A surreptitious stalker slashed the robust rodent outside Berkeley Honda at high noon Thursday, briefly deflating the colorful symbol of striking union members. 

The incident followed by one day the presentation by dealership management of what they dubbed their “last and best offer” to solve the long running labor dispute. 

Union officials scoffed at the offer. 

Members of East Bay Automotive Machinists Lodge Local 1546 have been picketing the dealership since new owners purchased the dealership on June 1 and voided the existing contract signed when the dealership was owned by Jim Doten. 

Teamster Jim O’Hara, who has been walking the picket line, said he had momentarily left the rat moments after noon Thursday to talk to colleague Dave Allen, who was picketing near the dealerships shop entrance. 

The two soon observed with alarm that the $3,000 rat had started to keel over. 

“At first, we thought maybe the generator had died,” O’Hara said. 

But the generator—which is made by Honda—was still quietly chugging away. 

On lifting up the sadly supine rodent, they discovered three long knife slashes in the critter’s belly, and O’Hara grabbed his camera to document the incident as his colleague called police. 

Mike Cook came out from union headquarters with a repair kit, and in less than three hours the rodent was inflated anew and presiding once again over the southwest corner of the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Parker Street. 

“People have developed a lot of affection for the rat,” Parker said. “I’ve seen parents bring their children by and lift them up so they can shake his hands. There were even carolers singing around him at Christmas.” 

The rodent was still in Christmas garb Thursday, wearing a Santa hat atop his furry little head and had a string of lights around his neck. 

Pickets were out in force by Thursday evening, beseeching would-be buyers and shop customers to hear them out before patronizing the dealership. 

When the new owners, headed by Stephen Beinke, a Danville businessman, took over in June, they made all employees reapply for their jobs. Ten of the union’s repair shop workers were rehired but 12 were dismissed, triggering the walkout. 

The key sticking point is the company’s pension proposal, which rejects the union’s demand that the dealership offer workers the union’s own pension plan. 

A publicly-financed election reform concept introduced two years ago to Berkeley voters by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates—and soundly rejected by those voters in the 2004 election—has been reintroduced in the state Legislature by Assemblymember Loni Hancock, with Hancock’s chief of staff saying that “the time is now right” for the issue. 

Hancock’s office is planning a town hall meeting on SB 583 Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Oakland City Council Chambers at Oakland City Hall. A vote on the measure is scheduled in the Assembly Elections and Reapportionment Committee on Tuesday. 

If passed by the legislature and signed by the governor, Hancock’s bill would provide public money for qualifying candidates for state office, both in primaries and in general elections, from $150,000 for assembly candidates in a party primary up to $10 million for gubernatorial candidates in a general election. 

To qualify for the public money, candidates would have to demonstrate that they are “serious” by getting a combination of petition signatures and campaign contributions in small amounts, and would have to agree not to receive any outside contributions once the public contributions kick in. 

Susan King, a spokesperson for the California Green Party, said that “clean money” laws such as that introduced by Hancock “don’t necessarily minimize corporate donations to election campaigns, but help to equalize those contributions.” 

California Green Party Press Secretary Cres Vellucci said that his organization originally opposed Hancock’s bill when it was introduced last year “because it discriminated against small parties.” 

At a Green Party conference at Laney Conference last year, participants complained that some “clean money” laws set qualifying thresholds in such a way that only major party candidates—Democrats or Republicans—could participate. But Vellucci said that it was his understanding that changes have been made to the legislation since then, “but we have not yet taken a position on the amended bill.” 

The provisions of Hancock’s bill are similar to those introduced to Berkeley voters under Measure H by Berkeley Mayor Bates in November of 2004. That measure only won the support of 41 percent of Berkeley voters. Hancock is married to Bates. 

But with concerns over what he called the “massive amounts of campaign contribution money” spent in last November’s California elections as well as the recent guilty plea of “super-lobbyist” Jack Abramoff, Hancock Chief of Staff Hans Hemann said he hopes that the political tide has turned in the state, and the Assemblymember’s bill will have a better chance of passage. 

“There are a lot of other possible election campaign finance reforms, such as mandating disclosure of campaign contributions,” Hemann said. “But the only real way to reform the electoral system is to get the special interest money out. We need to get at the root of the evil.” 

Hancock’s bill would provide a “clean money” campaign alternative in California similar to that in Arizona, where such a system has been in place since a voter initiative was passed in 1998. 

The nonprofit, nonpartisan Clean Elections Institute of Arizona reported that more than half of the candidates ran with only “clean money” in that state’s primary and general elections last year, with 68 percent of the minority candidates in the primary running a “clean money” campaign. The organization reported that results by “clean money” and traditionally-financed candidates were similar, with 76 percent of the “clean money” and 74 percent of the traditionally-financed candidates winning in the primary, and 55 percent of the “clean money” and 66 percent of the traditionally-financed candidates winning in the general election. 

“Clean money” legislative office winners have jumped significantly in the last two years in Arizona, with 47 percent of the legislators winning with “clean money” in 2004, up 11 percentage points from 2002. 

Green Party spokesperson King said that while she had not yet seen the details of Hancock’s bill, “the Green Party firmly endorses the clean money campaign. Corporate donations are one of the biggest problems with elections. We feel that the public financing mechanism is the best way to ensure that grassroots citizens can run credible campaigns.” 

But King said the Green Party did not think campaign reform should end with the institution of “clean money.” 

“It’s a good start,” she said. “In the electoral reform arena, it’s the lower-hanging fruit. It gives grassroots candidates a leg up.” 

But King said that the Green Party would eventually like to see “a wide range” of electoral reforms in the state, including statewide Instant Runoff Voting, and “setting up at-large, proportional representation legislative districts that would be more representative of citizens’ interests than the present single seat winner-take-all system.” 

King also said that “real campaign finance reform must ultimately get corporate influence completely out of the electoral arena. That’s the big issue.” 

Hancock’s Saturday town hall forum at the Oakland City Hall council chambers will include presentations by Arizona State Representative Leah Landrum Taylor and California Clean Money Campaign Executive Director Susan Lerner. 

Hancock staff member Taina Gomez, who is coordinating the town hall, said that time will be set aside for public testimony as well. 

“The town hall has a dual purpose,” she said, “both to get information from the public on their concerns about this issue, as well as to make the community aware and get them motivated. Hopefully people will contact their respective legislators, regardless of what happens with the committee vote on Tuesday.”›

January 

Mayor Tom Bates slammed UC Berkeley’s revised Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) and warned that Berkeley would likely resort to a lawsuit if the plan didn’t detail specific projects or exact locations where the university intends to build over the next 15 years. 

A six-month progress report released by the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) on the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) said that the district “continues to make good progress in five operational areas” of education management. 

While BUSD awaited a decision by the Berkeley City Council on whether or not the city will close down a block of Derby Street to build a regulation-size baseball field for the high school, a district-contracted architectural firm moved forward to develop proposals for temporary use of the district-owned property adjoining Berkeley Alternative High School. 

February 

BUSD’s superintendent and board directors blasted Gov. Arnold Schwarz- 

enegger’s education budget cuts, calling on constituents to write protest letters to the governor and legislators, and promising further action. 

The Berkeley Federation of Teachers Union announced what amounted to a work slow-down in response to the district’s latest contract proposal. 

According to a warning by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), all four colleges of the Peralta Community College District were notified that they were in danger of losing their accreditation if deficiencies were not corrected within two years. 

Berkeley filed suit against UC Berkeley, charging that the university’s LRDP violated state law. 

March 

A group of six Oakland residents were arrested in the offices of Randolph Ward, the state school administrator, after demanding a meeting with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell over plans to close adult education in the Oakland Unified School District. 

A deeply-divided BUSD Board of Directors killed a proposal to consider a baseball field for its Derby Street properties. 

BUSD was put on a list of 150 California school districts needing “program improvement.” 

Six months after a hacker broke into a UC Berkeley research computer containing the names and Social Security numbers of more than 600,000 health care workers and patients, the university reported the theft of a laptop containing personal information of nearly 100,000 graduate students. 

April 

Environmental activists and North Berkeley residents told Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory officials to leave intact the unused Bevatron building, which is full of toxic and low-level nuclear wastes, on its present four-acre site atop the Hayward Fault in the Berkeley hills. 

Berkeley teachers took their increasingly rancorous contract dispute back to the BUSD board meeting, filling the Old City Hall Council chambers with union members and supporters chanting “Fair Contract Now!” Teachers began the work slowdown. 

As if ongoing budget and contract problems and the task of hiring 60 new teachers were not enough, BUSD reported that it had to replace five of its 16 school principals and the district director of food services by the end of the summer. 

UC service workers from the system’s nine campuses, five medical facilities and the Lawrence Berkeley Labs held a one-day strike to protest what they said was UC’s disrespect for their jobs and its refusal to bargain in good faith for a new contract. 

UC and the union representing its 7,300 low-wage service workers announced that they had come to a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract after almost 10 months of negotiations. 

Vista College President Judy Walters gave Peralta Community College District Trustees a power-point view of what the college’s new Center Street campus will look like when it opens next fall. 

May 

Berkeley City Council voted to settle the city’s lawsuit against the university under a secret deal brokered between Mayor Tom Bates and UC Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. 

BUSD reached contract agreements with its teachers, bus drivers, custodians, instructional assistants and office workers. 

June 

With students leading the way, 57 percent of Berkeley Unified’s Jefferson Elementary School community voted to change the name of the school to Sequoia Elementary. Later, the BUSD board voted 3-2 to deny the name change. 

BUSD notified families that it had reached a settlement in a 2004 class action suit filed on behalf of three minority Berkeley students who claimed that their education at Berkeley High was disrupted by improper expulsions. 

July 

With UC Regents preparing to vote on proposed increases in professional degree fees, four UC professional degree students filed a class action lawsuit in San Francisco against the regents to prevent those increases. 

August 

The union representing the Peralta College District’s support workers charged that Peralta administrators were setting up a permanent category of “second-class workers” throughout the four-college district by reducing the number of hours temporary workers could work the week. 

Results of the newly released public school test reports showed that BUSD students continue to rank far above state testing scores in the California Standardized Test (STAR) in elementary school, but that advantage tended to evaporate as students entered the higher grades. 

BUSD projected that it would have $346,000 more for the school year than it anticipated when the 2005-06 budget was passed in June, but district officials cautioned that it was not quite time to open up the checkbook for more spending. 

September 

A group of Berkeley citizens filed a lawsuit against the City of Berkeley and several city officials in the California Superior Court in Oakland, asking the court to set aside the city’s settlement agreement with UC over its LRDP because it “contracted away the City Council’s right to independently exercise its police power in the future.” 

In its final six-month progress report on the Berkeley Unified School District, the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) praised the district for making what it called “good progress” in its operational areas, but said that the district “still faces significant fiscal challenges” and cautioned that BUSD “will need to remain vigilant to avoid fiscal insolvency.” 

BUSD got bad news and good news under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, with Rosa Parks Elementary entering the fifth year of low performance “program improvement” status, and John Muir Elementary winning national “Blue Ribbon” honors for program excellence. 

October 

In a sign of increased scrutiny over district operations that began last January when four new board members were elected, the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees announced the hiring of an inspector general to report directly to the board on district operations. 

November 

Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, toured Berkeley’s student-run Edible Garden at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School as part of a week-long tour of the United States, in part devoted to exploring environmental issues, such as organic farming. 

Members of the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees censured fellow trustee Marcie Hodge for “behavior that is out of compliance with the established Peralta Community College District policies” of “civility and mutual respect,” and accusing Hodge of “emotionally violent behavior.” Hodge later escalated her attacks against the district’s Office of International Affairs, with her sister hiring San Francisco Freedom of Information Act attorney Karl Olson to renew a request for an investigative report on the department. 

Labor and student activists held a series of on-campus demonstrations at the UC Berkeley coinciding with the two-day meeting of the UC Regents on the Clark Kerr campus. Regents voted to increase costs by as much as 10 percent and also voted to increase salaries of hundreds of top university administrators by about 3 percent. 

December 

UC Berkeley and UCLA professors called for an investigation into newspaper allegations of hidden university employee compensation practices. The Board of Regents later announced the creation of a permanent Regents’ committee on compensation, initiating an independent audit going back 10 years and releasing the names of business, government, media, and education community members of a task force previously recommended by UC President Robert Dynes to look into the compensation issue. 

Despite neighbor misgivings, UC Berkeley moved forward with plans for a major redevelopment of its Strawberry Creek area football stadium.

Planning commissioners will take a West Berkeley tour Saturday morning, looking at sites close to the freeway that could house car dealerships. 

The tour is the first step in Mayor Tom Bates’s proposal to open up former manufacturing and industrial sites for auto sales—a major source of sales tax revenues for a cash-hungry city. 

With dealerships eager to move from downtown to sites where they can draw freeway traffic, Bates has said he wants to give them the opening. But dealerships are currently barred from most of West Berkeley by zoning ordinances and a plan that reserves much of the area for industry and manufacturing. 

To pave the way for dealerships, the Planning Commission would have to draw up and pass amendments to the West Berkeley Plan and the accompanying zoning regulations—hence the tour as the first step. 

The day is scheduled to begin at 9:45 a.m. when participants—including interested members of the public—will gather at McKevitt Volvo-Nissan at 2700 Shattuck Ave., where participants will hear a presentation by city staff, followed by a tour of the dealership. 

The first phase of the tour will cover manufacturing and light industrial-zoned sites (MU-LI) in the area from the Gilman Street corridor area to University Ave., followed by a walking tour of sites zoned solely for manufacturing. 

Then comes a driving tour of similarly zoned sites along the Interstate 80 frontage area and other sites between University and Ashby avenues and areas to the south. 

The tour will end with a brief gathering at Weatherford BMW’s Ashby Avenue facility, which will include a session for public comments. 

Planning commissioners will use the information gathered during the day to hold a public workshop on the issue during their meeting Wednesday, which begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

Landmarks 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will meet Monday night at 7:30 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, with at least one controversial item on the agenda—the proposal to landmark the Bevatron building at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

The lab wants to tear down the venerable but ailing structure, which has outlived its scientific usefulness. During its heyday, the now-decommissioned particle accelerator inside yielded the data that led to a hefty bounty of Nobel Prizes for physics research that reshaped the way scientists look at the universe. 

While foes of the demolition say the structure’s rubble and the dust stirred up by deconstruction work could pose significant health risks to the public, lab officials insist that proper handling of the demolition will eliminate risks. 

Also on the agenda is a hearing on contested plans to revamp the rear of the landmarked former H.J. Heinz Company Plant at 2700 San Pablo Ave. The owner wants to replace the existing corrugated metal siding with stucco, but several commissioners expressed reservations during the LPC’s December meeting. 

Commissioners will also conduct their first hearing on a new landmarks application, which proposes to designate the Oaks Theater at 1601 Solano Ave. as either a landmark or a city structure of merit. 

The Planning Commission will be held Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission will meet Monday night at 7: 30 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center.

The fate of a popular after-school tutoring program housed at a contaminated former chemical plant site dominated a Wednesday night meeting in Richmond. 

Making Waves, a popular and respected program for 250 youths from impoverished and largely minority backgrounds, now operates its programs for younger students in temporary quarters at Campus Bay. That site, for a century the home of plants making toxic chemicals, is now undergoing a state-mandated cleanup. 

As part of the cleanup, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, which is overseeing the cleanups both at Campus Bay and the adjoining UC Berkeley Richmond Field Station, created a Community Advisory Group (CAG) to help the state in its efforts. 

Ronald C. Nahas, a member of the Making Waves board of directors, appeared at Wednesday’s Richmond Southeast Shoreline CAG meeting to argue that the program be allowed to stay to finish the school year, noting that the program has acquired a new site where a new facility should be completed in time for the start of the September school session. 

At their December meeting, the CAG voted to ask the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which originally had jurisdiction over the site, to enforce a deed restriction barring hospitals, day care centers for children or seniors and any schools from operating on the site. 

In a Dec. 23 letter to water board Executive Director Bruce Wolfe, CAG Chair Whitney Dotson called on Wolfe to “immediately enforce the deed restriction that states there will be no schools” on the contaminated site. 

Enforcement issues 

The restrictions remain in force, said Wolfe in a telephone interview Thursday. 

“I have turned the matter over to our attorneys to consider the legal issues involved,” he said. “We certainly want to enforce the restriction if we need to ... I would like to get this resolved by the end of the month.” 

Deed restrictions limiting use of partially remediated hazardous waste sites are a common feature of cleanup plans, but Wolfe said this is the first time in his memory that the board has needed to enforce one. 

Property owner Cherokee Simeon is a partnership of Cherokee Investment Partners, an investment fund, with Simeon properties, a San Francisco-based developer. Their plans for building a high-density, high-rise residential complex on the site have been postponed pending the completion of current cleanup activities and further studies by the DTSC. 

Cherokee Investment Partners executives insist the site is safe for the program and cite a recent DTSC evaluation of soil vapors at the site. 

In a Dec. 15 letter to Richmond City Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin—a CAG member who voted for the letter to the water board—Cherokee Managing Director Dwight Stenseth and Campus Bay engineering project manager Doug Mosteller labeled criticisms of the after school program’s location as “alarmist comments by a few vocal people.”  

Contra Costa County Public Health Director Dr. Wendel Brunner has supported the continuation of the program at the site, telling fellow CAG members Wednesday that the harm of disrupting a valuable educational program outweighs “the minuscule risks” revealed by the study. 

A DTSC examination of soil gas vapors in the building—fumes that can penetrate into structures from the soil beneath—revealed trace levels of two hazardous compounds, benzene and toluene. Of the two, only benzene is a known carcinogen, and the risk of developing cancer from the exposure levels found in the survey was estimated at 7.6 in 100 million. 

“DTSC has concluded that the soil vapor levels around Building 240 (the home of the program) do not pose a public health threat risk to the students and staff of Making Waves,” the report concluded. 

But other CAG members remain skeptical. 

Brunner remains an ardent supporter of remediation efforts at the site, and said Wednesday that no schools or similar facilities should be built at Campus Bay without further significant remediation efforts. 

Nahas, of the school board, said the Making Waves program moved to Campus Bay only after being forced to leave previous sites. “It was the only place in Richmond that could accommodate our students,” he said Thursday. 

High school students and program staff are currently housed in a facility at 200 24th St. near the Richmond Civic Center, where he said there have been “four shootings, two of them fatal,” within the last 90 days within a block of the building. 

The new location at 860 Harbor Way South should be considerably safer for the consolidated operations, he said Thursday. 

CAG members were skeptical, noting that the program had extended its planned stay at Campus Bay by several years. Nahas said that the program has made a “huge investment” in the new property, and is determined to complete construction by the start of the new school year. 

Help sought 

The state Department of Health Services is conducting interviews and collecting statements from community members to learn their concerns about and experiences with the site. 

Health Educator Rubi Orozco cautioned that the agency’s assessment isn’t a formal scientific study, “but the results will guide us and alert us to possible exposures” from the chemical manufacturing operations. 

DHS is particularly interested in hearing from former residents of the Seaport War Apartments that once existed on the eastern edge of the site. 

She asked anyone with concerns and information to contact her by mail at the Site Assessment Section of the Environmental Health Investigations Branch of the Department of Health Services, 850 Marina Parkway, Building P, Third Floor, Richmond 94804-6403, by e-mail at ROrozco@dhs.ca.gov or by phone at 510-620-3671. 

Other news 

Excavations at the site off the Richmond Field Station, where a retired UC Berkeley worker has said drums containing suspected radioactive waste from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory were buried three decades ago, are scheduled to begin Monday.  

Barbara J. Cook, DTSC’s Berkeley-based chief of Northern California coastal cleanup, told the CAG that—barring more storms—work could be completed within a week. 

UC Berkeley officials were scheduled to hold a press briefing this Friday morning to discuss the university’s plans for the field station, where the university plans to build an additional two million square feet of facilities for a corporate/academic research park. 

CAG member Sherry Padgett and others have expressed concerns, stating that no expansion plans should be allowed until the property is thoroughly surveyed for concentrations of toxics resulting both from wastes dumped on the property from activities at the Campus Bay site and from a blasting cap factory on the field station site that used vast amounts of toxic mercury.f

Revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) has engaged in warrantless eavesdropping in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act prompted President Bush to admit last month that in 2002 he directly authorized the activity in the wake of 9/11.  

But there are reasons to suspect that the illegal eavesdropping, and the related program of illegal detentions of U.S. citizens as well as foreign nationals, began earlier. Both may be part of what Vice President Dick Cheney has called the Bush administration’s restoration of “the legitimate authority of the presidency”—practices exercised by Nixon that were outlawed after Watergate.  

In the 1980s Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld discussed just such emergency surveillance and detention powers in a super-secret program that planned for what was euphemistically called “Continuity of Government” (COG) in the event of a nuclear disaster.  

At the time, Cheney was a Wyoming congressman, while Rumsfeld, who had been defense secretary under President Ford, was a businessman and CEO of the drug company G.D. Searle. Overall responsibility for the program had been assigned to Vice President George H.W. Bush, “with Lt. Col. Oliver North ... as the National Security Council action officer,” according to James Bamford in his book A Pretext for War.  

These men planned for suspension of the Constitution, not just after nuclear attack, but for any “national security emergency,” which they defined in Executive Order 12656 of 1988 as: “Any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack, technological or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously threatens the national security of the United States.” Clearly 9/11 would meet this definition.  

As developed in the mid-1980s by Oliver North in the White House, the plans called for not just the surveillance but the potential detention of large numbers of American citizens. During the Iran-Contra hearings, North was asked about his work on “a contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the American constitution.” The chairman, Democratic Senator Inouye, ruled that this was a “highly sensitive and classified” matter, not to be dealt with in an open hearing.  

The supporting agency for the planning and implementation was the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA was headed for much of the 1980s by Louis Giuffrida, whose COG plans for massive detention became so extreme that even President Reagan’s then Attorney General, William French Smith, raised objections.  

Smith eventually left Washington, while COG continued to evolve. And in May 2001 Cheney and FEMA were reunited: President George W. Bush appointed Cheney to head a terrorism task force and created a new office within FEMA to assist him. In effect, Bush was authorizing a resumption of the kind of planning that Cheney and FEMA had conducted under the heading of COG.  

Press accounts at the time claimed that the Cheney terrorism task force accomplished little and that Cheney himself spent the entire month of August in a remote location in Wyoming. But this may have just been the appearance of withdrawal; as author James Mann points out in The Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet, Cheney had regularly gone off to undisclosed locations in the 1980s as part of his secret COG planning.  

As to the actual role of Bush, Cheney and FEMA on 9/11 itself, much remains unclear. But all sources agree that a central order at 10 a.m. from Bush to Cheney contained three provisions, of which the most important was, according to the 9/11 Commission Report, “the implementation of continuity of government measures.”  

The measures called for the immediate evacuation of key personnel from Washington. Both Cheney and Rumsfeld refused to leave, but Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was helicoptered to a bunker headquarters inside a mountain. Cheney also ordered key congressional personnel, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, to be flown out of Washington, along with several cabinet members.  

During Cheney’s later disappearance from public view for a long period after the attack, he too was working from a COG base—“Site R,” the so-called “Underground Pentagon” on the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, according to Bamford.  

Many actions of the Bush presidency resemble not only what Nixon did in the 1970s, but what Cheney and Rumsfeld had planned to restore under COG in the 1980s in the case of an attack. Prominent among these have been the detention of so-called “enemy combatants,” including U.S. citizens, and placing them in special camps. Now as before, a policy of detentions outside the Constitution has been accompanied by a program of extra-constitutional surveillance to determine who will be detained.  

As Cheney told reporters on his return last month from Pakistan, “Watergate and a lot of things around Watergate and Vietnam, both during the ‘70s served, I think, to erode the authority” of the president. But he defended as necessary for national security the aggressive program he helped shape under President George W. Bush, which includes warrantless surveillance and extrajudicial imprisonment—in effect, a new Imperial Presidency.  

At least two Democrats in Congress have suggested that Bush could be impeached for his illegal surveillance activities. The chances of impeachment may depend on whether Congress can prove that planning for this, like planning for the Iraq War, began well before 9/11.  

Peter Dale Scott is author of Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003) and is completing a book to be titled Deep Politics and the Road to 9/11. 

›

www.jfdefreitas.com?

UC PARKING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

From the Jan. 3 Daily Planet: “[I]ncluded in the [UC] plans is a $60 million, 845-space underground parking lot ... to the north of the stadium.”  

By my math, that’s roughly $70,000 a space, so given running costs, etc., the spaces would need to rent for about $600 a month, assuming every parking space was always rented. Obviously UC is planning to heavily subsidize parking near the stadium in the new facility. Is heavily subsidized parking an appropriate use of public education funds ? 

Jon Petrie 

Piedmont 

• 

BERKELEY HONDA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was glad to see Harry Brill and Raymond Barglow’s response to Chris Regalia’s commentary on the Berkeley Honda dispute. 

Just a couple of things to add:  

Regalia is outraged that the City Council has had the effrontery to support the strikers and the boycott. Yet in his San Francisco Chronicle column Monday, Chip Johnson noted that “the new owners have politely declined an offer by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates to mediate the dispute.” (Bates in fact took that “neutral” stance Regalia favors by not joining the City Council when it voted in favor of the boycott months ago.) 

If they really wanted to settle with the union and were willing to work on a compromise, it seems to me that after seven months, these new owners would be eager for mediation. 

I think Don Crisato, representing the automotive engineers, told the real story of Beinke and Haworth’s strategy in another quote from Johnson’s column: “We’ve seen this before in other situations...You stall and delay, hire a bare majority, put in new work conditions. You meet once a month, two hours at a time, refuse to budge on any major issues, and drag it out until they vote out the union altogether.” 

In short, they don’t want a mediator because they don’t want a negotiated settlement. They want the union to fade away and leave the fate of the workers and their pay, retirement, and benefits entirely up to them (and their anti-union attack dog law firm, Littler Mendelson.) 

Small wonder there are twice weekly rallies, a giant inflatable rat on Parker and Shattuck, and both workers and community members approaching potential customers to take their business elsewhere.  

And a big shame they don’t really want to settle, because one thing we all agree on is that Berkeley certainly does need that sales tax. 

Donna Mickleson 

• 

POLICE REVIEW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank heavens someone is noticing the evaporation of police review in Berkeley. I recently had a complaint against a subject officer dismissed because he was terminated by the Police Department after the date of the police misconduct. The charter states clearly that the operative date is the date of the incident, but nobody seems to bother reading the charter anymore.  

Carol Denney 

• 

IMMIGRATION DEBATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I keep reading in liberal papers like the Daily Planet about the “divisive immigration debate,” as if America is divided down the middle on this issue. Let me clear up this misconception. According to virtually every poll that I’ve read, the overwhelming majority of American citizens want nothing less than for our present laws of citizenship and immigration to be enforced, and for the people who refuse to obey these laws to get the hell out of our country and stay out. There is in fact remarkable consensus on this issue, more so than virtually any other major political issue. Even the latest poll in October by the PEW Hispanic Center says that 51 percent of Americans say that reducing illegal immigration is a “top priority.” Has a nice ring to it, don’t it? “Top priority.” In other words: the “debate” is over.  

Peter Labriola 

• 

JES’ AN OL’ COOT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Please be patient with this old coot from the hills of western Pennsylvania, who spent the first six grades of school in two rooms, being taught by two old maid Sunday School teachers. And I can never forgive the education system that had in mind the need to keep us dumb, and dependent on the steel mills and coal mines. 

Small town kids from heavy industry cultures have few options offered, or even mentioned. In the case of “Jack” Murtha’s constituents of today, we can only remember the good economic times. The steel mills and mines are closed, the school board is made-up of old maids and other assorted “left-behinds.” Most everyone who had any desire to learn left town as soon as possible. It is a great place to be from. 

However, Dear Editor, I congratulate you on being so astute in defining me, and so I must confess. I certainly am not literate as it concerns this confounding machine.  

I opined, after reading only the first paragraph about Murtha, and you answered. That tickled me. My first try at responding to computer talk and I got an answer. That’s progress. Do I now call myself a real quasi-progressive? Or jes’ an ol’ fool coot, living in a retirement home for retired Marines who has spent 20 years serving America as a “Bomb Disposal” fool, and another 20 years fighting the Amazon River Complex (the real ARC story) exploiters. 

The last time I spoke with any editor was 1985, when I was trying-out to be a stringer for the New York Times. He came to my Brazil office and asked me to guide him through the real dilemma about the cultural and environment. He left saying I was the most authoritative voice on the entire matter, and that there was only one man to his knowledge whose mind grasped a situation as quickly. Then he introduced me to Roger Rosenblatt, aka editor of U. S. News and World Report, plus other quasi-literate magazines. I’m kinda proud of the 20 years I spent “Up The Amazon” after retiring from American military service. The way I look at it is that, considering the sixth-grade education by evangelical lesbians, I’ve not done too shabby. 

My second book, is a 656-page history book, about people from my (and Murtha’s) home county, who built a railroad at the Brazil/Bolivia border, back in 1877-79, and whose exploits never before became known. It’s due out in about six weeks.  

My third, is, at this writing, only 500 double-spaced pages, needing to be scanned onto disc, and then I can start editing the 52 short stories, editorials, opinions and assorted memoir ramblings of a proud, old coot Marine.  

The next one, the third, is really intended to be a TV-sitcom, by “e” GUNN USMC-Ret. The opening story, already published, is “Eddikation Done Country Style.” The second story is “The Friendliest Native,” published in California, about a tiny parrot who taught me about love and loss thereof. 

So, my dear editor of the Daily Planet, what do you want to be when you grow up and ready to retire? By the way, what is the Daily Planet, a journalism or political science student newspaper? 

Keep faith in yourself, and have fun trying. 

W.L. “Bill” ADAMS 

• 

OBSOLESCENCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Due to Microsoft’s intentional proclivities to corner us into relentless upgrades, I’m afraid I am about to bid farewell to my archaic Windows 98 system, bite the bullet and make Bill Gates still wealthier. For months I have struggled with this inevitability, desperately trying to stay the course with this 5-year-old dinosaur and convince myself that it meets my needs. In fact, it almost does.  

Of course, if Microsoft would actually support these prematurely fossilized operating systems with any conviction, and the geeks writing programs would still honor them as viable, I (as well as countless others) could hold onto such battle-axes and go about our business of living, loving, etc. As it is, however, these eminently functional relics‚ are being relegated to the trash heaps of planned obsolescence faster than you can say “download that upgrade.” Thus, I have ascertained it to be virtually impossible to stay concurrent with this frenzy without enjoining myself to the latest, greatest chip, while hoping that the newest “office suite” will accommodate the growing entourage of e-mail relations I have amassed over the last few years.  

So it is with great sadness, visceral outrage, and financial pain that I am about to place my order for infinite gigabits of hard drive space, mind-bending, sight-splitting speedy processors, and more memory than I ever had. The thing is, I have also determined that I will need at least 40 hours of reinstallation time just to recreate the computer services I am now privy to. More importantly, I must confess to a relatively new pathology: “techno-obsessive disorder.” Ubiquitous and virulent, it shows no signs of mitigating its chronic, demonic effects on my fragile, soon to be senior psyche as I segue into the ethers and coffers of Microsoft’s ever more voluminous presence. Perhaps you will glimpse me, roaming the streets in the middle of the night, rambling incoherently about adware, malware, corrupt codes, missing dll’s, drivers that don’t drive and illegal operations. If we meet, please be gentle with me, dear friends. For there but for the grace of God go you, too, one day! 

Marc Winokur 

Oakland 

y

At the end of each year, Dispatches gives out its annual IDBIAART (I Don’t Believe I Am Actually Reading This) Awards for special contributions to international relations during the past year.  

The Historical Amnesia Award goes to former Nixon Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird who in a recent Foreign Affairs article argued in favor of “Iraqification,” by using the Vietnam War as an example:  

“The truth about Vietnam that the revisionist historians conveniently forget,” writes Laird, “is that the United States had not lost when we withdrew in 1973. I believed then and still believe today that given enough outside resources, South Vietnam was capable of defending itself, just as I believe Iraq can do the same now.” 

It is not clear whether the American Embassy in Baghdad has a helicopter-landing pad on its roof 

The Speaking Power to Truth Award goes to David H. Wilkins, U.S. ambassador to Canada who warned Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin that if he did not stop “attacking the U.S.” Americans might decide to retaliate by cutting trade with its northern neighbor.  

Wilkins was responding to critical remarks that Martin made concerning U.S. tariff policy on Canadian lumber, smuggled American guns being used in Toronto gang wars, and the Bush administration’s opposition to the Kyoto climate accords. 

Canada took the tariff issue to court and won $5 billion, but Washington successfully appealed to the U.S.-dominated World Trade Organization and refuses to pay up. The guns that have contributed to making Toronto gangs a good deal deadlier are purchased in the U.S. because Canada has restrictive laws on handgun and assault rifle ownership. And the Administration is on record opposing Kyoto. 

Following Wilkins’ comments, Martin’s poll numbers went up. 

The Stop Wallowing In The Past Award goes to French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy who wrote in Le Journal du Dimanche that France should refrain from “an excess of repentance” over its colonial past. 

The comments were in reference to a recent uproar over a law passed last February instructing teachers to acknowledge the “positive role” of the French colonial empire, particularly in North Africa. 

The law ignited widespread outrage in the Caribbean, where protests forced Sarkozy to cancel plans to visit the French West Indies islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.  

The Algerian government is particularly incensed. France carried out a long and bloody colonial war in Algeria that included the well-documented use of torture and the extra-judicial murders of insurgents and civilians by French police, paratroopers and the Foreign Legion. 

French colonial behavior in West Africa and Indochina was little better, and a major reason for the present impoverishment of Haiti was that France forced the tiny island to pay enormous reparations to former slave owning sugar growers who lost their plantations when native Haitians liberated their country. 

Sarkozy—presently the front runner in the 2007 French presidential elections—was recently criticized for calling young rioters in France “scum” and promising to “eradicate the gangrene” from more than 300 cities that erupted in violence two months ago. Widespread youth joblessness and racism by the police are generally accepted as the sparks that set off the conflagration. 

“France,” writes Sarkozy, “is a great country because it has a great history.” 

The Three-Card Monte in Economics Award goes to European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, who recently proposed a “concession” to developing countries on trade: the EU would drop agricultural subsidies if developing countries would open their manufacturing and service sectors to the developed world.  

But Mendelson knows that EU agricultural subsidies are not sustainable in the long run anyhow, hence he is “conceding” nothing that wouldn’t happen in the next few years in any event. And because developing countries’ service and industrial products cannot compete with the EU, the poor nations would essentially agree to deindustrialize their economies and return to their previous status as raw material baskets for their former colonial overseers. 

If the developing nations accept the idea, Mandelson will be a hero to EU exporters. If the developing nations refuse, they will be tagged as anti-global obstructionists. 

This round of world trade talks was supposed to be about “development.” Instead the big nations have turned it into a “now you see it, now you don’t” game.  

The Sowing the Wind Award goes to conservative Australian Prime John Howard, who in the aftermath of mob attacks on “Muslims” at a beach resort south of Sidney, told the media, “I don’t believe Australia is a racist country.”  

Gangs of up to 5,000 young white men, assaulted what they perceived as Lebanese men, women and children, chanting, “We grew up here, you flew here,” and wearing t-shirts proclaiming “Ethnic Cleansing Unit.” 

Up until 1970, Australia officially had a “whites only” immigration policy, and Howard has used the “threat” of Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants to pass a draconian mandatory detention policy for asylum seekers. Asylum applicants have been locked up on an island prison, where conditions are crowed and grim. A number of asylum candidates sewed their lips together to protest their inability to speak with immigration authorities. 

As part of his campaign to whip up anti-immigrant hysteria, Howard claimed that immigrant “boat people” were throwing their children into the sea. The charge was later proven false. 

Howard has also refused to apologize to Australia’s Aborigines for the way they have been treated since the British first established a penal colony on the subcontinent. More than 90 percent of the native population was wiped out, many by disease, some by design. Entire bands of Aborigines were executed for stealing sheep. Aborigines were also exposed to nuclear tests during the 1950s. They are still seeking redress from both the Australian and the British government for radiation poisoning and elevated cancer rates. 

At the time of the riots, Howard was attending a conference of Asian countries in Malaysia. He told the press, “People will not make judgments on Australia based on incidents that happen over a few days.” 

The opposition Labor Party, however, said, “The key challenge for Mr. Howard is not to pretend that this doesn’t affect the way in which the world sees Australia. It does. Images of the riots are being beamed across the world.” 

The Geographically Inappropriate Metaphor Award goes to an unnamed Special Operations officer for the U.S. military’s European Command who described the Bush administration’s $500 million program to fight “terrorism” in the Sahara Desert as “draining the swamp.” 

The Poor Babies Award goes to 62 percent of 500 U.S. families with an average of $26 million in liquid net assets who feel they are “under assault” in the media. A study by the Worth-Taylor Harrison Survey also found that 69 percent of the families felt they were portrayed badly.  

(What is this domestic item doing in Dispatches? Since most capital is international, this passes muster. But in any case, who could resist?)  

Jim Taylor, a co-director of the survey, said “They [the families] perceive the media to be dominated by images of indulgent and criminal wealth—from Donald Trump to Paris Hilton to Bernie Ebbers,” adding, “They have really strong feelings about the extent to which they are under assault.” 

Life is a vale of tears.  

›

The Oakland Tribune published an interesting story earlier this week on Oakland police foot patrols. 

Oakland used to have 26 full-time walking officers patrolling several of its commercial districts, but announced that this number has been pared down to 18, and will soon be reduced by three more. “Areas such as the Dimond, Montclair and Lakeshore lost their officers when they went on leave for medical reasons and were never replaced,” the Tribune article noted. The article also mentioned the Rockridge and Dimond areas as commercial districts which currently have walking officers. The Dimond commercial district is now scheduled to get a walking officer back, but only by sharing that officer part-time with the Laurel. 

“There isn’t a lot that everybody seems to agree on when it comes to community issues, but this is an issue that everyone seems to agree on,” the Tribune quoted a Lakeshore area community leader as saying. “Everyone agrees walking officers are incredibly effective. They really do make an impact on crime.” 

We will assume, just for the sake of this discussion, that the Lakeshore area community leader is right, and walking patrols “really do make an impact on crime.” I think it’s a fair conclusion, and have made it myself, from time to time. 

Let us now conduct a simple test. 

First, think quickly about the commercial districts of Oakland where the highest rates of crime might occur (if you’re having trouble coming up with statistics, think about the commercial areas where you, personally, wouldn’t feel safe parking your car and walking a couple of blocks at night). 

Second, review the commercial districts with police foot patrols—either now or in the past—mentioned in the Tribune article (Dimond, Montclair, Lakeshore, Rockridge, and Laurel). 

Third, see if any commercial district appears on your first list (districts with the highest crime rates) but not on the list of an Oakland police project that “everyone agrees” has an “impact on crime.” 

The Oakland Tribune article is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of the commercial areas where police foot patrols are assigned (for example, the downtown area not only has foot patrols during the day, it also has officers riding on horseback). So let me give you some help in this exercise. While I am not familiar with all of the high-crime commercial districts in the city, I do have something of a working knowledge of one of them—the International Boulevard corridor from High Street to the San Leandro border. This includes the area recently described by one local pastor as Oakland’s “killing zone,” the scene of many of Oakland’s homicides. If police foot patrols operate along this corridor, they must be doing it undercover. Under deep cover. Since 1988, when I returned to Oakland, the only time I have seen officers out of their cars along this stretch of our city—night or day—is when they are investigating a crime scene, effecting an arrest, or making a traffic stop. 

And that brings us to the subject of traffic stops. 

While the Oakland Police Department was operating foot patrols in the commercial districts of downtown, Dimond, Montclair, Lakeshore, Rockridge, and Laurel (and my friends in those districts were rightfully complaining in the instances when those foot patrols were taken away), the department was conducting a different kind of patrol along the far eastern end of International Boulevard: Operation Impact. 

In this program, the police department floods the streets not with patrols of foot officers trying to improve the safety of shoppers, but with rolling squads of cars whose sole purpose is to stop as many drivers as they can to give out tickets and find other various violations. These rolling “Operation Impact” squad patrols included Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies and California Highway Patrol officers, and were originally instituted in East Oakland in the summer of 2003 supposedly to combat the area’s homicides and drug-related violence. The “Operation Impact” roving patrols continued into 2004, but by then their purpose had somehow changed—without a lot of explanation as to why—from stopping homicides to stopping Oakland’s sideshows. 

(Just how ineffective the “Operation Impact” traffic patrol saturation may have been on homicides and drug-related violence was illustrated in an incident near 87th Avenue and International Boulevard last July, when a running gun battle took place in the afternoon between two cars for several blocks in full view of California Highway Patrol officers who had stopped a car along International—not for serious drug violations—but to give them a traffic ticket. The gun battlers were apparently undeterred by the fact that police officers were in the area.) 

East Oakland’s “Operation Impact” was never (let us emphasize that word) designed to specifically investigate homicides, gang-related violence or, in its later form, the sideshows. No new homicide inspectors or officers with expertise in either gang violence or youth activities were either hired or trained under the program. Instead, “Operation Impact” was carried out something like a mechanic fixing a car with a hammer, its police department and Oakland City Hall advocates figuring that if enough cars were stopped for traffic violations along International Boulevard, criminals and sideshow participants in the adjoining neighborhoods would figure that “5-0” was in the area, and chill out. 

That interesting theory was spelled out in Robert Gammon’s revealing May 2005 article in the East Bay Express, when he wrote (after conducting several interviews with police officials and riding around with officers on “Operation Impact” patrol) that the joint OPD/Highway Patrol “anti-sideshow forces focus on traffic violations, reasoning that sideshows are far less likely to materialize if East Oakland motorists are constantly seeing cars being pulled over by police.” From January through May 2005, Gammon reported that during their massive weekend traffic stops, the “Operation Impact” patrols had issued 5,000 traffic citations, towed 1,700 vehicles, and made 700 arrests. These statistics, according to Gammon, were racked up by 43 OPD officers and 16 CHP officers “who cruise the major East Oakland thoroughfares on weekend nights.” 

How many of these 5,000 citations, 1,700 auto tows, and 700 arrests were justified by serious violations and how many of them were simple harassment that were done simply to justify the expenditure of police time on “Operation Impact?” It is impossible to tell by looking at the statistics. Having driven extensively in all parts of Oakland over the years, I can tell you that general traffic violations (speeding, running red lights, failure to stop for pedestrians) occur pretty much at the same rate in all parts of the city, regardless of the ethnic or income makeup of the community. But we can use our deductive reasoning to come to another conclusion. Take 60 police officers and set them to stopping cars throughout the weekend in the “walking patrol” districts of Dimond, Montclair, Lakeshore, Rockridge, and Laurel using the same criteria that they are presently using for stopping cars in Deep East Oakland. See how long it would take before drivers, tired of such tactics, would choose to do their shopping elsewhere. And that, in fact, is what it has done along the far International corridor, which is turning into a virtual ghost town on many weekend nights, depressing commercial and social activity in an area that should be figuring out a way to encourage more residents and spenders to come out. 

All of this happened under the watch of Mayor Jerry Brown, who wants to take his various law-and-order theories to test them on the entire state of California as Attorney General. With Mr. Brown on the way out, let us hope that the next mayor—Nancy Nadel, Ignacio De La Fuente, or Ronald Dellums—takes a more even-handed approach to law enforcement in Oakland. If there are police foot patrols in the Dimond and Montclair, there ought to be police foot patrols at 90th and International. If random, massive traffic stops (which target neither homicides nor sideshows) are not appropriate for the Laurel, they shouldn’t be appropriate for Deep East Oakland, either. 

›

Police Sting Captures Taggers, 

Including Alleged Ringleader 

Berkeley police cracked down on taggers Wednesday night, staging a stakeout that captured three of the graffiti artists, spray-can-handed. 

As a quick tour through the streets and along the railroad tracks of Berkeley’s industrial district quickly reveals, taggers have turned the area into their own playground, creating the distinctive works that are sometimes two and three stories high. 

In a Thursday afternoon statement, Berkeley Police Deparment Public Information Officer Shira Warren said that the sting resulted in arrests at 11 p.m. Wednesday. 

“While we are certain that these three are not the only persons responsible for graffiti in the city of Berkeley, we are certain we have caught one of the main perpetrators responsible for most of the graffiti crimes in that part of town,” Warren reported. 

City laws require that business owners clean up after the spray-painters, and Warren said costs of ongoing repairs have run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

The stakeout was the result of a coordinated investigation which included the assistance of the Public Works, Parks and Recreation and Waterfront departments headed by Sgt. Erik Upson. 

“We take graffiti crimes very seriously,” said Upson. “We use all available resources to hold [perpetrators] responsible for their crimes.”›

Many of us in the peace movement are praying for Ariel Sharon’s recovery even though we still see him as an obstacle to peace in the Middle East in the long run. While we would never wish for the death of anyone, even our enemies, we might have hoped that people like the president of Iran, or Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, or even President Bush would be peacefully removed from office quickly. Yet the developments of recent months have made many peaceniks hope that Sharon would stay in office at least through the completion of the next half-year.  

The reason is that Ariel Sharon has done what no one on the Left has been able to do: split the Right, marginalize the extremists who believe that holding on to the biblical vision of the Land of Israel is a divine mandate, and acknowledge that a smaller Israel with defensible borders is preferable to a large Israel that requires the domination of 3 million Palestinians.  

Sharon was not just a talker, he was a doer. Once he really understood that Israel could not hope to retain support of even its most enthusiastic allies if it continued the 39-year-old occupation, he dramatically withdrew several thousand settlers from Gaza and pulled back Israeli troops stationed there to 1967 borders.  

When his own political party, the Likud, repudiated his decisive actions, he quit and began to create a center-right party, Kadima, that was, according to the most recent polls, likely to win one-third of the delegates in the new Knesset, and to ally with the center-left Labor party headed by social justice crusader Amir Peretz in forming a new government.  

The potential government that might have emerged would have likely been more sensitive to the social justice needs of Israelis. It might have pushed Sharon to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinian people, rather than to continue to impose one along borders that Sharon had unilaterally decided upon (as he unilaterally decided to leave Gaza without making arrangements that could have given the Palestinian Authority the power to effectively challenge Hamas and other extremist groups that are currently wreaking havoc).  

Precisely because of his past as a ruthless militarist who cared little for the humanity of the Palestinian people, Sharon managed to bring with him, in the steps toward creating a Palestinian state, sections of the Israeli population who are not committed to holding on to the West Bank for religious reasons but who worry greatly about their own physical security from Palestinian terror. These Israelis trusted that Sharon was an expert in that sphere. It is hard to imagine anyone having the same credibility with those voters, and the same ability to gather their support for a Palestinian state. For that reason, Sharon’s absence from politics is a grave setback for those of us who hope to build peace step by step.  

Few of us in the peace movements had any illusions, though, that Sharon ever intended to negotiate a Palestinian state with borders that would have been acceptable (roughly those agreed upon between Palestinians and former Minister of Justice Yossi Beilin in the Geneva Accord). In fact, Sharon’s closest advisors tried to explain to Likud rejectionists that Sharon’s plan for unilateral withdrawals were precisely aimed at stopping the Geneva Accord and other such plans from getting majority support in Israel and among Israel’s allies abroad. It was also, they said, intended to derail the Road Map issued by President Bush.  

Sharon’s plan was to finish completion of a wall that he was building through the West Bank that incorporates the bulk of the settlers as well as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and to declare that the new boundary of Israel. Then he planned to forcibly remove the one-sixth of Israeli settlers who were not inside that wall and allow Palestinians to have approximately half of the West Bank for a Palestinian state—a state crisscrossed by Israeli roads, and a state in which the Israeli military would continue to police the Jordan Valley. The wall is nearing completion. If Sharon had the political mandate, its path would become the expanded boundary of Israel.  

Sharon has systematically ignored the humanity of the Palestinian people, violated their basic human rights, escalated torture and massive military assaults against civilian targets, escalated the use of targeted assassinations of “suspected” militants and refused to negotiate with the mild-mannered Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas. He has not been a man of peace.  

Yet the loss of Sharon will be mourned by many of us in the peace movement because his current moves, insensitive as they were to the needs of Palestinians, seemed to be the one viable way to build an Israeli majority for concessions that might eventually create the conditions for a more respectful and mutual reconciliation with the Palestinians, thereby bringing peace to Israel.  

Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun Magazine, a bimonthly Jewish critique of politics, culture and society and author of The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right, forthcoming from HarperSanFrancisco in February. ›

Just as a stone dropped into the middle of a calm lake produces concentric waves one after the other, so press reports emanate from Katrina. They range from the mundane like the effect of dislocation on Tulane’s football season to the momentous like the tens of billions of dollars needed to remake the levee system so as to restore the wetlands. Daily news ripples of culpable neglect and blatant hypocrisy reduce me to tears.  

I moved away from New Orleans in 1945 but Mama and Daddy died there and my three brothers never left.  

Like so many Creole families, mine numbers over 50—direct descendants from my parents whose souls, except for a hand full of very young great-great grandkids, bear the New Orleans mark. Despite the fact that 90 percent of us make our homes elsewhere we all bask in and practice the Big Easy life; we visit as often as possible, display our unique amalgam of cultures, enjoy gumbo, dirty rice, crayfish and jumbalaya, engage in festive, uninhibited jubilations at Mardi Gras time regardless of where we live. We are Seattle-New Orleaneans, Berkeley-New Orleaneans, Houston-New Orleaneans, Los Angeles-New Orleaneans, etc. Along with us are thousands and thousands more similarly hyphenated New Orleaneans, a Crescent City Creole Diaspora. 

Katrina itself left us undisturbed. We were scattered as distantly before as after hurricanes Betsy (1965) and Camille (1969) and were prepared to tough it out again with Katrina, confident in our city’s survival. We did not expect to see it destroyed.  

What caused the shock waves were long standing man-made and politically driven pre-Katrina neglect followed by ineptitude, incompetence and hypocrisy. Our birth city was obliterated, our figurative umbilical cord severed.  

There are those who expect government to rebuild, to revivify America’s favorite tourist town. Evacuees complain that president Bush has so far failed on his promise, that FEMA is slow and unreliable. They say New Orleans is forgotten, Washington is deaf to its pleas, it must rebuild itself.  

Along with relatives and other members of the Creole Diaspora most with un-English family names like mine, I feel obliged to accept the destruction. My much-loved city of origin will not arise like an urban version of Lazarus 

I and others built lives in the great diversity of America even as our spirits held us close to home. There is now no home. Home has been erased. We are emigrants, homesick, filled with sorrow, saddened and very, very angry. Katrina’s ripple effect 

Marvin Chachere is a San Pablo resident.

Our planet’s climate is changing rapidly as greenhouse gas pollution accumulates in the Earth’s atmosphere. There is no longer any doubt that human activity (i.e., the production of gases from the combustion of fossil fuels, combined with an increasingly consumption-oriented human population and rampant deforestation) lies at the heart of climate change. All of us—from individuals to governments, and everyone and every institution in-between—must drastically reduce the greenhouse gases that we are responsible for producing, or we will experience increasing changes in the climate that will cause significant ecological, economic, and social upheaval. 

We can already observe the impacts of climate change in low lying island and coastal countries that are now being inundated by rising seas. In the Arctic, millennia-old cultures are threatened and may soon disappear. Sub-Saharan Africa is being devastated by drought. The increasing number and intensity of Gulf Coast hurricanes that wreaked havoc this summer are a harbinger of what lies ahead if we don’t take seriously the extreme climatic events we are experiencing. 

The world’s governments recognize the threat posed by climate change and are undertaking serious efforts to develop a global response. This response is embodied in the treaty known as the Kyoto Protocol, which obligates developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5-7 percent below their 1990 levels by 2012. Last month, the United Nations hosted representatives from virtually every nation on Earth in Montreal. There, they agreed on a “roadmap” for emissions reductions and established a process that will enable the Kyoto signatories to negotiate additional reductions for the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period, which begins in 2013. 

Unfortunately the United States, the world’s greatest emitter of greenhouse gases, refuses to participate in the Kyoto process. The U.S. delegation in Montreal sought to torpedo the Kyoto process by refusing even to engage in negotiations that could eventually lead to concrete emissions reductions. Instead, the U.S. touted its belief that global emissions can be reduced simply by developing new technologies. Certainly technology will play a role in reducing greenhouse gases. But even the U.S. acknowledges that these new technologies will not be available for 15—25 years—a delay that climate scientists insist we cannot afford. And although the U.S. expresses an almost religious faith in technological deliverance, it has failed to fund the necessary research and development. Instead, the U.S. provides multi-billion dollar subsidies for oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear. It has allocated only a pittance for clean, renewable energy technologies that can be put in place today. 

The U.S. also contends that the economy will suffer if we are obligated to reduce greenhouse gases. In fact, the opposite is true. Jobs are created and economies will be developed as the world transitions from economic systems that are built on fossil fuel consumption. As cleaner, renewable sources of energy replace fossil fuels, economies will flourish. More of a country’s wealth (or that of a state, county, or city) can be invested in its own development. New industries and new jobs will be created. California alone employs 170,000 people in the renewable energy sector and is likely to see the number of jobs increase as the state enacts regulations intended to put 1 million solar roofs on homes, businesses, government buildings, and schools by 2016. U.S. states, cities, and industries are awakening to the economic benefits of addressing the causes of climate change and are taking advantage of the new business opportunities.  

The U.S. also complains that fast-developing countries like China and India do not have emission reduction obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, putting developed nations like the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage. In the short term, that claim may be true. But the Montreal climate talks demonstrated a growing consensus among governments that developing countries must also incorporate greater energy efficiencies in their development activities. The Montreal meeting opened that discussion and developing countries will participate—if the U.S. will exert the type of leadership for which it was once known. 

We must act now to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid irreversible climate change and the myriad effects it will bring. Local and individual actions in the U.S. are already making a difference: 195 cities representing 40 million Americans have endorsed Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels’ Climate Protection Agreement and 14 states have joined regional coalitions to consider cap and trade programs and other measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  

Contact us at kyotousa@sbcglobal.net or visit our website at www.kyotousa.org to learn about what you can do to engage your city in reducing greenhouse gases where you live. The Earth, and everything that inhabits it, is counting on you. 

Tom Kelly is the director of KyotoU.S.A, a Berkeley-based volunteer organization that encourages cities and the people who live in them to work together to end global warming. He attended the recent UNFCCC climate talks in Montreal as an official NGO observer. 

›

My friend and fellow former Berkeley City Councilmember Ira Simmons recently forwarded me the Daily Planet story from last summer on the return to the City Council Chambers of the mural by famed artist Romare Bearden. I appreciate the story in noting the genesis of the Bearden project when Ira and I challenged the council to modify its all-white picture display in the council chambers. We did this shortly after we were elected in 1971. 

Berkeley was very fortunate to have cultural visionaries like Carl Worth to direct us to Bearden and help make the project a reality. 

The Berkeley Art Commission’s support was also key in getting an otherwise contentious City Council to reach agreement on this project. 

Ira and I spent time with Bearden and his wife Nanette as they visited to get a feel for the city and its people. They were wonderful and gentle and I remained in contact with Bearden in the years following.  

When Ira, Loni Hancock and I were elected to the City Council in 1971, the conservatives and moderate Democrats vowed immediately to recall us. But by 1973 they narrowed their focus to me and recalled me in a special election in August of that year. Their strategy was that by ousting me they could torpedo the parliamentary turmoil and skillful grassroots offensive we orchestrated which was forcing open doors for blacks, and creating new respect for struggling segments of the city’s alternative communities.  

Just before the recall, the conservatives had beaten the political left in a special election to amend the city charter to require candidates to get a majority vote. With a recall election requiring me to get a majority vote they knew they could avoid the pitfall of a splintered vote with no runoff which enabled me to win in the first place. 

Shortly after the recall, Bearden agreed to do a collage “around [me]; [my] career and Berkeley.” In October, 1973, three months after the recall he wrote: 

“D’Army: I suppose you are getting things together for your collage? Mine, for Berkeley, is now started and I hope to have it out there fairly soon. Incidentally, a work of mine opens a new movie “Five on the Black Hand Side.” It is a very good movie—a comedy warm, human, and a relief from the “Shaft” shoot-um-up flicks. I was speaking to a young girl from Stanford and she knew all about you and Ira—and Berkeley politics. Please return to that battle; because you’re sure to be back on the council—and from there to jail, or the Senate. We just escaped fascism by the skin of our teeth—but those guys will keep on trying. That’s why we need you and Ira; there are hard times ahead.” 

The dynamic and colorful 20X16-inch collage Bearden created has been a source of inspiration for me for the last 30 years. Along with the collage, Bearden sent a personal check for $25 toward the expenses of fighting the recall. 

A couple of months ago I was in Berkeley, headed to Mendocino. A friend and I met for lunch in the area off University down by the bay. It was slightly saddening to see the changes in the neighborhood. Where before vibrant black life and community were in West Berkeley, they are now no more. Today the area appears largely populated by fashionable whites, chic shops and restaurants where some didn’t appear too kind to share an outdoor seat at a table. In the city that once had a 25 percent black population the number of blacks has dropped dramatically. 

As I walked back to my car from lunch I did notice a police car displayng the city’s seal with Bearden’s four faces of diversity from his collage. Perhaps the spirit of that great artist will someday fuel a resurgence of honest inclusiveness and greater civic humility. 

D’Army Bailey is a Tennessee Circuit Judge in Memphis. 

›

FRIDAY, JAN. 6 

THEATER 

“Walkin’ Talkin’ Bill Hawkins ... In Search of My Father” performed by W. Allen Taylor at 7 p.m. at the Marsh-Berkeley, 2118 Allston Way. Tickets are $15-$22. 800-838-3006. 

Shotgun Players “Cabaret” Thurs. - Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Through Jan. 29. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Luthier’s An exhibtion of tradition guitar and ukulele making at the Addison Street Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St., through Jan. 15. 981-7533. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“A Journey to Sacred Places” with photographer Jasper Johal at 6 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. 843-2787. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dance Production 2006 at 8 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Allston Way. Tickets are $5 students, $10 adults. 

Freddie Roulette & Friends, blues, funk, at 9 p.m. at Baltic Square Pub, 135 Park Pl., Pt. Richmond. 527-4782. 

Choz & The ChoZen Music Fam at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Susan Muscarella Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$15. 701-1787. 

Lua at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Steve Gannon Blue Monday Band at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Raw Deluxe, Psychokinetics, Mickey Avalon at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Cost is $5-$8. 548-1159.  

Opie Bellas Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Grapefruit Ed at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Mike Marshall & Chris Thile, mandolin at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Stephen Yerkey and Kurt Huget at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Dynamic, jazz-funk, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Municipal Waste, Bury the Living, Killed in Action at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Ahmad Jamal at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JAN. 7 

CHILDREN 

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with EarthCapades, environmental vaudeville, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“A Political Journey” Paintings by Roger Van Ouytsel opens at La Peña Cultural Center, and runs through Jan. 27. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Edward Weston: Masterworks from the Collection” with over fifty photographs on display through June 11, at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-3402. www.museumca.org 

“New Beginnings” A group show of works by Bay Area artists in a benefit for victims of domestic violence opens at 6 p.m. at a Fusao Studios, 646 Kennedy St., Suite 108. 436-5797. www.afusaostudios.com 

“Claim the World of Art as Our Own” opens at Pro Arts, 550 Second St., Oakland. www.proartsgallery.org 

FILM 

“Shortcut to Nirvana” a documentary about the Kumbha Mela festival in India with a conversation with the director at 8 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. 843-2787. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Martin Eden” A dramatic reading of Jack London’s novel in celebration of his birthday by Page to Stage Theater Company at 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. 272-0120. 

Bay Area Poets Coalition Open Reading at 3 p.m. at Strawberry Creek Lodge, 1320 Addison St. Please park on the street. 527-9905. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dance Production 2006 at 8 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Allston Way. Tickets are $5 students, $10 adults. 

The Sarabande Ensemble, early Italian music, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. http://trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Healing Muses “A Musical Tapestry” Traditional Renaissance music at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$18. 524-5661.  

Yancie Taylor Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Braziu with Sotaque Baiano at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$12. 548-1159.  

Los Boleros, traditional Cuban, at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568.  

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

Breakin’ Up Xmas Square Dance with Amy & Karen and The Mercury Dimes at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mr. Slapp, Unjust, Game Brothers at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. 

Diamante Latin Jazz at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Dead Sea Scribes, Conscious Hip Hop at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Damond Moodie and Jamie Jenkins at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Dudman, NK6, Signal Lost at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JAN. 8 

CHILDREN  

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

EXHIBITIONS 

Paintings by Brooke Hatch Reception from 4 to 6 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with The Fresh Ink Writing Group at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Friends of Negro Spirituals “Let the Spirituals Roll On” concert and fundraiser at 3 p.m. at Beth Eden Baptist Church, 952 Magnolia St., Oakland. Tickets are $25-$30. 415-563-4316. 

Healing Muses “A Musical Tapestry” Traditional Renaissance music at 4 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$18. 524-5661.  

Julia Fischer, violin, at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $42. 642-9988.  

Wild Bill Davison Centennial Celebration at 2 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Misturada Brazil at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. 

Blame Sally at 5 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Ahmad Jamal at 8 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

MONDAY, JAN. 9 

EXHIBITIONS 

Watercolors by Ruth Koch at Cafe DiBartolo, 3310 Grand Ave., Oakland. Through Feb. 26. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Parlor Tango, French baroque music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

The Moutin Reunion Quartet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $7-$14. 238-9200. 

TUESDAY, JAN. 10 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Alan Kaufman introduces “Matches” the story of an American Jew in the Israeli Army, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Creole Belles with Andrew Carriere at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

Ellen Hoffman and Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $5.50. 548-1761.  

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazz- 

school at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Brozman, Low & Thorne Trio, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Debbie Poryes, jazz piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

Jared Diamond describes “Collapse: How Societies Chose to Fail or Succeed” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“The Seven Deadly Sins” A Fire Opera with the Crucible, artists from the San Francisco Opera and the Oakland East Bay Symphony, through Sat., at 8:30 p.m. at 1260 7th St., Oakland. Tickets are $25-$100. 444-0919. www.thecrucible.org 

Berkeley High School Jazz Combos at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Balkan Folk Dance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Lessons at 7 p.m. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Tracy Amos, Shooters Dream Atris at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886.  

Evan Raymond, guitar, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

E.S.T. Esbjorn Svensson Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, JAN. 12 

FILM 

Mikio Naruse “Nightly Dreams” at 7 p.m. with Bruce Leob on piano, “Tsuruhachi and Tsuruijiro” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Black and Disabled Artists Sharing Stories at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Nomad Spoken Word Night at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Kim Strongfellow describes a man-made disaster in “Greetings from the Salton Sea” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Word Beat Reading Series with Nicole Henares and Brian Morrisey at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New Century Chamber Orchestra with Gang Situ, ‘cello, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $28-$42. 415-392-4400.  

Fishtank Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.com 

Dick Conte Trio, CD release party, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Wu Li Masters at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Mark Little Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Nightingale with caller George Marshall, concert at 8:30 p.m., dance at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

E.S.T. Esbjorn Svensson Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 



FRIDAY, JAN. 6 

“Wellstone!” a free screening of the documentary about Senator Paul Wellstone, followed by a discussion, at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Chuch Chapel, 1640 Addison St. 482-1062. 

“Facing Baseball’s Future: Issues Confronting the Game” at 7 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-3402. www.museumca.org 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

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. 

“Developing an Inner Work Toolkit” at 6:15 p.m. at Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. 843-6812. 

SATURDAY, JAN. 7 

Frog and Toad, Are They Really Friends? Find out on a hike at 2 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

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 $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

Sick Plant Clinic UC plant pathologist Dr. Robert Raabe, UC entomologist Dr. Nick Mills, and their team of experts will diagnose what ails your plants from 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755.  

Help Save the Bay Plant Natives from 9 a.m. to noon at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline. 452-9261, ext. 109. www.savesfbay.org 

Botanical Wanderings Discover the diverse winter habitat from the hilltops to the marsh at 2 p.m. at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Fremont. For information and directions call 792-0222. 

Progressive Democrats of the East Bay General Meeting with Assemblymember Loni Hancock, to discuss publicly financed election systems, at 11 a.m. at Oakland City Hall Council Chambers, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, bet. 14th and 15th Sts. at Clay St. 524-4244. www.pdaeastbay.org 

East Bay Atheists will show the documentary “The God Who Wasn’t There” which examines the evidence for the historical Jesus, and concludes he was a mythical figure based on early pagan myths, at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., 3rd floor meeting room. 222-7580. 

Open House and Dance Class with Luna Kids Dance at 9:30 a.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. 644-3629. www.lunakidsdance.com 

Open House at Studio Rasa with sample classes in yoga, pilates, heartbeat dance and many others from 9 a.m. at 7:30 p.m. at 933 Parker St. 843-2787. www.studiorasa.org 

Freedom From Tobacco from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. for six Saturdays. Free hypnosis available. Free, but registration required. 981-5330. quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Protest Rally at Berkeley Honda Shattuck and Parker every Thurs. at 4:30 to 6 p.m. and Sat. from 1 to 2 p.m. until the labor dispute is settled.  

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.  

Spirit Walking Aqua Chi (TM) A gentle water exercise class at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Cost is $3.50 per session. 526-0312. 

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. 

“How to Meditate” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

SUNDAY, JAN. 8 

Alvarado: River to Ridgetop Ramble Meet at 10 a.m. at the Wildcat/Alvarado staging area off Park Ave. in Richmond to explore the historic area once known as Grand Canyon Park. 525-2233. 

Discussion with Peter Camejo, sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County at 5 p.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. at 65th St. 

“Kekexili” A film about Tibetans trying to protect the Tibetan antelope from poachers, at 2 p.m. at the Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $6.  

Spiritual Life Skills Workshop and Tree of Life Qi Gong A series of eight classs at 10 a.m. and 11:45 a.m., through Feb. 26 at 5272 Foothill Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $12 per class. To register call 533-5306. 

MONDAY, JAN. 9 

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter meets at 6 p.m. at the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St. Redwood Mary and Melinda Kramer, co-founders of Women’s Global Green Action Network will discuss their environmental work. 287-8948. 

“Benefits of Meditation” with Dr. Marshall Zaslove at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

BYOCraft Night at 8 p.m. at the Living Room Gallery, 3230 Adeline St. 601-5774. 

Sing-A-Long from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122. 

Beginning Bridge Lessons at 11:10 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Cost is $1. 524-9122. 

Free Small Business Counselling with SCORE, Service Core of Retired Executives at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. To make an appointment call 981-6244. 

Mentoring Excellence in Management Consultants at 4 p.m. at the Bellevue Club, 525 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Cost is $35-$50. 800-462-8910. www.imcnorcal.org 

Tango Lessons with Paulo Araujo from Rio de Janeiro at 6:45 p.m. at the Berkeley Tango Studio. Series of 5 classes costs $60. 655-3585. 

World Affairs Discussion Group for seniors at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center. Cost is $2.50. 

TUESDAY, JAN. 10 

Celebrate the Dream Ceremony marking Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 77th birthday at 11:30 a.m. at Frank Ogawa Plaza, 14th and Broadway, Oakland. 444-CITY. 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll learn about animal habitats, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Birdwalk on the MLK Shoreline from 3 to 5 p.m. to see the ducks and shorebirds here for the winter. Beginnners welcome, binoculars available for loan. 525-2233. 

Women’s Snowshoe Workshop Learn the essentials for getting started in the sport at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Guitar and Music Lessons for Teachers Free ongoing classes at 7:30 p.m. at 2304 McKinley Ave. Registration required. 848-9463. www.guitarsintheclassroom.com 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Family Story Time at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Branch Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

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. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also, Mon. noon to 4 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

Searching Within A free 9-week course, Tues. at 7:30 p.m. at 2510 Channing Way. To register call 654-1583. www.gnosticweb.com 

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. S548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

“Ask the Social Worker” free consultations for older adults and their families from 10 a.m. to noon at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. To schedule an appointment call 558-7800, ext. 716. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11 

Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at noon at the second floor auditorium, 300 Lakeside Drive., Oakland. Free. 464-7139. 

Poetry Writing Workshop with Alison Seevak at 7 p.m. at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Film Series on Animal Agony, laboratories and factory farms, at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation of $5 suggested.  

East Bay Genealogical Society with Marjorie Bell of the staff of the Family History Center on the use of newspapers in genealogical research, at 10 a.m. in the Library Conference Room of the Family History Center, 4766 Lincoln Ave., Oakland. 635-6692. 

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

Prose Writer’s Workshop An ongoing group made up of friendly writers who are serious about our craft. All levels welcome. At 7 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

Sing your Way Home A free sing-a-long at 4:30 p.m. every Wed. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Oakland State Building, 1515 Clay St., 2nd Floor. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

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. 

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

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JAN. 12 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll learn about animal habitats, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers meets at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave. in Kensington. Mike Kaul, a Wyoming guide, will talk on fishing the waters of the Wind River Range. All welcome. 547-8629. 

“The World Can’t Wait” Drive Out the Bush Regime Speakers include Medea Benjamin, Mark Leno, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Sunsara Taylor and devorah major, at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$20. 415-864-5153. 

East Bay Mac Users Group meets to discuss Mac World Review with guest David Feng from Beijing Mac Users Group, at 6 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound St., Emeryville. http://ebmug.org 

“How to Reduce Your Taxes” with Thomas Andres, at 6 p.m., upstairs at Sabia Indian Cuisine, 1628 Webster, Oakland. Cost is $5-$10. 530-6699. 

Climate Change and Other Environmental Topics, an ongoing class, Thurs. at 1 p.m., beginning Jan. 12 at North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

American Sign Language Classes begin at Vista College, 2020 Milvia St. To register call 981-2872. www.peralta.edu 

International Business Classes for students and entrepreneurs, offered by Vista College. For information call 981-2852.  

Sleep Issues for Older Babies at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required, 658-7353. 

The Bipolar Advantage A lecture with Tom Wootton, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance at 7 p.m. at Alta Bates Herrick Campus, Dwight Way. For details, call 760-749-5719. 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

ONGOING 

United Way’s Earn it! Keep It! Save It! needs volunteer tax preparers and language interpreters to help low-income families in Alameda County claim tax credits. No previous tax preparation experience is necessary. Training sessions run through mid-January. For more information, call 238-2415. www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org 

Magnes Museum Docent Training begins Jan. 8. Open to all who are interested in Jewish art and history. For information contact Faith Powell at 549-6950 x333. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Planning Commission Special Meeting and Tour Sat., Jan. 7, at 9:45 a.m. at McKevitt Volvo-Nissan, 2700 Shattuck Ave. at Derby. Carli Paine, 981-7403. 

Creeks Task Force meets Mon. Jan. 9, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Erin Dando, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/Creeks/default.html 

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., Jan. 9, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Manuel Hector, 981-5510. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/peaceandjustice 

Berkeley Unified School District Board meets Wed. Jan. 11, at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. 644-6320. 

Planning Commission meets Wed., Jan. 11, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission Public Meeting on the Aquatic Park Streetscape Connection Project, Thurs., Jan. 12, at 7 p.m. at the West Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7402. 

When winter skies open up and drench the ground, thoughts of an outdoor weekend getaway pale. That’s the time for an indoor adventure—one that will take you places far removed from everyday life. Journey to other cultures, other times, while being awed by incredible architecture and outstanding art. In short, visit San Francisco’s de Young Museum. 

Aside from housing over 25,000 works of art, the museum complex is a work of art itself. Massive yet seemingly lightweight, it appears to have settled effortlessly, a part of the earth, with spiraled tower reaching above. Copper, wood, stone and glass combine to create outdoor canvases that will alter and patina with time, reflecting changes in the environment, as does nature. 

To reflect light filtering through trees, copper sheets have been perforated and extruded, a random series of variegated “pimples and dimples.” Windows shimmer in ribboned panels, stone anchors and wood forms a bond with the outdoor landscape. The angular 144-foot tower appears to have erupted from the ground soaring above the treescape of Golden Gate Park and the city of San Francisco, subtly reminding us of the urban environment in which the park exists.  

With nine permanent collections and several changing exhibits a wise move would be to prioritize your interests or plan to arrive at the 9:30 a.m. opening and be shoved out the door at the 5 p.m. closing. The museum fills quickly, so an early arrival time also insures a less crowded experience, especially for popular exhibits. 

I should have begun my recent visit with “Hatshepsut—From Queen To Pharaoh.” By 10:30 this exhibit was already crowded, but no less amazing. Hatshepsut seems to have begun the women’s movement, serving as king of Egypt for almost 20 years, from 1479 to 1458 B.C. On display is a collection of over 250 innovative works created during her reign. 

Dimly lit, with spotlights illuminating individual works, and walls a muted charcoal, entering the exhibit transported me back in time to pyramid passageways and chambers. Here the presentation is equal to the collection. 

Surrounded by massive sandstone heads, statues and reliefs, sharply delineated papyrus and exquisite artifacts, it’s almost impossible to accept how long they have been in existence. While today we amass throwaway goods, those of the exhibit serve to remind us of nature’s permanence. Hatshepsut ruled as king, so in most statuary she is depicted as a male. In the one exception her clothes and jewelry are understated; only her headdress and determined expression reflect her accomplishment. 

Linen-lined display cases showcase the delicate craft of Hatshepsut’s reign—cosmetic jars and cups of turquoise and gold; animal shape scarabs and rings carved in jasper; travertine ointment jars; beautiful jewelry in gold, carnelian and lapis lazuli; paper thin gold sheet sandals—artifacts worthy of any queen or king. 

Leaving the exhibit, a wall size photograph of Deir el-Bahri, Hatshepsut’s Funerary Temple, puts the size of the statuary and reliefs into perspective. Encompassing the entire side of a mountain, anything less than huge would be lost to sight. Unfortunately, lost to sight and mind was Hatshepsut’s legacy. Twenty years after her death, all traces of her reign as king were removed. 

The de Young’s permanent collections expanded my worldwide tour into the past. Dark muted walls and subdued lighting again set the scene for the Art of Oceania, a collection of over 400 artifacts of religious or magical significance. I marveled at the craftsmanship in New Guinea shields and masks, carved and painted in both scary and whimsical motifs featuring flat dish-shaped faces with saucer eyes. Wonderful wood and skin drums adorned with side carvings of lizards and other animals honored ancestors and spirits. 

The Art of Africa collection showcases both the contemporary and historical work of over 80 groups. Entering the gallery I was greeted by a wall-size textile-like sculpture by El Anatasui. Thousands of flattened aluminum bottle caps connected by copper wire are arranged in rows creating their own form, an eye-catching sharp-edged quilt. A six-foot ancestor figure from Mali, almost one thousand years old; a Nigerian Epa mask over four-feet tall, looking more like a sculpture of the Queen Mother and her encircled attendants than something to be worn on one’s head; bundled raffia and painted wood initiation masks from the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Yaka people; intricate bead work in a Zulu wedding cape and apron—every piece bringing to life the history of the peoples represented. 

Moving from ancient art to the contemporary, not only the work changes, but the setting as well. Ceilings soar and white walls reflect the light. The big names in 20th century painting are well represented. Superman by Mel Ramos, Wayne Thiebaud’s gum ball dispensers, wonderful blue, yellow and brick blotches and spatters amid white negative space by Sam Francis, wall-size canvases by Diebenkorn, Motherwell and de Kooning—all hung at eye level with expansive white walls above. 

Equal billing is given to contemporary sculpture. Viola Frey’s glazed earthenware figure of a man, looming 10 feet high; the stoneware of Peter Voulkos resembling a rustic outdoor cooking vessel; a favorite of this science nerd, 20 lab specimen jars arranged on two glass shelves, each containing one labeled apple core soaking in vodka, the piece by Nayland Blake. 

In yet another gallery, like others named for a major donor, Jasper Johns’ forty-five years of master prints line the walls. The Seasons, a group of four intaglio prints, contains the same human shape amid changing muted colors and patterns. Gray Alphabets repeat the letters of the alphabet, in subtle tones, across a huge canvas. 

When your brain can’t squeeze in one more “piece of art,” there’s still more to do—eat, shop, stroll outside—the order is optional. The de Young Café carries Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto philosophy across the bay. Featuring the freshest products from local food artisans, the tastes created are as exciting as the artwork. Berkeley’s representatives include Acme Bakery and Peet’s coffee. Original salads, hearty soups and sandwiches—making a choice may be your hardest assignment. 

Even rainy mornings become sunny afternoons. Settle al fresco on the terrace below a cantilevered copper roof overlooking the Barbro Osher sculpture garden and original palm trees. While the redwoods might not compete with those in Muir Woods, the setting is peaceful and evocative. Take time to stroll the grounds, appreciating scattered ceramic apples, a giant safety pin and the Pool of Enchantment. 

At the de Young Store you’ll find artifacts representative of the permanent collections, like African baskets and masks, as well as the work of local artisans. If, like myself, you’re enchanted with the museum’s copper façade, you can take a piece of it home. Signature frames, bookmarks, jewelry and motifed t-shirts will keep your visit’s memories alive. 

When departure time looms you’ll realize that there are several collections you haven’t seen. Save them for the next time but the tower is a must. Ascend the elevator nine stories up to 360-degree views of Golden Gate Park and San Francisco. Look through perforations in the copper overhang and marvel at the arresting roof top design—I kept waiting for cars to appear in these rows of “lanes.” 

From Egypt, New Guinea, Africa to Mexico, the West Coast and California; from the secrets of the past to the innovations of the present—let your mind stretch, your feet tire and your taste buds tingle—plan a winter getaway to the de Young Museum. 

UC Berkeley dominated Berkeley’s land use news in 2005. 

The university ignited last year’s first fireworks on Jan. 3 when it formally unveiled its 1,300-page Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) through the year 2020—a plan that seeks to transform both the face of the campus itself and the shape of downtown Berkeley. 

The plan included 2.2 million square feet of projected new academic and administrative buildings, of which more than half will be constructed off-campus, both downtown and to the south of the campus. Also included were 2,600 new dormitory beds and up to 2,300 new parking spaces. 

The plan didn’t cover an additional 2 million square feet of new construction targeted for the university’s Richmond Field Station, where a joint academic/corporate research park is planned. 

The LRDP ignited a firestorm of criticism, both from city officials and from residents worried about the impacts of the expansion on their neighborhoods and streets, the impacts on local government and the possible threats to landmarked buildings. 

Under state law the university is exempt from local zoning regulations and city plans, and any land the university acquires is likewise exempt.  

And because the university doesn’t pay property taxes on land it owns or leases for academic uses, off-campus construction could mean additional revenue losses to the city and its school system—both of which have been struggling to find ways to avoid cuts to existing programs. 

A third concern for the city was the impacts on city services, including roads, sewers and emergency services. 

The city filed a lawsuit on Feb. 23, charging that the plan violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by willfully withholding crucial information about planned projects and by failing to offer adequate measures to minimize the expansion’s impact on the surrounding city. 

The city also sought $4.1 million annually from UC to help cover the actual costs of estimated $10.9 million in city services provided to the university. 

After negotiations with the university, the City Council voted to settled the suit on May 25, with three councilmembers whose districts would bear some of the heaviest impacts voting no: Dona Spring, Kriss Worthington and Betty Olds. 

The university agreed to increase annual contributions to city coffers to $1.2 million from the previous $500,000 and to join with the city to create a new downtown plan—which would not be binding for the school.  

The settlement sparked still more outrage, and at least two lawsuits, one of which was dismissed and is now on appeal and another which is still pending. 

The university agreed to contribute up to $250,000 to cover half the expenses of preparing the new downtown plan, though the university can cut its annual funds to the city by $180,000 if a final plan isn’t adopted within four years of the settlement date. 

The newly constituted Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee, formed after the settlement, held its first meeting on Nov. 21. 

Southeast campus plans 

University officials offered an outline on Feb. 3 of their plans for one phase of the southeast campus area expansion, when the controversy over the LRDP was already boiling. 

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau announced a $120 million renovation of the western wall of Memorial Stadium and plans for a new $100 million-plus “academic commons” building just across Piedmont Avenue that would provide space for programs of the Boalt Hall Law School and the Haas School of Business. 

The news prompted an angry response from Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, who was outraged that the university hadn’t shared its plans with the city before Birgeneau’s announcement.  

Further details emerged months later during a Nov. 10 press conference, where it was revealed that the stadium retrofit would include a 132,500-square-foot student athlete high performance center to be built next to the western wall and a complete seismic retrofit and upgrade of the stadium itself—which would include the addition of luxury sky boxes above the stadium rim, as well as permanent night lighting. 

Also included in the plans is a $60 million, 845-space underground parking lot to be built at the site of Maxwell Family Field to the north of the stadium. The playing field itself would be restored atop the facility. 

By the time of the press conference, costs for the academic commons building had escalated to between $140 million and $160 million. 

All funds for the stadium and academic commons projects, repeatedly hailed by university officials as “first class” and “four star” facilities, are to come from private donations.  

City Planning Director Dan Marks attended a preliminary CEQA scoping session on the project on Dec. 8, where he learned that the project was already entering the schematic phase of designs—which, he said, could render any input during the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) meaningless. 

Marks wrote a scathing 19-page response to the university’s plans, which was approved by the City Council and sent out under the signature of City Manager Phil Kamlarz. 

Among the faults cited by Marks were the university’s failure to provide the kind of specifics that would enable the city to prepare detailed, meaningful comments for consideration during preparation of the environmental impact report. 

His concerns included traffic impacts (both during and after construction), the university’s plans to rely on the broad traffic, air quality and other analyses in the LRDP rather than site-specific project examinations, the wisdom of new construction directly over the Hayward Fault, and impacts on officially recognized landmarks (including two buildings slated for demolition). 

Marks also argued that the EIR should be expanded to include Bowles Hall, a landmarked residential hall immediately north of Maxwell Family Field, that is one of two possible sites the business school is considering to house a non-credit program for business executives. 

The project, which is slated to begin construction in late fall, will no doubt continue to yield headlines in the new year. 

Downtown plans 

The university continues to move forward on two major projects planned for downtown Berkeley, a museum complex and a high-rise hotel to be built by a private developer on land the university already owns—part of a larger bloc of land between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue stretching from Center Street to University Avenue. 

While the university’s intention to develop the land is old news—negotiations with hoteliers have been going on for more than two years—the project took a major step forward in November when the school issued a call for a project design architect for the first of the museums and the new home for the Pacific Film Archive (PFA). 

As currently planned, the project would begin in May 2009, with the demolition of the landmark University Press Building at the southwest corner of Oxford and Center streets, along with the parking structure immediately to the north at the corner of Oxford and Allston Way. 

In their place would rise a structure that would house 35,000 square feet of gallery space for the UC Berkeley Art Museum and 11,000 square feet of theater/classroom space for the PFA and addition space for the film archive library. 

The new building would also include classrooms, staff offices, collection maintenance facilities, a retail bookstore, a restaurant and rooftop areas for public events. 

The Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission landmarked three buildings on the larger UC parcel in June 2004 after the university’s announcement of its intent to develop the property. 

Only one of the structures is within the bounds of the initial project area, the University Press Building, a 1939 structure where the original United Nations Charter was printed in 1945 for the signatures of delegates at the founding meeting in San Francisco. The landmark designations won’t stop development on the site, but CEQA requires that the university spell out its justifications for demolition. ?

While UC Berkeley projects dominated the politics of land use in the surrounding city, numerous other projects kept the city hopping in 2005. 

Brower memorials 

The year yielded mixed blessings for efforts to memorialize Berkeley-born environmentalist David Brower. 

On Sept. 8, the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) approved building permits for the David Brower Center, proposed for the southwest corner of the intersection of Oxford Street and Allston Way, along an associated all-affordable housing structure. 

The two buildings will be built on the site of the city’s Oxford Street parking lot. To compensate for the lost parking, plans include one level of underground parking. ZAB member Bob Allen, who said he liked the buildings, cast the lone dissenting vote because he wanted two levels of subterranean parking rather than one. 

With more fundraising needed, construction is still some ways off. 

The other Brower Memorial, a massive sculpture, fared less well. The 356,000-pound artwork, consisting on a massive sphere of blue Brazilian quartzite overlaid with bronze depictions of continents and islands and surmounted by a life-sized bronze depiction of Brower, had been first rejected in San Francisco before PowerBar creators Brian and Jennifer Maxwell offered it to Berkeley. 

Though championed by Mayor Tom Bates, the Civic Arts Commission rejected a series of potential sites in the face of opposition by the public, the city Parks and recreation Commission, UC Berkeley and the East Bay Regional Parks District. 

Eino, the sculptor, then contacted Kennesaw State University in Georgia, which enthusiastically embraced the sculpture. And if all goes as planned, Spaceship Earth will be unveiled in Georgia on Earth Day. 

Ashby BART 

Two major projects are planned for the Ashby BART station’s parking lots. 

The first, the Ed Roberts Center on the station’s eastern lot, has won all the necessary city approvals, and sponsors are now assembling the needed funding. The center, named after Berkeley’s most famous disability activist, will consolidate programs and services for the disabled in a state-of-the art building designed for universal access for people with disabilities. 

In the face of neighborhood opposition, the size of the project was scaled back and a number of parking spaces slated for elimination were restored. 

The second project, a housing-and-commercial building to be erected on the western lot, is only in the very preliminary stages. While some neighbors have gone on record in support of the project, others have expressed concerns that the state laws governing transit villages could create major and potentially adverse impacts on the surrounding neighborhood. 

West Berkeley Bowl 

While most West Berkeley residents and businesses agree that a full-service grocery store along the Ashby Avenue corridor is a good idea, many question Glen Yasuda’s plans to construct a major new Berkeley Bowl and warehouse at the corner of Ninth Street and Heinz Avenue. 

The 90,970-square-foot project comprises two buildings, a 99-space underground parking lot and an additional 102 surface spaces. It includes both a market and a warehouse that would serve both the new store and the existing store on Shattuck Avenue. 

Before the project can be approved, the city would have to amend both its General Plan and its Zoning Ordinance, which currently will not allow the project. 

Building rehabs 

The biggest private development planned for downtown Berkeley is a major rehabilitation and expansion of the Shattuck Hotel, built in 1910. 

Berkeley developer Roy Nee, who had received the blessings of the Landmarks Preservation Commission for his initial plans, put the project on hold in October because of a change of architects and a need to recalculate construction costs.  

Two other venerable Berkeley buildings underwent major renovations in 2005, the landmarked Gorman’s Furniture Building at 2500 Telegraph Ave. and a similar structure at 2956 College Ave., at the corner of Ashby Avenue. 

John Gordon, who owns the College Avenue building, has also proposed to move and rehabilitate two other landmarks, the John Woolley House at 2509 Haste St. and the Ellen Blood House at 2526 Durant Ave. Five-story housing-over-ground-floor-commercial developments are planned at both sites. 

Gordon also brokered the lease of yet another Berkeley landmark, the 1917 UC Theatre at 2036 University Ave. The Zoning Adjustments Board approved plans by Gloria Mendoza and Michael Govan to transform the spacious interior into a dinner theater and jazz club with combined seating for 600. The pair had previously operated Kimball’s East, a now-shuttered jazz club in Emeryville. 

Down by the station 

Three major projects are in development at or near the old Southern Pacific Railway station just south of University Avenue in West Berkeley. 

Construction on a $2.4 million transportation plaza at the landmarked railway station began in April and will provide access to rail, bus, paratransit and taxi service. 

The largest project, still in the planning stages, would occupy the rest of the block on which the station sits with four and five-story apartment/condo buildings with room for ground floor commercial spaces. Presented with two proposals to landmark buildings at the site, the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected one—Brennan’s Restaurant—and designated the other, the Celia’s Mexican Restaurant building, a structure of merit. 

While the City Council overturned the designation, the developer has yet to submit final plans on the 173-unit project. 

Just across the tracks to the west, developers Christopher Hudson and Evan McDonald have purchased the Drayage, a venerable sheet metal former storage building that until late in the year housed Berkeley artists in live/work units. 

After a deal by owner Lawrence White to sell the structure to developer Ali Kashani fell through, on April 19 city building and fire inspectors slapped White with fines for more than 200 code violations and an order to vacate the building. 

Many tenants refused to leave, triggering a lengthy process of negotiations that finally ended in the fall. The City Council agreed to a $45,000 settlement for the code violations early last month, clearing the way for the sale. 

The developers have declined comment about their plans for the site.  

Sold unbuilt 

Several major projects have changed hands even before construction started. 

The so-called Seagate Building, named after the original developer, is perhaps the single most controversial project now in the pipeline—a nine-story condominium project on Center Street, a half-block west of Shattuck Avenue. 

Seagate Center Partners, which planned the project and obtained the requisite permits, sold the property on May 18 to SNK Captec Arpeggio, LLC, a joint venture corporation between an Arizona builder and a Michigan financial company. 

ZAB members also gave their final approval Dec. 23 to another project that had been approved, then sold before construction. Patrick Kennedy’s Panoramic Interests and Jubilee Restoration had planned a project at 2700 San Pablo Ave., then sold the site and approvals to Curtis + Partners, LLC, of San Francisco in late 2004. 

Library Gardens, the residential complex under construction at 2020 Kittredge St., was placed on the market late in the year as construction neared the midway point. 

Failed project 

Plans to transform Berkeley’s Corporation Yard into a single-family housing tract collapsed within weeks after they surfaced. 

City officials had been meeting with representatives of Pulte Homes, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, on a proposal to relocate the Corporation Yard—a source of numerous complaints by neighbors—and replace it with housing. 

Word of negotiations leaked to the press in late November, and the developer pulled the plug on Nov. 25. City officials said the proposal foundered on the high costs of finding a replacement site in West Berkeley. 

Scaled back 

After the Berkeley Unified School District held a lengthy public participation process to formulate plans for development on the largely abandoned West Campus site, the district opted instead for a much reduced plan. 

The board chose to rehabilitate existing buildings on the eastern section of the site and to construct a small classroom and administrative addition to the existing auditorium building. 

In the pipeline for 2006 

Other projects which will continue in the new year include: 

• The Grove, a five-story residential-over-commercial project at 1695 University Ave. that would include a Trader Joe’s store. ZAB members have let developers Christopher Hudson and Evan McDonald know that they are not happy with their current plans for the site. The developers are scheduled to present new plans early this year. 

• 740 Heinz Avenue, where Wareham Properties plans to demolish a landmarked warehouse and replace it with a laboratory and manufacturing building. The developer has agreed to scale back plans after residents of the nearby artists’ live/work building at 800 Heinz raised objections. 

• Gilman Fields, where final approvals were granted to construct the first of a series of ballfields being jointly developed along the shoreline at the foot of Gilman Street by the City of Berkeley and the East Bay Regional Parks District. 

• University Senior Housing, 1535 University Ave., a four-story project devoted entirely to seniors earning from 30-60 percent of the Oakland-area average median income, with rents ranging from $435 to $931 monthly. Construction of the highly praised project by Berkeley-based Satellite Housing is now underway. 

Redevelopment tabled 

North Oakland residents successfully derailed—at least for now—a plan that would have created a redevelopment district extending south from the Berkeley border. 

The project, located in the council district of Oakland Vice Mayor Jane Brunner, was formally unveiled at a public meeting on May 9, only to be greeted with withering suspicion of the large majority of speakers. Two weeks later the plan had been shelved—at least for the time being. 

Albany projects 

In October, Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso unveiled preliminary sketches of the open-air shopping mall he wants to build on the northwestern parking lot of Golden Gate Fields. 

The developer has teamed with Magna Entertainment, the Canadian corporation which operates some of the nation’s most famous horse racing venues, to build malls at their California tracks. Albany voters will have the final say about the project under a law that requires a referendum on all waterfront developments. 

The second major Albany project to surface this year comes from Safeway, which proposes to demolish its 1500 Solano Ave. store and replace it with a new store and some 40 units of condominiums. The plan drew mixed reviews when presented to neighbors in November..

The biggest story in Oakland in 2005 was a story not actually scheduled to take place until 2006: the race to succeed Jerry Brown as mayor. 

Oakland mayors are now limited to two terms, and after eight years in office, Brown is running for California attorney general in the Democratic primary in June. 

Two Oakland City Councilmembers opened up campaigns in 2005 to run for Oakland mayor: Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and West Oakland Councilmember Nancy Nadel. A number of other candidates also began campaigns for the office, including Alameda County Treasurer Don White and Oakland Unified School District Advisory Board members Dan Siegel and Greg Hodge. 

Many local news outlets immediately dubbed De La Fuente as the “front runner” in the mayoral race. However, private polls indicated that voter support in the city was fairly equally divided between De La Fuente and Nadel, and Oakland’s political road seemed to point toward a campaign showdown between the two long-time councilmembers beginning in January. 

All that changed in the middle of 2005 when an ad hoc group of black Oakland political activists, led by Oakland Black Caucus Chair Geoffrey Pete, surveyed the field of Oakland mayoral candidates and found that there was no one they wanted to support. The group set what seemed in the spring of last year to be an impossible task: getting former 9th District Congressmember Ron Dellums to come out of political retirement, move back to his Oakland hometown from Washington, D.C., and run for mayor. 

Gradually joined by a broader coalition of Latino, Asian, white progressive, and labor activists, the group spent the summer and fall in what amounted to a political campaign before the mayoral election campaign: gathering petitions, passing out leaflets, and putting up posters throughout the city, all designed to convince Dellums to run. 

In mid-October, in one of the more dramatic political moments in recent memory, Dellums told an auditorium of cheering supporters at the Laney College Auditorium that he would run for Oakland mayor. With several of the other candidates dropping out after Dellums’ announcement, 2005 ended in anticipation of a three-way race for the mayor’s office between the former Congressmember Dellums and the two City Councilmembers, Nadel and De La Fuente. 

Brown’s run for attorney general 

The second major Oakland story of 2005 was Mayor Jerry Brown’s scramble to come up with enough political capital to carry with him into his 2006 primary run for California attorney general against Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. 

Brown came to office in 1999 on the twin promises to revive Oakland’s comatose downtown retail corridor and to make the city safer. By the beginning of 2005, neither of those campaign promises had been completed. 

In the 1998 mayoral campaign, Brown set a goal of bringing 10,000 new residents into the downtown area, with the promise that retailers would follow the influx of new money and rebuild stores in an area they had long abandoned. That 10,000-new-resident-retail-revival goal was summed up in Brown’s campaign slogan of “10K.” 

In mid-2005, ABC news reported that 5,800 of the 6,000 residential units needed to meet Brown’s 10K goal had either been completed or were under way. But two and a half years into the mayor’s second term in office, the promised retail had not materialized. 

Political and media focus on that missing retail component focused on the Forest City Project, a mixed retail-housing development proposal designed to bring 655 housing units—and accompanying retail outlets—to the so-called “uptown” portion of Oakland’s downtown around the area of 20th Street encompassing the Paramount and Fox theaters. Brown had pushed for several years to get project approval through City Council, and ground was finally broken in mid-December. 

But the Forest City Project comes with a steep price tag, at least $54.4 million in reported subsidies from the City of Oakland. And whether or not the Forest City developers will be successful in attracting retail to Oakland’s uptown will not be determined until long after Jerry Brown has left the mayor’s seat in 2006, and the bills have come due for Oakland taxpayers. 

Jack London malaise 

The media and political focus on development in downtown Oakland obscured another development story in the city, significant backward steps in the area of Oakland’s downtown where retail had been having some success: the Jack London Square area. 

In late October, according to a Daily Planet survey, of 26 commercial addresses between Jack London Square and Fourth Street on Broadway, four appeared to be long-term vacancies, three were closed and undergoing renovations, and two office complexes had listed vacancies for several weeks. 

The Oakland Tribune followed up on that story in late December with a report on developments in Jack London Square itself, once owned entirely by the City of Oakland, but parts of which were sold to private developers by the Port of Oakland Commission dom-inated by Jerry Brown appointees. “Since San Francisco-based Ellis Partners won the city’s approval to remake the waterfront district into a bustling retail center,” the Tribune reported, “more businesses have closed than opened.” 

While the Tribune article quoted Ellis Partners representatives as saying that the retail closures were simply a prelude to the eventual remake, the story included an ominous footnote: plans for a new movie theater in the Jack London Square parking lot near the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero were stalling, with an Ellis representative saying that “the land might be used to house offices.” 

Police matters 

Public safety, another Brown promise, also took a turn for the worse in 2005. 

In November 2004, Oakland voters passed a bond measure dividing up new money between hiring extra police officers and funding violence prevention measures. But funding for violence prevention stalled as Oakland City Councilmembers decided how to actually spend the money, and the 63 new police officers authorized a year ago under Measure Y have yet to be hired. 

Meanwhile, the ultimate measure of public safety—murders—rose from 88 in 2004 to 94 in 2005 in Oakland. The murder rate increase was sparked by 22 homicides between Nov. 1 and the end of the year, including one triple homicide in East Oakland in December. The Oakland Tribune also reported that other violent crime indicators in the city rose significantly: assaults with guns were up 45 percent, while robberies rose 30 percent. 

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Storm-related calls have kept Berkeley firefighters hopping over the past week, said Assistant Fire Chief Lucky Thomas. 

The most dramatic call came last Wednesday, bringing crews to 439 Arlington Ave., where a massive backyard tree had blown down on top of the house, with part of the limbs coming to rest on the neighboring home at 451 Arlington. 

“We evacuated the residents from 439 and turned off the gas,” said Thomas. “We determined there was no danger to the residents of 451.” 

As of late Monday afternoon, the department had responded to 130 calls over the three-day weekend, with the largest number of calls—64—coming on Saturday, Thomas said. 

It was Saturday when the firefighters from the Lawrence Berkeley Lab arrived at 1439 Grizzly Peak Blvd. in response to a call of a mudslide on private property. 

A crew from the city’s Public Works Department determined there was no imminent danger to life or property and reached the same conclusion again Monday after a report of more movement. 

Also on Saturday, firefighters and Public Works responded to a call at 1337 La Loma Ave. 

Erosion from the storms had opened a sinkhole in front of the residence which closed the sidewalk and caused part of the home’s foundation to collapse, Thomas said. 

Mudslides also closed Grizzly Peak Boulevard between Centennial and Fish Ranch roads. 

One neighborhood Internet report listed 20 mudslides on Tunnel Road across the Oakland border, including one that buried the roadway under 12 feet of the sticky stuff.

City officials, commissioners and the public spent much of 2005 not only debating the politics of development and land use but formulating proposals for new laws governing both new development and existing construction. 

One of the thorniest issues confronting Berkeley policymakers is the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, which has become a weapon of last resort for opponents of major construction projects. 

Developers claim the law is abused by NIMBY types, while landmarks advocates argue the ordinance is a last refuge against projects that threaten the historic character of neighborhoods. 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission, the council-appointed panel that administers the ordinance, spent two years revising the existing law, while the Planning Commission drew up its own version over a period of months, which it approved on May 25. 

Mayor Tom Bates introduced his own proposals on Nov. 30, and the City Council has scheduled a Jan. 17 workshop to consider the three alternatives. 

Other revisions 

The city is also considering revisions to other controversial codes. 

Members of the Zoning Adjustments Board, frustrated that city regulations would have allowed the so-called Seagate Building downtown to climb to 14 stories under provisions that grant bonus space for projects with art space and inclusionary units at a reduced price to low-income qualified buyers, formed a committee to look at the bonuses. The panel held its first meeting May 11. 

Repeated complaints about the city’s by-right addition ordinance has also led the city to ask planning commissioners to come up with revisions. Under existing law homeowners can add up to 500-square-feet to their homes without a use permit that would require notification of neighbors. 

The issue first surfaced at an April 14 meeting of the Zoning Adjustments Board, and in October, City Councilmembers Betty Olds and Gordon Wozniak offered separate proposals for revisions. The council referred the matter to the Planning Commission on Dec. 13. 

The city passed a “soft story” ordinance in October, requiring owners of residential structures with seismically unsafe ground floors—usually parking areas—to submit engineering reports on their buildings and notify tenants that their buildings are vulnerable in a major temblor. 

The city as yet has no mechanism for mandating retrofits, a project it will consider as the new year unfolds. 

The council has also created a task force to develop proposals to revise the city’s creeks ordinance, which regulates construction on and over the city’s many creeks—many of which flow through aging buried culverts. 

For owners of 2,400 homes and other structures directly affected, the issue is determining what they can and can’t do if there’s a creek within 30 feet of buildings they own.›

Berkeley Gray Panther founder Lillian Rabinowitz died Wednesday, Dec. 21 at the age of 94. She lived at Chapparal House in Berkeley for the last few years. 

A dynamic woman, she began in 1972 to organize the Gray Panthers in the East Bay, went on to found the Over 60 Clinic and sponsored the National Conference on Single Payer Health Care held at UC Berkeley in 1989, as well as many other projects and events. She received many honors over the years. 

Her three children are making plans for her memorial to be held in the spring of 2006. She asked that contributions in her name be given to the Berkeley Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St., Berkeley, CA 94702. For more information call 548-9696. 

— Margot Smith  

Berkeley East Bay Gray Panthers

“Do I have to be a grandmother to come?” was the first question asked by recipients of an e-mail invitation signed by Pat Cody (co-founder, Cody’s Books, EB Women for Peace, DES Action), Clare Fischer (GTU Professor of Religion and Culture ), Marge Lasky (DVC Emerita, History), Joan Levinson (Media Consultant), Sydney Carson (CCA, Professor of Dramatic Arts), and Rita Maran (UC lecturer on Human Rights). 

The answer was, “We define the term ‘grandmother’ as a concept of love, all embracing; biology, gender, and age don’t matter.”  

Inspired by reports of groups like Raging Grannies, Grandmothers for Peace and other groups around the nation, 23 women met in a South Berkeley home on Dec. 11. Marge Lasky facilitated, standing beside an easel holding sheets of newsprint on which she had listed a simple agenda.  

First on the agenda were self-introductions: name and brief summary of activist experience. Many of the names sounded familiar if you’d been in the Bay Area for a while, and some of the women knew each other from working together before. The list of their affiliations and experiences sounded like a roster of half a century of civil rights, anti-nuclear, feminist, health, and anti-war organizations. 

“Keep that sign-up sheet moving,” said Lasky. “Don’t forget to write your e-mail address.” 

The group moved quickly into item two: a session of brainstorming. Off the tops of their well-stocked heads, women called out possible aims, strategies, actions, connections, and outreach strategies, all aimed at bringing an end to the Iraq War. 

Thoughts were boiled down to a word or two by a SFSU professor who scribbled with felt-top pens onto more sheets of newsprint. As she filled each sheet, one woman or another stepped up to tear it off and stick it to it to a window or a wall. Soon the group was surrounded by brightly colored lists of long range plans, ongoing projects to join, original immediate actions, aims, hopes, pitfalls, and possibilities. 

Now surrounded by their raw thoughts, the women were ready to identify and discuss their priorities. 

“We need a steering committee to screen suggestions, or we’ll spend all day e-mailing one another.” 

“I’m not one for attending a lot of meetings!” 

“But we need enough meetings to get to know each other.” 

“We need to schedule one short-range action and start planning now or we’ll lose momentum.” 

“Need a steering committee for that too.” 

“Someone has to work on nationwide hook-ups with other groups and media coverage. We have to think big or we’ll get nowhere.” 

“Who has media contacts? Who knows how to write a good press release?” 

“And letter-writing. Not just e-mail, hard copy.” 

“I’m already spending 20 minutes every day signing e-mail petitions!” 

“Is anybody getting all this down?” 

“Me. And give me the sign-up sheets too. I’m no good at writing letters, but I’m well-organized.” 

“How about Valentine’s Day for a group action?” 

“Anyone know a good First Amendment lawyer?” 

“Who’s going to do posters and flyers to hand out?” 

“How about this slogan for Valentine’s Day?” Helen Isaacson paused dramatically. “WE LOVE OUR TROOPS AND WANT THEM BACK HOME!” 

Finally the group was minutes from adjournment, time for the last item on the agenda: naming the group. Having thrashed out aims and actions for nearly two hours, the women were less likely to get bogged down on choice of words although—this being Berkeley—there were some strong opinions on semantics. Fairly quickly the majority voted to go with Joan Levinson’s insistence on “a strong statement, a tough statement of opposition. We’re against the war!” 

Then the women gave a final proof of long experience in activism by briskly cleaning up traces of paper cups and cookie crumbs before leaving, satisfied with having chosen: 

1. A name, Bay Area Grandmothers Against the War. 

2. A coordinating committee, to receive questions, suggestions for actions, agenda items for future meetings, etc. 

3. A date, Feb. 14, for an action at military recruiting centers. 

4. A steering committee for the Valentine’s Day action, to meet again within days for planning. 

5. A date for another general meeting early in January. 

Anyone interested in further information about the upcoming meeting and/or in joining can contact bayareagrandmothers@yahoo.com. 

To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit  

www.jfdefreitas.com To search for previous cartoons by date of publication, click on the Daily Planet Archive.



CINDY SHEEHAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was surprised and pleased to find the recent commentary on Mrs. Sheehan in the Daily Planet. Especially surprised, for I lost hope for my hometown of Berkeley years ago due to the prevalent so-called liberal cant. But it is evident some Berkeleyans have a brain, and even if just a transient college student, the author of this piece has earned a hearty “bravo.” It was a balanced piece, and did not take cuts at the grieving mother but instead gave her credit exactly where it was due. 

Don Teeter  

Orangevale 

• 

IMPEACHMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Never mind impeachment; FISA calls for five years in prison. Our slogan should be “Five more years.” I’m sure the striped suit will fit him as well as the uniform he wore to celebrate “Mission Accomplished.” 

Gilbert Bendix 

• 

POINT MOLATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Kenyon’s piece on Point Molate was wonderful. Thank you for publishing articles such as this. Indeed, it is soon to be a vanished landscape, a landscape of romantic decay perhaps, but quiet, and the views are glorious. It should be part of the East Shore Park system. As Kenyon suggests, go now, especially in a storm when clouds make silver-gray patterns on the water, before it becomes a brightly lit hotel-casino, surrounded by paved parking lots and all the weeds are gone.  

Susan Cerny  

• 

WIRELESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read in the Daily Planet that the Berkeley City Council is studying wireless Internet for Berkeley. 

Won’t wireless Internet give us cancer, like wireless cell phone antennas? 

Myrna Sokolinsky 

• 

STUDENT FEES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The article entitled “Fee Increases Impact Peralta Community Colleges” (Daily Planet, Dec. 23), which states that there was a 1.33 percent decline in enrollment throughout the California Community College system, should not be a big surprise to either faculty nor students nor the Board of Governors for the California Community Colleges as a decline in enrollment was predicted when fees were increased. On Nov. 4, 2003, the Board of Governors issued a report which said that 175,000 community college students were being denied access because of the increase in tuition. The actual resulting “missing students” reported in your article (314,000) almost doubles that predicted amount. Kin Kwok, a Laney College art student, created “The Missing Student Project.” An exhibition of this work which was displayed in Sacramento as a protest to the rise in tuition is on display at the June Steingart Gallery at Laney College. I urge all who are interested in student activism, creativity and art to attend this important exhibition which runs until Jan. 24. 

Meryl Siegal 

Laney College English instructor 

• 

TOOKIE WILLIAMS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Columnist P.M. Price suggests that people would have more “sympathy” for multiple-murderer Tookie Williams if the media would only publish more cute photos of Tookie as a little boy. Well, how about more photos of the four murder victims, lying in pools of their own blood as they’re dying, as Tookie laughs and brags about it. How about photos of the victim’s family and the years of agony they endured. We’ve seen plenty of photos of cute little Tookie in the media. But we haven’t seen too many photos of the victims and their families, have we?  

Peter Labriola 

• 

BY-RIGHT ADDITIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We write to express our vehement opposition to the proposal put forward by Council member Betty Olds that would eliminate 499 square feet of by-right additions above the first floor. 

This change to city law would be deeply disturbing on many levels. We believe that ending by-right additions would effectively strip every single homeowner in Berkeley of an important right with minimal notice and virtually no consultation. Other likely effects are: slowing the already glacial pace of the permit process, raising the cost of permits, adding more workload to the overburdened Planning Department and transferring even more power away from owners to self-serving neighbors. Requiring an AUP for every addition will mean young families or people with older parents will be forced to wait, sometimes for years, for their permit to add a small amount of needed space. 

The ending of by-right additions would be a negative, backward looking attempt to freeze a status quo in Berkeley that is idealized by some, mainly those who happened to have purchased their property before their neighbors did. Reality and the experiences of a great many people show that the AUP process in Berkeley is badly broken. In theory having all parties consult and agree on every project sounds grand, however, in practice the AUP process tends to pit neighbor against neighbor in a bitter, drawn out struggle that in some ways seems to be encouraged and exacerbated by the City’s Planning Department. Many people nowadays, unfortunately, are too quick to hire lawyers and to cynically manipulate the public consultation process so as to cause maximum damage and pain when a project is built that is not to their liking.  

If there are specific abuses, why not address them directly? We all know that views are a difficult issue; however, it is obvious that no one person can “own” a view and that views must in some sense be shared. We know that is easy to say and hard to do, but we believe it can be done. It would be a bad idea to end this important safety valve in the building permit process. 

Aleyda and Alan Swain 

• 

THEN AND NOW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a Berkeley High grad (1977), and proud of it. Ms. Carolyn Sellers’ comparison (Daily Planet, Dec. 27) of her apparent dream life in 1967 and the nightmare she envisions Berkeley being today reveals that she is out of touch with the possibilities of today’s Berkeley and blind to the deprivations of her glory days in the mid-1960s. 

A few comparisons: 

Then: A mostly segregated school system. 

Now: A district trying hard to bridge the achievement gap. 

Then: Land adjacent to the bay used as a dump. 

Now: Parks from the bay bridge to Richmond. 

Then: Oscar’s was fine dining 

Now: Are you kidding? 

Then: The Berkeley Gazette opposed “fair housing” laws and school integration 

Now: The Daily Planet, Internet and other entities give a voice to many viewpoints. 

Ms. Sellers, cheer up. Even though parking can be hard to find in our wonderful town, positive changes (and parking spots) are present if you have an open mind and awareness of what is around you. 

Paul Lecky 

• 

PLANET POEM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your holiday issues were a warm, welcome break 

(more rich than Virginia Avenue chocolate cake) 

from the pleonastic ranters whose blame- throwing threnody 

rebukes Palestinians or scolds Patrick Kennedy. 

David Altschul 

• 

DUMB VOTERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Arnold was absolutely correct on the recent nurses flap. No wonder that California is the first in the nation to mandate nurse staffing by state law. No other state is that ridiculous. Such assignments should be between a hospital and the nurses, not Sacramento. Hospital people know how to run hospitals, not politicians. The nurse’s union was so brazen that they took the dispute to the firmly-in-pocket Legislature to establish feather bedding as state law, and Gov. Davis, of course, signed it. At the same time it is a sop to the litigation locusts. If anyone dies in a hospital, they can whip out their form lawsuit and say it was because five not six nurses were on duty. The state law says so. California voters are the world’s dumbest.  

W. O. Locke.  

Emeryville 

In 18th century Russia, Grigori Potemkin purportedly tried to impress Catherine the Great by building elaborate fake villages along a route she traveled in Crimea and the Ukraine. Today, “Potemkin village” signifies a showy false front intended to hide embarrassing or disgraceful conditions. Sad to say, that description fits the project that the City Council endorsed Dec. 13 when it voted 8-0-1 (Spring abstained) to support an application from the city, in partnership with the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation (SBNDC), for a $120,00 California Department of Transportation Community-Based Transportation Grant. The money would be used to plan a 300-unit “transit village” at the Ashby BART west parking lot, where the city controls the air rights.  

Transit villages are dense, mixed-use developments located at transit hubs and stations. Promoted by advocates of “smart growth”—when it comes to wordsmithing, you have to hand it to these folks—transit villages are supposed to discourage commuting and fight sprawl. The one at Ashby BART, we are told, will also provide affordable workforce housing; revitalize the neighborhood economy without gentrifying it; and repair the gaping hole that the Ashby BART station tore into the urban fabric of the south Shattuck area.  

Unfortunately, there are giant gaps here between rhetoric and reality. A full inventory of the stratagems at work would fill several pages of the Daily Planet. I want to focus on one ploy that’s central to the Caltrans grant proposal: creating the illusion of community involvement and support.  

The application asserts that the project has had “public participation from the start,” thereby “dramatically improving the potential for the entitlements to be awarded without the public acrimony, lawsuits, delays and uncertainty that plague many projects.” The fact is that until an article appeared in the Dec. 13 Planet, only a handful of individuals in the south Shattuck area had even heard about plans for a transit village at Ashby BART. Yet E-mails from BART planner Nashua Kalil indicate that BART and city staff had started working with the project’s main sponsors, Councilmember Max Anderson and SBNDC representative Ed Church, at least as early as last July.  

The stealth factor becomes even more blatant once you learn that the grant application was filed with Caltrans on Oct. 14—two months before the item appeared on the council’s agenda! Ordinarily, grant applications must be approved by the council before they’re submitted to a grantor. As an excuse for this admittedly irregular procedure, the staff memo accompanying the application says that “the grant opportunity was discovered at a very late date, and there was no opportunity for advance council review.” Ed Church has told me that he found out about the grant program two weeks before the Oct. 14 deadline. City Manager Phil Kamlarz brings last-minute, off-agenda items to the council when he chooses. Why didn’t he bring the Caltrans grant to the council at its Oct. 11 meeting, three days before the application was due? Even supposing that for some good reason the item couldn’t get onto the Oct. 11 agenda, why did it take two months and seven more council meetings for it to come up for review?  

Let me suggest an explanation: Messrs. Kamlarz, Anderson and Church did what they could to keep the public from learning about the Caltrans grant application because they knew that once word got out about a 300-unit transit village at Ashby BART, a lot of people in the south Shattuck community would be alarmed. Up to a point, their subterfuges worked: on the evening of Dec. 13, the council chamber was virtually empty. Only two speakers at public comment addressed the Ashby BART grant. Their concerns were essentially brushed aside by the council majority.  

The eight who voted to support the project will have a harder time blowing off the community at large. To judge from the letters that have appeared in the Planet since Dec. 13, neighbors of Ashby BART are angry about being left in the dark. The stealth planning aside, many people are also incensed by the project’s massive size. Others, noting that the project area extends in a half-mile radius beyond the parking lot, see the transit village as a stalking-horse for redevelopment and eminent domain. Still others are worried that surrounding neighborhoods will be upzoned for higher density, as provided for by California’s 1994 Transit Village Development Planning Act (authored by then-Assemblyman Tom Bates). They fear that sometime early in 2006 the council will pull another fast one and suddenly declare the South Shattuck Strategic Plan a transit village plan, as per the terms of Assemblywoman Loni Hancock’s AB 691, enacted into law last fall and scheduled to sunset at the end of this year.  

At the Dec. 13 meeting, one of the speakers at public comment, Jackie DeBose, asked the council to direct the city manager to withdraw the SBNDC application and to use the staff time that has been dedicated to this proposal to set up a genuine community-based planning process for development at the Ashby BART station. The city could incorporate the ideas that came out of such a process into a new proposal and apply for the same Caltrans grant next fall. Her appeal was ignored. How would the council treat the same request if it came from a mobilized south Shattuck citizenry? Let’s hope we have a chance to find out—the sooner the better, because this train is about to leave the station.  

Neighborhood associations in the south Shattuck area have scheduled a panel discussion about the SBNDC grant proposal, transit villages and related matters for Tuesday, Jan.17, at the South Berkeley Senior Center (2939 Ellis St., at Ashby Avenue). The event will begin at 7 p.m. Background material, including the text of the SBNDC proposal, can be viewed on the Neighbors of Ashby BART website (http://nabart.com/).

January 2005: A former child star and talented song and dance man, but now a drug addled nincompoop, throws a rock at our upstairs front window and smashes the pane. I climb onto the porch roof to access the damage and find an entire quarry, leftovers from the times he missed. It is a double-pane window and he has broken only the front layer. Due to monetary restraints, I don’t replace it. 

February 2005: The former child star strolls through our back door when no one is looking and breaks furniture. I rearrange tables and chairs to hide the obvious and tell all residents of our home to keep the doors locked.  

March 2005: I take down the photo collage hanging in our upstairs hallway. It is a collection of memorabilia from the early ‘60s, when the man was well known as a child star. In one of the photographs he is shaking hands with R&B star Jackie Wilson, and in another he is dressed in a custom-made tuxedo, shiny dance shoes on his feet, a microphone held in his hands, a million-dollar smile across his face. 

April 2005: Our van’s rear right tire is flat. It must be replaced. 

May 2005: The van’s rear left tire is flat. It must be replaced. 

June 2005: The front passenger side tire is flat and must also be replaced. I’m now on a first name basis with the manager of the Firestone store. We decide someone is puncturing the tires. I park the car in the driveway. 

July 2005: Rear right tire flat again, but this time I discover a sliver of wood stuck in the valve. Conclusion: The man who used to be a child star. Solution: Call AAA and get reinflated.  

August 2005: The man breaks a small pane in the stain glass window of our front door. This is the window my husband designed and made before his bicycling accident, when he could still use his arms and legs. I call the police, cover the hole with duct tape, cry a little.  

September 2005: One night at 2 a.m. the man sticks his hand through the tape, unlocks the front door, and enters our house. I find him watching television upstairs in the back bedroom. I tell him to leave and he does. I summon the police. They say they will pick him up for breaking and entering but, apparently, they can’t find him even though I continue to see him frequently around the neighborhood. I cover the door with plywood. We go into lock-down mode, keeping the front and back doors chained and bolted at all times. Andrea, the man’s former girlfriend, and my husband’s live-in home health aid, pushes furniture against doors and hangs cowbells on knobs so we can hear them jingle if someone fiddles with them. We keep the shades drawn, and ask our neighbors to call the police if they see him. “The short, fat bald guy with the big mouth?” they ask. “Yes,” I tell them. 

October 2005: He rings our doorbell and runs away. Andrea calls friends to accompany her to the nearby liquor store when she needs to buy cigarettes and lottery tickets. When there is no one available to walk with her, she takes our miniature Schnauzer, Whiskers. Whiskers weighs only 15 pounds and due to old age and poor diet she has lost most of her teeth, but she hates the former child star and on occasion has been known to attack his ankles.  

November 2005: The former child star shows up outside our house on Thanksgiving Day to wish us a joyous holiday. I tell him to go away. 

December 2005: Two thousand, four hundred and fifty-seven prank phone calls at all hours of the day and night finally take their toll. I tell Andrea she must get a restraining order, or leave. Her mother rents a car, takes her to the courthouse, and gets it done. He is not allowed within 200 yards of our house. 

Happy New Year!

Famed folk singer Odetta and award-winning lyric baritone Robert Sims will be featured along with Ghanaian drummer Pope Flyne and pianist-arranger Jacqueline Hairston in Sunday’s “Let The Spirituals Roll On,” a concert and fundraiser for Friends of Negro Spirituals at Oakland’s historic Beth Eden Baptist Church. 

“Odetta’s what we call a heritage keeper,” said Sam Edwards, co-founder of Friends of Negro Spirituals. “She does not see herself as a singer of spirituals, but as a folk singer, and spirituals as folk music. Yet she’s been recording spirituals since 1953, and sings them in free combination with other songs, unlike the practice of most African-American concert singers, who reserve spirituals for the last third of a concert. There are many who are indebted to her pioneering ways, her charisma—and the force with which she performs. Odetta tends to concentrate on that variety that could be called ‘freedom spirituals.’ Her voice fills the room, with a power she says ‘comes from the strength of slaves.” 

Odetta has been widely praised by those she has influenced. Bob Dylan said, “The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta [in 1956.] I heard a record of hers in a record store ... Right then and there I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustic guitar.” Harry Belafonte said, “Few ... possess that fine understanding of a song’s meaning which transforms it from a melody into a dramatic experience. Odetta, who has influenced me greatly in this area of dramatic interpretation, is just such an artist.” 

Odetta recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of her performing career, which began with the Hollywood Turnabout Theatre. She has recorded 28 albums, including “Christmas Spirituals” (1960) and last year’s “Gonna Let It Shine.” The first touring and recording solo female artist of blues, folk, work and protest songs, Odetta took part in the Civil Rights Movement, including the Selma march, sang at the 1963 March On Washington, co-starred in Bay Area filmmaker John Korty’s 1974 hit TV film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 1999 by Bill Clinton. 

Odetta will be accompanied by pianist Seth Farber, rather than her own guitar.  

Sims, a classical singer who has performed internationally, has dedicated himself to singing spirituals. Based in Chicago, the lyric baritone made his Carnegie Hall debut last year. 

“He’s a rousing performer with a luxuriant voice,” said Edwards. “Many think of him as the successor to Paul Robeson, who was also a hero to Odetta.” 

Flyne, Ghanaian master drummer, teaches at St. Mary’s College and has been associated with Friends of Negro Spirituals the past year. “His drumming enables us to make African ceremony and tribute to the ancestors,” Edwards said. 

Hairston, a pianist, educator and composer/arranger, is an ASCAP member who began choral conducting as a child prodigy in South Carolina. “She has arranged spirituals for concert for many prominent opera singers,” Edwards said. 

Friends of Negro Spirituals was co-founded by Edwards and Lyvonne Chrisman in November 1998. Inspired by the spiritual “Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho” as performed by Moses Hogan, the Friends focus on the preservation of spirituals. 

“Our primary means,” Edwards said, “is through educational forums every quarter, as well as concerts, like ‘Amazing Journeys--Following The North Star with the Underground Railroad,’ or ‘Paul Robeson and Negro Spirituals.’” 

The group has worked with the West Oakland Senior Center and the Outreach Program and African American Center of the San Francisco Library. They also publish a semi-annual journal, The Negro Spiritual, and promote videos and CDs. At the end of June each year, they host a Negro Spirituals Heritage Day to celebrate Bay Area contributions to the long and continued life of spirituals. They recently honored jazz pianist Bill Bell. 

“At the forums, we sing the spirituals and discuss them, an intellectual and experiential presentation,” Edwards continued. “At the concerts, the audience is invited to join in, to sing together on a spiritual or two. Spirituals have changed, been reworked to fit many different styles. They’ve been printed as sheet music and sung in concerts of classical music. But the words are the same as they were on the plantation. They’ve always been a way to galvanize the community, provide healing, hope and some feeling of power for those who couldn’t talk freely, but could sing.”

TUESDAY, JAN. 3 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Greek Stones Speak” Travel photography lecture with Don Lyons at 7 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Free. 654-1548.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

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

Ellen Hoffman Trio and singer’s open mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Courtableu at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

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

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

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

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

Ahmad Jamal at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, JAN. 5 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Word Beat Reading Series with Ann Cohen and Clive Matson at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. 526-5985. 

John Oliver Simon at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Nomad Spoken Word Night at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Emam & Friends at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Irene Sazer’s Real Vocal String Quartet at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Fourtet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is. $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Silver Fox Trio, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Guitar Summit with Will Bernard, Paul Mehling and Ken Emerson at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Ahmad Jamal at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, JAN. 6 

THEATER 

“Walkin’ Talkin’ Bill Hawkins ... In Search of My Father” performed by W. Allen Taylor at 7 p.m. at the Marsh-Berkeley, 2118 Allston Way. Tickets are $15-$22. 800-838-3006. 

Shotgun Players “Cabaret” Thurs. - Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Through Jan. 29. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Luthier’s An exhibtion of tradition guitar and ukulele making at the Addison Street Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St., through Jan. 15. 981-7533. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“A Journey to Sacred Places” with photographer Jasper Johal at 6 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. 843-2787. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dance Production 2006 at 8 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Allston Way. Tickets are $5 students, $10 adults. 

Freddie Roulette & Friends, blues, funk, at 9 p.m. at Baltic Square Pub, 135 Park Pl., Pt. Richmond. 527-4782. 

Choz & The ChoZen Music Fam at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Susan Muscarella Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$15. 701-1787. 

Lua at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Steve Gannon Blue Monday Band at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Raw Deluxe, Psychokinetics, Mickey Avalon at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Cost is $5-$8. 548-1159.  

Opie Bellas Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Grapefruit Ed at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Mike Marshall & Chris Thile, mandolin at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Stephen Yerkey and Kurt Huget at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Municipal Waste, Bury the Living, Killed in Action at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Ahmad Jamal at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JAN. 7 

CHILDREN 

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with EarthCapades, environmental vaudeville, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“A Political Journey” Paintings by Roger Van Ouytsel opens at La Peña Cultural Center, and runs through Jan. 27. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Edward Weston: Masterworks from the Collection” with over fifty photographs on display through June 11, at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-3402. www.museumca.org 

“New Beginnings” A group show of works by Bay Area artists in a benefit for victims of domestic violence opens at 6 p.m. at a Fusao Studios, 646 Kennedy St., Suite 108. 436-5797. www.afusaostudios.com 

“Claim the World of Art as Our Own” opens at Pro Arts, 550 Second St., Oakland. www.proartsgallery.org 

FILM 

“Shortcut to Nirvana” a documentary about the Kumbha Mela festival in India with a conversation with the director at 8 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. 843-2787. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Martin Eden” A dramatic reading of Jack London’s novel in celebration of his birthday by Page to Stage Theater Company at 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. 272-0120. 

Bay Area Poets Coalition Open Reading at 3 p.m. at Strawberry Creek Lodge, 1320 Addison St. Please park on the street. 527-9905. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dance Production 2006 at 8 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Allston Way. Tickets are $5 students, $10 adults. 

The Sarabande Ensemble, early Italian music, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. http://trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Healing Muses “A Musical Tapestry” Traditional Renaissance music at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$18. 524-5661.  

Yancie Taylor Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Braziu with Sotaque Baiano at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$12. 548-1159.  

Los Boleros, traditional Cuban, at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568.  

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

Breakin’ Up Xmas Square Dance with Amy & Karen and The Mercury Dimes at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mr. Slapp, Unjust, Game Brothers at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. 

Dead Sea Scribes, Conscious Hip Hop at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Damond Moodie and Jamie Jenkins at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Dudman, NK6, Signal Lost at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JAN. 8 

CHILDREN  

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

EXHIBITIONS 

Paintings by Brooke Hatch Reception from 4 to 6 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with The Fresh Ink Writing Group at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Friends of Negro Spirituals “Let the Spirituals Roll On” concert and fundraiser at 3 p.m. at Beth Eden Baptist Church, 952 Magnolia St., Oakland. Tickets are $25-$30. 415-563-4316. 

Healing Muses “A Musical Tapestry” Traditional Renaissance music at 4 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$18. 524-5661.  

Julia Fischer, violin, at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $42. 642-9988.  

Wild Bill Davison Centennial Celebration at 2 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Misturada Brazil at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. 

Blame Sally at 5 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Ahmad Jamal at 8 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

MONDAY, JAN. 9 

EXHIBITIONS 

Watercolors by Ruth Koch at Cafe DiBartolo, 3310 Grand Ave., Oakland. Through Feb. 26. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Parlor Tango, French baroque music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

The Moutin Reunion Quartet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $7-$14. 238-9200. 

?

The strike at Berkeley Honda is nearly half a year old now, and still the new owners refuse to acknowledge the quite reasonable request that workers should be treated decently, and a union should be allowed to represent them. 

In his most recent commentary published in the Daily Planet, Berkeley Honda’s Chris Regalia argues that reducing the business at the auto dealership —which the strike has done quite effectively—harms the city, since the city depends on tax revenues from local businesses. He concludes: “You may not like business, but without thriving businesses a city cannot survive.” 

The question is, at whose expense will business at Berkeley Honda thrive? In return for the auto dealership’s tax contributions, shall we condone the dismissal of workers like Nat Courtney, a master mechanic who worked at the dealership for 31 years and whose only “misconduct” was that he served as shop steward of the union? Is it OK if a business busts a union, provided that the business pays its taxes? 

With respect to Berkeley Honda’s decision not to retain Nat Courtney and other master mechanics (who have been replaced by younger, lower-paid personnel), Mr. Regalia argued in a previous Daily Planet commentary that the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) approved this decision, since the new owners: 

“According to the NLRB, made their hiring decisions without prejudice or discrimination. Call me silly, but could it be that those who were not offered positions might not have been top performers or as efficient as they would like us all to believe?” 

This is a false account of the NLRB ruling, which did not evaluate the competency of the dismissed workers, but judged only that there was no successor clause in the union contract that would have protected workers like Nat Courtney. The NLRB adjudicated this case on very narrow grounds, declining to examine the fairness of the workers’ dismissals. We should note that the NLRB has been making extremely anti-labor decisions since 2004, when the staggered terms of Bill Clinton’s three liberal Democratic appointees expired, and President Bush achieved a conservative majority on the five-person board. 

It’s true that our city government does need to attract business to our community—few would dispute that. But should we just look the other way when we encounter cruel, unethical business practices? Plenty of firms in Berkeley pay their taxes AND treat their workers with some respect and fairness. That is all we are asking Berkeley Honda to do.  

This strike can be settled—thereby increasing both Berkeley Honda’s business and the City of Berkeley’s tax revenues—when Berkeley Honda negotiates in good faith with the striking workers.  

In his commentary in the Planet, Chris Regalia goes on to argue that the Berkeley City Council should not be taking sides in this dispute: “As a reasonable and common sense businessman I am flabbergasted at the city’s support of the boycott. The only position a government should take in a labor dispute, especially at the outset (and without all of the facts), would be to remain neutral.” 

Is neutrality always a virtue? The Berkeley City Council’s decision to support the strike/boycott, which was not made prematurely or ignorantly, took into account the fact that the playing field in this dispute is not even. The new owner, Tim Beinke, comes from a wealthy family of Danville property developers and has hired an infamous anti-union law firm, Littler Mendelson, which specializes in defeating strikes and eliminating trade unions. Nat Courtney and his workmates, on the other hand, do not have such resources available to them. They are not able to hire expensive attorneys to argue their case. “Neutrality” in such a situation would amount to condoning the injustice of the status quo. With the cards stacked against them, the strikers’ best hope is that our community will help them counter the wealth and power that the new management wields. 

Raymond Barglow and Harry Brill are members of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club.›

“The long-jawed mudsucker is not a sexy fish,” admits UC Davis marine biologist Susan Anderson. No argument there. Gillichthys mirablis has a face only another mudsucker could love: beady little eyes and a huge mouth whose gape extends back to the gill covers. It’s small (8 inches long) and sedentary, spending its whole life on one patch of mudflat. This is one fish whose name will never be bestowed on a fast car or a major league sports franchise. 

As homely and obscure as it is, though, there’s good reason to pay attention to the mudsucker. Anderson and other scientists in the Pacific Estuarine Ecosystem Indicator Research Consortium are using these fish as sentinels to monitor carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, and other nasty substances in San Francisco Bay and other coastal waters.  

Mudsuckers are members of the huge (1,900 species) and diverse goby family, which includes the smallest known vertebrates. They inhabit shallow mud-bottomed tidal sloughs in bays and estuaries from Bahia Magdalena in Baja California north to Tomales Bay. Tolerant of high salinities and temperatures, they even thrive in our bay’s salt evaporation ponds and the Salton Sea. Mudsuckers retreat into burrows in the mud during low tides; when stranded, they can survive by gulping air and wriggling across the flats to the nearest water. They’ve been known to live out of water for 6 to 8 days if kept moist. 

In spawning season, December through June in the Bay Area, male mudsuckers dig special breeding burrows and defend them from rivals, long jaws wide open in impressive threat displays. Females may lay up to 27,000 eggs, which the males guard for the 10 to 12 days required for hatching. Larval mudsuckers feed on plankton; as they mature, they settle to the bottom and switch to a diet of algae, smaller fish, and small crustaceans.  

This lifestyle exposes the mudsucker to whatever contaminants are in the local sediment. To assess the effects, the PEEIR group samples fish from five study sites: Stege Marsh in Richmond, China Camp on the Marin side of the North Bay, Walker Creek and Toms Point on Tomales Bay, and Carpinteria Marsh in Santa Barbara County. They’ve also moved mudsuckers from relatively clean sites to polluted sites to see what biological changes result.  

And if you want a polluted site, you can’t do much better than Stege Marsh with its 128-year history of abuse. Mercury fulminate for blasting caps was produced there beginning in 1877, sulfuric acid from 1897. Stauffer Chemical, which branched out into other industrial and agricultural chemicals, closed up shop in 1982, by which time AstraZeneca was cranking out herbicides and pesticides. That operation ended in 1988, leaving a toxic legacy of 160 or more hazardous substances: PCBs, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, and more. The property is now owned by developers who capped the contaminated muck and plan to build high-rise housing on top of it, a scheme that Henry Clark of the West County Toxics Coalition calls “one of the worst projects I have ever seen proposed in this area.” 

Stege Marsh still has a remnant population of the endangered California clapper rail, and it still has long-jawed mudsuckers. But they’re not healthy fish. Anderson’s group has found fish with damaged livers and female mudsuckers with ovarian tumors. Equally alarming is the evidence for chemical damage to the fishes’ reproductive systems, with contaminants playing the role of estrogens: male mudsuckers with both ovaries and testes, or with high levels of the eggshell protein choriogenin. These abnormalities were common at Stege, less so at Carpinteria, rare or absent at the Marin sites. 

Endrocrine disrupters are insidious things, mimicking hormones or shutting down normal hormonal activity. You may have read Theo Colborn’s pathbreaking book Our Stolen Future, or followed the coverage of UC-Berkeley biologist Tyrone Hayes and his work on biochemically warped frogs. Biologists have been finding reproductive anomalies in wildlife all over the globe, from alligators in the Everglades to polar bears in the Arctic, that appear to result from exposure to PCBs, dioxin, DDT, and other chemicals.  

Mudsuckers are handy proxies because of their hardiness and limited home ranges (about a 32-foot radius from the burrow for an adult). It’s also easy to tell the sexes apart: males have bigger mouths. The PEEIR group uses nonlethal sampling to test males and juveniles for eggshell proteins that indicate their hormonal systems are out of whack. They also measure estrogenic chemicals in the sediment around the mudsuckers’ burrows, using a bioassay based on, of all things, the firefly luciferase gene. Interestingly, endrocrine-disruption effects were found at two sites where sediment toxicity was low or nonexistent. Makes you wonder. 

The mudsucker is just one part of PEEIR’s portfolio of indicator species, along with shore crabs, clams, cordgrass, and pickleweed. Abnormal embryo development in the crabs, for instance, has been linked to heavy metal exposure. Anderson says this kind of integrated science—multiple species, multiple sites, field studies linking ecology with toxicology—is the wave of the future. That overworked canary in the mine shaft is going to have lots of company.  

›

TUESDAY, JAN. 3 

Learn How to Use Your GPS with Map Software with Jeff Caulfield of National Geographic at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Family Story Time at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Branch Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Free, all ages welcome. 524-3043. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente, Dining Conference Room, 1950 Franklin St. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss “New Years Revolutions” from 7 to 9 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 527-1022. 

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

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

“Ask the Social Worker” free consultations for older adults and their families from 10 a.m. to noon at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. To schedule an appointment call 558-7800, ext. 716. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

“Faith, Doubt, and Inquiry” with Jack Petranker at 6:15 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4 

Community Advisory Group Zeneca/Stauffer Chemical Site meets at 6:30 p.m. in the Bermuda Room, Richmond Convention Center, 403 Civic Center Plaza at Nevin and 25th Sts., Richmond. 540-3923. 

“45 Days: The Life and Death of a Broiler Chicken” Documentaries on animal cruelty at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation of $5 suggested.  

Bookmark Reading Group meets to discuss “The Mistress of Spices” by Chitra Divakaruni at 6:30 p.m. at 721 Washington St., Oakland. 336-0902. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 10 a.m. to noon at its headquarters in Oakland. Volunteers are needed to support the more than 40 blood drives held each month all over the East Bay. For more information call 594-5165. 

Dick Penniman’s Avalanche Safety Lecture at 6 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Fee is $20. 527-4140. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 1333 Broadway, Oakland, and from 2 to 7 p.m. at Kehilla Synagogue, 1300 Grand Ave., Piedmont. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

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

Entrepreneurs Networking at 8 a.m. at A’Cuppa Tea, 3202 College Ave. at Alcatraz. Cost is $5. 562-9431.  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. 548-9840. 

Sing your Way Home A free sing-a-long at 4:30 p.m. every Wed. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Prose Writer’s Workshop meets at 7 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Tibetan Yoga with Jack van der Meulen at 6:15 p.m. at Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. 843-6812. 

Introduction to Buddhist Studies at 8 p.m. at Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. 843-6812. 

THURSDAY, JAN. 5 

Choosing a Preschool A workshop on the options at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required, 658-7353. 

Learn to Salsa Dance A 4-week class on Thurs. at 7 p.m. at Lake Merritt Dance Center, 200 Grand Ave. Cost is $50, or $15 per class. 415-668-9936. 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

“Transforming Negative Habit Patterns” at 6:15 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

FRIDAY, JAN. 6 

“Wellstone!” a free screening of the documentary about Senator Paul Wellstone, followed by a discussion, at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Chuch Chapel, 1640 Addison St. 482-1062. 

“Facing Baseball’s Future: Issues Confronting the Game” at 7 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-3402. www.museumca.org 

Three Beats for Nothing sings early music for fun and practice at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 655-8863. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

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. People of all traditions are welcome to join us. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

“Developing an Inner Work Toolkit” at 6:15 p.m. at Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. 843-6812. 

SATURDAY, JAN. 7 

Frog and Toad, Are They Really Friends? Find out on a hike at 2 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

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 $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

Sick Plant Clinic UC plant pathologist Dr. Robert Raabe, UC entomologist Dr. Nick Mills, and their team of experts will diagnose what ails your plants from 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755.  

Help Save the Bay Plant Natives from 9 a.m. to noon at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline. 452-9261, ext. 109. www.savesfbay.org 

Botanical Wanderings Discover the diverse winter habitat from the hilltops to the marsh at 2 p.m. at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Fremont. For information and directions call 792-0222. 

Progressive Democrats of the East Bay General Meeting with Assemblymember Loni Hancock, to discuss publicly financed election systems, at 11 a.m. at Oakland City Hall Council Chambers, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, bet. 14th and 15th Sts. at Clay St. 524-4244. www.pdaeastbay.org 

East Bay Atheists will show the documentary “The God Who Wasn’t There” which examines the evidence for the historical Jesus, and concludes he was a mythical figure based on early pagan myths, at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., 3rd floor meeting room. 222-7580. 

Open House and Dance Class with Luna Kids Dance at 9:30 a.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. 644-3629. www.lunakidsdance.com 

Open House at Studio Rasa with sample classes in yoga, pilates, heartbeat dance and many others from 9 a.m. at 7:30 p.m. at 933 Parker St. 843-2787. www.studiorasa.org 

Freedom From Tobacco from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. for six Saturdays. Free hypnosis available. Free, but registration required. 981-5330. quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Protest Rally at Berkeley Honda Shattuck and Parker every Thurs. at 4:30 to 6 p.m. and Sat. from 1 to 2 p.m. until the labor dispute is settled.  

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.  

Spirit Walking Aqua Chi (TM) A gentle water exercise class at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Cost is $3.50 per session. 526-0312. 

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. 

“How to Meditate” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

SUNDAY, JAN. 8 

Alvarado: River to Ridgetop Ramble Meet at 10 a.m. at the Wildcat/Alvarado staging area off Park Ave. in Richmond to explore the historic area once known as Grand Canyon Park. 525-2233. 

Discussion with Peter Camejo, sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County at 5 p.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. at 65th St. 

Spiritual Life Skills Workshop and Tree of Life Qi Gong A series of eight classs at 10 a.m. and 11:45 a.m., through Feb. 26 at 5272 Foothill Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $12 per class. To register call 533-5306. 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

MONDAY, JAN. 9 

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter meets at 6 p.m. at the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St. Redwood Mary and Melinda Kramer, co-founders of Women’s Global Green Action Network will discuss their environmental work. 287-8948. 

“Benefits of Meditation” with Dr. Marshall Zaslove at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

BYOCraft Night at 8 p.m. at the Living Room Gallery, 3230 Adeline St. 601-5774. 

Sing-A-Long from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122. 

Beginning Bridge Lessons at 11:10 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Cost is $1. 524-9122. 

Free Small Business Counselling with SCORE, Service Core of Retired Executives at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. To make an appointment call 981-6244. 

Mentoring Excellence in Management Consultants at 4 p.m. at the Bellvue Club, 525 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Cost is $35-$50. 800-462-8910. wwwimcnorcal.org 

Tango Lessons with Paulo Araujo from Rio de Janeiro at 6:45 p.m. at the Berkeley Tango Studio. Series of 5 classes costs $60. 655-3585. 

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

ONGOING 

United Way’s Earn it! Keep It! Save It! needs volunteer tax preparers and language interpreters to help low-income families in Alameda County claim tax credits. No previous tax preparation experience is necessary. Training sessions run through mid-January. For more information, call 238-2415. www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org 

Magnes Museum Docent Training begins Jan. 8. Open to all who are interested in Jewish art and history. For information contact Faith Powell at 549-6950 x333. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Jan. 5, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/environmentaladvisory 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Jan. 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/housing 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., Jan. 5, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks 

Planning Commission Special Meeting and Tour Sat., Jan. 7, at 9:45 a.m. at McKevitt Volvo-Nissan, 2700 Shattuck Ave. at Derby. Carli Paine, 981-7403. 

?

Once in a while the New Times chain allows a good article which doesn’t follow the company line of cowboy libertarianism to slip past the editors of one of its magazines. The latest East Bay Express has a piece that’s well worth a read, even though it could have benefited from the services of a fact-checker in spots. Writer Eliza Strickland has capably documented the sad fate of the much-publicized Fruitvale Transit Village, where not much in the way of retail commerce has managed to take root, despite attractive design and millions of dollars in government subsidy. It should be a lesson to everyone who has hallelujah’d for the gospel of smart growth, one of whose tenets is that we can bring back the apartments-cum-retail design that worked pretty well in the streetcar suburbs at the turn of the 20th century. 

Strickland paints a dismal picture of the fate of the pioneering Fruitvale retail merchants who were lured to the BART station site by the promise of thousands of commuters patronizing their establishments. Her feel-good finale is that perhaps when there are many more new apartments built and perhaps a few of the footpaths are changed the retail scene at the Fruitvale Transit Village will improve. But anyone who looks around Berkeley can’t help but notice that the era of ground floor retail under apartments might have come and gone. A high percentage of the obligatory new retail spaces in Berkeley’s big box soon-to-be-condo buildings have ‘for rent’ signs these days. Retail is a tough way to make a living, and it’s deeply unrealistic to expect small businesses to take unnecessary risks in new buildings tenanted mainly by groups of pizza-eating students, unless of course what you’re selling is pizza.  

The comfortable older retail zones of Elmwood, Rockridge, Solano and Piedmont Avenue in Oakland seem pretty prosperous, on the other hand, with most storefronts filled, which might have something to do with their 1920s one-, two- or three-story romantic architecture. Older architecture offers high ceilings and charming shop-windows which frame the merchandise attractively; lower buildings mean more sunlight on the sidewalk. (Let’s not even talk about the planners’ obscene practice of permitting the upper stories of tall new buildings to hang out over the sidewalk, depriving first floor shops and pedestrian shoppers of light and air.)  

Another problem with new retail spaces is that they’re customarily leased “raw,” and the first tenant has to come up with the cost of finishing them, which can be prohibitive. Anna DeLeon’s struggles to fit out her “Jazz Island” club at a reasonable cost in a reasonable time are typical.  

A veteran Berkeley commercial real estate agent, who owns a number of vintage buildings, also points out that retail tenants must be carefully selected to complement housing tenants. A dry-cleaner downstairs is not the best neighbor, while a café might be.  

The apartments have to be nice, too. Early in the 20th century, upstairs tenants were likely to be proprietors of the shops below, and the apartments were designed to be attractive homes for them. The turn-of-the-century building at the corner of Ashby and College which is being handsomely rehabbed has fine apartments upstairs which have always been full, with a succession of neighborhood-serving retail shops below.  

One claim in the Express article that’s wrong, or at least we hope it is, is the assertion that a similar transit village plan has already been approved for the Ashby BART station. As Daily Planet readers know, that plan is supposedly still in germination. Unless, of course, it has already been approved somewhere behind the scenes and the public process now being contemplated by the Berkeley City Council is a complete and total sham, but we’re not quite that cynical—yet. It’s probably a mistake by the writer or editor. 

It would be a tragic error to allow the Berkeley Flea Market, home to generations of successful minority entrepreneurs, to be displaced and perhaps destroyed, along with the night-time parking which is now allowing the Ashby Stage and other arts institutions to flourish, in order to create another unsuccessful transit village with empty storefronts in expensive buildings. As citizens, we could close our eyes and pray that some sort of Intelligent Design really exists in the planning universe and that the self-appointed developers of the Ashby BART parking lot have access to it, or we could insist that the city of Berkeley enter into an open discussion of any plans with full public disclosure and participation. The principal argument for an open public planning process (one more time) is that it’s the best way to avoid making awful mistakes.  

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The news reports about California’s weather at the end of 2005 and its consequences in many communities around here, coupled with the downpour on Monday, the first workday of 2006 for some of us, have inevitably engendered out-of-control metaphor formation. Here in Berkeley we have no major river to overwhelm the city, which they have in Napa. We have little fresh hillside construction to create landslides as they do in Southern California. Granted, our antique storm drains and aging utility wires create a few flooded intersections and short-term power outages, but by and large Berkeley can seem like an island in the storm most of the time. As it does, by and large, in the storm now gathering on the national political scene.  

In Washington, we’ve been finding out, the national administration has been carrying on a plethora of activities which seriously undermine the foundations of our democracy, with the illegal wiretapping scandal only the latest in a series of outrages. In New York City, media capital of the universe, the ongoing embarrassments of the New York Times—the latest, how they sat on the wiretapping story for more than a year—suggest that you can’t trust any paper anymore.  

Berkeley has become the home of the political snowbirds—people who are sitting out the storms on the national scene, and who comment on what’s going on from safe perches here. Most prominent on the Web are Brad DeLong, formerly part of the Clinton administration, who’s become a combination econ professor and blogger, and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, proprietor of the million-hits-a-day Daily Kos. Bob Scheer has recently left the L.A. Times to join their ranks. In the mostly-print world, Robert Reich and Mark Danner are two of the many who now have a Berkeley base. 

It’s widely believed that Berkeley is different—that no matter what outrages are going in Rest-of-World, it can’t happen here. Overheard conversations at holiday parties document that belief system. One brief example: We attended an upbeat gathering on behalf of a Texas congressional candidate who had done a stint as a Berkeley radical in the ‘60s. One guest commented cheerily that she’d worked with him on community control of police way back when, and “now we have it in Berkeley.” Well, no. What’s actually happened is that the citizen-controlled Police Review Commission, formerly functional, has been emasculated by a court decision that allows its rulings to be superseded by the Police Department’s internal affairs process. And the position of PRC staff officer (who reports to the city manager, not to the citizens) is vacant, and has been for a long time. Berkeley doesn’t even have the kind of e-mail-facilitated community policing that has been so successful in immediately adjacent North Oakland. In 1973 progressive Berkeleyans founded the PRC, declared victory, and moved on. Yet in 2005, as we described in these pages, a visiting French woman of Arabic background, pushing her baby in a stroller, was subjected by Berkeley police to a humiliating procedure which included being forced to lie down on the ground, in broad daylight, despite the fact that she had done absolutely nothing wrong. She and her husband tried to get recourse through the PRC, but ultimately gave up in disgust and moved out of town. It can happen here, and it still does, often.  

And anyone who watches the Berkeley City Council meetings on cable TV these days (probably about 200 stout-hearted souls) is aware that we’ve shifted to Government Lite. The City Council reveals by their embarrassingly ignorant comments that they’re becoming the last to know what decisions are being made on their behalf by staff. The mayor rushes through meetings, unceremoniously shutting up Councilmember Dona Spring when she attempts to speak up about dubious proposals, and boasts that it’s all over in time to catch the 11 o’clock sports wrap-up on TV. The city’s recent grant application for planning a mega-development on the Ashby BART station, documented in previous issues and elsewhere in this one, was conceived and cooked up with the council in the dark about the whole scheme, yet they voted for it at the last meeting with only Spring abstaining. The Berkeley city attorney’s office is the source of endless stratagems designed to thwart the people’s right to know, as demonstrated in the clandestine settlement of the city’s suit against UC’s long range development plan. People who observe these things and who also know something about the high-handed tactics of the Bush regime are beginning to see ominous parallels. 

Greater Berkeleyans who live in the hills (or Over the Hill, like an increasing number of UC professors and administrators) can afford to be blissfully ignorant of how things are going here, since it affects at worst their commute time. People who live in the flats (also known as Berkeley’s Urban Sacrifice Zone) are forced to keep up with what’s planned for their neighborhoods whether they like it or not. These residents can’t afford to share the view of Berkeley as a progressive island in the storm. Once they get the idea that all might not be well in our happy little kingdom, they question other information as well. They look at the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that eminent domain can be carried out for the profit of developers, and imagine that it could be applied in South Berkeley. They look at the Washington wiretapping scandals and wonder how information could be captured from radio frequency identification devices on Berkeley’s library books by the wrong people. Farther afield, some Daily Planet readers, especially those who live near current or future casino sites, eye the Abramoff Indian casino bribery scandal now developing in Washington and wonder if its tentacles might reach down into our local scene.  

Some of us, in sum, have now become aware that Berkeley, even blissful gourmet greater Berkeley where food idolatry got its start, the island abounding in milk and honey for all of us lotus eaters, can’t be isolated from the many problems now besetting the rest of the world. Figuring out what we can do about them is our job for 2006. 

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