplete” by the city, he said. “I’m meeting with the Transportation Department Monday, and there are some toxics issues still to be resolved, but I’m moving ahead. 

As far as I’m concerned, it’s not over till the fat lady sings.” 

The construction materials and heavy equipment were gone Thursday and the gates secured by new locks. 

Garr herself has said she was leaving for a week’s stay in British Columbia Friday.›

With newcomer Councilmember Pat Kerninghan urging fellow members to “just pass this and move on to more constructive things; I’m tired of the negative press Oakland is getting on this,” Oakland City Council passed a slightly modified version on first reading of Mayor Jerry Brown’s sideshow ordinance Tuesday in a rare morning meeting. 

The ordinance makes spectating at sideshows a criminal activity for the first time, as well as allows forfeiture of vehicles involved in the events. 

A final vote on the measure is scheduled for July 19. 

Mayor Brown did not attend the council meeting, but spoke with reporters outside City Hall immediately following the meeting. 

The term “sideshow” is most often used in Oakland to describe street or parking lot congregations of young African-Americans or Latinos in cars. The events often involve intricate car maneuvers, including one called “spinning donuts,” in which drivers spin their cars in a circle, leaving black, donut-shaped tire tracks in the street while spectators cheer them on. The gatherings are considered illegal, and Oakland police have spent the last several years trying to shut them down. 

The vote at Tuesday morning’s meeting was 6-0-1 with Vice Mayor Jane Brunner abstaining. Two candidates for mayor in next year’s election—Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and Councilmember Nancy Nadel—both voted for the ordinance. Councilmember Desley Brooks, who had argued against the proposed ordinance when it first came to council last month, was not present at the meeting. 

Oakland City Council goes on an eight-week vacation following the July 19 meeting, and with two separate readings needed for passage of an ordinance, council representatives said that without the 11 a.m. special meeting, the sideshow ordinance could not be passed to go into effect this summer. 

City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente set the tone for the meeting when he announced, even before councilmembers began to deliberate, that he would “not support any changes to this ordinance if there are any reductions in fines.” 

That prompted a reply from Brunner, who said that she was “disappointed that you started the dialogue saying you wouldn’t support any changes. If that’s the case, I’m not sure why I am here today. I’m not a member of the Public Safety Committee [where the compromise provisions were worked out]. I thought we were here to deliberate.” 

Councilmember Jean Quan, who crafted some of the modified portions of the measure, called it “a fair compromise.” 

Councilmember Larry Reid, who has long opposed what he called Tuesday “the insanity that is the sideshow,” said that passage of the ordinance “will help us attract retailers to the MacArthur corridor.” The area of MacArthur Boulevard between High Street and the San Leandro border has been the scene of much of the sideshow activity. 

In announcing why she abstained on the measure, Brunner said, “I absolutely support the arrest of any driver in a sideshow who causes damage with their car, and I support giving tickets to sideshow spectators.” 

But Brunner said that the ordinance needed a “mandatory warning provision” that required police to give spectators the chance to disperse. In addition, Brunner said that the ordinance’s “$500 ticket is too much money for the first offense. I would support $150 for the first offense and $500 for the second offense, and I’d even be willing to support an arrest for the third offense. But with a fee this high, I can’t support it.” 

Under the modified ordinance, fines will escalate from $500 to $750 to $1,000 for the first three offenses. The first two offenses will constitute an infraction—comparable to a parking ticket—while the third and all subsequent offenses will constitute a misdemeanor, a criminal offense that subjects the offender to a possible jail time of six months. Under the mayor’s original ordinance, all of the offenses were misdemeanors. 

In answer to a question, Deputy City Attorney Rocio Fierro said that including a provision in the law that made it necessary for police to issue a warning to disperse before ticketing or arresting sideshow spectators could be a conflict with state law. 

And Interim Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker said that his officers “have every intention to do outreach first before beginning to enforce this law. We will attempt to notify people and admonish them that spectating at sideshows is illegal.” 

Tucker said that one form of notification would be leaflets passed out in the community. Tucker said that the notification by police of unlawful assembly and warning to disperse generally precedes a mass arrest, and said that Oakland police do not intend to initiate mass arrests through the new ordinance, if it is eventually passed. 

“We will surgically apply this ordinance,” he said. 

Other modifications to the mayor’s original ordinance gave a more detailed definition of spectators under the law, and required the police to return to the Public Safety Committee in six months and to the entire City Council in a year with a report on the enforcement of the ordinance. 

With several of the council members scheduled to attend a noon Public Works Committee meeting, public and staff testimony, council debate, and the vote were all rushed through in an hour for the far-reaching measure. 

One indication of that rush was uncertainty over whether violators of the proposed ordinance could work out their fines or sentences in public works activities. Questioned closely by Vice Mayor Brunner, Deputy City Attorney Fierro said such provisions “need to be worked out with the courts,” and that talks were ongoing with the Alameda County District Attorney’s office on the subject. 

The ordinance had drawn large crowds—mostly in opposition to the measure—when it was introduced to council June 7 and debated by the Public Safety Committee on June 29. But public attendance at Tuesday’s council meeting was sparse and only a handful of people spoke on the ordinance, all but one of them in favor of passage. 

›

Because of an editing error, an article in the July 12 issue incorrectly stated that the Albany councilmember who charged St. Mary’s College High School representatives with reneging on an agreement was not the same councilmember who charged that city staff encouraged the school to break their deal with the city. In both cases, the councilmember was Robert Lieber, the only councilmember quoted in the article. 

Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) added two new properties to the city’s list of official historic resources, one over the owners’ wishes and the other with the owner’s blessings. 

The contested decision ended with a 5-3 vote in favor of a “structure of merit” designation for a single-story Victorian cottage at 2901 Otis St. which the Zoning Adjustments Board has already approved for conversion into a three-story triplex condominium. 

The unchallenged unanimous vote ended with “landmark” protection awarded to the building at 2375-77 Shattuck Ave., which houses La Note restaurant. 

Otis Street cottage 

The Otis Street cottage designation was the result of a petition circulated by area neighbors after the structure’s owners filed for a permit to transform that building into a “popup” condominium project. 

In designating the building a structure of merit, one of the city’s two historic resource classifications, the commission called for specific features of the existing building to be preserved. The decision would still allow the three-story conversion, though the LPC now must approve the designs to ensure preservation of the protected elements. 

Monday night’s vote was the LPC’s third on the project. The initial designation failed at a short-handed commission June 6, where it won over a majority of members on hand but failed to capture the five votes needed for passage. The commission had initially voted to take a pass on the project when the current owners bought the property. 

Project contractor and co-owner Xin Jin said the building failed to qualify for designation because it failed to pass the “you know one when you see one” test. “Is this a landmark?” he asked before providing his own answer, “No.” 

Co-owner Eric Geleynse said the conversion fit the character of a neighborhood where 43 percent of the structures have three or more units. He also said that 62 percent of the signers of the landmarking petition lived in such buildings. 

Mel Weitsman, abbott of the Berkeley Zen Monastery, one of two Buddhist centers in the neighborhood, spoke in favor of the landmarking, saying it contributes to the history and integrity of a neighborhood that has the feel of a “well-blended stew.” 

Neighborhood resident Shari Ser read the neighbor’s landmarking petition, which cited the roles played by the houses built and inhabited by Frank R. Hull at 2901 Otis and Harry H. Webb at 2935 Otis in “providing a binding to the neighborhood fabric.” Both houses remain largely intact, she noted. 

Webb was the builder of the recently landmarked curved front Victorian commercial building at the northwest corner of Ashby Avenue and Adeline Street. 

Giselle Sorensen, the city planning staff member assigned to the LPC, cautioned the panel that the triplex conversion project had already passed the deadline imposed by the state Permit Streamlining Act—the law that sparked the current controversy over proposed revisions to the city Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO), the enabling legislation for the LPC. 

LPC member Carrie Olson moved to approve the structure of merit designation, citing additional features to preserve in addition to those included in the neighbors’ application. Patricia Dacey seconded the motion. 

LPC member Fran Packard took exception, declaring that “the present owners have been jerked around by this commission and the city inexcusably,” earning applause from Geleynse. 

“I want to reiterate my opposition to landmarking against the owners’ wishes,” added LPC member James Samuels. 

Dacey said she generally agrees with Samuels, “but when the entire neighborhood has come out, I have to think something’s gone wrong.” 

“It’s a classic opposition of the wishes of a neighborhood with individual rights,” replied Samuels. 

LPC chair Jill Korte, who was reelected to her post earlier in the meeting, read the definition of a “structure of merit” from the landmarks ordinance, noting that the Hull house fit the criteria. 

When it came time to vote, Commissioner Steven Winkel joined Packard and Samuels in opposition, while Ted Gartner and Leslie Emmington joined Olson, Dacey and Korte in support, ensuring passage by the requisite five votes. 

Shattuck Avenue Victorian 

In contrast, no one spoke in opposition to LPC member Robert Johnson’s initiative to landmark the 1894 La Note restaurant building on Shattuck Avenue, the last remaining unaltered false-front Victorian business building left on the central city thoroughfare. 

“It’s not the product of a famous architect or the scene of historic events, but it’s the city’s best example of an historic building type and the only one downtown,” Johnson said. 

Gorman Building 

The restoration of another Berkeley landmark, the J. Gorman building at 2599 Telegraph Ave., drew high praise from audience members and commissioners, though commission members had some suggestions for tweaking revisions to make them more consistent with the structure’s historical character. 

Owner David Clahan is restoring the structure, built in two phases in 1877 and 1906, removing a facade added later and restoring the “witch’s hat” that once topped the cupola over the southeastern entrance to the building. 

“The work is really great,” said retired planner John English. “An important building is coming back into its own.” 

Commissioners gave Clahan’s plans their unanimous approval, contingent on minor revisions to be worked out with an LPC subcommittee. 

The Gorman furniture business began in Berkeley at the site in 1876, and left the city two years ago for a new location in Oakland. The structure has been vacant ever since.›

Downtown Berkeley has snagged a new business—albeit one that was already operating in the city. 

Half-Price Books, which now sells new and used books, videotapes, DVDs and software at 1849 Solano Ave., is relocating to the landmark Samuel H. Kress & Co. Building at 2036 Shattuck Ave. 

Store manager Tom Carter, who was supervising the packing of some of his 100,000-plus inventory Thursday, said he expects to open in the new location by Sept. 15, though the Solano store will remain open through the annual Solano Stroll on Sept. 11. 

The store, one of more than 80 in a family-owned chain, was originally located on Telegraph Avenue before also opening on Solano Avenue. 

Chain Vice President Matt Dalton told city Landmarks Preservation Commissioners Monday he was thrilled with the move into the old Kress store. 

“It’s a wonderful building, a dream,” he said. 

Built in 1933 and designed by architect Edward F. Sibbert, the building occupies a key position in the downtown at the end of the most heavily walked stretch of pavement in the city and across from the downtown BART station. 

Building owner John Gordon said the bookstore will add a major attraction to the city center. 

“When you do retail, you try to get a good mix of tenants,” Gordon said, “and they’re a good fit.” 

The bookseller will occupy all of the 8,000-square-foot first-floor retail space, Gordon said, and will be stay open until late in the evening. 

“It’s a good addition to the Arts District, and it fits in well with the new comics store and the Other Change of Hobbit, as well as the gelato store,” he said. 

Dalton appeared at the Landmarks Preservation Commission Monday to seek approval of the an illuminated vertical “blade” sign for the corner of the building facing the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Addison Street. 

Because the structure is a Berkeley landmark, the commission has approval over exterior signage. 

Commissioners said they were pleased to see the building get a new tenant, and appointed a subcommittee to work with Dalton to come up with a sign that would fit the character of the building. 

“The store needs all the announcement it can get,” said Commissioner Leslie Emmington. 

Half-Price currently has two other stores in California, one in Fremont and the other in Concord, Carter said. 

“I like the idea of moving downtown both because of the increased traffic and because we like to be in the center of things,” Carter said. “It’s a nice historic building, and it’s the first time the company has been able to move into a building like this.” 

Unlike many other stores, Half-Price buys all its used books from readers in the community, Carter said. “We buy from our neighborhood customers, not from the outside.” 

Technically, he said, that makes Half-Price a book recycling business. 

The new facility will include all new shelving, and Carter said the fixtures in the Solano Avenue store will be offered free to nonprofit organizations. If any are left after that they’ll be offered to the public at $5 apiece or less. 

The new location offers about the same amount of retail space as the Solano Avenue store, but it’s all on one floor. 

“It will be great getting back into the center of things,” Carter said. “We’re really looking forward to it.” 

The announcement of the Half-Price move makes the second major new addition to downtown Berkeley announced in recent days. 

Berkeley developer Roy Nee recently told the Daily Planet that he has partnered with Starwood Hotels to transform the ailing Shattuck Hotel, another landmark, into the Berkeley Westin. 

›

The City Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday urging residents to boycott Berkeley Honda, which they accused of union busting. 

“I have a ‘94 Honda Accord and I’m not going back there again until they treat their people honorably,” said Councilmember Linda Maio. 

Machinists and mechanics have been picketing the dealership at 2600 Shattuck Ave. for the past month after the new ownership refused to rehire about half of the unionized autoshop staff and honor the union contract that expired at the end of June.  

The new owners took over the shop that was previously Jim Doten Honda on June 1. They let 15 union workers go and retained 13, said Machinist union representative Donald Crosatto. The average seniority at Jim Doten Honda was 15 years, according to the council report. 

In a letter to the council, Berkeley Honda General Manager Steve Haworth wrote that the dealership was “willing to negotiate with the union” and that its stance was “motivated purely by its desire to operate a successful business in Berkeley.”  

At the suggestion of Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, Mayor Tom Bates offered to mediate the dispute if both sides were open to his participation. 

Crosatto accepted the mayor’s offer, but contended that the dealership wasn’t interested in keeping the union. 

At the first bargaining session held Monday, the dealership offered a one-year deal that would give the union workers their jobs back, but at less pay and with poorer benefits. 

Top level mechanics would go from making $28.59 an hour to $25 an hour. A senior parts technician would go from making $24.09 an hour to $15. The offer also reduced recognized holidays from 10 to 6, required employees to pay more for their family’s medical benefits, and would allow non-union employees to work in the auto shop. 

“Any shop in the area, union or not, offers a better deal than that,” Crosatto said. The union mechanics rehired in June were offered $31 an hour as part of a deal that would have replaced their employer pension contributions with a 401K retirement fund. 

The union proposed allowing the rehired workers to return to work under the dealership’s original offer along with a pledge to continue negotiating with the union for the next year. 

Berkeley Honda has retained the law firm Littler Mendelson, which UC’s Coalition of university employees called in 2002, “The most infamous union-busters in the land.” 

Noting that the dealership is one of the city’s top sales tax generators Councilmember Wozniak recommended that the council resolution should not bash the dealership and drive it out of town. 

“I’d like to see this be a little more than just posturing,” he said. 

“No one is trying to run them out of town,” replied Councilmember Darryl Moore. “Some money is good money, but to turn a profit on the backs of the people there, I don’t think it’s right.” 

The new ownership group, led by Danville businessman Stephen Beinke, was under no obligation to rehire the workers. However, since the auto shop at this point is still comprised of a majority of union workers, management is required to deal with the union for a certain period. But if more non-union workers are brought in and make up a majority of the auto shop employees, the workers can call to decertify the union. 

The union workers fear that they have been retained to train the new non-union employees, and that eventually the owners will replace them with non-union staff and get a decertification petition passed. 

›

Berkeley Minicar  

2498 San Pablo Ave.  

841-1221 

Berkeley Minicar is a Honda-only independent car repair shop that’s really good. How good? Well, together with a similar independent Honda shop in Southern California, they’ve kept my beloved 1976 Honda station wagon running happily for 20 years. 

Because parts are getting scarce, I’ve finally accepted the Air Quality District’s offer to retire my wagon to the Smithsonian. Sorry, I mean Pick-n-Pull. I’ll miss it dearly.  

But I’ve bought another Honda so I can keep going to Minicar. 

Minicar does first-rate work, and they insist on using top-quality Honda (or other Japanese) parts whenever available. These folks really know Hondas. But they charge less than dealers, they’re friendlier, and they’ve always come in under their estimate. 

In fact, Mark, Nancy, Jim and company are fanatical about saving their customers money. When they have had any doubt about whether a repair was necessary, they’ve always told me, “Just keep an eye on it, and call us back if it gets worse.” They have laughed at some of the jobs that radiator or tire shops have tried to talk me into. 

Minicar works by advance appointment. You check in your car between 8:30 and 9 a.m., or drop it off the night before. They run an informal shuttle service back to downtown Berkeley or BART. Or if you prefer to wait, Caffe Trieste is across the street. (Other diversions on that holistic block include Good Vibrations and the Ecology Center/Sierra Club storefront, but you’ll probably be out before they open.) 

How many Japanese city councilmembers can fit in a Berkeley City Hall elevator? 

Apparently, more than the elevator is able to handle. 

Approximately 15 members of a friendship delegation from city councils in Japan crowded into one of the Civic Center elevators on their way to a meeting with Mayor Bates and other city representatives Thursday—and promptly became trapped, as the elevator refused to budge and the doors would not open. 

Fire Department personnel and an elevator maintenance technician were called to the scene and freed the councilmembers after several minutes. 

A smaller group of about 10, who had ridden the other elevator without incident, exchanged greetings and gifts with Mayor Bates and asked questions about Berkeley’s municipal government and city services, unaware that their colleagues were trapped. 

Several members of the mayor’s office searched City Hall for the missing councilors without success. After about 15 minutes, Vicky Liu, an assistant to the mayor who was with the group in the stuck elevator, used a Japanese delegate’s cellphone to place a call from inside the elevator, via Japan, to the Civic Center front desk, where she spoke with Mayor Bates. 

Upon being freed, the councilors were welcomed to a conference room by city personnel, where they were provided drinking water and a moment to collect themselves before being whisked off by bus to San Francisco International Airport for departure to Japan in less than an hour. It was not known at press time whether the group made the flight. 

An elevator maintenance technician at the scene said the likely cause of the problem was excess weight from too many passengers. 

Steve Freedkin is chairperson of the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission, and has offered to visit the Japanese councilmembers’ cities next month and reciprocate by riding in their worst elevators.›

Last Thursday morning in London, my wife Lisa and I left our three children to hail a taxi near the apartment we had rented. Eli, who is 20, had offered to take our twins Annie and Lucy to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum as a treat for their twelfth birthday. All three were excited about seeing the statues of everyone from the Queen to Johnny Depp. 

Glad to have a few hours to ourselves, Lisa and I wandered into a store and asked the clerk about a different store that used to be in the same location. 

“It’s moved to central London,” he said, “but of course you wouldn’t want to go there today.” 

“Why not?” 

“Because of the bombing.” 

He saw our blank stares. 

“There have been bombs in central London. You’d better have a look at the news.” 

We raced outside, but the kids were already gone. What should we do? We had just sent our children into central London. Central London had been bombed or was being bombed. We didn’t know where the bombs had been. We didn’t know whether there would be more of them, or what might be the targets. 

“We’ll go to Madame Tussaud’s and find them.” Easier said than done. There were suddenly no taxis anywhere. I went into a shop and tried to call a taxi on the phone. First the phone line didn’t work. When it did, the phone rang endlessly without an answer. 

Lisa and I stood on either side of Kensington High Street, looking in both directions for a taxi, for a long half hour. Every few minutes, Lisa called to me and asked again what we should do. I kept saying that we had to find a taxi because I couldn’t think of anything else. When a taxi finally appeared, we told the driver why we were so frantic and asked him to take us to Madame Tussaud’s. 

“I won’t be able to go directly. Some of the roads are closed because of the bombing.” After a few blocks, he heard on the radio that the Euston Road, where the Wax Museum is located, was closed. “I’ll get you there if I can,” he said, “but I doubt that your children will get anywhere close.” 

After a few more blocks, we changed the plan and told the driver to go to the apartment, so I could leave a note in case the kids went there as well. Then we would try to get to Madame Tussaud’s. 

Lisa waited in the taxi as I went inside to dash off a note, telling Eli and the girls not to go out again if they did come back. Then I tried to call the hotel where we had arranged to meet later in the day to leave another message for them. I was on hold when I heard Eli’s voice yelling. A few seconds later, Lisa came in with the girls. They had turned back when their taxi was stopped by a police roadblock, and the driver told them about the bombs. All three had stayed calm in the taxi. The girls didn’t start to sob until they saw their mother. Eli said afterwards that she had never hugged him so hard. 

On Saturday, two days after the bombing, London seemed almost normal. The theaters were only closed for one night. The major museums, closed on Friday, were open. Students lounged on the grass in front of the Natural History Museum. In spite of early reports that the Underground would be closed for up to a week, most lines were back in service on Friday. (Not the one where there were still at least twenty bodies trapped in a deep tunnel, of course.) By Friday afternoon, the red double-decker buses were full of people, and so were the streets and stores. 

To us, all the responses were echoes of Sept. 11. “They will not change our way of life,” said the queen. Prime Minister Blair promised to hunt down the perpetrators. The kindly Indian grocer next door, proud of his very affluent and very mixed Kensington neighborhood (“This is Stratford Village. We are all happy here.”) said that whoever set the bomb wasn’t really a person. “Don’t they have a mother or father? These people should be tortured.” 

His was the only voice we heard calling for revenge, however. One MP with a working-class accent, interviewed on television, said that he hesitated about taking the bus to the House of Commons “because I thought I might get blown up. But then I thought, ‘sod it, I’m not going to stay off the bus because of a bunch of nutters.’” People we talked to, taxi drivers and shop keepers, sounded a similar note. 

The newspapers were filled with stories of the victims (including a few of London’s nearly one million Muslims) and the heroic rescuers. One headline simply screamed “Bastards!” but there were also more measured responses. A letter in the Guardian asked “What’s the difference between taking bombs into the bowels of the earth to blow up innocent people and dropping them from the skies for exactly the same reason?” An article in the Times called for the preservation of civil liberties. 

Somehow, none of the words seemed adequate. The formulas of grief and indignation did not measure up to the carnage or the desperate ideology that produced it. 

In the wake of our scare Thursday morning, we were too nervous over the weekend to go to the theater (Wednesday night, before the bombing, we thrilled to the jaunty optimism of Mary Poppins) or the museums. We stayed out of central London, and away from anything that seemed like a tempting target. We did go into Harrod’s in search of souvenirs—it was even more insanely jammed than usual, not just with tourists but with Muslim women covered head to toe in black—but Annie clutched my hand nervously until we were back on the sidewalk outside. We exchanged our own formulas with the cheerful taxi drivers (“They won’t beat us”) and with the Indian grocer, who gave us our vegetables for free on Friday as a gesture of cross-cultural solidarity. 

Saturday night, after a long afternoon walk in beautiful, comforting Kensington Gardens, past the swans and the Peter Pan statue and the inter-racial soccer games, I had a dream that replaced the present, incomprehensible violence with a more familiar version, borrowed from old moves of World War II. I dreamed that someone—it seemed to be the Japanese—was bombing my city from the air. I wanted to tell the children to stay away from the windows, and I watched in amazement as planes evaded the anti-aircraft fire and buildings silently crumbled. 

Annie was frightened again at Heathrow on Monday morning, and still frightened on the plane, occasionally sobbing, because we were going through New York. Only after we took off from Kennedy and headed west did she start to smile again. 

ô

Construction overcharges continued to be the theme at the Peralta Community College District Trustee meeting Tuesday night, with trustees sparring with Chancellor Elihu Harris and staff over the Vista College construction project. 

On a voice vote, trustees directed Harris to go back and conduct “hard bargaining” with Vista architects Ratcliff Architects to pick up $31,724 in costs which Peralta General Services Director Sadiq Ikharo said were the result of errors in Ratcliff’s original plans. 

The changes were necessary to modify portions of the college’s fourth-floor roof deck to fit into a depression that was not shown on Ratcliff’s drawings. 

Change orders in the Berkeley college construction project have been a continuing source of concern by trustees, with the board modifying district policy earlier this year to give them increased oversight. 

While saying that the amount in question was “only $31,000 in a multi-million dollar project,” Trustee Nicky Gonzalez Yuen said, “I’m willing to accept the cost of change orders that are our responsibility, but I’m not in support of paying for change orders that are not our fault.” 

But Harris questioned the cost-value of going after such a small amount, and said he did not believe that further talks with Ratcliff would be fruitful. 

“I hate change orders more than anyone,” Harris said, “but change orders are a fact of life. Some of these errors are normal in construction, and we have to decide what is tolerable.” 

Harris said that members of his staff had met with Ratcliff representatives two weeks ago, and the firm had indicated they were not going to pay the overages. 

“If you want me to go back and renegotiate, I need more direction,” Harris said. “I don’t want to just go back and say ‘pretty please.’ This is not negotiation. It’s not very likely they’re going to pay for it. If they say no, what do you want me to do?” 

Board members voted to direct Harris back to negotiations without further instructions.›

http://www.jfdefreitas.com/index.php?path=/00_Latest%20Works

TRAFFIC CIRCLES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

To those who can’t figure out the traffic circles (suggestion: veer right), I fear sharing the road with you. 

Tom Case 

• 

THE BIKE LANE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Daily Planet has published quite a few letters recently about traffic circles, pro and con. In many of these, I’ve noticed an alarming assumption being made. A number of writers have asserted that, at a traffic circle, “cars will be forced into the bike lanes.” That’s alarming because the writers don’t appear to understand the traffic rules, and since I’m often sharing the road with them on my bike, that worries me. 

Here’s the deal: There’s often just one lane through the circle. It is the bike lane. It’s also the car lane, and the truck lane, and the lane. If there’s a cyclist going through the traffic circle drivers coming up behind are supposed to slow down and follow the bike through the circle and out the other side. This radical requirement is, of course, a major threat to Western civilization, as a very fast driver caught behind an unusually slow cyclist could be delayed by as much as 20 seconds. Per circle! 

Bikes are traffic, and when there’s just one traffic lane, all the traffic has to line up in it, bikes along with cars. Following a bike is not an impossibility. Twenty-five MPH is the maximum speed limit, but you’re allowed to drive slower if you need to. I devoutly hope that any Berkeley drivers who find themselves behind my bike will see the need...best I’ve been able to manage lately on the flat is only about 22 MPH. Cut me some slack, folks, I’m a senior citizen. 

David Coolidge 

• 

ALBANY BULB 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks for covering the Albany Bulb situation. I noticed two things, one is that the City of Albany is abusing homeless people, by throwing their belongings away. It looks like they are oppressing them again.  

Second thing, where is there proof that those toxins are not still in the soil there? Is there any investigation into that? If there are toxins (metals) they can be very dangerous. If they are still there, no one should be allowed in the area, or they could get cancer, right? 

About 20 years ago that subject was brought up during Rainbow Village. I’m curious how to find out what is the real hazard of these “metals.”  

John Delmos 

• 

DOWNTOWN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is great to see someone like Roy Nee who has enough faith in downtown Berkeley to take on the Shattuck Hotel. I am really excited at the idea of having a world class hotel downtown. It sounds like Mr. Nee is planning to bring the hotel up to modern standards while still respecting the historic value of the building. I believe with a revived Shattuck Hotel this will help attract more retail business. This is just another step forward to help improve the downtown.  

These are exciting times for downtown Berkeley! 

Raudel Wilson 

• 

FILM FESTIVAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read with interest your article on Mr. Nee, the new Shattuck Hotel owner. 

Your article references the new Shattuck Hotel owner’s plans for a Berkeley film festival. These proposed plans will certainly need to address one of the nation’s largest independent film and video festivals already in existence, the Berkeley Video and Film Festival. 

As the director and founder of the Berkeley Video and Film Festival, I would like to point out that the East Bay Media Center has been producing the festival in Berkeley since 1991. 

It may be misleading to your readership of the Daily Planet, an ongoing sponsor of the Berkeley Video and Film Festival, to imply that a Berkeley film festival is in the planning stages, when the Berkeley Video and Film Festival already exists. 

Mel Vapour 

Director, Berkeley Video and Film Festival 

• 

TOM’S CHICKEN SOUP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Former President Lyndon Johnson once said, “You can’t make chicken soup out of chicken [poop].” He would have also known that the ethically challenged can sell quite a bit of the poop soup as long as they do the right marketing and most people haven’t actually tasted the stuff. 

I’m sure Johnson was referring to a politician when he said the above, which brings me to the Tom Bates piece in the Daily Planet regarding the City of Berkeley’s return to progressive leadership. 

The “soup” Tom is selling sounds very nourishing, but having tasted it, by attending the tightly controlled City Council meetings, remarking on the disgraceful secret deal with Cal, following the public reaction in the Planet and on the street, attending the fake “town hall meetings” discussing the budget cuts, seeing how effective the mayor was at raising tax revenues, and last but not least, the continuous limitation of citizen influence on city and council decisions, I would say Tom’s “soup” contains no actual chicken. 

Harry Wiener 

• 

AWARDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We all celebrate every award the Daily Planet has gathered. Whether or not we agree with all editorial stands, whether or not we think that some letters you publish are, as you so gently put it “wrong-headed,” it’s not possible to overpraise the positive energy you generate in this community, nor to overestimate the energy and dedication it takes to do it. 

Bravi tutti at the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

Dorothy Bryant 

• 

PASSING OUT MONEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read in the papers recently that Ariel Sharon has just asked the United States for an extra $2.2 billion to cover the cost of relocating Israeli “settlers” away from the Gaza Strip.  

OK. I got out my calculator.  

If the U.S. gives Sharon 2.5 billion dollars to help move 9,100 settlers, that’s $241,758.24 each! For a family of four, that’s $967,032.96 per family. How come we aren’t giving almost $1 million per family to the poor displaced settlers in Rwanda? In Columbia? In Haiti? In Darfur? Or in Iraq? 

And what about the people in New London, Conn. that the Supreme Court recently kicked out of their homes? Are they getting $ 1 million per family too? 

And what about me? Give me $241,758.24 for every member of my family and we will settle anywhere! But preferably in a condo on the Riviera.  

Jane Stillwater 

• 

PUBLIC POOLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My wife and I live near King Pool. Swimming has been medically prescribed for both of us--my wife for heart issues and me for my lower back. We swim at King every other day and have done so year-in-year-out since moving to Berkeley in 1988. Two of our three children attended schools in Berkeley. We have both dedicated our professional lives to K12 education. In addition, as home owners, we pay significant taxes to maintain our schools. We know of what we talk, and walk it! 

We are deeply disturbed at the very skewed priorities being exhibited by the school district, actions which contribute to the city’s financial burden. This burden is forcing the closure of Willard and King pools from September through May (not “winter closures” as stated officially; rather closures for two-thirds of a year). 

The school has never contributed a penny towards the maintenance of the public pools. In fact, BUSD’s response when the city asked the district to contribute to pool maintenance was to punish students by terminating the King and Willard aquatics programs! This decision came at a time 49 percent of Willard’s students and 30 percent of King’s are low income. By terminating aquatics, the school district is denying many children the opportunity to ever learn to swim, much less swim. 

At the same time, for example, according to news accounts, BUSD is budgeting $23-26 million to re-do West Campus. What for? District administration offices? Yet, the school district refuses to contribute $50,000 a year to help keep pools open for neighbors and for the 1,500 students at King and Willard. 

There is something very wrong with this situation--might we say, something is indeed rotten within BUSD--its administration and the school board (who like it or not are the employers of the administrators). 

Peter Seidman and  

Bonnie Benard 

• 

BERKELEY HONDA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My name is Tim Lubeck and I was recently hired as a service advisor at Berkeley Honda. I heard about the opening and the change of ownership and applied for the position. I was hired June 1 and worked alongside the mechanics, who are now walking the picket line, for two weeks. 

Your stories and letters to the editor are slanted toward the “plight” of the mechanics and while the new ownership is usually quoted correctly, it is more like, “Well, here’s what management has to say.”  

On June 15, we took in 60 vehicles for service, had most of them torn apart, when the mechanics and one service advisor, walked off the job at 10 a.m. It took a day and a half to clean that mess up, to the distress of many unhappy customers. 

Those employees walked out on $31 an hour, full medical and dental coverage for themselves and their entire family (comparable to what the union offers) and a private 401K with a monthly contribution of $465. 

The union pension plan that they so desperately want is $1.5 million upside down locally and $200 million nationally. The employees only realize 5 percent of the $465 per month currently contributed because of administration costs and poor management and while they can retire at age 65, they can not begin collecting any money until age 72. 

I certainly hope the plan is transferrable to their grandkids, because they are the only ones who might see any of the money. 

Today we have five or six picketers walking a very tight line in front of the entrance to the service department. They stop every vehicle attempting to come in for scheduled appointments and disseminate their literature and propaganda. It is a very intimidating scene for some of our older customers and many drive off without hearing our side of the story. They tell our customers that we have no certified mechanics, no tools and that most of the work is being towed back in because of bad repairs, all of it untrue.  

We currently have four master technicians, two of them fully Honda certified and we are scheduling work so that they can oversee every vehicle that we take in. 

Your stories do not report that some of the mechanics/employees that were not offered positions with the new Berkeley Honda were not current on their Honda certifications and licenses, including smog testing. Management hired the cream of the crop from the previous employees. Is ownership required to hire an employee with expired licensing and no recent schooling just because he has worked with the previous employer over 20 years? 

Berkeley Honda has kept the same pricing that was in place with Jim Doten Honda. They are bending over backwards to make customers new and old feel welcome. It is sad that we have to deal with verbal abuse and taunting on a daily basis and this is from people who expect to come back to work alongside us when and if the strike is settled. 

The new owners have a tremendous capital investment in the building and the people of the new Berkeley Honda. I find it disheartening that good employees walked away from a tremendous financial package and now they want to destroy what is left of their former workplace. 

Berkeley is known for freedom of expression and choice and people should have the right to get their car serviced without being verbally assaulted and harassed. I really feel that your stories and letters fall short on describing what is really going on here at Berkeley Honda. The general consensus is that Berkeley Honda is a bad place to do business. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Tim Lubeck 

• 

DEPARTMENT OF PEACE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Although I’m currently living on the other side of the planet, I recently read a commentary written by John Wornick called “Opposed to a Department of Peace.” I don’t know if I have ever read a more veiled, emotionally charged piece. In writing in the name of serving on the Peace and Justice Commission to ensure that our local lawmakers don’t waste their time or our dollars, he managed in a clearly vitriolic manner to: demean the intelligence and significant efforts of many Congressional members who are co-sponsors; misrepresent their numbers as only a “few members,” when in fact there are 53 co-sponsors of the bill; misrepresent the bill by erroneously indicating that it calls for “dozens and dozens of largely redundant programs”; derogatorily call the proposed department the “Department of Peace, Puppies, and Chocolate”; and refer to “progressives” as if it were a racial stereotype and slur. I’m all for having public dialogue about the actual practical issues John raises, such as: whether lawmakers on a local level should be reading about or writing resolutions on national and international issues; whether the City Council should consider resolutions that were not fully supported by the Peace and Justice Commission; and whether a Department of Peace is redundant or not.  

This is not what was being suggested at all, but rather a seemingly angry response at a commission being sidestepped. Anger comes from fear, and if John felt threatened and therefore angry, perhaps he could more productively stick to expressing that in an honest and owned fashion, instead of acting it out in a veiled manner in supporting his opinions. 

Marty Landa 

Alive Today Enterprises 

Australia 

• 

NEW LANDMARKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

After reading the commentaries by Sharon Hudson and Janice Thomas on historical preservation, I wonder if there will come a day when my children will read that the Gaia and Acton Court buildings are being landmarked. “Although controversial when built, these fine examples of turn of the century ...”  

After I wrote a commentary on the urban infill problem I got an error correction from Alan Tobey (thank you), but there was no response from Hudson or Thomas. Evidently, they don’t feel a response is needed for concerns that “historical preservation” could become excessive, or could actually impose a social burden on society that requires compromise.  

Is everyone so focused on their own comfort and desires that they have lost all sense of the common good? We have had people fighting to block senior housing on Sacramento, and now we have Karl Jensen essentially suggesting that we throw the homeless to the wolves to save money. People are offended by the style of the police blotter, but have nothing to say about the breakdown in the social contract that it chronicles. Landmark preservation may help us gentrify our way out of such messy problems by moving them somewhere else in the short term, but at some point even the “Here/There” sculpture isn’t going to be enough to keep the barbarians from the gates.  

Robert Clear  

• 

WOZNIAK IN ACTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley City Councilmember Wozniak fired the chairperson of the Housing Advisory Commission on the basis that she wrote a commentary critical of the secret deal between the city and the university. Her essay was published in the Daily Planet on June 24. Wozniak was quoted in the Planet’s June 28 edition confirming that her opposition was indeed a factor in his firing her. 

His words resulted in an action—the firing of someone—while her words were merely meant to inform and persuade. 

In the process of campaigning, his words convinced people to vote for him. 

His constituents essentially hired him for the job.  

The words in his oath are a promise to maintain the laws and the policies of Berkeley and the interests of his constituents.  

Mina Edelston 

• 

RFID 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have been a frequent user of the Berkeley Public Library for decades. I have turned in my library card. I will not be checking out materials from the library until all the issues with radio frequency identification have been resolved. 

Terry Cochrell 

Our pleas to city officials to refrain from enforcing rolling brownouts obviously fell on deaf ears. And now the threat of a major catastrophic fire is becoming a hard reality in the wake of recent fires in the city (including one yesterday near Fish Ranch Road). Despite assurances by the mayor’s office, the City Council and the Fire Department that Station 7 on Shasta Road was going to be staffed for the entire fire season, Berkeley hills residents were put in a perilous situation on July 6 when Station 7 was closed until 5 p.m. It was only through the diligence of its residents that the station was staffed after 5 p.m., following angry calls to the mayor’s office and the Fire Department. 

To place Berkeley residents in this precarious situation is not only irresponsible, it is highly negligent and constitutes a breach of trust by city officials who place greater priority on their pet projects over basic necessities like public safety. The threat of a major catastrophic fire hangs over us like the sword of Damocles and our city officials have acted like Dionysius by cutting our fire services. Alas, the sword hangs only by a strand of a horse’s hair.  

Cecilia Gaerlan 

Co-Captain, Shasta-Sterling Neighborhood Group 

• 

FORGET ROVE! 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

When the day is done I have four choices for news in prime time (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox), five if your include PBS. Actually “news” is somewhat inaccurate; “news bites” would be better. But, come to think of it, the news on any given day occupies a tiny portion of the half-hour alloted; reports of actual events get squeezed by the weight of advertising, pseudo entertainment and prophesies of “experts”—“Well, professor, tell our audience what you think the next move of X will be.” [Replace X with Bush, the Democrats, the terrorists, the insurgents—whatever.] Lately I’ve begun to ask myself “Why bother?” 

Consider how the issue involving Rove, Bush’s main man, has been hogging the news. Everybody has something to say. Did he leak? Did he lie? Did he violate the law? In spirit? In fact? Such questions are minuscule when compared to the Watergate potential of the Downing Street Memo—documented evidence that the Bush network was fixing the case for war, promising one thing while planning another.  

Karl Rove may be a liar, a thug, a genius. He may be fired. He may keep his job. He may get the Medal of Honor. The point, unacknowledged by newspersons everywhere is that Rove is alive and almost 1,800 of his fellow citizens, soldiers mostly in their early twenties, are not. Karl Rove is healthy but several thousand of his countrymen are permanently maimed.  

Newspersons, forget Rove! We belittle ourselves as a nation by spotlighting his venial sins rather than the grievous sins of George W. and his prompters.  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo  

• 

STATIST RESPONSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What a clever title for Lin Biao’s letter (“Statist Quo,” July 12). And oh how bad it makes me feel to have come to that from a guy that was considered a (rhetorical) bomb-thrower in my distant youth. Age has its definite drawbacks. 

But wait. Taxes in society are quite analogous to club dues. Those that don’t like them can vote out the rascals that installed them. And there ain’t no free lunch in this or any other society. Those folks that don’t like taxes are sure interested, for the most part, in the services they buy. 

Just one example: The U.S. just lost a Toyota assembly plant to Canada despite several American states offering more financial incentives. It seems Toyota found that Canadian workers were better educated than American workers, so Toyota needed to spend less in training (and Toyota liked the lower health care cost per employee hour—about $5—that Canada’s national health plan offered) So we spend money on education and health care, and we get good paying jobs; we don’t spend that money, we lose the jobs.  

Mal Burnstein›

Last summer, just before dusk, my 15-year-old daughter, Liana, and her friend Kate were standing in front of Berkeley High School (BHS), waiting for Kate’s dad to pick them up. A car pulled up to the curb near them and parked. 

The driver, a young man, b egan staring at them intently, making them feel a bit uncomfortable. As the girls chatted they noticed the guy shifting around in his seat, eyes glued on them. They looked at him, then looked away. They talked and laughed and looked again, somewhat nervously now as they continued to wait for Kate’s father, Dean. 

The car edged a little closer and they saw the guy’s hand pumping up and down. Initially, the girls weren’t sure what he was doing but when he wriggled out of his pants and flung them across the passenger seat, there was no doubt. He lifted himself up and they could see the top of his penis, his hand steadily pumping away. The girls were shocked and disgusted and they didn’t know what to do. 

After a few minutes, the guy left. “I guess he was don e,” Liana said. The girls spotted a police car nearby. Rather than look for the suspect, the officer decided to wait with the girls until Dean arrived, shortly thereafter. He typed something into his computer but for some unknown reason, he never actually filed a report. 

A few days later, Kate was walking along M.L. King, Jr. Way. The same offender pulled up alongside her. Kate ran to a nearby porch, pulled out her cell phone and called Liana. “I’m looking at him right now,” she said. “I’m writing down h is license plate number.” Creepo saw her writing and took off. Kate walked to our house and I called the police.  

Liana and Kate were excited about viewing the photo line-up (these girls love any sort of drama, although they could have easily done withou t this scene.) They perused the photos separately. Kate picked him out, Liana was unsure. While undergoing questioning at his home, the suspect claimed that in spite of Kate’s accurate identification of his mug and car, he wasn’t the one. His parents were in complete denial. However, when the policeman got him alone, he said that he could tell that the guy was guilty and told him so. The young man’s eyes welled up with tears as the officer warned him not to do it again. He wouldn’t want to ruin his college career, after all. That’s right, Creepo’s a college boy. It turns out that our public penis-wielder is a recent BHS grad and just completed his second year at a top Ivy League university—that is, if he hasn’t been arrested for sexual assault by now, or worse. 

Has testosterone outgrown its usefulness? Of course, I’m not saying that all men are abusive or violent and women are not. To the contrary, young women are committing more violent crimes than ever before. However, when you look at incidents of sex ual assault—and I include guys jacking off in front of girls in that definition, even if there’s no actual physical touching, which is a legal requirement for sexual assault—it’s primarily a male thing. Our college sophomore may not have physically touched the girls, but he did assault their psyches, their spirits, their innocence.  

Every woman I know has a story like my daughter’s; most have stories that are much worse. I’ve been assaulted by two jack-offs—I ran one of them out of the park, all the way to his car. Even with a description and license plate number, he was never apprehended either. 

One woman is raped every two minutes in the United States. Eighty percent are under age 30. Fifteen percent are under 12. Two thirds of all victims know their assailants. 

It almost happened to me. As a 17-year-old UC freshman, I was approached by a good-looking guy I’d seen around campus and assumed was a fellow student. Alonzo asked if I had seen Tilden Park and invited me for a ride. We drove around the beautiful, leafy hills to a secluded spot overlooking a valley thick with vegetation. I sat on the ledge, enjoying the view. Alonzo came up behind me and started massaging my neck. I was a bit startled. I’d never had a neck massage before. I tried to be cool but was suddenly aware of something being a little bit off. Then, Alonzo said in a steady, calm voice, “I could rape you right now if I wanted to.”  

Whoah. Something clicked on in my head and I knew I had to get out of there and fast. I started talking a mile-a-minute as I moved to get on my feet. “Rape? Yuck. I don’t understand why guys do that especially when can have almost any girl they want I mean no one has to force anybody there are so many people out there why would a guy do that I mean really t hat is so disgusting I can’t imagine.” 

I guess I turned Alonzo off with all that chatter. He backed off, shook his head and silently drove me back to campus. I never saw him again. I was lucky. Very, very lucky. Natalee Holloway, the American teen who is missing in Aruba, may not be so lucky. Out drinking and partying with friends, she left with some local boys and hasn’t been heard from since. Young girls seem particularly vulnerable to males who offer them attention, flattery and fun. Too often, though, when fun becomes frightening and girls try to say no, they are overwhelmed—physically and emotionally—and fun turns into something forced and terrible. 

According to the Coalition Educating About Sexual Endangerment (CEASE), one out of 12 male college s tudents has committed rape, although most wouldn’t call it that. They don’t understand that psychological as well as physical coercion can be considered in the charge. And in most acquaintance rape cases, alcohol is involved. Sadly, most women do not repo rt their rapes, whether out of fear, shame or insufficient information. Perhaps Natalee Holloway will be brave and able enough to testify against her abusers. That is, if she turns up alive. 

Where and how does sexual aggression begin and what can we do t o stem the tide? While not nearly as destructive as rape, public masturbation is more than indecent exposure. It’s a personal violation. I can only hope that Liana and Kate never experience anything worse. 

(Note: All of the names, except Creepo, have been changed.)  

h

I went out on the corner after dark on July 4 to watch the folks in my neighborhood set the sky aflame with fireworks, one of the most brazen displays of non-cooperation with authority since Mr. Ghandi led his followers down to the seashore to mine salt. 

Before I go any further, I suppose I should let you know that I’m not much for fireworks. I don’t flat-out hate them, as some of my good friends do. I’m not scared of fireworks, either. And though I can understand and appreciate the concern about the fire hazard and the noise and the trauma to animals and such, for my part, given the nature of the neighborhood I live in, I’m pretty much relieved when the popping sound outside turns out to be an M80 rather than a 9 mil. 

Mostly, I just don’t see the point of it—at least, not setting them off myself. Given the chance, I can figure out a lot better things to do with $7.95—or whatever these things are going for these days—than to set it down on the sidewalk outside and blow it up. 

But I went out on the corner after dark on the Fourth of July to watch the folks in my neighborhood set the sky aflame with fireworks, and for a half-hour or so stayed there while the screaming missiles and cartwheeling spinners and exploding bursts of color set off from sidewalks and driveways and backyards all around, as if a hundred prisoners—trapped by themselves in hidden dungeon cells, mute and unnoticed for years on end—were suddenly given voice and were sending up shouts of “Here I am, friend!”—first one, then another, then a third and fourth—until the whole, joyous conversation rose up from every degree of the circle, meeting and then overflowing at the top of the sky to proclaim, “Oh hell yeah, here we are!” 

The next day, and for several days afterwards, the local television stations and newspapers reported over and over that all across Oakland, people had defied the city’s “zero tolerance policy” against fireworks displays. 

So for a couple of hours on one night, the voiceless had a voice. And it was even acknowledged in the media that it was a defiant voice, a voice that got everybody’s attention. What power! 

For years, such individual fireworks-shooting were both legal and commonplace throughout Oakland, though on a much less explosive scale. My father used to buy one of those box assortments, with a couple of bottle rockets and a fistful of low-level firecrackers, some sparklers, and those black-charcoal buttons that you’d set down on the sidewalk and light, and it would rise in an eerie, spasmodic dance like a snake being born out of the concrete. There was always one big firework which would always be saved for the last, my father being the only one who could touch it off with a whirr of whistles and bangs and light, which ended the fireworks-lighting for us, but did not end the night. The whole neighborhood was out there with their own boxes, usually larger than ours, and we’d stay out there ‘til the last cracker was popped. There is something of a community-building about neighbors mingling outside in the night, summer or winter, children and adults, regardless of the cause—whether fireworks, Trick or Treat, an ambulance called to someone’s house, or a traffic accident down at the corner. It is a realization that we are not just alone, separate families reading books or watching television behind our individual front doors, but there are others who share the night with us, only a holler away. 

Wisely, I believe (because we live in a tinderbox in the summer, and the fireworks are gradually getting larger and more dangerous), the Legislature eventually outlawed individual fireworks-shooting in the state, but what we got offered as a substitute was a poor imitation. At various spots around the city and county—near Jack London Square, or the Coliseum, or the Alameda County Fair before those got canceled—the authorities invited you to come out and watch them shoot off fireworks. They were bigger, brighter, choreographed and orchestrated and I’ve watched my share over the years, but it is not the same thing. It is the difference, I think, between watching a movie—even a good movie—or sitting around with good friends, singing. The difference between being a passive observer, and a participant. 

In his 1994 book Skyline: One Season, One Team, One City, Tim Keown wrote about one 16-year-old Oakland kid, Jason Wright, who dreamed of making a noise in the city’s season-opening basketball jamboree, packed with players and fans from Oakland’s six public high schools. “The Jamboree was on his mind the entire week before, and in the unlikely event that he would forget about it, somebody was sure to remind him ... ‘J Wright, you gonna get a dunk for me?’” And two minutes into the game, when Wright did, indeed, get a massive, breakaway slam, “he hung on the rim just long enough to accentuate his point, and the crowd responded with a reflexive grunt, followed by a tremendous ovation that filled every silent space in the huge building. This was what they had come to see, and this was what Jason came to do. He ran downcourt yelling at the top of his lungs, his mouth wide open but no sound audible amid the roar.” 

But who roars for the Jason Wrights of Oakland—or Berkeley—or Richmond—or Emeryville—when they come back on these crowded, broken blocks, and they’ve got no basketball in their hands, and there’s no game to play, even if they had one? Who even listens, when they’ve got something to say? 

We’ve got a whole inner East Bay full of Jason Wrights, folks who never appear on television and are never quoted in the newspaper, and so they are faceless, nameless, voiceless, dark haunts and wraiths that hover just outside the edge of our consciousness, coming to our attention only when they have followed the hip hop deejay’s call to “MAKE SOME NOISE!” and do something—like set off fireworks, or play their music loud, or spin donuts in the middle of an intersection—that annoys us. Then we write columns about them, and fill up talk shows and news broadcasts and newspaper stories about them, and make them the subject of council meetings, and pass new laws about them, and send the police out after them. And so if the purpose was to get attention—anybody’s attention, in any way—then damned if it ain’t worked, if only for just a moment, however brief. 

People need to be heard, and so they will be heard. It’s the human way. The only real question is, how will we answer, and will that answer change the dialogue in some way, or keep it down the same destructive path it’s been going? 

›

Youthful Arsonists 

Thanks to the fortunate presence of an eyewitness, the fling at arson by a pair of teenagers Tuesday afternoon didn’t turn into something worse. 

Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies said the witness called police after seeing two teenagers stick a piece of burning paper into the mailbox of a building in the 2100 block of Allston Way just after 4 p.m. 

The caller extinguished the blaze before firefighters and police arrived. 

Though the two fire bugs were last seen headed northbound on Oxford Street, they had vanished by the time police started their search. 

A Real Gas 

Police arrested a 17-year-old Berkeley woman after a fight with her 24-year-old boyfriend escalated into something worse just after 5 p.m. Tuesday. 

Police were called to the 1200 block of 67th Street after she produced a can of tear gas and sprayed her erstwhile companion. 

Officers charged her with brandishing a deadly weapon, use of tear gas other than in self-defense and as a minor in possession of tear gas. 

Megan’s Law Bust 

Berkeley Police arrested a 27-year-old convicted sex offender on charges of failing to register with local authorities under the provisions of Megan’s Law and for giving a false name to investigators. 

The man was arrested at 5:26 p.m. Tuesday after a pedestrian stop in the 2500 block of Dwight Way, said Officer Okies. 

Cody’s Flasher 

A heavy-set man wearing a dark baseball cap showed a clerk at Cody’s Books on Telegraph Avenue a lot more of himself than she wanted to see just before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, then departed the scene before officers could make an arrest. 

Half-Price Robbery 

A pistol-packin’ predator stormed into Half-Price Books at 1849 Solano Ave. about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday and demanded cash. His request fulfilled, he fled in a silver sedan. 

Stomping 

Police are seeking the couple who kicked an 18-year-old woman in the 1400 block of Berkeley Way at 10:30 Tuesday night. 

Officer Okies said the duo, which included an 18-year-old thinly built woman with braids and a slightly older man with gold-capped front teeth, fled in blue Chevrolet following the assault. 

The pair is wanted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon. 

Drive-By BB 

A 34-year-old woman was the victim of a drive-by BB-gun attack as she walked in the 1200 block of Euclid Street near the Rose Garden about 11 p.m. Tuesday. 

The woman said the shots were fired from a white van that drove past her.›

An op-ed by Jonathan Wornick appearing in the July 12 Daily Planet opposing Berkeley’s recently passed resolution supporting a U.S. Department of  

Peace (DOP) was just shocking, especially coming from a Peace and Justice commissioner. It contained outrageous distortions and misinformation and I would like to set the record straight on this issue.  

I first introduced the resolution at the April meeting of Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission, a commission I proudly served on for three years. Jonathan become its chief opponent and was the only commissioner adamantly opposed to the resolution. He said at the May meeting, “We have a Department of Peace. It’s called the State Department.” He later added that the commission should stop this initiative “here and now.” It failed to pass in the commission due to poor attendance as we needed eight votes, a majority of the total commission and not just those present. Of those present, six voted for it, only Wornick voted nay and three abstained.  

In his op-ed Wornick justified his opposition by stating that, “Nowhere in our job descriptions does it say that the mayor or the City Council is supposed to have a position on issues like Middle East politics, war, free trade, or the United Nations.”  

This statement is not true. Has this Peace and Justice commissioner forgotten the commission’s mandate? On Feb. 18, 1986, the City Council passed Ordinance No. 5705 establishing the Peace and Justice Commission. Section 7 of that law states that “the commission shall a dvise the Berkeley City Council and the Berkeley Unified School Board on all matters relating to the City of Berkeley’s role in issues of peace and social justice, including but not limited to the issues of ending the arms race, abolishing nuclear weapons, support for human rights and self-determination throughout the world ... so that money now spent on war and the preparation of war is spent on fulfilling human needs and the promotion of peace. 

How can Wornick be so uninformed? If he is not ignorant of these facts, why is he deliberately feeding disinformation to the citizens of Berkeley? 

Wornick said, “Cohen and others went crying to Worthington for relief, sidestepping the process and making the commission system virtually obsolete.” In reality, Coh en never went to Worthington at all, and it was Wornick who went crying to the Daily Planet when he and Wozniak failed to stop the council from overriding their objections to it. It was solely Wornick’s recalcitrant position that caused us to seek council support directly. 

It is somewhat rare and unprecedented for the City Council to pass a resolution that a commission doesn’t pass. Some city councilmembers even criticized the commission for failing to do its job. 

Wornick made other misleading and false statements. He repeatedly made the accusation that the resolution has cost the city time and money. He stated, “a chosen few are once again wasting their time, and our dollars, writing resolutions on national and international issues. In fact, when Berke ley commissions write resolutions, no dollars are spent as commissioners serve voluntarily, saving the city both time and money. 

Why can’t he acknowledge that the DOP would actually bring money into Berkeley as the legislation aims to fund a wide range o f activities that Berkeley’s nonprofits could tap into, including those working on peace, social justice, human rights, nonviolent conflict resolution, spousal and child abuse, the mistreatment of the elderly and a wide-range of violence prevention progra ms, be they domestic, street or gang related. 

His remark on Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s letter was a gross misrepresentation and an insult to not only Feinstein, but to the citizens of Berkeley. He stated that, “At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the local backers of this legislation waved around a letter from Sen. Feinstein misrepresenting her position entirely ... Her boiler plate response letter only said that she’d ‘examine’ it.”  

In Feinstein’s letter of May 26, she said, “The Department of Peace is a concept that deserves much attention and I assure you that I will examine this proposal further. The Department of Peace is an important example of the notion of peace and civility that our nation must strive to maintain. I applaud the efforts of your org anization to promote and uphold the principles of peace within our state, our country, and the world abroad.” So his statement that she only said that she’d examine it is false  

He never mentioned that Rep. Barbara Lee said, “This is a department whose t ime has come. A vital component of strengthening the campaign for the Department of Peace is for local groups to work to build local and regional support for this objective. The Bay Area, and Berkeley in particular, have historically been at the forefront of the peace and justice movement, and the creation of the U.S. Department of Peace will give our local peace organizations the support of a Cabinet-level federal agency.” 

In summation, most of Wornick’s statements are simply not true or gross misrepres entations. How can he expect to pull the wool over the eyes of the citizens of Berkeley? His behavior on this issue is totally inappropriate for a Peace and Justice commissioner. It has caused the commission, the 17 citizens who testified in support of th e DOP, and finally the City Council to spend unneeded time on an issue that Berkeley should have easily endorsed. Berkeley and its citizens have historically taken pride in supporting initiatives such as this. 

Only attacks such as Wornick’s can lead to m aking the commission system obsolete, not peace initiatives such as ours. A vigilant Berkeley will never allow such a thing to happen. Perhaps the cause of peace and justice could better be served if enough Berkeley citizens ask Councilmember Wozniak to c onsider replacing Wornick with a real advocate for peace on the P and Justice commission. 

Alan Moore is a former Peace and Justice commissioner and a member of East Bay DoPeace Committee, Musicians and Fine Artists for World Peace, and International Ass ociation of Educators for World Peace. 

o

Over two decades ago Bobby Sands, a member of the IRA, was arrested and put in jail by the British government. He later went on a hunger strike demanding to be freed. Margaret Thatcher, holding the British prime minister office at the time, refused to ca ve in to his demand until Sands finally died in prison as a result. 

Sands’ courage and stand for his belief was viewed and praised by the newly formed Revolutionary-Theocratic regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact at a Friday noon prayer sermon, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (then the president and now the supreme leader) went on to portray Sands as a martyr—and rightly so—and highly praised him all he could and downgraded the British government and its political and judiciary system all he could. 

S ands, a Christian-Irish-Revolutionary became an Islamic-Iranian-Revolutionary idol for the mullahs and soon a street in Tehran was named “Bobby Sands Street.” 

Enter Akbar Ganji: a brave devout Iranian Muslim who voluntarily joined Iran’s revolutionary ar my to fight the Iraqi army in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. After the war ended about 17 years ago he gradually started his own war on tyranny by turning against the corrupt power-hungry rulers of the current Iranian regime and opening his arms to democra cy as opposed to theocracy.  

Seven years ago he started a crusade to reveal the identity of the high ranking government officials and of the Friday noon prayer preachers, who for several years had engaged in conducting “Mafia-like operations” murdering dozens of political dissidents and outspoken journalists.  

His daily and weekly articles in the reformist newspapers—which sprang up in the post-election era of the reformist President Khatami—focused on one thing and one thing only: the so-called “chain killings“ of the Iranian dissidents. Ganji had just started his fight to strip the theocratic tyranny of the mullahs of all its holy facade.  

Over five years ago when the supreme leader labeled the reformists’ newspapers as “foreign governments’ tools ag ainst the Islamic Revolution”, Ganji and many other journalists were imprisoned. Within a couple of years all were released. All but Ganji. He had gone too far! 

During the past five years of imprisonment he evolved as a true intellectual transcending revolutions, ideologies and even “the chain killings.” Ganji had started his new fight: the fight to pursue a true democracy. And the only way he knew how: non-violent, bold, transparent and relentless. 

While in prison he smuggled out more articles and two volumes of “The Manifest to Pursue Democracy,” in which he openly claims the regime of mullahs—lead by its supreme leader—to be a tyranny. Suffering from asthma, internal illnesses etc. he recently demanded to be released by going on a hunger strike. He h as gone without food for 35 straight days now! 

The head of the judiciary of the Islamic Republic announced recently that Ganji’s hunger strike was illegal. His memory perhaps had failed to remind him of the time when his appointer—the holy supreme leader—had praised Bobby Sands’ hunger strike over two decades ago. Or perhaps he was just announcing the Islamic Republic’s philosophy of existence loud and clear: All struggles for freedom against tyranny around the world are praised except those in Iran, exc ept those against the Mullah’s tyranny. 

Now I don’t know what potion there is that makes people like Sands and Ganji. What gives them the stamina to stand up singlehandedly against tyranny and where do they get their courage to enter the “lion’s den”? Al l I know is that Ganji may soon become Sands! 

As an Iranian I used to feel proud to drive on “Bobby Sands Street” every time I visited Tehran, but the summer of 2005 may very well make me ashamed to be an Iranian. 

I don’t want to go any where in the wor ld driving on “Akbar Ganji Street!” 

Homayon is the pseudonym of a correpondent writing from Tehran. 

›a

Lies, damn lies, statistics, and then studies. Twice in last week’s Daily Planet letters section a deceptive 2002 parking study was cited as proving there is no need for more parking in the downtown area. Why, parking is plentiful, they claim, and an adjacent claim is always on its heels, that parking spaces “cost” $25,000 each, garage parking spaces $50,000 or more. 

There would be plenty of parking, they say, if there weren’t so much overtime parking, meaning cars sitting at broken meters which would otherwise be ticketed, or whose meters are being fed by employees parking near their jobs, which is also a ticket offense. If these things weren’t happening, they reason, there would be more parking. 

But there’s not. The smart money is on Berkeley residents, who manage to fool or break any new parking machinery that comes their way, because otherwise the parking planners honestly think giving people a meter with only a half an hour of time is fine. The invention of the term overtime parking implies that no one who comes downtown should stay long, perhaps interesting themselves in a new store, or running into a friend for lunch, or seeing a movie. Overtime parking implies that people should get the hell out of the way so that a fresh driver with a fresh load of quarters should have a chance to visit for half an hour. 

And, they say, employees shouldn’t drive to work, because if they didn’t there would be more parking. 

But employees do drive to work. Even the police and the meter enforcers, who are supposed to ticket meter-feeding employees, are using the neighborhoods around their workplaces to park because they have no parking. Developers and planners applaud themselves for providing less parking than their projects need because they assume people will simply buy a bicycle and sail to work from Oakland, Orinda, and El Cerrito, thanking the parking planners for the opportunity to improve their health and save on gas. Except that they don’t. 

Both of these claims assume that the production of more parking tickets would have a positive result, freeing up more parking for happy, satisfied people. Except, of course, those people who got the tickets, who now have quite a different view of the town that only wanted a half an hour of their company and wants them to pay up or come to court, for which they would have to find more parking. 

But my favorite deception in the parking “study” is watching the big, bouncing numbers; $25,000, $50,000, representing the “cost” of a parking space. There is no cost, apparently, to a neighborhood that gets a 7:00 am influx of employee cars, or to a business which customers can’t get anywhere near. The real cost of losing real businesses like 49-year strong Tupper and Reed goes way beyond one business, or even the economic health of a downtown. Fewer children get any exposure to certain instruments, fewer children can rent them or play them, and very few parents are going to drive a long way to rent a baritone on the off chance that their child will take to it. It was the loss of parking that finished off Tupper and Reed, unless you want to dismiss the business expertise of 49 years. 

You can’t begin to calculate the real cost of consistently discouraging the otherwise willing and interested people of all ages who would love to participate in community events if there were a safe, sane way to get there. Half-empty concert halls and sparsely attended events are an incalculable social loss. Not all of us can ride a bicycle, and those of us who do ought to be honest enough to acknowledge that it is not safe. 

Let’s get real about wheels. If you walked up to the average driver and offered to replace their car for free with a no-emission vehicle, they would hand over the keys. If there were a shuttle waiting in front of their house guaranteeing a five-minute ride to work or to the symphony they would be on it. People aren’t driving because they like the idea that the ice is breaking up three weeks earlier in the spring in Manitoba. People, unlike planners, have to be realistic about their options and their lives, or they find themselves stranded across the bridge when Bart shuts down. 

It is more than unfashionable to criticize the unrealistic “transit first” policy. My status as a bike commuter won’t save me from being repeatedly run over by the narrow tires of letter writers who insist they can grocery shop for six or attend chemotherapy appointments by bicycle. Just keep in mind that the last time I checked, Berkeley was first in the national sale of hybrids. Some realistic planning, and some realistic alternatives might take us a lot further than deceptive “studies” by development-driver planners admiring the emperor’s new clothes. And a few more kids just might learn to play the trombone.

West Campus Neighbors who oppose the Berkeley Unified School District’s plans to move light industrial uses and heavy vehicle storage into their neighborhood are beginning to feel a bit like kids at a carnival watching a grifter executing a shell game. Just as they think they have a line on what the district is up to, the district switches direction. A few examples: 

The number of vehicles and nature of other equipment to be stored as well as the amount of space required changed drastically between the April 7 and April 21 meetings. Heavy equipment was added and the amount of space required tripled. 

At the April 21 meeting the neighbors were told that troubled Berkeley High School students currently home schooled because of criminal or behavior problems, would be taught in a community day school on West Campus. After vehement objections by the neighbors based on safety of children located in several pre-school and child care facilities in the neighborhood, the proposed facility was represented to be an alternative learning center. The nature of the students became more vague. Students were characterized as those with “special needs” (described as religious and psychological), not behavior problems. By June 2, Early had less, not more, information about the proposed student body. Might be one group or the other, or, possibly both. 

Originally, the neighbors were told by David Early, hired by the district to manage the community meetings, that there was no alternative to West Campus for the relocation of vehicle storage, warehouse facilities and central cafeteria kitchen. Early later admitted that the district owned a large parcel of vacant property at 1325 Gilman that could accommodate most, if not all the light industrial operations. The district’s own public information officer stated, then denied, that this land was subject to a substantial set aside and therefore was too small for the transportation facility. Later, boardmembers and the information officer admitted that the set aside was at the request of Mayor Bates. 

However, Mayor Bates’ representative to the community meetings has indicated that Mayor Bates agrees with the neighbor’s alternative plan that would eliminate the industrial uses. The mayor has yet to make a public statement explaining what authority he had to request the set-back in the first place and how he planned to get around the Education and Government Code provisions that govern uses of district property. Or whether he has any alternative site other than Gilman Street. 

The district continues to change its story about how the Administration Building and Transportation Facility is going to be funded. At first there was no answer. Then Early indicated that the money would come from bond issues AA passed in 2000 intended for retrofitting classrooms. When the neighborhood group attempted to follow up, it took weeks for the District to provide the Exhibits to the resolution authorizing the AA bond issue that limited use of the funds. 

Simultaneously, the district’s representative invoked the “Orange Book,” published by the district in advance of the 2000 election, as authority for use of the AA bond funds for the projects. This, despite the fact that the Orange Book itself makes it clear that the district is required to spend bond funds for purposes stated in the resolution authorizing the bond and in the ballot measure itself. Former Information Officer Karen Sarlo admitted in an interview with the Daily Planet two months before the bond election, the proposals in Orange Book are just that, proposals that are subject to change. 

Sarlo also stated that Measure AA “has a $10 million contingency for unforeseen circumstances written into the bond.” Co-incidentally, the district’s latest explanation of the source of funding for its new Administration Building, is that the District has $10 Million “from the State.” A review of the financial information posted on the district’s website and contained in the Orange Book does not reveal the existence of any such state generated nest egg. Did the district receive $10 it can use to build a new administration building from the state? Or is this another shell game? 

Finally, the board seems to be less than sincere in its desire to involve citizens with interests at stake. No notices of the community meetings were provided to residents on Curtis Street, which borders the West Campus. When they got wind of what was planned for their neighborhood, several Curtis Street residents appeared at the most recent community meeting with signatures of 60 residents and expressed dismay and anger at the district’s plan to once again “dump on West Berkeley.” 

Nor were the parents of the students currently enrolled in the alternative learning center told that the program would be moved away from its current close proximity to Berkeley High, making integration of these students with the high school difficult, if not impossible. 

The shell game continues with the district continuing to assert that it does know whether it is subject to city zoning and permitting requirements, although the law is clear that only classrooms, not other district facilities are exempt from local government regulation. 

Some times regulators are rescuers. The West Campus Neighbors take some solace in the fact that the Planning Commission does not intend to abdicate its responsibility. The neighbors hope that the mayor and other officials live up to their responsibility to ensure that the laws intended to protect residents are enforced and that proper procedures are followed. 

Ruchama Burrell and her family live near West Campus.›

I know that many citizens in Berkeley must be confused about the revisions to the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. What in the heck are we doing? 

Simple, the charge given to the Landmark Commission by the city manager in 2000 was to upgrade the ordinance to conform to the State of California Permit Streamlining Act, which basically makes sure discretionary city process is done up front and then lets a developer get the design and financing done without the threat of being stopped when they are laying out money for a project.  

The members of the LPC are often portrayed as anti-development, but that is not true. In my more than seven years on the commission, we have approved 

scores of housing units to be added to landmarked structures, and overseen the restoration and rehabilitation of sorely neglected properties like those three Victorians in a row on Fulton Street at Haste Street. The projects have been as diverse as the Westminster House project, which added five stories of housing on the corner of Bancroft and College for student housing, to the Santa Fe Station on University Avenue becoming the centerpiece of the new Berkeley Montessori School, to the Rose Street Grocery remodel on Rose at Oxford Street which has just opened as a multiple unit housing project. As a member of the Design Review Committee for the past few years, I have voted to approve hundreds of wonderful new units all over town. Both the DRC and the LPC work hard to make sure most of the projects we approve are great additions to the city and we are proud of the projects once they are built. 

Some for-profit developers, large property owners and brokers say we are an obstacle, but others who are not as vocal will tell you we were very helpful to their projects. I don’t blame some of them for wanting the path to their money-making schemes paved for them, but, frankly, that is not our charge. We are the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and we are hoping for the best project possible. We have 300 designated properties in Berkeley, and 700 properties on a list the State of California keeps that appear eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. We have a process that takes us through the designation process. Those same vocal developers now want a free pass, a new process that takes them down a different path than any other citizen, one that requires unspecified research, and is on a shortened timeline. And if we don’t act because our volunteer commissioners don’t have the time (20-40 hours) to write a landmark application, the developer gets a one year free pass. It is not written for the single family homeowner, it is written for the developers, who will not be allowed to bring more than two properties before us every six months. I don’t know any single family homeowners who will have two potential landmark homes they own to bring before us during a six months period. 

We are not the body that reviews Pop-Up flying bungalows and McMansions—that is the Zoning Adjustments Board. But it is often true that citizens find out a project is happening in the neighborhood, and they look for their options to maintain the status quo. Many of us believe that one answer to this eternal dilemma is to comprehensively survey the city for historic resources. Since that is really expensive, I have recommended the city make a good faith effort and start with the areas of town where high density development is occurring. That battle is West Berkeley and the main thoroughfares—Shattuck, University, San Pablo, Telegraph. Drive down these streets and think about what you value. There is surely a lot of good we can all do to improve our streetscapes, and an important part of that is to recognize what we want to preserve, as well as encouraging what we want to develop. 

Carrie Olson is a member and former chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. 

The gutsy Berkeley Opera is taking on Wagner again, this time with its own reduced version of Die Meistersinger. Olivia Stapp had the opportunity to interview Artistic Director Jonathan Khuner after one of the recent rehearsals. 

Stapp: You have dedicat ed so much of your life to the Berkeley Opera. What keeps you going? 

Khuner: Berkeley Opera is the one arena in which I can bring to bear all my knowledge of music, opera particularly, and my skills in organization, love of working with people, and creat ive energy. Being a big fish in a small pond brings special rewards, not financially of course, but artistically and personally. 

I feel sure, after each performance, that I’ve made a bigger difference in the life of the few people involved (on both sides of the curtain, and in the pit) than I ever do at the most prestigious opera companies with which I work. 

At Berkeley Opera we are always creating something new, unique and irreplaceable, and our individual participants and audience members each carry away a larger portion of that experience. The satisfaction and thrill from that knowledge sustains me in the deepest hours of worry over limited budget and overwhelming demands of the huge medium on a small group.  

Stapp: Your renowned musical expertise has brought you engagements at the Met, Chicago, San Francisco, Bayreuth. You are a highly sought-after prompter. Tell us what that requires.  

Khuner: This invisible job is highly demanding, and can be extremely important in keeping an opera performance on keel.  

Stapp: Well, Jonathan, I certainly know from experience, how many performances were saved by having a knowledgeable prompter in the box, especially if the conductor is busy with the orchestra and doesn’t have that “extra arm” with which to cue singers in big ensembles. You are in the seat of the co-pilot.  

Khuner: The knowledge I bring to bear while sitting in the cramped prompter’s box (at the foot of the stage, in the center, with my head at floor level under a tiny hood opening towards the singers), are: languages—I work in English, French, German, Italian, Czech, Russian, and occasionally Armenian and Sanskrit; conducting—giving well-timed physical cues with absolute clarity and suggestiveness: musicianship—being able to anticipate when the performers are going to need extra help; and interpersonal—knowing the best style and timing for cueing each singer with his/her own style. 

Besides these ingredients of prompting, I also serve as conductor, pianist, coach, and occasionally violinist.  

Stapp: There are actually very few people like you who can approach operatic performance from such a variety of perspectives. But what about opera? Do you think that this art form is necessary, especially considering that it requires so much money to p roduce? 

Khuner: Art is not necessary, but it makes life livable. It is an expression of the human need for purpose. I find its function similar to that of religion, except that with religion, the shared experience tends to break down individuality and to o often dwells on belief in articles of dogma, while art celebrates both the collective seeking of meaning and the individual’s yearning for clarity in relation to the cosmos. And I love music because it so perfectly abstracts from experience all the ebbs and flows of physical and mental energy. 

Opera is of course the largest canvas for musical art, and applies music’s potential to characters and their stories in a richer way than any other medium. It is expensive and unreliable—so many people may do so many little things wrong and pull the experience away from perfection—but at its best it unites us in shared moments of passion and beauty. I believe that this something is still a vital ingredient in modern life. The challenge of devoting myself to this field is both exhausting and exhilarating. 

Stapp: I agree! Obviously, all of Wagner, and especially his Meistersinger, are important for you. What special meaning does it have for you? 

Khuner: My father, who was the best musician I ever met, had this opera in his blood from his earliest days in pre- and post-World War I Vienna. The love for this opera in particular was an important ingredient in the aesthetic tilt I received from him. 

Stapp: Where have you been able to find Wagnerian singers willing to participate in this musical experiment? 

Khuner: I was very fortunate to be introduced to Clayton Brainerd, a maturing Wagnerian bass-baritone on the American scene who happened to want to put Hans Sachs in his repertoire. I was thrilled that he agreed to take up the challenge of learning the whole role, and then committing to our reduced version in a regional production. He was lucky that of all the roles, we left his most intact, since so much of the meaning of the work derives from Sachs’ thoughts a nd relations to the other characters. Once Clayton agreed to be in the project, I built the rest of the cast around him. For the other roles I found wonderfully suited local singers. 

Stapp: I could not help but notice tonight that all participants in th e production seemed suffused with a sense higher purpose. But, what do you say to the purists who consider such a reworking of this masterpiece “heresy”? 

Khuner: First of all, they are right. But heresy is not always wrong. I don’t believe in the infallibility or cosmic superiority of even so great a genius as Wagner. His overall idea, and his musical execution of it, are undeniably great. But he deliberately overtaxes the audience with three such long acts (over four hours of music total), and there is much to be said for a loving compression, to make the experience more compatible with the limitations of a normal audience, not to mention a regional opera orchestra. 

There are definite gains in the faster pacing of our version. Although I admire the mag nificence of the original, I protest Wagner’s arrogance in deciding that he needn’t be economical in expressing his ideas. I’m sure that if he had wanted to, he could have said all he needed to in three hours. 

Even Wagner’s original concept was not for s uch a long epic, but rather for a modest, audience-hit, easily producible comedy. Because of his own grandiose tendencies, Die Meistersinger got out of hand, and became a huge work which even most sympathetic opera-goers find too extensive. Rather than ju st decline to produce the work on his terms, I am meeting his arrogance, by acting on behalf of the audience to make the experience more manageable. 

The reduction in forces, and Yuval Sharon’s use of commedia elements and lighter touches to decor and sta ging, put the piece more in tune with Wagner’s first thoughts on the subject. 

Stapp: Yes, this was supposed to be the short comic work that would fill his coffers, but he really lost control. What would you say in your defense to Wagner, if he were stil l around? 

Khuner: First: “Didn’t we make a lot of it better, actually?” Second: “You deserve it, for writing such an overlong opera in the first place!” Third: “See how many of the audience are leaving with real smiles on their faces, having been uplifte d by the wonderful music and singing, the meaningful story and high ideas, and not groaning over the aches brought on by hours of unrelieved sitting?” Fourth: “I apologize for all the wonderful moments we cut, and for the non-sequiturs created in the score!” 

Wagner might have approved of novel transformations, if respectful of the original, which I believe we have been, deeply (if not reverently). 

Stapp: So, you have made it more accessible? 

Khuner: Absolutely! Especially as ours is a serious version—we haven’t watered down the ideas, denied them, made fun of them, or uglified them for some modern anti-romantic posturing. Yuval has brought out nuggets of ideas, often submerged in grand productions, and made them sparkle and carry the comedy to a new b rilliance.  

I have been part of the Bayreuth experience, including Die Meistersinger, and I know that the discomfort of many stuffy hours in hard seats is practically guaranteed to destroy appreciation and enjoyment of Wagner’s great work far more that o ur modest alterations for Berkeley Opera’s version. This production is just one example of what I try to do with every Berkeley Opera show: bring an enlivened, focused representation of high quality to our local audience. 

The Berkeley Opera experience, including mine as artistic and musical 

director, is not reproducible.  

[I just hope it’s survivable!] 

Berkeley Opera presents Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg at 7:30 p.m. July 16, 20, 22 and at 2 p.m. July 24.  

Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley. For more information call (925) 798-1300 or see www.berkeleyopera.org. 

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Woman’s Will, the Oakland-based all-female Shakespeare company, celebrates their eighth season of free performances of Shakespeare In The Park with performances of Richard III this Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. in John Hinkel Park. 

Next weekend the group will perform at Oakland’s Mosswood Park (Saturday) and Dimond Park (Sunday). They will appear at other local venues till Aug. 14. Directed by Susannah Martin, the performance features Emily Jordan as Richard (Duke of Gloucester, later King). 

The Woman’s Will production focuses on “how the tradition of fighting and killing is passed down from generation to generation, children learning it at their parents’ side,” according to Artistic Director Erin Merritt. “Susannah saw that, in the play, the adults keep acting like children. She had the actors find the most childish moments of their characters, where the masks of adulthood start to slip.” 

Otherwise, she said, it’s a traditional performance, with emphasis on the text and the acting. 

“It’s an all-female cast,” Merritt said, “but nothing particularly conceptual in interpretation. The women still lose. But it’s the women and children in the play who first get that something dangerous is going on.”  

Shakespeare’s character study of this ruthless social climber, beginning with his famous speech “Now is the winter of our discontent” and ending with “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” at the Battle of Bosworth which closed the War of the Roses, also presents some of the most cynical relations between the sexes onstage. 

“Elissa Dunn as Lady Anne is able to make the audience believe that she can make the change from abhorring Richard, who’s responsible for her husband’s death, to thinking that maybe she’ll just marry him!” Merritt said. “And Emily is so charming ... what’s usually seen as such an abrupt shift makes sense on stage.” 

Founded in 1998 as a Shakespeare repertory company, Woman’s Will does more than titles by the Bard. In past years, they’ve performed Lord of the Flies, The Importance of Being Earnest and The Rover, a Restoration comedy by Aphra Behn (the first professional woman playwright), each with an all-female cast. This fall they will present the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill musical, Happy End, at Luka’s Taproom in Oakland.  

But the Bard, and all-women productions in the parks, are their raison d’etre. 

“We were actors well trained in Shakespeare and in stage combat who were not able to use our skills,” Merritt said. “We’d all go to the huge number of auditions for Shakespeare festivals up and down the coast, each hiring about 30 men and three women—and there’d be 30 men and about 50 women sitting there, waiting to audition. The odds were terrible.” 

Merritt said that the women decided to make to odds more favorable. 

“I’d talk to other women about what a waste of talent this was—and how we were missing out on all that on-the-job training,” she said. “We needed a women’s company. And everybody said, ‘You gotta do it, you gotta do it!’—they were so into it, I figured that, sooner or later, somebody would start one. So we tried it once, just for fun—Two Gentlemen of Verona, subtitled “There Are No Gentlemen In Verona”—and everybody in the audience asked, ‘When’s the next one?’ They really wanted to see it done this way, and we hadn’t realized how much.” 

Woman’s Will presents Richard III at 1 p.m. July 16 and 17 at Berkeley’s John Hinkel Park; at 1 p.m. July 23 at Mosswood Park, Oakland, and at 6 p.m. at Rossmoor’s Dollar Clubhouse Lawn, Walnut Creek; at 1 p.m. July 24, at Diamond Park, Oakland. For other venues in July and August call 420-0813 or see www.womanswill.org.  

All shows are free.›

Harold Lloyd, one of the greatest comedians of silent film, is poised for a comeback. In anticipation of the November release of more than two dozen of his films on DVD, Pacific Film Archive and San Francisco’s Castro Theater are screening some of the comedian’s best features.  

PFA is showing a Lloyd film at 3 p.m. every Sunday through Aug. 7 and the Castro will screen a series of double features Aug. 19-25. 

Lloyd’s career spanned 34 years and more than 200 films, from one- and two-reel shorts to full-length features. Though he worked with writers and co-directors, Lloyd was one of the early auteurs, controlling nearly every facet of production. 

If it sometimes seems that Lloyd cannot be discussed these days without unflattering comparisons to legendary contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, it is at least partially Lloyd’s own fault. Whereas the films of Chaplin and Keaton have been readily available for some years in revivals, on television, and home video, Lloyd chose to withhold his work after he retired, not releasing it to the public other than in a few compilations of the 1960s. 

But now, thanks to Suzanne Lloyd, the comedian’s granddaughter and president of Harold Lloyd Entertainment, Inc., these classic silent comedies are finally seeing release, with a dozen or so forming the core of a retrospective now touring the country. 

Comedy did not come easily to the young Harold Lloyd. He worked hard to acquire the timing and grace that was second nature to his peers. He did not have the natural and instinctive talents of Chaplin and Keaton; he was not raised in the theater, as they were, nor did he have an inherently comic persona, as Chaplin did with his shabby yet fastidious tramp and Keaton with his stoic and sober fatalist. Lloyd was not only smart enough to recognize this, he was determined to overcome it, and so he went about methodically creating a viable comedic identity. 

His first step was a common one among comedians of the day: He imitated Chaplin. That is, he appropriated the situations and style of Chaplin, though he did not adopt Chaplin’s costume. Instead, Lloyd inverted the outfit; rather than baggy clothes, he wore clothes that were too tight. And in place of Chaplin’s narrow brush mustache, Lloyd placed two dots of facial hair at either side of the mouth. This was Lonesome Luke, a logical if not inspired creation that Lloyd played in dozens of one-reel comedies. 

But imitation was not enough for Lloyd; his ambition was far greater. He would have to find a unique character, one that suited his talents and appearance. Eventually he found his inspiration. 

“I saw a dramatic picture at a downtown theater,” Lloyd wrote in his autobiography, An American Comedy. “The central character was a fighting parson, tolerant and peaceful until riled, then a tartar. Glasses emphasized his placidity. The heavy had stolen the girl, carrying her away on horseback. The parson leaped on another horse and the two were lost in a cloud of dust. When the dust cleared, the heavy lay prone and still, while the parson dusted his clothes with careless flecks of his handkerchief, replaced his glasses and resumed his ministerial calm.” 

Thus the “glass character,” as Lloyd called him, was born. He would join the pantheon of the elite comedic characters: Chaplin the Tramp; Keaton the Stoic; Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, the Fat Man; Harry Langdon, the Man-Child; and Harold Lloyd, the Everyman. With a simple pair of horn-rimmed glasses, purchased for 75 cents, Lloyd set off on a career that would make him the highest-grossing film comedian of the 1920s.  

Though the audience could at times identify with the situations and emotions in the work of Keaton and Chaplin, their characters had a strange, almost otherworldly quality. Lloyd, on the other hand, sought a character that was common, easily identifiable, someone the audience could recognize in their own lives. 

Film critic Walter Kerr, in his book The Silent Clowns, described the character as an archetype that was prevalent and easily comprehended in its day. “The good American, still devoutly believed in during the 1920s, was two things,” Kerr wrote. “He was aggressive, and he was innocent. Americans could not have tamed a continent if they had not been aggressive … But whatever had been done aggressively, or was being done aggressively, had been and was being done from the noblest motives, motives that had just recently helped make the world safe for democracy. The American’s energy was a virtuous energy, spent always in the cause of good. A vigor that extended to brashness on the one hand; a clear conscience on the other.” 

With variations here and there, Lloyd played this character throughout the rest of his career. It was a comic take on the Horatio Alger story, the “American boy who rose from shoe clerk to national hero,” in Kerr’s words. 

Lloyd’s craft was as studied as his character. In an effort to keep his output varied and interesting to audiences, he diligently worked at broadening the range of his abilities, mastering all the stock elements of film comedy and even adding a few innovations of his own. 

First among these was the chase scene, many of which will be on display in the films featured in the retrospective, from the last-minute heroics of Girl Shy to the herding of criminals and ne’er-do-wells into a church in For Heaven’s Sake. But Lloyd took the medium beyond simple chases, bringing a new twist to film comedy. 

Though he only made five of them, Lloyd is still best remembered for what he called his “thrill pictures.” One day, while walking in downtown Los Angeles, he saw a “human fly,” a man climbing a skyscraper as part of a promotional event. Though the thought of seeing the man fall to his death was horrifying, Lloyd couldn’t take his eyes off him. This led to the most famous of all Lloyd films, Safety Last, in which the Lloyd character climbs the face of a building as a promotion for the department store in which he works as a clerk. The climax of the scene finds Lloyd dangling from the face of a clock hundreds of feet above Los Angeles. 

Lloyd milked the situation for all it was worth, placing his camera above and to the left of the character so that the street below was always in view, never letting the audience forget the danger. While the gags along the way are not all unique—some, like the mouse in the pant leg, were already clichés at the time—Lloyd was using them in a new context, using fear and suspense to augment the comedy.  

You can see the hard work involved; Lloyd is consciously and deliberately exploiting every facet of the situation. This is not an inspired bit of comedy from an intuitive master, but it is well-crafted filmmaking of a high order. 

What often distinguished the better comedians was their ability to slow the pace of their films and develop their characters with more thoughtful comedy. In fact, some of Lloyd’s most accomplished work are these quieter moments, where he demonstrates the confidence and skill to dispense with the rapid-fire editing, stunts and chase scenes and simply holds the camera motionless, using long takes that allow both he and his co-stars to display their comedic talents. 

Again, For Heaven’s Sake provides an excellent example. In one scene, Lloyd, playing a dandified millionaire playboy, is sitting beside a down-and-out thug. In one continuous take, the two men slowly begin to notice the odor of perfume, each suspecting the other as the source.  

Lloyd draws the scene out, holding the camera perfectly still while each man’s face tells the story, slowly registering the presence of the odor, looking quizzically about the room, and then gradually settling upon each other and setting up the payoff as the two men silently evaluate each other. 

Another scene simply conveys Harold’s growing affection for the priest’s daughter. As she takes him on a tour of the mission, gesturing at various points of interest, Harold literally can’t take his eyes off her. He sees nothing of the mission; he only sees her. The camera follows them around the room, weaving between chairs and tables, capturing the mad whirl of romance. 

It is in these scenes, with the Everyman in everyday situations, that Lloyd is at his best. Here the years of work, study and determination pay off beautifully with simple, genuine scenes from which Lloyd draws simple, genuine comedy. 

Like the characters he portrayed, Lloyd reached the top through hard work and perseverance. A reevaluation of his work is long overdue, and hopefully the rediscovery of these films will cement his place as one of the preeminent talents in all of silent film, and one of the most accomplished comedic directors in film history. He deserves that much. He earned it. 

Harold Lloys at PFA: 

Safety Last 

3 p.m., Sunday July 17 

The Freshman 

3 p.m., Sunday July 24 

Welcome Danger 

3 p.m., Sunday July 31 

Accompanied on piano by Jon Mirsalis 

For Heaven’s Sake 

3 p.m., Sunday Aug. 7 

San Francisco’s Castro Theater will screen 13 Lloyd features and five short films Aug. 19-25.  

www.castrotheatre.com.

FRIDAY, JULY 15 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “A Murder is Announced” by Agatha Christie at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman. Runs Fri. and Sat. through Aug. 13. Tickets are $10. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theatre “The Thousandth Night” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. 2 and 7 p.m., through July 31, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $36. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

“The Domestic Crusaders” the story of a Muslim family in the aftermath of 9/11, at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $20-$35. www.domesticcrusaders.com 

Central Works, “The Grand Inquisitor” by Dostoevsky. Thurs - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through July 31. Tickets are $9-$25 sliding scale. 558-1381. www.centralworks.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “Anything Goes” Cole Porter’s musical, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through Aug. 13 at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

“Livin’ Fat” a comedy about an African American family struggling over a financial blessing, Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m., through July 30, at Sweets Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $12.50-$35. 233-9222. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Lightning From Above” The Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival at 8 p.m. at 1260 7th St., Oakland. Tickets are $25. 444-0919. www.thecrucible.org 

ACCI Gallery, “2005 New Member Show” opens at 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

Eddie Two Moons, Apache Jeweler Reception at 7 p.m. at Gathering Tribes Gallery, 1573 Solano Ave. Exhibit open Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 528-9038.  

FILM 

For Your Eyes Only “Spies” at 7:30 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. With Jon Mirsalis on piano. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Lisa Houston, mezzo-soprano, with Daniel Lockert, piano and Leland Morine, baritone in a benefit concert for Options Recovery Services, at 8 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Suggested donation $30. 666-9900. www.optionsrecovery.org 

Santero at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Stomp the Stumps Benefit for the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters with Gary Gates Band, Funky Nixons and Day Late Fools’ Band at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffman, Eric Swinderman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Jill Knight with Deborah Levoy at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Vince Lateano/Satoru Oda Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Brenda Weiler, folk/rock singer-songwriter, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. All ages. Cost is $5-$10. www.epicarts.org 

The Next Generation, Emerging Artists Concert Series at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Lae with Ranch Hound Brown at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$8. 548-1159.  

Battletorn, Gunsfire Mayhem, P.D.A. at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Pete Escovedo & His Orchestra at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, JULY 16 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Magma From Within” The Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival at 8 p.m. at 1260 7th St., Oakland. Tickets are $25. 444-0919. www.thecrucible.org 

THEATER 

Woman’s Will, “Richard III” Sat. and Sun. at 1 p.m. in John Hinkle Park. Free. 420-0813. www.woman’s will.org 

FILM 

Pre-Code Hollywood “Bombshell” at 7 p.m. and “Red Headed Woman” at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Grace Grafton & James Downs at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Meistersinger” at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $10-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Rebbesoul Hebrew roots at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Hideo Date, Robin Gregory at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Kurt Ribak Trio at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

Odori Simcha with Neal Cronin at 7 p.m. at Temescal Cafe, 4920 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Donation $5. 

Mariospeedwagon & Lemon Juju at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Hip Bones, jazz grooves, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

Loose Wig Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

Frank Fotusky and Steve Mann at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. www.epicarts.org 

Phil Kellogg at 7 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Judith and Holornes, The Rise & Fall of Amy Rude at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Thought Riot, Love Equals Death, Daggermouth at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JULY 17 

CHILDREN 

Explore Geometric Shapes and Sculpture from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts., Oakland. Cost is $8 adults, $5 seniors and students with i.d. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Berkeley Art Center National Juried Exhibition and Awards Reception at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Thirty Something” Anniversary celebration and exhibition honoring Berkeley’s Kala Art Institute and Archana Horsting and Yuzo Nakano at 5:30 p.m. at Greens Restaurant, Fort Mason, SF. Tickets are $150. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

“On University Land in the Berkeley Hills” nature photographs by Sharon Beals. Reception at 4 p.m. at The Faculty Club, UC Campus. Hosted by the Claremont Canyon Conservancy. 

THEATER 

Sun & Moon Ensemble “Krishan and Radha” with performers and musicians from India at 4 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for children. 925-798-1300.  

FILM 

Harold Lloyd “Safety Last” at 3 p.m. and Pre-Code Hollywood “I’m No Angel” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Free Speech Movement Poetry Festival, featuring Jack Hirschman, Paul Sawyer and others, from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. 528-5403. 

Poetry Flash with Dale Jensen & Judy Wells at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

Sculptor Bruce Beasley, Artist’s Gallery Talk at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts., Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Midsummer Mozart “Paris” Symphony at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $28-$48. 415-627-9145.  

The Berkeley Saxophone Quartet at 4 p.m. at the San Francisco Community Music Center, 544 Capp St., S.F. Cost is $5-$10. 415-647-6015. berkeleysaxophonequartet.com 

Jack Gates Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Ace of Spades Acoustic Series at 1 p.m. at MamaBuzz Cafe, 2318 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Free. All ages. 289-2272. 

Americana Unplugged: Redwing Bluegrass Band at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Danzaq, Peruvian dance, at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568.  

The Strings Quartet Project at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. 

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

Mental, Justice at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, JULY 18 

THEATER 

Naked Masks “Amnesiac” at 8 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Free. 883-9872. www.nakedmasks.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“John Serl: Recent Acquisitions” opens at The Ames Gallery, 2661 Cedar St. and runs through Sept. 17. Gallery hours are 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 845-4949. www.amesgallery.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Express with Jeanne Lupton, Janell Moon, Donna Lane & Trena Machado at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

Susan Linn on “Consumer Culture: The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

John Ellis Quartet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 20 

FILM 

For Your Eyes Only “Darling Lili” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

Arab Women Film Festival “Wild Flowers: Women of the South” at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Latin American Working Class Film Fest with three short films from Mexico and Argentina at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donations of $5 accepted. 415-642-8066. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rebecca Solnit discusses “A Field Guide to Getting Lost” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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 hosted by Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Meistersinger” at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $10-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Curtis Woodman Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Balkan Folkdancing at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lessons at 7 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

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

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

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

Bryan Girard Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

Palenque at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $8-$12. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, JULY 21 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Wholly Grace” works by Susan Duhan Felix. Reception at 4 p.m. at the Badé Museum, 1798 Scenic Ave. 848-0528. 

Residency Projects by Kala Fellowship artists. Reception at 6 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibit runs to Sept. 3. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

FILM 

Pre-Code Hollywood “Skyscraper Souls” at 7:30 p.m. and “Lady Killers” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Betsy Burton reads from “The King’s English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller” at 7 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Margot Pepper, journalist, reads from “Through the Wall: A Year in Havana” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. Sponsored by Global Exchange. 415-575-5534. 

Mark O’Connell introduces “The Good Father: On Men, Masculinity, and Life in the Family” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Word Beat Reading Series with Steve Arntson & Christopher Robin at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert with the David Thom Band at the Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza. Sponsored by the DBA. 

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

Richard Kalman & Con Alma Vocal Jazz Septet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

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

Pete Madsen at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Peter Barshay/Rich Kuhns Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Bobby Watson & Horizon at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $14-$20. 238-9200.  

FRIDAY, JULY 22 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “A Murder is Announced” at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman. Runs Fri. and Sat. through Aug. 13. Tickets are $10. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theatre “The Thousandth Night” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. 2 and 7 p.m., through July 31, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $36. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Central Works, “The Grand Inquisitor” by Dostoevsky. Thurs - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through July 31. Tickets are $9-$25 sliding scale. 558-1381. www.centralworks.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “Anything Goes” Cole Porter’s musical, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through Aug. 13 at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

“Livin’ Fat” a comedy about an African American family struggling over a financial blessing, Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m., through July 30, at Sweets Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $12.50-$35. 233-9222. 

FILM 

Pre-Code Hollywood “The Spy in Black” and “Q Planes” at 9:10 p.m. at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Paul Buhle describes “Wobblies! A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Meistersinger” at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $10-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Jazzschool Summer Youth Concert at 6:30 p.m. at the Jazz 

school. Free. 845-5373.  

Hungarian and Night Music with tango lessons at 7 p.m. at the Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Benefits the Latin American Music Scholarship Fund. Cost is $12-$15. www.berkeleymusiccooperative.com  

Caimalantin Latin Jazz Quartet at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Terry Rodriguez, Buford Powers Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Free Peoples, bluegrass/jazz at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Andrew McKnight at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. www.epicarts.org 

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

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

Sara Leib Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Echo Beach, jazz, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Penelope Houston, Moore Brothers, Willow Willow at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Bafabegiya, Disconnect, The Sweethearts at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Radical Politics and Folk Music with David Rice, Robert Temple and Folk This! at 7 p.m. at AK Press, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. Cost is $5. 208-1700.  

Beenie Man at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. 548-1159.  

Du Uy Quintet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Bobby Watson & Horizon at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $14-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

?

An old reprobate, a heavy-drinking veteran of many barroom brawls, once told me why he favored knives over guns when he needed to get out of a tight spot. Anyone who knows how to use knives, he said, knows that you can always put your thumb half-way up the blade, so you can just stick the guy, not kill him by accident. 

This story always comes to mind when we hear about yet another person dying on our city streets. There was such a tragedy on a corner near the UC campus on Sunday morning. One of Berkeley’s golden children, a young woman full of joy and promise, was killed while she was out for an evening with her girlfriends. As of this writing the killer has not been identified, nor is his motive understood. What is known, however, is that he used a gun, from some distance away.  

Anger, jealousy, greed, revenge—the motivations for quarrels among human beings haven’t changed since biblical times. But what’s different in the United States in the third millennium is the ease with which emotion translates into death. Only guns can kill swiftly, anonymously, at a distance. And here, now, guns are easily purchased, ready to wreak havoc in a single unguarded moment. The impulse which could give rise to a slap or a punch is quickly fatal—no time for reflection, no time to pull back as you could with a knife. 

There’s a new counter-trend among some leftists which says that gun control is not a winning issue these days, so it should be downplayed. Winning back red-staters, some say, means not challenging their right, indeed their need, to strap those rifles onto their pickups (forgetting the children in rural areas who have turned these guns on each other).  

Women who fear being victims imagine that possession of firearms will make them safe. And urbanites whose lives are controlled by their fears believe that guns in their homes will protect them, oblivious of the statistics that say that guns in homes are most often used against family and friends, not strangers.  

There are tactical discussions about tradeoffs in the political area—let’s ban Saturday night specials, not shotguns, gun shows, not gun dealers. But the central inescapable fact about guns, all guns, is that they make it possible, indeed easy, for humans to kill other humans on a whim, without reflection, with no chance to say no to anger. Death can be dealt from a distance, so that the person pulling the trigger does not even have to touch the victim. Guns provide an all-to-easy way for humans to dodge the checks and balances inserted by evolution and culture between our murderous tendencies and our actions. 

For the determined murderer, there are plenty of tools available without the need for guns. Humans in the 20th century engaged in mass slaughter of other humans with machetes, gas chambers, explosives, as well as with guns. But for the impulse killer, the ready availability of guns is the lynchpin which changes a quarrel into a tragedy, often for both shooter and victim. When they find the young man who was seen to have fired the shot which killed our Berkeley child at the corner of Dwight and College on Sunday morning—and they will find him—chances are that he also will prove to be someone’s beloved boy, born into high hopes and expectations, brought down because a gun in his hand turned him into a quick and easy killer. Without that gun he might have paused and changed his mind, and Meleia Willis-Starbuck would still be alive. Instead, today Berkeley mourns her. 

e

Judy Miller is one disgusting poster child for freedom of the press. We can all agree on that, can’t we? She was the pipeline for the administration’s totally bogus claims that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But on the other hand, nobody thinks that it’s right to jail a reporter who merely received—didn’t even print—a leak from a presumably highly placed source which amounted to the disclosure of the identity of a CIA employee. Can we agree on that?  

The leak itself might or might not have been a crime. (There is some suggestion that at the time of the leak Valerie Plame wasn’t working as the kind of covert operative protected by the anti-disclosure law.) But even so, no reason to send Miller to jail.  

Not every one agrees, it turns out. Andrew O’Hehir (Local Boy Made Good—Berkeley High Jacket Editor, 1979-80) has been presiding over a hot debate on the topic at Salon.com. He’s shocked by how many readers have been ready to throw Miller to the wolves because of her past sins. Some of our own correspondents are in that camp. Here’s why Andrew thinks the leftist public wants to see Miller and most other journalists hanged, First Amendment be damned: 

“Media insiders have become so obsessed by their own internal debates and so mesmerized by their own pseudo-professional codes of conduct that they’ve failed to notice how badly they’ve lost the public trust. The Times’ near-sanctification of Miller upon her imprisonment is a perfect case in point.” 

He’s got the right diagnosis, and now the question is, what’s the cure? 

I’ve spent my life blithely jumping back and forth over the line between insider and outsider, so I can see both internal and external perspectives. I love that “pseudo-professional”—many times “journalism ethics” are right up there with “real estate ethics” in the oxymoronic competition. The much-vaunted concept of objectivity in journalism was invented in the 1920s as a way of placating American advertisers, who were timid about supporting the lusty journals of opinion which before then dominated the American press, and which still comprise the European press. But Americans grew accustomed to wanting their media, especially their newspapers, to be perceived to be as truthful as the Baltimore Catechism, which was the gold standard of information in the Catholic schools of my childhood.  

Catechisms aren’t what they once were, and neither are newspapers. Public trust might still be a good goal, but how to achieve it? 

One way, which we’re experimenting with here, is to move closer to the European model of many competing opinionated voices, not just in the opinion ghetto but mixed into the news pages, signed of course. That’s why we have our Public Eye columns, written by self-confessed participants in the news-making process. But our public still wants to read a certain amount of “professional” news written by staff reporters. As one of the people around here with red pencils, I try to enforce a few rules to make the hard-news pages as neutral as possible. 

First and foremost, no ethereal attributions. That is to say, no “officials say” or “studies show.” We don’t always catch all of those, but we try.  

Similarly, no unsigned stories, even briefs, which differs from the practice at many papers. 

Third, no un-named sources unless it’s a very crucial story which we have absolutely no other way of reporting, and then the reporter in question must have an explicit clear agreement with the source about how far to go to protect his or her identity. There are very few stories worth going to jail for—we haven’t found one in two years.  

Number four, it’s not “both sides,” it’s “many voices.” Of course there should never be a story that has only one source, but even two sources will often neglect to provide key aspects of an important story. And reporters who get information only from one un-named source have a particularly high probability of being spun as Miller was, twice. 

Finally, no conclusory reporting of one point of view in a controversy as if it were fact: “Because the downtown plan prohibits buildings over five stories…” That’s a hard one to police, because after a reporter hears claims by various parties enough times some of them begin to sound true. And of course, they might be true, but it’s not the job of a news reporter to make the call in the context of a news story.  

Will simple rules like these restore the public trust? Or at least protect the press from the embarrassments of the last few years of the Jayson Blair and Judith Miller variety? Maybe. Another good word in O’Hehir’s comment is “sanctification.” The pedestals on which certain segments of the American press have placed themselves since Deep Throat provide a long way to fall when a mistake is made.  

Oh, and this just in, as I’m finishing up this piece. Our advertising salesman tells me that the City of Berkeley is transferring its announcement advertising from the Berkeley Daily Planet to the trash tabloid East Bay Daily News, just launched here by the national Knight-Ridder corporation (also the owner of the San Jose Mercury, the Contra Costa Times and the Berkeley Voice.) The person he’s been talking to at City Hall told him that she thinks this switch is because some people there don’t like the Planet’s editorial content. (If anyone tries to go after her for revealing this, I’m personally willing to go to jail to protect her job, if her union can’t.)  

Lest we forget, the best way to regain public trust, but also to lose some advertisers, is to tell the truth. 

—

FRIDAY, JULY 15 

“Eyewitness in Iraq” with Sheila Provencher, an American who has spent the last year and a half in Iraq doing humanitarian work, at 1:30 p.m., Fireside Room, Starr King School for the Ministry, GTU. 928-4901. 

Celebration in Opera and Song for Options Recovery Services with Lisa Houston, mezzo-soprano, Daniel Lockert, piano and Leland Morine, baritone at 8 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Suggested donation $30. 666-9900. www.optionsrecovery.org 

Contientious Projector Film Series will show “Beyond Treason” at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Unitraian Universalist Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. 528-5403. 

Harry Potter Midnight Costume Party to celebrate the release of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” at 12:01 a.m. (Sat.) at Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Harry Potter Book Release Party at 8 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, Bay Street, Emeryville. Crafts, trivia contest. Come dressed as your favorite character. Book will not be released until 12:01 a.m on the 16th. 655-4002. 

Thinking of Becoming a Doula? at 2 p.m. at Change Makers, 6536 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Free. 728-8513. 

Salsa Dancing at “The Beat” Dance Studio at 8:30 p.m. Lessons with Joseph Gallardo. 2560 9th St. at Parker. 472-2393 www.wildsalsanights.com 

Berkeley Chess Club 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 noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 548-6310. 

SATURDAY, JULY 16 

Harvesting for the Hungry Do you have fruit trees? Village Harvest and Spiral Gardens are teaming together to harvest backyard fruit trees for the hungry. If you live in the Berkeley area, have a large amount of fruit and are unable to harvest it yourself, call 888-FRUIT-411, joni@villageharvest.org www.villageharvest.org 

Fix Our Ferals Fundraiser at 4 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church, One Lawson Road, Kensington. Silent auction, food and wine. Cost is $35. www.fixourferals.org 

Edible and Medicinal Plant Walk with Terri Compost at 1 p.m. in People’s Park. Meet at the west end. 658-9178. 

Children’s Zoo Grand Opening at the Oakland Zoo, with interactive experiences, and exhibits of lemurs, giant fruit bats, otters, reptiles and more. 632-9525. www.oaklandzoo.org 

SASSAFRAS Shotgun’s Annual Splendalicious Silent Auction Family Reunion and Soiree with performances and hors d’oeuvres at 7 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Cost is sliding scale $20-$100. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

SpiritWalking at the Berkeley Warm Pool Ability to walk on land not necessary. Sat. from 10 to 11 a.m., to Aug. 11. Cost is $3.50 seniors/disabled, $5.50 others. Bring a towel and deck shoes. 526-0312. well-being@pacbell.net 

Remodeling Workshop covering design options, working with professionals, permits and zoning, budgeting and scheduling and more. From 9 a.m. to noon at Truitt and White Conference Center, 1817 Second St. Free with advance registration. 558-8030. www.macbuild.com 

Planting for Shade Learn how to plant a woodland garden or a shady tropical garden, at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Biodiesel Car Show sponsored by Berkeley Biodiesel from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Crissy Field, Mason St. in the Presidio, SF. 594-4000, ext. 777. www.berkeleybiodiesel.org 

Connecting Through Dance for the Visually Impaired A celebration and fundraiser with silent auction, dance demonstrations, and open floor for dancing and free dessert bar. From 7 to 11 p.m. at Lake Merritt Dance Center, 200 Grand Ave. at Harrison, Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. 501-4713. www.connectingthroughdance.org 

Oakland Outdoor Cinema “West Side Story” with an introduction by Rita Moreno, at 8 p.m. on Washington St. between 9th and 10th Sts. Limited seating, bring chairs and blankets. 238-4734. www.filmoakland.com 

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

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Historical and Botanical Tour of Chapel of the Chimes, a Julia Morgan landmark, at 10 a.m. at 4499 Piedmont Ave. at Pleasant Valley. Reservations required 228-3207.  

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of the F. M. “Borax” Smith Estate. Cost is $5-$10. For details call 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Loose Leash Walking for Your Dog at noon at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Cost is $35. Registration required. 525-6155. 

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, JULY 17 

Bay to Barkers Berkeley’s biggest dog walk and festival from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cesar Chavez Park in the Berkeley Marina. Registration is $25-$30. Proceeds benefit the Berkeley East-Bay Humane Society. www.berkeleyhumane.org 

Rock N Roll at Wildcat Creek for ages six and up to explore a river-bed, gather stones, and learn how the land was shaped. Meet at 10:30 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Summer Pond Plunge With dip-nets and magnifiers we’ll discover the denizens of the deep. For ages four and up. Meet at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Bike Tour of Oakland A leisurely-paced tour covering the history of Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. at the 10th St. entrance of the Oakland Museum of California. Registration required, 238-3514. 

Oakland Street Peace Festival from noon to 5 p.m. at Lakeside Park at Lake Merritt. Music, performances and speakers. For details see www.sourceoflight.com/streetpeace.html 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Montclair Village. Cost is $5-$10. For details call 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Free Speech Movement Poetry Festival, featuring Jack Hirschman, Paul Sawyer and others, from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. 528-5403. 

Community Arts Awareness Workshops and Networking Bazaar, from 3 to 9 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Afternoon workshops are free, donations of $20 and up for the evening program. Sponsored by the Truss Project. 689-6771. www.trussproject.org 

Hands-On Bicycle Clinic from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

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

Children’s Film Series “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” at 11 a.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $5. www.juliamorgan.org 

Social Action Forum “Stand Against Domestic Violence” a video, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

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 

“Science and Religion: Issues For the 21st Century” with Dr. Robert Russell at 11:30 a.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. 

MONDAY, JULY 18 

“Uncluttering Your Life” with Jill Lebeau and Stephanie Barbic at 7 p.m. at the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512. www.ccclib.org  

Nature Writing Gathering Celebrate the literature of nature at 7 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, 161 41st St. 547-4082. 

Spanish Book Club, led by Ricardo Antonio Navarette meets at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books, Telegraph Ave. For title of book to be discussed see www.codysbooks.com 

Sisters of Song A week-long workshop for emerging poets, led by Yosefa Raz. Open to girls between the ages of 13-19. Mon. - Fri. from 9 to 11:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center. 848-0237, ext. 130. karenc@brjcc.org 

Stress Less with Hypnosis A free seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 465-2524. 

TUESDAY, JULY 19 

Peach Tasting plus other stone fruits, from 2 to 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Derby St. at MLK, Jr. Way. Cooking demonstration at 11:30 a.m. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

“Creating a Non-Violent Peaceforce” with Mel Duncan at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. Donation $5 and up. 533-4732. 

Community Family Dance from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Live Oak Park Recreation Center, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5 per peron or $10 per family. Sponsored by the Berkeley Folk Dancers. 841-1205. 

Healthy Eating Habits and Hypnosis A free seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 465-2524. 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss “Craig’s List: Has it Changed Your LIfe?” from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Please bring snacks and soft drinks to share. No peanuts please. 601-6690.  

Magic Show with Norman Ng at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

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. 524-9992. 

Parenting Class: Living with Ones and Twos, with Meg Zeiback, nurse practitioner at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Registration required. 658-7353.  

Fast-Packing An evening with GoLite founder Demetri Coupounas at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

“A Fat Nation in a Thin World” video and discussion at 1 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

“Pain Relief through Guided Visualization” with Clinical Hypnotherapist Jerry Ziegler at the Berkeley Fibromyalgia Support and Education Group at noon at Alta Bates Herrick Campus, 2001 Dwight Way. 644-3273. 

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. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Buddhist Meditation Class at 7 p.m. at The Dzalandhara Buddhist Center. Cost is $7-$10. For directions and details please call 559-8183. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. At 11 a.m. Laurabeth Nelson will talk about the Asian Art Museum’s exhibit “Tibet Rooftop of the World.” 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 20 

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock will speak at the Current Events class at 1 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave., Albany. All interested community members are invited to attend this discussion on the Campus Bay toxic cleanup, Clean Money campaign, urban casinos and other local issues of interest. 524-9122. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland “New Era/New Politics” highlights African-American leaders who have made their mark on Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. at the African American Museum and Library at 659 14th St. 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Latin American Working Class Film Fest with three short films from Mexico and Argentina at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donations of $5 accepted. 415-642-8066. 

Arab Women Film Festival “Wild Flowers: Women of the South” at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“How do Independents Affect the Political Landscape?” with Harriet Hoffman of the Committee for an Independent Voice at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

“Fellowships and Grants for Writers” A panel discussion sponsored by the American Society of Journalists and Authors at 6 p.m. at India Palace, 2160 University Ave., upstairs banquet room. Cost is $5-$10. Please RSVP to 530-6699. laird_harrison@hotmail.com 

Insects for Kids A free class for children ages 5-10, at 9 a.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. www.barringtoncollective.org 

Parenting Class: Potty Training with Meg Zeiback, nurse practitioner at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Registration required. 658-7353.  

JumpStart Entrepreneurs share information at 8 a.m. at A’Cuppa Tea, 3202 College Ave. at Alcatraz. Cost is $5. 541-9901. 

“Don’t be Six Feet Under Without a Plan” Learn more about creating a Living Will, Powers of Attorney, and making final arrangements at 6 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Oakland. 562-9431. 

American Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Albany YMCA, 921 Kains Ave. To make an appointment call 1-800-448-3543. www.BeADonor.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. 

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. 548-9840. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Action St. 841-2174.  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JULY 21 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters welcomes curious guests & new members. Meets at 7:15 a.m. at Au Coquelet Cafe, 2000 University Ave. at Milva. 435-5863. 

LeConte Neighborhood Association meets at 7:30 p.m. at the LeConte School. Agenda items will include the Berkeley City/UC Agreement, Proposed Changes in the City’s Preservation Ordinance and Traffic Circle Garden guidelines. No meeting in August. The next meeting will be on September 15. For more information call 843-2602.  

Quit Smoking Class meets for six Thurs. evenings from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. To register call 981-5330. quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Parenting Class: Sleep for new and expecting parents at 10 a.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Registration required. 658-7353.  

Parenting Class: Choosing a Preschool at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Registration required. 658-7353.  

World of Plants Tours Thurs.-Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Bot 

anical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $1-$5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

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. 981-5150, 981-5153. 

Free Lunches for Berkeley Children beginning June 20, Mon.-Fri., 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Frances Albrier Center, James Kenney Center, MLK, Jr. Youth Services Center, Strawberry Creek, Washington School and Rosa Parks School. 981-5146. 

Albany Summer Youth Programs including basketball, classes, bike trips and family activities. For information see www.albanyca.org/dept/rec.html 

Bay Area Shakespeare Camp for ages 7 to 13, two week sessions through Aug., at John Hinkle Park. Cost is $395, with scholarships available. 415-422-2222. www.sfshakes.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon. July 18 at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

City Council meets Tues., July 19, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed. July 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Aging meets Wed. July 20, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. William Rogers, 981-5344. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed. July 20, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Kristen Lee, 981-5427. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/welfare 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., July 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/designreview  

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., July 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., July 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/transportation