The battle over landmarking the Bevatron building ended Thursday when a city panel voted to bestow the honorific not on the structure itself but on the ground beneath. 

The 5-4 decision by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) ended an agonizing process that had lasted through months and a long series of deadlocked votes. 

“We’re going to landmark a site. This is starting a precedent that has never happened before,” said Commissioner Lesley Emmington, one of the dissenters. 

“The building seems eminently suited to landmarking to me,” said Gary Parsons. 

In adopting the motion by Burton Edwards, the commission called out the details of the revolutionary discoveries made within the massive circular building, as well as the discoverers—while leaving out all mention of the structure and its unique architecture. 

“This application was made by the public,” Emmington said, and called for designating the building and its historical significance. 

Commissioner Carrie Olson cast the deciding vote, supporting a motion by Edwards that called on the university to memorialize the groundbreaking research carried out on what was once the world’s foremost subatomic particle accelerator. 

“So we have a new landmark site,” said Chair Robert Johnson after the vote in which he opted for the Edwards motion. “It’s a complex issue.” 

The commission has been wrestling with the issue since last December, when it conducted its first hearing on a proposal by LA Wood to designate the building that led to four Nobel Prizes for research that transformed the way physicists look at the way the universe works. 

Officials of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory opposed landmarking from the start, declaring that the best way to commemorate the work done there was to tear it down and build new facilities for new cutting edge research. 

Opinion in the scientific community was divided. The late Owen Chamberlain, the Nobel Laureate honored for his Bevatron research that discovered the anti-proton, had argued passionately for preservation before his death at the end of February. 

The Bevatron building and the attached office structure totaling 126,500 square feet form part of a series of major demolitions planned at the lab. The other six large structures are in the lab’s “Old Town,” a collection of mostly wooden buildings constructed during World War II. 

Demolition plans are spelled out in the lab’s 10-year site plan, released on May 20, 2005. 

According to that report, demolition of the Bevatron building and the massive structure it contains will take six to seven years and cost an estimated $83 million—with work to begin before the end of the current fiscal year and ending six to seven years later. 

Opposition 

Opposition to demolition mobilized residents who fear that that the 4,700 truckloads expected to traverse city street en route to recycling facilities, landfills and hazardous waste disposal sites could spread radioactive contamination and dangerous asbestos fibers in their wake. 

Critics also said they are concerned about traffic congestion, especially in light of other major construction work planned by UC Berkeley in the area of Memorial Stadium not far from the lab. 

Landmarking efforts came later, and the application before the council was filed by LA Wood, who with Pamela Shivola has been spearheading opposition on public health grounds. 

Many of the landmarking advocates have consistently acknowledged that their concerns were as much for public health and safety as for the preservation of a unique exemplar of Cold War architecture. 

Demolition of the massive structure ranks high on the priorities of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory—and neighbors are worried that deconstruction will result in exposures to radioactive particles, asbestos fibers and other toxins. 

Completed in 1953, the Bevatron was in operation until Feb. 21, 1993, when it shut down for the last time, rendered obsolete by vastly larger and more powerful accelerators. 

Modern accelerators are far greater in size—with the largest almost big enough to encompass all of Berkeley within their circumferences. 

But the Bevatron was unique in being the first of the world’s great accelerators, and while the accelerator itself—once the world’s largest human-made machine—has been decommissioned, much of the heavy equipment remains in place. 

While Wood, Shivola and the commission minority felt the building itself should remain, the majority agreed with lab officials, who have repeatedly said the best memorial would be to replace the structure with new facilities that could generate new ground-breaking research in physics. 

Even if the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission had voted to landmark the building, the decision would have had little power to halt the eventual demolition of Berkeley’s last significant relic of the monumental era of government-funded Cold War science, since it is owned by the University of California, which is exempt from Berkeley law. 

If Edwards has his way, the work carried out at the Bevatron will be commemorated in an exhibit, perhaps at the Lawrence Hall of Science—a suggestion repeatedly raised by lab officials.

Nestle USA’s announcement last week that it was moving its PowerBar business from Berkeley to Glendale, Calif., has received mixed reactions from the local community.  

While city officials say that they’d rather the business stayed in Berkeley, there are those for whom the news was music to the ears. 

PowerBar’s controversial 26-foot-wide sign atop their downtown office on Shattuck Avenue has been a source of constant complaints from Berkeley residents ever since it was first installed in December 1997. 

“Residents were furious that they had no say in the matter when the sign got approved in mid-1997. By the time we challenged it, it was too late. We were stuck with a blinking sign on the rooftop of the tallest building in Berkeley. The Design Review Commission actually said the sign would improve the ugly building. Instead, it has blighted downtown for the last eight years. It is true that the business brought as many as 100 jobs to the city, but the sign did very little to contribute to the aesthetics of downtown Berkeley,” said Jim Sharp, a Berkeley resident who championed the cause of removing the sign. 

Constant complaints from residents brought a stop to the blinking, but the sign remained, causing the business to be nicknamed “PowerBlight.” 

Councilmember Dona Spring, in whose district the PowerBar office is located, said that although PowerBar’s move would mean a loss to Berkeley, its sign had certainly been unpopular with people living in the hills.  

“The sign was like an obstruction for the panoramic views of the bay. It created quite a bit of controversy during the [Mayor] Shirley Dean administration. There are a lot of people who will be happy to see the sign taken off,” she said. 

Spring added that when PowerBar had first started off in 1986 under Brian Maxwell, a UC Berkeley alumnus and former track coach, it had started a natural food movement like no other.  

“It was a huge change from the sugary high-fat candy bars that were available at that time. Their bars were high in nutrition and protein and at the same time one of the best kinds of energy bars available. PowerBar was undoubtedly a trend-setter.”  

Spring also said that Berkeley has always been the incubator for a lot of start-ups which went on to become hugely successful in the future. “With success comes the need to expand, to share common resources. It is therefore no surprise that PowerBar is moving.” 

Although there has been much speculation on the fact that the move was being made to make up for the lack of space that was needed to expand the business, PowerBar spokesperson Vanessa Wager told the Planet that this was not the case.  

“It’s not because of space constraints, it’s a strategic move which will benefit the business. After PowerBar was acquired by Nestle in 2000, it remained as a satellite office in Berkeley. We feel the need to be closer to headquarters,” she said. 

Wager added that “the transfer of the PowerBar business to Glendale will capitalize on PowerBar's proximity to personnel and other shared resources from Nestle Nutrition and Nestle USA, providing a ready source of ideas and innovation to support strong long-term business growth. Our goal is to continue providing consumers with the product and service excellence they have come to expect from PowerBar.” 

The transition is scheduled to begin over the next five months and transferring employees will be settled in Glendale by November 15, 2006. The downtown office will be officially closed on Dec. 31.  

Although the majority of PowerBar Berkeley employees are being offered positions in the new office in Glendale, there will be a certain amount of layoffs in the consolidation of activities with Glendale’s Nestlé Nutrition and Nestlé USA staffs. Those whose positions are being affected by this move will be given generous severance packages by the company. 

In a statement, Cliff Clive, vice president and general manager of Nestle Performance Nutrition, said that although the decision to relocate had been difficult, the move was necessary in order to “best position PowerBar and the broader Performance Nutrition business for what we know will be a very exciting future.” 

“We’re sorry that PowerBar is leaving,” commented Cisco de Vries, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bates. “We understand that they are moving to Glendale to be closer to their parent company, Nestle. However, this move should not bring about any major economical change for the city. We’d rather that PowerBar stayed in Berkeley. But this is part of what Berkeley is known for. A lot of companies which start off here are bought by bigger companies and then with their growth and prosperity feel the need to relocate. It was probably the same with PowerBar,” he said. 

De Vries added that although it was not certain who would be taking over the vacant space yet, there was no doubt about the fact that it would be leased soon.  

“The fact that the PowerBar building is so close to the UC Berkeley campus will definitely make it a prime location. Recently Yahoo! opened up a research section on University Avenue. A lot of companies are interested to move into downtown Berkeley. The mayor’s office gets calls from interested parties all the time,” he said. 

Berkeley-based PowerBar rival ClifBar is also considering a move in 2008. Kate Torgersen, assistant communications manager for ClifBar, told the Planet that the reason for the move was lack of space.  

“We love our current location in West Berkeley but we have simply outgrown our facilities. In our RFP, we have mentioned that we want a green building, which will have minimal impact on the environment and allow us to have recreational space. We want to stay in the Bay Area and right now one possibility could be Alameda,” Torgersen said. 

According to Councilmember Spring, ClifBar had wanted a child care center in its current West Berkeley location but had been denied a permit by the city.  

“The ClifBar office is located close to Pacific Steel Casting Company, which has been cited by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District for leaks of toxic substances. The city does not think that this is a safe place for children. However, there are two playing fields in the vicinity which state the dangers of toxic fumes on children. So it’s not that that the public is not being warned. There is also a halfway house for the homeless on Harrison Street. The city should not treat ClifBar employees differently. They should be given all the information and should decide for themselves whether it is safe to bring the children in there. Holding up the permit to build is not the solution,” she said. 

With the state’s office of the superintendent for public instruction announcing an interim Oakland Unified School District administrator to replace the outgoing Randolph Ward, opposition to the sale of the OUSD downtown properties got a boost in the past few days when two more Oakland public officials came out against the sale. 

Oakland City Councilmember Desley Brooks stated her opposition in an interview at a community concert in East Oakland on Sunday. And late last week, Peralta Community College District Trustee Nicky Gonzalez Yuen released a letter sent to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell in which Yuen said that “the plan to sell off the OUSD land near Lake Merritt … is a huge mistake.”  

Meanwhile, members of the Ad Hoc Committee to Restore Local Control, the coalition of Oakland organizations, officials, and activists that has led the opposition to the property sale, have scheduled a meeting with aides of state Sen. Don Perata later this week to try to persuade the senator to come out in opposition as well. 

Perata, who wrote the legislation that made both the state takeover of the Oakland Unified School District as well as the sale of the OUSD downtown properties, has been silent since the controversy over the property sale began. 

On Monday, O’Connell’s office announced the appointment of OUSD academic chief Dr. Kimberly Ann Statham as interim state administrator for the Oakland schools. Statham is replacing current administrator Randolph Ward, who is leaving the district in a week to take the job as superintendent of the San Diego County School District. 

Statham will receive a yearly salary of $240,000 for her position as interim administrator, the same as former superintendent Dennis Chaconas received in 2003 before he lost his job during the state takeover. Ward’s starting salary in 2003 was reported to be $239,000, but was later reduced by $6,000 as a budget- cutting measure. 

In a statement released by the state superintendent’s office, Statham, a graduate of the University of Maryland and Howard University as well as the same Broad Urban Superintendents Academy where Ward received his training, said that her “immediate focus will continue to be on preparing for the beginning of the school year August 28.” 

In a letter sent Monday to school district staff, Ward, who hired Statham for the academic chief post, wrote that Statham will continue the work on the controversial Expect Success! initiative he brought into the Oakland schools. “However long this interim appointment lasts,” Ward wrote, “I am confident that Dr. Statham has the vision and the ability to continue the work that has been done to make Oakland a national model for urban school reform. Her expertise will only add to the district redesign effort known as Expect Success! Parts of this project were under way before I arrived in Oakland, and I have no doubt that this effort and the momentum it has created will continue and grow under the great project leaders who remain.” 

As interim OUSD administrator, one of Statham’s most closely watched acts will be her recommendation to State Superintendent O’Connell on the proposed OUSD property sale. O’Connell is currently in negotiations with the East Coast development team of TerraMark/UrbanAmerica for the sale of 8.25 acres of downtown-area OUSD property, including three schools, two early childhood development centers, and the OUSD Paul Robeson Administration Building. The 2003 state takeover of the school district gave O’Connell the legal authority to sell the property and to apply the proceeds to the $100 million borrowed by OUSD from the state. 

Under the letter of intent signed between O’Connell, TerraMark/ UrbanAmerica, and outgoing OUSD administrator Ward, the parties have until mid-September to reach a deal on the property sale. 

On Sunday afternoon, during the kickoff of the second season of free community concerts at East Oakland’s Arroyo Viejo Park sponsored by her office, Councilmember Brooks told the Daily Planet that she was “completely opposed to the sale of the school property. I don’t think this is a time that we should be getting rid of public property. We should be preserving what we have.” 

Brooks’ position makes unanimous the opposition to the sale from the eight member Oakland City Council. 

Late last month, Brooks had failed to join six other councilmembers in signing a proclamation co-sponsored by Councilmembers Pat Kernighan and Jean Quan which noted that “there is no guarantee that the proposed sale of District land would financially benefit the School District, even in the short term.” However, Brooks said that “the only reason I didn’t sign the proclamation is that one of Pat [Kernighan]’s aides brought it to me to sign while we were taking a vote, and I didn’t have time to read it. I don’t sign anything that I haven’t read.”  

City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente was not present at the meeting in which the proclamation was signed, but he earlier stated to the Daily Planet through a staff member that he was opposed to the sale of the OUSD property as well. 

City Council opposition to the proposed sale is significant because even though the council has no say in the sale, any future development of the property by the new owners would have to go through the Oakland city planning process, including final approval by the council. 

Meanwhile, in his July 31 letter, Peralta Trustee Yuen told O’Connell that while “I can understand the temptations to liquidate district resources to generate greater revenue, … I strongly urge you to quickly put out this fire, shelve the plan to sell the land, and get back to the central concerns of reestablishing administratively and fiscally sound systems of governance and management.” 

Yuen said his opposition was based upon three conclusions: that there was no “consistent and reliable system of governance” in the Oakland schools “that will ensure that this project does not become another boondoggle that benefits private interests and leaves the public stripped of even more resources than it started with”; that the sale would be “a huge distraction from the job of governance in the district”; and that “decisions of such long-term impact should never be made by a caretaker administration.…It contradicts the notion that the people who are most seriously affected by a decision should have the greatest influence over the making of such decisions.” 

Yuen concluded that the goal of the state takeover of the Oakland school district in 2003 “was and remains the establishment of a stable and viable system of administration and governance as quickly as possible. The goal is to restore a functioning system of local control. The Lake Merritt development project is completely unnecessary to and beyond the scope of any of these goals.” 

The second of three public hearings on the proposed sale of the OUSD downtown properties is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 16 at the OUSD Administration Building. 

Berkeley city officials, residents, and local independent wireless providers continue the search for the perfect Internet system that will provide city-wide Internet access to people who live, work, or recreate in Berkeley. 

“We are still in the investigative process,” said Chris Mead, director of Information Technology for the City of Berkeley. “The council wants some more information on the possibilities and requirements for a Berkeley citywide wireless (“Wi-Fi”) Internet System. One of the reasons why we are looking so closely at the proposal submitted by the city is that we are also considering options such as fiber optics.” 

Wi-Fi uses unregulated bands of the electromagnetic spectrum whereas information passes with the help of light through a fiber optic cable. Although more expensive than the Wi-Fi system (which would cost the city somewhere between $2-$5 million), fiber optics is considered to be a lot faster, transmitting up to 1GB per second. 

“Fiber optics is definitely faster, but it would also cost the city up to tens of millions of dollars to set it up. There would also be a lot of work involved in setting up the fiber network and running them through all the houses. It will be a major construction process. On the other hand, Wi-Fi is a lot easier to install and will certainly stimulate the economy while closing the digital divide. The idea is to look carefully into all the possible options and then report back. Only then can we send out a RFP at which point both local and national service providers can submit their proposals. We will be selecting the one which meets our requirements the best. For this we have to keep in mind the cost to the city, security, long-term probability and the speed of the service,” Mead said. 

Mead also added that the city was looking at partnering with a public entity, such as UC Berkeley, to provide free Internet access to the city. Currently, the goal is to launch a city-wide pilot program encompassing the downtown area. 

UC currently has the only large-scale Wi-Fi infrastructure in Berkeley in the form of the AirBears network which offers a unified wireless local area network that can be used by students and faculty in most of the major buildings on campus.  

However, as Mead puts it, security becomes a major factor in any free wireless network. “The network has to be secure in cases of business or government work. Also, users will not be able to download anything illegally from the Internet. There will be a specific set of terms and conditions that users will need to accept before they can log on to this network,” 

Tom Hunt, a Berkeley resident and advisor to the City’s IT Department, is in favor of fiber optics. “It’s a hundred or even a thousand times as fast as Wi-Fi,” he said. “There is currently a project in Canada called CANARIE in which fiber optics is being used to provide Internet service to the public. It comes at a cost of $1000/$1500 per household but it amounts to only $17.42 per month over a period of ten years. However, Wi-Fi also provides a short-term probability if the city is able to set up a periodic contract with a suitable service provider that will not hamper future upgrades to a faster and new technology, such as a wireless mesh system that could come along in the next five to six years,” he said.  

Eric Dynamic, CTO, UC Telecommunications Company, echoed Hunt’s thoughts on fiber optics. “It uses one-wire service to provide all common data services: voice (phone), data (Internet), TV, and is permanent, faster and more capable than any other technology. It is also virtually maintenance free and provides for “net neutrality”—that is the ability to select from a wide range of vendors. Also there are no concerns for EM radiation hazards in this case,” 

According to councilmember Linda Maio, who requested a city report on the costs and benefits of a wireless system last August along with councilmembers Laurie Capitelli, Darryl Moore, and Max Anderson, there are presently two issues with respect to Wi-Fi.  

“It is certainly attractive to have a city which has one of the world’s premier institutions to have free wireless anywhere in the city, at least in the core areas. However our past experience with cell phone antennas placed in the city has not been too good. Community members have had several concerns about transmissions and what effect they might have on our health. Technology is certainly a wonderful thing but there definitely are concerns about it in the modern world.” 

Maio added that at the moment the idea was just a proposal and it could take anywhere up to a year to even get it to the agenda stage. “We want to press ahead with the idea and see how it goes but we haven’t asked for a specific schedule yet. It’s too early to set dates for something that is still in the ‘looking into’ stage,” she said. 

EDITOR’S NOTE 

This story begins a collaboration between the Berkeley Daily Planet and the Kitchen Democracy polling organization. If you’d like to express your opinion on this topic, go to kitchendemocracy.org on the Internet. 

On a sunny afternoon last Sunday, Berkeley residents picked Lisa Anne Stephens, Howard Chong, Chris Kavanagh, Pam Webster and David Blake as candidates for the Rent Stabilization Board. Bob Evans, current Rent Stabilization Board member, although given high marks by the Rent Board’s screening process, was not selected to be on the slate. 

“I was a bit surprised that Bob Evans, an incumbent, didn’t make it onto the slate,” reported Chong. 

All of the candidates thought that the field was very strong and that the slate of five was stellar. The candidates who weren’t selected for the slate were Bob Evans (Rent Board incumbent), Judy Ann Alberti (former Rent Board member), Edith Monk-Hallberg (Commission on Labor Member), Kokovulu Lumakanda (chair of the Homeless Commission), Elliot Cohen (Peace and Justice Commissioner), and Frances Hailman (Berkeley resident). 

“The slate is great,” commented Blake, in a phone interview on Monday. “It is full of these long-time Berkeley activists who care about the future of the Rent Board. We are also very good friends. We need to work hard to defeat the Condo Conversion Initiative. Otherwise, there isn’t much for the Rent Board to do anymore.” 

Councilmember Max Anderson, the moderator, opened up the event, and Rent Board Chair Howard Chong explained the voting procedure to the audience. Despite the fact that Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) has not yet been implemented in Berkeley city elections, it made its way into the Rent Board voting process.  

“I thought that it was a great way to educate residents about IRV,” said Webster. “I had great confidence in Howard to explain it to the people.” 

But there were complaints over the voting process, which turned into a full heated debate. Anderson and Chong ended debate quickly after realizing that it was taking too long, to try to give candidates more speaking time, regarded as more important. While some thought that it was necessary to discuss situations in which the voting process was flawed, others dismissed it as grandstanding. 

“They made it more complicated than it really was,” said Kavanagh.” It’s just simply ranking candidate choices.” 

When asked what the top goal of the Rent Board should be, many answers replicated one another. 

“Personally,” said Blake, “I want to create an informed constituency. I want to find more ways for people to be aware of their rights.” 

Echoing Blake’s thoughts, Kavanagh said, “We need outreach and voter education, especially to educate people on the Condo Conversion Initiative.” 

Jesse Arreguin, Rent Board member, talked to the audience about the dangers of the Condo Conversion Initiative put on the ballot by landlords in Berkeley. The Committee to Defend Affordable Housing (CDAH) was actively seeking funds to cover the cost of defeating the measure in November. 

“It will have a significant impact on what we value in Berkeley,” said Arreguin. “We need to work hard to defeat this horrible measure in November.” 

However, Michael Wilson, spokesman for the Berkeley Property Owners Association (BPOA) claims that the Condo Conversion Initiative is long overdue. 

“I think that in general Berkeley’s housing policies are stuck in 1972,” Wilson said in a telephone interview. “They haven’t updated the policy or evaluated it.” 

The convention was held by the CDAH, a grassroots campaign coalition of pro-tenant activists in the community. CDAH helps get the five-member slate elected to the Rent Board and helps to lobby for pro-tenant initiatives and lobby against pro-landlord initiatives. 

Will there be any competition for the five-person slate in November? 

Jason Overman, Berkeley Rent Board member, said, “It is not to my knowledge that any progressive candidates will run independently of the five-person slate already selected. I think that it is important for progressive candidates to run united.” 

When asked if the BPOA would run anyone for the Rent Board, Wilson replied, “No, because of two major reasons. Firstly, after the Costa-Hawkins Act of 1996, a far larger number of units have rents that are much closer to market. Therefore, there are far fewer cases being filed. Secondly, since the settling of a lawsuit with Measure P, the annual rate increases are automated.” 

Photograph by Rio Bauce. 

Rent Board Candidates Lisa Anne Stephens, Pamela Webster, David Blake, Chris Kavanagh and Howard Chong.

Should the South Berkeley branch library at Russell and Martin Luther King be moved to the new Ed Roberts campus to be built at the corner of Woolsey and Adeline? The Berkeley Library Board of Library trustees in Berkeley has allocated close to $25,000 for a consulting firm to do a community needs-based assessment for the South Berkeley library branch this month in an attempt to answer this question.  

West Berkeley-based HTA consultants has been hired to carry out up to four different types of surveys of community members who live, work or recreate in the south Berkeley area in order to determine whether moving the South Berkeley branch to the proposed Ed Roberts Campus will prove helpful to the local community. 

The South Berkeley branch has been working out of its 1901 Russell St. address since the single-story building was first built in 1963. With its vast collections of books, periodicals, and CDs as well as how-to books which are a part of the adjacent tool-lending library, it has grown into something of a neighborhood institution over the years. 

“The Board of Library trustees felt that community input is the most important aspect in making this decision. We want to gather details of how library users would like to see the library expand and what would suit their needs best at this point of time. Depending on this, the board will make a decision on whether or not to consider a possible move,” said Alan Bern, Berkeley Public Library Community Relations Librarian. 

“We want to ask questions about the positives and negatives of using the current South Berkeley branch and how it can be made better to cater to the needs of all our patrons, including the elderly, the disabled and the youth. Currently, the branch is located in a very old building, which is not ADA-accessible There is also no place for youth programs. We need to give some of these problems serious consideration. In the future we would like to perform this type of a community assessment on all our other branches,” said Bern. 

Bern added that the entire process would be carried out relatively rapidly and would start out by having a focus group comprised of library stakeholders and regular users whose feedback would be used to construct survey questions that would be asked to the public. A total of 285 to 344 community members will be surveyed overall.  

“We are excited because HTA will be training the youth in Berkeley to carry out the face-to-face surveys,” Bern said. Around 120 to 140 people will be questioned in the face-to-face survey which will be carried out in places such as the Ashby BART station, the nearby flea market, summer schools, senior centers and grocery stores. 

Around 120 to 140 more people will be randomly selected by zip code to take part in a semi-automated telephone survey that will be carried out by a professional team. Surveys of current users—about three to four dozen in total—will be carried out at the branch premises itself. 

Finally, there will be a face-to-face survey of key stakeholders and leaders of the community.  

Bern added that the Board of Trustees were very eager to know the results of the surveys because they are the key to understanding South Berkeley and more important, the needs of those who are a part of the South Berkeley community.  

“After the completion of the surveys a report will be prepared and presented to the board which will be followed by other meetings. Depending on all of the above, if it makes sense to move the library branch, the proper steps will be gradually carried out. But all this is quite a bit further down the line. First comes the assessment,” said Bern. 

Jeri Ewart, head librarian of the South Berkeley branch, said that the community assessment was a very positive step. “Nothing has been written in stone yet. However, we feel that the library will benefit from the move to the Ed Roberts campus and we want to find out if the public is enthusiastic about it in the same way we are.”  

Ewart added that all the branches—including the south branch which was the smallest of the lot—needed to be refurbished. 

“Every inch of the 5,000 square feet of space has been used. We had people sitting on top of each other even before the computers, the self check-out machines and other technology moved into the library. Things have become worse since then and currently there is no place for wheelchair users to move about. The proposed site at the Ed Roberts campus has twice as much space. This is a good opportunity. In fact it is the only opportunity to get a new space without going through a bond measure. Since we are currently located in a very old building, it is not possible to build on top or build along the sides. The city will not give us the variance to do so. We cannot afford to purchase a plot of land and start building from scratch. The Ed Roberts campus provides us with something of a condo situation which allows organizations to utilize the space available to them in the best possible way. It’s financially very doable,” she said. 

In the past, consultants have suggested tearing down the current structure on Russell Street and rebuilding it. However the over-all unstable condition of the building and the blown-on ceiling with the asbestos has made it impossible to carry out any kind of new construction. As Bern puts it, the problems with space will not go away by just “fixing” the place up because it’s virtually impossible to do so.  

The proposed Ed Roberts Campus has already been approved by the City of Berkeley to start building, and is scheduled to break ground for construction on the east end of the Ashby BART parking lot very soon. 

Adam Broner, tool-lending specialist at the Berkeley tool-lending library, said that he was excited at the prospect of the South Berkeley branch moving to the Ed Roberts campus. “We have enjoyed the close proximity of the branch. We get a lot of our patrons from there and the branch hosts a lot of how-to videos and books which help them. However, a move would help the tool-lending library because currently we operate from a place which is the size of a trailer. We could really do with more space, although it would mean losing the nice relation with the library.”

Although the candidates may not raise it themselves, the battle between Latinos and African Americans for political power in Oakland and the East Bay has already become an issue in the race for the Peralta Community College District Area 7 trustee seat. 

Alona Clifton, the two-term incumbent, is being challenged by a 31-year-old education bond consultant, Abel Guillen. Area 7 includes the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland as well as West Oakland and a portion of the East Lake and Chinatown areas. 

Four years ago, Clifton easily won re-election to her seat, winning two-thirds of the vote against a student challenger. 

“I’ve heard it come up,” Guillen’s campaign manager, Matt Lockshin, said when asked about the Latino/African-American issue in this year’s race. “I wonder whether it will be a big issue. It shouldn’t be.” 

It is difficult to see how it won’t, whatever the candidates’ intentions.  

The issue of Latino versus African-American political power last came up as an issue in the recent mayoral race between Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, a Latino, and former Congressmember Ron Dellums, an African-American, even though neither candidate ran on the basis of their ethnicities. 

After a period culminating more than a decade ago in which African-Americans dominated the major elected positions in the Oakland area—a majority of the City Council and Oakland Unified School District boards, the mayor of Oakland and the area’s Congressional and state assembly representatives—African-American political power has been on the wane. In the meantime, although Latinos are growing in population in the area, their numbers have never been fully represented in political office in Oakland and the East Bay. 

The last holdout of major African American political power in the East Bay is the Peralta Community College District board of trustees, where African Americans hold four of the seven seats. 

Despite the fact that 14 percent of the student population in the Peralta District are Latino, there are no Latino representatives on the board of trustees. 

Meanwhile, the Area 7 Peralta trustee race pits two individuals against each other who have been active in causes important to their respective ethnicities. 

Clifton has long been an advocate for African American rights. She has been the Peralta trustee most consistent in pushing for the hiring of local workers and contracts for local businesses in Peralta construction projects. In an era where it is illegal for public agencies to promote affirmative action for minorities, “local hiring” and “local contracts” have become a substitute in the East Bay for promoting minority firms and workers. At one point, she served as president of the politically powerful Oakland/Berkeley Chapter of the Black Women Organized for Political Action, an organization credited with helping several African American women win political office in the East Bay. 

In 2004, the African-American-based magazine CityFlight named Clifton one of its “Ten Most Influential African Americans in the Bay Area,” noting that “Ms. Clifton’s 30 years of activism engages her in political, social and economic grassroots efforts. Her activism centers on providing better access, opportunity, and equity to African Americans in particular and to the greater community as a whole.” And Clifton was one of two Peralta trustees—board president Linda Handy was the other—to be honored last month at the Eleventh Annual African American Excellence in Business and Scholarship Gala in Oakland as one of 101 local women “making a difference in our community.” 

Meanwhile, as a student senator at UC Berkeley in the late ’90s, Guillen was instrumental in convincing the UC administration to change the name of the student center from the Golden Bear Center to the Cesar E. Chavez Student Center. A UC Berkeley press release at the time of the renaming ceremony in 1997 quoted Guillen as saying, “Many students agreed the renaming of the student center would serve as a strong symbolic gesture of the university's commitment to diversity. Cesar Chavez was not just a role model for Latinos, but for anyone who believes in the idea of social justice." While at UC Berkeley in the late ’90s, Guillen also fought against the repeal of the University of California’s affirmative action policy. 

But Guillen’s campaign manager said it is not his intention to make race an issue in this campaign. 

“Abel isn’t running as a Latino candidate,” Lockshin said by telephone. “He’s Latino, and he’s proud of it. And of course, he will be supported by Latino people. But I don’t see his base of support as Latinos. He is running as a progressive young Democrat.” 

Lockshin also said that even though Clifton is the incumbent “and only one of them can win, and one of them will lose, Abel isn’t running against Alona.” Instead, Lockshin said that Guillen’s position is that “it is the board as a whole that has made a number of decisions that were not in the best interests of the district,” including the controversial Peralta and Laney property contract with Oakland developer Alan Dones—later voluntarily abandoned by Dones—and the current contract with PeopleSoft to reorganize the district’s computer systems. Lockshin said Guillen is running on a platform of three principles: relevance to students, fairness to faculty and staff, and accountability and transparency to the entire community. 

Clifton could not be reached in time to comment for this article. 

In at least one area, Guillen and Clifton appear to be running on parallel tracks. Stating that one of Guillen’s issues is that Peralta “needs more workforce training to prepare those people for employment who are not interested in moving on to a four-year institution,” campaign manager Lockshin said that “the district needs to set up more partnerships with local businesses. They have some, but these businesses are not necessarily employing people from the colleges.” 

That, in fact, has been one of Clifton’s major issues on the trustee board. At a trustee meeting last May, for example, she pushed district staff to tighten implementation of the district’s Project Labor Agreements with contractors. Peralta’s PLAs promote the hiring of local workers and subcontracting with local businesses. 

While the public has not yet turned its attention to the November races, local political organizations are already preparing for endorsements in the Area 7 Peralta race. The endorsement decisions of the Alameda County Central Labor Council and unions representing Peralta trustees are expected later this month, with the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club endorsement expected early in September. 

Artists living in one of the city’s last West Berkeley creative havens said they fear impacts of a planned new building at 740 Heinz Ave. could end their idyll. 

They raised their concerns Thursday night to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in comments before developers offered a first look at their latest plans for the site. 

Wareham Development, West Berkeley’s premier developer of office and laboratory space, has plans to turn the landmarked Garr Building into the shell of a major office/lab complex. 

The resulting structure would soar 30 feet above the current 45-foot West Berkeley height limit, said Darrell de Tienne, a San Franciscan who has represented Wareham and other firms developing projects in Berkeley. 

Chris Barlow, a partner in Wareham, said rising construction costs make the increased size essential for the project’s economic viability. 

Because the Garr Building now located on the site is a city landmark, project engineer Steve Tipping devised a way to preserve three of the existing unreinforced masonry walls as a shell for the larger building, which would be constructed partially inside them and end on further to the east. 

It is that extension that worries the artists who live at 800 Heinz Ave. in the old Durkee Building, another Wareham building that was preserved as part of a compromise to allow development on the other parts of the landmarked complex. 

Spacious units in the Durkee Building are rented to artists at reduced rents, averaging between $700 and $900. Many of the tenants are painters, who say they rely on natural light for their work. 

The plans shown the LPC would bring the edge of the building much closer to 800 Heinz. 

“What they’re planning is larger than anything in the area. I’m afraid we’ll lose our light,” said Corliss Lesser. “I can’t understand why it has to be so huge.” 

“We’re all afraid of losing the light for our studios,” said Betsey Strange, another 740 Heinz painter. “I also oppose it because of its size ands scale,” she said, and worried about the additional traffic and parking problems the new building would bring, as well as the noise and dust that would accompany construction. 

Strange noted that two other projects are planned in adjacent blocks, the Ashby Lofts and the new Berkeley Bowl, and said she worried about the cumulative impacts not only on the artists at 740 Heinz but also students at four nearby schools. 

“It’s just too big,” said Georgia Shea, another artist, “and it is just 100 feet from our building. . .It’s just not reasonable for the size of the height.” 

“A lot of the objections raised by adjacent residents are not our concern,” said LPC member Steven Winkel, an architect, “but I have concerns about the height” and its impact on nearby historic buildings. “It’s perhaps one story too tall,” he said. 

“We actually say the height is taller than what is allowed for buildings in this area,” said Commissioner Jill Korte. 

“You’re asking for a 28-foot height variance?” asked LPC member Carrie Olson. 

“The height and scale of the building are out of character with the already gigantic Garr Building,” said member Lesley Emmington. 

“It’s disproportionate to the size of the existing building,” said LPC member and architect Burton Edwards, who asked the developers to show the commission an inexpensive three-dimensional building model. 

Commissioners also indicated that the design they were shown was out of harmony with the existing building. 

Other business  

Commissioners added two new landmarks to the city’s roster of historically significant buildings, 1770 La Loma Ave. and 2411 Fifth St. 

The former Phi Kappa Psi Chapter House, the La Loma Avenue structure was built in 1901 as UC Berkeley’s second fraternity house. Commissioners voted unanimously to approve an application by Daniella Thompson to designate the structure Berkeley’s Landmark #290. 

The aging brown shingle structure is in poor repair, and Thompson said the new owner, a San Francisco realty firm, is apparently conducting renovations without a building permit. 

The vote to designate the Martin House on Fifth Street was 7-2, with commissioners Fran Packard and Steven Winkel opposing the application signed by 62 neighbors to designate the 1892 Queen Anne cottage a structure of merit. 

Owner Laura Fletcher objected to the landmarking, which was initiated after neighbors learned she was attempting to sell the property for demolition as the site of a new six-unit residential building. 

Neighbor Cathleen Quandt, the author of the initiation petition, was joined by seven other current and former residents who testified in favor of designating a structure—the second oldest on the block—they said was essentially for maintaining the character of their neighborhood. 

Commissioners delayed acting on Gale Garcia’s petition to landmark Iceland, acting on a request of the owners’ attorney, Rena Rickles, who said they were engaged in negotiations with the city on a way to keep the venerable skating rink open. 

The LPC will take up the issue again on Nov. 2. 

City officials have demanded replacement of the rink’s ammonia-based cooling system on the grounds that an accidental release of the hazardous compound could endanger nearby residents. 

Commissioners offered no objections to a request by developers Hudson McDonald LLC to demolish the Drayage Building at 651 Addison St. The structure houses a collection of illegal live/work spaces built by artist and crafts makers until they were evicted by city officials earlier this year. 

This past Sunday, youth rights activists from around the country, from as far as Washington, D.C., came to the National Youth Rights Association’s (NYRA) annual meeting (www.youthrights.org) in San Francisco to discuss ageism in the community and what progress the individual regional chapters have made to combat it. Five people from NYRA’s Berkeley chapter, including myself, attended the meeting. 

The mission of NYRA is simple: to empower youth and to defend the rights of young people in the United States. One of the main goals of NYRA is to lower the voting age, which in our opinion, would empower young people. 

The meeting started with a brilliant talk by Jordan Riak of NoSpank.Net. He prints books that talk about the dangers of using corporal punishment on kids. 

Riak told us about an Asian boy from San Francisco by the name of Paul Choy. Choy was in trouble with the law and was sent to boot camp. After Choy was there for a little while, his drill sergeant announced that Choy “failed to complete the five-mile run.” His punishment was to sit on a cold platform for five hours, without food, water, or a bathroom break. Choy started crying and crying. Instead of being comforted, several big men jumped on him and suffocated him to death. 

I can’t believe this. It’s hard for me to imagine how there are such violent, heartless people in the world. I can’t believe that boot camps are so unregulated, not to mention prisons or military camps. There is talk about drafting resolutions to be introduced into local communities, recommending that no parent inflict corporal punishment on their children. 

Riak additionally went on to speak about how in many states it is legal to “paddle” kids at school. 

“It’s a double standard,” says Riak. “People would scream if women were being spanked, or if minorities were subject to spanking. However, the Constitution doesn’t protect youth. It’s embarrassing.” 

Our next speaker was UC Santa Cruz professor Dr. Mike Males, author of two books: Scapegoat Generation and Framing Youth. He talked about ageism in society and likened it to racism. In many ways, I agree. While racism is widely politically incorrect, ageism is very politically correct, even in “liberal” Berkeley.  

Our group tried to get the City Council to support a modest proposal to support introducing state legislation that would allow local municipalities to lower their voting age to 16 for their local elections. We could only muster four votes for the resolution—one short of passing. Additionally, the council didn’t even allow the Youth Commission to present an item recommending that the city put on the ballot a question of whether residents would support lowering the voting age to 17 for School Board elections. Councilmember Wozniak tabled the item before any other member could even speak on the matter. 

It’s not just this issue. There are many. When Berkeley High students are buying lunch on Shattuck, they are treated like criminals. In Walgreen’s, for example, there is a policy that only a certain number of high school students can be in the store at one time. The notion that teens are more likely to steal is contrary to fact. There are several studies that show that 40-year-olds are much more likely to steal than teens. However, many people don’t know that or refuse to accept it. 

We need to start to educate people on ageism. It is ever too prevalent. Unlike 50 years ago, when our ancestors used to shape our culture, it is now today’s youth who shape tomorrow’s future. If there are always being discriminated against, there is no inspiration for them to try to better society.

MARYSVILLE, Calif.—First it was the long wet spring that took its toll on Sarbjit Johl’s peaches. Then the 10 straight days of triple digit temperatures last week, California’s deadliest hot spell in five decades, cooked the fruit on the trees. 

“This has been the most brutal year I’ve ever seen,” lamented Johl, who’s been farming since 1976 and co-owns Johl Brothers Farms in Marysville. “We are probably going to see the lowest yield since 1983. There was bad weather then, something like what we’ve had this year.” 

Johl’s lament finds an echo among Central Valley farmers in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties, who say Nature’s one-two punch will cut deep into their profits this year. The Central Valley produces more than half of the state’s peaches. Nearly 75 percent of the peach farms here are owned by people of Indian descent. 

In 1983, California’s peach farmers produced 339,000 tons of the fruit. Three years earlier, good weather helped the state to produce 744,000 tons, but has never been able to replicate that abundance since, Johl said. Last year’s yield was 481,000 tons. 

Excessive rains keep the crops smaller than usual because the blooms set late. And some of the blooms rot on the trees. That is what happened this year before the unusually hot weather set in. 

Farmers were not the only ones hit by this year’s weather. The punishing heat forced laborers, mostly immigrants from Mexico, to cut by two to three hours the amount of time they spent in the field picking fruit, hurting their pocket books as well. 

“On hot days they quit at around 11 or 12 (noon), instead of stopping at the usual time (of 2 p.m.),” said Didar Singh Bains, as he drove up in his Silverado pick-up to see how his son, Ajit, was faring fork-lifting the peach-laden trays onto the trucks to be taken to the Del Monte Fruits canning factories, which contracts with many of the Central Valley peach growers. Bains is the director of the California Peach Association. He claims he is “the largest peach grower in the world.” He and his two sons own farms all across the Central Valley and Canada. 

Even as it was, “labor was in short supply because of increased patrolling of the (U.S.-Mexico) borders,” observed Ajayab Dhaddey, California Canning Peach Association’s manager of field operations. The heat wave only worsened things, he said, noting that the weather drove many of the laborers to “kinder” climates like neighboring Washington State. Johl’s farm drew only about 60 percent of the labor it usually does for its peach harvest that lasts two months in early summer. 

The relentless heat ripened the fruits on the tops of the trees, but not those at the bottom. This meant that farmers had to harvest the fruit in two picks, forcing them to pay more to the pickers. It also meant that the ripened fruit had to be picked quickly before the sun could damage them. 

“Every load is graded (by our buyers),” Johl said. “The peaches can’t be too ripe, too green, too small or have anything cosmetically wrong with them.” 

Between the rows of peach trees on his 550-acre peach farm, dozens of discarded golden fruit rot in the hot sun. Most of them had some minor cosmetic defect and would not have passed muster with Del Monte Fruits or Signature Fruits, the two canners Johl contracts with. His sorters had tossed them out of the bins even as they were being filled by the pickers. 

Ajit Bains believes that the spring rain has cost his family about $1 million in losses. He estimates the loss from the heat wave could “easily be $150,000.” 

“That’s the thing about Mother Nature,” Johl observed. “She has the last word.” 

For septuagenarian Jane Jackson, fasting is a way of life. 

Jackson, together with co-faster Ivan Olsen, a Bay Area artist and activist, is on day 36 of a hunger strike demanding that U.S. troops be brought home from Iraq. 

Standing in front of the Ron J. Dellums Federal Building in downtown Oakland, Jackson and Olsen have a simple message for all the rush-hour commuters: “Bring Bay Area troops home. Iraq is not where they belong.”  

The fast in downtown Oakland is being organized in solidarity with the Troops Home Fast currently taking place in front of the White House. 

“We have made a commitment to bring the troops home in 2006 and to take non-violent steps for a comprehensive, concrete and rapid end to the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq. It was Gandhi who said that it is a small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission who can alter the course of history. Gandhi also said that ‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.’ That is the day we look forward to,” said Jackson. 

Jackson, a resident of Oakland, came to the city in 1973 on the insistence of the Black Panthers in order to campaign for then mayoral candidate Bobby Seale. She remembers fasting for seventy days in Washington, D.C., the longest so far, to support disabled children’s education rights during the 1982 Reagan administration. For her, fasting for a cause is more than an occupation, it’s a “labor of love.” 

In 1976, Jackson also participated in bringing civil rights to the disabled community through a demonstration at the Federal Building in San Francisco.  

“It is sad, but the truth is we are still waiting to see civil rights in its entirety become a reality for the disabled community in our cities. I want to draw attention to the fact that the money that is going towards the war can be used to help the disabled, the poor, and the starving. To fulfill basic needs such as education and food,” said Jackson. 

Olsen and Jackson have both been off solid food for the last 36 days. A concoction of warm water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper is what their daily diet is made up of.  

“Dick Gregory, another long-term faster in Washington, D.C. told us that the cayenne pepper helps to flush out the toxins. It’s sort of a cleansing drink and helps to keep us on our feet,” said Olsen. 

Olsen and Jackson keep their weekday vigil from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and join other demonstrations on the weekends. 

“What makes us sad is the lack of interest from people. There are those who continue to be surprised by the fact that we are fasting for 36 days, but that’s about it,” Olsen said. “We hope that there will be a change of attitude, that people will start thinking about how to bring a stop to the war and actually make it happen. Until then we will continue to fast.”

Armed officers storm home; suspect gone 

In a tense standoff that wasn’t, Berkeley police barricaded a house Sunday night, only to find out hours later that an armed gunman had vanished. 

Capt. Stephanie Fleming said officers were called to a rear unit in the 2000 block of Parker Street after a 19-year-old armed with a pistol had threatened family members, then ordered them to leave. 

Neighbors who contacted the Daily Planet said they had been alarmed at the sight of officers in body armor and carrying assault weapons. 

Police surrounded the residence, then summoned the Barricaded Subject Hostage Negotiation Team. 

After attempting for several hours to contact anyone inside the dwelling, officers decided to force entry about 3 a.m.—only to discover that the young gunman had already fled, apparently before the first officers had arrived. 

The young man remained at large Monday, said Capt. Fleming.

If money talked, it could turn into a noisy campaign season this year. Preliminary campaign finance statements for the 2006 races that were released Monday show most candidates in the City Council and mayoral races, despite lofty Berkeley idealism, are in hot pursuit of the gritty greenback dollar. 

Mayor Tom Bates, who spent $231,000 in his campaign against incumbent Shirley Dean four years ago, already has a hefty $49,600 in his war chest, picked up from 350 contributors, some 75 from out of town. Four years ago, at this time, he had raised $35,000. 

Individuals can contribute only a maximum of $250 each, but there is no limit on the total funds that can be raised, according to Berkeley election law. Corporations, nonprofits and unions cannot contribute. Candidates had to file contribution reports for the first six months of 2006 by July 31. Complete lists of contributions are available on the City Clerk’s website.  

Mayoral challenger and former Planning Commission Chair Zelda Bronstein, who has raised $17,000 from 103 contributors—21 from out of town—points to Bates’ contributors, saying that a significant number “come from developers and their allies.”  

But Bates argues that he is collecting funds from among a “wide spread of people.” Developers such as Denny Abrams, Ali Kashani and Bill Falik are contributors, but so is union organizer Charles Idleson, California Nurses Association; Berkeley Citizens Action activist Nancy Gorrell and Councilmembers Laurie Capitelli, Linda Maio and Gordon Wozniak. 

Without quoting a number, Bates said he planned “to raise enough to get my message across.” He said he would be spending less than he had in 2002. He plans to have a campaign office open after Labor day; a campaign manager is coming on board in mid August. 

Bronstein’s funds come largely from neighborhood activists such as Martha Nicoloff, co-author of the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance, writer and historian Susan Cerny, Middle East activist Barbara Lubin, cultural activist Bonnie Hughes, Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman, and Landmarks Preservation Commissioner Jill Korte. 

Bronstein said that while she expects to raise enough money to run her campaign well, she won’t match Bates dollar for dollar. “I don’t have the support of the development community,” she said. The funds raised to date, however “are respectable for someone in my position [as a challenger].” 

Bronstein is opening a campaign headquarters at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Virginia Street, and will be hiring someone to head her campaign but won’t be hiring high-priced consultants, she said, noting, “I have a lot of excellent [volunteer] consultants.” 

Mayoral Challenger Christian Pecaut has raised $150 and candidates Zachary Runningwolf and Richard Berkeley did not file statements. 

District 7 

In UC Berkeley area’s District 7, incumbent Kriss Worthington’s raised $12,800; challenger George Beier took in $5,000 and lent himself another $6,000. Seventy-nine people gave Worthington contributions, with 18 coming from out of town. Beier got 30 contributions, with two from outside Berkeley.  

Beier declined to say how much money he would raise. “It’s very difficult to run against an incumbent,” he said, noting there were 100 people at the campaign kick-off. Worthington had raised about $5,000 by this time during his 2002 campaign and said he plans to match whatever Beier spent. 

Beier is sharing an office with Councilmember Gordon Wozniak on Telegraph Avenue, but said he paid June and July rent in July, which is why that expense is not reported on his expenditure form. Worthington said he is considering opening an office. 

Beier had a poll done by David Binder, but did not pay for it in June, he said, which is why it was not reflected on his campaign finance statement.  

“I don’t need to do a poll,” Worthington quipped. 

Among Beier’s better-known contributors are Barbara Allen, a regular budget critic at City Council meetings; Davida Coady, executive director of Options Recovery Services; Ed Munger Sr. and Ed Munger Jr., Telegraph Avenue property owners where Beier has his office; Michael Wilson, president of the Berkeley Property Owners Association; Robert Herr, attorney whose website says he represents “an array of developers, owners, managers and lenders in commercial and residential real estate development …” (Beier’s contribution form says Herr’s occupation is unknown and his employer is the Oakland Raiders.) Both Wozniak and his wife, Evie Wozniak, contributed to the campaign. 

“A lot [of contributions] are from family and friends,” Beier said, adding that Wozniak helped out by asking for funds from his donors. 

Among Worthington’s better-known funders are former City Councilmember/former mayoral hopeful Don Jelinek, Berkeley Citizen’s Action co-chair Linda Olivenbaum, Oakland attorney/School Board Member Dan Siegel and Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, which works to legalize marijuana.  

Worthington said he won’t be hiring big-time consultants. “I can’t afford big money,” he said.  

Worthington spent about $41,000 on his 2002 campaign. 

District 8 

In the race that pits student and Rent Board Member Jason Overman against incumbent Gordon Wozniak in the southeast hills District 8, the incumbent has outspent the challenger 24-1. Wozniak has collected $24,400, while Overman, who has yet to officially announce his candidature, has collected no funds. 

Wozniak spent $73,500 on his last election, but, as he pointed out, that included a run-off race. He said he hasn’t yet worked at fund raising; his treasurer simply sent out letters to former contributors. He had raised $17,000 during the same period for his 2002 run. 

Some of the better-known names among his 167 contributors—just 10 of them from outside Berkeley—include Narsai David, KCBS food and wine critic; attorney Robert Herr and property management consultant Michael St. John.  

“I haven’t carefully looked over the lists,” Wozniak said, explaining that his treasurer sends him copies of the contributions. 

Overman, on the other hand, says his is “an insurgent campaign,” not part of the “moneyed interests in this city.” While Overman will be raising money, he said his campaign will depend mostly on volunteers. He said he would be able to beat out his better-funded opponent, as Phil Angelides did in his race against Steve Westley. 

“We will have the capacity to raise money and get the word out,” Overman said. 

District 4 

In the downtown-area District 4 incumbent Dona Spring has taken in $8,400, compared to challenger Raudel Wilson’s $4,800. 

Among those on Spring’s contribution list are neighborhood activist Dean Metzger, former Councilmember Don Jelinek, Berkeley Citizen’s Action Co-Chair Linda Olivenbaum, mayoral candidate Zelda Bronstein and Councilmember Kriss Worthington. 

Spring pointed out that much of Wilson’s support comes from the real estate community, which Wilson readily acknowledged. Among them are Soheyl Modarressi of Elite Properties, Mamood Mktari of Red Oak Realty, Robert Randall of Prudential California, Steve Schneider, independent real estate broker and Diane Verducci, also an independent real estate broker. 

Wilson said that so far the list is just of people he knows or that have reached out to him. “I haven’t held any fundraisers yet,” he said. That there are so many real estate brokers is “just a coincidence,” he said, noting that by the end of the campaign they will figure as a very small percentage of the contributors. 

“Who will the council member be beholden to when making a decision?” Spring asked rhetorically. 

Wilson said he has opened a campaign office at Fulton Street and Durant Avenue, but has not hired anyone to run the campaign. “I will do a lot myself,” he said. Spring does not plan to have a campaign office, but has hired neighborhood activist Nancy Holland as her campaign manager.

Former Mayor Shirley Dean says she’ll be on the campaign trail. 

But it won’t be as a challenger for mayor.  

Instead, she’ll be stomping for the Landmarks Preservation Initiative. 

In a phone conversation Thursday afternoon, Dean said she’d weighed her options. “How do you put together a campaign so late in the game?” she asked. Candidates have already raised funds and some organizations are already doing endorsements. 

The question of running for mayor surfaced last week, when community activist Merilee Mitchell, unbeknownst to Dean, took out some preliminary candidate papers in her name, and people began to call and ask her to run. 

Even though she won’t be holding an office, Dean said she’ll continue to make an impact, as she has over the almost-four-years she’s been away from City Hall. She’s worked to protect property-owners’ rights with respect to creeks, helped found Neighbors On Urban Creeks and has worked with the group Budget Watch, lobbying the council for various spending options. 

“I’m getting accustomed to being on the other side of the microphone,” Dean said, adding that the mayor and council should have to experience speaking from the public mic, especially when one has to put together thoughts in three—or sometimes one—minute. 

Dean said she has endorsed Gordon Wozniak and George Beier for City Council, but has not endorsed anyone for mayor. “My options are still open,” she said. “Nobody’s asked me.” 

At this point, “My first priority will be to get the Landmarks Preservation Initiative passed,” she said. 

Will she run in the next election? 

“I’ve got two years to sweat that decision,” Dean said.

On two 6–3 votes, the city council Tuesday endorsed ballot language and a legal analysis that backers of a landmarks ordinance initiative said misrepresents their proposal. 

Councilmember Betty Olds, who dissented along with Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring, said she was particularly concerned that the council was voting on language they’d just been given. 

“City staff is continuing their line of giving us the facts so late that we don’t have time to make an informed decision,” she said moments after Mayor Tom Bates had gaveled the session to an end. 

“(Deputy City Attorney) Zac Cowan made so many changes, it’s hard to tell what we were voting on. This is not being very transparent.” 

The language in question will face voters when they decide in December whether or not to vote for what is now officially described as the “Landmarks Preservation and Demolition Permit Applications Ordinance.” 

Tuesday night’s vote followed a public comment session in which every speaker criticized Cowan’s proposed language for the text that will appear on the ballot itself and for the city attorney’s “impartial analysis” that will be distributed in the voter information booklets that will be sent to all registered voters. 

Speakers included Laurie Bright and Roger Marquis, the two principal sponsors of the initiative, former Mayor Shirley Dean, mayoral candidate Christian Pecaut, Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) member Jill Korte, former LPC members Patti Dacey (recently ousted by Councilmember Max Anderson) and Becky O’Malley (Daily Planet executive editor), as well as several members of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). 

The critics charged that Cowan’s language aimed to put a negative spin on the ordinance, and failed to mention the law’s positive impacts. 

John McBride, a BAHA activist, argued that Cowan erred in his analysis by warning that the city might be sued in the event both the initiative and Proposition 90, a statewide ballot measure, are approved in the November elections. 

Cowan wrote that the city could be sued for any loss in property value if Prop. 90 passes, a measure billed as barring eminent domain actions by governments that seize land for private development. 

Lesser-advertised provisions of that measure also allow suits for any government actions, other than those conducted for public safety and welfare, that result in diminished property values. 

“We are speculating on a possible law,” said McBride, arguing that the analysis should only focus on existing statutes. 

Dean, who at the time of the meeting was considering a possible run against Mayor Tom Bates, said the council’s actions were “the most unbalanced and unfair I’ve ever seen.” 

Three votes followed. 

First, given the legally mandated choice of adopting the initiative language themselves or sending it to the ballot, the council voted for the latter option, with Kriss Worthington dissenting. 

Next came a vote on the ballot language, the maximum-of-75-words descriptive text that appears on the ballot itself. 

Cowan’s language was adopted, along with a minor tweak drawn from an alternative proposal submitted by BAHA. 

That language was passed on a six-three vote, with Olds issuing a stinging dissent: “I have never from the time I have been on this council seen anything come before us at the last second like this. My poor old brain has a hard time wrapping itself around this. It’s all a mess. We should have allowed the people more time” to comment. 

More debate followed about the analysis language, with two more minor tweaks. 

Questioned by Gordon Wozniak, Cowan said he was legally obliged to include the caution about the potential impacts of Prop. 90. “We’re obligated to give you the full picture, warts and all, the good points and the bad points” said the lawyer. 

Finally, on another 6-3 vote, the analysis was accepted. 

A copy of final versions of the ballot language and the analysis, as well as the initiative itself, is available on the city’s web site at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Elections/measures/2006/lpotta.pdf.  

Arguments coming 

The next stage for proponents and opponents is the drafting of the arguments that will accompany the analysis in the voter pamphlet. Drafts with a maximum of 300 words must be submitted to Acting City Clerk Sherry Kelly today (Friday). 

Once Kelly verifies that they fall within the length requirement, the drafts are then sent to the opposing sides, which will have until next Friday to draft a 250-word rebuttal. 

Following a public comment, the final drafts must be submitted to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters by Aug. 24, said Bright, who was busily drafting the proponent’s version. 

Bright said he doesn’t know who will draft the opposing version. “The names of both sides are kept confidential,” he said. 

Bright said he expects someone from the council to prepare the opposition draft, given that the same 6-3 majority in Tuesday’s votes had approved the first reading of a rival landmarks ordinance from the mayor and Councilmember Laurie Capitelli.

On Tuesday, many Berkeley residents came together to bring public safety awareness into their communities by celebrating National Night Out Day 2006. There were block parties throughout the city, which promised food, fun, and socializing. 

“It’s a time for public safety,” commented Officer Ed Galvan, Public Information Officer for the Berkeley Police Department. “The chief unveiled his plan to reduce crime in Berkeley by 10 percent … and each group of people received steering wheel locks.” 

The event kicked off at the Public Safety Building in Berkeley Tuesday night. Firefighters, police officers and city officials were in heavy attendance. The National Association of Town Watch sponsored the event. The goal was to show criminals that residents are ready to fight back.  

Galvan said, “It’s very symbolic to criminals that we’re still here and we are looking out for each other in the community.” 

National Night Out Day is usually pretty well attended in Berkeley. This year, forty-six block parties were held. 

“I thought the turnout was great,” said Berkeley Councilmember Dona Spring, District 4. “The police officers and firefighters came to each neighborhood group meeting and they would ask people about crimes in their area. The police told the residents to lock their windows and lock their doors ... that this is how crime happens.” 

The Berkeley Fire Department spoke about arson, which has been increasing in the city recently. 

“We do identify within Berkeley that there is an arson issue,” said Deputy Chief David Orth, Public Information Officer for the Berkeley Fire Department. “It tends to be somewhat cyclic. People tend to light trashcans on fire … but we’re in an urban area and we have an active population. We’re working hard to combat this issue through things like National Night Out.” 

Spring thought that National Night Out 2006 was a particularly great way to educate people on safety. 

“It’s the neighbor-to-neighbor approach,” she said. 

The City of Berkeley offers additional incentives for neighbors to come together and meet about issues of public safety. If the neighborhood signs on as a neighborhood watch group and holds a minimum of two meetings a year, they receive a free dumpster. 

Spring said, “You want your neighborhood looking neat and clean. Crime is more attracted to places where people don’t care about their surroundings.”

I dreaded the day when my mother would need to move into a nursing home. That day came, and a year and a half later, I enjoy her nursing home life on my visits—joining in Tai Chi or a round of mindgames, right alongside her. Her nursing home is so homey and hospitable that I wonder why more nursing homes aren’t like it.  

I put that question recently to the administrator of an East Bay nursing home that seems a lot like my mother’s—Salem Lutheran Home at 2361 East 29th St. in Oakland. A cluster of cozy dwellings atop a hill, Salem is a community made up of people at different stages of their elder years.  

Residents usually move into a cottage or apartment when they are still able to get around on their own. Then, as they begin to need help getting dressed, taking medication, or moving in and out of wheelchairs, they become part of the assisted-living program. They may still stay on in their own apartments with caregivers coming to them, and move to the main building only when they need more constant help.  

In the main building, residents showing signs of mild to moderate mental impairment live in clustered apartments and take part in programs meant to keep their memories going. Residents with more advanced dementia live in a different area, the Terrace. Residents who need round-the-clock skilled nursing care stay in the Care Center. 

Wherever they live, Salem residents are surrounded by art, music, gardens and animals. Following a model for eldercare called the Eden Alternative, Salem lets pets take up residence, as well as people. As I toured the main building with a staff member, I met the activities director’s Shih Tzu dog, who flopped down on the floor while the director joined a resident in impromptu song. In the Terrace, there’s a small aviary, and a bunny lives in the sunny activities room. On the patio just outside, residents sometimes water the flowerbeds (they sometimes water the concrete instead, I was told, but as all gardeners know, watering is relaxing whatever you’re watering). 

By the standards of pleasant living, Salem appears to be exemplary. By medical standards, as measured by state inspectors, the nursing care provided by Salem and its sister Oakland home, Mercy Retirement and Care Center, is outstanding. Both Salem and Mercy emerge from annual inspections with scores that couldn’t be better: no deficiencies for the past three years posted on www.medicare.com. 

How can Salem afford to offer such apparently high-quality nursing home care? 

For a start, Salem’s nursing care rates are higher than average for the East Bay. Monthly rates for the Terrace (for those with dementia) start at $4,750. Monthly rates for residents in the skilled nursing program start at $6,386. Rates for apartments and cottages are not as high, of course—studios start at $1,350 a month. Residents can rent month to month (with a one-time entry fee of $4,000). If they want to be assured of skilled nursing either at Salem or Mercy, however, they have to pay an entry fee that ranges from $20,000 to $150,000, depending on the size of their initial unit. Salem also takes a good look at would-be residents’ long-term assets. 

Although Salem needs to meet most expenses with income from residents, as a non-profit it has this advantage over for-profit eldercare: Salem administrators do not need to deal with stockholder or owner demands to make money.  

Salem’s nonprofit status, executive director Anita Ramlo told me, is one explanation for Salem’s ability to deliver good care. Because Salem is non-profit, and because Salem defines its mission in spiritual terms, it’s easier to talk with staff about their work as a calling, she said. That’s important because nurses and aides at Salem get about the same level of pay as nurses and aides elsewhere—certified nurses assistants (CNAs) without experience start at $12, licensed practical nurses at $25, registered nurses at $30 an hour. To attract good staff members and keep them, Salem needs to offer them something else. 

That something else, Ramlo said, is involvement in the running of the institution. Several Salem CNAs started out as housekeepers who took part in a program caring for the dying, then, with Salem helping out with the bills, went through training to become CNAs.  

To encourage CNAs to stay on, Salem has started training experienced aides to mentor newcomers. Salem also follows a collaborative model of decisionmaking, Ramlo said. “We’re small enough and we care enough about the staff that when we do mentor training, it doesn’t come across as a corporate program.”  

Experts agree that staff stability is a key element in providing good nursing home care: it’s hard on residents if their caregivers keep changing. At an awards dinner last spring, Arta Zygielbaum, the director of community relations who showed me around the main building, was surprised to see how long many of the staff members had worked at Salem—some received awards for 10-year and 25-year service. 

Volunteers supplement staff at Salem—children come in to work on the raised flowerbeds under the supervision of residents. A quilting group joins some of the residents in making quilts that are first displayed in the main residents’ dining room, then donated to Children’s Hospital. 

Showing me around, Zygielbaum shared her own thoughts about what makes Salem’s care unusual—for instance, the practice of delivering assisted-living care anywhere on the campus. While some retirement facilities rigorously separate patients who need help from those in “independent living” (the phrase often used, though not at Salem), Salem encourages mingling of residents in activities meant for everyone.  

As good as it looks and sounds, I’m sure there are downsides of life at Salem, as there are of life anywhere, especially when your body and mind are letting you down in ways you could hardly have imagined. But if I come to need the support of an institution in my elder years, I hope there’ll be one like Salem that I can afford. 

This, of course, is the fly in the ointment. America’s class divisions are sharp in nursing home care. Although skilled nursing patients at Salem who live long enough to deplete their own funds can go on Medi-Cal, Salem does not accept new residents already on Medi-Cal. Vast numbers of Americans who need nursing home care have to take what they can get—often bleak, understaffed wards where drugs replace secure environments and supervision. In one of the unpleasant ironies of American life, many frontline nursing home caregivers themselves would not be able to afford care like the care they’ve provided for so many others. 

There is no substitute for poneying up funds to improve the quality of publicly funded nursing home care, but funds alone can’t do the job. We need, too, a shift of attitude—a recognition that life in a nursing home is still life, and for nursing home residents like my mother, still very much life worth living.  

• To check the record of individual nursing homes: www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/Home.asp. 

• For a checklist of things to look for when considering a nursing home: www.medicare.gov/Nursing/Checklist.pdf. 

• For other useful information about eldercare, see the site for the California Association of  

• Homes and Services for the Aging: www.aging.org.  

• For more on the Eden Alternative: www.edenalt.com.  

• For other Elder Care Alliance communities: www.eldercarealliance.com.  

Salem staff photo 

Former elementary school teacher and Salem resident Martha Olson listens as first-grade students from Priscilla Hines Head Royce School read her a story. 

Former Oakland resident Carol Polsgrove lives in Bloomington, Indiana, where she teaches journalism at Indiana University. 

Supporters of neighborhood watchdog group Cleanaircoalition.net will be coming together with environmental and community groups this month to demand that Pacific Steel Casting make the results of their already delayed emission inventory report and health risk assessment available to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the City of Berkeley immediately. 

Willi Paul, director of Cleanaircoalition.net, told the Planet that plans for the protest will be discussed on Saturday. “People need to understand that PSC is withholding information from the air district, the city and the community. We cannot let this injustice go on any longer. It’s time to turn up the heat again,” he said. 

Pacific Steel has recently been receiving a lot of heat from environmentalists for spreading toxic air plumes over areas of Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito and Kensington for decades. Due to their increased capacity and the volume of castings, the problem has grown greater and community members are demanding that the air district regulate and protect the public from health hazards.  

Nabil al-Hadithy, the City of Berkeley’s hazardous materials manager and secretary for the Community Environmental Advisory Commission, told the Daily Planet on Tuesday that the city had yet to receive the emission inventory reports. 

“We had anticipated the data to be forthcoming in May this year. It’s already running late by two months. It is important for the installation of the carbon filters by September. Unless we have the data for the inventory and the point sources, we cannot determine whether it is actually harmful to humans,” al-Hadithy said.  

He added that the new thing about this set of data was that a lot of sampling had been carried out at different venues. “Previously, a lot of information that regulators have had to carry out health risk evaluations on were based on models. This is going to be fresh data available from the actual location itself. That is why we are anxious to see it. But unless BAAQMD receives it from PSC, we will not be able to see it. I am very concerned about the whole situation.” 

Elizabeth Jewel of Aroner, Jewel & Ellis Partners, the PR firm for Pacific Steel, told the Planet that PSC had no comment on the issue except for the fact that they were working as hard as possible to get the report out. 

The PSC emission inventory report after being released to the City of Berkeley will be made available to the public. The city also notified the air district staff in late June that they had contracted with a separate environmental engineering firm to perform a separate review of the PSC emission inventory report and Health Risk Assessment, data and results.  

In a July 31 e-mail to Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, Peter Hess, deputy air pollution control officer for BAAQMD, admitted that the submittal of the emission inventory report of PSC to the BAAQMD was behind schedule.  

According to Hess, the emission inventory report was already in the hands of the attorney for Pacific Steel Casting, and BAAQMD was “anxiously awaiting its receipt.” 

The e-mail further stated that the air district engineers were in near daily communication with the engineering and plant representatives of PSC to “ascertain the status of the emission inventory report and move the project along as soon as possible to completion.”  

Steve Ingraham, a long-time Berkeley clean air activist and Alliance Member told the Planet that he was disappointed in the failure of policy and enforcement.  

“BAAQMD is allowing PSC to keep polluting despite the delay in the promised information. Although one might expect more of the same from Pacific Steel Casting Co., it is high time that we demand that BAAQMD do its job and do it right. I believe that this coalition of groups will press this point home. We have the help of Greenaction, which has dealt with deceit from the air district and then prevailed with Red Star Yeast and an Oakland medical incinerator. On those two they had joined forces with Pacific Institute and we have the latter’s promise of assistance as well. Founding members of the West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs are also lending their support,” he said. 

“Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice is ready to join with Berkeley residents who are concerned about the ongoing pollution from Pacific Steel and the ongoing foot-dragging by Pacific Steel and the Bay Area Air District. The Air District is improperly allowing Pacific Steel company to continue polluting even though the company continues to delay providing emissions test reports and this delays evaluations of the risk. Greenaction believes no company should be allowed to operate in a community unless the emissions of pollutants are proven to be safe, yet the Air District is allowing large amounts of pollutants to be emitted before it is proven safe. We will join residents in demanding clean air, healthy communities and justice,” said Angel. 

With respect to the status of the actual testing, Hess’s e-mail to Angel said that the emission source testing of the equipment under evaluation in the health risk assessment of the sources had been completed by an independent testing firm under the supervision of the air district staff. These emission source tests were “direct measurements of the emissions of air contaminants from the operations of individual pieces of equipment at Pacific Steel Casting.” 

Prior to testing, the air district staff had reviewed the emission source testing protocols and analytical analysis procedures in order to ensure accuracy and after the review and subsequent approval of the protocols and procedures, the air district engineers and inspectors observed the actual source sampling. 

Hess also mentioned in the e-mail that the additional source testing (now completed) to determine whether other compounds were being omitted from certain emission sources at PSC had taken much longer to be completed than had been originally assumed. 

He added that a separate independent environmental engineering consulting firm had reviewed the emission results and “combined the plant operational throughput information from Pacific Steel Casting to develop emission factors for the emission sources.” These emission factors contained in the emission inventory report would be used to develop the health risk assessment. 

With respect to how long BAAQMD would take to evaluate and take action on test and study results, Hess said that after the review of the emission inventory report was completed, the submittal would either be “approved or returned to the company and contractor for corrections.” 

After the Air District approves the emission inventory report, the health risk assessment could proceed “using the evaluation protocols and emissions approved by the air district” and after its completion it too would be subjected to a thorough review by the air district, independent consultants and state agencies.

Economic Development Manager Thomas Myers went from helping site 7-Elevens in South Central Los Angeles to working four-and-one-half years to get Berkeley Bowl situated on Oregon Street. 

After 13 years in the city’s Economic Development division, Myers will be moving on—to what, he’s not yet sure. He’ll be leaving in October. 

While citizen participation slows things down, “I wouldn’t trade speed for public input,” Myers said, pointing out that you can look four miles to the south to see the stark difference in Oakland’s development. It’s the slow process and citizen input that has made Berkeley what Myers calls a “series of unique places.” 

While Economic Development is staffed by just two people, Myers is not complaining. Work is done in teams. For example, it takes police, public health, planning and parks staff to work on Telegraph Avenue area issues. 

Moreover “Dave [Fogarty] is 18 people by himself,” Myers said, referring to the other person in the two-man staff, whom he touts for his “tutelage.”  

When he came to Berkeley from Los Angeles, Myers said he didn’t understand the culture. “Dave reminded me to tell the developers that we do things a little differently,” that the process would take time and that the public would have input. 

That style of focused development makes Berkeley a great place to live and to visit, he said.  

City Manager Phil Kamlarz said he’d be looking for a replacement who understands Berkeley’s particular needs. “Community development is different from economic development,” he said, explaining that the business areas overlap with residential and both must be considered when attracting and retaining business. 

The city needs to keep up the retail base in order to provide the services people want, Kamlarz said, noting that the city is facing the challenge of car dealerships that are threatening to leave.

With the deadline for their eviction from their home of the last 31 years fast approaching, the artists of the Nexus Institute are looking for a new home. 

“We’re sort of running around over here trying to find someplace we can locate without having our work disrupted,” said Aspy Khambatta. “As you can imagine, that’s going to be hard to do. And we have an enormous amount of stuff.”  

When Nexus leaves—possibly going to the old Ford plant in Richmond—it will mark just the latest in a series of losses of Berkeley’s once numerous artist communities. 

Three similar centers have vanished in recent years, including most recently the Drayage, a former warehouse at 651 Addison St. that had been converted into illegal live/work spaces that were shut down earlier this year by city officials. 

The Crucible at 1036 Ashby Ave., another collective, was forced to move to Oakland after run-ins with city officials in 2002, and the artists who inhabited the live/work spaces in another former warehouse at 2750 Adeline St. were evicted after a sale in 2001. 

The departure of Nexus follows a courtroom battle that pitted two well-liked nonprofits against each other in a classic landlord/tenant dispute, while triggering a schism within Nexus itself. 

The landlord in this case is the Berkeley–East Bay Humane Society, a charity founded in 1927 that recorded an income of $1.24 million in 2004. 

The tenant, Nexus, was founded in 1974 and recorded a far more modest income of $84,369 30 years later. 

Each group provides much needed services to a deserving clientele—the humane society offers care and support for starving critters while Nexus supports starving artists—and some in Nexus sought to settle the dispute outside the courtroom. 

“I thought it would be better to go to the City Council and to the public,” said Carol Newborg, who was ousted as an officer of the collective during a struggle she says has left the membership divided and troubled. 

“We lost some members,” Khambatta acknowledged, “but the majority stayed.” 

After losing a courtroom challenge of their eviction notice last month, the artists and woodworkers that make up one of the city’s last remaining art collectives may be forced to leave the city, Khambatta said. 

“The sheriff served us with an eviction notice on a Wednesday, giving us seven days to move out. We went back to court on Friday and requested a hardship stay. The judge gave us 40 days,” he said. 

Newborg said she had favored a more conciliatory approach, and said she felt the decision to go to court should have been made by a vote of the full membership rather than just the steering committee. 

“I was ousted as president because I disagreed,” she said. 

“We tried to avoid litigation,” Khambatta said, “but in the end, we didn’t have a choice. We had no help from the city.” 

Newborg disagreed, pointing to a letter of support from Jos Sances of the Civic Arts Commission. 

“It’s really a complicated mess,” she said. “There are other who would like to speak, but they’re afraid of getting kicked out.” 

Economic pressures 

A member of the collective since 1979, Khambatta said he regretted that officials of the Humane Society had broken off talks with the collective, which had hoped to work out terms to buy the property for themselves. 

Mim Carlson, the Humane Society’s executive director, is the only official of that organization allowed to discuss the issue, said a spokesperson for that organization, and is on vacation. 

In earlier interviews, Carlson said they had notified Nexus last October that their lease wouldn’t be renewed when it expired on May 31st. 

Carlson said the society needed to sell the buildings to raise money to replace their aging facility that occupies much of the same block to the east of the Nexus buildings. 

Nexus members responded by filing a petition to initiate proceedings to landmark the structures. Carlson and Humane Society supporters responded by asking to file a petition of their own. 

In the end, the Landmarks Preservation Commission landmarked the brick structure at Eighth and Carleton but declined to designate the metal buildings. 

The building they did honor was built in 1924 by the Austin Building Co.—the same firm that built the landmarked H.J. Heinz Co. factory of Ashby and San Pablo avenues—for Standard Die and Specialty Co. Formed in 1973 and located ever since in a unique collection of buildings at 2701-2721 Eighth St. in West Berkeley, Nexus is faced with the reality of a landlord eager to sell the property to raise much-needed funds. 

In addition to the landmarked building at the corner of Eight and Carleton streets that houses the collective’s gallery, members also work out of a pair of adjacent sheet metal buildings, one of which housed the plant that manufactured bombs during World War II. 

Aspy and fellow woodworker Daniel Caraco showed a reporter through the woodworking shop area Wednesday, a large, well-lit space filled with all manner of equipment, from massive planing and joining machines to the fine hand tools required for intricate detail work. 

“I’m afraid we won’t be able to find anything quite as nice. At least not in Berkeley,” Caraco said. 

Both Newborg and Khambatta note that the West Berkeley Plan requires anyone who purchases the buildings to replace at least 75 percent of the space for art and craft tenants. 

Prominently displayed high on one of the walls of the landmarked building is a “For Sale” sign, posted by Norheim & Yost, the Humane Society’s broker—the omen of yet one more change in the transformation of West Berkeley.

The Berkeley city attorney’s office has good reason to gloat over this week’s California Supreme Court ruling that the state’s universities aren’t exempt from paying for impacts of developments on surrounding communities. 

But that doesn’t mean the ruling will have much impact in Berkeley, said Deputy City Attorney Zac Cowan, who co-authored a key brief in the case with his boss, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque. 

Others, like Anne Wagley, disagree. She’s one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit by Berkeley citizens who object to concessions the city of Berkeley, represented by Albuquerque and Cowan along with outside counsel, made to UC Berkeley in the settlement of its own lawsuit over UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan. 

Cowan said that the cases are different because UC Berkeley’s growth is incremental and impacts an already existing infrastructure, unlike the development of the new California State University campus at Monterey Bay (CSUMB), where construction of an entirely new campus demanded creation of a new infrastructure. 

In addition, UC Berkeley officials have typically offered mitigation measures in the two key areas where CSU trustees claimed they were exempt: traffic impacts and fire protection. 

In City of Marina v. Board of Trustees of the California State University, the judges refuted the claim by trustees that previous court rulings barred any payments to other governments to mitigate the impacts of the new campus. 

While earlier rulings and the state constitution may block other agencies from levying taxes and assessments on the university system to pay for off-campus infrastructure improvements, the justices denied the claim by CSU trustees that they were equally barred from making voluntary payments. 

UC Regents supported that claim with an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief.  

At issue were provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that require developers of projects to mitigate adverse impacts on the environment. 

New campus 

The CSUMB campus is located at the 27,000-acre site of Fort Ord, an army base closed by the Defense Department in 1994 and transferred to Monterey county and a variety of other agencies. That same year, state legislators created the Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA) to develop and implement the transition. 

The next year, FORA officials laid out a plan identifying $249.2 million needed capital improvements through 2015. 

Included in the plans was the 1,370-acre site the Army transferred to the trustees in 1994 for construction of a new CSU campus. The school opened in 1995 with 663 students, housed and taught in base buildings. Plans call for an eventual enrollment of 25,000 full-time students. 

Under state law, the trustees were obligated to prepare an environmental impact report (EIR) on their master plan, spelling out the effects of the new campus and specifying steps they would take to mitigate adverse impacts. 

The final documents approved by trustees defined five areas where they would not provide full mitigation: increased runoff that would overtax an inadequate storm drain system, demands on an insufficient water supply, traffic congestion on area roadways, overtaxing wastewater treatment systems and an increased demand for fire protection services. 

Complete mitigation, the EIR declared, would require the regional FORA to make regional infrastructure improvements. 

While FORA planned on the assumption CSU would contribute to the needed improvements, CSU trustees refused to offer anything for fire and road improvements; they also alleged the improvements were FORA’s responsibility and claimed they were legally barred from making any contributions. The trustees further claimed that the benefits conferred by the new campus would outweigh the negative impacts. 

The trustees said their decision to deny any mitigation funds for roadways and fire protection stemmed from a century of court precedents and state legislation. 

San Marcos case 

The key decision, cited repeatedly by the justices in their 44-page ruling, was the July 21, 1986 decision in San Marcos Water Dist. v. San Marcos Unified School Dist., which laid out the basic rule that unless special assessments were specifically authorized by the state legislature, local agencies couldn’t levy them against other agencies. 

The legislature responded with measures permitting such assessments for providing water, light, heat, communications, power, and garbage services and for flood and drainage control, sanitary purposes and sewage collection, treatment and disposal. 

In their EIR, CSU trustees agreed to provide payments for those services but not for the construction of roads and creation of fire protection services. 

Because legislators and the San Marcos ruling hadn’t specified roads and fires, all aspects of those services were the obligation of FORA, not CSU, the trustees argued. 

In response, the City of Marina filed suit. Joining with the city were six groups and the City of Davis that filed amicus briefs. Albuquerque and Cowan drafted a joint brief on behalf of the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties. 

The other groups siding with the city were the San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center, Protect Our Water, the Central Valley Safe Environmental Network and West Davis Neighbors. 

Filing similar briefs on behalf of the CSU trustees were the Regents of the University of California and the Coalition for Adequate School Housing. 

The decision 

The court ruled unanimously that the trustees must vacate their decisions certifying the EIR and adopting their master plan, and set aside their finding that “overriding circumstances” justified approving documents that failed to provide measures to correct the negative impacts of the campus on its surroundings. 

While the courts had no authority to impose specific mitigation measures, the justices ruled, CEQA required them to adopt measures that would adequately mitigate the identified impacts 

The first issue the court dealt with was the claim that CSU couldn’t pay because precedents and law declared such payments “legally infusible.” 

Not so, ruled the justices. 

Simply because they couldn’t be imposed didn’t mean the trustees couldn’t pay them voluntarily to fulfill their CEQA obligations, the court ruled, finding that “the Trustees have misinterpreted San Marcos.” 

The trustees also “abused their discretion under CEQA by certifying an EIR that improperly fails to identify voluntary contributions to FORA as a feasible method of mitigating the environmental impacts of their project.” 

Indeed, “while education may be CSU’s core function, to avoid or mitigate the environmental impacts of its projects is also one of CSU’s functions.” 

Similarly, “the relevant law makes clear that a payment by the Trustees for the purpose of mitigating CSUMB’s environmental effects would not constitute an unlawful gift of public funds,” the judges ruled. Instead, “[s]uch a payment by the Trustees would have the public purpose of discharging their duty as a public agency” to mitigate negative effects as called for by CEQA. 

While the trustees also argued that mitigation of the campus’ impacts on wastewater, drainage, water supply, fire protection and traffic were FORA’s responsibility, the court held that state law mandated that costs “will be borne by those who benefit from them,” and that state agencies are required to budget funds to protect the environment from damages caused by their own activities, even if the effects are outside boundaries of the agency’s property. 

The court also struck down CSU’s claim that their adoption of the EIR and master plan were justified by overriding circumstances in which the net economic, legal, social, technological and other benefits outweigh the adverse effects of development. 

Local impact? 

What does the decision mean for Berkeley, where tensions are running high between town and gown as the university embarks on a massive expansion plan? 

“Not much,” said Cowan—at least for the moment. 

In Marina, the court was looking at the creation of an entirely new campus in a relatively undeveloped area with little or no existing infrastructure, while UC Berkeley’s expansion is taking place within an already developed city with an established infrastructure. 

Impacts in Berkeley are incremental, Cowan said, and the university has consistently offered mitigations in the area CSU trustees denied. 

“For instance, if a development produces enough new traffic to require installation of a new traffic signal, the university will agree to pay for that portion of the signal’s cost” related to the increase, he said. 

The university is also making payments for fire, storm drain, traffic and other impacts.  

Wagley (the Daily Planet’s Arts Editor) and her co-plaintiffs have filed a legal challenge to the settlement agreement between UC Berkeley and the city after Berkeley sued over impacts outlined in the university Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) through 2020. 

In that agreement, the city “dropped all current and future claims for uncompensated services it provides the University,” Wagley said. “The Settlement Agreement will run for the life of the LRDP, until 2020. This directly conflicts with the position the City took in their amicus brief in the Marina case.”  

Cowan said more problems could arise when the university files its final EIR on plans for a quarter-billion dollars in new construction at and around Memorial Stadium. 

“We’re far apart on what impacts are going to be significant and what it will take to mitigate them,” he said. 

For more background on the financial struggles between the university and local governments, see “UC Tax Exemptions Rooted In Law and Court Rulings” in the May 14, 2004, edition of the Daily Planet.

An Oakland judge Tuesday barred a November vote on an initiative that would have stopped waterfront development pending the creation of a new plan. 

The measure had been sponsored by a coalition of Albany residents and environmental groups opposing a Los Angeles developer’s plans for a mall on the Golden Gate Fields parking lot. 

Though one in four Albany voters signed petitions for the Albany Shoreline Initiative, its sponsors had failed to give the legally required notice before they started gathering signatures, ruled Alameda County Superior Court Judge Winifred Y. Smith. 

The judge ruled on a petition filed by Pacific Racing Association, the operators of Golden Gate Fields—where Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso had teamed with track owner Magna Entertainment on plans to build an upscale mall. 

The initiative, launched in response to the plan, called for a moratorium on waterfront development pending the completion of a waterfront specific plan and prohibited any new development within 600 feet of the shoreline. 

Named as defendants were Marge Atkinson, chair of Citizens for the Albany Shoreline (CAS) and a City Council candidate, and Albany City Clerk Jacqueline Bucholz. 

Smith ruled that Bucholz failed to fulfill her responsibility under state election law to verify that the petitioners had met all their legal obligations before she accepted the petitions for certification. 

Specifically, supporters filed to post copies of the initiative and petition in three public places, and similarly failed to publish a neutral summary of the measure as a legal notice in a newspaper declared eligible by a county court to publish such notices.  

“Proponents’ noncompliance deprived voters of the opportunity to review neutral information regarding the initiative, as the Legislature intended, in a pre-campaign environment,” Smith wrote. 

Following publication and posting, the law states, proponents are required to file affidavits with the city, which show how they met the requirements. 

Initiative supporters failed on all three grounds, Smith ruled. 

While supporters did publish a notice in the same paper the City of Albany uses for notices, that paper—the West County Times—lacks court certification. 

“We lost on a technicality,” said Robert Cheasty, a CAS activist and former Albany mayor. “There are two strains in recent decisions on the issue, and Judge Smith followed the more constrained course.” 

“Our focus, as always, is on protecting the shoreline,” said Atkinson, who left the door open for another petition drive. 

Calls and emails to Caruso spokesperson Matt Middlebrook, who campaigned for the mall project over the past year, were not returned. 

CAS had been joined for the initiative drive by supporters from the Sierra Club, Citizens for the East Shore Park and other groups. 

In one sense, the initiative supporters won, given that Caruso withdrew his project after the City Council refused his demand that the city agree to complete an environmental impact report before rejecting his proposal. 

The council denied the request on July 17 after a lengthy session that ended well after midnight, and Caruso announced to a supporter, as he left council chambers, that he was pulling the project. 

Atkinson said she isn’t convinced his withdrawal is permanent, and Mayor Alan Maris told a reporter during Smith’s court hearing July 19 that he hoped Caruso would reconsider. 

Five days later, the City Council voted to implement one of the initiative’s key proposal, a waterfront planning process to “include evaluating and identifying desired alternatives that can realistically be implemented.” 

Initiative supporters are continuing the fight, with a Save Our Shoreline Benefit plans at Ashkenaz in Berkeley next Friday.

“Since its heyday during World War II, when workers from Richmond’s Kaiser shipyards filled the streets and sidewalks,” we learn from Richmond Councilmember Tom Butt’s e-mail forum, “Macdonald Avenue has reflected the common patterns of American downtowns. Many businesses have struggled to maintain economic viability in a climate of shifting commercial development and shopping patterns.” 

The street’s name reflects how important the city of Richmond once was to the Bay Area, even before the heady days of the ’40s when the city’s Kaiser shipyards were turning out the country’s wartime armada. According to the National Park Service, Augustin Macdonald, who moved to what later became Richmond from his native San Francisco, was the founder and director of the Chambers of Commerce in Oakland, Richmond, and San Francisco, and was the president of the Alameda County Historical Society and the California State Historical Association. He conceived the idea of a transcontinental rail terminal at Point Richmond and a direct ferry service to San Francisco, which led directly to the oil refinery industry moving to the Richmond area. Macdonald had interests in land, water, mining, oil and timber enterprises throughout California. 

But it is the wartime era for which Macdonald’s avenue is best known. Photographs of that period show a bustling thoroughfare, full of cars and shoppers and an active nightlife that ranged from big bands to country and western reviews. While those days are long gone, Councilmember Butt’s e-mail entry concludes that “the vital [Macdonald Avenue] corridor that hosted scores of shops, restaurants, public services and entertainment venues during World War II is still alive in the memories of many residents.” 

Several Richmond-based organizations, including the city itself, want to make sure those memories don’t die. 

This Saturday, August 5, begins the first of a five-part effort to preserve Richmond’s downtown history when longtime city residents are asked to bring their recollections to a “Memories of Macdonald” meeting from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Richmond Museum of History, 400 Nevin Ave., in Richmond. Along with the museum, the event is being co-hosted by the Richmond Community Redevelopment Agency, the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park, the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, and the Richmond Main Street Initiative. 

The six-month “Memories of Macdonald” project is part of the Macdonald Landmarks Project of the Richmond Redevelopment Agency. The landmarks project director is Berkeley resident Donna Graves, who coordinated the highly acclaimed Richmond Bay Trails Marker project and has been working on the Frances Albrier permanent interpretive historical plaque at Berkeley’s San Pablo Park. 

“Residents and business owners, both oldtimers and newcomers, [are] invited to bring their photos, memories and memorabilia associated with Macdonald Avenue” to Saturday’s Richmond Museum of History event, Graves said in a prepared release. “To fully document the evolutions that have affected the neighborhood, we will encourage stories of recent history as well as those of the past. Volunteers will collect photos and artifacts from participants and will either scan the objects for inclusion in a digital database, or catalog them as donations to the museum. Participants will be invited to record a brief ‘Macdonald memory’ at one of several digital video stations staffed by high-school-age youth from East Bay Center for the Performing Arts.” Because many of the performing arts youth are bilingual themselves, Graves said, “participants will be able to share their stories in their own languages, including Spanish and Southeast Asian dialects.”  

Graves held a similar event last January at the Frances Albrier Community Center at San Pablo Park to gather oral and artifact community history of the park. 

“The audience for ‘Memories of Macdonald’ includes residents, organizations and businesses most involved with the downtown community today,” Graves added. “This audience is wonderfully diverse in age, race, ethnicity, class, language, and, most importantly, in perspective. Our goal is to attract as wide a spectrum of storytelling as possible by inviting a broad range of participants. However ‘Macdonald memories’ are not limited to the present population of the neighborhood, so another important audience consists of people with connections to Macdonald living in Richmond and the greater Bay Area.” 

Many of the stories, pictures, or other memorabilia collected at Saturday’s event could end up as part of permanent historical markers that will eventually be placed in Richmond’s downtown area. 

The Macdonald Landmarks team is directed by Graves and made up by lead designer Michael Reed of Mayer-Reed Design, sculptor James Harrison, writer Chiori Santiago, and photographer Lewis Watts, the same team that developed the acclaimed Richmond Bay Trail Markers. 

Following Saturday’s event, youth from the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts will work with the Landmarks project team and performing arts center faculty to produce a 10-minute “Macdonald memories” video and to create artwork for the Macdonald street markers. 

In September, the project will organize four historical walking tours of Macdonald Avenue similar to the Richmond historical bus tours currently operated by the Rosie the Riveter National Park. The culmination of the project will be an intergenerational community dance at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, with the performance coordinated by nationally recognized San Francisco-based aerial dancer and choreographer Joanna Haigood. The dance will be housed at the East Bay Center’s Winters building, which served as a popular dance hall during Richmond’s wartime years.

These days Nadine Ghammache thinks of little else than Lebanon, the tiny country by the sea where she was born. 

“The last two and a half weeks, there isn’t a minute between my wake time and my sleep time and dreams, where I don’t have the agony right here at my finger tips,” said Ghammache, sipping coffee Wednesday morning on the terrace of La Peña Cultural Center, where she works. 

Ghammache is a mother of two and an Albany School Board member. Two of her sisters are in Lebanon. “I stumble with my words because there is nothing in the dictionary to describe what the Lebanese people are going through,” she says. 

A little smaller than Connecticut and populated by some 4 million people, Lebanon has suffered more than 500 mostly civilian deaths according to Human Rights Watch. Ghammache describes the recent attacks as simply a stepped-up version of military incursions by Israel into southern Lebanon that have been going on since the founding of Israel in 1948. (The Israeli government might disagree. Some argue that the bombing is in retaliation for Hezbollah’s abduction of two Israeli soldiers.)  

Ghammache, who came to the United States when she was 19, recalls her youth in Beirut as carefree. “I’d wake up when the sun rose up, I was out the door, went to the beach, rode my bike, met up with friends, went to movies—movies from all over the world, Italian, French, Indian….” 

Ghammache had a special relationship with the sea, a few blocks from her home. “I’d sit there and I’d talk to the sea,” she said. 

Ghammache’s father had a gift shop for a while in a district teeming with life. “It is Telegraph Avenue multiplied by 100,” she said – sidewalk cafes, ice cream shops, grocery stories, movies, bowling alleys, and night clubs. Since there was no set drinking age, teens could go there, sip their drinks and wax philosophical for long hours with friends. The area “was like a treasure chest,” she said. 

It was generally safe: “We hitchhiked up and down the country. You would feel that everyone is your uncle or your aunt.” 

Ghammache was from the middle class and went to a private Catholic boarding school, where classmates were both wealthier and poorer than she. Her father was a Maronite Christian and her mother was a Greek Orthodox Palestinian, whose family sought refuge in Lebanon from the Israelis in 1948. 

While most of the students at school were Maronites, many were Muslim. (According to the July 26 New York Times, Christians make up about 35 percent of the Lebanese population, with Maronites 25 percent and other Christians 10 percent. Sunni Muslims make up about 25 percent, Shiite Muslims make up about 35 percent and Druse comprise about 5 percent.) 

There was a mixing of people of different religions. Some of Ghammache’s close friends growing up were Muslim—they went to each other’s homes. There were Muslim families in the seven-story apartment building where her family, with its six children, lived.  

It wasn’t until she was an adult that Ghammache began to understand the colonialist mind-set of her French teachers at the school who forbade the children to speak Arabic. “You had to speak French. Arabic was treated as a foreign language,” she said. If you got caught speaking Arabic, you had your weekend going-home privileges taken away. “The way to get out of it was that you snitch on someone else,” she said. 

Ghammache remembers when she became conscious of animosity with Israel: the children were sent home from school one day. It was 1967 and conflict had broken out with Israel and reached Beirut. The family stayed inside, with the shutters closed, and stocked up on sugar, flour and dry milk, she said. “My house overlooked the airport. I got to see the Israeli planes blowing up the airport. This was my first experience with Israel as an aggressor, but in reality, whether I understood it or not, it was always there.” 

She remembers being out at recess and getting jolted every day by the passing Israeli airplanes. “Every morning around 10 o’clock there were always two (sonic) booms, two planes. That will make you jump,” she said. 

“What do you call that constant presence of that military monster that is constantly hovering over you?” 

After high school and before coming to the U.S., Ghammache spent time working with refugee women in the south of Lebanon, where she began to understand the depth of the poverty there. These are the people out of which Hezbollah has grown. 

The U.S. media has distorted the nature of Hezbollah, Ghammache says. It is a political, social and military movement originally formed to combat the Israeli occupation following Israel’s 1982 invasion of southern Lebanon. “They’re not differently-looking people,” Ghammache said. “It’s like the Canadians going after the Democrats. They are part of the daily life, very deeply integrated into life.” 

The people of southern Lebanon “have been aggressed and aggressed and aggressed for decades,” she said.  

Ghammache believes Israeli aggression into south Lebanon is to claim the land. The soil is “rich, dark, red earth that you just want to roll into,” she says. 

But whatever the reason, the level of violence from Israel is evident. Ghammache said she struggles to understand. “Why that level of viciousness? Is it really the destruction of ‘terrorism?’” 

In a report released Aug. 3, Human Rights Watch says the aggression, in some instances, constitutes war crimes. “The pattern of attacks shows the Israeli military’s disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, in a prepared statement. 

Ghammache goes on to ask why Americans—and she includes herself—do not take responsibility for sending tax dollars to destroy children. “By displacing a third of the population, have we created a safer world?” 

The Israelis are not in touch with the horror they create, she says: “Why can’t the Israelis stop their rhetoric for a few seconds and be in touch with that, to realize that these are human beings, to see the children play around, to pick their flowers and their vegetables and breathe in the sunlight? Why are we talking about terror? People just want to live.”

While the controversy continues over the all-but-total destruction of the massive, historic Ninth Avenue Terminal as part of Oakland’s Oak To Ninth Development Project, the City of Richmond is quietly moving forward with the development of one of its waterfront areas that preserves the similarly historic Ford Assembly Building. 

Last month, Oakland City Council approved a deal with Signature Properties to build 3,100 condominiums on public waterfront property between Oak Streets and Ninth Avenues. The project includes demolition of all but 15,000 square feet of the 180,000-square-foot Ninth Avenue Terminal, a 76-year-old warehouse building that sits directly on the estuary with views of both the water and the wharves and sailboats along the Alameda shore. 

As part of its approval of the project, Oakland City Council directed the issuance of a new request for proposals (RFP) to preserve up to one-half of the terminal or, if that cannot be done, to require that Signature Properties preserve another 5,000 square feet of the original building under its current project. But at least one local preservationist, Oakland Heritage Alliance President Naomi Schiff, calls that position “illogical.” 

“If you issue an RFP to preserve the building while you issue several documents saying that such a preservation is not feasible, why should developers answer the proposal?” Schiff asked in a telephone interview. “But, of course, illogical positions have never been much of an obstacle in Oakland.” 

In response to Oakland City Council’s approval, a coalition of local organizations—including the League of Women Voters of Oakland, the Northern Alameda County Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Green Party, and the Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt (CALM)—immediately launched a petition drive seeking to put a referendum on the ballot to block the development. 

In addition, two lawsuits were filed in state superior court last week against the project, one by the Oakland Heritage Alliance (OHA) that focused on the demolition of the terminal building. 

According to the OHA lawsuit, “the council’s decision to permit wholesale demolition of the terminal left OHA no alternative to bring this case to prevent unlawful destruction of this A-rated historic building, protect the most significant remaining monument to Oakland’s long and colorful maritime heritage, and remedy violations of the law.” 

Citing projects in the upper bay in Contra Costa County that advanced development while preserving existing historic maritime buildings, OHA President Schiff said that “if Vallejo and Richmond can do it, surely Oakland can save one lousy building.” 

The Richmond development Schiff was referring to was the Ford Assembly Building Reuse Project, a mixed-use project currently being developed on Richmond’s waterfront. 

In addition to keeping intact the entire 517,000-square-foot former Ford Plant, which once manufactured tanks for United States military forces during World War II, the Ford Project preserves open waterfront space along San Francisco Bay, including spectacular views of the San Francisco skyline. Included in the building will be office, live/work, research and development, light industrial, retail, and event and public gathering space. 

The Rosie The Riveter National Park has already mapped out space for a visitor center and museum on the section of the building closest to the water, and the Internet wine merchant Wine.com recently signed a lease as the building’s first commercial tenant. 

The Ford Project being developed by Orton Development Company of Emeryville is actually Richmond’s third attempt to preserve and restore the building, which Richmond Community & Economic Development Agency Director Steve Duran says “certainly wasn’t a slam dunk.” 

Duran says that Forest City, selected by Richmond after the city issued its first RFP on the project, dropped its project to turn the building completely into residential development “because it determined that the engineering costs were too much,” and Duran says that a second developer, Assembly Plant Partners, was “underfunded” and could not get bank funding for its proposal to develop the plant on an arts and cultural theme. 

The development head hopes that Orton, which has a long history of industrial building restoration throughout Northern California, will have better luck, noting that with the signing of Wine.com “he’s on his way.” 

Duran said the 23-acre waterfront property that houses the Ford Plant “is actually more valuable without the building. You can’t save all your historic resources. If you try to do so, you will stagnate and you won’t grow as a city. Like most cities in the Bay Area, there’s a tension in Richmond between the growing population and the lack of available housing. That’s always a tough debate. There was a lot of pressure to build more housing at that location. But the Richmond City Council decided that because of the significance and the beauty of the building, the restoration and re-use could be an economic catalyst for the Richmond waterfront area that would be far above the land’s current economic value without the building.” 

Orton could not be contacted for this story. But a recent New York Times article quoted company president Eddie Orton as saying that he is dividing the project into several segments. 

“It’s too big for any one use,” Orton told the Times. “We needed a manageable amount of space in each of the different segments so we wouldn’t overwhelm the marketplace.” 

The Times reported that Orton, who bought the property for $5.4 million in 2004, expects to have the building’s first phase fully leased by August. Orton estimated that the entire project would cost approximately $60 million, with $8 million coming from public financing. 

Orton is no stranger to Oakland. Following its establishment in 1984, the company’s first acquisition was the Vulcan Foundry near High Street and San Leandro Street, an industrial property that Orton turned into a highly successful artist colony and studio in a formerly depressed area of the city. The project also included the Vulcan Café, a Thai restaurant. The company has also developed the old Mother’s Cookies Factory on East 18th Street in Oakland, the Safeway Ice Cream Plant in West Oakland, and the 200,000-square-foot Temescal complex on Seventh Street in Berkeley. 

And this is not the first time the Oak To Ninth and Ford Assembly Building Reuse projects have been compared. 

In a 2005 feasibility study for adaptive reuse of Oakland’s Ninth Avenue Terminal, the University of California, Berkeley, City Planning 290E class devoted a section to the Ford project to demonstrate what might be done with the Ninth Avenue Terminal, writing that “the current proposal to destroy the majority of the Ninth Avenue Terminal fails to see the opportunities that lie within the adaptive reuse of the structure. Throughout the country, cities have successfully turned old waterfront industrial buildings into thriving centers of arts, culture, and commerce. 

These complexes help build a new and existing sense of place and history … Like the Ninth Avenue Terminal, the Ford Assembly Plant building was constructed on bay fill and has a unique vantage point over the Bay, with views of San Francisco. Another point in common is that both buildings are located in industrial areas that are being converted into more livable residential zones. 

Richmond residents recognized the uniqueness of the warehouse space by supporting its designation to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. This designation is making it possible for Emeryville based Orton Development to utilize a 20 percent historic preservation tax credit deduction on all rehabilitation expenses incurred during the development process. 

The UC Berkeley study added, “Orton Development will be accommodating the Bay Trail through orienting signage and a public access easement along the waterfront portion of the crane building’s wharf. A similar model could be employed at the Ninth Avenue Terminal, allowing joggers, cyclists, and walkers to walk along the Oakland Estuary.”

We get a lot of Chicken Little letters around here. For those of you who are folklore-challenged, Chicken Little was the character who thought being hit on the head by an acorn meant that the sky was falling. He put a lot of effort into running around convincing all the animals in the forest to panic, with mixed results. It’s traditionally the job of the press to play the Chicken Little role, so we really can’t complain when our readers tell us to write more about climate change, or the on-going struggles in the Middle East, or the attempt by Bush II to dismantle the Constitution of the United States of America. Yes, we’re worried, worried, worried about all of these, and more. This time the sky might really be falling, and what are we going to do about it? But every so often, it’s a good idea to check into what’s going right—all worry and no fun makes Jill a dull girl. 

Over the weekend we had the pleasure of seeing two things that were going very right, and in much-maligned Oakland, of all places. Number one: Children’s Fairyland is still alive and well and doing its job. If you don’t have a 4-year-old to hang with, you might not have heard of Children’s Fairyland, might never have been there, might have missed all the fun. It’s a dorky 10-acre corner of the beautiful park surrounding Lake Merritt (which is now mightily threatened by the condo-builders, but we won’t go there today). In many ways, it’s a little bit of the innocent 1950s, when it was founded. There’s a bunch of now slightly tatty original buildings representing themes like the houses of the Three Little Pigs and Old MacDonald’s Farm, derived from European stories and songs, which kids can climb on and play inside. More recently, exhibits with African and Asian roots have been added to expand the fifties’ too-narrow window on the world. There are animals to pet and shows featuring children and puppets to watch.  

Nothing’s noisy, nothing flashes. Nothing is violent or even scary, unless you count a few dark tunnels like the one representing Alice’s rabbit hole. No national brands in evidence. In other words, it’s the anti-Metreon, as unlike San Francisco’s ugly indoor entertainment destination as it could possibly be. 

And the best thing about it is the kids, all kinds and shapes and sizes and colors of kids. Some stars: the girl with that wonderful 10-year-old combination of childish playfulness and adult gravitas, beaded braids sparkling, who was shepherding her three rowdy younger brothers to wait their turn in lines without poking each other or anyone else, as panting grandma hurried to catch up. (I recognize the technique from watching my 10-year-old granddaughter trying to civilize her 5-year-old sister, but using it on three brothers is impressive.) The little boys working earnestly to blow the Three Little Pigs’ houses down. The 5-year-old girl who took our 4-year-old by the hand so she wouldn’t be afraid to ride the small enclosed ferris wheel. Afterwards the two climbed all the daredevil structures together until closing time, despite the fact that the five-year-old spoke mostly Spanish with very few English words, and our 4-year-old has only a few words of Spanish. All were enjoying themselves, all behaving. (“I am be-ing-have,” one of my kids once told me indignantly when reprimanded.) Everyone, in fact, was Getting Along. If they built a Children’s Fairyland in the Middle East, would the adults be able to learn anything from it? 

Number Two: The Sunday afternoon jazz session at Golden Gate Library on San Pablo. Here the crowd was predominantly old-timers like me, long-time fans and musicians, crowded standing-room-only into a small basement room. It was part of a summer series that’s been going on for 15 years, every Sunday at 3 p.m., audience free (with a donation jar if you’re feeling generous).  

The main act was a group headed by clarinetist Leon Williams, with George Alexander sitting in on the trumpet, and they were sensational, much appreciated by the head-bobbing toe-tapping audience of aficionados. A mini-lecture on jazz history and a short demo-talk by a visual artist followed, and the afternoon ended with an open jam. First up was the young people’s jam. Bass player Michael Jones was joined by his daughters Donnalea (almost 10) and Randella (8) on cello and piano, laying down a bit of the blues. The adult jam boasted five killer saxophones, enough to blow off the top of your head in that low-ceiling room, and they didn’t even have amplifiers.  

It was another example of what Oakland has always done best, bringing lively people together for a peaceful good time. It’s hard to believe that the sky is falling in Oakland, as Jerry Brown would like you to believe, when you see how well so many things are still going there, even though there are also difficulties. Ron Dellums was elected to be Oakland’s mayor because his campaign projected optimism and enthusiasm about Oakland’s present and even more about its future. What we saw there this weekend was enough to convince anyone that he must be right.  

Berkeley Unified School District teachers who received letters informing them that their salaries would be cut for skipping classes May 1, the day of immigrant rights rallies nationwide, received their paychecks for the month of July on Monday. 

Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) Vice President Cathy Campbell told the Daily Planet that that there have been no reports so far of any kind of paycuts from the teachers. “We would have definitely heard from the teachers if their salary had been deducted,” she said. 

BFT President Barry Fike said that at a recent meeting with BUSD superintendent Michele Lawrence, he had made it very clear that BFT would file a grievance if the teachers’ pays were docked. “We do not see any kind of justification for deducting anybody’s pay. Our interpretation is this particular kind of action qualifies as personal leave and therefore it does not violate their contract.” 

Fike added that it remained unclear what kind of action the district was going to take regarding this issue. “We have received a list from BUSD of all the teachers who were absent from school on May 1 and have sent each of them a letter saying that BFT would represent them in case their pay gets deducted. At this point we can say that it was not just teachers with Latino last names who got letters threatening them that their pay would be cut. Caucasian teachers were also targeted. Also, from the content of the letters it looks like they were circulated from a central source, although BUSD denies this,” Fike said. 

BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan told the Planet that the school district is still discussing the matter with the unions and no action has been taken with respect to deducting pay from the teachers as of yet. 

THE PARTY LINE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Once upon a time, Judith Scherr was a good journalist. What the heck happened? 

Her Aug. 4 article (“City’s Political Candidates Rake in Campaign Cash”) was an embarrassing effort to take straight-forward facts and twist them into some a contorted story about the big-bad out-of-town developers that are supporting Tom Bates while poor Zelda Bronstein is pounding the grassroots in search of true believers. 

Ms. Scherr—in the true Daily Planet tradition—doesn’t let the truth interfere with a good party line. Be that as it may, it is worth noting Tom Bates’ and Zelda Bronstein have received virtually the same portion (20 percent) of their contributions from “out of towners.” Further, while the average contribution to the Bates campaign is $142, the average contribution to Bronstein’s is $165. (I’m no expert on this stuff, but it seems to me that having more and smaller contributions is actually a sign of broad-based support.) Could it be that Ms. Bronstein is actually the stealth candidate of the landed gentry? 

But alas, why let the facts get in the way of Zelda’s zealots. How many times will the Planet publish Ms. Bronstein’s assertion that the new Berkeley Bowl is the size of a Wal-Mart? (Same issue, “Bates and Bowl: Some Inconvenient Truths.”) With retail floor space of 60,000 square feet, the Bowl isn’t even close to the size of a Wal-Mart, the smallest of which have 160,000 square feet of retail space. I guess Zelda and the Planet have learned a most important lesson from the Bushies—if you repeat the same lie enough times, pretty soon people will believe you. 

Eric Riley 

• 

PETTY CONCERNS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As the weather grows ever more freakish and as the oceans warm, rise, and empty—even as Barry Bonds, home accessories, and Israel command people’s thoughts—I suspect that Arnie Passman’s quote by Gar Smith (Letters, Aug. 4) is correct: it is probably too late to save our progressively plundered and poisoned planet. Earth is not a machine that we can fix after breaking it, but like the machines we today so thoughtlessly throw away, it will discard us as it seeks a new equilibrium that does not include most of the nature we know. When that realization dawns, Berkeleyans will understand that they face more pressing issues than their damned landmarks ordinance. 

Gray Brechin 

• 

SCRA POOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a Cal alumn and mother of two, ages 10 and 14. We recently experienced an alarming change at the SCRA Pool parking lot. Sadly, the University has installed a pay-to-park program, which severely limits the community to have access to one of the best resources for recreation there is in Berkeley. It sends a negative message to potential patrons: “If you don’t have much money, don’t swim here.” Our family has used the facility for camps, etc., for many years. We have spent in excess of $10,000 on UC sports camp alone. It is a shame to penalize those who are past patrons and to turn away families who are lower income. 

Kyle Miller 

• 

CITY AUDITOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In her Aug. 1 letter criticizing Berkeley School Board Director John Selawsky, Sandra Horne declares that Mr. Selawsky would be an “inappropriate” candidate for city auditor. 

In fact, the exact opposite is true: John Selawsky will be an outstanding candidate for city auditor based, alone, on his decisive leadership and performance during his first term as a School Board Director. 

Prior to Mr. Selawasky’s election in 2000, the Berkeley Unified School District was unexpectedly plunged into financial turmoil: at the time, the school district faced the prospect of involuntary state receivership (take over) because of unprecedented deficit spending, mismanagement and inadequate financial accounting/recordkeeping. 

As School Board president, Mr. Selawasky led the effort to rectify this potentially damaging financial situation, and avoid the fate of the neighboring Oakland and Emeryville school districts—a state take over of their respective school districts (which still continues to this day in Oakland). 

Under Mr. Selawasky’s oversight, the school district’s accounting practices were reformed, and the district’s annual budgets closely monitored and audited. Today, the Berkeley School District maintains a solid and stable financial foundation. 

There is no question in my mind that John Selawsky will be an excellent—and proven—candidate for city auditor. 

Chris Kavanagh 

• 

INCONVENIENT FOR ZELDA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ll let Bates and Bronstein battle over their “true” position regarding the West Berkeley Bowl issue as they wrestle through the mayoral contest, but one statement in Ms. Bronstein’s recent commentary (“Bates and the Bowl: Some Inconvenient Truths”) stood out in its bold-faced inaccuracy: “So he (Bates) ought to explain why in the matter of the Bowl, he ignored all the stockholders but one: the owner of the business.” 

At the June 13 City Council meeting where the Bowl won majority approval, there were dozens of people in attendance who spoke in favor of building the Bowl— neighbors, business owners, families and concerned citizens. At one point, one of the speakers asked for all those present who favored the Bowl being built to stand, at least half of the capacity crowd stood. None owned a stake in the business of the Berkeley Bowl. 

It seems Ms. Bronstein found that small fact a very inconvenient truth. 

Cameron Woo 

• 

LANDMARKS ORDINANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With regard to the large amount of well-deserved press coverage on the battle over changes to the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) and specifically on the criticism of how structure of merit designations are used in Berkeley: 

It is, when considered out of context, inappropriate for the structure of merit designation to be used as a protection that extends beyond the scope of its original intent. When considered in context however, such a use implies that those other processes which should address that overlapping scope have in fact lost their ability to function properly within the realm of checks and balances that should exist. 

In other words, if gear A is being asked to do too much work, it’s because gear B is not working properly. What bothers me is that focus on gear A doing too much work is occurring in such a way that it is masking culpability of gear B—an actual source of imbalance in this analogy. 

I think that in the context of this general idea, it is both legitimate and important to ask whether it is appropriate that the city Planning Department play such a strong advocacy role in the interest of developers (in other words, large new development projects) in order to promote their own internal interests which may very well be as simple as assuring that they have enough to do to keep themselves busy. If such a bias is determined to adversely affect the public interest and the public good as a whole, then a good portion of the imbalance can be said to be located there. 

Developers should have a voice commensurate with their place in the dynamic public continuum. It is unfair for bodies which should be impartial such as the City Planning Department and the Zoning Adjustments Board, to also carry their flag. I have sat in City Council and watched with rapt amazement as representatives of city planning have demonstrated almost rabid antipathy towards the will of the community, of people who will actually have to live around the projects they promote, while at the same time using all their considerable power of intimate systemic knowledge to push even inappropriate projects through by any means necessary. 

This reality is known to those who have been directly embroiled in these proceedings, but I fear it is not within the public perception of events in Berkeley because, again, newspaper accounts tend to focus on the problem with gear A while disregarding or failing to see the issue of gear B. Impartiality demands of course that gear A have two sides: those attacking and those defending—but discussion of gear B remains largely mute—and that, I think, leaves a rather large hole in the fabric of the debate. 

Joseph Stubbs 

• 

TAKING EXCEPTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As one of the authors who participated in the last CIL Author’s Night fundraising event that Susan Parker alluded to in her July 25 column, I must take exception to her “sour grapes” reaction at being overlooked as the perfect person to represent the disabled community. I found it deceptive that Ms. Parker neglected to mention that the theme of that evening’s program centered on cultural diversity and included three women authors—one Asian-American, one of mixed race, and one (myself) having a lifelong disability from birth—reading from our books about the experiences of navigating life as minority women within the context of a broader society. I wouldn’t have considered any of us to be spokespersons for our community, just good writers wanting to tell our stories—hoping that something we would be reading would resonate with our audience to provoke humor, insight, identification, or some grasp of realization that no matter what our experiences we’re all cut from the fabric of humanity. 

There’s one additional point I’d like to make regarding that column. I’ve learned as a writer that once I’ve put my words “out there” to be read, I have no control over how they’ll be interpreted. Criticism is one of the pitfalls of the trade. I may not like it, but I live with it, and, much of the time, I learn from it. It makes me a better writer! 

Denise Sherer Jacobson 

Oakland 

• 

REPUBLICANS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Do you know that the Sierra Club has endorsed a Republican senator, Lincoln Chafee, in Rhode Island? Do you know that the current Republican chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator James Inhofe, says that global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people”? Why would an environmental organization support, in any way, a party that places someone like Inhofe in such a position? It doesn’t matter how Mr. Chafee votes when he participates in a (now majority) party that is anti-abortion. 

NARAL, the abortion rights group, has also endorsed Mr. Chafee, and we all know what the Republican party is trying to do with that issue. 

Chris Gilbert 

Former Sierra Club and NARAL member 

• 

MEMORIAL STADIUM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is painful to sing anything but praise for an article reporting on the city’s “scathing critique of UC Stadium Expansion Report.” But, I do believe there was one factual error.  

The Planet article states the hazard risk thus: “Noting that the DEIR declares that even with a seismic retrofit, the risk of injury and death from earthquakes at the stadium can be reduced ‘to less than significant levels,’ Marks said, ‘It is essential that the campus seriously consider and analyze the option of relocating the stadium to other sites.’” 

I have doubled-checked the city’s letter and also the draft environmental impact report (DEIR), and I believe you meant to say that the risk of injury and death cannot be reduced to less than significant levels.  

The City of Berkeley’s comment letter states as follows: 

“In light of the DEIR’s statement that the proposed seismic retrofit cannot reduce the potential risk of injury and death to less than significant levels, it is essential that the campus seriously consider and analyze the option of relocating the stadium to other sites.”  

Moreover, the text in the SCIP DEIR (p.4.3-22) states as follows:  

“The degree of risk due to fault rupture cannot be quantitatively expressed with the current information. Such risk will be strongly influenced by the structural design details yet to be developed; however, the risk cannot be completely mitigated by any design. Therefore, while the mitigations suggested below would reduce risks, this impact is considered significant and unavoidable.”  

On the next page of the DEIR, the “risk of loss, injury, or death resulting from strong seismic ground shaking” is estimated as also “significant and unavoidable.” www.cp.berkeley.edu/SCIP/DEIR/SCIP_DEIR.html. 

If my understanding of the city’s letter and the draft EIR’s impact analysis is correct, I believe a correction is in order.  

Janice Thomas  

• 

PROPOSITION 89 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While letter writer Keith Winnard professes to support the goals of the Proposition 89 “Clean Money and Fair Election” initiative of putting an end to “pay to play” politics and “leveling the political playing field” (Letters, Aug. 4), the means he suggests to attain these goals are unrealistic. How, as he suggests (Letters, July 18), would it be possible to enforce a law that made it illegal for an elected official to “take action affecting” a large campaign contributor? Mr. Winnard also suggests the laudable goal of lowering campaign contribution limits, but as Vermont recently found out, the Supreme Court will step in to prevent this—but it will allow a candidate the option of “going clean” and not taking any contributions. 

As for his final suggestion of limiting candidates to presenting their positions solely through government printed voters’ guides, this is the type of reform—along with free and equal use of the air waves—which might be attainable once the system is changed by Proposition 89. Right now it is a political impossibility. Moreover, supporters of Proposition 89 are not seeking “the keys to the State Treasury” as Mr. Winnard suggests, but quite the opposite: Proposition 89 would take the keys away from special interests, and return them to the people. 

The cost—the price of a latte and a muffin for each voter—concerns Mr. Winnard as it should, but it’s a cheap price to pay to staunch the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars into the hands of special interests under a system currently founded upon legalized bribery, instead of being used for the public good as determined by the voters. 

Tom Miller 

Advisory Board Member,  

TakebackCa.org 

• 

PECAUT’S PAPER PROBLEM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A few days ago the cars in my area were papered with flyers for Christian Pecaut’s mayoral bid. He may want to know that he is in violation of Berkeley Municipal Code 9.08.090, which outlaws placing ads on windshields—considered a form of litter. Apart from that, I find most of the items of his platform agreeable, except for one: “Reduce Parking Tickets, We’ve Paid for the Streets Already!” We obviously haven’t paid for their proper maintenance, since many are in sad disrepair. More seriously, we haven’t paid for a modern traffic control system. Most of the major intersections in Berkeley are without left-turn arrows, and those that exist are on fixed timers rather than sensors to monitor cars in the left turn lane, so that oncoming traffic must wait for the arrow to time out, even when there are no cars turning. The next time you drive up Ashby, keep track of the time you waste waiting for cars in front of you to turn left. Modern traffic control could well reduce the time required to traverse the city by 25 percent, which would reduce congestion at any moment by the same amount. Consider, too, that every minute cars have to idle while waiting for traffic to clear just pumps more pollution into our air.  

What we really need is a ballot measure requiring all revenue from parking tickets to be applied to street repair and improved traffic control. 

Jerry Landis 

• 

BUSD ENROLLMENT WOES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is sadly true that adding a lease or deed documentation requirement will not fix the chronic failure to enforce enrollment. Here are some proposals that might help. 

First, respect the teachers. Their union has tried to tell the board that this is a critical issue. Teachers in my experience know which of their students are from out of district. They are in the best position to decide if a cheating pupil is detrimental to the class. Teachers should be empowered to help by a promise that if they report a student as not appropriate for service the administration will investigate with a presumption of action if the report is true. Second, require birth certificates or adoption papers as proof that the pupil is under the care of the adult filing for service. That’s evidence harder to fake. Finally, for now, reconsider transfers to impacted Berkeley High. Students take turns to have the desks! Berkeley High should be a Berkeley experience. 

David Baggins 

• 

SCHOOL DISTRICT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Selawsky, a member of the Berkeley Board of Education, in his letter to the editor wrongly claims that the school district is well audited. The school district is poorly audited because the school district is not reviewed for efficiency and effectiveness. Selawsky’s letter states that BUSD’s finances are only reviewed for “legitimacy” (prevent fraud), “accuracy” (is the math correct?) and “the district’s ability to meet all obligations” (pay the bills).  

These standards are inadequate. BUSD needs further review on whether it operates efficiently and effectively. For example, BUSD still does not have a computerized system to keep track of supplies, equipment, tools, books and other materials. 7-11, Berkeley Bowl, and Long’s all have computerized inventory systems, but not BUSD.  

The type of auditing we are advocating is a thorough review of efficiency and effectiveness so that our tax monies really and truly benefit the children and improve education. If BUSD was a $100 million a year corporation, the SEC would require it to do performance auditing. Berkeley pays the highest parcel taxes in the state for education. Berkeley schools have the highest achievement gap and high numbers for truancy and high school drop-outs, which are issues desperately needing attention. Under its current auditing system, it is perfectly legitimate for BUSD to spend money for cherry paneling in lunchrooms and custom cabinets for a principal’s offices, while installing cheap particle board cabinets for the chemistry department. The particle board doors easily broke and so supplies and equipment could not be secured. 

BUSD says it cannot afford the $55,000 a year needed to keep pools open so students can learn to swim, but it can afford 15 percent plus pay raises for administrators which greatly exceed $55,000. 

These are not examples of spending which benefit children and improve education. These are not examples of efficient and effective administration. And clearly, the current auditing system is inadequate, which is why BUSD needs to implement performance auditing. I wholly support public education. But I do not support waste. And unless BUSD is willing to submit to performance audits, it does not deserve our tax dollars. For these reasons I am opposing the new parcel taxes BUSD is seeking. 

Stevie Corcos 

Founding member, BESMAART 

• 

HISTORY LESSON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In your Aug. 1 editorial about Lebanon, Becky O’Malley states, “During the American revolution, the revolutionary army hid among civilians, but the British army didn’t retaliate by shelling cities.” This statement, even if it were true, would be irrelevant, since the British military regarded most of the inhabitants of American towns and cities as loyal British subjects. In fact, though, O’Malley’s statement does not correspond to the actual history of the Revolution. While it is true that the Continental Army had no fixed address, it did not “hide” in the manner O’Malley implies, and—unlike the British and the Hessians—usually quartered itself in the hinterland, rather than in cities or towns. Early in the war, moreover, both sides showed themselves quite willing to shell cities. 

The Continental Army shelled Boston, from March 3 to 5, 1776, as a matter of military necessity, in order to prevent the British occupiers of that city from detecting the Americans’ night-time fortification of Dorchester Heights. An American lieutenant, quoted in David McCullough’s book 1776, reported: “Our shells raked the houses, and the cries of the poor women and children very frequently reached our ears.” A few months later, on July 12, 1776, as the British were commencing their conquest of New York, British ships were fired on by Continental artillery at the south end of Manhattan island. In a show of force, the British responded by shelling the habitations of neighboring Greenwich village. The persisting problem, which is relevant to all wars, is: how are we to raise the standard of care in weighing military necessity against the risk of civilian suffering and loss; and how can this standard be enforced upon all warring parties, including “non-State actors”? 

John Gussman 

Oakland 

• 

MORE ON MIDDLE EAST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Although Berkeley has many residents with family members living in Israel, some under the fire of Hezbollah rockets hitting Haifa, it is reflective of the Daily Planet’s bias that a local of Lebanese descent was made the subject of a BDP interview rather than anyone with kin in Israel.  

Given that Ms. Ghammache, whose ignorance of current and past Israeli/Lebanese interaction is appalling, is a member of the Albany School Board and that Israel-demonizer supreme Barbara Lubin is a former member of the Berkeley School Board, can anyone wonder why our local educational system is in such shambles? 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

• 

NEVER AGAIN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For all those who have written about the Hezbollah/Israeli conflict, of any religion (especially Jews), remember “Never Again.” The Holocaust will always be too fresh. 

Rita Wilson 

• 

NEVERENDING WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The ignorant and arrogant response in Congress to Israel’s destruction of Lebanon will ensure that we are fighting the war on terror (and creating it) for many decades to come. Bomb away! Congress and the U.S. media are pathetic. 

Carl Zaisser 

• 

AIRPLANES OVERHEAD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Quite often when I’m reading or watching television in the early evening, an airplane flies over my apartment building—a low-flying plane. Sometimes the plane sounds too close for comfort and I rush to the window to determine if it’s a commercial airliner or a private plane. As yet I’ve never made this determination, and I can’t say I’ve been unduly alarmed by these occurrences. But last week, while watching an Edward R. Murrow documentary with graphic scenes of the London bombings in World War II, my mysterious plane flew overhead at that exact moment. Suddenly I was struck with the realization that we Americans have never experienced the horror of falling bombs, houses demolished, cities gone up in flames. Yet, ironically, in the past century we’ve unrelentingly rained bombs on cities and countries all over the world—Hiroshima, Dresden, Vietnam, and now, shamefully, Iraq. Have the citizens of these distant places posed a danger to this country? Have I ever been threatened? I’m filled with shame these days when I see heartbreaking pictures of thousands of Iraqi mothers grieving for their dead sons, small bodies lying on blood-soaked streets and, just as tragically, the growing list of our military dead and injured. My shame actually began decades ago with the haunting picture of the terrified little girl running naked down a dusty road, her clothes burned off by the napalm bomb we dropped on her village. And who can forget the idiotic statement by a military officer, “We had to destroy the village to save it”?! 

Call it macabre if you wish, but the thought lingers in my mind, “Why have we, this country of ours, which has inflicted so much suffering, been spared the falling bombs and missiles that we’ve mercilessly inflicted on much of the world? Will our time not come?” 

Dorothy Snodgrass 

• 

DAVID AND GOLIATH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Miracle of miracles! Israel has managed to be both David and Goliath at the same time!  

Ruth Bird 

• 

MIDEAST ON FIRE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Middle East is on fire. The Dogs of War have been loosed and they are ripping the eyes out of the skulls of dead babies. And just to show you that I am no Mel Gibson, babies are being butchered in Israel as well as Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon. Have our “leaders” gone crazy? I lie awake nights crying because I’m so frustrated that there is nothing I can do to stop this gory dismemberment of our young. 

But there is one group of people who do have the political clout to stop this insane and bloody maiming of babies. You know who I’m talking about. The same people who haunt the malls and websites of America with photos of dead fetuses. The same people who lament and bemoan abortions. 

Pro-Lifers? Baby protectors? Where are you now? 

This savage and brutal slaughter of innocents in the Middle East is one of the most—if not the most—horrendous disasters to strike the infants of our world since the end of World War II. Not since Herod....  

Pro-Lifers? Baby protectors? Where are you now? 

The world’s babies are being cruelly mauled, exploded, massacred and dissected. Partial-birth abortion is not even close to being as extreme and nauseating as this. 

Pro-Lifers? Baby protectors? Where are you now? 

PS: Speaking of double standards, Where have all the Christians gone? And the Jews? And the Muslims? Have they gone to neo-con cons every one? Sing along, boys and girls. When will they ever learn? When will they—ever—learn? 

A Bush-Cheney neo-con with a lust for power in his heart and blood in his eye is not a Christian. An Osama bin Ladin neo-con with a lust for power in his heart and blood in his eye is not a Muslim. And a Olmert-Peres neo-con with a lust for power in his heart and blood in his eye is not a Jew. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. And make no mistake. We are the sheep. “Bon appetite.” 

Jane Stillwater 

• 

MORE ON MIDDLE EAST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The government of Lebanon has a national army of 80,000. That was more than enough force to comply with a U.N. mandate to disarm militias, all except one. Hezbollah was permitted to remain along the southern border with Israel. Not only that, but to dig in, and to receive military weaponry from Iran. What did the people of Lebanon think would happen? This is Iran’s pawn that killed 241 U.S. marines, and organized the Buenos Aries synagogue bombing out of the Iranian embassy. It’s like leaving a time bomb ticking in your basement. 

Palestinians lack the option of disarming their militias. If you or I had a bomb-making factory in the basement of our apartment building, we might want to ask them to move away from where families were living. A Palestinian wouldn’t dare. S/he would be mindful of how the second Intifada began—not by an attack on the Jews, but with a public hanging of eight “collaborators.” That put an end to people-to-people peace initiatives. So you would watch for the bomb-maker to leave, and note the color of the car he was entering. Then you would go back inside and on your cell phone describe it to the IDF. You know that innocent bystanders would likely die. But you also know that the only chance for a peace agreement is to get power out of the hands of the men and boys with guns. Hats of to the brave, anonymous Palestinians who brave the terror of their armed militias. 

Jim Young 

Oakland 

• 

PRICE OF OIL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When Democrats still had some say and influence, crude oil prices averaged $18 a barrel. Then Dick Cheney hosted a secret meeting with the energy industry. Who attended those meetings and what they discussed, we’ll never know...but we can guess. 

The price of oil has quadrupled and we’re told it’s a supply and demand issue. Supply and demand were high before so why is Big Oil all of a sudden raking in record profits? Is there some sort of collusion between the Bush administration, the GOP and oil companies? 

How many Americans are paying $50 bucks now to fill up their gas tanks? Thanks Dick and George for your secret meetings. 

Ron Lowe  

Grass Valley 

• 

GIMME THAT OL’TIME NEWS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Question: When is news not news? 

Answer: When information it conveys is crafted to persuade rather than inform. 

There is a sort of virus that is everywhere infecting the information we’re getting about the recurrence of war savagery in Israel and Lebanon. You don’t have to be pro or con to recognize that it’s not information but persuasion because two big facts about the war are hardly ever mentioned.  

Israel has a 10 to 1 advantage; 10 times more and 10 times deadlier weaponry plus ten times fewer civilian casualties. Here’s “asymmetric warfare” for real! 

The second fact is that when Hezbollah forces attacked an Israeli patrol killing five and capturing two, it was not the first day in the history of the world. If it were, then we could applaud our unbiased and healthy news crafters. As it is, we can only be sickened and ashamed on account of their ignoring the past while insisting that the right to exist and the right to defend sanctions the right to destroy.  

To recover from this virus we must discover, if possible, what news agencies are not telling us. I don’t know how to do that. Does anyone? 

Marvin Chachere  

San Pablo 

In regard to recent criticism of press coverage of the takeover of the library by a serial carpetbagging, Bush water-carrying, ex-director Jackie Griffin, I must add the information Loren Linnard (Letters, July 21) left out of her unwarranted criticism of Judith Scherr.  

Ms. Scherr reported on ineptitude and counterproductive activities. This reporting occurred after the information had been in our blogs and listservs for a year or more as we who did the research found that Ms. Griffin was being set up in liberal city (Eugene) after liberal city (Berkeley) to do the same conservative purging of valuable and irreplaceable materials of progressive political slant. In the process, between 4,000 and 10,000 books were thrown out by hand-picked unsupervised workers thrust into the role of censors without training but with a clear political and economic incentive to destroy progressive information wherever they encountered it. If you pleased Jackie Griffin by purging “correctly,” you might keep your job. After the purge was completed, she went on a purchasing spree, spending tens of thousands of dollars on the likes of Ann Coulter, William Kristol, David Horowitz, and other equally irrelevant masters of misinformation and worse. Out went Chomsky and in came Falwell. This may be common practice for the dimly lit medulla beyond the Sierras but not here in the cortex of the progressive community.  

In addition Ms. Griffin (in both cities) instituted electronic patron monitoring systems (RFID, radio frequency identification) to track the mind spaces/book choices of library patrons, and without oversight (inadvertently?) made them available for export to the databases at Choicepoint/Checkpoint back east in Ohio and Georgia and Israel. Choicepoint/Checkpoint made the 2000, and 2002, and 2004 phony purge lists for the disenfranchising of Black voters in Florida. Since these are privately held databases comprising 18 billion records of citizen’s worldwide, they are available to the highest bidder to search for little tidbits of political nuance to be twisted and used against activists by the Bush Department of Justice, or worse. They were recently involved in the Mexican 2006 elections. These companies maintain the largest credit, advertising, marketing, and political databases in the world, dwarfing even the National Security Agency, which they are required by statute to cooperate with.  

Choicepoint/Checkpoint (genetically identical through corporate inheritance) is an ultimately an Israeli corporation. Additionally they make computer security back door breaches easy with their “free” Zone Alarm software. A computer with Zone Alarm installed can be entered anytime Choicepoint/Checkpoint wants access to your personal information. When you walk into Berkeley Hardware, the security shield is Choicepoint/Checkpoint which can document the library books you have in your bag and know that you checked them out along with sounding an alarm that you have an unpaid item from the hardware store. When you get your place in line at the post office, you use a Choicepoint/Checkpoint device when you walk into the courthouse, for jury duty you are scanned by Choicepoint/Checkpoint…etc. 

I see these incursions into personal information and business as a threat to personal freedoms.  

When seen with my own deeply held prejudice, Ms. Scherr—although somewhat cautious and slow to warm to the task—did take the responsibility to report the facts thoughtfully and completely. Now that the problem of the incursions by these insidious conservative authoritarians is thankfully recognized by the press, it still remains to be addressed by Mayor Bates and the City Council. The “two-minute speaking periods” at the council meetings did focus the city’s attention in order to get Griffin to resign, but the RFID menace to our privacy remains installed, and the books which were thrown out haven’t been replaced. The only sticking point for the City Council seems to be the amount of severance pay and reward Jackie Griffin is going to receive for having violated the public trust so thoroughly.  

The real story of how Berkeleyans removed the RFID menace and restored their library’s stacks to their former greatness has yet to be told because the story has been dropped from the front pages, and the damage done to the community has not been fully felt.  

Back to the blogs, I guess. 

Ben Reitman is a Berkeley resident.

I should not be surprised that the Daily Planet joins in the Arab-European “blame Israel first” school of journalism, but after reading Becky O’Malley’s diatribe against the State of Israel in Tuesday’s edition, I was startled that the paper would publish such an obviously incorrect editorial, so viciously slanted in favor of those who wish to destroy a sovereign nation and its inhabitants. Before throwing her sympathies to the murderers and terrorists, Ms. O’Malley should check the Israel Defense Forces policies regarding military operations in areas with civilian populations, which are the strictest, most moral in the world. She should consider that when the IDF accidentally kills civilians in a military operation, the operation is considered a failure, and everyone in Israel mourns the loss of innocent life. When Hezbollah kills civilians, the operation is considered a success and a cause for celebration. Instead of doing a web search for “dead children,” perhaps Ms. O’Malley should do web search for the IDF Code of Ethics, which includes the doctrine that “[T]he IDF servicemen and women will use their weapons and force only for the purpose of their mission, only to the necessary extent and will maintain their humanity even during combat. IDF soldiers will not use their weapons and force to harm human beings who are not combatants or prisoners of war, and will do all in their power to avoid causing harm to their lives, bodies, dignity and property.” Would Hezbollah or Hamas make the same commitment? 

Ms. O’Malley should also check her facts. The bombing of a Hezbollah artillery position in Qana did not kill 37 children as the author claims, but 19 (which is still no less a tragedy), and she does not stop to consider why the building did not collapse for eight hours after the operation. Could it possibly have been the result of exploding munitions stored in the building by Hezbollah? Obviously not, because Israel is presumed guilty, while the terrorists and their supporters are innocents. And why were the “innocent civilians” not evacuated from the building during the eight hours before it collapsed? She might also want to ask why the same two individuals are in each and every photograph of the ”rescue operation” and why these same two individuals in the same clothing and helmets are in similar photos from an incident in 1996? Is there not even a shadow of doubt in Ms. O’Malley’s mind that these atrocities may have been created, magnified, or exaggerated by those who do not value human life to provoke exactly the kind of reaction that Ms. O’Malley had to these terrible events? It is unfortunate that Ms. O’Malley and the Daily Planet have been duped by the Hezbollah PR machine. 

Even worse than Ms O’Malley’s incomplete, one-sided view of Mideast politics and history, she seems unaware of American history when she writes, “During the American revolution the revolutionary army hid among civilians, but the British army didn’t retaliate by shelling cities.” Has she forgotten the Boston Massacre? Or the fact that the British burned Charlestown, Mass. to the ground during the Battle of Bunker Hill? Or the British bombardment of New York City? There are many more examples but again, even the most cursory search for anything but an inflammatory term such as “dead children” might have revealed to her these facts that every sixth grader knows. 

In light of the tone of her editorial and these disheartening inaccuracies, I must ask, has the Daily Planet ever run an editorial condemning Hezbollah for launching rockets into Israel for six years after they pulled out under the auspices of UN Resolution 1559, while Hezbollah refused to disarm as called for in the same resolution? Has the Daily Planet ever run an editorial condemning the citizens of the Gaza Strip for electing a terrorist organization, Hamas, as its government and proceeding to launch rockets and raids over Israel’s borders? Has the Daily Planet ever condemned the killing of innocent Israeli woman and children by suicide bombers in the marketplaces of Tel Aviv? Israel must defend itself, and terrorists must learn that free nations will not accept terrorists on its borders or within its society. If we do not stand with Israel in its mission to disarm Hezbollah, if the disease of terrorism is allowed to continue to spread, past Haifa, past Cairo, London, Madrid, past New York City, the next suicide bombing at an outdoor market may not be half a world away, it might be one sunny Saturday morning on Center Street, and then who will stand with us, and who will Ms. O’Malley blame then? 

Howard Glickman is a Berkeley resident.

Some people who usually brand Berkeley Daily Planet and Executive Editor Becky O’Malley anti-Semitic have turned up their diatribe to silence a few voices that decry the crimes committed in Lebanon by the Zionist regime. All around the world, there have been demonstrations and protests against the genocide of civilians and children in the hands of Israeli forces. Have you not seen the photos coming from Lebanon? Have you not seen the photos of dead toddlers some with their pacifiers around their necks? Most probably not, because the complicit corporate media in the United States conceals these killings. The media only magnifies news of rockets fired by Lebanese fighters; rockets that are incomparable with the military hardware of the Zionist regime. But know this: So far some 800 Lebanese, mostly civilians and children, have been killed, compared to 80 Israelis, mostly Zionist soldiers. The U.S. media is hard at work to divert the attention of Americans from the destruction of Lebanon by the Zionist regime. You mostly find irrelevant stories, such as same-sex marriage, drunken Mel Gibson, etc., in the U.S. media. While Americans are amused with such stories, the U.S. Congress almost unanimously passed a resolution for full support of the Zionist regime and killing of more Lebanese civilians. Even your favorite politician, Barbara Lee, remained silent when the resolution was put up for vote. 

Perhaps the usual folks who attack Berkeley Daily Planet are right: There is, after all, anti-Semitism in the world. One can argue that the genocide of Lebanese people in the past few weeks has fueled anti-Semitism. But this is not the only reason. One should ask why anti-Semitism has persisted throughout the centuries. 

Let us go back to 539 BC, when Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, went to Babylonia and liberated Jews. One can ask why Jews were enslaved by Babylonians. Also, one can ask why Jews had problem with Egyptians, with Jesus, with Europeans, and in modern times with Germans? The answer, among other things, is their racist attitude that they are the “Chosen People.” Because of this attitude, they do wrong to other people to the point that others turn against them, namely, become anti-Semite if you will. Since they think they are the Chosen People they can murder Lebanese and Palestinian children at will. Do you not remember the scene where a Palestinian father was screaming to stop Israeli soldiers shooting his son? But, the soldiers killed the boy mercilessly. Perhaps, Americans are so busy to amuse themselves with their iPods, lap-top computers, or cell phones. They do not have time to see the murders committed by the Chosen People. The Chosen People have become the Chosen Murderers. So long as the Zionists have no regard for the lives of others, people around the world will turn into anti-Semites, regardless of their religions. Even some Jews are condemning the atrocities of the Zionist regime. 

When people witness what is happening in the Middle East, they dream to fight for freedom and dignity of Lebanese and the entire Middle East. Even President Hugo Chavez who is thousands of miles away from Lebanon recalled the Venezuela’s ambassador to Israel and called what Israel is doing genocide. The U.S. media only brands President Chavez as crazy. People in the Middle East and around the world now know that Israel is murdering innocent people, with the approval of the United States and UK. Condoleezza Rice wants to give birth to a “New Middle East.” But, know this: Her evil child will be stillborn. The New Middle East will be the reincarnation of the children who have been murdered by the Zionist murderers. They will free the Middle East from the U.S. hegemony and its perverted democracy. The Middle Easterners believe that the U.S. brand of democracy is nothing but, hegemony, oppression, murder, destruction, and rape. In the past four years, the United States in Iraq has proved what it means by democracy. If the United States and the U.S. Congress are globalizing their terror by sending the United States made bombs to the Zionist regime via British airports, then the freedom fighters will fight back to stop the U.S. crimes and save the human dignity. 

Kurosh Arianpour is an Iranian student studying in India.

The problem of morally ambiguous religious texts is something I’ve given a great deal of thought to in the past few years. I attended a Jewish seminary from 1996 to 1999, where I struggled to understand the troubling texts, and after graduating life handed me a real and painful spiritual ordeal. I underwent a transformation of my ideas. 

One idea to emerge from the ordeal was the following: when “religious law” violates “human law,” it must be considered invalid. If you hold the world’s religious texts to this principle, they crumble. 

Belief in the Hebrew Bible, in its present form, requires faith in the holiness of a text which calls for genocide against “Amalek,” male circumcision, stoning women with messy hair, the establishment of a line of violent, sinful human “kings” to replace the Kingship of God, etc. 

Belief in the Gospels entails acceptance of the idea that God is evil. According to the text, God sent Jesus to be tortured to death as penance for the sins of mankind. He also established eternal punishment for sinners. 

Belief in the Koran, in its present form, entails acceptance of the idea that murder is an act of holiness. 

This is where atheists lose faith altogether. However, I came to a different conclusion. I came to make a distinction between true religion and false religion. I don’t mean that there is only one true religion. I believe that there are many true religions, and they share certain characteristics. 

One: True religions value all human life: all ages, all races, all genders, all sexual orientations, all ethnicities, all authentic spiritual paths. They value even the lives of the tormented—criminals, addicts, the mentally ill. They value the destinies and capacities of mankind for fulfillment. They value all animal life. They do not teach or permit violence, whether it is mutilation of the body, sexual abuse, murder or war. 

Two: True religions honor genuine holiness. This entails a commitment to justice and freedom, as well as holding Good as an ideal to live by, faith, and participation in the struggle against evil. 

Three: True religions honor God, Goddess, and the infinite, eternal Creator. Without faith, mankind is led to believe in his (or her) domination of the universe. Thus I read in the papers that immigrant families are subject now to genetic testing to “prove” their relationships. This is breaking up families. Fathers are learning that their children are not “genetically” theirs. But marriages today take place between men and women who are not eternal husband-and-wife. Babies are not, I believe, formed by random couplings—they are eternal souls. Their “genes” are related to their eternal parents, who are not always the people who gave birth to them.  

Four: True religions honor the universe as part of the infinite Creator. It is a meaningful, purposeful, living universe. Today we have instead the disastrous concept of “natural resources”—whether oil, gas, or fertile land—and this has led to the draining of the earth’s body and the looming threat of a dead planet. Without the ethos of honoring the universe, we lose our sense of mankind’s responsibilities to the earth, the atmosphere and space. We are responsible for the universe’s health, for its preservation. We are meant, I believe, to live lightly on it. 

Five: True religions have faith in the eternal life of the mind and the spiritual body of every person and animal. I have discovered, in my own being, that the flesh is lent vitality by the spirit; that the spirit gives us the capacity for love and every other emotion, the capacity for a sense of holiness and connection to the Creator or God and Goddess, the capacity for language, thought and intelligence—and even for motion. It is not just the soul which is eternal—it is every part of your conscious being.  

Six: True religions hold that everyone—even very great sinners—can heal with the help of the Creator, that everyone is reborn innocent, and that everyone must repent for their own sins. “Everyone” includes those people who sin through prejudice or hate. 

I hope that this outline helps those who have been searching for God in troubling texts, and preserves them from despair or cynicism. My plea: turn away from the texts, and believe instead in true religion. 

Jacqueline Sokolinsky is a Berkeley  

resident. 

A LITTLE HELP, PLEASE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If somebody doesn’t come up with $125 by Aug. 7, I’m out of the mayor’s race.  

I wasn’t running to be mayor, of course, but as a candidate I’d be able to get some ideas out to people. 

On July 25 I found out I had two days to get 150 signatures to the city clerk’s office, or pay $1 by Aug. 7 for each signature I didn’t get.  

Nobody told me about this. They posted it on their bulletin board June 2, and it was, they said, my responsibility to know about it. 

But they hadn’t told me that either. 

So I’m 125 signatures, or $125, now, short. 

I’ve had some pretty good ideas in the past. I thought up and organized the North Berkeley Plan, the Intercollective Network, the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, the original Berkeley Food Conspiracy. 

I ran John Denton’s campaign for re-election to the City Council, and was the author of three successful administrative complaints, on behalf of the poor, proving the City of Berkeley was out of compliance with Federal Community Service regulations.  

I found the Ecology Center a new home when it lost their lease and went defunct, and over three million copies of the community newsletters that I founded and edited have been distributed free to the people of Berkeley. 

There’s more, but that should give you the idea. I have a few more ideas for our city, that I think are pretty good too, but if I’m not a candidate, well, who cares? 

I can’t afford the $125 fee. 

Who else can I ask? 

You can call me at 355-4873. 

Richard Berkeley  

• 

PREJUDICE IS SHOWING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

So Latinos are taking jobs from Americans! Do they come on horses with rifles, and say gimmie your jobs? Do they sneak into town at night, mug you, and say I want your job. No, the newly arrived immigrants do back-breaking work in the fields, kitchens and factories that Americans won’t touch. 

The next time intolerant white folk, Republicans and anti-immigrant forces say Mexicans are taking our jobs tell them their prejudice is showing and to take their bigotry and shove it. 

Ron Lowe 

Grass Valley 

• 

CITY AND UC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

From the day I heard that a secret deal had been struck between the city and the university I have been concerned that Berkeley gave away too much in its haste to settle its LRDP suit. Berkeley signed away its ability to collect additional fees from UC if the recently decided lawsuit (City of Marina vs. Board of Trustees of the CSU, S117816) came down in Berkeley’s favor.  

Based on Monday’s state Supreme Court decision, it seems that my concern was more than just academic. According to the settlement Berkeley’s city government signed, we will have to bide our time for another 14 years before we will be able to negotiate for any money from UC. 

It was interesting to see that Assistant City Attorney Zack Cowan who filed a brief in the city’s behalf in the original suit, filed another brief opposing the citizen’s suit seeking to overturn the settlement and to reopen negotiations. What a waste of city money. 

Vincent Casalaina 

• 

GLOBAL WARMING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Now that all but a handful of us have made it through climate change, I am reminded that about 20 years ago I interviewed a handful of local ecology editors on the subject of global warming. Two answers were memorable. 

One was that “the best and hardest working people trying to save the planet say it can’t be done.” The other was that “we can plant trees until kingdom come, the planet can not last past 2050.” 

The latter was from the inestimable Gar Smith, long-time editor of Earth Island Journal. Some years later, Gar changed his coda to 2010. 

Arnie Passman  

• 

BUSD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Sandra Horne’s letter of Aug. 1 is not only inaccurate, but egregiously so. The Berkeley Unified School District is audited annually by an independent auditor, licensed by the state of California, which adheres to standard and widely accepted governmental practices. The annual audit includes findings and recommendations that the board has, over the past few years, addressed and implemented. In addition, since I have been on the board the district has had independent audits performed on its business office, our food services department, the independent study program, and has performed an asset management study. Our budget is also reviewed by the county Office of Education, which makes a determination on its legitimacy, accuracy, and the district’s ability to meet all obligations (including a required reserve). 

In comparison, the city does not regularly conduct outside audits, does not have to balance its budget nor have it approved by any entity or agency other than itself, and can in fact spend more money than it has revenues to cover (and in fact often does). Which system has more accountability and credibility? 

John Selawsky 

Director,  

Berkeley School Board 

• 

MANAGMENT CULTURE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Michele Lawrence is part of the management culture at the BUSD that consistently conflicts with Berkeley’s cultural values. Closing the achievement gap sounds like a hot button sound byte to efficiency experts but it is integral to the philosophy that continues to provide a world class education to the students of Berkeley High School. The Berkeley schools management team should be nurturing a cooperative relationship with its unions, not only because it reflects our values, but because working together we can make necessary changes while honoring our traditions. Lawrence fails to acknowledge the needs of students from under-represented populations in the District. She encourages an adversarial relationship with non-management faculty and union staff. This is counter to the interests of Berkeley’s parents because it interferes with the diverse, challenging, and progressive educational priorities of our hard-working Berkeley teachers. Lawrence rarely appoints Berkeley residents to management positions. Her appointees are typically from the same efficiency regime mentality that causes the incredibly high turnover rate currently rising within administrative teams district-wide. The qualification she seems to value most highly in her appointments is a lack of reluctance to make enemies among existing faculty and staff. 

Melinda Zapata 

• 

MEMORIAL STADIUM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Having grown up on Panoramic Way and also going to football games for 45 years at Memorial Stadium, I think you might be interested to know that not everybody on the hill is against the proposed renovations to the stadium. And as far as moving the stadium or playing the games at the Oakland Coliseum because of an earthquake during a game, guess which stadium would have its soil liquify? Let me give you a hint: It’s not in Berkeley.  

Matthew Shoemaker 

• 

DUCK AND COVER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It would be great if City Planning Director Dan Marks would add the occupants of Hesse, McLaughlin and Davis Halls to his list of potential victims were the Hayward Fault to experience an earthquake (“City Planning Director Issues Scathing Critique of UC Stadium Expansion Report,” Aug. 1). 

All three buildings, which are near the stadium, have been rated “poor” by the university’s own seismic evaluation program, and all three have yet to be scheduled for actual seismic upgrades (as opposed to “planning” for them). In the case of McLaughlin, the building keeps getting pushed down the list. In contrast to the stadium, which is occupied by large numbers of people only a few days a year, these buildings house offices, labs, at least one library, and classrooms that are in use year-round. 

Obviously, as evidenced by the fact that we are surrounded by new construction, it’s easier to raise money for new buildings (or at least to start them) than to take care of what the university already has. In the long run, that approach is short-sighted. Even if staff are considered expendable or replaceable, the students and faculty represent a considerable university investment. Perhaps there should be a seismic surcharge on capital project donations for retrofit projects, similar to the new surcharge non-unionized employees will start paying next July to keep the pension fund solvent.  

Phyllis Orrick 

• 

HOLD UCB TO ITS PROMISE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Now that educational institutions do have to pay for their impacts, or otherwise mitigate them, (cities won the Marina decision), why not require UCB to fully mitigate the traffic impacts of their LRDP and SEQSS expansions? Pay full transportation demand management nexus fees like other developers? 

Our legal footing is now sound and the city has the right to withdraw from the settlement agreement and require a no new net increase in ADT (average daily traffic) to campus from UC or payment of all of the infrastructure changes required to accommodate the planned UCB growth—sewers, roads, sidewalks, stormwater, etc. 

Let’s hold UCB to their promise to be a good neighbor and a good citizen of Berkeley. 

Wendy Alfsen 

DAPAC member 

• 

NOT THIS TIME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have always voted in favor of tax increases for Berkeley schools, but unless something changes this time, I’ll be voting no this November. 

Based on your recent news story, the district administration is taking a far too casual approach to interdistrict transfers. Superintendent Michele Lawrence is quoted saying that Berkeley’s policy isn’t any more or less strict than other districts. 

If Berkeley is just as strict as Oakland, it’s not enough. Oakland kids are desperate to get into Berkeley schools. The reverse is not true. 

I feel bad for those Oakland kids, but Berkeley taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidize the Oakland system’s disfunctions. 

The BUSD had better take this issue seriously before the November election. Clearly, the documents that Berkeley demands to prove residency are not adequate. And I question the superintendent’s claim that the district makes house calls to verify residency. Does she mean spot checks or something systematic? Did they make two house calls this year or 200? We need the district to communicate to the community what’s up, in very clear terms. 

Taxes are very high. If taxpayers are subsidizing the education of outside students, and the district takes a lax attitude toward the issue, why should we vote to tax ourselves further to keep this sham going? We shouldn’t. If the district can’t fix this problem, I predict a big “no” vote for the parcel tax in November. 

Tom Case 

• 

BUSD ENROLLMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am pleased that Mr. Selawsky is looking into changing documentation required to enroll in BUSD schools. I also agree with him when he says, “If people go to that length to forge utility bills, they’ll go to the same lengths with lease agreements.” That is why BUSD must hire someone devoted to making home visits and checks on enrollment paperwork. Parent and taxpayer confidence depend on it. 

Lorraine Mahley 

• 

PROP. 89 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Our citizens’ group, Californians for Sensible Political Reform, originated in Berkeley and supports ending “pay to play” politics and “leveling the political playing field.” So do backers of Prop. 89 like Mr. Miller and Mr. Townley (see the Planet’s July 17 and July 21 editions). However, unlike they and other proponents of Prop. 89, we don’t think taxpayers need to spend hundreds or even tens of millions of dollars to achieve these objectives (visit our blog-site, www.noprop89.blogspot.com). We can’t imagine why Mr. Miller and others in his organization keep insisting that the much more expensive and therefore wasteful approach taken by Prop. 89 is preferable, unless it’s because Prop.89 would also give the keys to the State Treasury to politicians Mr. Miller or Mr. Townley support (perhaps including themselves!). 

Yet we live in an era of inexpensive websites (which can be set up for a few hundred dollars) and free blog-sites (such as ours!). We also live in a state where a candidate for statewide office who accepts campaign contribution limits can present his or her qualifications and positions to every registered voter in the Secretary of State’s Official Voters Guide for less than $5,000. No other source of information about candidates, we suspect, is distributed more widely nor read as carefully by California’s voters. So why would Mr. Miller and Mr. Townley have us believe that giving candidates tens or hundreds of millions of dollars under Prop. 89 isn’t wasteful? Perhaps they and other supporters of Prop. 89 and public campaign financing want us to believe perceptions instead of realities. 

Keith Winnard 

• 

ALBANY DEVELOPMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Rick Caruso, the Los Angeles mall developer, ignores an important fact: Albany voters do not want a shopping mall next to Golden Gate Fields. Not to be deterred by public opinion, the racetrack on the one hand filed suit to stop our Albany Shoreline Protection Initiative, while on the other hand Mr. Caruso, a Bush Ranger who reportedly, “recently met with Karl Rove” (page 19), has returned with additional tricks up his sleeve: First, blame others for his own failings. Mr. Caruso blames the City Council for not accepting his formal application. For more than a year he has been pitching incomplete development plans at “coffees” held in the living rooms of his few but vocal supporters. Meanwhile, he repeatedly breaks serial promises to submit the actual application to the city—no application has ever been submitted. Second, create a “McGuffin”—an Alfred Hitchcock movie device that gets the characters together, pits them against each other, but in the end turns out to be as worthless as the Maltese Falcon. The McGuffin here comes in the guise of an over-reaching resolution to grant unprecedented, special privileges to one developer. Drafted by Caruso for submission by Councilmember Okawachi, the motion to adopt failed for lack of a second, but the blame game rages on. And lastly, threaten that Albany’s loss will be Berkeley/Richmond’s gain. If the mall leaves us for another suitor, then Albany suffers the under-reported traffic consequences, but receives none of the exaggerated tax revenues. In reality, Berkeley has measures on the books that basically preclude development of this mall at the stable area on the Berkeley side, south of the racetrack. And the purported Richmond site to the north sits atop an un-remediated toxic waste dump. So much for other suitors. In conclusion, protecting the shoreline is a global challenge being fought largely locally in Albany. Citizens throughout the East Bay are invited to join to protect the shoreline, which belongs to all of us. See our website at albanyshoreline.org for information. 

Bill Dann 

Co-chair, Citizens for the Albany Shoreline 

• 

DEATH OF DEMOCRACY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In July 2006 democracy died in Albany, California. Several years ago Albany voters approved Measure C, which gives them the authority to approve or decline any development on the Albany waterfront. What the voters did not know was that the Albany City Council, City Hall staff, and special interests in Albany and El Cerrito were determined that one thing would never happen on the Albany waterfront; nothing that generated any revenue for the city would ever be built. The small amount of waterfront land that is public in Albany is such a polluted and unsanitary dump that the city has been unable to give away the land for free to the East Bay Regional Park District. Despite this fact, when a developer offered to, on a privately owned unused parking lot which is also at the waterfront, clean up the area, build a 17-acre park, extend the Bay Trail, expand an existing wetland, provide low-income housing, build shops and restaurants, and permanently pay all costs to maintain the area, the city refused to accept his application for review, turned down his offer to pay for an EIR, which he is required by law to do, and severely criticized him for meeting extensively with citizens to show them his proposal and modify it according to their suggestions.  

At a July 17 City Council meeting one councilmember, Jewel Okawachi, tried to pass a resolution which would have allowed an EIR to be done and thus given Albany voters extensive information on which to base a decision as to whether they wanted this development. The four other City Council members refused to vote on her resolution. By their actions the city and its cohorts made sure the developer’s proposal would never be voted on by Albany citizens. They were afraid it would be approved. And what is it City Hall wants done with the waterfront? They want to close the Golden Gate Racetrack, lay off its many employees, give up the tax revenue generated by the track, buy the Racetrack land, valued by the city’s own attorney at over $100 million, and use taxes paid by Albany homeowners to maintain only a park. And how will they pay for the land? At the July meeting Councilmember Robert Lieber suggested the city could get “bond money or maybe a grant.” I’m sure allocating millions of dollars to build a park in Albany is a high priority for funding agencies. The track generates approximately $700,000 in tax revenue and the development would have generated another $2 million. City Hall wants to forfeit that revenue when the its own budget is going into deficit, it has million of dollars in unfunded needs, and it wants voter approval in the November election for millions in new bond debt. It’s time for a tax payer revolt in Albany and a new City Council. 

Stephanie Travis 

Albany 

• 

RANKED VOTING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Today, the Oakland City Council should lead the United States toward better elections that use the “instant runoff” (IRV) vote-counting system. More accurately termed “Inclusive Ranked Voting,” IRV allows many benefits:  

Because ranked voting can count any of our choices instead of just one, IRV implies that more ballots will counted to determine the winner. More voices of more voters will be included in govt. decisions, the goal of democracy.  

When voters’ second and third choices are also needed to win, politicians will have to reach out to everyone instead of catering to polarized special interest groups.  

Ranked voting empowers minority voters and groups instead of splitting votes between narrowly focused candidates. IRV reform has strong support from Sen. Barak Obama and U.S. representatives Cynthia McKinney and Jesse Jackson Jr. Modernizing from the old-fashioned “lesser-of-two-evils” election system cuts costly hostile mudslinging and the influence of campaign money. Voters do not have to risk their only voice on only one candidate  

Starting in San Francisco and Berkeley, the Bay Area has already at the forefront of ranked voting reform. Oakland voters can now get national attention by making an informed decision on IRV modernization this fall.  

Making more votes count can only help improve turnout and help bay area priorities. All Alameda county cities should follow Oakland and consider IRV measures for the November ballot.  

Sennet Williams 

• 

NO SMOKESCREENS, PLEASE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Some home-safe spectators and far-from war-zone dangers “experts” opine that Israel’s reactions are “disproportionate. What proportions do they propose to apply when a rocket explodes on their heads?  

War is ugly-no question about it, not following rules of ethics, proportions or “fairness”!  

And please: No evasions, camouflage and smokescreens anymore! Hezbollah’s social services (schools, clinics, etc.) have always had religious strings (of extreme Shi’a) attached to them! Had they given their unconditional charity “candies” lovingly—there wouldn’t have been any such strings attached! And the Lebanese recipients of such “charity bait” ate it, lovingly accepting them (as if they could not have created/replicate such rewards to themselves, on their own), forgetting, in the process, that there’s a price to pay! Some Lebanese say they deplore/comdemn Hezbollah’s actions (cheap talk equals no walk)!  

Well, someone has had to welcome, allow Hezbollah in, host them, etc., or has the Hezbollah “snuck” in “overnight” to their territories without their knowledge during the six years since 2000, when Israel has completely withdrawn from Lebanon? 

The Lebanese people took to the streets in masses to protest Syria’s presence in their country (until they succeeded in expelling it)! Where have these Lebanese been when the Hezbollah (whom they “didn’t like/want”) was ushered into their territories? Otherwise, if they allowed them in, that makes them Israel’s’ avowed enemy, doesn’t it?  

Well, please help me out here! I need clarity: have the Lebanese welcomed/invited/hosted Hezbollah or not? If the first is applicable then, they’ve got to know: every action has a reaction (price)! Yet, if the second option is the truth—where has their action of defiance and rejection of the Hezbollah been—to back up their “anti”-Hezbollah rhetoric? 

Abe Plamer 

• 

TIMES THAT TRY MEN AND WOMEN’S SOULS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If Thomas Paine were alive today he’d tell us that it is not the times that try our souls but the news of the times. Print and electronic news outlets devote half their time giving us entertainment disguised as news and the other half giving us persuasion and opinion disguised as information. Events in the Middle East are especially disguised and although instances are too numerous to count, two characterizations might suffice: “Crisis in the Middle East” and “Mass Migration in Southern Lebanon”. 

What’s deemed crisis involves a sovereign state (Israel) with a 10-to-1 advantage in military resources and an NGO (Hezbollah) with a 10-to-1 population advantage. Characterizing killing and maiming hundreds of civilians, one-third of them children, with bombs and rockets and destroying buildings, roads, homes, bridges, airports, etc. as a crisis reduces savagery and barbarism to “unstable” and “stressful” conditions.  

By using the words “mass migration” news outlets imply that commanding civilians across the border in a neighboring state to leave their homes or be killed merely amounts to several hundred thousand people setting out to “settle” in a “new location.” 

Thus, does print and electronic media merit being compared—a la Thomas Paine—to “summer soldiers” and “sunshine patriots,” and he’d probably allege further that those who cheapen human misery cheapen themselves. 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There are three disturbing elements of hatred facing Jews today. All of them are related. The first and perhaps most ubiquitous in many corners of the world is vicious, pronounced anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is historically popular with angry paradigms searching for a convenient target to blame. Mel Gibson, the son of a genuine Holocaust denier, reveals liquor-loosened feelings about Jews causing wars. In many unfortunate societies today, you’ll find Jew-hating virtually institutionalized in school curriculums, popular media, and by heads of state, who project and deliver their hate with vigor and effervescence while other heads of state watch and approve. 

Holocaust denial, the second disturbing thread, is not just the domain of fools like Gibson’s father. Ever-popular and disseminated widely throughout Muslim chords, it remains appallingly unchecked, which means it becomes reality for millions of the uninitiated. 

A third and most viciously hostile category of hate is venomous anti-Israel sentiment, endorsed and promulgated by many who read and contribute to this newspaper. The Berkeley Daily Planet, along with strident local radio stations, openly and frequently gratify, support, encourage, and reinforce those whose sole purpose is to wipe out Israel. In spite of Israel’s moderation and withdrawal from Gaza, destructive, inherently violent groups have made it clear: Israel simply has no right to exist, and many on the Local Left have become alarmingly proficient at justifying those groups.  

What gets overlooked here is that by eloquently broadcasting the anti-Israel tirades, this newspaper and the associated support mechanisms serve all three categories of hatred. If an angry skinhead or rageful Islamist listens to these stations or reads articles by people like Homayun or O’Malley, they find resonating redemption and reinforcement for not only the genocidal destruction of Israel, but also for their hatred toward Jews everywhere, and for their imbecilic belief that the Holocaust never happened. Supporting one tenet of hatred serves to buttress all three. 

For those who share the venom of anti-Israel fervor under a mask of locally brewed progressive fulfillment, beware of your ideological bedfellows. Hezbollah wrote the book on murder and terror and their Lebanese collaborators are paying a dear price. 

Leon Mayeri 

• 

GENOCIDE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Anyone in Congress who supports this genocide does not represent me and many others in this country. Destroying a country’s infrastructure, killing millions of innocent civilians, including children, is inexcusable. I will never vote for anyone who supports this insanity. What Israel is doing to Lebanon is worse than what Hitler did in Germany. Hezbollah is merely an excuse for Israel to wipe out Palestine. 

Linda Stewart 

Oakland 

• 

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is no civilized excuse for ignoring the international rules of engagement that prohibit states from targeting and killing civilians. Israel and any other state that kills civilians and destroys civilian infrastructure must be condemned, not defended. 

Michael Jacob 

Oakland 

• 

QUESTIONING BECKY’S FACTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In Becky O’Malley’s most recent attack on Israel she suggests that there is something fundamentally wrong with an Israeli war plan in which so many more civilians are killed than fighters. But this is not factually correct. The press has reported that some 500 civilians have been killed. There is no authoritative estimate, much less exact tally of Hezbollah’s dead, so no civilian to fighter ratio can be calculated. The reason is that causality figures come from the Lebanese government. But the only government in Hezbollah controlled areas is, well, Hezbollah itself. And they aren’t saying. 

Becky again fails to even mention in passing that every single Hezbollah rocket that is fired at Israel is intentionally aimed at woman and children. The Nazis blitzed London’s civilians, and wreaked their reward in Dresdan. That wasn’t proportional, either. But the difference is more profound, yet. Unlike the Allies at Dresden, Israel is desperately trying to avoid civilian casualities in this war that Hezbollah, together with Iran and Syria, has declared upon it. And Becky should not forget that, whereas Israel is happy to leave Lebanon to its peaceful fate, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran overtly call for the destruction of Israel, and soon, if left unchecked, they will have the nuclear weapons to achieve this. But readers should expect no retrospective tears from O’Malley if the unthinkable does happen. 

John Gertz 

• 

DAILY PLANET = HEZBOLLAH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Becky O’Malley would have one believe that Israel is fighting Hezbollah simply as revenge for its kidnapped soldiers. What utter nonsense! Israel knew that Hezbollah was accumulating deadlier and deadlier missiles provided by Iran. Should it have waited until Hezbollah acquired rockets capable of hitting major population centers such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem? After all, by Hezbollah’s own declaration the rationale for garnering such deadly weapons was to ultimately fire them at Israel. 

Of course, O’Malley spouts the typical “disproportionate” rubbish we have heard from the lips of consistent Israel-bashers like Kofi Annan and his anti Semitic Muslim friends at the UN. Yes, there have been more civilian casualties in Lebanon than Israel. But only an idiot would believe this to be Israel’s intent. O’Malley might try to use some logic: it does Israel absolutely no good to kill civilians—quite the contrary when it comes to world opinion. 

What O’Malley somehow fails to comprehend is Hezbollah’s cynical and craven strategy of storing and launching missiles from within civilian neighborhoods. Correspondingly, is Israel supposed to simply sit back and have its citizens murdered because the rockets are launched from Lebanese neighborhoods? One might conclude that O’Malley doesn’t believe Israel, unlike any other nation in the world, has the right to defend its citizens. 

While Israel time and again has given the Lebanese due warnings to leave said neighborhoods (what other nation at war ever does that?), you don’t hear of Hezbollah offering any such warnings to the Israelis, do you? Why is that? Critics like O’Malley might consider the following pertinent point, indeed the true heart of the matter: Hezbollah leaders such as Nasrallah have said time and again that their intent is “the disappearance of Israel.” 

But then again, there does appear to be a salient sense of “proportion” which O’Malley and her fellow Israel demonizers might find most acceptable: the obliteration of Israel. In this vein, their arguments appear congruent with Hezbollah... 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

• 

IRAEL’S CLIENT STATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Let’s face it, we’re Israel’s bitch. We invaded Iraq, in part, to protect Israel’s “Eastern Front” and to establish permanent military bases there, for which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed his gratitude. We routinely protect our “client” from world public opinion for the consequences of its heinous acts in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and, now, Lebanon by threatening to use our veto in the UN Security Council. Currently, we are expediting the delivery of bombs to our “friend” and, at its request, oppose a cease fire. Shortly, as the “neo-con” war mongers in the Administration and Congress ratchet up the rhetoric, we will probably be given the “green light” by our “proxy” to bomb the smithereens out of Iran.  

Bill Tilden 

Oakland 

• 

GRAVE  

MISUNDERSTANDING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Becky O’Malley’s editorial of Aug. 1 on the Israel-Lebanon war was based on a grave misunderstanding. The war is not about getting revenge for two kidnapped soldiers. In the big picture, they are minor importance. The war is about the chances for attaining peace and justice in Israel-Palestine in this generation. 

The end game for decades of war was in sight: Israel withdraws—whether unilaterally or in deals—from Lebanon, Gaza, and 90-plus percent of the West Bank; and the Palestinians get a state for the first time in history. But this scenario works only if Israelis get peace on their borders in return, something they have not had for 60 years. 

The cross-border attacks by Hamas from Gaza and by Hezbollah from Lebanon deliberately threaten this plan. They state that the war against Israel goes on even after withdrawals, even across international borders. If that stands, then Israel would have to return to her previous strategy of occupying neighboring territory in order to push her enemies back from her heartland.  

The current hope is that a fierce response in Gaza and Lebanon will establish the principle that borders are real and secure and quiet. If that is established, then withdrawal and the rest of the peace plan can proceed. 

C. Fischer 

Recently I returned to an area near my former home on Canyon Road near UC Stadium. I spent the afternoon walking around the stadium, and on up to the beautiful UC Botanical Gardens. And there I picnicked, surrounded by beautiful flowers and birds singing. 

One birdsong was particularly wonderful and I could hear it for a long time as I hiked home along the fire road, all the time marveling at bay-leaf saplings growing from fallen trunks, wild honeysuckle, thimbleberries, and tasty plums. That special bird trilled from the wilder places in Strawberry Canyon, reminding me of the truth that wilderness gives man a feeling of happiness. UC Berkeley’s top brass seem to have lost touch with this element, and with appreciation and responsibility for their natural environment for themselves and for their students, employees, and neighbors. 

As UC advances further and further into micro science, nano tech, genetic engineering, stem cell research, they seem to lose the big picture of what is most important of all, our green planet and life itself. By comparison, the green dollars of such research and development are miniscule, and can be as deadly as Lawrence Livermore Labs bioterrorism research. 

And so, remembering the 100 Live Oak trees UC plans to cut down just west of the stadium to make room for development, another haunting song came to me, this one from a former Daily Planet opinion page: 

“Where have all the (environmentalists) gone? Has UC replaced every one?” And now when we need wisdom more than ever before, “… will they ever learn?” We need UC to do the right thing, and at least do no harm. Look around us: global warming, bizarre flooding, tree-killing diseases like Sudden Oak Death, people killers like West Nile virus, Avian Flu, and Lyme disease. Can UC Berkeley stop paving over the earth and begin to heal it? 

There is a strong relationship between environment and disease and UC could be in the forefront of this save-our-planet research. An example from UC’s own backyard: when a Lyme disease carrying deer tick bites a western fence lizard, something in the lizard’s blood kills the Lyme disease bacteria inside the tick! Then when that tick bites a human it will not cause Lyme disease! No nano tech or stem cell is necessary, just Mother Nature! 

We must protect our natural environment, the oak trees and Strawberry Canyon. There are smarter, alternative places to develop or redevelop on campus, including over or under parking, and closer to BART. UC should work with citizens and downtown interests to create Berkeley Go-Round clean-air vehicles and people-movers so we can have what they teach—not what they do—compact, sustainable, livable development, growth limits, and town/gown relationships to mutually protect our welfare and environment. 

UC may truly not be aware of the consequences and cumulative effects of all the recent university and private development in the city. This past winter, because so much of the earth has been paved over and trees cut, rainwater from campus could not find its way into the soil. During rainstorms, runoff from UC, washed redwood duff from lower campus through the streets all the way down to Sacramento Street. That water collected oil and filth and flowed into the storm drains to San Francisco Bay where it will disrupt food chains starting with the tiniest organisms. In some parts of West Berkeley the water flooded city streets so deep that people paddled canoes! 

We don’t need to develop all of UC’s projects in Berkeley, especially when other areas of the state are more suitable, cheaper, and other cities have space and the desire for a part of the UC campus. 

Merrilie Mitchell is a Berkeley resident.

The front page article by Suzanne La Barre in the Aug. 1 edition celebrating Michele Lawrence’s five years as BUSD superintendent gave me pause to consider my own views about the current state of BUSD and the City of Berkeley. Let me share them with you. 

I swim at Willard Pool. This is my major form of recreation and activity for staying healthy. This is the case for many other adults who use the pools in Berkeley. The last several years I have noticed that there are a lot of stones at the bottom of the pool, especially at the south east corner where the pool and the Willard school yard share a tall fence and locked gate. Why do stones litter the bottom of the pool? The obvious answer is that Willard school kids are taking aim and tossing these objects over the 12-foot fence and gate into a body of water that is for the most part off limits for their use during most of the day. You can’t blame the kids for showing their frustration. 

My own views have come partly from my involvement with trying to preserve the wonderful neighborhood pools that the current generation of Berkeley folk has inherited from our farsighted forbears. The citizens and educators who built King, Willard, West Campus, and the warm pools on School property a half century ago knew the whole community benefits from having access to swimming. Adults and school kids learn water safety, recreation, and a healthy lifestyle with the benefit of friendly neighborhood water parks-pools. This was a win-win situation which allowed everyone to come out ahead because the City of Berkeley and the BUSD work together to maintain pools and run aquatic programming. This is the fantasy version. 

Actually, the school district and the city have for years fought over the funding of pool maintenance and improvements. The district for decades has put zero money into the pools while using the pools for PE classes and high school sports events. When the city, due to a lack of funding these last several years, asked the district to help fund the pools the district responded by ending their aquatic PE programs at Willard and King middle schools. Due to a full court press by the United Pool Council, the PTAs and concerned city and school staff a modified aquatic PE schedule has been reinstituted this last year during the early fall and late spring at Willard and King middle schools. This is a very good thing but the district is still not contributing to the funding of these pools and these pools face closure nine months out of the year. This is the reality of the tough no nonsense management style of Michele Lawrence. We all lose, specially the kids whose health and safety are used as pawns in this single minded effort to control the budget process with the city. 

Actually the reality is much worse, the warm pool is facing being evicted from a building slated to be torn down by the district on the high school campus. The current warm pool users will be homeless and out of luck if the BUSD is permitted to procede with their redesign efforts. 

In my opinion the BUSD under the leadership of Michele Lawrence gets an F for community relations. This is the community which has in the past been so generous with the district by passing special tax measures for the schools. Even though I have a child attending Berkeley High, this year I will think very long and hard about voting for any more special tax measures. I am throwing stones back until the larger community is heard and dealt with. 

Bill Hamilton is a Berkeley resident.

Tom Bates is telling people that I tried to stop the West Berkeley Bowl. Once again, he’s spinning the truth like a top.  

Fact: My position, repeatedly stated in the press and at the Planning Commission, the Zoning Adjustments Board, and the City Council, has always been that the people of West Berkeley want, need and deserve a neighborhood grocery store. 

Fact: The new Bowl is not a neighborhood grocery store. At 91,000 square feet, it’s over twice as large as the existing Bowl. It is the size of a Wal-Mart. 

Fact: The Bowl’s permit process was delayed by the Bowl’s owner, Glenn Yasuda, and by the city’s planners and consultants.  

In July 2003, when he was trying to crush the union drive at the existing Bowl, Mr. Yasuda withdrew his application for the new store. It wouldn’t have looked good, after all, to be seeking big favors from the city while trampling on workers’ rights to organize. When he (wrongly) thought he’d beaten the union, Mr. Yasuda resubmitted the application. 

City staff and consultants also had a hand in the Bowl’s lengthy approval process. As the city’s planning director wrote to the Council: “The unusual duration is due in part to the city’s decision, relatively late in the process, to prepare an environmental impact report, and also to oversights and errors by the applicant’s traffic consultant and the city’s environmental consultant, which necessitated recirculation of the EIR and the extension of the review period.” 

Fact: What finally got the city to require an EIR for the Bowl was the report prepared by the independent traffic engineer who’d been hired by the West Berkeley Traffic and Safety Coalition (TASC). 

Fact: TASC consisted of the new Bowl’s near neighbors, West Berkeley residents and businesses. 

Fact: I, a north Berkeley resident, worked with TASC, in part by paying for legal advice. 

Fact: The EIR said that the new Bowl will generate 50,000 vehicle trips a week.  

Fact: The intersections at Seventh and Ashby and at Ashby and San Pablo are already jammed with traffic. 

Fact: An elementary school with 400 children is across the street from the new Bowl’s site. 

Fact: At the council in June, I supported TASC’s recommendations for:  

• A 62,000-square-foot store (the EIR’s Alternative C, half again as large as the existing Bowl). 

• Traffic barriers and other traffic mitigations. 

• Maintaining the property’s industrial zoning so as to prevent the further gentrification of West Berkeley. 

I also supported the petition signed by 27 businesses, including Ashby Lumber, Scharffen Berger Chocolate, Inkworks Press and Urban Ore, that asked the city do an economic impact report before moving forward with the project. And I endorsed the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union’s appeal for a card check union election at the new store. 

Fact: On June 13, Tom Bates ignored all of these requests and voted with the Council majority (Councilmembers Anderson, Spring and Worthington abstained) for a 91,000-square-foot store, no traffic mitigations, no card check election, and a zoning change from industrial to commercial.  

Tom Bates advertises his environmental credentials. So he ought to explain why he chose not to require traffic barriers around a project that will generate 50,000 vehicle trips a week in an already congested area with an elementary school. If he thinks that Wal-Mart-sized projects should not have EIRs, he should explain that, too. 

Tom Bates talks about the city’s need for sales tax revenue. So he ought to explain why he ignored a petition signed by 27 West Berkeley businesses asking for an economic impact report on the new Bowl. Does he really think that a grocery store (there’s no sales tax on food) will yield more taxes than those 27 businesses?  

Tom Bates says he’s promoted inclusiveness in Berkeley political life. So he ought to explain why in the matter of the Bowl, he ignored all the stakeholders but one: the owner of the business.  

Mr. Bates touts his progressive character. So he ought to explain why he failed to support the union’s request for a card check election at the new store, even as he handed the Bowl’s aggressively anti-union owner a zoning change worth $10 million.  

Mr. Bates does not talk about the need for honesty in government. Nevertheless, he ought to explain why he keeps spinning truths he finds inconvenient. 

Former Planning Commission chair Zelda Bronstein is a candidate for mayor. 

Part I: To NIMBY, or Not to NIMBY? That is the Question 

I admit, I never thought I was at risk. But people I know are showing symptoms, and it’s spreading quickly, so I decided to get tested. I’m very nervous, though. I’m afraid I might test positive for being a NIMBY. 

Apparently I am a NIMBY (“Not In My Back Yard”) if I don’t want a five-story building in my back yard. (Actually, as a renter I don’t have a back yard, and if Berkeley’s planners have their way, neither will anybody else, but that’s another story.) But what if I oppose the same building five or 10 blocks away, or down in Oakland? Then am I a NIMBY or an “anti-NIMBY”? How far does the metaphorical “back yard” extend? What if I just believe in good development, which in some places, both rural and urban, means no development?  

In 2003, the City Council considered charging a prohibitive development appeal fee to Berkeley residents who live “too far” (more than 300 feet) from a project. Is caring about land use decisions more than a block from one’s house a symptom? But if those who live next to a project are NIMBYs, and those who live farther away are crackpots and busybodies, who can challenge bad developments? Nobody—which is just what the fee advocates wanted. Fortunately, the council tabled the fee after public protest. City Hall has since moved on to more subtle and successful means of eliminating public participation. 

The smug intellectual version of calling somebody a NIMBY is to say they are “afraid of change.” This charge condescends toward those who are not “progressive” enough to embrace the name-caller’s version of the future, or “smart” enough to know what is good for them. But doesn’t almost everyone welcome “good” change and resist “bad” change? And, increasingly, bad changes and bad planning in Berkeley are starting to look like the status quo. So please, Doctor, am I afraid of change, or afraid of the status quo?  

In land use matters, unless we cooperate—which most neighbors favor but which most developers eschew—“change” means taking away Peter’s rights to benefit Paul. If Peter objects, Paul says that Peter is “afraid of change.” For example, before my time, another apartment building was built just south of mine. Its extra height cut off the winter solar heat to the south side of my building and tripled the winter energy bills for our south-facing units. This was (and still is) a direct financial subsidy by neighboring residents to the developer, and I’m sure the neighbors at the time were vociferously “afraid of change.” But if the City Council were to consider instating renters’ solar rights, who would be “afraid of change” then? Will this turn developers into NIMBYs? 

Some “smart growth” advocates admit that land use conflicts have nothing to do with “fear of change” and everything to do with gain and loss. Simply stated, bad development means developers gain and we lose. Then developers spend a fraction of their gains to convince well-intentioned Berkeleyans that bad development is smart growth. They also have some allies among some very “smart” people who are safely out of the development zone. I’m probably doomed to be a NIMBY if I am too dumb to realize that I will “gain” from the overdevelopment agenda. If only Berkeleyans were smart enough, we would realize that we really want to live in a place with more people, bigger buildings, and less greenery. But for some reason, we stay in a quiet town filled with large trees, small cottages, and old Victorians. Yes, we are a dumb lot indeed! 

It is important to a sustainable planet that most people live in fairly compact urban areas. Berkeley’s population density is higher than 90 percent of California’s cities, and three times that of the (equivocal) smart-growth poster-child, Portland, Ore. This means that Berkeley already enjoys something quite special: a remarkably pleasant environment at a relatively high density. The more honest “smart growth” advocates admit that adding density to Berkeley isn’t good for Berkeley. But they are willing to impose bad development upon us because it is good for the planet. These terra-NIMBYs are truly terrified of change—climate change. And who isn’t? Unfortunately, however, nothing we do in Berkeley’s land use will have any noticeable impact on climate change.  

Berkeley’s idealism is laudable, but sometimes misguided. Few people—idealists least of all—want to acknowledge that something as critical as global warming cannot be affected by personal self-sacrifice. Berkeley is already doing less damage than almost any other American city of equivalent size. Stuffing a few thousand extra residents into the upper floors of too-tall buildings, and depriving them of cars, will do no good for the planet, but it will do considerable harm to Berkeley. Injuring Berkeley to impact either urban sprawl or global warming is like cutting off your thumb to lose weight: It will have no impact on your weight problem, but it’s mighty detrimental to your hand. And it's permanent. Try it; you’ll see. 

But if those who are working so hard to remake Berkeley into their ideal were to spend equivalent time working for changes in federal and global environmental, population, economic, and science policies, it could make a huge difference. But that’s no fun. It’s fun to play around with little models, to get awards for being “green,” and to see your ego enshrined in architecture. That makes Berkeleyans feel good. Meanwhile, buying new SUVs will make about a billion Chinese feel fantastic. 

Finally, there are a handful of “smart growth” advocates in Berkeley who are true environmentalists. They value the California Environmental Quality Act and similar local protections like the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. They even believe in public participation. Although they realize that changes in Berkeley alone will be globally insignificant, they believe in Berkeley’s moral leadership and ability to change others by example. But it’s delusional to think that Berkeley’s example could save the planet from global warming, so let’s set our hubris aside and work a little closer to home. Let’s model a city in which people can live happily in relatively dense urban areas. Removing our existing strengths and pleasures, and emulating less attractive and livable cities, will not do this; it will do the opposite. 

In addition, with all due respect, few people rush to follow the “good example” of hypocrites. If you would not live in the buildings you advocate; if you own or drive a car, but want to make it difficult for others to do so; if you like your tree-lined or historic street, but believe others don’t need the same; if you want to live in peace and quiet, but to visit all-night bars and restaurants in other people’s neighborhoods—then you are a hypocrite. If you say you want people (especially other people) to live in high-density communities, but then do nothing to protect their quality of life, you are a hypocrite. If you obsess over affordable housing while ignoring population control, then perhaps you are more concerned with looking good than with doing good. 

In truth, I won’t mind testing positive. NIMBYs may not look good, but they do good. It is NIMBYs who fight to keep the urban environment livable. It is urban NIMBYs who struggle tirelessly against uncooperative developers and planners for good development. So Berkeley NIMBYs: stand up and be proud. And don’t forget to vote. 

Sharon Hudson is a 35-year Berkeley resident with a special interest in land use issues.

History will record that the Bush administration was the high-water mark of conservatism, note that during Dubya’s reign conservatives had their chance and failed. What remains to be seen is how liberals will respond: will they continue to be “conservative lite” or will they reformulate liberalism? 

Conservative domestic policy rests upon a single tenet: the federal government must be drastically reduced because it impedes “the market.” Accordingly, the Bush administration and an obedient Republican Congress slashed taxes. They assured the American people that, as a “natural” result of these cuts the economy would flourish and the federal government would wither. But neither prediction proved accurate. The economy showed modest growth, which benefited only corporations and wealthy individuals; meanwhile, the real income of the average American family went down. And, the federal government didn’t shrink; it grew. The linchpin of conservatism ideology didn’t work. 

Corresponding to their naïve disregard for the federal government, conservatives advocated their brand of Social Darwinism: “You’re on your own.” They insisted government has no responsibility to protect the rights or well-being of citizens; claimed that the market will take care of everyone. 

Contemporary conservatism actually has two faces. On Fox News and Sunday morning talk shows, conservatives pontificate as if their ideology makes sense. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, having failed at their primary objective of shrinking government, the Bush administration proceeded to loot it. Five years of Dubya has shown America the true conservative morality: it’s not personal responsibility, but rather self-aggrandizement. Bush-era conservatism produced a tsunami of venality: a corrupt political-business partnership that abandons any notion of the common good and, instead, substitutes: “What’s in it for me?” 

Liberalism’s response to the conservative failure might be simply to say: liberals care about all the people, not just the rich and powerful. The problem with this approach is that after five years of non-stop Bush administration lies Americans are deeply skeptical of any political message. Many see no difference between conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats; they regard them all as thieves and scoundrels. There is no simple way to address this cynicism other than to preach a message of morality, pragmatism, and hope; and then to follow through on this. Liberals must show Americans that they have integrity; that they mean what they say. 

A new liberalism should begin with a restatement of the ethic of working for the common good. Barack Obama’s speech to the 2004 Democratic convention contained a model formulation, “alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we are all connected as one people… it is that fundamental belief—I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sisters’ keeper—that makes this country work.” 

Five and a half years of the Bush administration finds the United States in crisis. We’re besieged by domestic problems that aren’t going to go away and don’t lend themselves to simple solutions: national competitiveness, healthcare, and global climate change, not to mention the omnipresent threat of terrorist attack. A new liberal ideology must acknowledge these problems and assert that we can solve them by working together. Liberals should restate what most Americans instinctively believe: the people of the United States are our greatest resource; when we join in common purpose we can solve any problem. 

From this foundation, the new liberalism needs to state the obvious: Americans need a responsible federal government and it’s our common responsibility to pay for it. Liberals should reassert their belief that government can be a force for good, so long as it is well run. Not only must liberals be persons of integrity, they must provide the leadership that America desperately needs. 

Finally, a new liberal ideology must address two other conservative beliefs: The first is that government should not regulate business; that this is the exclusive responsibility of the market. This is wrong, because an equitable American society requires the active intervention of the federal government to protect the rights and well-being of our citizens. A cornerstone of the new liberalism must be the primacy of individual rights over those of corporations and CEOs. 

The second conservative belief that must be challenged is that the U.S. defense budget is sacrosanct. Americans have been brainwashed to believe that having the largest defense establishment in the world-spending $550 million per year on the Department of Defense-keeps us safe. Citizens must be taught to distinguish between big and smart. America can be protected even though DOD is drastically reduced. Money must be redirected from our military budget and used for vital needs such as the funding of our “first responders.” 

The vacuum left by the failure of conservatism must be filled by an articulate and relevant liberal ideology. The problem won’t be in preparing this—it’s a reformulation of the liberal vision and values of the Founders; basic ideas that last saw a cogent reformulation in the New Deal. The problem is finding a liberal spokesperson that Americans trust.  

There are actually two crises in American politics: the dominant conservative ideology has failed and, at the moment, the country has no leadership. This dire situation should be a golden opportunity for liberals.  

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

I forgot to give my dog, Whiskers, her flea medication and as a result she got fleas. Whiskers sleeps in my bed, so it didn’t take long for me to get the buggers, too. Thus began a three-week spiral into insecticide hell.  

I went to Ellis’, my local hardware store, and purchased special powders, soaps, and sprays. The next day I bought more of the same, plus a powerful, deadly bug bomb that took three hours to detonate. Nothing worked. The fleas refused to leave.  

Because I had exhausted the selection of flea insecticides at Ellis’, I went to Home Depot where there is a shelf a mile long and three stories high dedicated to insect eradication. I spent a ridiculous amount of money on anti-flea paraphernalia, then went home and dropped a nuclear-like cocktail, mixing and matching bug poisons in the hope that something would chase the critters away. Houseplants died, but the fleas survived.  

I sought advice from friends, relatives and strangers. Most people took a step back before responding to my complaints. Everyone had a flea-fix story to share.  

“Spread a white sheet on the floor and cover it in flea powder,” recommended the woman standing behind me in Home Depot. “Fleas are attracted to white. They’ll roll around on the sheet, get themselves full of powder and die.” She shook her head in sympathy. “If that doesn’t get rid of them,” she said, “I’ve got another remedy that might work, but it could kill you if you aren’t careful.”  

“I’m careful,” I lied. “And desperate.”  

“Spread lye under your house and then leave on a six-week vacation,” she whispered, looking around to see if anyone could hear her. “Don’t tell anyone it was my suggestion.”  

Someone said I needed to wash everything in the house with ammonia, fill the vacuum bag with mothballs and sweep until the carpet was threadbare. Another person said to throw out mattresses, chairs and sofas; anything the dog or I had slept on.  

Somebody mean hinted that I should get rid of Whiskers; someone else said selling the house and moving elsewhere was always an option.  

A neighbor informed me that fleas overrun the country of South Africa, and therefore I should be glad I live in Oakland, where only my house seemed to have the problem.  

“Drink plenty of gin with tonic and lime and wait ‘til winter,” advised Andrea. “Fleas hibernate in cold weather.”  

My dad suggested inviting all the neighborhood dogs into the house. “Let them in the back door and run them through each room until they run out the front door,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Then put camphor inside all the furniture, and go into lockdown mode for three full days.”  

I called my friend Jack, a pest control expert in Manhattan. I interrupted him while he was on vacation in Sandy Hook, New Jersey.  

“Should I put out white sheets and white powder? Should I throw out my bed and sofa?”  

“No,” said Jack. “Call a professional. They’ll use chemicals to zap ‘em.”  

“Should I—”  

Jack cut me off. “I gotta go,” he said. “I’m at a nude beach, and the greenhead flies are eating me up.”  

I decided to take Jack’s advice but before doing so I had lunch with my sage friends, Pearl and Louise. They were surprisingly unsympathetic.  

“Back when I was growing up,” said Pearl, “people were tougher than they are now. We learned to live with fleas. You shouldn’t be so hung-up on bugs. Fleas are, after all, quite small.”  

Louise seemed to agree. “In Louisiana we didn’t have fleas, we had chiggers. They got in the bed ticking and they wouldn’t let go. If you think fleas are bad, try sleeping every night on a homemade mattress full of feathers and bugs. In the morning there was blood everywhere.”  

I went home from my visit with Louise and Pearl determined to get tough. After all, I wasn’t in chigger-infested Louisiana, or flea-ridden South Africa. And I wasn’t in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, where I’d be subject to ravenous, flesh-eating flying greenheads, and cranky middle-aged pest control experts sunbathing in the nude.  

About this time last week I was at Yuba Pass in the northern Sierra, swatting the insatiable mosquitoes and watching a family of red-breasted sapsuckers. (There is a Berkeley connection here: some of these birds spend the winter along the coast, and they’re likely to begin showing up in Tilden Park in a couple of months). 

The group consisted of an adult—whether father or mother I couldn’t tell you, since the only way to distinguish the sexes is by in-hand examination of the tail feathers—and three recent fledglings, recognizable by their brownish heads. What they were doing was sucking sap. The adult was hard at work drilling sap wells in a red fir, and the kids followed him or her around, feeding greedily and bickering among themselves. They were at it for three consecutive days, dawn to dusk. 

“Red-breasted sapsucker” is not the most dignified name for a bird to be saddled with. At least this species has done marginally better in the gravitas department than its close eastern relative, the yellow-bellied sapsucker, the bird that comic birdwatchers in the movies are always looking for. “Yellow-bellied sapsucker” is what the guy in the white hat in a B western would call the guy in the black hat, just before he plugged him. 

But the names are descriptive, at least. Sucking sap is what these aberrant woodpeckers do. The habit has been documented in a number of woodpecker species, but only the four sapsuckers (counting the western red-naped and Williamson’s) make a living at it. They’ve evolved a couple of anatomical specializations for this. Most woodpeckers have extremely long tongues for nabbing wood-dwelling insects; a sapsucker’s tongue is shorter and less extensible, and tipped with stiff hairs to trap the sap. 

You can tell when a sapsucker has been at work by the neat rows of holes it leaves behind. And it’s not just a matter of drilling until you strike sap. These birds take advantage of the annual cycles of tree physiology to get the most nutritious sap available. 

There’s no such thing as just plain sap, it appears. Trees have a kind of circulatory system in which xylem tissues transport water and dissolved nutrients up from the roots into the branches, twigs, and leaves by capillary action, and phloem tissues convey the products of photosynthesis down from leaves to roots. (This is a gross oversimplification, of course). In evergreens, it’s more or less a two-way street, although different conduits are involved. But in deciduous trees, like the quaking aspens that ring the meadow at Yuba Pass, the phloem traffic doesn’t begin until the tree has leafed out, transporting the nutrients produced in all those little green factories. 

I couldn’t find detailed information for red-breasted sapsuckers, but field studies of yellow-bellied and red-naped sapsuckers show that the birds dig xylem wells in conifers during winter and early spring. To reach the xylem tissues, they have to penetrate the outer phloem layer. Then, when the leaves sprout on the deciduous trees, the sapsuckers switch over to them and begin to drill phloem wells, tapping that richer source. Different techniques are involved: xylem wells are circular in shape, phloem wells begin as lateral slits and are expanded into rectangles.  

Both the sounds of a working sapsucker and the marks on the sap tree are fairly conspicuous. So it’s no surprise that freeloaders are attracted to sapsucker diggings. Insects are drawn to the sap, of course, and provide a nice protein bonus for the birds. They sometimes dip ants into the sap, perhaps to kill that formic-acid taste. Red-breasted nuthatches smear sap from the wells around their own nest cavities. Hummingbirds—ruby-throated in the east, rufous, broad-tailed, and calliope in the western mountains—feed at the wells. They often nest nearby, and the timing of their spring migrations may reflect the sapsuckers’ excavation schedules. 

This is what led ecologist Paul Ehrlich to characterize the red-naped sapsucker as a keystone species—one whose activities provide food or shelter for a whole set of organisms—in western forests. Beyond the sap, these birds excavate nest cavities like most woodpeckers; and their old homes accommodate cavity-nesting birds like chickadees, nuthatches, wrens, and bluebirds, not to mention flying squirrels.  

So, silly name notwithstanding, I’d say the sapsuckers of whatever species deserve credit for exploiting a hidden food resource in a fairly sophisticated way, and acting as community benefactors in the process.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

All in a day's work: a red-breasted sapsucker and its sap wells.

First, I want to thank the many Berkeley residents who have indicated their support for me to enter the race for mayor this November, particularly Merilee Mitchell who took out papers to gather signatures in-lieu of filing fees (even though I didn't know about it at the time); and to all of you who collected signatures, signed your names, sent me e-mails, called me, wrote me letters and stopped to talk to me in the grocery store, on the street or at various meetings.  

I am amazed and overwhelmed by the amount of your support, which seems to be growing daily. Besides being greatly surprised by your numbers, I am deeply touched by your kind words, willingness to work for my candidacy and most of all by your enthusiastic encouragement. I am also humbled by the faith you have shown in my ability to resolve the many concerns that you have expressed. 

I greatly regret to have to tell you that I have decided not to run. Starting so late makes the process much more difficult. In 2002, Mr. Bates and I raised about the same amount but he was able to contribute an additional amount, around $100,000, of his own funds to his campaign. I do not have the personal resources to compete with that. Some groups have held endorsement interviews and made their decision long before before my name was put  

forward.  

In my view, this campaign would be on an uneven playing field for a two-year term. The four-year term coming up in 2008 is by far more appealing from the standpoint of putting together an effective campaign. 

I believe that I can better serve the city that I love so much by my active involvement in some of the important issues that we are facing. I am full of hope that my voice, along with yours, will help shape a city government more responsive to the community than what we have experienced over the past four years. Some of the issues that I will be involved in over the next few months include working for: 

• Approval by the voters of the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance Initiative on the November ballot. This initiative involves retaining the 30-year old ordinance that has served the community so well, plus a few minor changes suggested by the State Office of Historic Preservation. Berkeley's neighborhoods should not be put at risk just because a few developers want the wheels greased in their favor. 

• Persuading the university to rescind, rewrite and recirculate the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) on the seven projects included in the proposal to retrofit Memorial Stadium. City planning staff has boldly declared the current DEIR, concerning what is by any definition a massive project that will permanently change the face of the city, as totally inadequate, lacking information, and misleading. Our city must support our neighborhoods regarding this staff analysis by actively following through with the university by every means possible—first, by ensuring that accurate and complete information on impacts is understood and, second, by undertaking any and all appropriate actions. 

• Seeking a greater emphasis on funding for basic city services, police and fire and infrastructure repair. I have been working with BudgetWatch, a group dedicated to informing people about the budget. In addition to greater resident awareness of budget impacts and decisions, and more citizen involvement in those decisions, we seek adequate city funding for police and fire, no closure (brownouts) of fire stations and developing a real plan to address the mounting infrastructure deficit. 

• Completing the work begun by Neighbors on Urban Creeks regarding the Creeks Ordinance and protection of our local creeks and watershed. Neighbors on Urban Creeks successfully achieved several recommendations for revisions to the Creeks Ordinance but much work remains to be done: to find methods which will actually improve the quality of our urban creeks; and to enact a comprehensive watershed management plan that is environmentally sensitive and also prevents the repeated flooding that has caused so many  

problems for Berkeley homes and businesses. 

• Devising mechanisms to protect neighborhoods from the destructive nuisance of drug houses, out-of-control liquor stores, and other nuisances that are the focus of crime. Residents must no longer be put in harm’s way in order to close down drug houses that are destroying their neighborhood while the city sits on the sidelines and takes no action to declare such places as public nuisances. 

• Opening an honest dialogue to find solutions to prevent the damage caused by overdevelopment from too dense, too tall and too big buildings. The essence of what has made Berkeley a wonderful place in which to live is currently being threatened by development which is out-of-scale with its surroundings. The council simply engages in hand wringing when they hear objections from neighborhoods. Solutions must be actively sought. Additionally, the council must stop the management of the planning process and allow the true vision of the community to emerge in areas like the Ashby BART Station. 

• Engage in community discussions on re-structuring the full range of Berkeley governance issues. We must make government function in a more open and democratic way with no more closed- door decisions, or last-minute actions taken without citizen review. We must restore confidence in citizens and boards and commissions that their input means something, and that rules on speaking times are clear. We must explore whether the Council should have at-large members, higher compensation and how to achieve greater accountability. 

I will be busy. The list above is not complete and I am still writing my book on an insider's experience with Berkeley politics. Good luck to us all in uniting to protect and preserve Berkeley. It’s a very special place. 

Shirley Dean is the former mayor of Berkeley and a current political activist.

Erica Schoenberger is scrolling through her photos of Maphaphateni, a small village in the “Valley of 1,000 Hills” northwest of Durban in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province. She is looking for a particular image that crystallizes the difference between a project funded by the World Bank and one sponsored by the Colorado-based organization, Engineers Without Borders (EWB). 

A full professor of geography at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Schoenberger has just returned to Berkeley from South Africa where a team of 15 students from the Hopkins chapter of the EWB put in irrigation systems for two community gardens run by grandmothers. The women, known as the “Isthembe” (“Commitment”) group, take care of over 100 children orphaned by AIDS.  

HIV/AIDS has infected over 40 percent of the rural population in the province, making even mega-killers like malaria look almost benign in comparison.  

The photos stream by, a kaleidoscope of rolling hills, simple houses, and earnest looking students digging ditches and hefting plastic pipes. There are pictures of the grandmothers, one in which they are laughing it up at a ceremony marking the end of the project. 

Schoenberger, who spends eight months a year in Maryland, and four months in Berkeley, is a sort of bi-coastal scholar. She earned a BA in history at Stanford, and a PhD at UC Berkeley in city and regional planning. The department she teaches in—the Department of Geography—is an unusual one, a merger of geography and environmental engineering.  

“It is important to train a generation of engineers who can read the social landscape,” she says, pausing at an image of several women dressed in long dresses and bright headscarves. Instead of just dropping in and whipping up some technical solution to a problem, the program works with local people to figure out what kind of technology is appropriate for the specific cultural, social and historical context of a given community. 

EWB was formed in 2000 to draw together engineers, professors, and students to help developing countries with their civil and environmental engineering needs. The group is installing solar panels in Rwanda, clean water systems in El Salvador, and building schools in tsunami-ravaged Southeast Asia. Projects include villages in Kenya, Nicaragua, Haiti, Macedonia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Belize, and Mali. The organization has nine member countries, plus provisional chapters in 35 countries from Argentina to Turkey. 

While Johns Hopkins has a reputation “as a very conservative place,” says Schoenberger, the program attracted students across the engineering spectrum, from standard brick and concrete types, to bio-medical engineers. The team also included two public health students. While the project gets some funding from the School of Engineering and individual departments, the bulk of the money for the South Africa trip—about $40,000—was raised by the students themselves. 

The field experience may be the most real-life, hands-on engineering these students do, because most engineering departments are wrapped up in theory, says Schoenberger. “No one tinkers anymore, no one messes with things. Here the kids get to see and feel engineering, not do just abstract good, but dirt good.” 

She finally zeros in a photo of an odd looking device whose design hardly suggests its use. It consists of two narrow metal bars with a handle in the middle. “It looks like it could be in a gym at Guantanamo,” she chuckles, “part exercise machine, part torture device.” The apparatus is a “treadle pump,” and the idea is for someone to stand on the two metal bars while holding on to the handle. Then the person pumps up and down as if on a kind of primitive StairMaster, creating a pumping action that raises the water from a stream to the gardens. 

It is low tech, requires no power, and it works—providing that an elderly woman can stand on the two bars and vigorously pump for a goodly time. “This is the World Bank in action,” she says. “Low cost, low tech, and totally inappropriate.” The women are too old to work the pump, and their charges are too young. 

The garden is critical because the little community subsists on small pensions that the grandmothers draw from the state. The gardens are an important food supplement. Normally the water is hauled uphill in pans and drums, an exhausting and never ending ordeal. According to a United Nations study, women and girls carry water an average of four miles a day in the underdeveloped world. Because it is so difficult to transport, water is saved in containers, which in turn can easily become contaminated. Water-born diseases kill some 13 million people a year, most of them children under five. And yet world wide, only about $3 billion out of the $80 billion in foreign aid goes toward improving access to clean water. 

And, as Maphaphateni illustrates, sometimes that aid is wasted on technology projects that bear no resemblance to what is actually needed. 

The Johns Hopkins team installed “ram pumps” which work by harnessing the momentum of the stream to pump water uphill 24 hours a day. No grandmothers are required to stand on narrow rails while doing heavy cardiovascular workouts, and the group can maintain the pumps without outside supplies. The water is pumped into 5,000 liter tanks and then distributed to the gardens through irrigation piping,  

Putting in the irrigation pipes was the job of the students, and it was hot and heavy work. “The kids dug hundreds of meters of trenches,” says Schoenberger. 

In the process they not only learned how to install the system, they learned how to start off by talking to the local people and working from there. “The idea (behind the project) is to grow engineers who will not take World Bank money and do something stupid, but to take that money and do something smart.”  

The EWB group, in partnership with the local Church Agricultural Project, plans to install ram pumps in more villages during upcoming visits. It is also investigating the possibility of biogas generators to provide cheap and sustainable electricity. Biogas can be produced from compost and human and animal wastes. 

EWB is a non-profit, but is not the slightest bit averse to taking money from anyone, including the World Bank. The KwaZulu-Natal Province project actually applied to the Bank for funds, hoping to get in on the huge organization’s 2006 emphasis on water. “But we didn’t get the money because the World Bank was focused on drinking water and this was irrigation water,” she says, rolling her eyes.  

EWB chapters are spreading in campuses across the nation, although so far there is none in the Bay Area. Schoenberger thinks this is a situation that ought to be changed. “EWB’s motto is ‘Building a better world one community at a time,’” she says, which she thinks is an excellent goal. “But it could take a thousand years to achieve it if we had to rely on bake sales to fund it. If we could put the EWB philosophy together with the kind of money the World Bank gets to play with, you might really see some dramatic changes.” 

She urges people to check out EWB’s website at www.ewb.jhu.edu and www.ewb-usa.org. If you want save the grannies of the world from treadle pumps, lend a hand.

Driving home on Tuesday evening, Aug. 1, I passed one of the officially sanctioned National Night Out Events, this one sponsored by the East Bay Dragons (African-American) Motorcycle Club, who had already begun to cordon off the block at 88th and International on the side of their clubhouse. National Night Out, from its website, is a campaign involving “citizens, law enforcement agencies, civic groups, businesses, neighborhood organizations and local officials… Along with the traditional display of outdoor lights and front porch vigils, cities, towns and neighborhoods ‘celebrate’ NNO with a variety of events and activities such as block parties, cookouts, [and] visits from local police and sheriff departments.” 

Ironic, isn’t it? 

Readers with good memories will recall the last time the Dragons held a block party and got a visit from the local police department. We wrote in this column in the fall of 2005: “And on the Sunday before Labor Day, Oakland police shut down the Dragons’ annual 88th Avenue block party at 5 p.m., and then conducted a sweep in which they ordered the crowds of people off of International Boulevard in the vicinity of the Dragons’ clubhouse. The Dragons do this every year on Labor Day weekend, blocking off 88th between International and A Street and playing music and selling sodas and barbecue. They have events for the kids as well as for teenagers, young adults, and the older crowd. It’s one of the yearly highlights of our neighborhood. The crowds are enormous, and club members handle both the security and the cleanup themselves.” 

I never got an explanation from police or city officials why the Dragons’ Labor Day event had to be shut down just prior to sundown. As is usually the case with the Dragons’ events, there didn’t appear to be any violence or other problems, even though 88th and International is in the heart of Oakland’s killing zone, and one of the roughest neighborhoods in the city. I only noted, then, that the closure happened a couple of weeks after some trouble at a night-time dance sponsored by a couple of black motorcycle clubs at the Kaiser Convention Center. The East Bay Dragons were not part of the Kaiser Convention Center events, but, you know, Oakland police and (some) Oakland city officials sometimes get their black guys confused… 

So what changed in the 11 months between Labor Day, 2005 and National Night Out, 2006? Politics, maybe. And a murderous, bloody year in Oakland that has left Oakland officials suddenly begging the same community to “get involved” that it was earlier ordering to “close down” and “get back.” 

In the midst of what is becoming an all-too-typically horrific period in which five were shot and three were slain over last weekend, Mayor Jerry Brown took time out from his attorney general campaign duties to tour the 12th and Peralta streets neighborhood where 57-year-old Clinnetta Simril had been shot in the head and placed on life support. Or maybe this was part of his attorney general campaign duties. In any event, following his West Oakland tour, Mr. Brown told Oakland Tribune reporters “I saw a number of kids hanging around, (up) to no good.” 

It would be interesting to learn from Mr. Brown what criteria he used to come to that particular conclusion. 

Mr. Brown, after all, has a history of making accusations against citizens (unnamed and therefore unable to defend themselves) so that the mayor can make a political point. 

In 2003, when he was trying to take over the Oakland-owned Malonga Casquelord Center (then called the Alice Arts Center) for his private, non-profit Oakland School For The Arts, Mr. Brown tried to justify the takeover by making accusations against some men who the mayor said were “hanging out” around the Arts Center. Both the San Francisco Chronicle and the Berkeley Daily Planet quoted Mr. Brown as saying at the time, “They’ve had people hanging out there. When you have young children taking dance classes, you have to be careful about the people you have running around there. You can make an argument they are not compatible with dance studios and kids.” 

Why were these people “hanging out” in front of the Arts School? Well, they were tenants living in SRO’s on the top floor of the Malonga Casquelord Center, many of whom were also artists who participated in dance companies located at the center. Many of these Alice Arts Center tenants spent their afternoons at the sidewalk café outside the center and the arts school, waiting for their rehearsals or dance classes to begin. Were these tenants a danger to the Arts School students? Mr. Brown seemed to be the only one who thought so, or, at least, pretended he thought so in order to make a case that the tenants should be moved and his Arts School students should stay. The African dance-based Malonga Casquelord folks, who were busy creating the downtown sidewalk cultural atmosphere the mayor kept saying he wanted, were apparently not exactly the type of culture he was talking about.  

But back to Mr. Brown’s West Oakland Tour. The Tribune reported that the mayor revealed he is working on the latest of his anti-crime strategies, this one to be called “Operation Ceasefire,” the Tribune noting that “the details of which [Mr. Brown] expects to release soon.” We’ll try to be patient. 

The Tribune went on to quote the mayor as saying, “There have been a number of young people involved (in these shootings), occasionally hitting innocent bystanders. ... There are a lot of kids that need a lot of upbringing and they aren’t getting it; it shows up as kids on street corners doing things they shouldn’t.” The newspaper reported that Mr. Brown was not blaming the police for the upsurge in Oakland’s violent crime, adding that the mayor noting that “It’s tough, they are working overtime, doing everything they can, and if anyone has a better idea, the chief would (welcome) it.” A police spokesperson noted that “the community has to roll up its sleeves and pitch in.” 

And do what, exactly? 

Several years ago, leaders of Oakland’s original, non-violent, parking lot sideshows went to Oakland city officials and asked them to help set up legalized, sanctioned, safe sideshow venues off the city streets. This was after Oakland police had driven the original non-violent sideshows out of the parking lots and into the streets, creating the sometimes-chaotic situation we have today. Oakland police officials were initially interested in the idea, traveling to San Diego to study a similar program in that city, and contacting a promoter who would help put the venues together. City Councilmember Desley Brooks held a couple of meetings with police officials, promoters, and sideshow participants to try to put the project together. But Mayor Brown and City Council Public Safety Chair Larry Reid talked against the proposal, and it was put on hold for several years. It was revived, again, by Councilmember Brooks during the summer of 2005 debate over Mr. Brown’s “arrest the sideshow spectators” ordinance, in which the Daily Planet reported that “some other councilmembers—Henry Chang and newcomer Pat Kernighan, for example—went on record saying that any discussion of stepping up penalties on sideshow participants should also include a discussion of legal alternatives.” 

A year has passed, and we’re still waiting. 

Would setting up a legalized, sanctioned, off-street sideshow venue have prevented the murderous events of Oakland, 2006? Probably not. But it would have opened an important dialogue and started a partnership between East Oakland street youth, the Oakland police, and city officials that could have been a valuable tool in the current attempts to abate Oakland’s violence, much of which is centered among our youngsters. And if the legalized sideshow idea was a bad and unworkable idea, rather than shooting it down entirely, the police department, the mayor’s office, and other city officials should have continued the meetings with the sideshow advocates, encouraging them, and working together to come up with a better plan acceptable to both sides. 

But a pattern emerges. Oakland citizens in some of the city’s toughest neighborhoods—the East Bay Dragons with their 88th Avenue block parties or the original sideshow participants with their proposal for a sanctioned, legalized sideshow venue—come up with plans to address the problems in Oakland’s mean streets. The city shuts them down. And then, months later, city officials complain that they cannot get citizens to “roll up [their] sleeves and pitch in.” 

Perhaps we would, if the city would only stop taking our shirts. 

I can feel another rant coming on and this one has been coming for some time. I’m definitely involved in the world of real estate, for better AND for worse. Rather than simply sharing construction knowledge with people at their homes, a lot of what I end up doing involves checking over houses that are in the sale process, and this means examining the product of sales preparation, of last-minute, minimally budgeted spin and fluff. Even the term “flipping” a house sounds more like making a crepe than building a home. There’s a vernacular to these things that’s not unlike reality TV or aerobics classes and it’s become so predictable that there are genuinely days in which I can’t remember which flip I’ve been inside of for three or four hours. Yes, one had two baths and three bedrooms and the other was four baths with an in-law downstairs but the “look” of these places is often so similar, due to the vernacular of choices that there isn’t much difference beyond square footage. 

Sadly, I’m also speaking about a wide range of original styles from the craftsman bungalow with Clinker brick to Deco houses of the ’40s with Air-Stream modalities embossed into the stucco exteriors. Every house from every era has a style, a message and a flavor. They’re not all the same nor should we wish them to be so. They’re not in lockstep and they don’t read the same books. Unfortunately, when many remodeling contractors prepare houses for sale, they too often try to apply a template remodeling scheme and this results in a loss of the real charm, beauty and the fun of the original designs. Also, it often means a loss of the function inherent in the original plan. 

One of my pet bugaboos in this vein is the current madness for granite. What is it about granite? Well, I know, but it’s fun to snark the question. The answer is that it has the “oeuvre” of wealth.  

Like so many features found in “just-remodeled” houses, granite has become so commonplace that whatever value it once bore has been diluted by its overuse. It’s also used without any real thought for the type of aesthetic it sits with. Granite, when used in a Roman villa, might seem apropos but as a part of a McMansion, it simply becomes ordinary. 

I’d argue that the money spent on granite is wasted by those who are seeking the feel of wealth and prestige when more of that particular appeal might better be found in buying some very nice pieces from one of the better salvage yards and building around them. If what you want to do is impress your friends with your pocketbook, do as the Hearsts did and fly to Italy and buy up the salvage of the great churches or villas and ship them home to your architect (of course, hiring Julia Morgan couldn’t hurt), but buying a lot of granite and flooding the surfaces of your kitchen with it just ends up looking like a lack of imagination. 

Other than granite, there also seem to be a few other vernacular item found in the flip houses I see nearly every week. There are the seven new Home Depot lighting fixtures that scream “fake old-fashioned lamp” and make a wonderful old house look very much like a brand new stucco box.  

There are the new brass and glass fixtures in the bathroom along with the brand new Home Depot bargain tile in the bathroom. Now this is often really sad since so many of the bathrooms from the past are actually in fairly good shape and had the most incredible tile imaginable. The colors and combinations of colors were great. Also, the tile was often of extremely hearty quality and while they might be somewhat chipped or cracked, this is often minimal and more than compensated for by the fact that they will look far better in 10 years than the cheap vitreous tile that people put down in place of the wonderful green ’40s tile that they took out. Pest companies are often quick to tear out old tile baths that are really just fine and covering only a small amount of decay. Some pest companies are quite good in this respect but the criticism is still valid. 

More than a few of the flips I’m seeing today have a full set of vinyl double-glazed windows in them and while this might be fine for a simple modern stucco building, it’s a pretty sad choice on a 1930s Craftsman home. There are good choices that can be made when remodeling an old gem and I have nothing against the person who wants to buy a neglected old house, fix it up and turn a profit. It a good business if you can make it pay and it preserves and enhances our built environment when it’s well done. That said, there are better and worse choices that can be made.  

Here are some suggestions: Look at how these houses were first done and if you don’t know, get educated. There is a lot of information to be gleaned from the Internet, books and from looking at minimally modified homes in the area. Many older homes had tiled kitchen. Tile is relatively easy to do, costs a reasonable sum and can be fabulous if done with style and care. Don’t be afraid of color or pattern but consider what suited the house when it was built. This doesn’t mean mimic; it just means consider. Think about the impact of your choices and where modernization is done, see if you can “tip your hat” at the history you are working within. Pick up some color from the rest of the house or the curve of the doorways or the tile in the old fireplace or the trim from the hallway. These little measures can “pull the house together” and allow you more freedom to do something wild or outrageous. 

Try sanding the floors and finishing with a low gloss. The old oak floor so many of our houses have were never meant to be glossy. Sanding can be nice but don’t overdue it. For kitchen remodels, consider real linoleum. Linoleum was very common from the teens through the ’50s and is very durable and looks great. It’s a far better choice than vinyl. Think about repainting the old cabinets and getting some genuine knobs from the period. If the ones you have are covered with paint, soak them and put them back up. This can also apply to the hinges, doorknobs, mortise locks, doorbells and other metal appointments that have been painted over. It also applies to old light fixtures. If you take the time to soak and re-install these old features, you can breathe new life into a house that’s become flat and boring. Lastly, when you paint—and painting is well worth the trip—try to use some color. Don’t even think about white. Remember that even in the prim and uptight Victorian age, the houses were painted outlandish, brash and passionate tones. Don’t be afraid of color, even if you’re fixing up to sell. People don’t really want white. They’re just afraid of what the neighbors will say. The best remodels I see and the ones that buyers fight over have great colors. Often, each room has it’s one set of colors. If it’s good enough for the White House… 

In conclusion, if you’re looking for a vernacular, start with the one that we’ve been given in the form of history. It’s not a dictate, just a guide but it’s a much better one for our stock of old ladies than the one that Expo has to offer.

The Alameda Antiques Flea Market happens on the first Sunday of the month. It’s a good show for five bucks, a stroll through the surreal, and, if you’re my age, just a bit unsettling to see so many of your own childhood artifacts labeled “vintage.”  

If you’re half my age, you can explain to the sproggen that no, Mommy and Daddy didn’t have cell phones when they were in kindergarten; Yes, we did think just making that thing go ’round and ’round was fun. Wear sunscreen and wind-resistant hats, and pony up for a sausage or a churro or two and lots of drinks—there’s no shade at all—and start early, 9 a.m.-ish. Things are winding down by 3 p.m. 

That’s when you make a nice side trip for coffee and greens. Live greens that you can bring home and grow. Encinal Nursery is modestly tucked into a lot on (surprise!) Encinal, one of the parallel streets that cross the island heading away from the old naval station. Good for citrus trees; among others, including bai makrut, I saw a calamondin with variegated leaves.  

Lots of things there with variegated leaves, in fact, including a couple of tri-colored rubber plants and other interesting houseplants. I grabbed a four-inch sago palm for inside, and for outside, a four-inch coleonema, a handy small size. Roses, Japanese maples and other traditional stalwarts, and a stack of firewood, too, if you want to Be Prepared.  

For the coffee, you’ll need to go ’round to Lincoln Avenue, another of those parallels, to Thomsen’s Garden Center. The Vines coffee and gift shop is upstairs, for a cup and a pastry and some coffee beans to take home. The gift shop displays jewelry, scarves, and assorted handsome things to look at; it’s more of the artist and artisan persuasion then the faux-country ruffles-and-chickens sort. You can sit on the deck and survey the little nursery, or take your coffee around as you shop.  

The day we dropped in, this was the most fragrant nursery around. The jasmine was still blooming—including one-gallon vine-trained specimens—and a table of big lilies greeted us. Someone brushed the mints in passing, and I couldn’t resist a pot of intensely bright-scented Moroccan mint, for tea. Of course, the coffee from the shop perfumed the air too. Lots of other blooms, and lots of foliage color.  

One showstopper was the single (so far) bloom on one of the five-gallon semi-hardy hybrid Dutchman’s-pipe vines, which one of the workers there showed me when she saw me taking notes with my camera. Atop that weirdly scrotal “pipe” was a soft, silken flare of petal, patterned like burgundy gingham and big enough to cover the palm of her hand.  

Iris and John Watson run the paired enterprises. Iris also writes for Alameda magazine, a handsome glossy bi-monthly that might pay even less than the Daily Planet, and I hear she has a TV show too. She and her staff are friendly and smart, and the atmosphere of the place is quite engaging. Even the bashful lovebird in a cage by the lilies hailed us cheerfully. 

Encinal Nursery 

2057 Encinal Ave., Alameda  

522-8616 

9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday–Saturday  

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday 

Thomsen’s Garden Center  

1113 Lincoln Ave., Alameda 

522-8489 

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday 

9 a.m.-5:50 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.  

Closed Thurdays. 

Vines Coffeshop open 8 a.m.-5 p.m.  

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in East Bay Home & Real Estate. Her column on East Bay trees appears every other Tuesday in the Daily Planet.

What About Quake Insurance? 

There are some who are under the mistaken impression that their homeowner’s insurance will cover damage to their home and possessions caused by an earthquake.  

One way to try and protect your most valuable asset is to buy earthquake insurance. Although policies seem to have improved in recent years, they are still expensive and usually carry a fairly high deductible amount in case of a loss.  

Before buying such a policy, be sure and investigate your options carefully. If your home is properly retrofitted (or built since codes became more rigorous), your need for earthquake insurance has gone down significantly, and some say in this case you have no need for earthquake insurance.  

Larry Guillot is owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and kit supply service. Call him at 558-3299, or visit www.quakeprepare.com.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8 

CHILDREN 

Colibri, an interactive journey through the music of Latin America, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

NATya Indian Dance Storytelling through dance at 7 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

FILM 

Civil Liberties Film Series “Dissent” from the ACLU “Freedom Files” TV series, with guest speaker Jim Chanin, civil rights attorney, at 7 p.m. at the Richmond Library Community Room, 325 Civic Center Plaza. 620-6561. 

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

”Alien” a screening to benefit the Zapatistas at 9:15 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $7. www.speakeasytheaters.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dan Berger on “Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity” at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. 

Leigh Raiford, Steven Estes, Kathryn Nasstrom talk about “The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Brazuca Brown and Southwest Nomadic, Brazilian, Gypsy, Reggae at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Debbie Poryes & Friends at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Salif Keita at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $30. 238-9200.  

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9 

THEATER 

California Shakespeare Theater “The Merchant of Venice” opens at the Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda. Tues.-Thurs., 7:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. through Sept. 3. Tickets are $15 and up. 548-9666. 

FILM 

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” Science-fiction film from 1951 at 7:30 p.m. at The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

Janet Gaynor “The Young in Heart” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Cease Fire: Words and Music Against the Siege of Lebanon and Palestine at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $10. 849-2568. 

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

Roy Zimmerman in “Faulty Intelligence” An evening of satirical songs, Wed.-Fri. at 8 p.m. at The Marsh Berkeley, 2118 Allston Way, through Aug. 24. 800-838-3006.  

Michael Coleman Trio Jazz Jam at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. 451-8100.  

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

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

Los, Jeff Henderson at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886.  

Julio Bravo at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Salsa dance lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Salif Keita at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $30. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10 

FILM 

Beyond Bollywood “The Terrorist” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Citizenship, Civic Activity and Political Engagement” An evening with Steven Hill, Carol Pott, and Arthur Blaustein at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert with BabShad Jazz at the Downtown Berkeley BART station. Free.  

Kris Delmhorst, songcrafter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Travis and Friends at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

The Hot Toddies, Skeleton Television, The Nomad at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

Pete Escovedo Orchestra at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s. Cost is $15-$24. 238-9200. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 

CHILDREN 

Stage Door Conservatory “42nd Street” at 7:30 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$15 at the door. 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Night of the Iguana” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through Aug. 12. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

California Shakespeare Theater “The Merchant of Venice” at the Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda. Tues.-Thurs., 7:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. through Sept. 3. Tickets are $15 and up. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Encore Theatre Company and Shotgun Players “The Typographer’s Dream” at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Sept. 3. Tickets are $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Impact Theatre “House of Lucky” Written and performed by Frank Wortham, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Aug. 26. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Woodminster Summer Musicals “The King and I” Fri.-Sun. at 8 p.m., through Aug 13 at Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland. TIckets are $21.50-$35.50. 531-9597. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Sculpture by Armando Ramos” on display at the Sculpture Court, 1111 Broadway, Oakland, through Nov. 1. 238-6836. 

FILM 

Frank Borzage “Man’s Castle” at 7 p.m. and Kenji Mizoguchi “Sisters of the Gion” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

La Orquestra La Moderna Tradition at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Bong, Suburban Plight, The Know How at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Maya Kronfeld Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Save the Albany Shoreline Benefit Concert with the Funky Nixons, Carol Ginsberg & The Old Time Fiddle Band and many others at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Donation $15-$25. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Free Peoples, jazz, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

“Crazy In Love with Patsy Cline” with Lavay Smith, Carmin Getit and Ingrid Lucia at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Brian Melvin Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Five Dollar Suit and Peter Maybarduk at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

The Flux, Bolivar Zoar at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Fleshies, Rock ‘N’ Roll Adventure Kids at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $65. 525-9926. 

Loop Station, Why R Boys? at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 548-1159.  

Wayward Monks at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Pete Escovedo Orchestra at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $15-$24. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 

EXHIBITIONS 

Art: Recycled and Found A group art show. Reception at 6 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. 644-4930. 

THEATER 

San Francisco Mime Troupe “Godfellas” Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Live Oak Park, Shattuck & Berryman. 415-285-1717. 

Shotgun Players “Ragnarok: Doom of the Gods” Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. at John Hinkle Park, through Sept. 10. Free, with pass the hat donation after the show. 841-6500.  

FILM 

Frank Borzage “No Greater Glory” at 6:30 p.m. and “Little Man, What Now?” at 8:10 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

“Persons of Interest” A documentary on the post 9-11 detention of Muslim-Americans at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm & Muse with Misha Ferguson and others at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. Free. 527-9753. 

Dramatically Speaking A performance of the poem “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” at 9 p.m. at the Kaiser Building, 1950 Franklin St. RSVP required. 581-8675. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Crosscut, vintage blues, rock, and original music, at 9 p.m. at Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King, Oakland. Cost is $10. 654-4549. 

Santero at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Edessa and Near East & Far West at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Turkish dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Arnold Garcia and Linh Nguyen at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Dayna Stephens Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Phil Marsh, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Ghost Next Door, Age of Agression, Scripted at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Mark Little Duo at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Old Puppy, rock, at 10 a.m. at Nabalom Bakery, 2708 Russell St. 845-BAKE. 

British Invasion #3 with The Hoo, The Rave Ups, The Sun Kings at 8 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $15. 451-8100.  

SUNDAY, AUGUST 13 

FILM 

Janet Gaynor “The Johnstown Flood” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Samplings 2006: A Festival of Textiles” with quilt artist Julie Silber discussing her work at 3 p.m. Bring a quilt for dating from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200.  

Nicole Galland reads from “Revenge of the Rose” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Mimi Luebbermann on “The Heirloom Tomato Cookbook” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Ave.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Steve Taylor-Ramirez at 7:30 p.m. at Prism Café, 1918 Park Blvd., Oakland. Donations accepted. 251-1453.  

David Grisman Bluegrass Experience at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater. Cost is $29.50-$30.50. 548-1761.  

Americana Unplugged: AJ Roach at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Nate Lopez at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

MONDAY, AUGUST 14 

CHILDREN 

Rafa Cano, Spanish sing-along for children, at 10:30 a.m. at PriPri Cafe, 1309 Solano Ave., Albany. Free. 528-7002. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jared Bernstein discusses “All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

City Concert Opera presents Handel’s “Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno” on period instruments at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $10-$20. 415-334-7679.  

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

SFJazz Young Composers Project at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s. Cost is $10. 238-9200.

The Typographer’s Dream, Encore Theatre Company’s production of Adam Bock’s play, at Ashby Stage in collaboration with the Shotgun Players (Bock’s closely associated with both troupes), opens with absence that’s sketchily filled in with some undreamlike folderol.  

A long, empty table faces the audience, with three nameplates on it, reading “Typographer,” “Ethnographer,” “Stenographer.” On the long table and a side table are purses, coffee cups, Kleenex, stacked extra cups. There’s pounding at a side door. A couple comes in and talks inaudibly, then leaves. The woman, with a rollaround travel bag, reappears, disappears again, reappears once more, switches chairs at the table, and sits down behind “Ethnographer.” She’s joined by a man in a suit, who sits behind the “Stenographer” plate. There’s a series of light checks, with the crew apologizing for glitches. Fingers tap, there’re nervous smiles and much impatient body language. Finally, a door slams out in the lobby of the theater; a bicycle comes in, as the panelists stare, and are joined by The Typographer (apparently), who sits down with her helmet still on, disgorging her bag and banging its contents on the table. 

Scarcely a word—and the audience has been smiling, then tittering, finally laughing. 

The three introduce themselves by profession, then begin to engage in a kind of verbal leapfrog—less a round robin presentation or conversation than overlapping monologues that seem at once to vie with each other and yet be almost oblivious.  

Each relates anecdotes, professional in-jokes (with all the attendant chagrin), musings and random thoughts about work. Personal history begins to get mixed in; confessions are enacted (or re-enacted). The shifting “presentations” become loopier and loopier, until asides and distractions become the main attraction—unless you can say, oxymoronically, that a kind of featuring of Attention Deficit Disorder becomes the primary focus, with a lot of personal psychology spilling over from something like Freudian slippage of these absolutely banal in-public “talks”—that sound more like the characters talking to themselves. 

Scenes from private life are summoned up and performed by the participants, pinch-hitting for each other’s Significant Other. Finally, it all comes loose, with the conservatively dressed, primly mannered Ethnographer, who’s been pitching the importance of Geography versus Social Studies, lip-syncing and dancing wildly to a disco number, expressing all that pent-up emotion—just as disheveled as these professionals have gradually rendered the properly institutional set (James Faeroon’s design). 

The audience relates to all this in a way slightly reminiscent of that film of a conversation about the death of conversation, My Dinner with Andre—it’s interesting to see what catches different spectators’ attentions. On opening night, one audience member (who turned out to be a business school student) grinned raptly through The Stenographer’s routines (including his fetishism as he describes and fondles a court reporter’s machine), while two young ladies laughed uproariously with recognition at The Ethnographer’s flattest, most deadpan academic truisms.  

The trio—Aimee Guillot as Margaret (yes; they have names) The Typographer, Jamie Jones as Annalise The Ethnographer and Michael Shipley as Dave The Steno (who’s really a court reporter, but thinks it best to be introduced otherwise)—all execute well, “execute” being the operant term, as they sometimes seem to be a bundle of professional functions and tics (both characters’ and actors’), syncopated by apperception. Their sense of ensemble, even while ignoring each other, is good, and the timing (on the beat, but accented by the chiming of three different internal clocks) is impeccable—as directed by Anne Kauffman. 

Adam Bock has an ear for the banal and an eye for the insouciant. He’s cleverly set up the tableau of the play as a triptych in which the colors and motifs run together. And the designers (including lights by Chris Studley) have made it look just right.  

But in the end there’s less than meets the eye, just as the playwright strives, without appearing to strive, to lift his work above appearances. The play’s a comic tour-de-force in form, not so much developed from its basic material of verbal and physical mannerisms as by putting these basic materials into a conceptualized scheme, then offhandedly moralizing on them through the hapless characters. Not quite a human puppet show, it’s more a sitcom in abstract, going through the same changes as comedy sketches, less Harold Pinter than Bob Newhart; not “playing against the changes” as per Coleman Hawkins’ dictum, as much as running through the scales with the same head. 

The Typographer’s Dream offers an intriguing possibility of playing against “dead air,” as in broadcast, of realizing a music onstage of white noise from crossed “Strindbergian” monologues that plucks a kind of virtual dialogue from the most colorless narrative. Western theater begins with the dream of a discourse in the overtones of Euripides’ (and Plato’s) dialogues. This Dream is more a daydream, the glare of light in a tunnel, reverse of the old LBJ cliche—but is there just more bright light at the end of it? A problem in contrast: maybe the playwright neglected a fourth, even more self-conscious character: The Videographer. 

THE TYPOGRAPHER’S DREAM 

Presented by Encore Theater Company and the Shotgun Players. 8 p.m. Wednesday- 

Sunday through Sept. 3. $15-$30. Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org.

About this time last week I was at Yuba Pass in the northern Sierra, swatting the insatiable mosquitoes and watching a family of red-breasted sapsuckers. (There is a Berkeley connection here: some of these birds spend the winter along the coast, and they’re likely to begin showing up in Tilden Park in a couple of months). 

The group consisted of an adult—whether father or mother I couldn’t tell you, since the only way to distinguish the sexes is by in-hand examination of the tail feathers—and three recent fledglings, recognizable by their brownish heads. What they were doing was sucking sap. The adult was hard at work drilling sap wells in a red fir, and the kids followed him or her around, feeding greedily and bickering among themselves. They were at it for three consecutive days, dawn to dusk. 

“Red-breasted sapsucker” is not the most dignified name for a bird to be saddled with. At least this species has done marginally better in the gravitas department than its close eastern relative, the yellow-bellied sapsucker, the bird that comic birdwatchers in the movies are always looking for. “Yellow-bellied sapsucker” is what the guy in the white hat in a B western would call the guy in the black hat, just before he plugged him. 

But the names are descriptive, at least. Sucking sap is what these aberrant woodpeckers do. The habit has been documented in a number of woodpecker species, but only the four sapsuckers (counting the western red-naped and Williamson’s) make a living at it. They’ve evolved a couple of anatomical specializations for this. Most woodpeckers have extremely long tongues for nabbing wood-dwelling insects; a sapsucker’s tongue is shorter and less extensible, and tipped with stiff hairs to trap the sap. 

You can tell when a sapsucker has been at work by the neat rows of holes it leaves behind. And it’s not just a matter of drilling until you strike sap. These birds take advantage of the annual cycles of tree physiology to get the most nutritious sap available. 

There’s no such thing as just plain sap, it appears. Trees have a kind of circulatory system in which xylem tissues transport water and dissolved nutrients up from the roots into the branches, twigs, and leaves by capillary action, and phloem tissues convey the products of photosynthesis down from leaves to roots. (This is a gross oversimplification, of course). In evergreens, it’s more or less a two-way street, although different conduits are involved. But in deciduous trees, like the quaking aspens that ring the meadow at Yuba Pass, the phloem traffic doesn’t begin until the tree has leafed out, transporting the nutrients produced in all those little green factories. 

I couldn’t find detailed information for red-breasted sapsuckers, but field studies of yellow-bellied and red-naped sapsuckers show that the birds dig xylem wells in conifers during winter and early spring. To reach the xylem tissues, they have to penetrate the outer phloem layer. Then, when the leaves sprout on the deciduous trees, the sapsuckers switch over to them and begin to drill phloem wells, tapping that richer source. Different techniques are involved: xylem wells are circular in shape, phloem wells begin as lateral slits and are expanded into rectangles.  

Both the sounds of a working sapsucker and the marks on the sap tree are fairly conspicuous. So it’s no surprise that freeloaders are attracted to sapsucker diggings. Insects are drawn to the sap, of course, and provide a nice protein bonus for the birds. They sometimes dip ants into the sap, perhaps to kill that formic-acid taste. Red-breasted nuthatches smear sap from the wells around their own nest cavities. Hummingbirds—ruby-throated in the east, rufous, broad-tailed, and calliope in the western mountains—feed at the wells. They often nest nearby, and the timing of their spring migrations may reflect the sapsuckers’ excavation schedules. 

This is what led ecologist Paul Ehrlich to characterize the red-naped sapsucker as a keystone species—one whose activities provide food or shelter for a whole set of organisms—in western forests. Beyond the sap, these birds excavate nest cavities like most woodpeckers; and their old homes accommodate cavity-nesting birds like chickadees, nuthatches, wrens, and bluebirds, not to mention flying squirrels.  

So, silly name notwithstanding, I’d say the sapsuckers of whatever species deserve credit for exploiting a hidden food resource in a fairly sophisticated way, and acting as community benefactors in the process.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

All in a day's work: a red-breasted sapsucker and its sap wells.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8 

Tuesday is for the Birds A tranquil early morning walk in Point Isabel. Meet at 7 a.m. at the Rydin Rd entrance. Bring water, sunscreen, binoculars and a snack. 525-2233. 

“Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity” with author Dan Berger at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. 

”Alien” a screening to benefit the Zapatistas at 9:15 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $7. www.speakeasytheaters.com 

Civil Liberties Film Series “Dissent” from the ACLU “Freedom Files” TV series, with guest speaker Jim Chanin, civil rights attorney, at 7 p.m. at the Richmond Library Community Room, 325 Civic Center Plaza. 620-6561. 

Horray for Herps Meet some unusual animals aboard the Zoomobile of the Oakland Zoo at 11 a.m. at the Elmhurst Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 1427 88th Ave. 615-5727. 

“Backpacking in the High Sierra” A slide presentation with Brandon Andre at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

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. 

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

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9  

Full Moon Walk at John Miur National Historic Site See nocturnal animal and plant life and walk the same trail John Muir walked with his daughters. For reservations and details of meeting time and location, call 925-228-8860. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland Uptown to the Lake to discover Art Deco landmarks. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Paramount Theater at 2025 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Cease Fire: Words and Music Against the Siege of Lebanon and Palestine at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $10. 849-2568.  

Community Conversations on the Crisis in the Middle East with Molly Freeman of Brit Tzedek at 7:30 p.m. at JGate in El Cerrito, near El Cerrito Plaza and BART. 559-8140.  

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” Science-fiction film from 1951 at 7:30 p.m. at The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

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

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

Stress Less Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland. Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10 

“Citizenship, Civic Activity and Political Engagement” An evening with Steven Hill, Carol Pott, and Arthur Blaustein at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Predators and Their Prey Meet the animals at 10:15 p.m. at the Lakeview Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero. 238-7344. 

Richmond Southeast Shoreline Area Community Advisory Group meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Richmond Convention Center, Bermuda Room, 403 Civic Center Plaza at Nevin and 25th St. 540-3923. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Tilden Room, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To make an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. 

East Bay Macintosh Users Group meets to discuss Windows on a Mac at 6 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound, Emeryville. www.ebmug.org 

Urban Renaissance High School Open House from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 967 Stanford Ave., Oakland. 302-9199.  

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

Berkeley Folk Dancers Community Classes and Teacher Workshop, for ages 8 and up, at 7:45 p.m. at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck. Cost is $5. 

Ballroom Dancing every Friday at 8 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Building, 200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Live band and refreshments. Cost is $10. 925-934-9129. 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 

Oakland Heritage Walking Tour Along “The River MacArthur” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meet at the Farmer’s Market, Splash Pad Park, corner of Grand Ave. and Lake Park. Cost is $5-$15. 763-9218.  

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Sushi for the More Adventurous Learn the history of this ancient cuisine, and make and taste some exotic varieties, at 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Parent participation required for 8-10 year olds. Cost is $25-$40. Registration required. 636-1684. 

“Persons of Interest” A documentary on the post 9-11 detention of Muslim-Americans at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. 

Chabot Observatories: A View to the Stars Exhibition celebrating the 123-year history of the observatories opens at Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd. 336-7300. 

Walking with Faith A Walk for the Cure in honor of Faith Fancher who died of breast cancer. Registration for the walk begins at 9 a.m. at Oakland’s Middle Harbor Shoreline Park. 834-4142. www.faithfancher.org 

Produce Stand at Spiral Gardens Food Security Project from 1 to 6 p.m. at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon St. 

Great War Society, East Bay Chapter meets to discuss the Italian Army before and at the beginning of WWI, at 10:30 a.m. at 640 Arlington Ave. 527-7118. 

Spiritwalking: Aqua Chi(TM) at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Cost is $5.50, $3.50 seniors & disabled. Bring your own towels. 526-0312. 

Yoga for Peace at 9:30 a.m. at Ohlone Park, MLK at Hearst. Bring a yoga mat, warm blanket, and peace sign.  

Adult Fast Pitch Softball every Sat at noon. For location call 204-9500.  

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.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

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

SUNDAY, AUGUST 13 

“Chickens and Ducks in Your Garden” Learn how to care for these garden pets and get eggs and fertilizer as payback! Children welcome. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Berkeley Eco-House, 1305 Hopkins St. Cost is $15 sliding scale, no one turned away. 547-8715. 

Toddler Nature Walk for 2 to 3 year olds to look for reptiles at 10:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. 525-2233. 

Summer Pond Plunge Search for nymphs and naiads, salmander larvae and sideswimmers, for ages 4 and up at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Free Sailboat Rides from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club in the Berkeley Marina. Bring change of clothes, windbreaker, sneakers. For ages 5 and up. cal-sailing.org  

“Quilt Sharing” Bring a quilt for identification and dating with Julie Silber at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. 

Pancake Breakfast Aboard the Red Oak Victory Ship in Richmond Harbor, 1337 Canal Blvd. Cost is $6, children under 5, free, and includes a tour of the ship. 237-2933. 

Summer Sunday Forum with Lynn Tingle, founder of the Milo Foundation, an animal sanctuary, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Oakland Heritage Walking Tour of The Redwoods of Oakland from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Cost is $5-$15. For experienced hikers. Reservations required. 763-9218.  

“Flexible Healing” A free class on proper breathing, range of motion, and relaxation at 1:30 p.m. at Liberty Hill Church, 9th and University Ave. 390-8644. 

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

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “Breaking through Limits: Time, Space and Freedom from Conditioning” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, AUGUST 14 

Summer Science Week for ages 9 to 12, covering biology and other natural science topics from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mon. - Fri. in Tilden Park. Cost is $160. Registration required. 636-1684.  

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

Sisters of Song Poetry Workshop for girls age 13-19 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri. and BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $50. 848-0237, ext. 130. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60+ years old meets at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Cost is $3. 524-9122. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., Aug. 9, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti, 981-6740.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Aug 10, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410.  

ONGOING 

Energy Saving Program for Residents CYES is running its 7th annual summer program, providing direct-installation of CFLs, retractable clotheslines, showerheads, and more. Services available in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond. Free. 665-1501. 

Child Care Food Program is available without charge to all children enrolled in the BUSD Early Childhood Education progam, based on income eligibility guidelines. Please call for details, 644-6358. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Night of the Iguana” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. through Aug. 12. Tickets are $12. 649-5999.  

Aurora Theatre “Permanent Collection” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through Aug. 5. Tickets are $28-$45. 843-4822. www.auroratheatere.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Footloose” at 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Contra Costa Civic Theater, 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito, through August 5. Tickets are $12-$20. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Encore Theatre Comapny and Shotgun Players “The Typographer’s Dream” at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Sept. 3. Tickets are $15-$30. 841-6500.  

Impact Theatre “House of Lucky” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Aug. 26. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Woodminster Summer Musicals “The King and I” Fri.-Sun. at 8 p.m., through Aug 13 at Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland. Tickets are $21.50-$35.50. 531-9597. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Ball & Chain” Pre-marital show for Gretchen Grasshoff and Jordan Mello, reception at 7 p.m. at Boontling Galery, 4224 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Show runs to Aug. 27. www.boontlinggallery.com 

“Catching Ripples” Paintings and sculptures by Eric Helsley and “Those Bucolic Places” paintings by Carol Paquet. Reception at 5 p.m. at Esteban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St., Oakland. 444-7411. 

“Sound and Vison II” A group show of works influenced by music. Reception at 7 p.m. at Auto3321 Gallery, 3321 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Show runs to Aug. 13. www.auto3321.com 

“Mercury Rising” A group show of new works by 15 Bay Area artists. Reception at 5 p.m. at Robert Tomlinson Studio, 25 Grand Ave., Oakland. Exhibition runs to Aug. 31. 866-8808. 

FILM 

“Atenco: Rompiendo el Cerco/ Breaking the Silence” with music by Francisco Herrera at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free. 581-7963. 

“Cartography of Ashes” A documentary on the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 at 7 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org.  

“Shaken Not Stirred: Martinis, Music and Mayhem” at 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. 

Jewish Film Festival From noon to 10 p.m. at the Roda Theater, through Aug. 5. For complete listings of films see www.sfjff.org. Tickets are $10 and up. 925-275-9490. 

Janet Gaynor “Small Town Girl” at 7:30 p.m. and “Ladies in Love” at 8:50 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jimbo Trout and the Fish People with Birdlegg and the Tightfit Blues Band outdoor concert at 5:30 p.m. at Park Place and Washington Ave., Pt. Richmond. 237-9375.  

Bay Area Blues Society Concert at 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. 

Bolokasa Conde & Les Percussion Malinke concert and doundounda dance party at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15-$20. 849-2568.  

Ray Cepeda, Latin, salsa, rock, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Sage, The Nomad, Two Seconds, The Moanin Dove at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Charles Ferguson Latin Jazz Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Wylie & the Wild West at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Scott Amendola Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

AJ Roach and Adam Benjamine at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Tito y su Son de Cuba at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Brazuca Brown, Brazilian, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Ten Ton Chicken, Cosmic Mercy at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Set it Straight, Lifelong Tragedy, Deadfall at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Translator, Uptones, Penelope Houston and others at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $20-$25. 451-8100.  

Mose Allison at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $10-$20. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players “Ragnarok: Doom of the Gods” Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. at John Hinkle Park, through Sept. 10. Pass the hat donation after the show. 841-6500.  

FILM 

Frank Borzage “Lazy Bones” at 6:30 p.m. and Janet Gaynor “A Star is Born” at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bay Area Poets Coalition holds a memorial for the poet Maggi H. Meyer followed by an open poetry reading, 3 to 5 p.m., at Strawberry Creek Lodge Dining Hall, 1320 Addison St. Park on the street, not in Lodge parking lot. 527-9905. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Coterie Dance Company “My Soul Moves” at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $13 children, $15 adults. 925-798-1300. 

UC Summer Symphony at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Donation $5. 717-2126. 

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

Motor Dude Zydeco at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Ba-Tu-Ke at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $12. 849-2568.  

André Sumelius Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Ken Mahru & David Serotkin at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

The David Thom Band, traditional bluegrass, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Sitting Duck, Planting Seeds, The Year One at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

The Blue Roots, Naked Barbies at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082.  

Verse, Have Heart, Shipwreck, Hostile Takeover at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6 

FILM 

Janet Gaynor “Delicious” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

UC Berkeley Summer Symphony at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall UC Campus, Donation $5. 717-2126. 

Twang Cafe with Dave Gleason’s Wasted Days and Pickin’ Trix at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. All ages welcome. 644-2204.  

Transbay Skronkathon BBQ from 12:35 p.m. on, at 21 Grand, 416 25th St., Oakland. with live music to 11 p.m. Donations requested. 649-8744. http://acmemusic.com 

Americana Unplugged: Square Pegs Bluegrass Band at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Sharon Knight at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Frederick Hodge, international café music at 2 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054. 

Irene Chigamba & Erica Azim, mbira music from Zimbabwe, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

This is my Fist, One Reason, Hot New Mexicans at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Royal Society Jazz Orchestra at 5 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054.  

MONDAY, AUGUST 7 

CHILDREN 

Gary Laplow sing-along at 7 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

Rafa Cano, Spanish sing-along for children, at 10:30 a.m. at PriPri Cafe, 1309 Solano Ave., Albany. Free. 528-7002. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Last Word Poetry Series with Mary Rudge and Lenore Weiss at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 843-7439. 

Michael Rothenberg and Marat Nemet-Nejat read at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Margaret Emerson reads from “Eyes in the Mirror” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Actors Reading Writers: “Longing and Perversity” stories by Jeffrey Eugenides and Ian McEwan at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave.  

Poetry Express features Jan Steckel, followed by an open mic at 7 p.m. at Priya Indian Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Blue Monday Jam at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Sophie Milman at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s. Cost is $6-$12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8 

CHILDREN 

Colibri, an interactive journey through the music of Latin America, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

NATya Indian Dance Storytelling through dance at 7 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

FILM 

Civil Liberties Film Series “Dissent” from the ACLU “Freedom Files” TV series, with guest speaker Jim Chanin, civil rights attorney, at 7 p.m. at the Richmond Library Community Room, 325 Civic Center Plaza. 620-6561. 

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

”Alien” a screening to benefit the Zapatistas at 9:15 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $7. www.speakeasytheaters.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dan Berger on “Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity” at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. 

Leigh Raiford, Steven Estes, Kathryn Nasstrom talk about “The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Brazuca Brown and Southwest Nomadic, Brazilian, Gypsy, Reggae at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Debbie Poryes & Friends at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Salif Keita at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $30. 238-9200.  

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9 

THEATER 

California Shakespeare Theater “The Merchant of Venice” opens at the Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda. Tues.-Thurs., 7:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. through Sept. 3. Tickets are $15 and up. 548-9666. 

FILM 

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” Science-fiction film from 1951 at 7:30 p.m. at The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

Janet Gaynor “The Young in Heart” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Cease Fire: Words and Music Against the Siege of Lebanon and Palestine at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $10. 849-2568. 

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

Roy Zimmerman in “Faulty Intelligence” An evening of satirical songs, Wed.-Fri. at 8 p.m. at The Marsh Berkeley, 2118 Allston Way, through Aug. 24. 800-838-3006.  

Michael Coleman Trio Jazz Jam at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. 451-8100.  

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

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

Los, Jeff Henderson at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886.  

Salif Keita at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $30. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10 

FILM 

Beyond Bollywood “The Terrorist” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Citizenship, Civic Activity and Political Engagement” An evening with Steven Hill, Carol Pott, and Arthur Blaustein at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert with BabShad Jazz at the Downtown Berkeley BART station. Free.  

Kris Delmhorst, songcrafter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Travis and Friends at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

The Hot Toddies, Skeleton Television, The Nomad at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

Pete Escovedo Orchestra at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s. Cost is $15-$24. 238-9200. 

The Criterion Collection continues to set the standard for classic film on DVD. The company recently released a three-disc set of Orson Welles’ long-neglected 1955 film Mr. Arkadin (also known as Confidential Report) that contains a wealth of material documenting the film’s murky history. Just as Criterion gave the deluxe treatment last year to Welles’ 1972 F For Fake, so this year the company has produced a respectful and informative package for Arkadin that does well to salvage the mystery and reputation of this confounding movie.  

The line on Mr. Arkadin is that it is essentially a surrealist version of Citizen Kane, taking the earlier film’s plot and form and elevating every aspect to absurdist heights. Arkadin follows the pattern of Kane by sending a young man off in search of the mysteries of an older man’s life. However, in the case of Mr. Arkadin, the older man is still alive, has in fact commissioned the search, and kills off each witness the younger man uncovers in an attempt to erase his unsavory past, with the goal of protecting his daughter from the disturbing truth behind the family’s wealth. It’s a good enough plot for a pulp movie, but Welles tried to elevate it to something more meaningful and significant, as well as baroque, and that didn’t sit too well with the film’s producer, or its distributors. Eventually, as with so many other Welles projects, the film was taken out of his hands before he could finish it. The result is a film often regarded as his poorest effort. 

Mr. Arkadin has its roots in a weekly English radio show Welles starred in called The Lives of Harry Lime, a series exploiting the character he made famous in the 1949 Carol Reed film The Third Man. In the early 1950s, Welles was working on his screen version of Othello, traipsing all over Europe on a dwindling budget, desperately trying to raise cash to finance the film. An English producer proposed the radio series and Welles seized the opportunity to make some easy money, cranking out these slight entertainments for a year while he continued to make Othello. 

The script for Mr. Arkadin grew from three of these radio shows, and the Criterion DVD includes all of them, providing a fascinating glimpse into the genesis of the film. 

There are any number of published critiques comparing Kane and Arkadin, some merely tracking the similarities between the two, others taking a psychoanalytical approach, positing that Welles himself was burdened by his earlier greatness and was seeking to somehow negate it through the latter film’s perverse fantasy. However, an often overlooked aspect of Arkadin is that it provides something of a blueprint for Welles’ later works, as many of its scenes, and even individual shots prefigure those of Touch of Evil (1958), the would-be B movie that Welles transformed into a noir masterpiece, and The Trial (1962), Welles’ feverish adaptation of Franz Kafka’s nightmarish novel. 

All of these films reflect Welles’ favored themes: power, regret, betrayal among men, and a strong hint of nostalgia. But what’s interesting about Arkadin is that it uses devices and shots that are replicated almost exactly in Welles’ later films. It’s as if he was so disappointed in the failure of Arkadin that he couldn’t bear to abandon some of its finer moments. 

All three films feature Akim Tamiroff in key roles, usually as a sort of clownish character to be abused by Welles’ tyrants. Toward the end of Arkadin, there is a scene in which Welles looms over Tamiroff as Tamiroff lies on a bed, the wrought-iron bedframe decorating the edge of the image. A few years later, Welles, backed this time with Hollywood money, would stage a similar scene much more elaborately in Touch of Evil, with gaudy flashing neon lights illuminating Welles’ Hank Quinlan as he stalks Tamiroff’s Uncle Joe Grande around a hotel room, strangling him and leaving him to wilt over a similarly ornate bedframe.  

Also in Arkadin, Tamiroff, in another hotel room, at one point moves toward a high window, stepping on a chair as though he is about to escape. Again, in Touch of Evil, Tamiroff, in an effort to escape the murderous Quinlan, climbs toward a high window and shatters it in an escape attempt before Welles pulls him back down. 

One more parallel is in each film’s closing scenes. In Mr. Arkadin, Paola Mori, Arkadin’s daughter, offers a stoic and ambiguous epitaph for her deceased father: “He was capable of anything.” The line is uttered almost without inflection—a frequent problem with Mori’s acting, but in this case the tone is intentional. Likewise, Touch of Evil closes with another exotic beauty—this time Marlene Dietrich—eulogizing the fallen Captain Hank Quinlan with another terse remark: “He was some kind of man.” These closing lines are almost Hemingwayesque in their simplicity, providing stark, dry conclusions to otherwise elaborate melodramas.  

Other aspects of Arkadin show up in The Trial, another of Welles’ independent European productions. The film again features Tamiroff in a key role and is edited to resemble a nightmare, with canted camera angles and disorienting cuts from one off-kilter shot to another. Welles had been something of a pioneer in independent filmmaking, demonstrating with his Macbeth that film could be a living, breathing organism, that it didn’t require the polished sheen of Hollywood. He sought to prove that film could be more free-flowing, deviating from scripts and indulging whimsical tangents with improvised shots and dialogue. Usually his experiments paid off. In the case of Mr. Arkadin, they didn’t. 

Welles never finished editing the film before its producer took it out of its hands. It was released in a compromised form, Welles’ elaborate flashback structure having been replaced by a chronological re-ordering of the scenes. The Criterion release presents three versions: the re-edited European version, an even more heavily re-edited American version (re-titled Confidential Report), and a brand new version in which historians and researchers have attempted to restore Welles’ original editing pattern, reconfiguring the picture to reflect, as best as can be determined, what Welles had originally intended. The result is a more coherent and artistic film than heretofore suspected. 

Mr. Arkadin may still be a failure but few directors fail as spectacularly as Orson Welles. The Criterion edition provides beautifully restored prints that showcase its photography, as well as a host of extra features that help to provide a clear picture of just what exactly Welles was striving for with this film and how and why he failed.  

MR. ARKADIN (1955) 

Directed by Orson Welles. Starring Welles, Paola Mori, Robert Arden, Akim Tamiroff.105 minutes, $49.95. www.criterionco.com.

While it makes sense that Orson Welles’ Mr. Arkadin would bear certain resemblances to Citizen Kane, it seems unlikely that a movie like Brothers of the Head, an independent faux documentary about conjoined twins turned rock stars, would draw on the same film for inspiration. But early on in the movie there is an homage of sorts to Kane, an allusion that sets up an interesting parallel.  

Brothers of the Head tells the tale of conjoined twins under the control of a former vaudeville impresario who has designs on transforming them into rock stars, much as he had previously exploited Siamese twins on the variety stage. 

The film is set in 1970s England, just as glam rock was giving way to punk, and is shot in the mockumentary style, complete with handheld cameras, footage made to look aged and archival, and latter-day reflective interviews with the main characters as they look back on their youth. 

The reference to Citizen Kane comes early on, and it is jarring to those who recognize it, as at least a handful of viewers at a recent preview screening did, judging by the grunts and gasps that greeted the scene. The shot uses a nearly identical setup to the Welles scene and a distinctive camera movement that clearly mimics the 1941 film, drawing a parallel between the two movies.  

In Citizen Kane, the young Charlie Kane is seen playing in the snow. The camera then pulls back through a window to reveal the interior of the family home, where the mother sits down at a table to sign papers turning over custody of her child to a banker as the father stands nearby, protesting to no avail. In Brothers of the Head, the twins are seen outside as the camera pulls back through a window to reveal their father signing over custody of his boys to the impresario as a sister stands by in silence.  

The device is employed during a film within a film, an unfinished biopic of the brothers called Two-Way Romeo. Two-Way Romeo is presented throughout as a silly movie, and the reference to Kane is primarily intended as humor, a satirical jab at the aspirations of the film and the pretentiousness of its director. But the use of the reference presents a valid parallel as well, as Brothers of the Head is in many ways a reworking of the basic structure of Citizen Kane. Brothers features a series of interviews with the major players in the lives of Tom and Barry Howe, each trying to delve into the collective mindset of the twins. The story, based on a novel, makes use of many of the near-cliches that always permeate literary tales of twins, but it succeeds in its treatment of them and even at times transcends them, creating a movie that, however flawed, is certainly interesting and ultimately worthwhile.  

The most compelling aspects of the film are the performances of the twins, played by Harry and Luke Treadway. The two brothers manage to create a single entity, a unified whole, and a wholly convincing one at that. Their posture, as well as the physical nature of their connection, places them in a near-constant embrace, emphasizing the intense emotional bond between them. As unlikely as it seems, they manage to convey a stage presence that is not only acceptable, but compelling, like Jagger and Richards rolled into one—the strutting, cocky, defiant singer and the brooding, silent guitarist.  

Directors Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe too often resort to shadowy, overwrought impressionism and spend entirely too much time on the duo’s live performances, causing the film to flag at times. But every now and then, something happens that wakes us up—a stirring emotion, a hint of mystery, a surprising plot twist—something that reawakens the drama and mystery. 

But even with these flaws, I found myself, hours later, still thinking about the film, even reconsidering my reaction to it. Its air of mystery somehow began to seem more intriguing after the fact and I found myself eager to revisit the film, to see if there was something I missed—to see if, as with Citizen Kane, there were layers of meaning and emotion that were not readily apparent on first viewing. Orson Welles believed that a movie should not reveal all its secrets in a single viewing, that a film should give the audience far more information, far more density and complexity than could possible be digested all at once. Brothers of the Head has something of this quality to it. It may not have been enthralling, but it cast enough of a spell that I found myself wanting to return to it, to take the time and expend the energy to delve deeper into its impressionistic imagery and further explore the lives of its tortured protagonists. 

BROTHERS OF THE HEAD 

Directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe. 

Starring Harry Treadway, Luke Treadway, Tom Bower, Bryan Dick, Steven Eagles, Tania Emery, Sean Harris, Nicholas Millard.  

90 minutes. Rated R.  

Playing at Shattuck Cinemas.

“You gouge out an eye for keener sight. Is blindness vision?” 

—Frigge to Odin 

In a landscape of gray granite slabs and boulders, in front of a primitive structure with massive stone lintel-like dolmens, at the foot of the stony amphitheater of John Hinkel Park, a troupe of players open their trunk of masks and costumery to reenact the End of the World: Ragnarok: The Doom of the Gods, Shotgun Players’ free offering to a summer day. 

The End has happened before, and will again, but not just as repertory theater. The Players break up the mythic action by musing on the meaning of what they act out (presumably before some mead-soaked audience of Viking vassals and their liege lord, as much as the Berkeley picnickers sprawled in the leafy shadows of the hillside): “We tell the stories the Norse cook up; we can’t change them ... These are gods. There’s nothing funny about gods. They’d as soon kill you as look at you ... Hope at the end? This is the End of the World, but look at the bright side?” And Snorri (after the skald, Snorri Sturlesson?), head of the troupe (played by Ryan O’Donnell), reassures Helga (Erin Carter), his pregnant wife: “We’re not in it.” “Are you sure?” she counters. 

The ensemble of ten pulls out the stops to tell the story of the pagan gods awaiting their long-heralded doom, running through the changes of a variety of modes: “Presentational Theater,” Physical Theater, storytelling, a kind of pageantry, song, dance, and very impressive puppets for Loki’s monstrous brood which make brief but effective appearances. This isn’t Wagner’s Gotterdamerung, but something more intimate, to be told in a wintery hall at a feast, or in a summer glen, to kill time. The gods prove to be the ultimate party animals, killing time (and a few Strange Ones along the way) engagingly, as they slip ever nearer the awaited brink. 

There are all the episodes familiar to anyone who ever browsed a copy of Bulfinch’s Mythology as a kid. Thor (Nikolai Lokteff) and the always suspect halfbreed (part god, part Primal shape-shifter) Loki (a particularly effective Ben Dziuba) go spying on those Funny Ones, the Primals (aka Strange Ones, Fierce Ones, Frost Giants, etc.) under the pretext of a social call, only to be asked to join in the fun-and-games and losing. Thor is unable to down a horn in a drinking bout. It turns out to be the ocean. “I thought it was lousy beer!” he blurts out. Swift Loki is unable to leave the racing blocks before his effete opponent holds up the token of victory—his opponent is Thought, faster than motion itself. Mighty Thor is wrestled to a draw by an aged crone (Old Age herself, who is beaten by no one) played by Rebecca Noon. 

Thor also shows up in drag as a bride, his bristly beard veiled, disguised as beautiful Freya (a charming Jessica Kitchens), as blackmail for his stolen hammer. When it’s returned as the bride-price, he takes the wedding party over the top with it, as surely as disguised Ulysses dealt with Penelope’s suitors. 

But it’s not all fun and games, or shock-and-awe from life-size, animated action figures. There’s the death of Baldur (Danny Webber), the beloved god of light. It seems nothing can kill him ... except a sprig of mistletoe shot to his heart. “I’ve lost my son. Tell me how to grieve!” shouts Odin the All-Knowing (Roham Shaikhani). 

And underpinning it all is a very topical anxiety: security, the trade-off between Love and safety emphasized over and over. Is the return of Thor’s hammer worth the loss of the goddess of Love as a hostage bride? Or is the building of unbreachable walls for their haven, Asgard (or, as the red-nosed Funny One with the hardhat, Darren Blaney, calls it in Texan, “Ass-Gard”), an exchange for Freya, who makes life worth living, who is in fact the wellspring and continuity of life itself? 

The playwrights of this original production, Conrad Bishop (who also directed—and very well) and Elizabeth Fuller (a fine Frigge) explain the anachronisms in the program notes thus: “We look at the past—whether we call it history or myth—in the way we look at a pond’s surface, seeing a few things beneath the water but struck most strongly by our own reflection. And as any politician knows, the past becomes the story we tell about it. More dangerously, we become the story we tell about it.” 

This post-Christian, secular Humanist-ized treatment of myth veers back and forth between the irony of Plato and the burlesque of a Fractured Fairy Tales cartoon. 

It ends with a round dance, Loki in the middle, representing the long-awaited disaster, heralded by a bugler (no archangel) who complains he’s never blown the thing. And it does end on a note of hope—life goes on, the unborn baby kicking, a slip from Yggdrasil, the World Tree, potted up. 

And the show goes on, too, weekends till Sept. 10. 

It’s one of the things Shotgun does best; you don’t have to wait till the end of the world to enjoy yourself. 

RAGNAROK: THE DOOM OF THE GODS 

4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Sept.; 10. John Hinkle Park. Donations requested. 841-5600. 

I can feel another rant coming on and this one has been coming for some time. I’m definitely involved in the world of real estate, for better AND for worse. Rather than simply sharing construction knowledge with people at their homes, a lot of what I end up doing involves checking over houses that are in the sale process, and this means examining the product of sales preparation, of last-minute, minimally budgeted spin and fluff. Even the term “flipping” a house sounds more like making a crepe than building a home. There’s a vernacular to these things that’s not unlike reality TV or aerobics classes and it’s become so predictable that there are genuinely days in which I can’t remember which flip I’ve been inside of for three or four hours. Yes, one had two baths and three bedrooms and the other was four baths with an in-law downstairs but the “look” of these places is often so similar, due to the vernacular of choices that there isn’t much difference beyond square footage. 

Sadly, I’m also speaking about a wide range of original styles from the craftsman bungalow with Clinker brick to Deco houses of the ’40s with Air-Stream modalities embossed into the stucco exteriors. Every house from every era has a style, a message and a flavor. They’re not all the same nor should we wish them to be so. They’re not in lockstep and they don’t read the same books. Unfortunately, when many remodeling contractors prepare houses for sale, they too often try to apply a template remodeling scheme and this results in a loss of the real charm, beauty and the fun of the original designs. Also, it often means a loss of the function inherent in the original plan. 

One of my pet bugaboos in this vein is the current madness for granite. What is it about granite? Well, I know, but it’s fun to snark the question. The answer is that it has the “oeuvre” of wealth.  

Like so many features found in “just-remodeled” houses, granite has become so commonplace that whatever value it once bore has been diluted by its overuse. It’s also used without any real thought for the type of aesthetic it sits with. Granite, when used in a Roman villa, might seem apropos but as a part of a McMansion, it simply becomes ordinary. 

I’d argue that the money spent on granite is wasted by those who are seeking the feel of wealth and prestige when more of that particular appeal might better be found in buying some very nice pieces from one of the better salvage yards and building around them. If what you want to do is impress your friends with your pocketbook, do as the Hearsts did and fly to Italy and buy up the salvage of the great churches or villas and ship them home to your architect (of course, hiring Julia Morgan couldn’t hurt), but buying a lot of granite and flooding the surfaces of your kitchen with it just ends up looking like a lack of imagination. 

Other than granite, there also seem to be a few other vernacular item found in the flip houses I see nearly every week. There are the seven new Home Depot lighting fixtures that scream “fake old-fashioned lamp” and make a wonderful old house look very much like a brand new stucco box.  

There are the new brass and glass fixtures in the bathroom along with the brand new Home Depot bargain tile in the bathroom. Now this is often really sad since so many of the bathrooms from the past are actually in fairly good shape and had the most incredible tile imaginable. The colors and combinations of colors were great. Also, the tile was often of extremely hearty quality and while they might be somewhat chipped or cracked, this is often minimal and more than compensated for by the fact that they will look far better in 10 years than the cheap vitreous tile that people put down in place of the wonderful green ’40s tile that they took out. Pest companies are often quick to tear out old tile baths that are really just fine and covering only a small amount of decay. Some pest companies are quite good in this respect but the criticism is still valid. 

More than a few of the flips I’m seeing today have a full set of vinyl double-glazed windows in them and while this might be fine for a simple modern stucco building, it’s a pretty sad choice on a 1930s Craftsman home. There are good choices that can be made when remodeling an old gem and I have nothing against the person who wants to buy a neglected old house, fix it up and turn a profit. It a good business if you can make it pay and it preserves and enhances our built environment when it’s well done. That said, there are better and worse choices that can be made.  

Here are some suggestions: Look at how these houses were first done and if you don’t know, get educated. There is a lot of information to be gleaned from the Internet, books and from looking at minimally modified homes in the area. Many older homes had tiled kitchen. Tile is relatively easy to do, costs a reasonable sum and can be fabulous if done with style and care. Don’t be afraid of color or pattern but consider what suited the house when it was built. This doesn’t mean mimic; it just means consider. Think about the impact of your choices and where modernization is done, see if you can “tip your hat” at the history you are working within. Pick up some color from the rest of the house or the curve of the doorways or the tile in the old fireplace or the trim from the hallway. These little measures can “pull the house together” and allow you more freedom to do something wild or outrageous. 

Try sanding the floors and finishing with a low gloss. The old oak floor so many of our houses have were never meant to be glossy. Sanding can be nice but don’t overdue it. For kitchen remodels, consider real linoleum. Linoleum was very common from the teens through the ’50s and is very durable and looks great. It’s a far better choice than vinyl. Think about repainting the old cabinets and getting some genuine knobs from the period. If the ones you have are covered with paint, soak them and put them back up. This can also apply to the hinges, doorknobs, mortise locks, doorbells and other metal appointments that have been painted over. It also applies to old light fixtures. If you take the time to soak and re-install these old features, you can breathe new life into a house that’s become flat and boring. Lastly, when you paint—and painting is well worth the trip—try to use some color. Don’t even think about white. Remember that even in the prim and uptight Victorian age, the houses were painted outlandish, brash and passionate tones. Don’t be afraid of color, even if you’re fixing up to sell. People don’t really want white. They’re just afraid of what the neighbors will say. The best remodels I see and the ones that buyers fight over have great colors. Often, each room has it’s one set of colors. If it’s good enough for the White House… 

In conclusion, if you’re looking for a vernacular, start with the one that we’ve been given in the form of history. It’s not a dictate, just a guide but it’s a much better one for our stock of old ladies than the one that Expo has to offer.

The Alameda Antiques Flea Market happens on the first Sunday of the month. It’s a good show for five bucks, a stroll through the surreal, and, if you’re my age, just a bit unsettling to see so many of your own childhood artifacts labeled “vintage.”  

If you’re half my age, you can explain to the sproggen that no, Mommy and Daddy didn’t have cell phones when they were in kindergarten; Yes, we did think just making that thing go ’round and ’round was fun. Wear sunscreen and wind-resistant hats, and pony up for a sausage or a churro or two and lots of drinks—there’s no shade at all—and start early, 9 a.m.-ish. Things are winding down by 3 p.m. 

That’s when you make a nice side trip for coffee and greens. Live greens that you can bring home and grow. Encinal Nursery is modestly tucked into a lot on (surprise!) Encinal, one of the parallel streets that cross the island heading away from the old naval station. Good for citrus trees; among others, including bai makrut, I saw a calamondin with variegated leaves.  

Lots of things there with variegated leaves, in fact, including a couple of tri-colored rubber plants and other interesting houseplants. I grabbed a four-inch sago palm for inside, and for outside, a four-inch coleonema, a handy small size. Roses, Japanese maples and other traditional stalwarts, and a stack of firewood, too, if you want to Be Prepared.  

For the coffee, you’ll need to go ’round to Lincoln Avenue, another of those parallels, to Thomsen’s Garden Center. The Vines coffee and gift shop is upstairs, for a cup and a pastry and some coffee beans to take home. The gift shop displays jewelry, scarves, and assorted handsome things to look at; it’s more of the artist and artisan persuasion then the faux-country ruffles-and-chickens sort. You can sit on the deck and survey the little nursery, or take your coffee around as you shop.  

The day we dropped in, this was the most fragrant nursery around. The jasmine was still blooming—including one-gallon vine-trained specimens—and a table of big lilies greeted us. Someone brushed the mints in passing, and I couldn’t resist a pot of intensely bright-scented Moroccan mint, for tea. Of course, the coffee from the shop perfumed the air too. Lots of other blooms, and lots of foliage color.  

One showstopper was the single (so far) bloom on one of the five-gallon semi-hardy hybrid Dutchman’s-pipe vines, which one of the workers there showed me when she saw me taking notes with my camera. Atop that weirdly scrotal “pipe” was a soft, silken flare of petal, patterned like burgundy gingham and big enough to cover the palm of her hand.  

Iris and John Watson run the paired enterprises. Iris also writes for Alameda magazine, a handsome glossy bi-monthly that might pay even less than the Daily Planet, and I hear she has a TV show too. She and her staff are friendly and smart, and the atmosphere of the place is quite engaging. Even the bashful lovebird in a cage by the lilies hailed us cheerfully. 

Encinal Nursery 

2057 Encinal Ave., Alameda  

522-8616 

9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday–Saturday  

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday 

Thomsen’s Garden Center  

1113 Lincoln Ave., Alameda 

522-8489 

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday 

9 a.m.-5:50 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.  

Closed Thurdays. 

Vines Coffeshop open 8 a.m.-5 p.m.  

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in East Bay Home & Real Estate. Her column on East Bay trees appears every other Tuesday in the Daily Planet.

What About Quake Insurance? 

There are some who are under the mistaken impression that their homeowner’s insurance will cover damage to their home and possessions caused by an earthquake.  

One way to try and protect your most valuable asset is to buy earthquake insurance. Although policies seem to have improved in recent years, they are still expensive and usually carry a fairly high deductible amount in case of a loss.  

Before buying such a policy, be sure and investigate your options carefully. If your home is properly retrofitted (or built since codes became more rigorous), your need for earthquake insurance has gone down significantly, and some say in this case you have no need for earthquake insurance.  

Larry Guillot is owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and kit supply service. Call him at 558-3299, or visit www.quakeprepare.com.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

Ballroom Dancing every Friday at 8 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Building, 200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Live band and refreshments. Cost is $10. 925-934-9129. 

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

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5 

Victorian House Tour on Angel Island Open just one weekend a year, Sat. and Sun. Tickets are $7-$15. 415-435-3522. www.angelisland.org 

A Vision for Creek Restoration Plans with local officials, environmental groups and community members to promote community-based planning from 1 to 4 p.m. at Parchester Village Community Center, 900 Williams Dr., Parchester Village, Richmond. 415-693-3000, ext 109. 

Farm Stories and Songs Come clap your hands, your paws, or anything you got! Hear some fun songs and stories, then meet the animals at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“To Bee or Not to Bee” An educational puppet show on the complex society of the honey bee, at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Kids Garden Club for children ages 7-12 to explore the world of gardening. We plant, harvest, build, make crafts, cook, and get dirty. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Registration is required. Cost is $6-$8. 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.  

Oakland Heritage Walking Tour of Earthquake Impacts of the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes from 10 a.m. to noon. Meet at the Fire Alarm Building on Lakeside Drive, opposite the Main Library. Cost is $5-$15. 763-9218.  

Walking Tour of Jack London Waterfront Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero. Tour lasts 90 minutes. For reservations call 238-3234.  

Robot Workshop using recycled materials, for children age 5 and up from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Lakeview Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero. Reservations required. 238-7344. 

Learn About Pets with Maggie Yates, Human Education Coordinator for the Berkeley Humane Society at 2 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Produce Stand at Spiral Gardens Food Security Project from 1 to 6 p.m. at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon St. 

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.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

Yoga for Peace Sat. from 9:30 to 11:00 at Ohlone Park, MLK and Hearst St. North Berkeley. Bring a yoga mat, warm blanket, and a peace sign.  

Adult Fast Pitch Softball every Sat at noon. For location call 204-9500.  

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6 

East Bay Peace Lantern Ceremony from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the north end of Aquatic Park. Decorate lantern shades, fold paper cranes, hear Japanese flute and drum music, watch the lanterns float on the lagoon at sunset. 595-4626. www.progressiveportal.org/lanterns 

Transbay Skronkathon BBQ from 12:35 p.m. on, at 21 Grand, 416 25th St., Oakland. with live music to 11 p.m. Donations requested. 649-8744. http://acmemusic.com 

Natural History Field Sketching with Tara Reinertson, naturalist, from 9 to 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Bring your pencils and sketchbook. 525-2233. 

Make A Felt Doll Meet our flock of Black Welsh Mountain Sheep, then learn how to turn their wool into a fun felt project. For ages 8 and up. Cost is $7-$12. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Oakland Heritage Walking Tour on Oakland’s Streetcar Heritage from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Cost is $5-$15. Reservations required. 763-9218.  

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to keep your bike in excellent working condition through safety inspections, from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Bring your bike and tools. 527-4140. 

East Bay Atheists meets at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Prof. Barbara McGraw will talk on the views of our nation’s founders in the separation of church and state. 222-7580. 

Summer Sunday Forum with Stephen Zunes on current policies of the U.S. at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Spiritwalking: Aqua Chi(TM) at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Cost is $5.50, $3.50 seniors & disabled. Bring your own towels. 526-0312. 

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

Buddhist Psychology with Sylvia Gretchen on “Loosening the Hold of Fear” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, AUGUST 7 

Talk on Aquatic Park Restoration Learn about the WPA-built lagoons at Berkeley’s Aquatic Park and the egrets, herons, shorebirds, and waterfowl, at 7 p.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter meets at 6 p.m. at the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St. The speaker will be Mandy Benson, CA NOW, who will discuss Proposition 85, the far right’s latest attempt to restrict reproductive rights. 287-8948. 

“Delaying (or Accelerating) the Degenerative Disease of Aging” with Bruce Ames at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $5. www.hillsideclub.org  

Red Cross Blood Drive 8 a.m to 1 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente, 901 Nevin Ave., Richmond. Call for appointment 307-2721. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60+ years old at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Cost is $3. 524-9122.  

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

Stress Less Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland. Free, registration required. 465-2524. 

McGee Avenue Toastmasters meets at 7:30 p.m. at McGee Ave Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St. 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8 

Tuesday is for the Birds A tranquil early morning walk in Point Isabel. Meet at 7 a.m. at the Rydin Rd entrance. Bring water, sunscreen, binoculars and a snack. 525-2233. 

“Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity” with author Dan Berger at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. 

”Alien” a screening to benefit the Zapatistas at 9:15 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $7. www.speakeasytheaters.com 

Civil Liberties Film Series “Dissent” from the ACLU “Freedom Files” TV series, with guest speaker Jim Chanin, civil rights attorney, at 7 p.m. at the Richmond Library Community Room, 325 Civic Center Plaza. 620-6561. 

Horray for Herps Meet some unusual animals aboard the Zoomobile of the Oakland Zoo at 11 a.m. at the Elmhurst Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 1427 88th Ave. 615-5727. 

“Backpacking in the High Sierra” A slide presentation with Brandon Andre at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

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. 

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

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9  

Full Moon Walk at John Miur National Historic Site See nocturnal animal and plant life and walk the same trail John Muir walked with his daughters. For reservations and details of meeting time and location, call 925-228-8860. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland Uptown to the Lake to discover Art Deco landmarks. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Paramount Theater at 2025 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Cease Fire: Words and Music Against the Siege of Lebanon and Palestine at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $10. 849-2568.  

Community Conversations on the Crisis in the Middle East with Molly Freeman of Brit Tzedek at 7:30 p.m. at JGate in El Cerrito, near El Cerrito Plaza and BART. 559-8140.  

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” Science-fiction film from 1951 at 7:30 p.m. at The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

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

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

Stress Less Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland. Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10 

“Citizenship, Civic Activity and Political Engagement” An evening with Steven Hill, Carol Pott, and Arthur Blaustein at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Predators and Their Prey Meet the animals at 10:15 p.m. at the Lakeview Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero. 238-7344. 

Richmond Southeast Shoreline Area Community Advisory Group meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Richmond Convention Center, Bermuda Room, 403 Civic Center Plaza at Nevin and 25th St. 540-3923. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Tilden Room, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To make an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. 

East Bay Macintosh Users Group meets to discuss Windows on a Mac at 6 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound, Emeryville. www.ebmug.org 

Urban Renaissance High School Open House from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 967 Stanford Ave., Oakland. 302-9199.  

World of Plants Tours at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755.