Berkeley police apprehended a homeless man just after 6 a.m. Sunday—after he had set at least six blazes in the Telegraph Avenue area south of the UC Berkeley campus. 

The blazes did an estimated $70,000 in damage, said Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth. 

Berkeley Police spokesperson Ed Galvan said the suspect “is presently being held for a psychiatric evaluation” and might not be criminally charged because of his mental state. 

Orth said the first fire was reported at 4:25 a.m. in a trash bin at 2508 Benvenue Ave. Firefighters arrived to find a neighbor dowsing the flames with a garden hose. They made short work of what was left. 

The next call was at 4:43 a.m. summoning engines to the rear of the Reprint Mint, a Telegraph Avenue shop specializing in reprinted artworks and posters. 

Firefighters found a dumpster at the rear of the four-story apartment-over-commercial building at 2448 Dwight Way fully in flames, and the fire had spread to the interior of the art business, causing an estimated $25,000 in structural damage and another $20,000 in damage to the building’s contents. 

Emergency workers had a brief respite before they were summoned back to another dumpster on Benvenue Avenue, this one at 2501. The blaze was quickly contained without any damage to nearby buildings. 

The next call came 15 minutes later and brought crews back to Dwight Way—2709 this time—where another trash fire had spread to the adjacent building, causing an estimated $25,000 in property damage, said Orth. 

As firefighters were battling that blaze, they spotted another, smaller fire in a nearby parking structure, which was knocked down with a fire extinguisher. 

Berkeley police made the next call, after finding a fellow standing near a burning plastic fire at 2636 Telegraph Ave. at 6:11 a.m. 

“He told them he was using the fire for heat,” said Orth. 

Though the admitted arsonist was already in custody, there was one more report of a fire that came in nine minutes after police spotted the igniter. 

UC Berkeley police knocked out that blaze—another torched dumpster—with a fire extinguisher, Orth said. 

West Berkeley blaze 

Firefighters rushed to 2417 Sixth St. at 2:49 a.m. Saturday after tenants in an upper unit in a three-story apartment building reported heavy smoke in their unit. 

Crews quickly established that the fire came from the apartment below, where the tenant had forgotten about a pan left cooking on the stove top, Orth said. 

The flames had spread in cabinets and the walls, inflicting an estimated $70,000 in damage to the structure and $5,000 in property losses.

The second round of campaign filings reveals that the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce has outspent proponents of Measure J by nearly three to one. 

That initiative would update the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, preserving its key features while—backers say—bringing the law into conformity with all state ordinances. 

Business for Better Government — the chamber’s Political Action Committee —spent $61,793.58 between July 1 and Oct. 21, according to their filing with the Alameda County Registrar of Voters. 

Most—64 percent, or $39,600—went to mailers opposing Measure J, and much of the rest went to candidates who oppose the initiative. 

Despite logging $36,720 in cash and $800 in in-kind contributions, the chamber PAC reported an outstanding debt of $59,059.84 at the end of the filing period. 

That compares to $17,123 in contributions and loans received by backers of Measure J, a campaign which reported a debt of just $278. 

Major chamber donors 

The biggest guns in the chamber’s arsenal are developers, with Wareham Development—which is the major office and industrial builder in West Berkeley—topping the list with $10,000. 

Other big donors include: 

• Patrick Kennedy’s Panoramic Interests with $5,000; 

• UC Berkeley professor and private developer David Teece with $4,000. Teece was the backer of many of Kennedy’s projects and reportedly now backs Hudson McDonald LLC, which gave $250; 

• Seagate Properties, co-developer of a 9-story condo project on Center Street, with $5,250; 

• Development firm Ruegg & Ellsworth and its leasing arm, Ruell Enterprises, Inc., which gave $3,250. Owners are David Ruegg and Robert Ellsworth;  

• Tenth & Parker, reportedly a limited partnership, but with no filing listed with the California Secretary of State, with $1,000; 

• Bisno Development Co., LLC, with $1,000. The Oakland-based firm is headed by Los Angeles attorney Robert B. Bisno, who was reportedly the source of funding for the Library Gardens apartment complex—which is holding a grand opening this weekend. 

• Berkeley attorney William Falik, $1,000. 

• Abrams/Millikan, the firm headed by Denny Abrams, who spearheaded the redevelopment of Fourth Street into an upscale shopper’s delight, $500. 

• Aquatic Park Science Center, LLC, a Corte Madera corporation formed to develop the office/industrial complex of the same name in West Berkeley, $500.  

• Architects Marcy Wong and Donn Logan, $500; Peter J. O’Hara, president of Pacific Property Asset Management of San Francisco, $500. 

• Landmarks Preservation Commissioner and realtor/developer Miriam Ng, $350. 

Among other prominent names in the development community with $250 contributions were land-use attorney Rena Rickles, developer James E. Hart, and Essex Property Trust’s Pre-Development Projects, the funding partner of Urban Housing Group, which is planning a major housing over commercial project that would occupy a city block at 700 University Ave. 

BBG head Jonathan DeYoe also chipped in $250. 

Battle lines 

Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Laurie Capitelli proposed—and the council passed on first reading—a rival ordinance that Measure J backers say would greatly weaken protections for historical structures. 

Bates, Capitelli and other Measure J opponents say that the initiative could result in expensive litigation and claims that it removes state definitions of historical integrity in the landmarking process. 

The Bates/Capitelli ordinance didn’t become law because the council held off on a second vote until after the Nov. 7 election and the outcome of the Measure J vote. 

If voters pass the initiative, the law couldn’t be changed without another ballot measure, effectively derailing the Bates/Capitelli ordinance. 

While the anti-Measure J mailers accounted for the lion’s share of the BBG expenditures, the group also spent $7,290 each on mailers opposing City Council incumbents Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington and $2,440 each on mailers supporting Mayor Tom Bates and Worthington opponent George Beier. 

Chamber targets Spring and Worthington were two of the three councilmembers who didn’t support the Bates/Capitelli measure. The third was Betty Olds, whose term doesn’t expire until 2008. 

By comparison, the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance Update PAC—the campaign supporting the Nov. 7 initiative—logged $13,824 in expenses. 

The anti-J mailers were recorded as two expenditures, both estimates, of $19,800 each, the first on Oct. 16 and the second four days later. 

That mailer, which carried endorsements from Mayor Tom Bates and five councilmembers, was in the form of a color postcard mailed from Carlsbad. 

The chamber PAC held a $250-a-head fundraiser Sept. 21, attended by 40 or so members and other invitees. 

Oddly, BBG filing doesn’t record any receipts on that day and only one the next day, with most contributions reported on Sept. 29. 

Measure J backers 

Supporting the initiative is the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance 2006 Update PAC—LPO 2006, headed by Roger Marquis and Laurie Bright. In the group’s first financial filing—for the period May 1 to June 30—logged in by the City Clerk on July 26, the group reports receiving $6,006 in contributions, of which more than half, $3,460, was in the form of loans. 

The largest contribution for that period was $1,000 from the Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA), of which Bright is president. 

The next largest—$500—came May 12 from Lesley Emmington, a preservationist who is a member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the body which administers the LPO. 

Emmington made two other contributions during the filing period, $200 on June 11 and $100 on June 22. 

Bright recorded $263.13 in contributions during that period, with Marquis’s contributions totaling $299. 

The only other contributor was Pat Devaney, with $100. The remainder of funds received, $3,469, came from Marquis as a loan. A $75 non-monetary contribution was recorded for an article from the CNA newsletter. 

Expenses for the first filing period included $214.39 for copies, $99 for a legal ad required before circulating an initiative petition, $4,665 in costs for signature gathering, $500 in legal fees and $95 in shipping costs, and a $75 non-monetary contribution for a total of $5,998. 

The LPO initiative backers’ next filing covers the period July 1 to Sept. 30, reporting $6,628 in monetary contributions and $1,513 in non-monetary gifts, less a $1,149 loan repayment and $4,162 in expenses of which $1,513 were non-monetary. 

The largest single gift in that period—$1,400—came from the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA), the city’s most prominent preservationist group. 

The second largest gifts came as LPC member Emmington added another $556 to her contributions, and Prince Street neighborhood activist Erica Cleary gave $300. 

Daily Planet Arts Editor Anne Wagley gave $250, as did Tim Hansen and Elliot Cohen, activists whose letters and commentaries frequently appear in the paper. 

Former Mayor Shirley Dean gave a total of $228 in the filing period. 

Gale Garcia, another frequent writer to the Daily Planet, logged $200 in monetary contributions and provided postage and printing totaling $242. 

Councilmember Spring provided $166 in printing and postage costs. 

The latest report, covering the Oct. 1-26 period, lists $5,991 in cash contributions and $176 in non-monetary gifts. Adding in a $2,051 loan repayment, the total received came to $4,116, with expenses of $3,664, including a $426 value on non-monetary gifts. 

The largest single contributions of $1,000 each came from BAHA—bringing its total to $2,500—and Carl Bunch, a San Francisco Deputy City Attorney who is a Berkeley resident and preservationist. 

Gifts of $250 each came from Barbara Allen, who has been active in Neighbors on Urban Creeks, and her sometimes-opponent, creeks activist Juliet Lamont. Another $250 came from pathologist Diane Tokugawa. 

Many names are neighborhood activists whose names are also familiar to readers of the Daily Planet’s letters to the editor and commentary pages, including Robert Lauriston, Stephen Wollmer, Robin Wright and Jerry Sulliger.  

One donation came from a candidate endorsed by BBG, George Beier—who is running against Worthington. Beier gave $100. 

While Measure J backers filed both expenses and contributions with the office of acting Berkeley City Clerk Sherry Kelly, BBG only filed its expenditures. 

BBG contributions were filed only with the Alameda County Registrar of Voters. While Berkeley posts its electoral filings on the city website, the county records are only available by an in-person visit to the county courthouse on Lake Merritt. 

The chamber earlier explained that it filed with the county because the group wanted the option of being able to endorse state Assembly candidates. 

Besides the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce’s Business of Better Government Political Action Committee (PAC) and the backers of Measure J, the most active PAC to report contributions was the Berkeley Democratic Club’s PAC. 

With total contributions for the year through Oct. 21 totaling $9,487, the party PAC was a mere 15.4 percent of the chamber’s far grander total of $61,793.58. 

Many of the contributions came in the form of donated space in the club’s endorsement mailing, and benefited many of the same candidates backed by the chamber, including Mayor Tom Bates and City Council challengers Raudel Wilson and George Beier, who are challenging incumbents Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington. 

Other beneficiaries included incumbent Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, opposition to Measure J (the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance update initiative) and Berkeley Unified School District board candidates Shirley Issel, Nancy Riddle and Karen Hemphill. 

City Auditor Ann Marie Hogan, who is running for reelection without opposition, was also recorded as the beneficiary of ad/endorsement space. 

Typically, candidates reimburse party clubs for the reported value of the space, as Bates and the three school board candidates each gave $1,000, with Wozniak and Beier chipping in with $500 apiece, with an additional $50 from Wozniak’s spouse Evelyn. 

In addition, the Berkeley Democratic Club gave its own PAC $3,300. 

Local candidates who did not reimburse the cost of space as of the Oct. 21 filing date included Wilson, Hogan and East Bay Municipal Utility District candidate Andy Katz. 

The PAC spent $5,335.61 for printing and $3,900.47 for postage and also gave $250 to the North Alameda County PAC of the National Women’s Political Caucus. 

One committee that didn’t report any expenditures despite printing and mailing an oversized postcard supporting Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Gordon Wozniak was the Berkeley Fire Fighters Association Local 1227 Political Action Committee. 

The only expenditure reported to the city was an April 25 donation of $1,500 to the campaign of Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Phil Angelides. 

Another committee took legal form three months after it held a public forum and issued endorsements on candidates and measures. 

While school board member John Selawsky and activist Elliot Cohen recorded the formation on the Committee for a Progressive Berkeley on Oct. 17, the group was actually formed in the summer, and held an open public meeting in July where endorsements were made for local candidates and races. 

The group’s only contributor, Steve Wollmer, was recorded as giving $100 on Oct. 24. 

“It’s a group of us who consider ourselves progressives,” said Wollmer, who added that he gave the lone contribution to pay for door hangers and on the condition that he didn’t have to make calls. 

A rally to protest what Councilmember Kriss Worthington is calling “hit piece distortions” in recent Berkeley Chamber of Commerce political action committee mailers will be held at noon, Wednesday, Nov. 1, on the steps of Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Councilmembers Worthington, Dona Spring, and a representative of the Yes on J Committee will speak.

If money talks in political campaigns, it’s roaring these days, at least in a couple of Berkeley campaigns.  

According to the Oct. 26 filing—that included Oct. 1 to Oct. 21 contributions—District 7 hopeful George Beier is the biggest spender so far in Berkeley’s 2006 campaign season, having paid out $72,150,27. The district has some 4,000 voters.  

In contrast, incumbent Kriss Worthington, who spent $41,000 on his 2002 campaign, has raised and spent only about $28,000. 

While bringing in a total of just under $100,000, Mayor Tom Bates has spent only about half of that. Challenger Zelda Bronstein has spent most of the $35,000 she’s collected, which includes an $8,000 loan to herself.  

Mayoral candidate Zachary Running Wolf has not filed a campaign finance report and candidate Christian Pecaut raised $250 and spent $176. 

In the District 8 race, incumbent Gordon Wozniak raised $50,000 and spent most of it, while challenger Jason Overman raised $17,000 and spent about $21,000 (which includes loans). In 2002, Wozniak spent $72,000 on his race, including a run-off. 

In District 4 Dona Spring has raised $14,000 and spent $12,000, while challenger Raudel Wilson has raised and spent almost exactly the same amount. The Chamber of Commerce political action committee spent an additional $7,000 for brochures opposing both Spring and Worthington. 

And in the District 1 race, incumbent Linda Maio has raised about $500 and challenger Merrilie Mitchell has not raised any funds. 

District 7 

Beier, who sold a software business a few years ago, has been able to pour his own money—$19,000 to date—into the mix. In total, he has $40,000 in outstanding loans.  

Candidates contributing to their own campaigns need not abide by the $250 individual campaign-spending limits.  

Beier has benefited by the $7,000 in anti-Worthington/anti-Spring campaign spending by the Chamber of Commerce political action committee that included contributions of $5,000 from Patrick Kennedy’s Panoramic Interests, $5,250 from San Rafael-based Seagate Properties, and $10,000 from Waresham Development Corporation. (The Chamber raised $38,000 and spent $61,000 to defeat Measure J and candidates Spring and Worthington and to support Beier and Bates. Contributors gave funds to the PAC without specifying the destination of the funds.) 

Beier picked up 62 donations, raising about $16,000 during the Oct. 1 to Oct. 21 period. About one-third of the donations came in over $200, about one-third of them were between $100 and $199 with the final third under $100.  

Of interest are three donations in this filing period from people who work for the Wareham Property Group, Inc., which is involved in developing west Berkeley properties—two $250 donations and one $50 donation from real estate developers with Ru-Ell Enterprises. There’s also a $250 donation from Berkeley School Board member Shirley Issel and a $50 donation from a senior vice president at Walt Disney.  

Worthington picked up 63 contributions during this filing period amounting to $9,000: 25 contributions of less than $100, 23 from $100 to $199 and 15 at more than $200. Donors included Assemblymember Wilma Chan, who gave $50 and Councilmember Max Anderson, who gave $250; Pat Cody, founder of Cody’s books, gave $50; parks advocate Mark Liolios gave $250, environmentalist Norman La Force gave $100; progressive attorney Osha Neumann gave $50: artist Khalil Bendib gave $100 and artist Chiori Santiago gave $50; the Sierra Club gave $250.  

Beier’s expenses include $22,000 (of which $8,500 was paid this period) of services purchased from a San Francisco-based mailing house, MSHC Partners. 

Mayor’s race 

This reporting period Bates collected $25,000 from 144 contributors of which 65 were for the spending limit of $250. Contributors include six labor unions,14 people identified as realtors or property managers and two UC Berkeley professors. 

Zelda Bronstein raised $11,000 from 33 contributors, 14 of which were for less than $100. Bronstein loaned her campaign $8,000. Contributors included three university professors, Oakland City Councilmember Nancy Nadel and a number of retired persons. 

District 8 

In the District 8 race, incumbent Gordon Wozniak has garnered $51,000, of which $17,000 was raised this period. Wozniak picked up 47 contributions of which 16 were at $200 to $250. Of interest are contributions from three individuals who work for Wareham Development Group: Chris Barlow, Cassie Gaenger and Richard Robbins. Three other $250 contributions came from employees of Rue-Ell Enterprises: Dana, Alexandra and Robert Ellsworth. Wozniak also picked up $250 contributions from School Board Member Shirley Issel and from the Berkeley Firefighters Association. Two contributions of $50 came from Northeim/Yost Real Estate principals John Northeim and Donald Yost. Two UC Berkeley professors are also among the $50 donors: Gibor Basri and Joseph Cerny. 

Challenger UC Berkeley student Jason Overman has raised $17,000, including $10,000 in loans from himself. During this period he picked up $2,291 from 18 donors that include three students, City Councilmember Max Anderson, Transportation Commissioner Robb Wrenn and library activist Gene Bernardi.  

District 4 

District 4 incumbent Dona Spring has raised a total of $14,500, having picked up $1,500 this period from 16 individuals, of which nine were for less than $100. Spring spent about $12,000. Spring’s contributors include attorney Robert Raich, artist Susan Felix and writer Charles Pappas. 

Challenger Raudel Wilson raised a total of $14,500 of which he raised almost $3,000 this period. Like Spring, Wilson spent about $12,000. (Wilson told the Daily Planet he had paid for a districtwide mailing after the reporting period was over.) Fourteen people contributed to the campaign during this period, with ten of them giving $250 contributions. Contributors included the Berkeley Firefighters union, two realtors working at Coldwell Banker, Barbara and Kim Marienthal and Susan Muscarella, the executive director of the Jazz School. 

Led by the local Chamber of Commerce, the Berkeley pre-election season has taken a nasty turn. 

Two campaign pieces—one properly identified from the Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee and the other “inadvertently” without identification—are among the glossy missives District 4 and 7 voters found in their mailboxes last week. 

The chamber piece, delivered to Districts 4 and 7 voters, takes the form of a report card and gives Spring and Worthington failing marks on “important Berkeley issues.” The anonymous piece, now claimed by the chamber political action committee, links District 7 challenger George Beier with Mayor Tom Bates, although Bates has not endorsed Beier. 

“The chamber is supposed to be promoting ethics in business—it is so unethical of the chamber to be doing this,” Spring said, noting that the chamber was able to pour $7,000 into the campaign against her. “People should know who is responsible for putting out this hit piece.” 

Spring pointed to last week’s deal hammered out by Oakland mayor-elect Ron Dellums that got the Oakland Chamber PAC to voluntarily stop its infusions of cash aimed at influencing Oakland’s Nov. 7 election. 

“What a difference between the Oakland and Berkeley mayors,” Spring said, noting that Bates spoke at the September Chamber PAC fundraiser when, presumably, the funds for brochures opposing Worthington and Spring and supporting Beier and the No on Measure J postcard were raised. 

A number of elements such as “committed to reducing crime,” “supports the downtown,” and “supports business in Berkeley,” comprise the report-card mailer.  

On reducing crime, the chamber gave both Spring and Worthington a “D.”  

“It’s totally and blatantly false,” Worthington said, pointing to his support for police on Telegraph Avenue. At the Oct. 21, 2003, City Council meeting, soon after the city manager had removed police patrols from Telegraph Avenue, Worthington and Mayor Tom Bates put forward the following resolution:  

“Refer to the City Manager the Clarity, Priority and Responsibility Plan (CPR) for Telegraph Avenue: 1) creating a clear policy brochure to address questions of what laws prohibit and permit; 2) committing sufficient Police Department staffing to the Telegraph area; 3) requesting UC Berkeley restore staffing to the Telegraph area patrol; and 4) restoring Community Health and Safety Team staffing as needed.” (From the City Council Summary Oct. 21 2003.) 

The council majority refused financial support for the resolution, however, Worthington said, noting that he brought the request back to the council in June 2004 and June 2005. In May 2006 restoration of police and social service funding to Telegraph got approved after the uproar over Cody’s closing. 

Spring said she supported Worthington’s efforts to restore police patrols and made sure, when the resolution was approved this year, that it included downtown police patrols and social services. 

Spring notes that the chamber “report card” also implies that she, Worthington, and Councilmember Max Anderson are anti-business because they abstained on the approval of the West Berkeley Bowl. The Daily Planet reviewed the tape of the June 13 meeting, which shows that the three abstained because they wanted assurances written into the resolution that the Bowl management would allow the workers to turn in cards in support of a union—the quicker method establishing a union. 

The three councilmembers voted in favor of the West Berkeley Bowl on the final unanimous vote, the second reading of the ordinance, because, by that time, a separate resolution supporting a card-check vote for the union at the Bowl had been prepared. 

Asked in a phone interview Monday if he thought the chamber piece misrepresented Spring and Worthington’s positions, Chamber President Roland Peterson declined to comment. Peterson said, however, that the chamber supported Beier and District 4 candidate Raudel Wilson because: “Our vision is with Raudel and George in office we can move business-friendly laws to revitalize Telegraph and downtown,” Peterson said. 

The second chamber brochure while upbeat is misleading, Worthington said. “What do Tom and George have in common?” says the piece, answering: “went to [UC] Berkeley, stayed in Berkeley…” 

While the brochure lacks the sender identification required in Berkeley election law 2.12.330, the chamber issued an apology through a press statement: “The Business for Better Government PAC fully intended for recipients of its mailing to know who the sender is,” the statement said. 

Worthington points out that the brochure uses a common electoral gimmick, also used in a Berkeley Democratic Club mailer, that pairs a popular politician with an unknown. Bates has not endorsed Beier, but one might think he has, looking at the brochure. Similarly, in the BDC brochure Rep. Barbara Lee is standing with Beier. Worthington points out, however, that he himself is endorsed by Lee, not Beier.  

Bates was unconcerned about the mailer. “I think that’s pretty commonplace,” he told the Daily Planet. 

It’s not problematic “as long as the person does not say he endorses the other,” Bates said. 

On the question of support for downtown, the chamber brochure evaluates the candidates based on whether they “voted no on more parking in downtown.” 

Spring said she made a number of efforts to increase downtown parking including calling for parking under the new high school cafeteria, under the new library and that she got written into the new General Plan that any parking space that was eliminated would be replaced. 

Breaking a silence of several weeks, Oakland Mayor-elect Ron Dellums announced last week that he opposes the proposed sale of Oakland Unified School District Lake Merritt-area property by the state superintendent’s office. 

The proposed sale is “outside the democratic process,” Dellums said at a City Hall steps press conference on Thursday. The incoming mayor added that he was opposed to “continued ad hoc development in Oakland. I don’t want to pre-judge the [TerraMark/UrbanAmerica] project. It may turn out to be a good project. But we ought to do it within the confines of a coherent process.” 

In addition, Dellums said that the district should be returned to local control “as expeditiously as possible.” 

At the press conference, Dellums said that it was “premature” for release of any plan by his administration to address Oakland’s soaring murder rate—now at 126 for the year. In addition, Dellums said that he would “not oppose” a change to Oakland’s inclusionary housing zoning policy currently being considered by Oakland City Council. “I would not embrace the substance of the proposed policy” by Councilmembers Jane Brunner and Jean Quan “because it flies in the face of my stated positions on this issue.” 

But Dellums said that because some observers believe that Proposition 90, which is ahead in polls on the November ballot, might prevent cities from passing further zoning ordinance changes, “I would not oppose putting a placemarker ordinance down before the election, with the understanding that afterwards we would go back and revise it.” 

Last week, City Council voted 4-4 on Councilmember Desley Brooks’ motion to table the Brunner/Quan inclusionary zoning ordinance. Under Oakland’s strong mayor law, Mayor Jerry Brown has until this week to break the tie and either kill the proposed zoning ordinance or allow councilmembers to vote on it. 

Meanwhile, Dellums confirmed at his City Hall press conference that he had earlier communicated his views against the proposed OUSD land sale to California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell in a meeting between the two officials at O’Connell’s Sacramento office in September. Details of that Sacramento meeting had not been previously released by either Dellums or O’Connell, but news that the two leaders had “been in touch” on the OUSD land sale issue was first reported in the Daily Planet in mid-September. 

OUSD Advisory School Board member Greg Hodge said that he was “conditionally pleased” by Dellums’ announcement. “I’m glad he made the announcement,” Hodge said. “I hope it means that the sale will not go through.” 

The state superintendent’s office and the east coast-based development team of TerraMark/UrbanAmerica have been in negotiations for several months over the developers’ proposal to purchase between eight and nine acres of OUSD land, including the district’s Paul Robeson Building administrative headquarters and five adjacent schools and childhood education centers. Negotiations were extended in mid-September, and a spokesperson for the superintendent’s office said this week that “the project is still in the proposal stage.” 

Members of Mayor-elect Dellums’ transition team task forces say that Dellums went into more detail at a meeting of task force members last Wednesday night, saying that Dellums promised to work with local legislators—including Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) and presumed-incoming Assemblymember Sandré Swanson (D-Oakland)—to sponsor legislation to return the Oakland school district to local control. 

Speculation about Dellums’ position on the proposed OUSD land sale had risen since mid-September, when the OUSD board voted 6-1 to oppose the proposed sale and proposed an administrative and multi-school education center for the Lake Merritt-area properties. Two months before that vote, school board member Hodge had told a meeting of the Metropolitan Greater Oakland Democratic club that Dellums “told me that he will fully support whatever position on the sale is taken by the elected school board.” 

But a Dellums aide, Dan Lindheim, said this week that Dellums chose to meet privately with O’Connell rather than issue a public statement on the land sale “because a statement would be just one more voice in a chorus of voices against the sale, but Mr. Dellums felt that he could get more accomplished face to face.” 

Measure I would make substantial changes in Berkeley’s existing condominium conversion law, specifically promising to:  

1) increase annual condominium conversions from 100 to 500; 

2) increase the ability to evict tenants of converted units; 

3) reduce the affordable housing fee for condominium conversions; 

4) provide a discount for existing tenants to purchase condominiums; and 

5) eliminate “certain” existing restrictions to conversion (those “certain” eliminations are detailed below). 

The measure has the support of former Mayor Shirley Dean and Claremont Neighborhood Association President Dean Metzger as well as councilmembers Betty Olds and Gordon Wozniak. It is opposed by the remaining councilmembers, as well as Mayor Tom Bates and State Assemblymember Loni Hancock. 

The battle for and against the proposed measure has so far taken place outside the review of Berkeley’s campaign finance disclosure laws. No campaign committee for the measure has registered with the City Clerk, and the No on I Committee (which has registered with the clerk listing Rob Wrenn and Jesse Arreguin as co-treasurers) lists only $100 in contributions and no expenditures. Both the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce and the Berkeley Democratic Club have taken no position on the measure. None of the other campaign committees registering with the City Clerk hass listed expenditures for or against the measure. 

The proposed new law would increase the allowable condominium conversion approvals from the current 100 units per year to 500 units. Presumably, then, the proposed new law would do two things: it would make condominium conversions easier at the same time it is making more of them possible. How a voter decides on this issue, therefore, may hinge in large part on whether the voter thinks more condominiums or fewer are best for Berkeley and its residents. 

Measure I would also make it easier for existing tenants to purchase their converted units by requiring the building owner to pay tenants 5 percent of the purchase price of the unit; in effect, this would mean existing tenants would get a 5 percent discount on the price of the purchase. But that advantage is offset by some reductions in the rights of existing tenants that presently are guaranteed in Berkeley’s law. 

Below are highlighted some of the major provisions to Berkeley’s condominium conversion law that would be changed if Measure I passes. 

Elimination of restrictions to conversion 

The elimination of “certain” existing restrictions to conversions should get special scrutiny by local voters.  

Berkeley’s existing ordinance currently bars condominium conversion for buildings where the owners have filed notice of intent within the last 20 years to go out of the rental business, where no evictions have occurred within the last ten years for the purpose of owner or relative occupancy, or for units that have become vacant over rent limitation law issues or following serious safety, health, or building code violations. 

All of those restrictions are eliminated in the proposed new ordinance, making condominium conversion easier, but giving existing tenants fewer rights in the process. 

Voters will have to decide whether the need for new condominiums weighs more heavily than the loss of those tenants rights. 

Affordable housing fees 

Berkeley’s current condominium conversion ordinance provides that money from such conversions be used to help finance affordable low and moderate income housing development in the city. This money goes primarily to increase the amount of affordable rental housing stock in the city. The new proposed ordinance continues to provide affordable housing money, but substantially reduces the amount of money that would be transferred. 

Current law sets the affordable housing fee for condominium conversions by a complicated formula based upon the actual sale price of the condominium unit itself. 

The inclusion of that fee was a critical part of the current ordinance. Councilmembers included a provision in the ordinance that read: “the City Council finds and declares that it would not adopt this chapter permitting conversion of rental property to condominiums or cooperatives, but for the provision that the adverse effects of such conversions on low-income households will be mitigated by the affordable housing fee described herein.” 

While the proposed new ordinance includes that affordable housing fee, it in effect guts it, providing that the fee would be capped at $8 per square foot, with provisions that it be increased annually based upon increases in the Consumer Price Index. 

The Berkeley City Attorney’s Analysis of the proposed new law estimates that the affordable housing fee paid by each converted unit would be reduced by 90 percent. Thus, while the new law would probably open up more existing rental units in Berkeley for tenant ownership, it would also decrease the number of new rental units available to citizens with low or moderate incomes. 

Notice to tenants of proposed condominium conversion 

The new law would weaken provisions in Berkeley’s existing condominium conversion law guaranteeing that existing tenants are informed of the proposed conversion. 

Under Berkeley’s existing law, the owners must submit either a signed notice of intent from tenants to purchase their units, or else “evidence that a certified letter of notification was sent” to the tenants. 

The new law would eliminate that provision, referring only to notification based on state law. The state law referred to only requires that notices to the tenants be addressed to them and dropped in the mail; it does not require that the notices be sent by certified mail. That leaves open the possibility that some tenant notices may get accidentally “lost” in the mail. 

When a rental tenant chooses not to purchase 

As with the existing ordinance, the new ordinance gives existing rental tenants first rights to purchase the unit they are renting if the building converts to condominium use. But the new ordinance substantially alters what occurs if a rental tenant chooses not to exercise that right, inserting one measure that benefits the tenants and one measure that takes away existing rights. 

Current Berkeley law only allows for cash payments to renters if the landlord is going out of the rental business completely. The new ordinance would allow cash payments to all renters who choose not to purchase a condominium at an amount of 2 percent of the sales price of the unit. The City Attorney’s Analysis of the measure notes that “the cash payment under the proposed measure will generally exceed the amount currently payable” under the city’s existing ordinance. 

On the other hand, the new measure gives existing tenants only thirty days from the date they are notified of the proposed conversion to make up their minds and sign an agreement to purchase the unit. Current Berkeley law gives the tenants up to one year to sign such an agreement, under which they can continue to live (and pay rent) in the unit. Given the difficulties of cleaning up credit reports and getting bank approval for loans for home purchase, it seems that the one month requirement would shut many, if not most, of the existing tenants out of the condominium purchase process.

Absentee voting is becoming increasingly popular, but, as an insert in the mailed ballot indicates, the cost to send the ballot back is 78 cents—two first-class stamps or one 39-cent stamp and one 24-cent stamp. 

No ballots, however, will be thrown away for insufficient postage, according to Guy Ashley, spokesperson for the Alameda Registrar of Voters. The county has an arrangement with the U.S. Post Office that it will make up the difference for insufficient postage, Ashley said. 

A further note for those who wish to vote by mail: Today, Oct. 31, is the last day to register absentee. The requests must be in the hands of the registrar of voters—located in the courthouse basement at 1225 Fulton St., Oakland—by 5 p.m. 

On Nov. 7 Berkeley residents will decide on the fate of Measure A. 

Measure A renews two existing school measures—Berkeley School Excellence Project (BSEP) and Measure B—at existing rates. Both BSEP and Measure B expire in June.  

BSEP and Measure B provide the Berkeley Unified School District with $19.6 million annually, which primarily pays for 30 percent of Berkeley’s classroom teachers, all elementary and middle school libraries and music programs as well as school site funds.  

“If Measure A passes, the current budget level continues,” said Dan Lindheim, chair of the BSEP/B Planning and Oversight Committee. “Ninety percent of Measure A continues the essential class size reduction, school library, music and art, and site enrichment programs authorized and reaffirmed by Berkeley voters since 1986. If Measure A fails, the schools will lose 25 percent of their budget, which means eliminating 30 percent of the teachers, libraries, the music program, athletic programs, and much more—and this is even assuming the district can avoid a state takeover.” 

Although every major organization, elected official and candidate for office in Berkeley supports the measure, it does not come without opposition. 

Organizations such as the Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA), Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (BANA) and Berkeleyans Against Soaring Taxes (BASTA!) have attacked the measure, stating poor financial responsibility and management, dismal academic achievement and a lack of maintenance of community resources. 

Marie Bowman, president of BANA and board member of CNA, said that financial transparency and academic performance were some of the main concerns of these neighborhood groups. 

“We want better academic achievement, dismal results are unacceptable,” Bowman said. “BUSD has the widest back/white achievement gap in the county. We also want better financial transparency so that we can see if funds are being spent responsibly—both in day-to-day management and fiscal management.” 

Lindheim said that the opposition is trying to confuse voters. 

“Because of that lack of support, they are waging a campaign of deliberate misinformation,” he said. “There is absolute transparency in the current system. The BSEP report that comes out annually documents all the funds and the public have full access to it.” 

Members of United Pool Council have also opposed Measure A. They state BUSD’s negligence toward the warm water pool as the main reason. 

Lindheim said the allegations were untrue. “The pools are run by the city, not by the schools. It is a city bond issue and has nothing to do with Measure A,” he said. 

School board director John Selawsky called the oppositions’ accusations “preposterous.” 

“I urge all citizens to read the measure carefully,” he said. “All inaccuracies can be put to rest then.” 

Berkeleyans for School Management Access Accountability Responsiveness and Transparency (BeSMAART), another neighborhood group chaired by Yolanda Huang, a former BUSD parent, proposes performance auditing—applying the standards of the federal government’s Accountability Office—to set standards for the district administration and to evaluate administrator’s performance. 

“I am all for performance audits,” said Lindheim. “I think we are probably going to include it in Measure A.” 

School Board Director Nancy Riddle, who was involved in the process of rewriting Measure A and is up for reelection this year, spoke about the steps that had been taken to ensure its success. 

“We conducted public surveys, public hearings, and dozens of smaller focus groups and sought and received heavy input from the planning and oversight committee. Additionally, the district completed an 18-month community planning process to identify these programs that most improve academic achievement. Those priorities are written directly into Measure A, including increased professional development, improved systems to monitor achievement data, and additional counseling.” 

School board candidate Karen Hemphill said that without long-term financial stability that comes with passing Measure A, Berkeley’s schools would struggle to raise the academic achievement of all students, including students with special education needs, struggling students, average students, as well as academically gifted students. 

“How are our schools supposed to make progress on closing the achievement gap if they have 25 percent less money than our schools have now?” she asked. “How can Berkeley compete to attract top-quality teachers without long-term financial stability?” 

Huang and Bowman also said the timeline of the parcel tax measure is too long.  

“Ten years is way too much,” Huang said. “There should be more frequent reporting to the community of how the school district is doing and community review.” 

Bowman said that since technology was changing so frequently, a four-year term would be more suitable. “We want the school district to rewrite Measure A for the March 2007 ballot so that it addresses the current loopholes in academic achievement and financial transparency,” she said. 

Lindheim, however, said that there was no time to write a better measure. 

“More importantly there is no better measure,” he said. “If the measure isn’t approved in November, then 40 percent of BUSD teachers will be laid off. New teachers will be the first to get fired.” 

Cathy Campbell, vice president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, echoed Lindheim’s thoughts.  

“BSEP and Measure B have ensured that Berkeley students receive more than a reading, writing and arithmetic kind of education. They allow schools to have an identity,” she said. “They provide funds for the sports program and the gardening program at Malcolm X which is really important for my son. They are also a resource for teachers to continue to grow and learn.” 

Karen Pertschuk, a BUSD alumni and parent, said that the parcel taxes had allowed her son to study in a smaller classroom which resulted in better interaction with the class teacher.  

“They keep the class sizes under control and provide money for the instrumental music program,” she said. “My son would not have had music this year if Measure B had not passed this year.” 

Campaign filings 

The campaign disclosure statement for Measure A was filed on Oct. 26.  

Total contributions received in support of Measure A amounted to $66,338.63. Total expenditures made towards the campaign were $49,512.96. 

Berkeley developer Patrick Kennedy’s monetary contributions in support of the Measure A campaign totaled $1,250. The California Federation of Teachers and ZFA Structural Engineers both contributed $1,000. 

No campaign contribution and expenditure forms have been filed by BeSMAART, which is campaigning against Measure A.  

Berkeleyans’ Against Soaring Taxes did not disclose the cost of the “No on Measure A” posters it has put up on the telephone polls in Berkeley and had not filed updated forms with the city by the Oct. 26 deadline. 

Questions, comments and rebuttals greeted committee members from the North Shattuck Association and North Shattuck Plaza (NPS), Inc., at the community meeting held Thursday to discuss the North Shattuck plaza draft plan. 

The proposed $3.5 million dollar plaza would transform Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto to streetscape by closing off Shattuck Avenue between Vine and Rose streets. The current angle parking and access lane along the eastern side of the avenue would be replaced with a 50-foot-wide pedestrian walkway with landscaped plantings, two rows of trees and benches. 

As NSP Inc. Chair David Stoloff, who also serves on the city planning commission, showed off the plans to residents, the tree-lined walkway plan produced comparisons among some to similar landscaping in Paris.  

Stoloff described the project as a “rare opportunity to transform a public space filled with traffic into a ‘living room’ for Berkeleyans.” 

“We want to give the space back to the pedestrians,” he said. “A place to see and to be seen.” 

Not everyone from the community was impressed with the plans. There were concerns from neighbors about why no community input had been taken when deciding about issues of parking, the selection of trees and access for the elderly and the disabled. 

Some elderly residents said that taking away street parking from the front of the stores would stop them from coming there to shop. 

Heather Hensley, executive director of the NSA, informed residents that the current proposal would bring about consolidated parking by reducing the five-vehicle entrance along the south side of Rose Street to three. 

Hensley also addressed neighbors’ concerns regarding traffic congestion and added that a traffic study would be conducted prior to the environmental impact report. 

Neighbors also said that moving the parking northward would not help to solve the problem of already struggling independent stores—such as Black Oak Books—because customers would have to walk some distance to get to them. 

“We will try to make the parking neutral,” said Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, under whose district the proposed plaza falls. “People will have to walk a block but we hope the amenities the plaza provides will make up for it.” 

Capitelli also said separate meetings would be held with the community to discuss the parking and the traffic issue.  

He added that the total number of trees would rise from 42 to 102 and that measures would be taken to improve the soil permeability.  

Some neighbors were concerned about the shortage of trees and others thought the proposed number of trees was “too many.” 

“Some people actually like being in the sun,” commented a neighbor, to which Hensley said that care would be taken to ensure sufficient sunlight in the plaza.  

“We are also looking at plans to include green areas in the plaza where parents could rest with their children during shopping,” she said 

“Would the new plaza be a magnet for the homeless?” was a question on one of the comment cards. 

“Will we not change our community because we are afraid that it will be a magnet for the homeless?” said Capitelli. “Not to build a civic amenity for that reason is unacceptable to me.” 

Hensley said that the project was not receiving any funding from the city.  

“The NSP Inc. is collecting funds for the project and there are also several state and federal grants for pedestrian improvement that could be looked into,” she said. 

Hensley also said that most of the North Shattuck businesses were in support of the project. 

“We are holding meetings with each store about their concern. Long’s has a concern about the loss of the driveway but studies will be done to assess how much it is actually used,” she said, adding that restaurants would benefit from the extended space outside.  

A representative from Black Oak Books said that although the store was supportive, they were concerned about the loss of parking spots in front of the store. 

Stoloff outlined the plan to place a kiosk in the plaza, adding that 100 square feet of space would be available for vendors. 

“The kiosk has a vital function,” he said. “We are hoping to attract a vendor who will help the kiosk to produce income that will support the plaza’s upkeep. The kiosk will also keep an eye out on plaza safety issues.” 

Stoloff said that the final plaza plans would go to the City Council for approval and that it would take six to nine months for the plaza to be completed.  

“We want Berkeleyans to know that everyone is going to be involved in the process,” said Capitelli. “We welcome input on what people would like to have because we are all responsible for its success.” 

Students robbed 

Two UC Berkeley students, a man and a woman, were robbed at 1:13 a.m. Sunday as they walked along Fulton Street near Dwight Way, campus police report. 

The suspect, brandishing a pistol and clad in a hoodie, demanded their valuables, then fled north on Fulton after they complied. 

Another couple robbed 

A second student couple was also robbed, this time at 1:50 a.m. Saturday as they walked along the 2500 block of Dwight Way near the corner of Telegraph Avenue, said campus police. 

They were approached by a gang of five teens, one armed with a knife, who demanded their possessions. After they complied, the couple was allowed to leave. 

Rat-packed 

A 19-year-old Cal student was slammed in the head with a skateboard early Saturday morning by one of a gang of five teens matching the descriptions of the suspects in the knife robbery. 

The student told university police the group approached him as he walked along Regent Street near the corner of Dwight Way at 2:40 a.m. 

One of the rat packers slammed the student in the head with a skateboard before the group headed south on Derby Street. 

The student was treated for minor injuries at a local hospital, police said. 

Octogenarian robbed 

Two strongarm bandits robbed an 87-year-old Yountville man of his wallet as he was walking along the 2100 block of Woolsey Street at 11 a.m. last Wednesday, reports Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. 

The bandits were last seen headed northbound along Shattuck Avenue. 

Willard Park mugging 

A 27-year-old homeless man was mugged in Willard Park at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday by a 30-something man clad in a black and yellow shirt who punched him in the face. 

The assailant was last seen near the park restroom, said Officer Galvan. 

i-Jacked 

A bearded bandit who made like he was packing a pistol in is pants demanded a 30-year-old Berkeley man’s i-Pod as the victim was walking along the 2300 block of Stuart Street shortly before 4 p.m. on the 24th. 

Though the music listener thought the fellow was faking it with the purported pistol, he decided discretion was the proper course and handed over the music machine, reports Officer Galvan. 

Gang of three 

A trio of strong-arm bandits robbed a Berkeley woman of her cash after they braced her near the corner of 10th and Delaware streets shortly before 8 p.m. on the 24th, said Officer Galvan. Though they inflicted some hurt, the woman declined the services of Berkeley paramedics. 

Baddies busted 

A partial car plate remembered by a man who was robbed of two backpacks and a duffel bag near the corner of Bancroft Way and College Avenue just before midnight on the 22nd led police to four suspects in a stolen van. 

Officer Galvan said the victim’s information—which included the description of their hot wheels—led an officer to stop an older model van on University Avenue near the Sacramento Street intersection moments later. 

Not only did the van prove to be stolen—from Alameda—but the four occupants precisely matched the descriptions provided by the robbery victim. 

“Sometimes you get lucky,” said Officer Galvan. The four suspects, ranging in age from 17 to 19, came from Alameda and Oakland. 

Gummed up 

By resisting a security guard who nabbed him as he stole out of the University Avenue Andronico’s Park and Shop just before 4 p.m. on the 22nd, an 18-year-old Berkeley man turned a minor shoplifting into robbery. 

“All that for two packs of Trident gum,” said Officer Galvan. 

His three associates managed to get away and were last seen speeding away down Addison Street in their car, along with whatever booty they’d managed to pilfer. 

Another rat pack 

A 17-year-old Berkeley man was robbed by a gang of three, one of whom—decked out in the usual hoodie—punched him in the face just before 4:30 p.m. on the 22nd near the corner of Channing Way and McGee Avenue. 

The man handed over his cash and the trio of teenage felons departed. The man declined medical aid, said Officer Galvan.

On Nov. 7, District 2 voters in Oakland face a clear choice for City Council. It is an opportunity to create a progressive majority in one of the nation’s most diverse cities. And it is a choice between two very different futures for Oakland.  

One Oakland is a city controlled by developers and gripped by fear. A “bedroom community” for San Francisco—a town that says yes to any developer instead of working to create good jobs for the families who live here. This is the Oakland that has watched 120 people killed this year, and failed to show leadership in taking on the real causes of violence.  

In this Oakland, big-money developers get too much, and our children get too little. Sadly, this is the Oakland my opponent represents.  

The other Oakland is a model for what is possible. Community policing and peacekeeping teams that make us safer. New jobs in the green economy that create economic opportunities, and make our environment cleaner. A stronger “Sunshine Ordinance” to end City Hall corruption. And Mayor-elect Dellums has a chance to succeed.  

I represent this Oakland, and with your vote on Nov. 7 we can make it a reality.  

Who I am 

Every Election Day, my father would remind me how previous generations struggled for the right to vote. I took that sense of duty to heart, and have spent my life working for social justice. I am:  

• A wife and a mother with a beautiful son. 

• An honorably discharged Army conscientious objector, who publicly protests war and privately counsels soldiers.  

• A businesswoman who has helped dozens of small businesses.  

• A teacher and a mentor. I taught high school social studies, and currently mentor Oakland youth about alternatives to violence. 

I have deep roots in District 2. Together with groups like Sierra Club, ACORN, SEIU, the Labor Council, the Oakland Education Association and the Nurses Association (all of whom endorsed me), I have fought for change in District 2.  

What I stand for 

In June, almost two-thirds of District 2 voted for progressive leadership. I will work in partnership with Mayor-elect Ron Dellums and Councilmember Nancy Nadel to enact a strong, solutions-driven agenda. My priorities are:  

Preventing violence  

Oakland’s leadership is failing to address the horrific murder rate in Oakland. I have a clear plan to address the root causes of violence:  

•Effective policing. Right now the police chief doesn’t have the power or the support to get officers out of their cars and on to the streets. I will push to revise the Oakland Police Officers contract, giving the Chief the power to implement community policing and to put officers on the street at night and on weekends.  

• Peacekeeping Teams. Much of the crime we’re seeing is retaliation for other crimes. I’ve proposed a conflict resolution and crisis response team that can stop retaliation before it starts.  

• Re-entry internships and job training. Over 10,000 people in Oakland are currently on parole or probation. I’ll work to reintegrate parolees and probationers in Oakland with accessible housing, job training, drug rehabilitation and medical care.  

• Provide alternatives, like expanded recreation, sports and cultural programs for young people. These are proven deterrents to crime.  

Double funding for children and youth  

The current Oakland Fund for Children and Youth does a lot, but it could go further. I am calling for twice as much funding so that the fund—along with Measure Y—could make a real difference.  

Create jobs that protect the environment 

Oakland is poised to be a national leader in “green jobs,” creating a Silicon Valley of green capital right here in Oakland as a way to lift people up out of poverty. I will work to:  

• Attract green businesses and new clean energy and clean tech jobs.  

• Use the growing green economy to create a youth jobs corps, and living wage jobs.  

• Ask the Port to pay its fair share, and advocate for a “healthy port” that doesn’t pollute our communities.  

Stop the corruption in City Hall 

The recent FBI probe is embarrassing, and it erodes confidence in our leaders. If elected I will work to:  

• Make government accountable by strengthening the Sunshine Ordinance.  

• End backroom deals that waste taxpayer dollars.  

Who funds my campaign—and who funds my opponent  

Simply put: I will not be bought. I accept no contributions from corporations. My funding comes largely from my friends and neighbors who believe in change.  

My opponent? Sadly, we can see where her priorities lie:  

• Almost 40 percent of her funding comes directly from developers, corporations and builders.  

• In the current election, over half of Councilmember Kernighan’s funding comes from outside of District 2.  

• Even her own supporter, former candidate Shirley Gee, said that Councilmember Kernighan is “heavily influenced by Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and housing developers.”  

My business experience has taught me to fight for the small businesses—not corporations—and that’s the leadership I’ll bring to City Council.  

Why make a change?  

I stand for people over profits—the grassroots and the families in District 2.  

We have the opportunity for real solutions and real leadership—and the chance to win a bold and truly progressive victory that will echo across the region.  

In a time where so much is wrong, I ask District 2 voters to vote for leadership for a change. 

For more information, see www.Aimee Allison.org. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: 

Oakland District 2 City Councilmember Pat Kernighan declined the inivitation to submit a statement to the Daily Planet.

Ten days before he was killed on Oct. 27, journalist Brad Will posted a news report on the Internet called “Death in Oaxaca,” about a 41-year-old man shot as he manned a barricade with his family and neighbors, much as thousands of Oaxacans have been doing for five months. Will, 36, from New York, had “not seen too many bodies in my life—eats you up,” he wrote in his dispatch to Indymedia. (http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/77343.shtml) 

The Oaxacan man Brad Will wrote about was “one more death—one more martyr in a dirty war—one more time to cry and hurt.” Will himself was shot with a camera in his hand. Photos taken by others show him thin and glassy-eyed, lying on a sidewalk stripped of his shirt as two others try to help, bullet holes ringed with red blood on his solar plexus, as if targeted by a sharpshooter. 

The Oaxaca standoff has been a hidden story, largely ignored by the U.S. press. What has been silenced with the death of an independent reporter like Will, unfunded by any large organization, was one of the few voices that has tried to tell the story to the world. Teachers began the strike in May by requesting a salary raise and peacefully occupying the city center. In the following weeks Gov. Ulises Ruiz ordered the teachers forcibly removed, which drew other demonstrators to join the occupation and eventually paralyzed the city. Paramilitary and off-duty officers have shot at the demonstrators—at least 13 deaths, including Will’s. have been counted. Residents called for the resignation of Ruiz, an iron-fisted governor blamed for the deaths, and for a corrupt administration. The strikers insisted on non-violence. Now President Vicente Fox, with just one more month in office, has sent in federal troops to re-take the city. 

The conflict in Oaxaca is part of a larger movement of demands for wider democracy in Mexico, often spearheaded by indigenous groups, the most well known of which is the Zapatista movement in the Lacandon jungles and other areas of Chiapas, south of Oaxaca. Of some 500 Oaxaca municipalities, more than 400 are overwhelmingly Indian; among the 70,000 teachers affected by the strike, many of the activists are bilingual indigenous teachers. While teachers voted last week to return to work, others have vowed to continue to paralyze the city until demands are met. Now that Fox has sent in federal riot police with automatic weapons and military helicopters in the wake of Will’s and two other deaths, it’s not clear which direction the Oaxaca story will take, but it’s clear it will not disappear. 

The Popular Assembly of the Oaxacan Peoples, known by its Spanish acronym APPO, a collection of activist groups, has said it will maintain the occupation. Monitoring its radio station Asamblea Popular de Oaxaca (www.asambleapopulardeoaxaca.com) as federal troops came to the city, a listener could hear a town at war and the sounds of resistance. Light small fires to make smoke and obscure the vision of helicopters, announcers advised, give blood, and bring food to strategic points. There were warnings about neighborhoods being searched (“Police in ski masks dressed in gray are going house to house in Colonia Aleman”), and reports of federal troops’ movements at various sectors. There were also constant calls to remain peaceful, to avoid anyone who suggested violent reactions, to avoid provocations that might call down reaction from troops and police. Sugar and sand might be thrown in front of vehicles, an announcer suggested, to slow their progress. 

“It is clear that this is more than a strike, more than expulsion of a governor, more than a blockade, more than a coalition of fragments—it is a genuine peoples revolt,” wrote Brad Will in the days before he died. “After decades of...rule by bribe, fraud and the bullet the people are tired—you cannot mistake the whisper of the Lacandon jungle in the streets—in every street corner deciding together to hold—you see it in their faces—indigenous, women, children—so brave—watchful at night—proud and resolute.” 

Small demonstrations are taking place in cities such as San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, deploring the Oaxaca deaths and Fox’s decision to send federal police and soldiers to Oaxaca. The Spanish-language daily La Opinion said 70 persons from the Oaxacan community demonstrated in front of the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, and quoted Odilia Romero, a representative of the Binational Indigenous Organizations Front, made up largely of Oaxacans in Southern California and the agricultural Central Valley. “There is no need to repress the people of Oaxaca, who are a peaceful people,” Romero told La Opinion. Strikers have blamed Gov. Ruiz for acts of violence before and since the strike began. Ruiz is a member of the PRI, the party which has governed Oaxaca for 70 years. “If he stays, the repression is going to be stronger against those who are against him,” Romero said. 

The Fox administration began with hope because he was the first to break the 70-year stranglehold of the powerful PRI party on Mexico’s presidency, and because President Bush gave strong signals then about immigration reform, which would benefit Mexicans. Fox is leaving with no immigration reform in the north and a fence going up on the U.S. border; and in the south, a former tourist mecca occupied by federal troops holding off a disgruntled population. It has taken the death of an American to shine a light on the struggle in Oaxaca, where demands for “direct democracy,” more autonomous rule that answers local needs without corruption, are not likely to go away. “What can you say about this movement—this revolutionary moment,” Brad Will asked in his last dispatch. “You know it is building, growing, shaping.” 

Scenes from the Abu Ghraib prison torture came to life in front of UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall Law School on Tuesday, as students and professors turned up to mark “Bush Crimes Day” and protest against Boalt professor John Yoo’s Oct. 19 attack on the independent judiciary in the Wall Street Journal. 

Dressed in black hoods and orange prison garb, student activists from The World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime! enacted the infamous photo of hooded Iraqi prisoners being electrocuted at Abu Ghraib. 

World Can’t Wait! along with Rev. Taigen Dan Leighton of the Berkeley Graduate Theological Union, has been holding weekly “Teach-Ins and Vigils Against American Torture and the Dictatorial Presidency” in front of the Boalt Hall Law School since February.  

Tuesday’s participants included Boalt Hall Law Professor Emeritus Robert Cole, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and Ann Wright, former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia, who resigned in protest of the Iraq War. 

“We meet at Boalt Hall Law School today because its Professor John Yoo is a primary legal architect, through the infamous ‘torture memo’ he wrote, of the Bush Torture program,” said Leighton. 

“It is only because of the highly controversial opinions of John Yoo, who defines ‘torture’ as limited to death or destruction of major organs, that President Bush can now claim that we do not torture,” Leighton said. “Professor Yoo teaches at UC Berkeley without the university disassociating itself from his views, which include condoning the torture of children. We do not seek to limit John Yoo’s academic freedom but to express our strong objection to the torture and unlimited presidential powers he advocates.” 

Participants rallied against Yoo’s celebratory letter to the Wall Street Journal editorial page which supported the Military Commissions Act that was signed by President Bush last week. The act’s relationship to larger issues of the administration’s policies and politics were also discussed. 

Leighton read excerpts from Yoo’s letter in the newspaper, which stated: 

“During the bitter controversy over the military commission bill, which President Bush signed into law on Tuesday, most of the press and the professional punditry missed the big story. In the struggle for power between the three branches of government, it is not the presidency that ‘won.’ Instead, it is the judiciary that lost. The new law is, above all, a stinging rebuke to the Supreme Court. It strips the courts of jurisdiction to hear any habeas corpus claim filed by any alien enemy combatant anywhere in the world.” 

Yoo’s letter also said that the U.S. Supreme Court had “gotten away with many broad assertions of judicial authority before,” which drew protests from several attendees. 

Professor Cole, who teaches Constitutional Law at Boalt Hall, said that the Military Commissions Act would place the Bush administration beyond checks and balances and would de-facto abolish the writ of habeas corpus, the basis for law and order in the Western world since the Magna Carta in 1215. 

According to Cole, the act, which did not have any standards about where the prisoners would be held or how long they would be held, was creating a system of “incognito detention.” 

“The act defines ‘torture’ as severe infliction of pain,” he said. “However it says that disputed degrees of torture can be done for information. What could mean torture to someone, might not be torture to the U.S. government. Therein lies the heart of the evil.” 

Cole drew praise from several attendees, including Ellsberg, for being the first professor to step out of Boalt Hall to protest against Yoo. 

“Why aren’t there more students and professors from the Law School protesting out here today?” asked Ellsberg. “These are the very people who are supposed to be saving us.” 

Ann Wright called the Military Commissions Act a “travesty of the legal system of the United States.” 

Business for Better Govern-ment—the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce political action committee (PAC)—has fired the first salvo of its campaign against Measure J. 

A first-class postcard mailer from a non-union printer, mailed in Carlsbad, began arriving in Berkeley mailboxes this week, full of charges certain to provoke controversy in the waning days of campaigning before the Nov. 7 election. 

“I think it’s a pack of lies,” said Laurie Bright, one of the two principal sponsors of the initiative written to update the city’s controversial Landmarks Preserva-tion Ordinance (LPO). “It’s full of flat-out misrepresentations.” 

Laurie Capitelli, a Berkeley city councilmember who endors-ed the anti-J mailer, acknowledged, “Yes, it’s a campaign piece,” adding quickly, “but yes, I agree” with it. 

“It’s unfortunate we live in this world of 30-second sound bites and 10-word messages on post cards,” Capitelli said. 

The Chamber PAC filed its campaign finance statement with the city on Thursday afternoon, reporting that it had spent $39,600 on mailers in opposition to Measure J. 

Other endorsers of the anti-J mailing, listed prominently, were: 

• Mayor Tom Bates; 

• Councilmembers Max Anderson, Linda Maio, Darryl Moore and Gordon Wozniak; 

• Assemblymember and Bates’ spouse Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley); 

• Landmarks Preservation Commission member Burton Edwards; 

• Planning Commissioner Harry Pollack; 

• Liveable (sic) Berkeley board member Alan Tobey and 

• Sally Woodbridge, an architectural historian. 

Asked about specific allegations made on the postcard, Chamber President Roland Peterson said, “I haven’t looked at the mailer in a few weeks, but most of the information we have came from a few folks in West Berkeley.” 

Asked who in West Berkeley, Peterson offered one name, Michael Goldin, an interior design architect and a leading figure in the West Berkeley Business Alliance. 

Goldin, reached late Thursday afternoon, said, “I’ll have to call you back,” then complained that this newspaper had published his home address, which was the location of a meeting held by Measure J opponents. 

The front of the mailer features a photo of Celia’s Mexican Restaurant, a 1946 building at 2040 Fourth St. that was the subject of a controversial February 2005, historic designation by the Landmarks Preservation Commission later overturned by the city council. 

Beneath a photo taken of the building’s least attractive side, complete with fire escape, is the headline, “ANOTHER LANDMARK? Designated a landmark because Boy Scouts may have met there!” 

Peterson said he couldn’t comment on the text because “I have to admit I haven’t looked at it (the mailer) in a couple of weeks.” 

But the Landmarks Preservation Commission finding that designated the building a Structure of Merit emphasized that the structure had been designed by prominent Bay Area architect Irwin Johnson, who designed several noted structures and one residential historic district in Oakland. 

Designed for a now-defunct paint company, the structure later housed offices of the Mount Diablo Council of the Boy Scouts of America. 

“There’s no ‘may’ about it,” said Bright. “The Boy Scouts did meet there.” 

Among the allegations raised in the mailer are charges that Measure J: 

• “gives total control over your property to unelected officials,” apparently meaning the LPC, which is appointed by city councilmembers. Bright said control isn’t total because all commission decisions may be appealed to the city council, as was the case with the Celia’s designation. 

• “requires only 25 people to create a Historic District.” Rival legislation drafted by Mayor Bates and Capitelli, which was placed on hold after Measure J qualified for the November ballot, also called for 25 signatures, a number Bright said was the suggestion of the state Office of Historic Preservation. 

• “removes state historic standard of integrity from our landmarking process,” which Bright said was a blatant lie. “The standard isn’t included in our present ordinance, but we added it to Measure J as one of the criteria that can be used in designating a local property,” he said. 

Bright said Measure J gives less power to the LPC than the Bates/Capitelli ordinance, which would subject all residential alterations on older homes to the LPC, “while ours doesn’t.” 

Because Chamber of Commerce officials cut their calls short, a reporter wasn’t able to ask how much the organization had spent on the mailer. 

The PAC held a $250-a-head fundraiser at Goldin’s home on Sept. 21, attended by about 40 members and invitees. The invitation described the event as “one of the most important fundraising events for the future of Berkeley.” 

The money was raised to fund opposition to Measure J and to support Bates and City Council candidates Raudel Wilson and George Beier. 

Bright said he believed the mailer was designed to incorporate the results of a mysterious and costly mid-summer poll that presented a large number of Berkeley voters with a long and detailed list of possible arguments against Measure J, asking if they would be more or less likely to oppose it if each argument were true. 

“This was clearly done in response to that poll,” said Bright. 

No one has claimed responsibility for the survey, conducted by Communications Center Incorporated, a 19-year-old polling firm with calling centers in Washington, D.C., Spokane and Lakeland, Fla. 

Caller ID identified the calls as coming from the Spokane area. Questioned by a reporter, a representative of the firm refused to identify who had signed their checks. 

Because no one filed to report it as a campaign expense, the poll is currently under investigation by the city’s Fair Campaign Practices Commission.  

Capitelli said he had no idea who had sponsored the survey. 

Debate nixed  

Measure J’s sponsors had also sent emails to Bates and Capitelli asking them to debate the ordinance in a gathering that would be broadcast by KPFA radio. 

“We never got an acknowledgment from Bates, but Laurie Capitelli did respond this afternoon,” Bright said Thursday. 

An email from the councilmember’s office declined the invitation, noting that the proposed moderator Gianna Ranuzzi. had expressed support for Measure J.  

Roger Marquis, Measure J’s other sponsor, replied with another email, offering Capitelli the option of picking a different moderator, “someone you feel will be fair and impartial.”

A lawsuit charging illegal campaign practices, allegations of illegal contributions and outright lies, and an apology for stealing campaign literature? 

No, it’s not GOP politics à la Karl Rove in the heart of the Bible Belt. It’s Democratic city candidates squaring off against each other in Albany. 

The latest and potentially most serious broadside fired in an unusually heated race came Wednesday in a lawsuit charging candidate Caryl O’Keefe and her supporters with violations of city and state election laws. 

The action, filed Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court, alleges that O’Keefe, her spouse Alan Riffer and the organization Concerned Albany Neighbors (CAN) violated both the city’s Campaign Reform Act of 1996 and the California Political Reform Act of 1974. 

Alan Riffer, CAN’s assistant treasurer and the signer of the group’s Oct. 5 campaign finance report, was a 2004 council candidate himself. He is also one of the six members of O’Keefe’s campaign committee. 

CAN has distributed flyers condemning candidates Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile, who are running a joint campaign under the Save Our Shoreline (SOS) umbrella, while praising the positions of O’Keefe and Francesco Papalia, the fourth of the quartet of candidates running for two at-large seats. 

The Albany campaign law bars all contributions to candidates from organizations, and the suit charges that CAN’s two mailings and other expenditures are, in fact, contributions to O’Keefe and should have been reported as such. 

The action, filed by attorney Lowell Finley, an Albany resident who is widely known as an electoral law specialist, seeks an injunction banning CAN from making in-kind contributions to O’Keefe and her campaign committee and banning O’Keefe and her committee from taking any such contributions.  

The action asks CAN and its officers to pay the city three times the amount of any illegal contributions made to O’Keefe and a similar assessment from O’Keefe for any illegal contributions received. The suit also seeks attorney’s fees and court costs. 

In an earlier letter, Albany resident and contractor Peter Maas had asked City Attorney Robert Zweben to look into the claims, but the lawyer declined. Subsequently, the City Council voted 3-2 to take up the issue, though logistical problems delayed the follow-up meeting until this coming Monday. 

Maas cited three contibutions to CAN that topped the $100 maximum allowed under city law, including $200 from Riffer. The Finley lawsuit repeated many of the allegations in Maas’ letter. 

“Neither I nor anyone on my committee has asked Concerned Albany Neighbors to do anything. My committee and I know the campaign rules and follow them,” said O’Keefe in response to the Maas complaint. 

Non-endorsement endorsement? 

The other controversy concerns whether or not Papalia endorsed Proposition 90, possibly the most radical and controversial measure to confront California voters on the Nov. 7 ballot. 

The Save Our Shoreline website declares that “On 9/29/06 Papalia endorsed Proposition 90, a truly scary anti-environmental measure being pitched by Orange County property rights extremists.” 

“That’s wrong,” Papalia declared Monday. “That a lie, a lie, a lie. I never did endorse Proposition 90.” He pointed to the No on 90 website, which Monday showed Papalia as one of many Californians who have called for a no vote on the measure (www.noprop90.com/coalition/ index.php). 

But a check of the same website Wednesday found his name missing from the list of opponents. Kathy Fairbanks of Bicker, Castillo & Fairbanks, the campaign management firm that runs the website, said, “Anybody can sign up on the website, but we don’t list candidates, and when we found out that’s what he was, we took him off.” 

And while the comments he made about Proposition 90 during the Sept. 29 League of Women Voters debate—the basis of the claim made on the SOS website—didn’t contain the words “I endorse,” Papalia offered unqualified praise for the ballot measure: 

“Proposition 90 is to really protect everyone from eminent domain abuse,” he said. “It’s there not to protect the corporations or large landowners. It is there to protect the small property owners. A very famous case has been in the news about property owners. I think it was in New Jersey or New York where the city had declared wonderful homes blighted properties so they could be taken to create a commercial development. So this whole thing is designed to protect the property rights of everyone.” [The latest campaign statements from all Albany candidates, including Papalia, can be found in the opinion section of today’s Planet.] 

In fact, Kelo v. City of New London, the case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in June, concerned riverfront property in Connecticut, where land was taken to develop a research park, upscale housing, office towers and a marina. Owners of several modest homes on part of the site filed the lawsuit that was ended by the high court ruling. 

While Proposition 90 and similar measures on the ballots in other states would bar seizing private land for commercial development, the measure’s other provisions would effectively end most of the powers of state and local governments to limit development, critics say, by paving the way for lawsuits by owners seeking compensation for any regulations that limit their ability to develop property to the maximum extent otherwise allowed by law before the regulation was enacted. 

Even the strongly pro-development California Chamber of Commerce opposes the measure, along with many other business and conservative groups, who say it goes too far in allowing potentially onerous lawsuits by property owners affected by regulatory actions. 

Stolen literature 

Another furor emerged after news broke that Wile had swiped some of Papalia’s campaign literature as she was walking precincts in the city. 

Unlike Berkeley’s Tom Bates, who swiped a sizable number of copies of the Daily Cal before his first election as mayor, Wile said she took only a few of the leaflets, replacing them with copies of her own handout.  

“I picked up about a dozen flyers when I had a temper tantrum,” she said later. “I apologized to the City Council and to him. I offered to place his literature all over the city.” 

She told the council, “I am extremely remorseful and regretful over my uncharacteristic lapse in behavior, for which I offer no excuse. What I did was wrong and will not be repeated by me or anyone connected to my campaign.”

The Mayor Ron Dellums era in Oakland started dramatically and three months early this week with a Thursday morning press conference by the incoming mayor on the City Hall steps, announcing that he had brokered a deal to prevent the impending infusion of thousands of dollars of business money into the last two weeks of the District 2 City Council and City Auditor races. 

With Michael Colbruno, chairman of the politically powerful OakPAC Oakland Chamber of Commerce political action committee, standing on one side and Congressmember Barbara Lee standing on the other, Dellums told a battery of television cameras and reporters that OakPAC had voluntarily agreed not to spend some $116,000 in last-minute money planned for local candidates in the Nov. 7 election. 

The agreement means Oak-PAC will not exercise the rights it won last week to break Oakland’s six-year-old campaign expenditure rules. A U.S. District Judge had temporarily lifted Oak-land’s spending limit for political action committees. 

The City Hall press conference, attended by District 2 Coun-cilmember Pat Kernighan and her challenger, Aimee Allison, as well as several other City Council-members and local political figures, came immediately following an hour-long Thursday morning meeting between Dellums and OakPAC officials, in which the deal was brokered.  

“The timing was inappropriate,” Dellums said. “This is not the time to change the rules. OakPAC agreed to back away and not pull the trigger. This signals that if we come to the table with each other, there’s no problem that we cannot address. This marks a new day in Oakland.” 

OakPAC chairman Colbruno said that his organization will immediately pull any money they had planned to put into the Oakland races. 

“We are happy and pleased to join Mr. Dellums in this agreement,” he said. “The tenor of Karl Rove-type politics has grown ugly around the nation, and if Mr. Dellums thinks that an infusion of cash into the Oakland races at this date is a bad thing, it is important that we honor that. We will have a philosophical discussion about the appropriateness [of the Oakland political expenditure guidelines] following the election in November.”  

Asked why OakPAC would voluntarily give up a court victory it had so recently fought and won, Colbruno glanced at Dellums standing next to him and said, a little sheepishly, that “we have a compelling and persuasive mayor coming into office.” 

Neither man went into details of what was said in the hour-long negotiation session that preceded the joint press conference. 

While the negotiations did not include other political campaign committees, Dellums said that he “hoped that every independent expenditure group steps back as well” and voluntarily refrains from spending above the existing Oakland limits.  

Dellums does not take the mayor’s office until next January, and has kept a decidedly low profile in the months since he won the June election. But the brokered deal showed the enormous power and influence the former Congressmember wields. Current Congressmember Barbara Lee said that the brokered agreement was “a marvelous example of what’s to come under Mayor Dellums’ leadership. We always knew that Ron was a uniter, not a divider.” 

Pointedly absent from the press conference, or the negotiations, were representatives of the current occupier of the Oakland mayor’s office, Jerry Brown. Asked if he had consulted with Brown over the OakPAC negotiations, Dellums said, “No, but perhaps he’s been busy, out campaigning.” 

Brown is running in the general election for California Attorney General. 

The Dellums/OakPAC agreement and press conference ended a rapid-fire series of events beginning on Thursday of last week. 

On that day, U.S. District Court Judge Martin J. Jenkins temporarily granted OakPAC’s petition to overturn Oakland’s political action spending limits, suspending those limits through the November election. Under Oakland’s campaign expenditure law, on the books since 2000, political action committees can collect as much as they wish, but are limited in the amount of money they can spend in a race from each donation received. OakPAC had argued that the limits unconstitutionally infringed on First Amendment freedom of speech rights. 

OakPAC immediately announced that it was planning to spend “at least $116,500 on campaign mailings, door hangers and automated telephone calls to support and oppose local candidates,” according to the Oakland Tribune. OakPAC has endorsed incumbent Kernighan over challenger Allison in the Oakland District Two Council race and challenger Courtney Ruby over incumbent Roland Smith in the City Auditor race. 

Facing a last-minute onslaught of money in opposition to her candidacy, on Tuesday Allison and her supporters held a rally on the steps of Oakland City Hall denouncing the judge’s decision and OakPAC’s actions. 

“They are trying to buy this election for Pat Kernighan,” Allison said in a prepared statement. “Whoever you’re supporting, it’s a stunning and unconscionable subversion of clean election and clean campaign laws. We are standing together to say that District Two—and Oakland—cannot be bought.” 

Asked on Thursday if his intervention into the campaign finance issue signaled a defacto endorsement of Allison—Dellums has not made an endorsement in the District Two race—the mayor-elect said, “I am not getting involved in a partisan level in that race. I will have to be able to work with whoever gets elected. I’m taking the position that if the voters of Oakland were smart enough to elect me, they are smart enough to decide on their own who should be the next councilmember from district two.” 

That did not dampen Allison’s spirits. Following the Dellums/OakPAC press conference, a delighted Allison led a spirited victory celebration with supporters in front of City Hall. She told reporters that she obviously supported the agreement, saying that “to change the law in mid-stream subverts the process.” 

For her part, a more subdued Kernighan said “sure” when asked if she supported the Dellums/OakPAC agreement. “I think it’s a wonderful agreement. I think it’s a good sign that Dellums is bringing people together in this city, and I support that.” 

The councilmember added, “Now we can get back to the real issues in the campaign, which are who has the experience and the track record of activism and can best serve District 2.” 

Kernighan said that she had not participated in the Dellums/OakPAC meeting that led to the spending limit agreement, but that she “hadn’t asked for the extra [financial contribution] help in the first place. I don’t think it was helping me. I am a longtime proponent of campaign expenditure limits. I support the current Oakland law.”

UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium will get local landmark  

status as designated June 1 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, a unanimous City Council said Tuesday night. 

In other business, the council put off a decision on a plan for cultural uses at the Allston Way Gaia Building, approved a scaled-down housing and commercial development at Harrison Street and San Pablo Avenue, waived city fees for the installation of solar panels and approved standards for housing dogs outdoors. 

Stadium landmark reversal 

In an Oct. 24 report to the council, planning staff had called for a delay of the local landmarks designation for Memorial Stadium, calling for the question to be sent back to the commission. However, in an 11th-hour reversal on Tuesday, planning staff asked the council to uphold the commission’s designation of the stadium as a local landmark. 

The last-minute staff recommendation was made orally by Deputy Planning Director Wendy Cosin. 

The local landmarks status had been called into question by Irene Hegarty, UC Berkeley’s community relations director, who pointed out discrepancies between the local and national applications for landmarks status. The City Council called for a public hearing to resolve the discrepancies.  

Landmarks status is critical at this time, according to advocates of the designation, because the university is planning a number of controversial building projects in southeast Berkeley where the stadium is located, which will include remodeling the stadium. The UC Regents are expected to vote on the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects at their Nov. 15-16  

meeting. 

While the half-dozen residents who spoke at the public hearing favored the landmarks designation, some asked why the designation had not happened months earlier. Speaking at the public hearing, Panoramic Hill resident Janice Thomas underscored that the Landmarks Preservation Commission had made its decision months earlier. 

“Why the delay?” she asked. “The public would like answers.” 

While he voted to support the new staff position on the question, Councilmember Kriss Worthington criticized the process, whereby the council was asked to make a decision based on an oral report.  

During the council discussion, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque responded to an e-mail she received that afternoon from former mayor Shirley Dean. In her email, Dean argued that the council had not taken correct steps in scheduling the public hearing on the landmarking decision. 

“As the Council did not “certify” the action there is no appeal before the council at this time,” Dean wrote. 

In a written response to Dean, Albuquerque said Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan had “listened to the tape [of the council meeting] and it was absolutely clear that the council was asked to (and did) set this for hearing, in order to resolve discrepancies between the city’s … and National Register designation.” 

On Wednesday, Deputy Director Wendy Cosin explained the 11th-hour change in the staff recommendation, saying, after public outcry and a Daily Planet story on the question, staff looked again at the need to address the discrepancies and concluded there was no need to do so. 

It would have been procedurally incorrect “to have the council deny [the designation] for the purpose of sending it back to the LPC” to address the differences between the two, she said. 

Why was the change in the staff recommendation made only at the last minute? “I don’t know. It shouldn’t have happened that way,” City Manager Phil Kamlarz told the Daily Planet on Wednesday. Dean said that she was “delighted” by the outcome, whether or not she was responsible for it. 

Gaia 

The council majority voted 5-3-1 to delay a decision on a plan to make cultural uses a priority at the Gaia Building, at 2116 Allston Way. Councilmembers Dona Spring, Betty Olds and Darryl Moore abstained on the question, while Worthington voted in opposition. 

While most of the council appeared to favor a plan that outlined the amount of time to be dedicated to cultural uses, several councilmembers raised questions on the definition of culture in this context. 

The plan recommended by staff says that 30 percent of use would be dedicated to cultural events; non-cultural events would be permitted as long as cultural activities had priority and 51 percent of the weekend dates had to be devoted to some cultural use. 

The city is involved in defining cultural uses at the building as well as designating how often space in the building should be used for such activities because developer Patrick Kennedy was allowed to build the structure two stories higher than would have been otherwise permitted in exchange for a promise to provide cultural uses on the first two levels of the building. 

Kennedy addressed the council, arguing he had more than 100 cultural events at Gaia in the last six months and urged the council to approve the plan immediately. “The protracted dialogue has been ruinous,” he said.  

Urging the council to send the question back to the zoning board for further definition of cultural use, Anna de Leon, who owns a jazz club in Kennedy’s building, argued before the council that Kennedy included church services and Haas School of Business dinners as cultural uses, but these, in fact, were “incidental” and not cultural. 

De Leon further objected to the Gaia marquee outside her establishment that had advertised church-related activities for two weeks. (In response, Kennedy promised the church would use the marquee only on Sunday mornings in the future.) Others supporting de Leon complained of drunken patrons from private parties at the building interfering with the club operation. 

The issue “should go back to ZAB [the Zoning Adjustment Board] for definition,” de Leon said. 

“Both sides have said they will take us to court on this matter,” noted Mayor Tom Bates. But City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque downplayed the importance of the threat, saying, “People sue us all the time. The line forms around the block.” 

Advising the council not to send the question back to the zoning board, Albuquerque argued, “The religious use issue is a red herring,” and that church services would not be considered a cultural use. 

Other matters 

In other actions, the council approved: 

• A five-story, 27-unit condominium project built over commercial space at Harrison Street and San Pablo Avenue, which was scaled down after neighbors appealed the project;  

• Waiving city fees for those installing solar panels; 

• Specifying requirements for shelter, food and water for dogs left outside.

Energized with recorded rhythms such as Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” some 60 protesters rallied outside the Berkeley Public Safety building then marched through the streets and demanded the reopening of police complaint hearings.  

The demonstration ended at the Police Review Commission [PRC] meeting, where ralliers crowded into a meeting room at the North Berkeley Senior Center for a public hearing on the suspension of complaint hearings. 

The rally was organized by Copwatch, the organization that also had collected more than 50 signatures to compel the PRC to hold the public hearing. 

“The PRC has been a model for civilian complaints for 33 years,” said Copwatch leader Andrea Pritchett, speaking at the rally. 

“We believe there are good cops in there,” she said, adding there are also “dirty cops” such as Sgt. Cary Kent, who was convicted on felony drug theft charges earlier this year because he took drug evidence from a locked evidence vault, and other officers on administrative leave pending formal charges. 

“We’ve got to restart a movement for community control of police,” Prichett said. 

Calling for reopening the hearings to the public, mayoral candidate Zachary Running Wolf asked why other candidates were absent. “Where’s our mayor? Where’s [mayoral candidate] Zelda Bronstein?” he asked. 

PRC hearings on complaints against police were suspended in mid-September, after the State Supreme Court ruled in Copley Press vs. San Diego County that disciplinary actions against police officers must be kept confidential. This ruling coincided with a four-year-old Berkeley Police Association lawsuit against the city, similarly arguing that the public should not have access to disciplinary procedures and records.  

Before the PRC hearing, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque told the audience that the city’s position was that the Copley decision should not apply to Berkeley because the PRC does not actually discipline officers, as the Civil Service Board did in the Copley case. She said the BPA suit is invalid for similar reasons. 

“The city’s right as a charter city to create a public accountability procedure to review the actions of its police officers that are entirely separate from its disciplinary and personnel procedures is derived directly from the California Constitution,” Albuquerque said in a written memo. 

“Hearings are on a temporary hold—we’re not shutting them down,” she said. “We’re fighting this case to the hilt.” 

Underscoring the need for open hearings on complaints against police, Copwatch began the public hearing with a video in which police officers refused to show their badge numbers and moved Copwatch members filming arrests away from the scene.  

Former PRC Commissioner Mark Schlosberg, police policy director for the Northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, was among the speakers urging the commission to begin to explore ways of continuing the hearings immediately, and not to wait for a Nov. 14 hearing on the BPA lawsuit. 

“I think we should plan for various outcomes,” he said. 

“These are strange times, where everyone loses privacy except the police,” said Dean Tuckerman, telling the commission, “Don’t give up and let the police state run you over.” 

Because Berkeley’s PRC has been a model for other cities, people from outside Berkeley also attended the hearings. “It is very important that the hearings continue even if they must be closed  

to the public at this time,” said Chris Morray-Jones from the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. 

PRC Chair Sharon Kidd said comments at the public hearing would not be discussed by the commission until after the Nov. 14 court hearing on the BPA lawsuit. 

In other Police Review Commission matters, Kidd said the commission has delayed until further notice review of the case of the Berkeley police officer convicted earlier this year of stealing drugs from a locked evidence vault and review of the pending cases of two other officers on administrative leave who may be charged with criminal acts.

The Planning Commission voted on Wednesday to recommend that the City Council adopt the proposed Creeks Task Force revisions to the Creeks Ordinance while taking into account the recommendations by the commission. 

Board members Helen Burke and David Stoloff will represent the Creeks Task Force and the Planning Commission respectively when they appear before the City Council. 

Former mayor Shirley Dean urged board members to review the July 11 and Oct. 24 letters to the commission from the group Neighbors on Urban Creeks, which made the following points: 

• creek culverts should not be part of the creeks ordinance,  

• homeowners should have the right to rebuild irrespective of whether their house had been destroyed by termites or by fire, 

• the city should review who had financial responsibility for repairing culverts, 

• the city should come up with a comprehensive watershed management plan to deal with floods, and 

• the city should also come up with a proper mapping system for creeks and culverts. 

At the Oct. 13 planning meeting, board members and city staff had grappled with whether use permits or variances were needed for construction within 30 feet of an open creek. The task force recommended that a variance should be required. The commission voted 5-4 on Wednesday to require a use permit instead of a variance. 

The commission passed a motion stating that it was concerned about the high costs to the homeowners of the culvert section and asked the City Council to research this before taking further action. 

Task Force Chair Burke said that public safety was at stake. “It is important to keep in mind that homeowners should not relocate on culverts that could collapse,” she said. 

With respect to the contentious issue of whether culverts should be removed from the creeks ordinance or not, board members said that the city needed to deal with this issue. 

“We are stepping into the middle of a huge policy issue. This is not something the Planning Commission should deal with,” said Commissioner Tim Perry. 

The City Attorney has said that culverts have to be kept in the creeks ordinance.  

“If taking culverts out of the creeks ordinance would result in lower costs for homeowners or address the cost, time, intelligence and quality issues, then I would do so,” said commissioner Gene Poschman. “But it’s not, and therefore I think we need to concentrate on other important things.” 

The commission also decided to keep the definition of “creek” as proposed by the task force, although there were concerns regarding whether the word “swale” should be included. 

The commission will adopt the staff’s recommended amendments to the Zoning Ordinance related to the Creeks Ordinance and related to rebuilding after the involuntary destruction of a structure.

Two Oakland men have pleaded guilty in connection with the March slaying of a Berkeley man who was hosting a party for his three children and their friends. 

Antonio Harris, 19, had been charged with murder and attempted murder in the killing of Aderian Gaines, 36, and the wounding of Nathaniel Dudley in the March 25 incident at Gaines’ Prince Street home, but he was allowed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm. 

James Freeman, 29, pleaded guilty to being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm, the charge that he faced all along. 

Harris and Freeman entered their pleas in Alameda County Superior Court on Monday. 

Deputy District Attorney Greg Dolge said he allowed Harris to plead guilty to a lesser charge because “after a thorough review of the case and talking to witnesses, there were some significant questions that we’ll never get an answer to.” 

Gaines and his wife, Afeni, were hosting a party for their three children and their friends. They charged $2 admission and searched guests for weapons. The party was the fourth they had hosted in an effort to give their children something to do on a weekend night, according to Berkeley police. 

Dolge said Gaines disarmed Harris and kicked him out of his house after discovering that Harris had a gun. But he said Harris was able to get his gun back and return to the party. 

Dolge said the prosecution’s case was complicated by the fact that Gaines had a rifle with a fixed bayonet in his house that was prominently displayed and was in the possession of three different adult chaperones, including Gaines, at various times during the party. 

He said, “There was an odd confluence of circumstances, the party was crowded and dimly lit, and witness accounts varied widely.” 

Dolge said, “The unanswerables were significant enough to make me less confident that we could prove the murder and attempted murder charges beyond a reasonable doubt.” 

The prosecutor said he talked to Gaines’ family members about the pleas but declined to comment on their reaction, stating that he would leave it up to them to comment on their own. 

Harris, who originally faced a possible sentence of life in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 27 and will get a nine-year state prison sentence as part of his negotiated plea. 

Freeman is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 21 and will get two years, according to Dolge.

Not arson, despite odor 

Smelling volatile chemicals and spotting flammable fluids, Berkeley police figured they had a case of arson when they arrived at a burning home at 1156 Miller Ave. just after 6:16 Wednesday evening. 

“It was not an arson,” said Deputy Fire Chief David Orth, “though I can see why they thought it was.” 

The real culprit was a discarded cigarette, combined with the dry late-autumn weather and a recent and still-odorous application of linseed oil to the front deck. 

The prompt arrival of firefighters extinguished the blaze, but not before the flames had done $35,000 in damage to the structure and another $12,000 to contents. 

“It’s lucky there wasn’t a wind,” said one police officer. “That could have spread really fast.” 

Grounds for blaze 

An unwatched coffee pot takes the blame for a fire that did a total of $11,000 in damage to a home at 1031 Channing Way Sunday evening. 

Orth said the occupant had started a pot of coffee on the stove, then forgot about it after he walked out into his backyard. 

Spotting the flames, he called 911, and firefighters arrived in time to quench the blaze before it did more serious damage.

When the pall of death hung over the East Bay during the October fire of 1991, I turned to the preparation of the evening meal devoid of feeling. To my astonishment, as I went through the routines of chopping, stirring, blending and serving, I felt as though a corner of this pall were lifting. 

The growing and preparation of food are of course rife with cliché, so fundamental are they to our well-being, but never before had I experienced their spiritual component so strongly. 

At this time of year we remember the deadly fire while we rejoice in the life-giving summer harvest, gathering beans, tomatoes, pumpkins and herbs, some for fresh eating, others for their preservation for the months ahead. 

Even if one has no garden, or lives miles away from a farmer’s market, if one is lucky enough to have access to ethnic groceries, or a mail-order system, some of this harvest is available to us year round. And this season, my attention has been diverted from fresh produce to the dried chili pepper. 

If this introduction seems laborious, it serves as a reflection of the complexity of the chili (or more correctly, in Spanish, chile) pepper. For dried chilis often have names that are different from their fresh origins, denoting a change worth marking in their personality, or character, during the ripening process. The ubiquitous jalapeno, for example, becomes the chipotle pepper. 

Since I live a few blocks away from a taqueria that sells small freshly packaged varieties of these dried exotica, I decided to try a tasting experiment of chili pastes by making a base of simple ingredients and testing four chilis, adding them one at a time to the base, hoping to achieve four variations on a single theme. 

Chilis are rated for heat on a scale of one to ten, originally devised in the early 20th century by a chemist, Wilbur Scoville. Today’s scientific measurement of the heat component, capsaicin, still honors his name. Jalapenos are rated 6 on the scale, too hot for me. I limited my experiment to those chilis in the mid-range, 3 and 4, which I hoped would reveal spicy flavors not masked by heat. After all, some capsaicin levels are so high that mouth and lungs can blister. 

The website www.gourmet sleuth.com has a useful heat scale for dried chilis, worth printing for reference. 

The results of the experiment were rewarding. Since my aim was a taste rather than a meal, quantities were small. The base was one tablespoon of tomato paste, one of tamari, one clove of garlic, a pinch of salt, and half a cup of water. To this were added one or two tablespoons of prepared chili, and no more than six drops of lemon juice. The paste was then refrigerated overnight to ripen before the tasting ceremony the next day. 

The preparation of the actual chilis is a little more elaborate. First, they are soaked in water. When sufficiently rehydrated, they are drained and patted dry, stemmed and de-seeded, torn into pieces, and dry-roasted in a heavy pan on both sides until crisp but not burnt. Finally they are ground, traditionally in a mortar and pestle, more conveniently in a coffee grinder. 

Blend, tip into a small jar, and refrigerate. 

Before describing the results, for readers who enjoy very hot peppers, the usual cautions obtain for their handling. However, rather than wearing gloves, one can readily avoid touching them entirely by impaling the pepper with a fork in one hand, and operating on it with a small sharp knife in the other. Interestingly and confusingly, heat levels even within the same variety can be altered by the environment in which the pepper was grown.  

The first pepper I chose was in fact not quite a dried one, though it was certainly leathery, ripe, bright red, long and skinny, labeled by Monterrey Market a paprika. I include it here because not only did it make a delicious paste, but it also inspired the subsequent experiments. I found myself naming all these pastes. This one is “The Pioneer.” 

The second choice was the ancho pepper, a dried poblano, shaped like a heart, commonly found in local markets fresh and very dark green. Its flavor in the paste was profoundly intense, smoky, almost burnt, and very good. Surely Moctezuma would have relished it, so I named it “The Aztec”. 

The third choice was the cascabel, meaning bell in Spanish. It took 24 hours to soften, and added to the base was so bitter that I briefly simmered the whole lot. After ripening in the refrigerator, it was still bitter. I tried adding it to tahini (thinned with water) and discovered thereby its properties, for it not only gave the tahini a hint of heat but also utterly transformed its very nature. In fact it sang like a bell with one pure note. Cascabel also means rattlesnake, and since it needs careful handling, and is a challenge to appreciate, this is what I named the paste. 

Last but not least, for there are others waiting to be tried, I chose the guajillo pepper. The guajillo is easy to prepare, and the result was so scrumptious that I ate the lot with a spoon. Fruity, floral, mild, with peppery overtones, I call it “The Flower.” 

All these pastes without additions make interesting dips. They enhance scrambled eggs, reinforce soups and braised meats, add sparkle to beans and salads. For me they are a daily necessity, rich in vitamin A. I will try them pulverized straight from the package, and soaked but untoasted in dips. To the base I will add peanut butter, or pineapple, or yogurt. Variations seem endless. Excellent recipes using dried chilis can be found in The Food and Cooking of Mexico, by Jane Milton, available from Cody’s on Fourth Street. 

Let us give thanks for our food that endures and comforts and restores us to whole life in bleak times.

Born into an aristocratic British family with fascist tendencies, Jessica Mitford—a.k.a. Decca Treuhaft or Dec, also called Susan by some of her six siblings—reinvented herself throughout her life, eloping to Spain at 19 with a second cousin who had fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War, moving to America, joining the Communist Party and becoming a celebrated Oakland author in her middle age. 

Throughout it all “letter-writing was the life-line that held her many worlds together,” wrote Peter Y. Sussman, editor of Decca, the Letters of Jessica Mitford, just published by Alfred A. Knopf. 

In an interview in his South Berkeley home, Sussman, a San Francisco Chronicle editor from 1964 to 1993, talked about obtaining, then sifting through “thousands and thousands and thousands” of letters spanning Mitford’s life. 

Several years after her death in 1996, radical attorney Robert Treuhaft, Mitford’s second husband, asked Sussman, who was in Mitford’s circle of friends for 30 years, to edit the letters.  

Sussman first met Mitford when, working as a young Chronicle copy editor, he was trying to track down paramilitary activities in the East Bay. She had heard about his project and invited him to meet and discuss it. 

“Any number of other people had the same experience,” Sussman said. “She was very encouraging.”  

Sussman said he selected the letters or parts of them to capture Mitford’s voice. “By that I mean her special stance toward the world,” he said. “She saw things in our culture that others did not see.”  

For example, there was the way Mitford regarded funerals. “It was absolutely preposterous,” Sussman said, “They are corpses, they are dead, but the way they advertise cushioned soles [for shoes] to put on them in their coffins. Decca could see the ridiculousness of it.” 

The editing process entailed omitting letters or parts of them that told highly personal stories of friends or family. 

“There’s a kind of falsification that takes place anytime you edit, select, trim, explain. So I had to keep stepping back and asking, ‘Am I being true to what I’m sensing in her, in these letters I have?’” Sussman said. “It’s not like this is an interpretive work, yet there’s a conscious interpretation that comes into it. Just the act of choosing one letter over another or one anecdote over another.” 

Another challenge Sussman faced was taking care not to reveal names of Communist Party members whose affiliation was not public. And he had to watch for libel, as Mitford would write whatever came into her mind. 

“I thought I was done with the whole thing and then I’d start getting letters from the British lawyers because there are entirely different libel laws in Britain,” Sussman said. 

The letters, which span her youth to her deathbed, bring out Mitford’s famous humor and edginess. Even at 19, the headstrong Mitford wrote her mother from Paris, “When  

I went to cousin Dorothy’s I didn’t tell you I had met Esmond Romilly. To put it shortly, by the time you get this we shall be married,”  

The couple’s move to America nurtured Mitford’s politicization. On a trip through South Carolina, she wrote: “Some of the shacks where the poor farmers live are simply incredible, they are wooden & look like old, broken-down children’s houses. We couldn’t believe people actually lived in them till we saw them inside.” 

In his introduction to each segment of Mitford’s life and in his comprehensive footnotes, Sussman fills the reader in on some of the tragedies in Mitford’s life that she wrote little about, such as the death of her young husband, killed fighting Nazism in WWII. 

Sussman points out the strength it must have taken to rebel against her tight-knit family. Mitford totally broke with one of her Nazi-sympathizing sisters, with whom she was, as she called it in her letters, “off-speakers” for life. 

Mitford moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and embraced life as a single working mother—she was pregnant when Romilly was killed—with a job at the Office of Price Administration, whose objective was to control prices and rents.  

Mitford’s letters give a taste of the growing repression in the United States. For instance, in this April 1943 letter, she wrote:  

“The FBI (like Scotland Yard) are investigating a lot of people in our [OPA] division at the moment, including me. This is part of a general red-baiting program.” Later letters speak about being called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. 

Mitford married Robert Treuhaft in 1943, characteristically writing to her mother: “You will be surprised to hear I am married to Robert Treuhaft.” 

The couple moved to Oakland in the mid-1940s and joined the Communist Party. Mitford became executive secretary of the East Bay Chapter of the Civil Rights Congress. In introductory remarks to one of the sections, Sussman quotes from a 1981 lecture she gave on the CRC:  

“It was the fact of effective black leadership in the fight for black equality that gave our embattled organization its strength, that set it apart from such virtually all-white organizations as the American Civil Liberties Union which concerned itself primarily with the problems of white liberals and generally turned a blind eye to the vicious, rampant discrimination against blacks…” 

Sussman expressed gratitude to those who combed through attics, basements and shoeboxes for Mitford’s letters. It was an expression of the debt they owed her, he said, writing in the acknowledgment section of the book: “I was the beneficiary of the debt of gratitude they, too, owed Decca.”  

Reading of Jessica  

Mitford’s Letters 

Peter Sussman, Jessica Mitford’s children and grandchildren and friends will be reading from her letters at 7 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 29 at a benefit for KPFA at King Middle School Auditorium, 1781 Rose St. Tickets $15 advance at local independent bookstores and $20 at the door. For more information, see www.PeterySussman. com.

The main issue in Albany is what will be the future of the waterfront. I want to preserve as much of the waterfront as possible as park and open space and complete the vision of access to the waterfront and bay that has been a goal of many groups. I would like to see the completion of the East Shore State Park in Albany between Berkeley, El Cerrito and Richmond. Since this land is zoned recreational and for the race track, I would see no reason for the city to change the zoning without a study of possibilities. I would hold the city accountable to a fair and transparent method of soliciting citizen input about ideas for the waterfront. This does not assume that I want or encourage Golden Gate Fields to leave. It is their property and they have been active community members for many years. However, I think that Magna Entertainment Corp. needs to recognize that Albany residents do not favor a large development next to the waterfront and I would hope that the city and Magna could initiate communications as to what would be a win-win situation for both them and Albany.  

Albany may be a small town and in some ways feels insulated, but we are impacted by the urban area, which surrounds us. Our survival in many ways will be a combination of continuing to value, promote and protect the small town character, which has attracted so many of us here, and at the same time find ways to cooperate and enhance our relationships with the surrounding communities. As I have talked to residents I have become aware of many neighborhood issues and problems that concern people. As a councilmember I would look forward to working with the various communities to solicit ideas of how they can work with the council and be part of the solution to our common concerns.  

I am running for the Albany City Council because I believe that the citizens that support me need a seat at the table to have a voice in Albany politics. These are the more than 2,500 Albany citizens that signed the Citizens for the Albany Shoreline Initiative and who want me to speak up for park and open space on the waterfront, environmental and sustainable concerns, and that any development on the waterfront does not compromise the shoreline, suck the vitality out of our Solano Ave. and San Pablo and compromise the small town ambiance that Albany represents. And lastly, it is important to understand that for Magna, the racetrack owner, a mall represents an opportunity to create and enhance gambling on the waterfront, an effort that has seen success at other racetracks that Magna owns. I will fight any efforts to try to increase gambling on the waterfront or at the racetrack. 

It seems that Albany taxpayers have been asked over and over in recent years to tax themselves for various measures. Most citizens vote for these measures because they want to support city services and they care about keeping Albany a great place to live. Having enough money is one side of the equation. Albany’s budget is balanced every year, there will be 1 million every year for repairing the storm drains, and, realistically, there is never enough in anyone’s or any city’s budget to do everything desired at once. I would want to reexamine budget be sure the money is spent wisely and as intended. I support a fiscally sound plan with clear priorities so that the city does not have to go to the voters unless absolutely necessary. The next time there is a request for more taxes, it is incumbent on the council to make sure the citizens are clear about what is needed and why. 

I think the city does need to foster more economic development, and I think they have been working at doing this, particularly along the San Pablo corridor. I think many things can be done to enhance the vitality of Solano and San Pablo to encourage more of a variety of businesses. Shoppers and visitors come here from many other cities and I think there are ways to encourage them to stay longer on Solano. I think Albany residents need to be encouraged to come to Solano instead of heading over to El Cerrito or Berkeley. Also, sources of revenue don’t necessarily come from one big source but from several smaller ideas that can add up to significant resources for the city. I would definitely talk to other cities about ways that have worked for them to increase revenue. Cities like Pleasanton, Walnut Creek and Grass Valley come to mind as examples of creating a downtown ambiance that encourages folks to come and shop and use the services. I would also encourage Albany to look at how green businesses can be encouraged to come to our city and the ways that they might improve our local economy. 

I am in a unique position as a teacher to foster a good working relationship between the city and the school district that can enhance our community and support our youth and families. My experience over the last almost 25 years of working in the school district and my precinct work as co-chair for the United Democratic Campaign in the East Bay has meant that I have met and worked with thousands of Albany residents, a great honor and pleasure that I look forward to maintaining. 

A vote for Marge Atkinson is a vote for preserving open space on the waterfront, having a seat at the Albany political table for those who do not see a mall as a panacea for whatever ails Albany, for environmentalists and those that see sustainability as a quality of life, a voice for open, transparent government, a voice against increased gambling at the racetrack, and a candidate that listens to the concerns of Albany residents. 

I have been endorsed by Barbara Lee, Loni Hancock, the Alameda Democratic Council, the California Democratic Party, Keith Carson, Alameda County Supervisor, Albany Council Members Robert Good and Robert Lieber, the Sierra Club, Citizens for the Albany Shoreline, Albany Teachers Assn., Sylvia McLaughlin, League of Conservation Voters, Ron Rosenbaum, Principal of Albany High School and hundreds of Albany citizens.

I am a 22 year Albany resident running for City Council. Like so many others, my family chose to live here for the public schools. My husband and I have stayed on after our children graduated because we love Albany. This love of Albany has led me to participate in a variety of local civic and non-profit organizations over many years. With my civic experience and professional background, I feel I have much to offer Albany on the City Council.  

Professionally, I earned a BA in Economics from Illinois College and worked 35 years for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as an economist. For 15 of those years I was an Assistant Regional Commissioner for an eight state region, directing a staff of about 85. In that role I had policy-making and budgetary responsibility. This long policy experience in government is particularly good background for service on the City Council. I retired June 2, which allows me more time to serve Albany. 

Locally, I have volunteered fifteen years with the Friends of the Albany Library, a non-profit that currently raises about $35,000 a year for our library. I served in every role for the Friends and am currently Secretary. I was appointed to the City of Albany’s Library Board eight years ago and still serve on that Board, which exists to advise the Council on library issues including budget. I also volunteer with the Friends of Five Creeks, a cross-city environmental group, and am Secretary for the Albany Waterfront Coalition.  

There are two key reasons I decided to run for City Council. The first reason is to offer my experience as an economist for Albany’s fiscal future. I have voted for every tax measure over the years but would like to work on alternative options for funding City services. Albany’s funding has been “hand to mouth” for years. While the City is fiscally sound now, there is a possibility of a deficit next fiscal year (FY2007/08). This is driven by structural issues including revenues increasing at a slower rate than the rate of expenditures. The City’s longstanding tradition is to cut expenditures as needed to approve a balanced budget.  

Uncertain funding over the years has strained Albany’s ability to pay for all our needs. There is great demand for a variety of City services. Residents tell me they sometimes clean up parks near their homes. Others worry about car suspensions on some of our roads. Many would like more City recreation opportunities that currently are constrained by space limitations. I am concerned about completing repair of old sewers and storm drains as soon as possible. Albany has been operating under a cease and desist order for twenty years due to ground water pollution caused by decrepit sewers and storm drains. About three quarters of the problem has been resolved but there still is more to do. While the City has been successful in locating grants to supplement tax revenues, there are challenges paying for all the demand. I would like to find ways to upgrade our commercial tax base, including our business environment on Solano and San Pablo Avenues. My economist experience would be a unique addition on the Council to assist with Albany’s fiscal future. 

The second reason I decided to run is to offer a more open perspective for Albany’s waterfront. Debate about the best uses of the waterfront has been longstanding and sometimes contentious. I support an open planning process that is directed by the City, and includes the property owner and public, to develop plan options for our waterfront. I oppose any effort to change State law that could permit casino-style gambling in Albany.  

Our waterfront needs help! My personal goals for our waterfront are completion of the permanent (not just interim) Bay Trail through Albany, additional open space or park near the water with better maintenance, and assurance of necessary revenues for Albany. Our publicly-owned 88 acres at the waterfront should be more accessible and usable, ideally with better signage and some restroom facility. Currently the area is marred by huge chunks of construction debris remaining from its landfill days. Another goal is to find a way to increase local open space in the Eastshore State Park by giving the Albany Bulb to the park. Finally, my process goal is to promote a more positive climate for discussing waterfront options. 

It is safe to consider a variety of possible land uses on our waterfront, due to Albany’s 1990 Measure C. The 1990 Measure C prohibits any change in zoning or land use at the waterfront unless a majority of Albany voters approves the change. Due to the interest expressed by the voters in passing the 1990 Measure C, I think it most appropriate for Council members to be willing to consider options objectively—then let the people decide. I trust Albany voters’ judgment about any proposal. 

I am the only Council candidate to elect Albany’s voluntary campaign finance reform limitations, and decided to accept no contribution from anyone outside of Albany. I signed the Code of Campaign Ethics and have made every effort to run a fair and constructive campaign focusing on issues. Twenty former and current Albany mayors and School Board members—who understand the demands of public service—have endorsed me. The list of endorsers’ names and my points about Albany issues are available on my website at carylokeefe4albany.com. I welcome questions by email at caryl4council@comcast.net. Please consider me for Albany City Council, and vote on November 7.

My motto is Albany First, which is the foundation for all of my ideas about how to handle the myriad issues facing Albany today. Our 1.7-square-mile city—the Biggest Little City in the East Bay—must grapple with finding the money to maintain its high quality of life without taxing its homeowners to the point of extinction!  

We must expand the flow of commercial taxes—our largest tax revenue contributor is Golden Gate Fields at about $1.6 million annually—so that we can keep pace with our city’s many needs. This is but one instance of putting Albany First. We cannot afford to allow an international organization like the Sierra Club, which pays no taxes here nor will feel any service cuts, to dictate how we set up our waterfront. This is a decision that belongs to the Albany voters—no representation without taxation!  

In an attempt to determine how best to use its waterfront, Albany has committed to an open planning process, overseen by the City, that gives everyone a voice. This is an important step to finding our way to a waterfront plan that we can all live with. Clearly, open space is important to everyone, as is a Bay Trails connection, the Gilman ball fields and some way to gain revenue from the waterfront. Albany voters deserve to be heard and to vote on a realistic proposal by someone who is prepared to invest the millions required by a CEQA review and an EIR. Any subsequent plan will go before voters as Measure C ensures. Albany’s right to vote on such a plan is another example of Albany First—of Albany voters insisting they want to take care of themselves, that they want to determine how they live. 

Another outside interest that is at odds with Albany is Proposition 90. This boondoggle of a plan, created by a wealthy East Coast developer, would severely restrict Albany’s ability to manage our own city. It would pre-empt the power of Measure C, passed in 1990. Too often initiatives are written by outside interests whose actual agenda is hidden in the initiative’s details.  

Albany residents deserve more than this. We are a community of thoughtful people who moved here because they wanted to live in Albany, or were born here. One of Albany’s big draws is our schools, which, as costs rise in all sectors, need increasing amounts of money to maintain their high quality. Outsiders like the Sierra Club, or their proxies, disregard the potential effects of their plans on our schools. Or that their goals won’t keep funds flowing to our police and fire departments. Or maintain our streets and sewers. Many of our streets are deteriorating and storm drains need repair. Again, the issue is Albany First; we must find the money to take care of these problems. The City has had to ask us for additional taxes to handle such issues. I am determined to find and maintain new tax bases so that there is more money to draw from, so homeowners aren’t bearing the cost yet again. As things stand, we will probably face deficits in the coming years. I want to work to avoid, or at best, minimize, such deficits so that we don’t have to make painful decisions to cut programs and services. Putting Albany First means that we create whatever opportunities possible so that we don’t have to settle for a smaller police force or fewer sports teams at the high school. 

One way to generate new sources of commercial income would be to appoint an Economic Development Officer at City Hall. This person would work with the Chamber of Commerce, local business leaders and experts from UC Berkeley Planning and Land Use Departments to develop a comprehensive program to revitalize Solano and San Pablo avenues, the I-80 corridor and the waterfront. Again, the mandate of such an officer would be to put Albany First. This would mean bringing the Albany shopper back to Albany. As a community, we can make an active decision to support local businesses. The City Council could work with the staff and local business owners to develop effective policies that stimulate economic development.  

In my 19 years here, I have found that because Albany is a small community, people have the means of talking to each other easily. During this campaign I have been walking through Albany neighborhoods to meet constituents and find out what people are concerned about. It’s been a wonderful experience, and as a council member, I intend to keep listening to our voters. Communication keeps our city going. People communicate over fences, in organizations, as volunteers, in our many fantastic restaurants and on playing fields. There is a huge community of people of all ages and backgrounds who use playing fields shared by Albany and Berkeley. Their interplay is a wonderful example of people enjoying where they live. 

Being elected to the City Council would be a privilege and an honor. I will not let outsiders, who do not have to pay a teacher’s salary or pick up the tab to repair streets, control our city. Albany will be first.

Albany is a special community. Our quality of life comes from our unique small town character. People know and care about each other. We have schools, libraries, parks, and public services that we are proud of. Our shopping areas on Solano and San Pablo Avenues have small businesses and restaurants that make our town a safe place to stroll and shop. 

Our quality of life is threatened by proposed developments such as the Magna/Caruso mall and casino plans. That’s why I oppose them. These developments will bring major traffic gridlock on Highway 80 and on our key streets. We will see Solano Avenue’s vitality disappear. The Eastshore State Park will never be completed. 

Join me in creating a different vision for our future as we join California’s Green Revolution. 

1. I want a community park and a development plan that is integrated at the waterfront. We can build a green hotel away from the shoreline and the wetlands. It will be good for Golden Gate Fields (should they decide to stay), good for Albany’s revenues, and good for merchants on Solano and San Pablo Avenues. Albany will receive a 10-12 percent hotel tax, rather than a 1 percent sales tax from a mall. 

My opponents have both supported large scale development by southern California developer Rick Caruso. Coffees held at the O’Keefe-Riffer household endorsed his development plan. Mr. Papalia’s campaign staff was formerly a Caruso public relations employee. These matters are of grave importance, since Mr. Caruso stands to reap millions of dollars in profits if his plan is approved by the City Council. 

2. I would like to see Albany participate in California’s Green Revolution, so that we can benefit from the $60 million and 17,000 new jobs which are being created by the state’s new law reducing greenhouse emissions. We can attract research and development businesses to Albany, along Cleveland Avenue, which is part of the city’s redevelopment zone. 

3. I am advocating collaborative regional planning for the San Pablo corridor, so that we can decrease our reliance on cars, have mixed use, affordable housing with open space and schools, so that the corridor will be an attractive place to live.  

I have worked for 35 years in the Department of Public Health in San Francisco. In the past ten years I have been the Director of the Division of Community Services, in charge of programs acknowledged for their outstanding clinical service, cost effectiveness, high staff morale, and state of the art emergency preparedness and security practices. 

I have worked with Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom. and Mark Leno developing strategies to maintain these programs in difficult times. To give you a sense of the fiscal context of my work, the San Francisco mental health budget alone is roughly six times the budget for the entire city of Albany. 

I have been endorsed by Barbara Lee, Loni Hancock, the California Democratic Party, Keith Carson, Albany Council Members Robert Good and Robert Lieber, the Sierra Club, Sylvia McLaughlin, and the League Conservation Voters.

A panel discussion of the upcoming national election at UC’s Wheeler Auditorium last Thursday featured some familiar faces—Joan Blades of MoveOn.com, Prof. George Lakoff of “framing” fame, and the bloggers’ hero, Markos Moulitsas, “Daily Kos,” with political scientist Bruce Cain as moderator—articulating their now-familiar themes about what’s happened to progressive politics in the United States and what can be done about it. Cain joked that the panel was “fair and balanced” just like Fox News. A strongly partisan audience was obviously hoping that one of them had brought along a crystal ball showing a clear victory for Democrats nationally next week, but no one was confident enough to make such an optimistic prediction. The fourth panelist, political science professor Paul Pierson, was a new face, a last-minute replacement for Robert Reich, another familiar member of progressive pundit arrays.  

Pierson’s a co-author, with Jacob Hacker, of a book which came out in January, Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy. Its thesis is sometimes contrasted with Lakoff’s rhetorically-based “framing” hypothesis, which contends that it’s not so much what you say in political discourse as how you say it.  

Pierson characterized such theories as supporting the “senior class president” model of politics, which defines elections as essentially popularity contests where “the candidate who wins must be the one closest to the electorate.” He emphasized that he didn’t mean that framing and spin were unimportant, but that he believed that the institutions surrounding the contestants played the major role in determining outcomes.  

The discussion Thursday focused in on what role the structure of today’s national Republican and Democratic parties might have in determining the outcome of next week’s election. Several panelists alluded to poll results showing that voters’ opinions on national issues are much more liberal than those of the Republicans they elect to office, which Pierson attributes to the power of institutions to shape elections. 

He summarized his book’s analysis in a January interview with Barry Bergman, posted on UC’s public information website: 

“….we don’t accept what we think is the primary way that people often think about electoral politics: that it’s primarily a popularity contest between two competing sets of ideas, and two competing teams, and that if one teams wins it must be because they’re doing things that are closer to what people want — their ideas are better, their ideas are more popular, end of story.  

"What we’re trying to point out in the book is that politics isn’t just about ideas and platforms. It’s about organization, and it’s about how the structure of political institutions, and the ability of particular organizations to use those institutions, translates into political power.” 

Some of us in the audience who follow politics in Berkeley were struck by how well the Pierson model describes the local scene, though it’s not clear what it would predict for outcomes of current local contests. This was made even more apparent by last week’s deluge of glossy mailers, a significant percentage of which seem to be paid for by the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee. Some pieces, though not all, complied with the law by listing the PAC’s name as sponsor, but the tip-off was the use of U.S. postal permit No. 157, mailed from Carlsbad. This campaign could mark a sea change in Berkeley politics similar to what we’ve seen on the national level since the Republicans took over. 

The centerpiece of the Chamber’s effort was distributed in Districts 4 (Spring) and 7 (Worthington) late last week. We’re posting it on the Planet’s Internet edition, but briefly described, it’s a large print red and brown cardboard fold- 

out headed “GUESS WHO FAILED ON IMPORTANT BERKELEY ISSUES? WHO’S FAILED YOU?” A grid design lists issues on the left side and mayor and councilmembers across the top, and gives a letter grade from A to F to each one on each issue. We’ll leave it to our reporters and our correspondents to detail the specific enormous factual errors in what’s said about the candidates’ positions on the chosen issues. Let’s just look for the moment at what the graphics convey.  

The piece is a transparently nasty effort to cut two candidates, Spring and Worthington, out of the pack. Their so-called “records” are highlighted in red, and their “failing” averages of D and F are further circled in red in case you miss the point. Bullets highlight catch phrases (“Protect and enhance our neighborhoods”), the same kind which were featured in the very expensive push-poll which called many of us last summer, paid for by a source as yet unrevealed. It’s a package of half-baked slogans which the Chamber seems to think Berkeley is dumb enough to swallow. 

Bates, Beier and Raudell Wilson, the mailer’s high-score candidates, are three examples of the “senior class president” model in action. (One sharp-tongued observer described Beier’s performance at a meeting of business leaders as “Mr. Toastmaster”). This trio might win, not because they understand local issues and represent Berkeley voters’ wishes, but because they have big money and powerful organizations on their side. Beier, a self-made millionaire, also has the means to add his personal bucks to the Chamber’s war chest. If they’re successful, as Pierson’s theory points out, it won’t mean that they represent what the electorate really wants. It will just mean that well-funded interests which control organizations like the Chamber of Commerce have figured out how to manipulate elections. 

This would be a good place to acknowledge that we made a mistake in our last editorial. We thought that Tom Bates has endorsed George Beier, but Bates campaign representative Armando Viramontes (on loan from Bates’ wife Loni Hancock’s Assembly office) called to tell us he hasn’t gone quite that far. He simply hasn’t endorsed Worthington, Beier’s opponent, which is indeed different from endorsing Beier himself, but not very different. (He did endorse the Chamber’s B and C rated picks, Wozniak and Maio.)  

Bates has pointedly ducked endorsing Spring, Worthington and Jason Overman, the real progressives in the race. He admits participating in the $250-a-head private party which raised much of the money for the Chamber PAC’s mailers, and his snide remarks about Spring at the event, as captured by Will Harper in the Express, are quoted in a Wilson campaign piece. Like George Bush, Bates could be described as “a uniter, not a divider”—with the remarkable achievement of snaring both the conservative Berkeley Democratic Club and the pathetic remnant of their old nemesis Berkeley Citizens Action as endorsers. Neither the old-line Democrats nor the former old-leftists who have recently been born again as Democrats seem to understand the pernicious consequences of Bates’ attempt to dump Spring and Worthington, if they even know about it.  

Bates has the incalculable institutional advantage of a long and largely respectable political career, which he’s successfully used to disguise his own recent role in Berkeley politics as a front for development interests. He’s also carried water for developers by his persistent attempts to sabotage Berkeley’s Landmark Preservation Ordinance, now reborn as Measure J and the target of another Chamber PAC mailer, also filled with what can only be called blatant lies.  

We’ve lived in Berkeley for 33 years, and we’ve never seen a campaign in which out-and-out lies played such a big role. It turns out that organizations like the Chamber PAC are just about immune from Berkeley’s campaign reform laws. Albany has seen similar manifestations in the way mall promoters are trying influence its council elections. It seems that the virus which has infected national politics in the last eight years is starting to take root around here—if you have enough money and power behind you it doesn’t matter what kind of lies you tell, the bigger the better. After this election is behind us, we need to work on that. 

THE DAILY PLANET  

ENDORSES: 

Mayor: Zelda Bronstein 

District 1: No endorsement 

District 4: Dona Spring 

District 7: Kriss Worthington 

District 8: Jason Overman 

Measure A: Yes 

Measure I: No 

Measure J: Yes 

More to come... 

Wednesday night the genteel old Berkeley City Club (I’m so old that I remember it as the Women’s City Club) was the scene of a discussion between the two candidates for Berkeley’s District 7 City Council seat. Present in the audience and on their best behavior were some distinguished graying veterans of the venerable group known as People’s Park activists, as well as a number of members of the Telegraph Avenue Merchants’ Association which sponsored the event, some neighborhood residents and a small but enthusiastic claque supporting candidate George Beier. (An overheard conversation as the audience left suggested that some of these were from Oakland and Concord, but it’s OK if they came to cheer for a friend or family member—one was his sister.)  

It was billed as a debate, but it wasn’t the kind of no-holds-barred debate I remember from high school or which you can see in the British Parliament on late-night TV. The format was more like what Americans have gotten used to accepting, where docile representatives of big media ask predictable questions of polite centrist candidates. Much to my eventual discomfort, I was cast in the reporter role for this event, somewhat unsuitable since I’m currently an editor and have already endorsed candidate Kriss Worthington. But our small reportorial staff is more than tied up on Wednesdays with multiple city meetings to cover, so it was me or no one.  

The invited Chronicle reporter bailed, so the questioners were just the Planet’s O’Malley and the Daily Cal’s Sean Barry, along with Al Geyer, representative of the merchants’ association and the owner of the Annapurna head shop on Telly. (Gloss for younger and older readers, from Wikipedia: “A head shop is a retail outlet specializing in paraphernalia related to consumption of cannabis, other recreational drugs, and New Age herbs, as well as generally selling counterculture art, magazines, music, clothing, and home decor.” 

Geyer (a handsome sixtyish boomer with a sleek grey pompadour) and his associate Mark Weinstein (younger, with a frizzy balding shoulder-length ‘do), proprietor of Amoeba Records, met with Barry and me before the show started. They explained the format and told us what questions they thought we should ask. But I’m certainly too old (and Sean is probably too young) to take instructions like that, so we ended up generating our own questions more or less on the fly, though Sean did write his out beforehand.  

Geyer and Weinstein seemed most interested in the nine-point plan for improving Telegraph which was floated by Mayor Bates and Councilmember Worthington after Cody’s Books pulled out, just before it was sold to the Japanese conglomerate. In particular, they hoped that someone would ask a question about how the bad behavior of people on the street could be controlled, and they went on, chapter and verse, about how some of the street people were saying dreadful things using awful words. The anecdote which seemed to shock them most was that someone called a policewoman a bitch, and “she just rolled up her window and drank her smoothie.” She couldn’t do anything about it, they said, and that needed to be fixed. Both of them clearly hoped that some ambiguous verbiage in the Nine Points about future (read: post-election) measures meant that the Berkeley city authorities were going to try once again to put a stop to all of that. 

I bit my tongue, not wanting to start a fight just before the cameras rolled, but REALLY, guys. Free speech, remember? That tiresome old First Amendment? Those who don’t remember history are condemned to repeat it?  

Anyone who wants a thumbnail update of what happened the last time the City of Berkeley tried to stifle speech on the street should look at the excellent website maintained by volunteers at Berkeleycitizen.org. The whole history of the city’s expensive and illegal attempt to control street speech with Measures N & O is recounted at www.berkeleycitizen.org/poorlaws.html. It was a colossal mistake, as original backer Andy Ross, Cody’s owner at the time, later admitted. 

My colleague Barry did ask the candidates a question about street activities, and both gave answers which showed that they understood that trying to control unpleasant behavior by making it illegal has limited value. I think Worthington did a bit better at conjuring up the kind of trouble such a course of action would make for Telegraph merchants (but he is my horse in this race.) Last time it was boycotts, demonstrations, picketing, sit-ins … bad for business, always. Don’t go there, please. 

This whole discussion got me thinking about how Telegraph Avenue and its problems have been misused as an icon in this campaign. The city of Berkeley in general, and the mayor and his council allies in particular, have adopted a policy of benign neglect in the last few years, de-funding police and mental health service that are desperately needed and then blaming the victims for the inevitable consequences. Worthington has fought hard for services for his district, but got little support from the likes of Bates and Wozniak (both of whom, not coincidentally, endorse Beier) until Cody’s left. 

Beier actually put his finger on the cause when he said during the debate that South of Campus’s real problem is the drug culture. And it’s not just the aging potheads who buy their bongs at Annapurna and their ’60s hits at Amoeba, it’s also the ageless alcohol victims and cocaine users who come up to the Ave for their drugs of choice who contribute to the seedy atmosphere. The majority of the stores on Telegraph evoke what’s left of the counter-culture, which inevitably attracts young people whose brand of nostalgia includes deliberate, self-conscious anti-social street behavior.  

It seems the height of hypocrisy for today’s merchants to act shocked by this. I’ve been going to Telegraph longer than any of them. I remember when Amoeba’s building was a Lucky’s grocery store, when Pauline Kael ran her movie theater in what is now a fraternity bar, and when the clothing stores featured mostly Oxford-cloth button-down collared shirts. Today the newest tenant is a tattoo parlor, and is it any surprise that there are surly tattooed and pierced kids on the street, some of whom might even use rude language and sit defiantly in doorways displaying their piecings?  

When I was an undergraduate living on the corner of Channing and Telegraph, the building which now houses Rasputin’s was Frazier’s, a famous mid-century modern home furnishing emporium. We started our software company in the loft space of the same building in the early ’80s, which we could afford because the turmoil of the ’60s had brought rents down dramatically. There were plenty of victims of alcohol and other drugs on the streets then too. A suit-wearing visitor from the East was pursued from the parking garage to our office by a fellow yelling “Businessman, Businessman.” But he (and we) survived. The current owners of the building have restored it and seem to be surviving too, even in the face of fierce Internet competition.  

That’s the real villain in this picture. Beier, who has a business school degree and should know better, is trying to use the percentage decline in Telegraph retail revenues and Cody’s closure as campaign issues. But the major businesses there in recent decades have been the kinds of stores which are losing out nationally to Internet sales. Books and music, once Telegraph’s anchors, are now much easier to buy online. You can get vintage clothes and medicinal herbs on Ebay as well as on Telly, and there’s probably even a source for hash pipes somewhere online. And the counterculture itself is slowly dying. None of this can be blamed on Kriss Worthington or even on street people.  

There are some real signs that things are looking up in the South of Campus business district. Peet’s has finally gotten a permit to move into the old Krishna Copy location, and Krishna has moved down the street into even fancier digs in a newly restored historic building. (Let’s hear a cheer for Krishna, without whose help our early business would not have survived.) The library of another landmarked historic building, old Westminster House, designed by Walter Ratcliff, has been adapted for re-use as the elegant and successful Adagia restaurant. New owners promise to spruce up the Med. There are still too many nasty chain fast-food places, but interesting new owner-operated ethnic restaurants, Indian, Jamaican, Korean and more, have opened. A charming Solano Avenue world art store, What the Traveller Saw, has taken over some of Cody’s abandoned space.  

It adds up to a lot of positive progress which should be celebrated. Candidates and merchants alike need to pay attention to Marketing 101: advertise the many improvements on the Avenue and environs, and stop knocking the product. 

BATES ON BUILDINGS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read in your Oct. 24 report on the Le Conte Neighborhood Association mayoral debate that Mayor Bates said allowing high-rise buildings to abut small residences is a problem created by the city’s faulty zoning laws. If he really thinks that’s a problem, why in the past four years why has he done nothing to fix it? 

Why hasn’t he taken an active role in pressuring developers to scale back proposed apartment blocks that would loom over neighboring homes, such as Hudson McDonald’s blockbuster at University and MLK? Why didn’t he vote against any of them when they came before the City Council? The truth is Bates has actively promoted such development by proposing and supporting changes to the general plan and zoning code, supporting the city attorney’s creative, developer-friendly readings of state law, and appointing pro-growth, anti-preservation commissioners. The report also says Bates claimed that 300 low-income units were built during his term in office. In his campaign mailer, he goes further, claiming “more than 500 units of below-market rate housing” approved on his watch. Reality check: Those are roughly number of units that are officially “inclusionary” by law, but since the law defines low income relative to the median for Alameda and Contra Costa counties, almost all of them are rented at market rates. 

The truth is that most below-market-rate housing in Berkeley exists thanks to rent control. The changes Bates favors to the zoning, landmarks, and condo conversion laws would tend to promote development that would displace low-income renters in favor of high-income owners. They would also tend to remake Berkeley in the image of Emeryville. 

Robert Lauriston 

South Berkeley, District 3 

• 

ANOTHER LANDMARK LIE? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was wrong. I thought the Chamber of Commerce’s hit piece about Measure J would be slick and utterly truth-free. Instead it was childish, sleazy and truth-free. 

It is interesting that the brief structure of merit designation of the building that houses Celia’s Mexican Restaurant has garnered such intense ridicule. 

City Council overturned the designation almost immediately. So the developers won. The amount of whining generated by the fleeting recognition of this building’s history is truly astounding. 

Does anyone think that such vicious, ceaseless ridicule would be inflicted on a building that housed an expensive French restaurant, or any other establishment frequented by the wealthy? 

Such mean-spirited elitism is shocking. This is Berkeley, after all. At least it was—has it been renamed Developers R Us yet? 

Gale Garcia 

• 

MEASURE A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

To Cal students and staff: This is your chance to help support public education by voting yes on Berkeley’s Measure A in the upcoming election. Measure A is known as BSEP. There is no doubt that the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project (BSEP) has been a boon to our schools. As a public school teacher and principal (retired), I know first-hand about the success of smaller class sizes, the pleasure of sufficient books, maps, materials, and the joy of enrichment programs in science, P.E., and music.  

Yet BSEP influences Berkeley beyond the school day. For example: we are the home of one of the greatest universities in the world. When UC Berkeley tries to recruit top-notch young professors and instructors, one of the first questions candidates ask is, “How are the local public schools?” These are professors and instructors who not only buy our real estate and use our businesses and services—they attract students who do the same.  

This example may seem rather simplistic, but it is my way of having you support BSEP, Measure A in the November election.  

It is our responsibility as the supportive generations to see that our students flourish educationally. We don’t all have children, grandchildren, or kids we know using our public schools, but there is a kid in public school now who will touch our future.  

Children have the responsibility to learn. We as taxpaying citizens have the responsibility to renew Measure A. Then it is perfectly OK to say to a kid, “As a taxpayer, I am paying dearly for your education. Go to school, behave yourself, and learn.”  

It will make you feel good, our schools will get better and better, and as public schools supporters we can say we are doing our best. Vote yes on Measure A! Thank you. 

Marian Altman  

Board Member, Berkeley  

Public Education Foundation  

• 

ELECT AIMEE ALLISON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This is a call to action to the progressive community to volunteer or donate, to join Nancy Nadel, Dolores Huerta, Keith Carson, the Oakland Education Association, the Central Labor Council, the California Nurses Association, the Sierra Club Wilson Riles and more to stand together to elect Aimee Allison to City Council, District 2 in Oakland with the same passion and vigor that we elected Ron Dellums in June. Oakland’s future stands in the balance. 

Join me with the passion that many of you have stood beside me to create the vision that Education Not Incarceration represents—a society that is integrated and just; a society that respects the earth and its people, a society that understands and prioritizes the voices and lives of our youth. This campaign represents a significant opportunity to assure that our City Council can speak with vision and action to breathe life into a city whose people are too often suffering deeply under the weight of poverty and racism, lacking quality education, health care, and economic opportunity. 

Oakland is in a powerful balancing point. We can become an integrated city with a vision for environmentally sustainable lifestyle and an equitable accessible economy; or we can become city run by and for the rich, where poor and young people are increasingly pushed out of our city, into prison or other communities. 

For more information on how you can get involved go to www.aimeeallison.org or stop by the office at 3208 Grand Ave. (two doors from Grand Lake Theater). 277-0182. 

Jonah Zern 

Program Coordinator for Education  

Not Incarceration 

• 

REAL PROGRESS VS.  

A PROGRESSIVE LABEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Both candidates for Berkeley City Council, District 7 are smart, energetic, articulate, committed and compassionate. Yet only George Beier can move this city beyond negative rhetoric, stereotyping labels and destructive sniping towards constructive action, partnership and real, meaningful progress. 

Berkeley is distinguished by its informed, opinionated, passionate citizens. But too many seem only interested in labeling and complaining versus listening and doing. Don’t get me wrong: we need agitators to stir things up and keep it lively. But we desperately need more visionary “doers”—especially in our city government.  

After multiple debates, I still haven’t heard a coherent, strategic, and comprehensive vision for our city from Kriss. Sure, I know who and what he’s against but not what he stands for or, more importantly, how he is going to make those things happen.  

Defining oneself by one’s enemies is clever politics. It works especially well in rigid, divisive ideological environments like Berkeley, Baghdad and the Beltway. Finger pointing and a litany of politically correct statements, positions and endorsements create strong ideological labels, sound bytes and political theater but contribute little to solving our city’s most pressing issues. Remove the simplistic, convenient jargon and the question remains: Who’s Kriss and why’s he more qualified than George to create real, substantive progress in Berkeley?  

Berkeley needs more doers, visionaries, leaders—and less ideological, adolescent whiners. We need mature candidates who flexibly, creatively and constructively collaborate. We need imperfect pragmatists like George Beier rather then more perfect but ineffective ideologues.  

Beier has proven effectiveness beyond the bombastic realm of politics in business and non-profits. In the debates I’ve witnessed, he’s shown wit, compassion, pragmatism and vision. He has laid out a multi-point plan and vision (www.georgebeier.com) to address everything from crime to homelessness to revitalizing Telegraph Avenue. More importantly, George seems capable of working respectfully and maturely with other City Council members to advance an agenda of constructive change and real progress. 

Kriss has had 10 years to “progress” the city forward yet our most pressing issues—schools, housing, crime, homelessness, housing, business retention, etc.—remain stuck in ideological quagmires. How “progressive” is that?  

Everyone talks about a better future, but few can make the hard choices, sacrifices and compromises to create real change and sustained progress. George Beier is capable of such leadership and deserves the support of District 7. 

Charles Banks-Altekruse 

• 

DISTRICT 7 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Over the past six weeks I have attended three public events featuring question and answer sessions with District 7 candidates George Beier and Kriss Worthington. I have come away convinced that George Beier has, in addition to genuine progressive credentials, the intelligence, creativity and temperament we need in Berkeley’s elected leadership.  

I am equally sure that Kriss Worthington offers the wrong approach to the challenges facing our city. He consistently alienates and vilifies any individual, group or institution that doesn’t share his point of view. He pits tenants against landlords and residents against the university. He treats local business owners as if they were Halliburton and Enron. The negative consequences of Worthington’s approach to “leadership” are glaringly evident in District 7. If Worthington had spent his time in office bringing stakeholders together rather than splitting the world into us and them, our community could have stopped the decline of Telegraph and reduced criminal activity years ago.  

In contrast, George Beier offers an end to divisive stalemate politics. Among “Beier Progressives” in the Bateman, Halcyon, LeConte and Willard neighborhoods, there is genuine enthusiasm for his results-oriented campaign of ideas, and gratitude that George, when attacked by Worthington, consistently takes the high road, declines to respond in kind, and stays focused on facts, problem-solving and his hopeful vision for District 7.  

As a 17-year resident of Berkeley I believe that George Beier’s candidacy offers a tremendous opportunity for our city that even the most committed Worthington supporters will recognize after George takes office. George listens and responds thoughtfully to all. He is guided by a positive vision of community-building and revitalization, not a political litmus test.  

David Cottle 

• 

FISCAL EMERGENCY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Board of Education can declare a “Fiscal Emergency” for “unforseen financial events” (Measure A, Section 6.H.) They did this in two of the last four years and gave all school administrators a 15 percent pay raise. Superintendent Michelle Lawrence now enjoys a $230,000 salary and received an additional interest-free $300,000 loan from the district. All this during a “Fiscal Emergency.” Measure A has just such a Fiscal Emergency clause. 

While the School Board deserves adequate funding and flexibility, I would like to see some measurable improvement in the classroom—some little bang for our buck, any sign that we’re not just flushing more big green ones down the toilet. Remember, our children (the ones who are doing so poorly in our schools) are supposed to graduate and PAY taxes. Taxes like Measure A that go up and up every year. (Section 4.C.) 

The mere fact that we keep voting for these mistakes should expose the sham we affectionately call “public education.” 

P. Wooton 

Emeryville 

• 

ALBANY CITY COUNCIL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If you read only one thing about the Albany City Council election, please consider the neutral “Election Code Section 9212” report on the Albany Shoreline Initiative, available on the City of Albany website: www.albanyca.org. Although the courts pulled the Initiative for election law violations of proper notice to voters, many of the substantive issues live on in the public debate.  

What really matters in this election? Most of us want council members who will be competent and trustworthy consumers of legal, technical and financial information on city affairs. But as the Sec. 9212 report shows, the Initiative carried serious legal flaws threatening costly, unproductive trauma for Albany. The initiative apparently violated basic provisions of Albany’s Charter regarding City Council powers and responsibilities, as well as federal Constitutional protections for due process. As the report plaintively reminded, “the law is settled that the City may not simply pass a law, by initiative or otherwise, that requires a private property owner to dedicate any land for public access, open space or use, without paying the owner fair market value.”  

I keep waiting for candidates Joanne Wile and Marge Atkinson to say something like this: “We still want minimal waterfront development, but we realize the Initiative didn’t go about it in a lawful manner.” I could support that, but I haven’t heard it yet. I feel more heat than light coming from the Wile/Atkinson camp, which concerns me greatly. 

Lisa Schneider 

Albany 

• 

ALBANY WATERFRONT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am not in favor of large-scale development at Albany’s waterfront. I am opposed to any new gambling activities at Golden Gate Fields. I find that I can’t support the two Sierra Club backed Albany City Council candidates, Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile. I say this, not because of the Sierra Club’s endorsement, but rather because of Wile’s and Atkinson’s apparent uncritical endorsement of Sierra Club polices. There are numerous instances where Sierra Club policies have been a poor fit for Albany. 

The Sierra Club supports intense urban infill development that could threaten Albany’s small-town ambiance. The Sierra Club strongly supported the condominium development in El Cerrito Plaza.  

The Sierra Club’s preservationist policies often make open space areas completely off limits to people. Last year, the Sierra Club hijacked the environmental process for the Berkeley sports fields to add a fenced off habitat area at Albany’s plateau. The Sierra Club initially proposed fencing off the entire plateau. The City of Berkeley rejected this as being too generous, but still half the plateau will forever be off limits to any kind of public use.  

In the past, the Sierra Club has actually supported increased gambling activities at Golden Gate Fields. In 1996, the Sierra Club sponsored an agreement with the racetrack owner that would have circumvented the normal CEQA review process and allowed the owner to build a 125,000 square foot card room at the track.  

Maybe most importantly, the Sierra Club, at least the local chapter, seems disinterested in and maybe incapable of engaging in a collaborative decision-making process. This was evident in the proposed Shoreline Protection Initiative. Billed as a “citizens’ planning process,” the initiative actually would have set in place the key planning parameters without any public planning, without any public discussion. The initiative also proposed to create a committee to implement the already established parameters, but then packed the committee with representatives of private environmental corporations and local environmental groups no one has heard of. 

Albany is a very small town in the midst of a large metropolitan area. We face a myriad of unique challenges. We don’t need single-issue ideologues. We need smart, independent thinkers. It does not appear that either Ms. Wile or Ms. Atkinson posses these qualities. 

Clay Larson 

Albany 

• 

PEOPLE’S PARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

About 25 years ago I swung a pick in People’s Park to tear up the asphalt parking lot which the university had installed against popular opinion. It felt good and right to unpave paradise. A quarter century later the park has become the third rail of city politics; none of our elected officials have the guts to confront it, yet few students or long term residents feel comfortable using it. People do vote with their feet. No wonder—this paper reports that university garden staff collected 1,000 needles there in eight months. 

I admire my neighbor, George Beier’s, willingness to engage with both the university and current park users in a non-adversarial manner. What a contrast to our career politicians who refuse to take a meaningful position on anything to do with the park. I first met George while working on the revitalization of Willard Park about 15 years ago. I admired his optimism and hard working spirit. The tot lot we built at Willard has been jammed from day one. Willard hosts families, students, dogs without leashes and people without homes. While a few blocks away, People’s Park has acquired a reputation as little more than a drop in center and shooting gallery. People’s Park will not live up to it’s name nor its promise until all of us choose to spend time there. Hurrah for George Beier for sticking his neck out! Berkeley needs more council members who are unafraid to shake things up. 

Jim Rosenau 

• 

GEORGE BEIER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have attended two public District 7 forums where I heard George Beir address the future with innovative solutions while Kris Worthington spoke of the past. Now to gain footage Kris has taken the personal attack mode to denigrate George rather than presenting his plans. Despite this George has stayed the course on the high road continuing to address the central issues that affect our daily lives—transportation, Peoples Park, affordable housing, UCB relationship, homeless housing, and the highest Berkeley crime rate. I want thoughtful representation and see that in George Beir. 

Joe Halperin 

• 

SOUTH CAMPUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A few words in regards to Becky O’Malley’s editorial (“Lets Celebrate Progress in South Campus Business Climate,” Oct. 27), much of which I agree with, some of which I disagree with.  

First of all: Mark Weinstein, owner of Amoeba Records, is one of the most respected merchants on Telegraph. O’Malley’s characterization of Weinstein as sort of a former-hippie-turned-opportunistic-self-serving-yuppie is hardly accurate. In the 15 years that I’ve been on the Telegraph scene, Weinstein has long been a calm, voice-of-reason amidst the warring factions that is the on-going merchants-versus-street-people war. In fact, Weinstein has contributed considerably, financial and spiritual, to many People’s Park concerts, as well as assisting numerous individual street people (I hope he doesn’t mind me mentioning this, because he’s a bit of a soft touch and I don’t want to encourage more of these bums to hit up on him). It is precisely because of this respect that Weinstein’s words of warning have more resonance than some of the other strident and screeching voices on the scene. I do, however, agree with the general premise of O’Malley’s editorial. Like it or not, Berkeley is in fact a direct product of the ’60s counterculture and its values. And perhaps it is slightly hypocritical for the record stores making money selling records by drugged-out rock stars, the books stores selling books by authors who romanticize their legendary drug use, and tattoo-parlors that celebrate trendy youth rebellion to be casting stones at the anti-social behavior of many of the street people, many of whom are the end results of these products. One letter-writer went on to point out “....the ’60s was nothing but a bad experiment that failed.” Which may be true. But compared to what? A failed mainstream culture filled with the worst kind of exploitive corporate predators, and a war machine that is wasting billions in Iraq? 

I will add this: For years I’ve heard people talk about “the street people” on Telegraph in the most banal black-or-white terms. Victims or trouble-makers. When in fact its both. Many of the Telegraph street people are seriously damaged people who need help (I should know, occassionally I’ve been one of them). But its also true that many of them are trouble-making, do-nothing bums who wish to contribute nothing to society while leeching off the labor of others. My question to Becky O’Malley is: What’s to be done about them? Aside from Berkeley’s legendary “tolerance.”  

Ace Backwords 

• 

GLOBAL WARMING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If this planet of ours has a ghost of a chance for survival, the American psyche has to learn to court simplicity. Last Monday, at Al Gore’s inspiring talk on Prop. 87 and global warming in Martin Luther King Park, Berkeley missed an opportunity to shine the spotlight on one who models environmental action. Daily, Councilmember Kriss Wor-thington consciously steps on the pedals of his bicycle instead of the gas pedal of an automobile, as he makes his way through town. Kriss doesn’t even own a car! Even his apartment doesn’t exceed the minimum daily requirements for living space (not very lucrative for developers, who have been enjoying a heyday in this country since 9/11). Kriss, now up for re-election, is somewhat of a hybrid thinker/politician, understanding that downsizing may be an adjunct to our very survival. 

Al Gore also is a bit of a hybrid, and often looks to hybrid solutions to our oil and transport problems. And while these are certainly steps in the right direction, they may overlook certain important considerations related to global warming and the health of the planet and its populations. My concern is that the impact on the atmosphere of emr, or electromagnetic radiation (which includes microwave emissions from cell phone antennas), is often left out of the equation. Man-made emr throws more electrons into the atmosphere, creating more lightening and green house gases (Parrot). Emr also has a way of resonating, changing the structure of the magnetosphere in its wake (Helliwell). Such changes ultimately are reflected back into trees, compromising a mainstay of our carbon reducing capacity. (Fraser-Smith). Stanford is way ahead of UC Berkeley on this one, Folks! Could this be because the Berkeley National Lab is largely funded by the DOE, which also funds microwave weapons research? I strongly support the work that Al Gore is doing, and certainly support Kriss Worthington’s efforts for our city and our planet. To bring to the attention of Gore other elements of global warming that still need to be considered, please write to: The Honorable Al Gore, 2100 West End Avenue, Suite 620, Nashville, TN 37203. Please don’t forget to vote yes on 87! In the meantime, give priority to bicycles on the road! 

Kate Bernier 

• 

LANDMARKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While many landmark preservationists have a genuine concern for the historical, cultural, architectural, or educational significance of Berkeley’s buildings and neighborhoods, there are also those who see the Landmark Preservation Ordinance as a means of restricting further development. That’s the job of the Planning Department and ZAB. It’s not a legitimate function of the LPO, and its past abuse for that purpose—the attempt to landmark undeserving structures only to prevent new construction in their place—has damaged the public regard for the LPO. Measure J unfortunately reflects the goals of the obstructionists over those of legitimate preservationists. If you read part of J (page BEM—25 of your voter information pamphlet) you will see that a structure may be designated a Berkeley landmark even if it fails to meet the criteria for listing in the California Register of Historic Resources, or even if it has “lost its historic character or appearance.” In other words, almost any old structure in Berkeley, however altered it may be, can be used to prevent or delay a land use project. The revision of the LPO embodied in Measure J is an excessive attempt to control what Berkeley property owners may or may not do with their land. A more reasonable revision can be found. Please vote no on J. 

Jerry Landis 

• 

VICIOUS ATTACK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I recently received a mailing from Golden Gate Fields containing a particularly vicious attack on two of our Albany City Council candidates, threatening financial ruin for the city if we dare to vote for them. This Albany voter, for one, does not appreciate businesses that attempt to influence local elections by using bullying tactics. 

I don’t buy their line that our choice is between large-scale development on the waterfront or bankruptcy. We need city councilmembers who will work for the kind of mix of open space and development that will be best for our overall, long-term quality of life. 

I believe Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile will work toward that goal, and they deserve our support. 

Mark Maslow 

Albany 

• 

HE’S MISUNDASTOOD! 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Like Dan Quayle, Congressman Foley’s difficulties with the English language have been tragically distorted by the media. Who is really at fault? Those charity magazine ads incessantly admonishing us: “You can help this child, or you can turn the page.” 

Albert Schnitzler 

• 

CLIMATE CHANGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When I was a boy, I delivered newspapers in my hometown. This summer, as a research assistant with UC Berkeley, I studied the very real effects of global warming. One hundred percent of all scientific papers published in the last decade conclude that climate change is a real and important issue; we must address it immediately. Thanks to Prop. 87, we are given the chance to create a brighter, healthier future and a more stable economy.  

Take a stand for our economy, our health and our future! As fossil fuels burn,  

• California’s debts to China pile up.  

• Preventable diseases like asthma and lung cancer are on the rise.  

• Climate change threatens our coastal cities.  

This is not a political issue. This is an urgent moral issue, and we have the power to make a difference. 

With no cost to the public, and a very lenient, flexible cost to oil producers, we have the choice: 

• To bring cheaper, clean, renewable energy to the entire state now!  

• Or not to bother…  

This is also an economic issue. We import most of our oil from unstable areas like the Middle East and Venezuela where the governments and not the citizens benefit from the oil industry. I’ve just returned from Venezuela, one of the world’s biggest oil exporters, where three quarters of the people live in poverty. 

To pay for this foreign oil, the United States sells bonds to countries like China. Fact: Because of our dependence on foreign oil, China has unprecedented control over the US economy. If China were to sell all U.S. bonds it owns, the U.S. economy would be in danger of collapsing. 

We stand on the brink of a perilous path toward economic and political instability and environmental catastrophe. And yet, the solution is simple: yes on Prop. 87! Here is a well-written, fair and proactive step toward solving our current environmental and economic problems.  

Prop. 87 will cost nothing to voters; in fact, it is designed to save us all money at the pump. Nobody wants to pay more at the pump! Prop. 87 will ensure cleaner, cheaper fuel that will drive gas prices down and benefit us all.  

On Nov. 7, the future of our economy, our health and our environment rests in the hands of California voters. Vote to empower yourself. You can make a difference. 

Gavin Hudson 

• 

MAIO’S VIEW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I simply can’t stand by while Mayor Tom Bates’ uninformed opponents blame him for the worst developments in town. Many of us are distressed over the construction of unsightly, hulking buildings along our major arterials. A truly objectionable building like the chintzy, cardboard-appearing apartments at Acton and University was approved by that dedicated champion of for-profit development, the former mayor Shirley Dean. I opposed it. She actively encouraged it. Tom Bates had nothing to do with it.  

Everyone wants the downtown to prosper. Tom Bates has successfully attracted development to the downtown, where new housing belongs, because it is served by an array of mass transit and will enhance Berkeley’s economic climate. Thanks to Mayor Bates’ leadership, a citizen’s committee, in concert with UC, is shaping how best that growth should occur. 

Why is it so important that we have new, quality housing? Berkeley’s population has dropped significantly over recent decades while housing costs have skyrocketed beyond the reach of our workforce (our teachers, librarians, nurses—not to mention artists, musicians, and craftspeople). Faced with having to buy our homes now, many of us could not afford them.  

Though Berkeley now has fewer people, we have many more cars. People who work and study in Berkeley are forced to commute from elsewhere, driving through our neighborhoods, along our small streets, degrading our environment and theirs by dependence on the polluting automobile. We all know that this unhealthy pattern is ultimately unsustainable.  

One way to address the problem is to secure permanently affordable housing for those who work and study in Berkeley. That housing must be well-designed both for its residents and for its neighbors. Tom Bates understands this. He understands the need for healthy, well-planned growth that will benefit all of our citizens. He doesn’t just say “no.” He embraces “yes,” which is why he gets my vote on Nov. 7. 

Linda Maio 

• 

A WARRIOR REMEMBERED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This is the season of mild temperatures and wild color. Autumn brings to mind the upcoming anniversary of the loss of sculptor, Ishmael Rodriguez, and I want the world to remember this fascinating artist. He’s never far from my thoughts and heart. In his brilliant way, he contributed much insight to the creative discourse. He came up from the streets of West Oakland to do great things. His imperfections were the soil I grew flowers of knowledge from. I give myself credit for enabling him to live a full life, despite obstructive forces from the California legal system. 

Ishmael went to Woodstock in 1991 and became a real New Yorker in spirit, the New York spirit that’s redeeming, although he never wanted to be buried in New York. I made sure I brought him home to the place of his many dreams, aspirations and fulfillment—Northern California. He said in November, two days before I lost him, “if it wasn’t for you, I’d be dead a long time ago.” 

Ishmael saw it as almost a crime for creativity to go unacknowledged. He was a challenge— he represented a different point of view from certain aspects of Anglo culture because of his experience, mentality, and the fact that he transcended his background in significant ways, as a real artist would. He etched an imprint on history and I pay tribute to this prolific and generous Puerto Rican artist. He lives forever through his inspiring artwork; his life and work were gifts. Thank you, Ishmael. Adios. 

Glenda “GG” Wasserman 

Oakland 

• 

FOR WORTHINGTON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is a huge struggle going on in the nation, the state and locally over the corrosive and corrupting influence of money on the political process and on democracy itself. On the national level, corporate domination of government policy both foreign and domestic has led and is leading to ever more tragic results, from wars of aggression causing untold death and destruction to prescription drug programs that benefit wealthy corporate pharmaceutical and insurance interests instead of the public.  

On the state level Proposition 89 offers us an opportunity to curtail the dominance of corporate wealth on the electoral process by publicly funding candidates to elective office. This, of course, would constitute a great stride in the direction of democratizing the political arena. 

Locally, I’d like to draw your attention to the District 7 race here in Berkeley where the convergence of personal wealth of one candidate and the economic clout of the Chamber of Commerce have combined to create a dramatically unlevel playing field that is threatening to make a mockery of our local attempts at campaign finance reforms. If money can trump tireless service, dedication, honesty, experience and results, we are all in serious trouble. 

Kriss Worthington has emerged over his 10 years of service on the Council as a voice of conscience and an advocate for those who have the fewest economic resources. He supports and amplifies the voice of neighborhoods as they struggle for the means of improving the quality of life for all. He has been and continues to be an ardent supporter of small businesses and working people. He is a stickler for following the letter and the spirit of laws, especially those that protect us all from the whims of the powerful and wealthy. I urge you to return Kriss Worthington to his seat on the Berkeley City Council so that he may continue his work on your behalf. 

Max Anderson 

Berkeley City Council District 3 

• 

PECAUT’S PERSPECTIVE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s no surprise that once you even suggest adding up the total number of dollars extorted by landlords every month, year, and decade—these parasites start having nightmares of communist revolution. 

While campaigning, I once expressed my astonishment at the injustice of the renter’s plight to a landlord, who then exclaimed, “but that’s my income!” No, it’s not. That’s someone else’s income stolen for you by the landlord establishment’s thugs. But without the lawyers and cops prepared to throw a poor renter and her belongings onto the street, how would our dear landlords “survive”!? They would not, and that is my purpose. 

Search hard, ye defenders of landlordism, for the reason hundreds of apartments and storefronts sit empty while those sleeping on the street are kicked to death and jailed. You will find no human cause. Only bacterial lust for cash. And for those who retain principle and intelligence, search even harder for a leftist group that dares point the finger at these twenty-first century lords. There are none! 

Without the landlord’s police whip, no renter would hand over the bulk of their earnings to a lazy punishing leech. And with all that extra money, she sure could work less and care for her children better. “As a property owner,” John Parman and his larcenist lord-buddies all over Berkeley sure wouldn’t take kindly to their “property” keeping the money she earns each month. And they will spend every dollar they’ve stolen making sure that never happens. By any means necessary.  

Oh yes, and these politics are founded in principle, mathematics, and common sense justice. Not belief. What’s backing up your landlord racket? Violence, of course.  

Christian Pecaut 

• 

ALBANY COUNCIL RACE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Sierra Club members are proud of our democratic traditions: including participation in local, state and national politics, and our history as the oldest, largest, democratic environmental organization. Among many other achievements, club members’ political activism helped create our first national parks, including Yosemite. On a local and state level: we helped create the Eastshore State Park and helped to pass Albany’s Measure C, which gives ultimate control of its waterfront to Albany voters. 

There are those in Albany, ironically including a candidate for city council, who would end representation for the roughly 700 Sierra Club members in Albany. 

Francesco Papalia, who supports a multi-millionaire, Bush-allied, mega-mall developer wanting to build on the Albany shoreline, says in his Daily Planet candidate statement (Oct. 27) that the Sierra Club and other membership organizations should get “no representation without taxation.” 

(Given Mr. Papalia’s other strange statements, we shouldn’t be surprised he intentionally reverses this important Revolutionary War quote.) Sierra Club members make up almost 10 percent of Albany voters. Several hundred of our Albany members have expressed support for protecting the waterfront. Dozens have volunteered or contributed money specifically for the Albany shoreline campaign. 

Voters should be very careful about any candidate who would silence—or “not represent”—any legitimate organization. Think about it: the National Organization for Women, Move-On, political parties—even churches—all are organizations that don’t pay taxes in Albany. Who else would Mr. Papalia “not represent”? 

Mike Daley 

Conservation Director 

Sierra Club SF Bay Chapter 

• 

MORE ON ALBANY COUNCIL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the Albany City Council election, I’m voting for O’Keefe and Papalia and urging my fellow citizens to do the same. Here’s why: 

1. O’Keefe and Paplia realize that there is more to Albany than the shoreline. There are schools, sewers, roads, streetlights, public safety issues, and city services, too. Starving the city to feed a pie-in-the-sky fantasy is short-sighted and foolish. 

2. Opponents Wile and Atkinson favored the Sierra Club initiative that would have stolen decision-marking power from the citizens and put it in a self-selected cabal of outside zealots. 

3. Wile and Atkinson and their supporters lie when the say O’Keefe and Papalia are pro-Caruso. O’Keefe and Papalia are pro process, pro analysis, and pro Albany. Acceptance of Caruso’s proposal was not a foregone conclusion by any means, and it is false to claim that anyone who wanted to see it in more detail was in favor of it. 

4. Wile and Atkinson haven’t offered a plan they know will work, and since this is their only issue, a vote for them is a vote for nothing at all. 

5. Re the lawsuit filed against O’Keefe. A cheap shot, worthy of Karl Rove and done—with ironic chutzpah!—to benefit Wile and Atkinson  

6. I smell religiosity in the Sierra Club/Wile/Atkinson approach. They’ve made the shoreline into a moral crusade worthy of any fundamentalist who insists true believers either check their brains at the door or burn in hell for asking questions and demanding that analysis and reason lead the way. 

Albany, don’t be fooled. Turn the ideologues back and keep the citizens in charge. 

Peter Goodman 

Albany 

• 

HONEST PEOPLE WITH VISION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Sure we can vote for the people who are spending all that money on fancy campaign literature. There is a “Vote For George Beier” sign on almost every lawn in District 7. And they are really nice signs too. Bates, Wazniak and Wilson also have really great signs, slogans and hit pieces. Why not? They have a product to sell: Big Box Berkeley. And they really really really want us to buy it! 

But what product is Worthington, Bronstein, Spring and Overman trying to sell us? A view of the future where there is clean air, good schools, good streets, good sewers, peace and justice, affordable housing, public safety and fiscal accountability.  

What if all the things that David M. Walker, head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, said recently are true? “The ship of state is on a disastrous course, and will founder on the reefs of economic disaster if nothing is done to correct it.” What if he is right—and the head of the GAO has no reason to spread lies. What if our economic world IS about to fall apart? Who do you want guiding Berkeley if there is economic uncertainty ahead? A coalition of big-box developers and their cheering section? I think not. 

What if all these rumors about various Iraq-gates and Page-gates and Abramoff-gates and 9-11-gates are true? Who do you want to be giving Berkeley a voice against the corruption in Washington? Big Box developers concerned with doing away with our landmarks? Or progressives who will continue to help Berkeley be a light to the world? Vote for Worthington, Bronstein, Spring and Overman. Only they are prepared to help us change the future and help make it safe.  

What if a recently-released 700-page global warming report commissioned by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer is true and if we don’t act now only 200 million people will be left standing once the polar ice caps melt? Who do you want leading Berkeley and getting us ready for this coming time of crisis? Worthington, Bronstein, Spring and Overman! They are honest people with vision. 

Jane Stillwater 

• 

CHAMBER OF HORRORS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For decades Berkeley has had a City Council sharply riven by rent control, development, West Berkeley industry and downtown parking. But the division between those who say what they mean and those who have to take time to figure out what they want to appear to mean (the latter forming a distinct majority on this Council) is the one that always interests me most. 

Laurie Capitelli often tantalizingly joins the minority, and I wish he’d do it more often. His careful quote in Friday’s Planet, that the Chamber of Commerce Measure J Landmarks mailing shows “it’s unfortunate we live in this world of 30-second sound bites and 10-word messages on post cards,” takes a typically halfway tone for him: he recognizes dishonest literature and wishes his name wasn’t affixed to it, but he won’t risk offending the people who put his name there. If Councilmember Capitelli really wants to do good by both his reputation and his constituency, he either wouldn’t let his name be associated with statements he knows aren’t true, or would repudiate it if he wasn’t properly contacted before his name was used. The same goes for everyone listed on that shameful piece. 

Dave Blake 

• 

FOR DAVID BAGGINS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I will be voting for David Baggins because he is a candidate who strongly feels, like many other parents in BUSD, that the district needs to tighten the process for proving residency. All of my son’s sophomore classes at BHS have more than the Measure A goal of 28 students per class. How can we maintain reasonable class sizes if we continue to admit students without a “fixed Berkeley address.” I agree with Becky O’Malley that there is “absolutely no credible data” to support this discussion. That’s because BUSD’s current policy only counts the honest families who apply for an inter-district permit. 

As I talk to parents at various functions who live outside of the district and drop my kids off at friends’ homes outside of Berkeley I wonder how many students can BUSD effectively educate. Taxpayers and policy makers need to have accurate data to make informed decisions on how to allocate BUSD funds. 

Lorraine Mahley 

• 

BEIER VS. AC TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

So, is George Beier running against AC Transit? You might think so, based on the misleading campaign flyer that recently arrived in District 7 mailboxes. While George never uses the words “Bus Rapid Transit” (BRT), that’s what he’s talking about when he falsely claims that bus-only lanes on Telegraph will lead to more traffic. Beier says BRT will cause gridlock on Telegraph. How does he know this? AC Transit says that, based on their analysis, BRT will reduce traffic overall and won’t cause major problems to traffic flow on Telegraph. There will still be turning lanes at intersections and will be room for both cars and buses. 

AC Transit will soon be releasing their BRT EIR, complete with a detailed traffic analysis, soon. Please, George, read that. It makes sense that BRT will reduce traffic. Dedicated lanes will allow buses to move faster and not get stuck in traffic; it will help them stay on schedule. Faster, more reliable service will attract new riders from among those who currently drive. That’s what happened in Los Angeles with their new BRT line; the faster service attracted people who had formerly driven to work. 

So with BRT, traffic will decrease. As a result, less pollutants, including greenhouse gases will make it into the air. Is Beier not concerned about global warming? We know that in California, cars and trucks are the single biggest source of the emissions that cause global warming. Don’t we want to encourage people to use transit? Don’t we want our council members to work with AC Transit to improve transit? And what about District 7 residents? BRT is not only good for people commuting to Berkeley. District 7 has more transit-dependent residents than any other part of the city. Students make up more than half the residents and a sizeable majority of them don’t own cars or, at least, don’t bring them with them when they live in the dorms and apartment buildings. Should these students have to put up with slow, unreliable bus service? 

Based on the latest campaign filings, Beier’s Council campaign has spent more than any other City Council campaign in Berkeley history. He has spent about 50 percent more than incumbent mayor Tom Bates—and Bates is running citywide in all eight districts. It’s a shame that Beier is spending his campaign money on misleading flyers about crime and transit. In addition, the Chamber of Commerce PAC, which is headed up by a Republican, is putting out disgusting hit pieces trashing Kriss Worthington, Beier’s opponent. Like Beier’s own campaign materials, these flyers are full of statements that just aren’t true. Beware of last minute negative campaigning. Talk is cheap; look at each candidate’s record. What has Beier actually ever done besides putting out misleading campaign literature that would make him a good choice for council? 

Claire Risley 

• 

WORTHINGTON, SPRING  

SUPPORT NEIGHBORHOODS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ward Street Neighbors are so concerned that Kriss Worthington be re-elected, even though he is not our direct council representative. Kriss’s district has always been fortunate to have a full time, true representative on the City Council—Kriss puts his districts’s interests above all else. However, he’s been very smart to identify issues in South Berkeley that affect the whole area. Case in point right now, Kriss has supported So. Berkeley neighbors who refuse the invasion of 18 cell phone antennas in the middle of the LeConte/Adeline neighborhood. (This project is a potential model for cell phone invasions in other Berkeley nighborhoods) His opponent, George Beier was on the ZAB and voted in favor or this ridiculous and dangerous cell phone installation, even though it was a groundless application based on corporate greed rather than common sense. Talk is cheap and Votes Count—so whatever Beier says now about what he will do for District 7—he votes with big developers (Patrick Kennedy, Nextel and Verizon) and he agreed that “yes, this is not a neighborhood.” So much for neighborhood interests. Kriss puts citizens and neighborhoods first, against the insane cell phone invasion which is backed by the City of Berkeley against neighborhood interests and he did the same in bringing the Berkeley Bowl to the old Safeway site.  

Dona Spring is another great city councilmember who stands with neighbors in critical issues accross the city. She is also up against a ZAB member, Raudell Wilson, who voted for the cell phone invasion, saying we “are not a neighborhood.” If these candidates are willing to so blatantly and cavalierly vote against citizens’ rights, with no due process, why would we elevate them to City Council? The Berkeley City government is already routinely operating against neighborhood interests. Opponents try to blame Kriss and Dona for the deterioration of Telegraph and downtown, when they are up against a city-wide trend that has Berkeley city staff working full blast for developers—against voters and citizens. Make your vote count—re-elect Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring and vote for neighborhood rights and democracy.  

Ward Street Neighbors  

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Bus-only lanes have become a political football. The planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is supposed to reduce the car traffic on Telegraph, but we hear fear that a bus-only lane for the BRT will generate gridlock and spill traffic onto side streets. During the recent District 7 debate at the City Club, a representative of the Telegraph merchants wanted both candidates to solemnly swear they’d never allow a bus-only lane. 

District 7 Council candidate George Beier just sent out a mailer in which he claims that the BRT will cause gridlock on Telegraph. Beier has long been opposed to making a traffic lane into a bus-only lane. Beier’s mailer offers no facts to back up his claim of gridlock. AC Transit’s Jim Cunradi, who manages the BRT project, says that no BRT system anywhere has caused gridlock. Cunradi has documentation for numerous BRT examples. Beier should read some of this stuff. A bus-only lane makes bus trips faster than car trips, so that a substantial number of people will choose to commute by bus instead of clogging Telegraph with their cars. If a BRT is properly deployed, there are actually fewer cars on the road. People like Beier seem to think that nobody would ride a bus to work in progressive Berkeley, but would rather contribute to gridlock, air pollution and global warming. AC Transit will soon release the environmental impact report (EIR) on the BRT. Perhaps this will clear up the confusion generated by the politics. I hope Beier reads the EIR. 

The anti-bus hysteria has also fixated on fear of a “Transit mall” which supposedly would create a bus-only zone on Telegraph, north of Dwight. Cars would not be allowed north of Dwight. I don’t think there are any plans for a “transit mall,” beyond the existing group of bus stops on Bancroft at the end of Telegraph, but there are definitely proposals for a bus-only lane on Telegraph, perhaps only during the commute hours. 

AC Transit hasn’t decided whether a bus-only lane on Telegraph is needed for the BRT project. The EIR will include a traffic analysis. I wish we could read it now, instead of Beier’s uninformed hysteria. Berkeley is supposed to have pledged to do something effective about air pollution and global warming. Are we going to have leadership, or will our politicians purvey hysteria?  

Steve Geller 

• 

BEIER’S FEAR-MONGERING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

George Beier recently sent out a campaign mailer that attacks AC Transit’s proposal to improve bus service on Telegraph Ave via implementation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). His brochure presents a distorted picture of BRT, contains statements that are clearly false—especially his assertion that it will mean “more traffic.” 

Beier says that BRT’s dedicated lanes will “cause gridlock on Telegraph and route cars through Bateman and Willard”. This is simply untrue. What is the source for this misinformation? In tiny print at the bottom of the mailer, it says: “check the facts” and then refers people to an article in the Daily Planet from Jan. 30, 2004. Does this article from 2004 report on the results of a traffic study or provide some other evidence that BRT will cause “gridlock”? It does not. The vast majority of people who receive Beier’s misleading mailer will not check this alleged source. You can check it out yourself on the Daily Planet’s website. Beier’s mailer also states, again with no evidence, that BRT “would send thousands of cars through LeConte [neighborhood west of Telegraph].” 

The details of how BRT will impact traffic in Berkeley will be revealed as soon as AC Transit releases its environmental impact report, which is expected by the end of the year. The EIR will contain a detailed traffic analysis and will show intersection by intersection what the impacts of BRT will be.  

But rather than waiting for the facts, Beier has decided to engage in fear-mongering. Do District 7 residents want to be represented by someone who tries to scare them with unsubstantiated assertions? Do they want a councilmember who makes decisions without carefully evaluating the real facts? 

Bus Rapid Transit will reduce traffic along the Telegraph corridor. BRT will reduce bus travel time and improve reliability of service, and, by doing so, will attract new riders who currently drive. One of the primary reasons that people give for choosing to drive instead of using public transit is that buses take too long and often don’t stay on schedule. A well-designed BRT system will simplify boarding for disabled passengers. 

AC Transit is estimating that ridership will increase by 30-40 percent. This will mean a reduction of trips by automobile and a reduction in global warming emissions. The more people who decide to switch to transit as a result of improved service, the more traffic along Telegraph will be reduced. 

Beier, in his campaign, is not talking about local initiatives to address global warming or about sustainable development. In California, the transportation sector is responsible for over 40 percent of global warming emissions. Instead of working to improve transit and reduce emissions, Beier is making assertions that have no factual basis and seems to be trying to get elected by bashing AC Transit. Beier also falsely implies that a transit mall on Telegraph between Dwight and Bancroft is the only option for that segment of the proposed BRT route. In fact, it’s only one of the options being considered and evaluated in the EIR. AC Transit and the city may opt to leave those blocks as they are. Policy-making should be based on a careful evaluation of the best available information. Let’s wait for the traffic analysis to be released instead of rushing to judgement.  

Len Conly 

• 

KERNIGHAN’S FAILURE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The entire Bay Area is watching the runoff in District 2 in Oakland between incumbent Pat Kernighan and the audacious challenger, Aimee Allison. Pat Kernighan is an experienced politician. She knows the ins and outs of City Hall, but her failure to deal effectively with violent crime in Oakland may bring about her defeat Nov. 7. 

Some months ago, Kernighan and the Oakland City Council had an excellent opportunity to make a practical difference in fighting crime, a chance to declare a state of emergency. The proposal would have enabled Oakland’s police chief to post patrols at peak hours of crime. With her ally, Ignacio De La Fuente, Kernighan voted down the bill—at the expense of public safety. Many dozens of citizens have been murdered since she refused to declare a state of emergency in Oakland.  

Of course many decent public servants are overwhelmed by crime waves in American cities. But it is upsetting to hear Kernighan credit herself for being smart and tough on crime. The Chamber of Commerce, from which she receives contributions, erected a glass-enclosed poster on her behalf in the Grand Lake area. The poster (standing next to rows of autos with “clubs” and car alarms) read: “Thank you, Pat, for helping to make our community safe.”  

No incumbent should have bragging rights on the issue of violent crime in Oakland. Drive-by shootings, acts of vengeance, drug wars, gang violence, car-jackings are a regular feature of nightlife in Oakland.  

Kernighan often says she is a practical leader who gets results. But when she is confronted with the ugly results of her City Council policy, she says crime “is a societal issue.” She becomes metaphysical, not pragmatic. 

The security of life and limb is the first test of government, and Kernighan, Brown, De La Fuente have all failed the test. Oakland has one of the highest homicide rates in the nation, triple the national average. In a matter of months, 120 citizens have been killed. 

Kernighan says she “has experience at city hall.” She does. It’s an experience of failure. 

In contrast to Kernighan, Aimee Allison’s plan to end violence is multifaceted. For effective policing, Allison says, the Oakland Police Officers Contract needs to be revised, giving the Police Chief more power to get officers on the streets for community policing. Allison wants to create peacekeeping teams that know the streets, stopping retaliation that feeds on the violence epidemic. She is planning re-entry internships and job training programs to reintegrate parolees and probationers with accessible housing, job training, drug rehabilitation and medical care. She wants to fully fund a city jobs program for graduates of Oakland’s high schools. And she wants to expand recreation, sports and cultural programs—proven crime deterrents for young people. 

As Allison says: “A better world begins in Oakland.” 

Paul Rockwell 

• 

HIT PIECE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The only conclusion I can draw from the hit piece distributed by the Berkeley Business Group, a report card on crime and business and prostitutes, is that since the seven members of the council—including the mayor and Councilmember Wozniak—who were given the highest ratings and since this part of the political spectrum thinks that crime is rampant and business is dismal, one can only conclude that they support a new and more effective council and mayor. Hence since with such a majority and such a dismal record we agree that we should support a change. 

And since the report card on Kriss Worthington is so far from any conceivable reality—we are all waiting for George Beier to repudiate it. After all, he has said he is running a clean campaign.  

Paul Rabinow 

• 

A HATEFUL CITY? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On the one hand I feel that Lisa Robin’s letter in your Oct. 27 edition is so ridiculous it barely merits the effort of a response. Yet on the other hand, as I’m a firm believer that silence can—and many times does—indicate approval, I feel compelled to respond.  

Ms. Robin, the City of Berkeley has not “denounced” organizations like the Sea Scouts, it simply has refused to subsidize the berth of an exclusionary organization whose values clash with those of the city. You ask when citizens of Berkeley will elect people who “truly represent the citizens of the City of Berkeley” I’m happy to tell you, they have been electing such people, in elections every two years for the last 40 years that you have lived here. Perhaps if you were to get out of your sheltered, 1950s era mentality, you’d see that. 

While you call Berkley a “hateful city,” and then characterize organizations “bent on homosexuality”—which affirm life and love in it’s many forms—as valuing, “sickness and death,” we as a community must ask ourselves who’s really being hateful here. 

Michael Moniz  

• 

WHERE AND WHAT IS NEBA? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In researching the organization that seems to be spearheading the campaign against the Measure A extension of the existing school parcel tax I’m beginning to wonder what the Northeast Berkeley Assoc. (NEBA) is?  

Looking at the Berkeley City web site for neighborhood organizations, I see about 50 listed, only two of which have no link to a web page or any other information about them. One of these is NEBA. In their latest newsletter there is no phone number listed, no e-mail or website, and no address other than a P.O. Box. While there is a “candidates night” listed there seem to be no regularly scheduled business meetings, monthly or otherwise. As a past and current member (although I have never received any receipts for my membership ‘dues’), I have never been asked to vote on issues that the supposed board decides, including on Measure A. 

Could this be a ‘shell’ group for some outside anti-tax organization with no real investment in Berkeley’s kids? Which sees any and all taxes as bad, regardless of the cost to society? 

Where and what is NEBA? 

C.A. Gilbert 

• 

PEOPLE’S PARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to the “People’s Park is a Sewer” letter: First of all, the problem with peoples park is that it is not maintained properly as a city park nor is it seen as a city park. It either needs to be maintained and made more attractive so many residents can enjoy it or torn down. The latter appears to be a big problem as everytime an attempt is made to tear it down a riot ensues. The last time a riot ensued I noticed that most of the protesters were too young to remember what the park represented in the first place. (Not the so called old pony tailed hippies mentioned in the letter). 

Downtown San Jose’s Saint James park was similarly neglected by the city of San Jose but was eventually taken charge of. It now sports a nice tot lot and attractive park benches etc and is enjoyed by the surounding residents and office people. Yes, it still has some homeless but it is not taken over by them anymore.  

Sherri Adams 

San Jose 

• 

NO ALTERNATIVE  

TO MEASURE A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The opponents of Measure A generally seem to agree on the real need for the parcel tax for our schools; they simply want it rewritten to incorporate their own individual specific concerns and priorities. Some would like a shorter term, or more particular allocation of funds, or better oversight; others want more public input; while still others want to address the warm water pool or perhaps cold water neighborhood pools.  

Since most everyone favors the measure for our schools, the only question is, could Measure A reasonably and practically be rewritten to incorporate all these divergent special interests, and could we or should we hold a special election for a newly rewritten measure at a cost of something like $400,000? 

The answer to both questions is no.  

The county Office of Education is on record as saying: “If the renewal (measure A) is not successful, we [the county] will be required to immediately intervene and to take appropriate action, including declaring a ‘lack of going concern’ under Education Code Section 42127.6.” The real consequences of this required county action are unclear, but they could include not allowing $400,000 dollars to be spent on a special election with no guarantee that the outcome would be any better. 

And even if such an election were to be held, we run into exactly the same problem. The measure could never be written to address everyone’s problems with the current measure, and even if it could be, the rewritten measure would likely be worse than the one we are now looking at. (The pork barrel is just not large enough.) 

The opponents of Measure A are not so much against Measure A as they are interested in their own very specific agendas. Their opposition to Measure A is a kind of blackmail, and since Measure A represents about 25% of the total school budget, it is a very powerful kind of blackmail. Our schools just cannot function adequately without these funds. We all need to support Measure A as it is, and not let the education of our children be held hostage to special interests. 

Chuck Smith 

• 

PLEASE HELP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Oct. 15 my black cloth shoulder bag was taken from the bus stop at Russell Street and College Avenue. The bag contains my personal medication and some very vital personal items which I am in desperate need of. If you find this bag, please call the Planet at 841-5600. Thank you. 

Edward Joseph 

• 

A CITY DIVIDED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have lived in Albany for almost 40 years. I have never seen the city so divided. I believe the current owner of Golden Gate Fields, Magna Entertainment (MEC) and Caruso caused the divisiveness. They are afraid to take the traditional development approval process in Albany (such as the new Target Store). The documents they must file with the city would have doomed their project. They never filed an application. 

They were trying to promote a mall. However, I believe they were using the mall as a Trojan horse to bring casino gambling to Albany. Before voting I ask every Albany voter to go directly to MEC’s own web site (www.magnaentertainment.com), click on the Investors link, and at the bottom of the page, click on Annual Report. Read or print pages 6 and 10 of the 2005 Report where you will find MEC’s business strategy and their specific plans for Albany. 

Their strategy is to convert their racetracks into world-class destination resorts called a “racino.” A racino combines six elements: live racing, a 1,500-slot-machine-casino, a retail mall, an entertainment center, a hotel, and housing. Their prototype racino is in Gulfstream, Florida. In the next paragraph, they explicitly name their next two target sites: Santa Anita and GGF in Albany for similar mixed-use developments. Caruso’s initially brought five racino elements to his Albany coffees. No wonder they did want an open, full disclosure process with public hearings, government input, etc. like

Wednesday, Barack Obama speaking about his book, The Audacity of Hope, said “Americans were yearning for an end to slash and burn politics.” Unfortunately, the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce BBG PAC wasn’t listening. On Thursday, a no-holds-barred-we-don’t-care-about-the-truth hit piece urging No on Measure J appeared in Berkeley mailboxes. This hit piece is so over-the-top that people should vote YES on Measure J just to send the message that cheap shots mailed from Southern California have no place here.  

Seeking to demonize the current LPO (Landmarks Preservation Ordinance which Measure J makes permanent), the piece displays a picture of Celia’s Restaurant and claims this is a landmark. Absolutely false! At most, Celia’s was considered as a structure of merit but nothing becomes a landmark or a structure of merit until the City Council decides to either let the designation stand or review it. The council chose to review it, and Celia’s never was designated anything. Strike One!  

The anonymous authors of this piece go on to claim that Measure J “violates state law” and “may cost millions in litigation.” Here are the real facts! For 32 years, no court has invalidated any part of the current LPO. No case has been lost nor have damages been paid because of our LPO. No judge has ever issued an order that the LPO violates the law. 

Six years ago, the state certified Berkeley’s LPO as being in compliance with all state and federal laws. Nothing in Measure J changes this certification. Every California city faces state law deadlines regarding development applications. Berkeley routinely notes these deadlines as part of our zoning permit process to ensure that timely decisions are made. Strike Two! 

Among the other wrong claims made by the PAC are that Measure J:  

• “Gives total control over your property to unelected officials.” False! Your elected City Council makes the final judgment about historic resources 

• “Removes state historic standard of integrity.” False! Measure J includes integrity in its standards.  

• “Slows even minor home owner upgrades for up to one year.” False! This is the most laughable claim of all because the mayor’s ordinance waiting to be enacted if Measure J is defeated includes not only making it easier to demolish historic resources but it requires that all permits for exterior repairs to older structures, whether a historic resource or not, be reviewed by the Landmarks Preservation Commission! Under the mayor’s proposed ordinance it will be easier to demolish a 100-year old Victorian than to obtain a permit to pave your driveway. Strike Three! 

Worst of all, this is being paid for by unknown individuals who are spending $40,000 to defeat Measure J. The names of the contributors, their addresses and the amounts contributed have not been disclosed under Berkeley’s campaign laws. We may never know who they are. 

On the other hand, everyone can learn everything about the Yes on J campaign by visiting their website: www.lpo2006.org.  

So, toss that No on J card into the recycling bin and vote YES on Measure J. You will be saying loudly and clearly that you want to protect our neighborhoods and the environment by not demolishing buildings that should be re-used, and, most importantly, you won’t let developers buy this election! 

Wendy Markel is president of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. Her title is used here for identification purposes only.

Public education is the most critical social justice issues before us today if we are to assure the future of a working democracy. On Nov. 7, Berkeley voters will have the opportunity to renew their support of the public education system by voting yes on Measure A. 

If passed, Measure A will continue the city’s commitment of providing the children with the best education possible. As Berkeley residents prepare to cast their votes, I urge them to remember that Measure A is not a new tax—but a continuation of a financial commitment the community made to city schools years ago.  

Measure A renews two existing school measures—BSEP and Measure B, both of which provide funding for the19 schools and programs throughout the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD). The revenue generated by BSEP and Measure B represents about 25 percent of BUSD’s overall budget—money that is used to maintain caps on classroom size, fund salaries of nearly a third of the teachers and finance the district’s entire library program. 

Measure A will continue other programs that are critical to a well-rounded education, such as music programs for students in grades 3 through 8; site enrichment at each campus; parent outreach efforts, and professional development and program evaluation throughout the system. 

Berkeley is a leader in the county-led “Art is Education” programs that we consider an equity issue. The commitment that every student has the arts integrated into every class, every day will be lost as the funding that provides for drama, arts and physical education disappears. The economic crisis that would occur will force the district to make deep cuts that will cripple the progress and the hopes of the district’s students and their families.  

As superintendent of Alameda County schools, one of my responsibilities is to provide fiscal and budgetary oversight to the18 unified school districts in the county that I have been elected by voters to serve. 

Several years ago, when the district was forced to cut $13 million to balance its budget, the school board and the superintendent guided the system out of its fiscal crisis by consistently making courageous and tough decisions. Now, the district has a sound budget with systems in place to remain fiscally solvent. 

Assisting the district in its fiscal recovery was the passage of Measure B and Measure BSEP—both of which expire in June 2007. Not only is BSEP accountable and clear in how the district spends its revenue, it provides a Planning and Oversight Committee comprised of parents and administrators to ensure the funds are wisely appropriated.  

Measure A also outlines how all funds will be used, and creates the administrative oversight to ensure all revenues are spent properly. 

School districts are under tremendous pressure to raise test scores, but BUSD cannot fulfill its commitment to the community on a starvation diet. To cut funding now is counterproductive and unfair to the children and families of the community. Without Measure A, the system will return to an era of unmanageable class sizes and threats of teacher layoffs and program reductions. 

If the city of Berkeley is going to continue to prosper and our children are going to mature into responsible and productive citizens, with every single child receiving the support needed to reach his or her potential, we must pass Measure A. 

I urge every registered voter to vote early by mail or on election day, and to vote yes on Measure A. 

Sheila Jordan is superintendent of Alameda County schools. 

“What’s that, Mama?” asked my 6-year-old daughter one recent afternoon, as she looked over my shoulder at the newspaper I was reading. She was pointing at a photograph of yet another impromptu street corner shrine in Oakland; a Mickey Mouse doll with “RIP Pooh” scrawled on its shirt, some flowers, an empty, open liquor bottle of the deceased’s preferred brand. 

I took a deep breath—and explained to her that when young people are unsuccessful learners, they often get frustrated and don’t finish their education. That then they have trouble finding work which will pay enough to support themselves, and that sometimes they wind up committing crimes to make money, like selling illegal drugs, and that sometimes they are even willing to kill each other over “whose” street corner it is.  

Unfortunately, it’s not the first conversation on this subject we’ve had; her cousin, a sweet young man, suffered with the burden of undiagnosed learning disabilities. His path then led him to drug addiction, expulsion from high school, from addiction to drug dealing to petty theft, on into armed robbery, looped in and out of rehab and jail, and ended with his tragic death at 23, leaving a wake of broken hearts behind him. My daughter listened carefully, and then solemnly told me that she thought that she would be a successful learner—which I have every expectation will be true. 

We in the Bay Area hear frequent reports on the failed public educational systems all around us—Oakland and Richmond under the mandatory control of the state, San Francisco’s shrinking middle class fighting over the few spots in the top-performing schools, low enrollment leading to widespread school closures in San Francisco and Oakland. The unplanned segregation that results when schools begin to falter and those who have money abandon the public schools altogether, leaving behind those who don’t. The news out there is so uniformly bad, that most of us set off to tour kindergartens with dread, expecting under-performing public schools and steeling ourselves for a tuition indebtedness we had hoped not to incur until college. Except that here in Berkeley we found—really good public schools. 

Somehow, in the midst of the bad news all around us is the quiet, seemingly unnoticed success of the Berkeley public schools. The schools are fully subscribed, the class make-up diverse, the buildings well-maintained. The classrooms aren’t crammed—my daughter’s first grade class has 22 kids in it. They are staffed by passionate, caring and talented teachers and principals, and assisted by involved parents. Is it perfect? Of course not. All of the parents, teachers, and principals I have spoken to are deeply concerned about how to close the “achievement gap” between the different ethnic groups. Some children with special needs don’t seem to be getting as many services as they require. Every child would be better served if their families were more involved in their education. However, my observation is that, on the whole, things are very healthy. 

So why are Berkeley schools thriving while those around us flounder? There is, of course, a complex matrix of reasons which keeps them healthy and strong. But a critical mass in either direction is a powerful force; we in Berkeley are fortunate that civic leaders in the 1980’s foresaw that the frozen property taxes of Proposition 13 would, if unmitigated, have a devastating effect on our schools, and that they took appropriate steps to safeguard those schools. 

Thus was born the Berkeley Schools Excellence Program (BSEP), first passed in 1986, which raises additional funds for the schools through a small additional property tax assessment. The money is specifically used to reduce class sizes—it pays for the salaries of approximately 125 teachers. It pays for libraries and librarians, arts and music and physical education in the elementary schools, teacher training… the list goes on and on. This year the measure is up for renewal, and it’s called “Measure A”. It is not a new or additional tax; it merely continues the same assessment we’ve been paying for the last twenty years. For those of us lucky to have owned our homes for a while, it doesn’t add up to much. And if you’re a renter, it’s free. 

There is a group in town trying to get us to vote this measure down. (Interestingly, they want us to vote it down so badly that one of them actually hacked into our PTA’s on-line discussion group last week to proselytize on the subject. Our PTA, which has endorsed Measure A, was not amused.) Roughly, they argue that the school district is not managing the funds wisely, and that the solution to the academic achievement gap is—wait for it—to scrap the funding which shores up our public schools. 

Wow. That’s some pretty interesting logic. The way to close the achievement gap is to take away 30 percent of the teachers? How will it serve our underprivileged youth to have 10 more kids in the class, less teacher attention, and no arts or physical education? And I mean no disrespect to the people in our surrounding cities, who I’m sure are trying mightily to solve their educational problems and certainly deserve better, but do we really want to model our schools after those of Oakland and San Francisco, where those with means attend private school and those without are left to struggle alone? 

So why should you vote for this measure, even if you don’t have kids in our public schools? In addition to the obvious public good achieved by educating the children of your neighbors, friends, and fellow citizens, there are numerous purely selfish reasons to do so. Do you really want our young people to be unsuccessful learners, left with no choice but to join our thriving underground economy? If you are a property owner, is saving a few bucks a year on your property tax bill worth the loss in value your home will suffer if our schools become, shall we say “unattractive?” What about the ability of the University of California, or Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, or local companies, to attract top talent to town if the schools decline; how will that affect your property values? What effect will it have on your quality of life when your new favorite restaurant closes because disaffected youth have taken back the block and people don’t feel safe there at night anymore? (Maybe you can laugh about that, but in my neighborhood we had to wait years for a restaurant to serve anything past 3 p.m.—no one wanted to come to San Pablo Avenue at night.) These are just a few of the considerations in how one decision affects the whole. As one of my neighbors, who is a teacher, put it: “pay now or pay later.” 

The health and strength of our entire community is wrapped up in the success of our public schools. Do not doubt it. I urge you, for your own peace of mind when you go to bed at night, for the pleasure of a healthy community, to vote yes on Measure A. 

Christine Staples is a Berkeley resident.

The Daily Planet recently reported that Al Gore came to Berkeley to support Proposition 87. Berkeley residents might be surprised to learn that our Chamber of Commerce has come out against Prop 87, even though a large majority of Berkeley residents will certainly vote for this proposition that deals positively with our nation’s oil addiction by taxing oil companies to fund alternatives to our current oil dependency and to reduce oil consumption. 

In fact, the leadership of Berkeley’s Chamber of Commerce has long been out of touch. A conservative group, who are not representative of most Berkeley business owners, let alone residents, dominates the Chamber and routinely takes Republican positions in a city where 90 percent of the residents voted for John Kerry. 

In addition to opposing Proposition 87, the chamber is also opposed to Proposition 89, the campaign financing measure backed by Berkeley’s representative in the Assembly, Loni Hancock, who sought to establish a similar reform through the Legislature. The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce has also declined to support Proposition 86, the cigarette tax initiative that will fund emergency rooms and health insurance for children. 

Our Republican-minded chamber leadership has opted to support two inexperienced and unqualified candidates for City Council: George Beier and Raudel Wilson. Both have served only very briefly on city commissions and lack a working knowledge of how city government works. Apparently, the chamber leadership thinks they will be pliable, knee jerk development supporters. All development is good from this conservative chamber point of view, regardless of whether it is environmentally sound and whether neighborhood residents support it or not. 

The chamber knows that there are few Republicans in Berkeley so they tend to support those Democrats who are most likely to support a laissez-faire, anything-goes approach to development of our city. By contrast, both Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring have a history of supporting sustainable development projects with positive environmental impacts. 

Both Kriss and Dona are concerned about global climate change and want the city to take positive steps to deal with the challenge it poses, by supporting “green building", solar power, improved transit service, Eco Pass free transit passes to encourage transit use, and other measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. All levels of government, federal, state and local, need to be part of an effort to slow global climate change so that the world can adapt to difficult challenges (rising sea level, more severe weather, severe heat waves). 

If you live in City Council District 7 or Council District 4, you’ve probably received hit pieces from “Business for Better Government” attacking Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring for allegedly being anti- business. This literature is full of lies and distortions of both incumbents’ positions. The hit piece provides no documentation and no dates for the alleged positions taken by the incumbents. 

You might get anonymous hit pieces with “Permit No. 157, Carlsbad, CA” appearing with the postage paid info. Whenever you receive election literature in the mail or at your door, check to see who produced it. Beware of anonymous literature and beware of last-minute hit pieces. They are sent out late to make a response difficult. 

In addition to being out of touch on current ballot initiatives, the Chamber leadership has a history of being out of touch with the values shared by most Berkeley residents. They supported Arnold Schwarzenegger’s special election initiatives that were overwhelmingly rejected in Berkeley and statewide. They have opposed virtually every progressive ballot initiative and council action, including the living wage ordinance that requires people who contract with the city to pay decent wages to their employees. They opposed domestic partner benefits when it was introduced. 

Many residents have also already received the chamber’s “Vote No on Measure J” mailer which is rife with inaccuracies about that measure which would continue Berkeley’s commitment to historic preservation, as was reported in the Planet. To be an informed voter in Berkeley, you need to be aware of the current chamber leadership’s conservative, pro-all-development bias and their propensity for spreading misinformation. 

The current leadership of the chamber is giving the business community in Berkeley a bad name; they need to be replaced with people who are more in tune with community values. 

Rob Wrenn has served as chair of both the Planning Commission and the Transportation Commission. 

Sweeping together popular and questionable proposals into one package is an old political trick that too often frustrates many voters. But often the politicians gamble on the enthusiasm for one part to carry the wriggling bundle through to a win. 

Measure N is just one such a questionable bundle. 

Three proposals are made in the Measure N: 

1. Improvement of old neighborhood branches (as basic as installing badly needed public toilets) and creating new branches for neighborhoods that need them.  

2. Moving the Main Library into part of the Henry Kaiser Convention Center, a few blocks from the current Main. 

3. Installation of “self-service options for faster check-out.” This is quoted from a mailing sent by an Oakland Neighborhood Library Coalition urging a vote for Measure N. 

I am enthusiastic for the improvement and expansion of neighborhood branch libraries. Libraries are essential for lifelong learning and enjoyment, from early childhood to ancients like me. They are needed for getting vital information whether as students or adults trying to make a living or for daily problems like repairing furniture, cooking, parenting and, of course, lending CDs, DVDs, videos, as well as providing access to Internet on the computers. Neighborhood branch libraries are particularly important for children and seniors who will use them if they are within walking distance. So, yes, yes, for that part of the smorgasbord which in Measure N has been served up as a stew.  

“Relocating” the Main Library to the Kaiser Convention Center building, however, is another kettle of fish altogether.  

First, a Main Public Library belongs in the middle of town, where people work, shop, meet. go to restaurants, to theaters, movies, and have public transportation and parking available. It should be convenient for quick drop-ins or extensive research. The building should be functional as a library, for librarians and the public. Librarians and the public can tell what is wanted and what is needed if they are given clear information, possible options, and an opportunity to question and speak. For so major a move with so large a bond measure, there was mighty little opportunity for questions and input by the public and little in the newspapers. 

The Kaiser Convention Center is an impressive building, but it is in the wrong place for a Main Library. The foot traffic is minimal. (It does have parking, but then you need a car). The Berkeley Daily Planet’s informative fine article, “A Guide to Oakland’s Measures M,N and O” (Oct. 6) by J. Douglas Allen-Taylor, provided a background for this choice: “Finding a public use for the recently closed Kaiser Convention Center.” He listed that as quite a separate task in Measure N. 

One can appreciate the vacancy problem for the City Council, and understand the convenience of such a quick solution The building, at this point, is a white elephant. It is a valuable asset that requires a wise choice for public use. As for a Main Library, better by far it would be for the Oakland Public Library to begin researching a good location and get the public’s enthusiasm for a sizable, attractive Main Library that Oakland deserves. Solving the Kaiser Center vacancy problem, however, should not be the Library’s mission. NO for that section of Measure N. 

The last proposal is another hot potato. Installing “self-service options for faster checkout” sounds harmless. What it masks is the installation of a highly controversial RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) system. RFID is being used to track prisoners, cattle, products in stores, and now, credit cards, although those are having privacy troubles as revealed in (“Researchers see Privacy Pitfalls in No-Swipe Credit Cards” that are using RFID. (New York Times, Oct. 23). RFID is a booming new business and is pushing hard to expand into more fields, including libraries. Some libraries have succumbed to the Siren song of vendors, with very mixed results: trouble with charging out DVDs, CDs, and despite promises of charging of a stack of books at one blow, it has been a one-by-one process too often.  

But the major problem of RFID in libraries is that those little tags inserted in books and other materials potentially can be used to undermine the privacy of library users by discovering what they read, listen to and borrow from the library. Librarians have defended these freedoms and rights as part of the ethics of the profession. 

In the current period of concerns about governmental surveillance, spying, warrentless searches and attacks on critics and dissenters, this potential attack on library user privacy is an inappropriate technological tool to use in a library. As a retired librarian of many years, I cannot accept this subversion of our basic role as protectors of people’s right to think, speak, read without fear of even the possibility of Big Brother watching in person or through reading of radio frequency signals. 

For the first time in my life I sadly will vote against a funding bond measure for libraries. This hodge-podge Measure N is unworthy of support. 

As a small addendum: Remember the Berkeley Public Library’s year-long battle around RFID that was established without adequate consultation with the community and librarians. The director was asked to resign, I believe. The ACLU opposes RFID, as does the American Library Association, although not as confidently as it should.  

Zoia Horn is an Oakland resident

Since I am known as an advocate for Berkeley homeowners, taxpayers, and neighborhoods, many Berkeleyans have asked me about my local voting choices in the upcoming November 7 election. As do I, many of these long-term Berkeley residents feel politically homeless, disenfranchised, and less than sanguine about the future of middle income homeownership, of our lovely neighborhoods, and of our entire little polity.  

So even though I am underwhelmed by our local ballot options, in the spirit of sharing my version of Homeowner Populism, I offer with humility and some trepidation my voting thoughts and choices. 

For mayor, I am voting for Zelda Bronstein. Zelda is smart, knowledgeable, and fearless, and deserves a ton of respect for her willingness to take on the Bates machine for a meager two-year term. She is totally correct in her analysis of the infamous UC-City Settlement Agreement and in her opposition to overscale buildings, top-down destruction of neighborhoods, and the need to retain our current strong landmarks protections. Also, over the last few years, I have witnessed growth in Zelda in her understanding of the need to mitigate taxation of homeowners, to improve public safety enforcement, and to provide parking for the legitimate parking needs of residents, visitors, and businesses. I continue to hope for more flexibility from Zelda with respect to loosening up some small areas of (large) West Berkeley for essential economic development, and to accepting that, for the time being, Berkeley has more than its fair share of rental housing and so-called affordable housing. 

For City Council Districts 1,4,7 and 8 I am making no recommendations.  

For city auditor, long term incumbent Ann-Marie Hogan is running unopposed. While Ms. Hogan has done a credible job within the narrow way she has been defining the city auditor job, I will be abstaining on this position, which is my usual procedure when there is no choice of candidates and/ or when I know nothing whatsoever about any of the candidates.  

For Rent Board, there a five candidates for five seats, chosen by a cabal of rent board devotees. I will be abstaining on these positions to protest: the lack of candidate choice and landlord representation; a rent control system that allocates benefits without regard to need; small landlords being forced to pay for a social subsidy that is the responsibility of the entire community; the bloated Rent Board bureaucracy that blows more than $3M annually, money that could be far better spent directly on the housing-needy. 

For BUSD Boardmembers, there are five candidates for three slots. Two of the incumbents, Nancy Riddle and Shirley Issel have done a credible job and deserve re-election. Of the three other candidates, David Baggins and Karen Hemphill each have something to offer. David is a smart newcomer with a strong background in educational theory and research who is willing to shake things up and challenge the accepted local practices with respect to such matters as out-of-district enrollment and inadequate academic choices for parents and students. As for Karen, who is now part of the educational ruling junta, I have seen some growth since the 2004 election, toward a less divisive and more sensible approach to the achievement gap, and she will also provide a “representative” of the African-American community. My choice would be David Baggins because the issues he is raising are critical and he has shown appropriate courage in doing so. 

On Measure A, public school funding, I have been enmeshed in this issue but have not yet decided how I will vote. I do want Berkeley to have superb public schools that serve and entice all Berkeley children, and I do believe that BUSD has made substantial improvements over the last few years. I also know that many, many problems remain and there is a long way to go. Yes, this measure is about our children, but the real question is how best to create a better school system over time and how much trust we put in public officials when there is a minimum of democratic feedback and accountability mechanisms. 

This is what I like about Measure A: its stated purposes and fund allocation, as far as they go; the fact that, except for the generous escalator clause, it asks for no more money than currently; and there is some built-in accountability and some reasonable flexibility. Here is what I do not like: the unusual 10-year term that is far too long to allow for democratic accountability to the voters and for potentially changed circumstances such as declining enrollment; there is no provision for reduction and return of taxpayer money based on increased state funding through the Schwarzenegger reallocations (already substantial) and from a possible Proposition 88 victory; also, if BUSD reduced the $1 million cafeteria deficit, the $1 million plus deficit due to student absenteeism, and some of the $2 million cost for excessive bussing, they would have quite a bit more money available and all those taxpayer dollars would not be needed. 

BUSD claims that it will almost collapse if Measure A is defeated. While I simply do not believe this and I strongly object to the kamikaze approach to the voters (similar to what the city did in 2004 prior to the defeat of the four new tax measures), I do think that it would be highly stressful and disruptive to BUSD and to the entire community to have come back to the voters in Spring 2007 with another measure. 

On Measure E, Rent Board Vacancy, I will be voting no since this measure will allow the self-perpetuating Rent Board to appoint a new member in case of vacancy rather than go to the voters, albeit in elections that are usually a joke. 

On Measure F, Gilman Playing Fields I will be voting yes to enable the necessary zoning plan amendments to permit the proposed playing fields and related uses. 

On Measure G, Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, tThe 80 percent reduction in Berkeley’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is a good goal. But the potential components and costs of the proposed implementation plan are not specified. The devil is always in the details, and I do not think I want to vote for this until I see more detail, since our city has a history of setting grandiose goals and then insisting that its’ homeowners bear most of the cost burden. So for now I’ll vote no. 

On Measure H, Impeachment of Bush, Cheney, et al I will be voting NO for three reasons: this measure is a distraction from and substitute for immediate local issues on which our Council should be asking us to vote, such as UC expansion, overdevelopment in our neighborhoods, more downtown parking; Bush is not the devil nor do I smell sulfur and, as a responsible centrist Democrat and American citizen, I would like to get him out of office the proper and less polarizing way—i.e. by voting him out; and three, I am not enamored with Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission, that initiated this measure, and I think that this commission usually distracts us from our numerous local woes and generally does more harm than good. 

On Measure I, Condo Conversion I will vote yes. Berkeley has a high rental housing vacancy rate and a need for more homeowners. Housing prices are generally declining and this measure will enable young families and many tenants to buy into Berkeley at moderate prices. It will be an incentive to upgrade our relatively charming existing housing stock of older homes rather than build more ugly units. It will bring millions of dollars into city coffers via fees, transfer tax, and upgraded property taxes. The measure contains generous provisions for existing tenants to help them purchase and/or relocate. 

On Measure J, Landmarks Preservation I am voting yes. This measure will re-adopt and update our existing landmarks ordinance and help save our landmarks, structures of merit, and historic neighborhoods. A yes vote will pre-empt a noxious alternative measure by the City Council majority which not only would make it easier to demolish structures and destroy neighborhoods, but would also impose substantial permit requirements and costs on ordinary homeowners making simple exterior repairs.  

Barbara Gilbert is a former aide to ex-Mayor Shirley Dean.

ALBANY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Oct. 10, I submitted a letter and supporting documents to Albany’s city attorney requesting that the city take action to halt violations of Albany’s Campaign Finance Reform Act by the organization Concerned Albany Neighbors (CAN), Francesco Papalia’s Albany First, and the Committee to Elect Caryl O’Keefe. Albany’s Campaign law’s set rigid limits on amounts that can be contributed to local campaigns and require that only individuals may make these contributions. If one follows the paper trail of Form 460 and 410 statements as well as the partisan attack flyers that CAN has been dropping on Albany doorsteps, it appears that CAN is illegally funneling money into the Papalia and O’Keefe campaigns. These violations are being made to benefit a candidate (Ms. O’Keefe) who claims to be running her campaign within the voluntary limit and by some the same folks who have complained the loudest about others improper behavior and/or violations of California’s Initiative law. It was my hope that the city attorney would promptly look into this matter and bring the campaign back to the discussion of issues. At this point it is unclear what the city is willing to do in regards to enforcement of this matter. What is the point of Albany’s campaign finance law if it is not enforced, and if this law is not enforced, what is to stop mega millionaire race track owners or L.A. developers from channeling revenues into Albany and subverting the democratic process? 

Peter Maass 

Albany 

• 

ALBANY COUNCIL ELECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The City Council election in Albany this cycle is a microcosm of the national elections: Two progressive candidates, Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile, are challenging two from the “incumbent” ruling group—which for too long has held majority power on the Albany City Council in support of large-scale development on the waterfront.  

For the incumbents, Mr. Papalia through his organization “Albany First,” raises fears of outsiders controlling Albany (although he supports a mall by L.A.’s Caruso and Canada’s Magna Corporation) and imminent financial bankruptcy (Albany is currently in the black and running million dollar reserves going forward). His campaign manager recently was on the payroll of Rick Caruso, the Republican developer come to Albany to build a mall next to the racetrack. In a letter to residents last week, Golden Gate Fields for the first time in 25 years interfered in the City Council elections by attacking Atkinson and Wile by name. 

The second “incumbent,” Caryl O’Keefe, hopes to split the progressive candidates, Atkinson and Wile, by claiming to be against the mall and running within campaign finance limits. Voters should not be confused.  

First, O’Keefe hosted Mr Caruso in her living room to pitch the mall; not once, but twice. Then, contrary to her claim that she abides by Albany’s campaign finance limitations, excessive donations were made to a front group, “Concerned Albany Neighbors” (CAN). Formed in part to support and oppose candidates, CAN has distributed numerous flyers personally attacking Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile, and endorsing O’Keefe and Papalia.  

These flyers neither disclose that O’Keefe’s husband, Alan Riffer, is CAN’s assistant treasurer, nor declare that O’Keefe’s campaign accepts donations (apparently in excess of the limit) through CAN.  

Further, using CAN to attack her opponents allows O’Keefe to create the appearance of being ethical and even-handed while using swift-boat tactics against her opponents.  

The City Council and City Attorney should investigate these violations of the Albany Campaign Reform Act. Otherwise, we may expect more “hit pieces” designed to split the Save-Our-Shoreline team and sway votes to the pro-mall candidates at the last minute.  

Bill Dann  

Co-Chair, Citizens for the Albany Shoreline  

Albany WaterFront committee member  

• 

EL CERRITO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

El Cerrito’s 23,000 citizens have a virtual news blackout about city issues, with local newspaper coverage minimal and slanted. Our town has the second-highest crime rate of Contra Costa County, it is among the six worst of 107 Bay Area cities in pavement maintenance. Lighting, sewers, the library, the senior center, parks are all neglected. Without citizen approval, the council has systematically deprived other programs of funds and bonded the city, all for a new City Hall. Paying off the bonds will cost $650,000 a year for 30 years. 

Our local paper, the El Cerrito Journal, dutifully quotes council and staff comments, but ignores residents who spoke against the huge future debt. The editorial staff has endorsed the right of the current mayor to run for a (locally) unprecedented third term. They refused to report that challenger David Boisvert is supported by 16 former city council members, 14 of them past mayors! The paper’s editorial page banners Jefferson’s exhortations about a free press being the bedrock of democracy, yet it promotes one-sided pro-council views. They have a right to state their editorial preference, but not at the cost of stifling their reader’s comments and the citizens’ right to make informed choices. 

Rosemary Loubal 

• 

FALSE REGISTRATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is very difficult to run a city-wide campaign on a $300 dollar budget. Without Becky O’Malley’s mean-spirited defense of $10 million of annual theft against the city in the form of false registration, I’m quite sure the false registration issue would not have emerged as a defining concern of this year’s election cycle. No School Board member or candidate is defending the status quo. Hence it could have been difficult to initiate needed dialogue in this important area of policy. Ms. O’Malley has performed a public service, intended or not, by creating the conditions for a consensus to emerge that something must be done to fix the broken system. Once the issue was highlighted it took off because the effects of mass false registration are something people involved in the schools experience regularly. 

Despite the contribution she has made in highlighting this issue, her content remains in error. Last time I corrected that “every demographic group feels entitled to cheat, including of course well off neighbors in Rockridge and Kensington. Berkeley’s Students and tax payers are the losers.” The harms to Berkeley from running a famously false registration system are numerous (see San Francisco Chronicle article on my web site for footnote). They include: loss of locally raised tax revenue, increase in the achievement gap, violence, potential liability, loss of community and complicity of the district in illegal conduct.  

David Baggins 

Candidate for School Board 

• 

MILO FOUNDATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was shocked and dismayed to read Jane Tierney’s attack on the Milo Foundation’s Solano location. As a dog owner, I am painfully aware that many people do not share my concerns, but that was the most mean-spirited op-ed I have seen outside of politics. 

As to the concern over health risks, I sincerely doubt that my vet, puppy class teachers and dog day caretakers were lying when all agreed that my dog did not have to wait “several weeks or months” after immunizations to interact with other people or dogs. Although I will not claim any authority to speak to the research on communicable diseases, for anyone concerned or at risk—use common sense—don’t kiss the dogs or roll around on the sidewalk. (I was given the same advice as a child about the alleyways full of needles, broken bottles and crack vials—don’t go there). I would venture to guess that there are plenty of other areas that are highly trafficked by people (and dogs) where I wouldn’t want to touch anything either—why pick on the Milo Foundation? The Milo Foundation is and has been providing a valuable community service in rescuing abandoned, lost, abused animals and in educating the public about responsible care. It’s disheartening to see such a negative response to all their hard work. 

Karen Eisenstadt 

• 

WORTHINGTON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Why I cast my vote for Kriss Worthington for City Council for the third time: 

Because he makes me feel safe as an old woman when he shows up at Berkeley Gray Panther meetings on a regular basis. 

Because he was the only City Council member to stand by the accusers of Lakireddy Bali Reddy when nobody else would, and was instrumental in getting the rest of the city interested in the matter of sex slavery perpetrated by this largest rental property owner in our city. 

Because he initiated tenant protection for elder residents and long-term residents so they could not be evicted by owners claiming they wanted their units. 

Because he is a strong supporter of the arts and helped obtain money for the Berkeley Poetry Festival. 

Because he pays attention to the needs of his constituents no matter who they are or where they come from and he respectfully returns phone calls and is willing to have extended conversations on issues. 

Because he does not require 3 paid political consultants to help him run his campaign for reelection. 

Because he lives modestly and rides his bicycle everywhere. 

Because he shows up at all the progressive meetings and demonstrations that I go to. 

Because he cares about his community which is my community which is all of our community—the city of Berkeley. 

Because he is inclusive in his attention to his constituents. What other City Council member has put as many students on various boards and commissions as he has? 

Because he instituted Holocaust Remembrance Day and has made it an observance which honors all of us so as to prevent another tragedy from hurting any other group. 

Because he cares about affordable housing. 

Because he cares about the environment. 

Because he cares about healthcare for all. 

Because he supported instant runoff voting and knows this is the most democratic form of holding any election so all our voices can be heard. 

And just because he is a nice guy and no he is not responsible for the decline of Telegraph Avenue—I have lived here and watched it happen since the ’90s and I do recall mayors and others on the City Council cutting back on services and the funding needed to deal with the problems that have developed—when Kriss was calling for help. 

I suggest the residents of my district join me in re-electing a true progressive who talks the talk and walks the walk—Kris Worthington— a man truly worthy of the esteem in which he is held, for living a principled life and being a responsive political representative. 

Thank you, Kriss. 

Sheila Goldmacher 

• 

MISINFORMATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I admire the Planet’s commitment to the First Amendment, but reading some of the recent letters about Berkeley issues on the Nov. 7 ballot makes me wish the Bill of Rights had guaranteed “responsible” as well as “free” speech. 

I’m amazed in particular about the opposition to Measure A, the parcel tax renewal to support local schools. What a load of inaccuracies! Voters, please look further than the Planet to inform your decisions. 

This year the ballot pamphlet is not much better, as demonstrated by the letter run in the Oct. 23 Planet from Johnnie Porter, past president of the Berkeley NAACP. “… Though my name is on the ballot argument against Measure A … it was initially misrepresented to me and upon further research …I have now rescinded my original position and … both endorse and fully support Measure A.” (Thank you Mr. Porter—that took courage.) 

The best source of accurate information for all these ballot issues may be the endorsements. We’re all getting deluged with campaign mailings, so access to this information is easy. Endorsers are generally trusted community leaders and organizations (it’s up to you to determine which ones you trust), most of whom have heard out the various positions and made responsible decisions. This is going to be a prime source of decision-making for me on the issues I haven’t been personally involved in. 

One more thing: the work Mayor Tom Bates has done on local youth issues was recently described in the Planet as little more than “baby kissing.” That unfairly trivializes the important results he and his capable staff are achieving. In the 13 years I have worked on local school issues, Tom Bates is the mayor who has brought different forces together to bring meaningful improvements to our schools, cash-strapped community agencies, and the children they serve. Baby kissing isn’t a bad start, but I know first-hand that Tom Bates is working to bring all our babies health and opportunity, lifelong.  

Trina Ostrander 

Executive Director, Berkeley Public Education Foundation 

Past Chair, Berkeley Fair Campaign Practices Commission  

• 

AGAINST MEASURE A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have never in my life voted against a school tax measure. But this year I will be voting against Measure A. I’ll be voting against Measure A because I think that in its present form it works against the best interests of our children and their education. How so? It’s not because I think the measure asks for too much money. It’s because it is fundamentally undemocratic. It limits public input. It allows the BUSD administration to avoid public accountability. It asks for the right to take away our rights. Whether you are liberal or conservative or anywhere in between, I believe you should vote against Measure A, too. 

The problem is that the measure sets the parcel tax in concrete for ten years. There are only two effective ways the public can influence policy at the BUSD. One is by voting for School Board members. The other is by voting on taxes. Do we, the residents of Berkeley, really want to hand so much power over the school administration for 10 years? 

Everyone knows that public education is in crisis, in Berkeley and around the United States. All voters—parents, teachers, property owners, renters—need to preserve a democratic voice to influence policy and an ability to say no if they see the administration taking a bad turn. 

The BUSD is forecasting disaster should this measure not pass. There will be no disaster. The district can come back to the voters within months with a measure that doesn’t grab so much power away from voters. The standard period for similar measures in most other districts is four years. Four years is reasonable. Ten years is far too long a time.  

A no vote on Measure A is a vote for school administration accountability. A no vote is pro-education and pro-democracy. 

Russ Mitchell 

• 

STANDUP FOR KIDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As the co-executive director of StandUp For Kids, Berkeley I would like to say that StandUp For Kids works hard to reach out to homeless kids here in America. But, at this time I would like to bring attention to the crisis that is happening to kids and their families in Africa. It is important that we hold our Public Officials accountable for the 400,000 men, women, and children who have been killed in Darfur. This genocide is being called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today and it shall not be ignored. Candidates running for public office this November have an agenda to accomplish, stopping this genocide should be at the top along with the prevention of youth homelessness here in our nation’s streets, where 13 kids die everyday as a result! I am asking you to let these candidates know we care about kids all over the world and that we need them to StandUp For Kids! 

Nikiya McWilliams 

• 

NO ON PROP. 83 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Over 80 percent of sexually abused children never tell anyone, mostly because their abusers are within their own families or someone trusted by their families. Only 10 percent of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by strangers. Prop. 83 (Jessica’s Law) is well-intentioned, but is severely misguided. Among it’s faults is that it will make children even more reluctant to tell what they know. 

Research shows that sex offenders in a stable environment (with stable housing, jobs, and social support) are less likely to commit new sex offenses compared to those offenders who lack such stability. Unfortunately, residency requirements reduce this stability. Under Prop. 83, most convicted sex offenders will be forced to relocate to rural areas where they will be far away from treatment and support services. Access to treatment and support services is critical toward the protection of children. 

In Iowa, where there is a similar law, there has been a 50 percent drop in the rate of sexual offenders who register with authorities. 

These organizations have come out against Prop. 83: 

• The California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a statewide victim advocacy coalition of 84 rape crisis centers and sexual assault prevention programs, www.calcasa.org. 

• The California Coalition on Sexual Offending, www.ccoso.org.  

• The Child Molestation Research & Prevention Institute, www.cmrpi.org.  

I hope everyone who reads this will tell everyone they know how important it is to vote no on Prop 83. 

Susan da Silva  

CMRPI Volunteer 

Kensington 

• 

IN FAVOR OF MEASURE A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a parent, grandparent, teacher and Berkeley taxpayer with over 30 years involvement with the BUSD I strongly support Measure A, which funds renewal of the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project (BSEP). Passing Measure A will not increase taxes. We have been paying these taxes since 1986. These funds have made a dramatic difference in the quality of our children’s education. Here’s how: 

Class size: When my children attended elementary school in BUSD they frequently were in classes with 32 children. When I first started teaching elementary school in BUSD my classes often had 32 children. By the time I retired, thanks to BSEP, my classes had 20 students. The difference was dramatic: more time for targeted teaching, more time for attention to individual student’s social needs, more time for engaging projects to encourage critical thinking, and greater student success. As I volunteer now in my grandson’s kindergarten class, the benefits of teaching to a class of 20 are reaffirmed, as I watch his teacher being able to work successfully with an increasing number of English Language Learners and the new BUSD Special Education model. 

Site enrichment funds: In my early teaching years not only did I spend part of each paycheck to provide classroom materials, but there were endless sales of candy, stuffed animals, and T-shirts to enable my class to participate in special projects. This took teaching and planning time away from students, and meant that enrichment was up to individual teachers. With site discretionary funds BSEP supports enrichment programs so that students receive equity in classrooms, schools can plan an articulated model of enrichment, and teachers can focus on teaching—not fundraising. 

Staff development: When I was hired by BUSD in 1984, staff development was limited to presentations by textbook publishers and volunteer mentor teachers. The hours I spent in sink-or-swim teaching and seeking out solutions to already solved problems were legion. This is no longer true. Berkeley teachers participate in staff development programs at all levels of their career: from BTSA for beginning teachers to study groups and alternative assessment programs for experienced teachers. Professional development in curriculum and instructional strategies such as Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) is part of every teacher’s career. Measure A helps fund professional development. 

Oversight: In the early years of BSEP I served on the Planning and Oversight Committee and as chair of the class size subcommittee. The process was both time consuming and invigorating. In addition to meetings there were always documents to be read, people to be consulted with and time needed to think through complicated issues. Yet it was invigorating because this representative body spent the time to be reflective and arrive at difficult decisions. Having a Planning and Oversight Committee has always been an essential part of BSEP’s success. It is retained in this measure. 

I find that most of my taxes, especially on the federal level, are used in ways I deplore. Voting Yes on Measure A is a small affirmation of my values. 

Louise Rosenkrantz 

• 

DISTRICT 7 RACE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ve been struck by the extraordinary amount of letters published in support of George Beier. But what really seems to stand out is that the letter-writing campaign seems to focus almost entirely on the personal “fan club” type of testimonials designed to persuade people that if the candidate is a good and essentially decent person his politics do not really matter.  

But when all is said and done, I thought George Beier was running for a City Council position. So when the elections are over, we are going to have to live with the person elected and the views, politics, vision, and votes of that elected official.  

I haven’t heard anything but positives about Kriss Worthington as a person either. And so when deciding to whom to really vote, how about voting for Berkeley’s present and future based on electing the person who would make the best council member? 

From what I gather, Beier is pro-development, pro-business, and has easy sound-bite answers to hard choices facing the City Council.  

In contrast, look at Kriss Worthington’s actual record. Kriss has been an extremely hard working council member who has proven over and over again that his views, vision, energy, commitments to social, political, and justice issues, and his actual votes as a councilmember, make Kriss the only real choice. 

So even if you think you’ll have more fun at lunch with George, when the councilmember’s work begins, and the councilmembers’s votes count, I hope you voted for the best candidate and elected Kriss Worthington. 

Stephen M. Mackouse 

• 

MEASURE J 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was disappointed to read the outright lies being circulated about Measure J. Here are just two examples: Important development on the site of Celia’s Restaurant, on Fourth Street, is being held up because it has been designated as a landmark and that owners of property on Otis Street went bankrupt because of its designation as a “structure of merit.” 

Livable Berkeley and Mayor Bates are saying that the reason they recommend against Measure J is because ridiculous and unfair landmarks decisions have been made. This doesn’t make sense to me because I watch City Council meetings and have heard to the public comments in opposition to the council’s proposed changes. It took me awhile to piece together the information but here it is. Every decision by the Landmarks Preservation Commission is automatically placed on the City Council agenda for approval before any decision becomes final. Any “ridiculous” decision is the fault of the council, not the law. So what happened in my two examples? The LPC approved Celia’s as a landmark, the City Council disagreed, so the building never was designated as a landmark. The request for demolition of that building and others on that site is on hold pending the project’s meeting the state law requirements to do an environmental impact review, not because of Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. 

The council also disagreed with the Otis Street decision so that property never became a structure of merit. The neighborhood, opposing the conversion of a single family home into a multi-unit project with a paved over backyard to meet parking requirements, purchased the property giving three developers $80,000 each to walk away from the project.  

Let’s not be misled by special interests that simply want to grease the wheels of demolition and inappropriate development. We can prevent throwing out an ordinance that has served this City well for 32 years by voting Yes on Measure J on Nov. 7. 

Maggie Reid 

• 

HATEFUL CITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a Berkeley citizen over 40 years I asked the question, how can the city who is suppose to represent all Berkeley citizens continue to show its hate by denouncing Christ-based organizations like the Sea Scouts, but will quickly promote destructive, anti-family organizations that are bent on homosexuality, atheism, anti-U.S.A. and such?  

When will we citizens elect and hire people who truly represent the citizens of the City of Berkeley? When? The demographics in Berkeley have changed overall for the worse over the past 20 years. It’s become anti-Christ, anti-family, anti-Black American, anti-American and anti-right! 

COB leadership please continue to support the Sea Scouts who along with the Boy Scouts of America promote life and stop promoting organizations that value sickness and death. 

Lisa Robin 

• 

PEOPLE’S PARK IS A SEWER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was born in 1961 in Berkeley and have lived there most of my life. The only thing that I remember about People’s Park is that it was a hangout for the scum of the world and all that entails. All of you pony-tailed liberal/yippie/hippy/whatevers need to take off the rose-colored glasses and realize the ’60s was nothing but a bad experiment that failed. Give it up already! That means the drug dealers paradise known as People’s Park and put in condos, or anything. It is far better use than an open-air sewer and a pit for the rags of society to hang out. 

If these people choose to live this way they should do it somewhere else. This is what is really what’s killing south Berkeley, specifically from Sather gate to the triangle.  

Christopher D. Fuller 

Rocklin, Calif. 

• 

MORE ON MILO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Arlen Stahlberg’s recent letter repeats some very important misunderstandings. We acknowledge and respect the spirit of the volunteers, but it is the impact on our neighborhood which needs to be addressed and how MILO handles the obvious sanitation issues is not our problem to solve. That this situation has gone on for so long is also not in any way relatable to us, but rather MILO’s own negligence.  

The issue is not nobility of the idea of pet adoption; we all acknowledge this. The problem is trying to fit a regional service which gathers animals from a huge part of Northern California into our densely-populated neighborhood. MILO doesn’t even have a yard of any kind at this facility! We are, in good faith, attempting to reach mutually-agreed operating conditions which will help MILO operate peacefully while preserving our long-established neighborhood, and all this name-calling rhetoric is counter-productive. We hope MILO supporters as well as challengers will calm down and allow the mediation process to work. 

We are being mischaracterized and the issues have been shifted time and again to “with us or against us.” which sounds much more like the Bush administration, don’t you think? 

Robert Yoder 

Solano Avenue Neighborhood  

Association 

• 

PROPERTY TAXES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Is there anyone out there besides me who has not received a property tax bill yet? 

I thought the bill was supposed to arrive before the election so we could read the bad news before voting.  

Frank Greenspan 

• 

POLICE PAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am compelled to write to correct an inaccurate statement reported in the Berkeley Daily Planet’s Oct. 24 edition. Mayoral candidate Zelda Bronstein responded in a discussion regarding who should qualify for “workforce housing” by remarking, “The police in this city are averaging $124,000 per year.” 

As a public organization, Berkeley police salaries are a matter of public record and are arrived at via negotiations with the city manager’s office. In addition, our contracts must be approved by the City Council before they are valid and binding. Our contracts are intended to be appropriate compensation for a demanding and often dangerous job. They are comparable to and competitive with the salaries of similar sized agencies in the Bay Area. The top pay for a senior officer is substantially less than the figure quoted by Ms. Bronstein. Unfortunately, she is misinformed about this issue. Even more troubling, is the appearance of using inaccurate information to satisfy immediate political aims. Either way, she is wrong on this issue. 

I would encourage Ms. Bronstein and those who would like to know more about Berkeley police officers to look up the information on web at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/police and make an informed opinion about this core public safety issue. 

Henry Wellington 

President, Berkeley Police Association  

• 

THE STRAIGHT FACTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Please get your facts straight when reporting on major issues that affect Berkeley! Richard Brenneman “reports” in his article regarding the last Design Review meeting that developer Hudson-McDonald suggested the traffic barrier for the project at 1885 University Ave. Au contraire! It was, and still is, the Berkeley Way neighbors who proposed the barrier, much to Hudson-McDonald’s dismay. They have finally openly admitted, after pretending to go along with the concept for expediency’s sake, that they oppose the barrier. Please do not give them any credit for trying to salvage our neighborhood. As I pointed out in a previous commentary, they have had been given every opportunity to mitigate their project’s damage to the neighborhood. They brazenly refuse because, as they frequently like to point out, they can. 

Regan Richardson 

• 

GOOD LUCK, SUSAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We are all indebted to Susan Parker for increasing our awareness of the disabled community—both disabled and care givers—and doing it with a respectful, pitch-perfect tone, with informative good humor, neither exploiting Ralph’s condition nor demanding pity for him or for herself. I hope she also provided some sense of visibility and solidarity for the disabled and their loved ones, as well. Now that Ralph is free, I hope she is free to think of happier times they had together. Good luck, Susan.  

Dorothy Bryant 

• 

PACIFIC STEEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am outraged by the constant pollution to our air quality in Berkeley thanks to Pacific Steel Castings—the largest steel foundry on the entire West Coast. They continually violate their agreements with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District by operating night and day with their doors wide open-allowing all of the toxins to freely escape into the surrounding community. On top of that they use city streets like their private property—allowing their castings to cool and off gas on public streets. Where is the city to crack down on this? If they were on Shattuck Avenue and they put their work out on city sidewalks they would be shut down in five minutes. Where is the city on this? What is Mayor Bates doing? What is Linda Maio doing? 

And what is the public doing? The residents of Berkeley need to come together in this time of a public health crisis and demand that this is not allowed to continue. Anyone reading this who is concerned for their health and the health of their families should attend the planned public rally and protest set for Nov. 11 at 11 a.m at Ninth and Gilman streets in Berkeley. Come out and make some noise! 

And for those of you unaware, here are a few facts:  

1. PSC dumps over 250,000 ponds of toxins into our air every year. 

2. Our of over 2,000 stationary pollution sources in six Bay Area counties, PSC is number 12—ahead of the Richmond Chevron refinery! 

3. PSC dumps known carcinogens into our air such as maganese, lead, zinc, copper and many other toxins. 

4. Berkeley has a real public health threat on it’s hands with PSC and it cannot be allowed to continue. 

David Landon 

Call me frustrated. Some weeks ago—never mind how long precisely—I set out to try to get straight answers from Mayor Bates about some questionable statements he has made about the recent settlement agreement between the City and the University of California. I dutifully attended campaign forum after forum, patiently waited for the question period, then stood up and carefully aimed my inquiries. But every time it seemed that the mayor would be obliged to give a direct answer to one of my queries, he slipped away into the unfathomable depths. Alas! Did my efforts ultimately prove as fruitless as Captain Ahab’s hunt for the great white whale? We shall see. 

A little background before we embark 

In 2005, the City of Berkeley and the University of California engaged in secret negotiations and reached an agreement to settle the city’s lawsuit over the campus’ 2020 Long Range Development Plan. The terms of this agreement were not revealed to the public until after the document was signed—in spite of the fact that Mayor Bates had made a public promise to allow the community time to review and comment on any such proposed settlement before the city approved it. This singular betrayal of the public trust seriously undermined Berkeley citizens who were trying to put practical limits on UC’s expansion and get effective mitigations for the significant detriments caused by UC’s off-campus growth. 

Recently, Mayor Bates has been contrite about the secrecy issue—claiming that the city attorney “agreed to that condition” without his knowledge. (Hmm…is that really how things work?) But he has been completely unapologetic about the agreement itself, calling it “the best deal we could have gotten.” Neighborhood residents, however, view it in a different light: they regard it as one of the worst deals the city has ever made with UC. They are acutely aware that all the negative impacts of UC’s uncontrolled growth that they already endure—traffic, pollution, parking shortages, noise, and the effects of multiple-year construction projects—will become far worse in the future if UC goes ahead with its plans. So while the city did secure a limited (but far less than adequate) amount of compensation from UC for the city services it uses, it obtained exactly zero effective mitigations for the serious damage Berkeley residents will suffer over the next 15 years while the agreement remains in effect. 

The chase is on 

I charted a course and set sail through the election events: the Livable Berkeley candidates forum, the Willard Neighborhood forum, the Le Conte forum, and last Saturday’s forum at the Unitarian Universalists’ Hall in North Berkeley. I hoped to get answers to three questions: 

1. You have maintained that you effectively represented the interests of Berkeley residents during the negotiations with UC. Can you point to any part of the settlement agreement that includes explicit protection for residents from the significant detriments they currently endure—and which will become far worse—as a direct result of UC’s expansion? 

2. Regarding downtown planning, exactly which elements of planning and development does our city have final unilateral authority over since you signed the agreement with UC? How does this compare with the rights the City had before you signed the agreement? In your response, please take into account the following statements that appear in the actual agreement: (a) “All public meetings regarding the DAP [Downtown Area Plan]…must be jointly planned and sponsored by the city and UC Berkeley.” (b) “Any mitigation measures included in the EIR [environmental impact report] must be acceptable to UC Berkeley…” and (c) “UC Berkeley reserves the right to determine if the DAP or EIR meets the Regents’ needs. The basis for making such a determination would be that the DAP or EIR does not accommodate UC Berkeley development in a manner satisfactory to the Regents.” 

3. You have claimed in many recent campaign speeches that you have established a new “cooperative” relationship with UC. Can you explain how well this new relationship is working in regards to the university’s announced plans for massive construction in the Southeast part of campus? (Your recent remarks about these proposed projects have included the following: “We’re about to go back to battle. These plans are totally unacceptable. We’ll have to sue them again unless they change their course.”) 

Stormy seas 

I soon realized that getting answers to my questions would be a real challenge. First, there was not a lot of time for audience questions, and there were always more people who lined up to speak than would get the chance. To me, this was a clear indication of how little true dialog with the community there has been over the last four years. Everybody seemed to know that this was a rare opportunity, not to be missed. But it also meant that there was pressure from the moderators to limit the audience members to very short questions. This was a major handicap for anyone who wanted to discuss an issue that was at all complex—and let’s face it, most of the important issues facing Berkeley are quite complex. In spite of these odds, I prepared to face my elusive quarry. 

Thar she blows! (The mayor’s campaign flyer, that is) 

As I waited in line at the first forum to ask a question, I happened to spy a flyer from the Bates campaign entitled “UC-City Partnership Agreement Fact Sheet.” I began reading, and quickly became astounded. Some of the statements in the flyer were so blatantly inaccurate that they would have been visible even from the crow’s nest. One statement in particular burst out of the page: UC Berkeley “has agreed—for the first time and from pressure from the city—to follow Berkeley’s existing land use rules for all new buildings on the Southside of campus and in the downtown when the city’s new downtown area plan is completed.” This would be an amazing development if it were true. There’s one small problem, however: it’s not true. In fact, the mayor’s claim is flatly contradicted by a plain declaration in the actual legal agreement: “The Regents will reserve their autonomy from local land use regulation.” (section II, B,1) The meaning of this statement is unambiguous, and it is not qualified or amended by any other statement in the document. Why was the mayor’s flyer proclaiming something that is exactly the opposite of what is true? 

It was suddenly my turn at the microphone. I realized that this was a question that would fit into the limited time frame, and I asked the mayor, ”Is there any language anywhere in the text of the agreement with UC that supports your assertion that the university has agreed to follow our land use laws?” My question hung suspended in mid-air as I awaited his reaction. 

How did Mayor Bates respond? I could describe the thrashing, the twisting and turning, the flying foam, the deep dives into murky side issues—and my well-honed harpoon falling harmlessly into the vast salty deep. Let’s just say he completely evaded my question, and went on to try to convince the crowd of how unquestionably positive the settlement was—adopting the tone and cadence of a religious revival preacher. I would have been able to rebut each and every one of his claims with direct evidence, but there was just no time for that. In the end I barely had time to point out that the mayor had not answered my specific question at all. Nor did he answer it at any of the other candidates forums, where I made a point of repeating the exact same question. 

Why this matters 

Many Berkeley voters do not follow the big picture of local politics, let alone the details. Most often, they read a handful of campaign brochures just before an election. That’s why it is so important that we challenge the false statements that appear in these campaign materials.  

Was Mayor Bates concerned that his campaign flyer might contain misleading statements? Not at all, as was clear from his responses. He is still circulating these flyers because he believes, whatever their accuracy, they will earn him votes—and that’s all that matters. He knows most people are not paying attention. And he might get away with it without any personal consequences during this election. But if he does, the entire city will suffer from the community’s growing distrust of the unaccountable and dishonest political process that has been the chief hallmark of his administration. 

Doug Buckwald is a long-time resident of the Willard neighborhood. 

A lot of readers are focusing on the effects Proposition 90 will have on eminent domain in California, but many are missing that this is one of the most squarely anti-environmental initiatives to reach the California ballot in decades.  

Under Proposition 90, virtually any new “government action” taken to protect the environment, including urban growth boundaries, setbacks, the CA Endangered Species Act, pollution regulations, water quality laws, restrictions on timber harvest and restrictions on off-shore drilling could result in landowners receiving huge payments from governments. But when the government (and ultimately taxpayers) inevitably cannot afford to pay the landowner, the environmentally destructive actions are allowed to proceed. 

Proposition 90 is modeled after Oregon’s infamous Measure 37, which passed statewide in the 2004 election. Measures like these are now being proposed in states across the country, as part of a national agenda funded by greedy out-of-state development interests in New York City.  

I was campaigning against Measure 37 in OR when it passed and, as a result, spoke to hundreds of people during my days as a phone banker. I did talk to some people with legitimate claims for why the land use planning system needed reform. But Proposition 90 is just too broad a brush.  

Land-use planning is essential for regulating potentially incompatible future uses of your neighbor with existing uses of an area. You wouldn’t, for example, want a mining operation right next to your rural residential land. And in state that is growing exponentially in the coming years, it’s more important now than ever to be thoughtful and capable in passing and enforcing smart residential and industrial growth in California.  

The overwhelming sentiment in Oregon now is regret; many of the people who voted for Measure 37 now wish they hadn’t. Over 2,700 claims have already been filed to develop 143,000 acres in Oregon since November 2004, with claimants seeking nearly $5 billion in compensation. The claims being filed already go beyond what you could imagine: claims to convert berry farms into high-density housing, turn lily farms into mobile-home parks, drill geothermal test wells inside the Newberry National Monument and yes, to launch a large gravel mining operation within 200 feet of neighboring homes. And in nearly every one of the 700 cases that have been settled, the government, handcuffed by Measure 37, has agreed to waive the regulations in question.  

Following in the footsteps of the deceptively named “Clear Skies” or “Healthy Forest” initiatives, the “Protect our Homes” Initiative is not about property rights for landowners or limiting government regulation. Strong regulations, if done correctly, increase our quality of life and actually raise property values by protecting you and your land from the potentially adverse uses of nearby landowners. Likewise, strong environmental laws protect wildlife and habitat for the enjoyment of future generations.  

Rather, a vote for Proposition 90 is a vote against open spaces, spectacular vistas, controlled urban sprawl and the quality of life that makes California special.  

Samantha Murray is the conservation director of the Golden Gate Audubon Society.  

When we go to the polls on Nov. 7, many of us will be voting against George Bush and a subservient Republican Congress. The majority of the electorate is outraged by Bush’s war in Iraq and the failure of his Administration to protect America. In many parts of America voters will also be protesting specific Bush policies that have depressed local economies, raised gasoline prices, and degraded the environment. Indeed, Americans have ample reasons to vote against George Bush and the GOP. Yet, it’s always healthier to cast a positive vote: to be for something. So, what are we voting for? 

It’s comforting to think we are voting for a change in Iraq policy. But it’s hard to believe that the White House will change their “stay the course” position on Iraq, even if Democrats retake the House and Senate. A Democratic majority could hold hearings and spur a national debate on Iraq. Nonetheless, it’s unlikely there’ll be a significant change until after the 2008 Presidential election.  

In a recent interview, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi promised that in the first 100 hours after Democrats regain control of the House there would be new rules to “break the link between lobbyists and legislation;” legislation to enact all the recommendations of the 9/11 commission; and a hike of the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour, among other actions. While important, these changes would not be earthshaking. 

If Democrats retake Congress, their primary actions will be defensive: They will block Bush initiatives such as further tax cuts for the rich. Perhaps they will be able to curtail further damage to the environment and erosion of our civil rights. A Democratic victory on November 7th will stop the US from tilting further to the right, but not effect a course correction. The election will produce a stalemate. 

Republican TV ads bemoan the possibility of an impasse. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing for the United States. A deadlock in Washington could promote a national debate between Conservatives and Liberals. A discussion not about specific legislation, but rather about the direction of America: what should Americans expect from the Federal Government? 

For the past decade this debate has been waged at the cliché level: Liberals have been mocked as the champions of “big government.” Conservatives have contrasted themselves as proponents of limited government; a stance epitomized in the Grover Norquist quip, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” Yet, six years of the Bush Administration have not reduced the size of the Federal Government. In practice, the conservative ideology has produced a web of inconsistencies: It’s okay to have a bloated defense/security bureaucracy, but not okay to have the personnel and policies required to protect America from corporate abuse. Individual civil rights must be subordinated to the security concerns of the United States; however, the “rights” of big business get a free pass.  

Now is the time for Democrats to propose an alternative ideology. Not one driven by sound bites, such as “the era of big government is over.” Rather, a philosophy that’s based upon the common good. A progressive vision for America that articulates a positive role for the Federal government. 

To spur this discussion, here are five arguments Democrats might use: 

1. The American people are the best defenders of the United States. Therefore, Federal budget priorities must be changed. Funds should be shifted from the defense and security sectors to programs that strengthen the citizenry, such as healthcare and education. America spends too much on the military and this is weakening our democracy. 

2. The United States is not engaged in an international arms race, but rather a competition in the global marketplace that we are losing. Therefore, America requires a new vision in order to regain its competitiveness. Federal leadership is needed to provide this strategy. 

3. A cornerstone of this new vision for America is recognition that Democracy is best served by placing limits on capitalism. The interests of big business are not always consistent with the common good, such as protection of the environment and the rights of working people. The Federal Government must intervene to insure that Democracy is not subverted by big business. 

4. Fiscal solvency is another, essential component in a new vision. Federal leadership is required to balance the budget and stop America’s addiction to debt financing. 

5. Finally, the security and solvency of America requires a nation-wide program for energy independence. While development of non-carbon-based sources of energy should be part of this effort, a vital component will be conservation. Federal leadership must motivate Americans to engage common sacrifice, reduce fossil-fuel consumption for the common good.  

If Democrats prevail, there will be a stalemate in Washington. That’s not a bad thing. It’s an opportunity for Americans to consider what kind of government they want before they vote in the 2008 presidential election. 

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

I went to the Wells Fargo branch closest to my home in order to close Ralph’s checking account. I could have emptied it by using his ATM card, but our mortgage is automatically withdrawn from this account on a monthly basis. I needed to officially close it and get the automatic payments stopped.  

I gathered up my Power of Attorney papers, a death certificate, recent bank and mortgage statements, stood in line, and waited for an available teller.  

“I’d like to close my deceased husband’s account,” I said.  

“You can’t close it for 90 days,” answered the young man behind the window.  

“Why not?” I asked.  

“Policy,” he said.  

“All right,” I said. “I don’t have to close the account right now, but I’d like to stop the automatic payment to the mortgage company. As you can see,” and here I showed him Ralph’s bank statement, “there’s not enough money to cover the mortgage this month. Remove the auto pay and I’ll wait 90 days to close the account.”  

“I can’t do that,” said the man. “You’ll need to call your mortgage company.”  

“I already have,” I said. Again, I showed the man the statement. “You can see right here that the money is withdrawn by Wells Fargo, not Citimortgage.”  

The teller looked at the statement, and then tapped some keys on his computer keyboard. He squinted at the screen in front of him. “Sorry,” he said without looking at me. “You’ll have to wait 90 days.”  

“Can I speak to a manager,” I said.  

A manager appeared at the clerk’s side. He, too, squinted at the computer screen, punched some more keys and then looked at me. “Sorry,” he said, “But we can’t do nothin’.”  

“Nothing,” I said. “You can’t do nothing.”  

“Yes,” he said in agreement.  

“Can I put money into the account?”  

“Oh yeah,” said the manager. “You can put money in, you just can’t close it.”  

“That doesn’t seem right,” I said.  

He shrugged.  

“Do you have a complaint form I can fill out?”  

“No,” said the bank manager. “No form.”  

“Then how do I make a complaint?” I asked.  

“Tell us your problem and we’ll discuss it at our next staff meeting.”  

“How do I know you’ll really discuss it?” I asked.  

“You don’t,” said the manager.  

I gathered up my papers and left. Maybe I could get the mortgage money from Ralph’s E-Trade account and transfer it to the Wells Fargo account.  

When I got home I called E-Trade. The customer service representative said it was easy to close an account. She told me where on their website I could go to download the proper forms. All I needed to do was to send them in with a letter of instruction and a death certificate. I printed out the forms but completing them wasn’t easy. I recalled E-Trade and asked for help. The man on the other end of the line didn’t know what forms I was talking about so he transferred me to someone else. A woman came on and methodically clicked off instructions. After some confusion we discovered that we were each looking at different versions of the same forms. “It doesn’t matter,” said the woman. “They say the same thing. Just fill ’em out and send in a death certificate, a letter of instruction, and a letter of testament from an attorney.”  

“My instructions say I need only a death certificate and a letter of instruction.”  

“Better get an attorney’s testament,” she said.  

“I-”  

“I’m looking at your husband’s account right now,” said the woman. “He’s got $700 in stock. That’s hardly worth worrying about.”  

“Excuse me,” I said.  

“You know what I mean,” she answered. “We’re not talking a lot of money.” She paused, but only for a second. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” she asked.  

There was. It began with the word “Kiss”, but I didn’t bother to say it.  

One fair day in mid-October, near dusk, Joe and I were strolling the first mile of the Mitchell Canyon trail on the east side of Mount Diablo. The sun was low; the shadows, long; only the west-facing ridgetops were glowing in the red-gold sunset, and we’d just about decided to turn back, when Joe whispered: “Coyote!” 

Sure enough, barely discernible from the dry grasses and brush along the roadside, there was a coyote. We froze in place, then cautiously lifted our binocs. The coyote ignored us, trotting toward us in a zigzag walk, alert and stopping to attend to things stirring out of sight. When I realized that the wind was at out backs, clearly carrying our scent coyote-wards, I swapped my glasses for the camera and aimed and snapped a picture.  

Our camera has an hilariously authoritative fake shutter sound; sometimes, as then, I wish I’d turned that off. But the coyote never blinked, just kept making the rounds, sniffing for dinner. She made a nonchalant circle around us as we stood there and I snapped off shot after shot. Some few yards past us, she pounced at something, probably a vole, and fetched it out, dropped it once, picked it up and ate it: snap snap.  

As we followed, she stopped again, nosed at something brown on the road, and snapped up bits of that too. I assumed it was a horse turd until we got a closer look. It was a big shattered pine cone, with one or two nuts left under the scattered scales. Coyotes eat pignoli!  

Well of course they do. Coyotes are adventurous generalists, and pignoli are delicious and full of nice fats and protein. They’re tasty in Spanish and Italian main dishes, in salads, in candies—I like them raw or pan-toasted myself. Italian stone pine is the usual source of the classic European commercial nuts, but pines of all sorts can be persuaded to yield their tasty seeds, by birds’ beaks, squirrels’ incisors, or coyotes’ opportunistic noses and tongues and fangs.  

Or, if you’re human people, by boot heel, stone, mill, or fire. The First People here in California were connoisseurs of pine nuts, and a favorite along the Coast Range (were the fat brown-hulled nuts of Pinus sabiniana, currently called “gray pine.” That’s what our coyote acquaintance was eating. 

Thereby hangs a tale. 

Once upon a time, back when shoveler ducks were “Jew ducks” and Brazil nuts were “N****r toes” (Huh. My folks raised me right, all right. I can’t even type that word without choking.), this tree was known as “digger pine,” or, I suppose, “Digger pine.” This name was in dubious honor of the local indigenous tribes, who feasted from a plentiful land and practiced the kind of farming that uses controlled fire and smart cutting instead of plows. Europeans myopically or conveniently missed this subtlety, and called the land “pristine and untouched wilderness” and declared that the local people didn’t work for a living, but merely dug stuff out of the ground to eat.  

In the last couple of decades it dawned on a critical mass of people that the name was insulting. So the tree is now “gray pine,” for its graceful, sparse grayish foliage. Sometimes it’s “bull pine” because it tends to fork into a Y or pair of horns, or “ghost pine” for its less-than-solid appearance. 

It grows in scattered stands in open country or chaparral, its misty color standing out from summer dun and winter green, its height from its plant neighbors’.  

Its foliage makes only light shade, so it gives meager relief from heat. But that also lets one spot its big cones from a long distance: a great convenience for the wild-groceries shopper.  

One amusing habit of gray pine is its tendency to lean. In some places, like some of the stands along Mines Road east of Livermore, they lean in unison, seemingly caught in a ponderous if airy dance. In others, they tilt more randomly, “creating,” as Ronald Lanner said, “a suspicion of a drunken forest staggering as it ascends the oak-studded foothills.” (I recommend his book Conifers of California.)  

If you plant one in garden soil, it’ll grow denser foliage and smaller cones. I’d call it good company, but I personally prefer to see it in its graceful native shape on its lean, demanding native ground.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan.  

Sparse foliage give an airy, insubstantial look to a native landscape “ghost,” Pinus sabiniana.

There are times when the tensions between Venezuela and the Bush Administration seem closer to commedia dell arte than politics: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez compares President George W. Bush to the devil, right down to the smell of sulfur; Homeland Security responds by strip searching Venezuela’s Foreign Minister at a New York airport; Venezuela seizes 176 pounds of frozen chicken on its way to the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. 

But recent initiatives by the White House suggest that the Administration has more than tit for tat in mind. 

In late June, Southern Command, the arm of the U.S. military in Latin America, concluded that efforts by Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia to extend state control over their oil and gas reserves poised a threat to U.S. oil supplies. 

While Latin America produces only 8.4 percent of the world’s oil output, it supplies 30 percent of the U.S.’s needs.  

“A re-emergence of state control of the energy sector will likely increase inefficiencies and, beyond an increase in short-term profits, will hamper efforts to increase long-term supplies and production,” the study concludes. In an interview with the Financial Times, Col. Joe Nunez, a professor of strategy at the U.S. Army War College, added an observation that ought to send a collective chill down the backs of the three countries named: “It is incumbent upon the Command to contemplate beyond strictly military matters.”  

That one of the U.S. military’s most powerful arms should find itself deep in the energy business should hardly come as a surprise. 

Four months after Bush took office, Vice President Dick Cheney’s National Energy Policy Development Group recommended that the administration “make energy security policy a priority of our trade and foreign policy.” 

The Administration has faithfully followed that blueprint for the past years, where it has used war and muscular diplomacy to corner energy supplies for U.S. in the Middle East and Central Asia 

But what most Americans don’t know is that Venezuela sits on the largest energy reserves in the world, a staggering 1.3 trillion barrels of oil, almost three times the reserves of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait combined. 

Most Venezuelan oil is heavy and expensive to refine, but as long as oil stays above $30 a barrel—and few doubt it will go lower—it is an almost endless gold mine. 

The bone the U.S. is picking with Hugo is not about bombast; it’s about oil. 

Shortly after Southern Command’s report, the White House appointed J. Patrick Maher, a 31-year Central Intelligence Agency veteran, to head up a special task force for gathering intelligence on Venezuela and Cuba. Only North Korea and Iran have similar posts. In a move that almost exactly parallels how intelligence was handled in the run up to the Iraq war, Maher will bypass the CIA and report directly to President Bush. 

Maher’s appointment followed a full court press by a group of neo-conservatives grouped around National Security Director John Negroponte, then CIA chief Porter Goss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and her deputy, Robert Zoellick.  

The campaign against Chavez on the executive side is matched by a similar push on the congressional side. Senator Richard Lugar (R-In), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recently urged the Bush Administration to adopt “contingency plans” in case of a disruption of oil supplies from Venezuela. In a July letter to Rice, the Senator said that Venezuela has an “undue ability to impact USA security and our economy.” Lugar went on to warn that there was a “real risk” that Venezuela could “act in concert” with other countries and that “we have a responsibility to plan appropriate contingencies that protect the American people.” 

The current campaign against Chavez is really Round Two in the White House’s drive to unseat him. 

As Freedom of Information Act documents reveal, the Bush Administration already tried to overthrow Chavez in an April 2002 coup. 

Then Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Otto Reich, met several times with coup leaders, and Deputy Secretary of Defense for Western Hemispheric Affairs, Rogelio Pardo-Maurer met with military coup leader Gen. Lucas Romero Rincon.  

Cuban exile Reich, and Pardo-Maurer, were major players in the 1980s Contra war against Nicaragua. Pardo-Maurer was the Contra’s leading spokesperson, and Reich was forced to resign from the Reagan Administration for planting false stories in the U.S. Media.  

The CIA, through the National Endowment for Democracy and the United States Agency for International Development, bankrolled Chavez’s opponents, and helped organize and support the strike by white collar oil workers and ships captains eight months after the coup collapsed. 

Since then, the administration has kept up a drumbeat of attacks. Rice warned that Chavez was, “A major threat to the region,” U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compared Chavez to Adolph Hitler, and Zoellick told the Senate that Chavez was part of a new “creeping authoritarianism.”  

In March, a National Security Strategy document charged that Chavez was “undermining democracy,” and at an Oct. 2 meeting of Latin American defense ministers in Managua, Nicaragua, Gen. Bantz J. Craddock of Southern Command called Chavez a “destabilizing” force in the region. 

What really worries the U.S. is that Chavez is trying to diversify Venezuela’s clientele. 

Venezuela is currently building a pipeline across Colombia in order to ship more oil to China, and is working on plans for a $25 billion pipeline across the Amazon to markets in Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. According to the Latin American Energy Organization, the Great Southern Pipeline could save Latin Americans $100 billion in lower gas and oil prices over the next 20 years. 

China is pouring in billions to develop fields in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador to give it the inside corner on future resources. 

The “China connection” is one that concerns the Bush Administration, not only because it siphons off oil that normally would go to the U.S., but also because the White House sees China as a rival and has done its best to elbow Peking out of the Middle East and Central Asia.  

But Latin America is a different place than it was a decade ago when it was mired in debt, characterized by low growth and beholden to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. When Rice told House members that the Bush Administration was building a “united front” against Venezuela, it is likely to be a narrow front indeed. 

Venezuela has helped bail Ecuador and Argentina out of debt, invested in projects in Bolivia, and poured almost $20 billion in bond purchases and debt relief into Latin America. In contrast, U.S. aid to the region is $1.7 billion a year, and a billion of that is for the U.S. war on drugs. 

Given Chavez’s enormous popularity in his country and Latin America—according to Datanalius, his positive rate on the continent is 77 percent—it is hard to see what the White House can do about Venezuela’s president.  

But that is not likely to discourage it from trying, and the people the Administration has recruited to target him are just the kind of operatives who won’t shy away from anything up to, and including, the unthinkable: assassination. 

Sometimes, in politics, you come to a point where it is not possible to provide definitive answers, only questions. We seem to have come to such a point in the proposed sale of the Oakland Unified School District downtown properties. The question is: Why is that proposed sale still on the table? 

The original Letter of Intent giving exclusive negotiating rights to developers TerraMark/UrbanAmerican expired in mid-September, but that deadline was extended by mutual agreement of the developers and the developees (the developees in this case being represented by the office of State Superintendent Jack O’Connell, even though it’s Oakland Unified School District property that we’re talking about).  

What TerraMark and Mr. O’Connell have been doing since then is anybody’s guess. Are they negotiating new terms? Are they passing new proposals back and forth by fax or email? Are they talking over the telephone or holding meetings in Sacramento or New York? Are they trying to peel away portions of the land sale opposition, particularly representatives of the three schools and two child development centers who will be directly affected by the proposed property sale? Or are the developers and Mr. O’Connell just sitting on the deal, waiting on a possible change in the political winds? The public—particularly the Oakland public—doesn’t know. 

Meanwhile, though the legal foundation of the proposed land sale rests solidly on state law (the SB39 legislation that authorized the state takeover of Oakland Unified), the political foundation of that proposed sale is on decidedly shaky ground. 

State Senator Don Perata, who wrote SB39 and engineered its passage through the legislature in 2003, says that the provisions authorizing the sale of OUSD property to help pay down the state loan was put in at the request of the school board. 

While technically it was, memories are now murky on who originally came up with the idea. Did it come from board members themselves, or did they pick up suggestions that were being floated by other source? I’ve asked, and no one now seems to remember. Some of the board members certainly thought before the takeover actually took place that the sale—or lease—of the administration lands might speed up the time that local control could be returned. And trustee Dan Siegel now recalls that the land sale provision that ended up in the 2003 board resolution requesting the state bailout loan came from former Superintendent Dennis Chaconas, but only in the context of a request for a state trustee, rather than a state administrator (the difference is significant; under a trustee, the district would have retained most of its powers, including the power to sell, or not sell, its own land). And none of the board members who voted on the 2003 state loan resolution say they believed at the time that any land sale would involve property on which schools were located—as is the case in the current TerraMark/UrbanAmerica proposal. 

In any event, sale of the OUSD property to pay down the state loan was not required under SB39; it was only authorized. And clearly, no matter what OUSD board members thought about that idea in those frantic days in 2003 when they were trying to stave off both bankruptcy and state takeover, board members have since changed their minds. Six of the seven sitting board members have gone on record opposing the sale of any district property until local control is restored. And even the one board member who believes that surplus administrative property should be sold to help pay down the loan—Kerry Hamill—has expressed criticisms about the way Mr. O’Connell and the folks at TerraMark/UrbanAmerican have structured the current proposed deal. 

In other words, whatever support among OUSD board members in 2003 for a proposed sale or lease of OUSD properties has long since vanished in the face of three years of state control of Oakland Unified and the actual terms of the TerraMark/UrbanAmerica deal. Mr. O’Connell can no longer use that former board support as his reason for the current deal. 

And, yet, the deal remains on the table. Why? In the absence of any details coming out of the state superintendent’s office these days, we can only speculate. 

One theory is that while the T/U deal doesn’t make financial sense for the district, it is an exit strategy for Mr. O’Connell, a way for him to leave the district without taking responsibility for the bleak financial situation that has escalated at Oakland Unified under his watch. It has been widely acknowledged—even in the state legislation that authorized the state takeover—that the school board and former Superintendent Dennis Chaconas failed to balance the district’s budget only because they were given incorrect financial information. But since the state takeover the unbalanced budgets have continued, even though Mr. O’Connell and his chosen state administrator have known that they are engaging in deficit spending. 

That particular fact was most troubling to the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), which wrote in its latest report that “an issue of great concern is the structural deficit [at Oakland Unified]… The size of the district’s long-term debt has increased and the district has not remedied its previous pattern of deficit spending. Expenditures surpassed revenues in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 budget years. Although the district was still closing its books at the time of FCMAT’s [recent] visit, district reports showed deficit spending of $2.9 million and an undesignated unrestricted fund balance of [a negative] $8.3 million. The draw down of the remainder of the state loan [the $35 million former state administrator Randolph Ward borrowed in his last days before leaving the job], while perhaps necessary, will tend to inflate the district’s revenues for the 2006-07 budget year with one-time funds that will not support ongoing operational expenditures.” 

How can Mr. O’Connell possibly overcome such dismal ratings in the area of financial management of Oakland Unified, the major area that the state was supposed to come in and fix? Like the old Vietnam War era exit strategy of simply declaring victory and leaving, perhaps Mr. O’Connell is planning on saying that the TerraMark/UrbanAmerica deal—if signed—puts the district back on sound financial footing with an infusion of cash. He could then say that through the deal he solved Oakland Unified’s financial problems, and could then recommend taking the first steps towards local control. 

It’s a shaky argument, at best, but when you’ve failed so miserably at your assignment—as Mr. O’Connell has so far in his assignment to fix Oakland Unified’s finances—you’ve got to grasp at any straw you can get. 

Another theory as to why the proposed OUSD land sale deal with TerraMark/UrbanAmerica remains on the table is that Mr. O’Connell, by himself, can’t take it off. 

With much of Oakland united against it, the T/U deal clearly hurts Mr. O’Connell’s chances of winning the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2010, something he has said he is interested in seeking if Mr. Schwarzenegger wins re-election next month. If Mr. O’Connell had the power to drop the deal himself, and personal political ambition was the only factor, it would seem that he would have gone to the TerraMark/UrbanAmerica folks some weeks ago and said that it’s been nice, guys, but I’m going to have to cut you loose. 

But there are other politicians with interest in this pie, and they may be the ones who are holding Mr. O’Connell’s hands to the cooking fire, even if it ends up burning the state superintendent politically. 

One of these politicians, obviously, is State Senator Don Perata, who reportedly has been pushing for the sale of the district administrative properties for several years, who has threatened the state takeover of Oakland Unified several times, and who put the property sale provisions into his OUSD state takeover bill. There are reports that Mr. Perata does not favor the TerraMark/UrbanAmerica deal, but with Mr. Perata and development deals, one doesn’t always necessarily know, does one? 

And then there is outgoing Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. Robert Gammon of the East Bay Express has said that TerraMark owners the Fisher family of New York had a longtime relationship with Mr. Brown, and that TerraMark officials came to Oakland and met with Brown in the fall of 2003, when, according to Mr. Gammon, Mr. Brown “told [the developers] about the city's then-red-hot housing market and his so-called ‘10K Plan’ for bringing ten thousand residents to downtown.” Shortly afterwards, TerraMark was deep into its proposal with the state superintendent’s office to buy the Oakland Unified property. In his August 16 article about the OUSD land sale, Mr. Gammon never said that Mr. Brown and TerraMark made a deal about the Oakland Unified land, but the inference was that TerraMark met Mr. Brown’s approval, and that the outgoing mayor could be the main one pushing Mr. O’Connell to keep the deal alive. 

Somebody is keeping the TerraMark/UrbanAmerica deal alive, in any event. But right now, Oakland has only been provided with a continuing set of questions, and not many answers.  

If you’re looking for architecture inspired by precedent, there’s no better place to look than the University of California campus. Nowhere else in town is so much architectural variety concentrated within such a confined area. And the precedents are apparent in all manner of buildings, from the most prominent to the humblest. 

Anthony Hall (1957) 

Just a few paces east of Sather Gate, between Moses Hall and the hulking Barrows Hall, a charming pavilion shelters under oaks and redwoods on the south bank of Strawberry Creek. Most people would recognize it by the bronze pelican statue on the lawn. 

The building is strongly reminiscent of the First Church of Christ, Scientist: wide, sheltering roof eaves; unfinished redwood posts and beams; dragon-head beam ends; industrial steel-sash windows; rough stucco tinted a blotchy red; a colonnaded trellis; cast-concrete post capitals bearing pelican reliefs. They all cry out, “Maybeck!” 

But wait a minute! Those plain round concrete pillars supporting the trellis are modern. Maybeck never used those. How can this beguiling pavilion be so Maybeck and yet not be? 

The answer harks back to April 16, 1903. On that day, wealthy UC student Earle C. Anthony (1880–1961) founded the humor magazine California Pelican. Begun with a staff of ten, the Pelican was in operation until the 1980s and for many years ranked among the top college humor magazines in the nation. Along the decades, its contributors included the likes of Rube Goldberg, Jon Carroll, and the jazz singer Susannah McCorkle. 

Following graduation, the enterprising Anthony made his name in cars and broadcasting. From 1915 to 1958, he was the Packard distributor for all of California. It is said that one out of every seven Packards ever sold passed through his showrooms. In 1923, the Los Angeles Packard dealership’s neon signs were the first installed in the United States. 

With his father, Anthony invented the gas station, opening the first two in California. Their trademark was the chevron, which Anthony soon sold to Standard Oil. He was also a bus-line pioneer, founding the company that would become Greyhound. In the early 1920s, Anthony built the Los Angeles radio station KFI AM, to which he would add KECA AM, now KABC. 

The Packard showrooms in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles were designed in the 1920s by Bernard Maybeck, who was also responsible for Anthony’s Los Angeles mansion. Thus, when Anthony decided in 1954 to donate $90,000 for a Berkeley campus building to house the Pelican, it was Maybeck he turned to. 

The elderly architect, already in his nineties, declined the commission, referring it to Joseph Esherick (1914–1998). Esherick, a leading Bay Area modernist who taught at UC Berkeley for many years, would co-found the College of Environmental Design with William Wurster and Vernon DeMars. His best-known projects are Wurster Hall (with DeMars and Donald Olsen), Sea Ranch, the San Francisco Cannery, and the Monterey Aquarium. 

Anthony Hall is Esherick’s tribute to Maybeck. It’s been called “a unique overlap of First and Second Bay Traditions.” In their obituary for Esherick, Richard Peters and Jean-Pierre Protzen marveled, “Who would ever guess that the architect of the Pelican Building on the Berkeley campus is also the architect of Wurster Hall?” In 1992, the AIA California Council fittingly honored Esherick with the first Maybeck Award. 

And what of the Pelican? According to Bob Wieder, who edited the magazine in the ’60s, Anthony had funded the building “with the stipulation that it would forever house the Pelican and only the Pelican. It took the University years of legal weaseling to undo the terms of his will…Pelly was booted from the Pelican Building around 1973 and gradually withered away in Eshleman Hall.” 

Anthony Hall is now the home of the Graduate Student Assembly. 

Senior Hall (1906) 

If Anthony Hall is a traditional building by a modernist, Senior Hall is a vernacular building by an academician. 

“Perhaps the most famous and quintessential wood building is the log cabin,” notes architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson, who adds, ”by the mid 19th century, these simple buildings had captured the American imagination and have remained there ever since. Celebrated in politics and prose, and illustrated innumerably in paintings and prints, the log cabin came to represent the frontier spirit and earlier times.” 

Popularly associated with integrity and democratic values, the log cabin was a fitting venue for leaders of the Cal student body when they gathered to discuss problems and issues of common interest. These discussions were the main purpose and activity of the Order of the Golden Bear, founded in 1900. 

In 1905, when the Order of the Golden Bear received permission to build a student hall on campus, the university’s supervising architect was John Galen Howard, a product of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Having arrived at Cal in 1902, he already had a few campus buildings to his name, chief among them the Hearst Greek Theater the Hearst Memorial Mining Building (the latter still under construction), and California Hall, all with Classical antecedents. 

On the face of it, Howard was the person least likely to design a log cabin. Yet this New Englander was attuned to vernacular architecture, went on various sketching expeditions, and would design several brown-shingled buildings on campus and nearby. 

Steve Finacom, who compiled the history of the Order of the Golden Bear, wrote that Howard’s intent was to reflect “characteristic California Architecture.” Located behind the Faculty Club, Senior Hall was likened by Professor Henry Morse Stephens to the “heart” of the university, with the Faculty Club representing its “mind.” 

Sather Tower (1914) 

In John Galen Howard’s body of work, a log cabin was a decided aberration. Far more typical was the stately Campanile, which almost overnight turned into Berkeley’s most enduring icon. 

Howard wanted the bell tower to “rise with a slender stem, bursting into bloom at the summit.” No American precedent could fit the bill, and Howard reached over the Atlantic for his model. Anyone who has visited Venice or seen pictures of Piazza San Marco will recognize Sather Tower as a simplified version of the Campanile di San Marco. 

There are differences between the two towers. The shaft of the Venetian Campanile is built of red brick, whereas Sather Tower is a steel structure clad in granite. The Italian belfry features four arched openings on each side, while the California version has three. The original has a ribbed shaft with slit fenestrations along the sides; in the copy, the shaft is almost plain, and the slits run down the center. On the other hand, only Sather Tower is ornamented with corner obelisks topped by bronze finial flames symbolizing enlightenment. Yet there’s no mistaking its origin. 

The Campanile di San Marco is 323.5 feet tall (Berkeley’s reaches 303 feet). It was built between the 9th and 12th centuries. Having suffered earthquake damage in 1511, the tower was restored by the architects Giorgio Spavento and Bartolomeo Bon, assuming its present appearance in 1513. 

Several additional restorations took place over the intervening centuries, but on July 14, 1902 the Campanile di San Marco collapsed. Photos of the time show a hillock of rubble in Piazza San Marco that fortunately left the surrounding buildings unharmed. 

The Venetians wasted no time and rebuilt their Campanile dov’era e com’era (exactly where and as it had been). The reconstructed tower was inaugurated on St. Mark’s Day, April 25, 1912. The following year, construction began on Sather Tower in Berkeley. 

Photograph by Daniella Thompson. Built in 1957, Anthony Hall looks like a Maybeck building for a reason.  

One of the toughest parts of my job has always been finding the justification to support large expenditures on my client’s part. While it may be fun to spend someone else’s money, you won’t make much of a reputation telling everyone that they need a new foundation. You have to parse the good-enough from the doesn’t-cut-it and that’s often disconcerting (for me and for my client). 

On the other hand some calls are easy. Anything that’s somewhat life threatening and or life saving and involves the amount of money in the average person’s wallet is a clear and resounding ‘yea.’ Locks on windows that prevent escape can be removed without any cost if the client is amenable and possessing of a screwdriver. 

A double cylinder lock (locks from both sides) can prevent escape in a fire and can be replaced with a single cylinder type for about 20 bucks and the same screwdriver. The replacement has a thumb turn on the inside and can be opened almost unconsciously by a fleeing would-be victim. 

Old breakers can be replaced by able persons for about five bucks a-piece (don’t try this unless you have real experience and knowledge of high watts) and improve the fire safety of the building. 

These are just a few examples and there are many more. I love these trick or treat inspection gimmies and try to throw lots of them out in my daily work because a) they put smiles on faces and b) they can save lives when the dollars are shy. 

The one I love the most is particularly timely just now as the clocks are about to change and it is our new little friend the smoke-detector. I say new because the device isn’t even 40 years old (invented in 1969 by Kenneth House and Randolph Smith in the U.S.). Also, I mention the changing of the clocks because it’s time to change the batteries and certainly time to review the state of your smoke-detectors. 

If you’re a landlord (Ooooo, evil word in Berkeley. You must be keep slaves and worshiping Baal if you own an apartment) you should be particularly sensitive to the state of smoke-detectors. I’ve seen a lot of disabled smoke-detectors in tenant occupied spaces in my years in the biz and it behooves (you cloven heel, you) landlords to check and service smoke-detectors regularly since tenants tend to be less aware of these issues. 

It’s also common for the young immortals of our dear Alma Mater to remove batteries that are annoyingly chirping (in need of changing) or to steal the battery for more amusing uses (like that cool radio controlled monster truck). 

Many agencies and yours truly recommend changing smoke-detector batteries when you change the clocks, twice a year. I recommend buying 9V batteries, which are pricey, in large allotments when the sales are on at the drug store, at places like Costco or other discount stores. Check the sales and stock up on regular Alkaline 9V batteries (these are the rectangular ones with the two terminals on one end). I don’t recommend Lithium long-life batteries since they don’t tend to last nearly as long as reputed and they tend to make us forget about servicing the smoke detector. 

If you keep half a dozen or more in the house, you’re more likely to change them when they start to chirp and less likely to just back that battery off 1/8” as I so often see. Here’s a protocol I practice. Never back the battery off. Just take it out. That way you won’t think there’s a battery inside (nor will the next person). You have to look carefully to see the difference between a backed-off battery and a fully installed one. The other protocol is that I never leave the cover on a smoke-detector that is missing a battery. Leave it open as a reminder if you have to go get a battery and make the replacement a priority. In Berkeley we would call that “taking care of yourself” and that’s a GOOD thing. It’s also taking care of your family, your tenant and the neighbors, since all those people may be affected. Your fire, can quickly become a fire for others. If you live in an apartment or condo complex, your fire can ruin the day or life of many others so it’s vital that you keep good batteries in these things.  

It’s like voting. If you couldn’t vote (all too new to you women out there) you’d be terribly excited when it came along and you’d rush to the polls as those, new to free-elections, tend to do (ah if we could only turn out in numbers like that).  

We should treat smoke-detectors like that. They are life-saving miracles that cost less than a typical lunch out and the batteries cost about the same as a Grande Decaf at Starbucks. There is no reason in the world not to have plenty of them and to keep them fully charged and ready to scream. By the way, do test your smoke-detectors when you put the batteries in and, at least, seasonally. Do it when you clean the house (it also helps to vacuum the detectors itself). Keep a rod of some sort around to test them with so that you won’t need a ladder.  

Smoke-detectors don’t do a very good job when the smoke can’t reach them so here’s some general thinking on where to put them and roughly the number you will need. This also comes from the NFPA (National Fire Protection Agency) and most local fire departments. 

Smoke-detectors need to be on both sides of the door to your sleeping room (and everyone else’s sleeping room too). That means that you want one in the hall or the living room and that you want one in each of the bedrooms. You also want to have at least one on every level of the house. If you have a three-bedroom, split-level house, this means you’ll want to have five detectors. They’re easy to install and if you want to use some two-part Velcro to put them up, that’s just fine. 

Smoke rises (Because it’s hot and has a lower density than air) and this means that it heads for the ceiling first. If the smoke-detector is on the wall, it takes longer to go off and longer to wake you up. Put smoke-detectors on the ceiling and try to place them at least 4” away from the corner since smoke tends to curl past the corner and hits the ceiling a few inches in from the wall. Place detectors on the highest part of the room if there is a change in height (even though this will make battery replacement more difficult). You might want to get yourself a good ladder for installation and servicing of these. 

A few notes on smoke-detectors. There are different types and some are better than others but the primary safety, in my never-humble opinion, is in have plenty of them. Having 3 or more working smoke-detectors virtually assures that you’ll be awoken from your reverie in time to preempt this most terrible and unnecessary of deaths. 

Consider installing at least one “hard-wired” smoke-detector. This type wires into the 120 volt house current and only fails to function if the power is out (what’s the likelihood that both things will occur at the same time?). If you’re doing a mid-sized remodel on your home (such as a bath remodel), the city will likely force this gift-of-safety upon you. By the way, speaking of gifts, this, like the carbon-monoxide tester, makes a great gift and really does say I love you in a way that a bottle of wine just doesn’t. 

I inspected for an Oakland fireman a few years ago and we chatted quite a bit about fires, smoke-detectors and home escape. At one point I asked him a question about the removal of occupants from burning building and he sort of laughed and said ”Oh, we don’t do that much anymore. Since smoke-detectors started being used, the people are usually already outside and we just have to put out the blaze.”  

I think I’ll leave it right there.  

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor at mgcantor@pacbell.net.

The older and bumblinger I get—and believe me, I’m starting from an advanced baseline of bumblitude—the more I appreciate how forgiving a process gardening is. Composting is one of the more forgiving parts of it, and cheapest. It can stink if you do it wrong—but, if you do it wrong, it generally still works.  

The theory: Pile some greens and some browns in alternating layers, aerate, and in a little while you’ll have wonderful fertilizer instead of garbage. Sounds easy until you have a can of garbage and you start analyzing. 

“Greens” means wet stuff, high-nitrogen: vegetable garbage (meat scraps are strictly for industrial-size piles) or fresh leaves, grass clippings. “Browns” means dry stuff, high-carbon: straw, shavings, dried leaves, sawdust.  

What else is compostable? Paper towels! Dryer lint! Dust bunnies! The stuff from the vacuum cleaner! Torn newspaper! Love letters cut up into little bitty pieces! 

Got a paper shredder? The confidential shreds get obliterated at the bottom of the compost pile. Pile the coffee grounds right on top of your classified secrets. (Coffee grounds are high-nitrogen seed meal, after all.) Run eggshells through the blender with a cup of water and toss the result onto the pile.  

You’re supposed to do all this in layers, get it into a 70/30 ratio, keep it moist but not wet, turn it every so often to let air in, even take its temperature, fuss fuss fuss. You know what? All that speeds the process, but even if you do it haphazardly you’ll get compost. One thing: put your heap on the ground; if you must put it on pavement, add a few shovelfuls of dirt from the garden by way of starter. In fact, that’s a good idea anyway.  

Sometimes you even get pleasant surprises. A few years ago, we had something in the bin way out back that drew biggish black flies. They’d spend hours sunning on the white garage doors. It was spring, and we started hearing a familiar terweep! all day, and we discovered a family of black phoebes, a pair and two youngsters in residence. They took care of the flies most entertainingly, darting from their perches to catch them with an audible snap and treating the garage doors as a smorgasbord.  

It’s nice to have a process that works well even if you do it badly but rewards learning and skill too. (OK, another process.) A well-managed compost heap does have an advantage besides speed: it gets hot enough to kill off a lot of disease organisms. Local organizations and Alameda County’s Stopwaste/Bay-Friendly program can mail you more information, and it’s easy enough to find in the library.  

You can become a Master Composter and earn college credits for it through the county, too; applications for the weekly February-through-May 2007 class are being accepted now. The county will also sell you a Biostack composter for $39 and/or a Wriggly Wranch worm composter for $29, if you’re a resident.  

Call 444-SOIL (7645) or see www.stopwaste.org for more information and to order or sign up.

How’s Your Earthquake Knowledge? (Part 3) 

Rate yourself: Are the following statements true, or false? 

1. The latest seismic technology has made earthquake prediction possible, but is only accurate up to 30 minutes before a major rupture.  

2. We can tell where an earthquake has occurred because we can see where the ground on the surface that has moved. 

3. The most shaking in earthquakes occurs next to the epicenter. 

The answer to each of the above is “false.” 

1. We do not have the ability to accurately predict earthquakes. 

2. We can only view a fault on the surface if the rupture which generated the earthquake extends to the surface. Strong earthquakes can occur without the rupture extending to the surface. The rupture did not extend to the surface in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, nor the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. 

3. The epicenter is only the point on the surface above the location where the fault begins the slip which generates the earthquake. The epicenter is not synonymous with “ground zero.” 

Larry Guillot is the owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing and kit supply service. Contact him at 558-3299. Visit www.quakeprepare.com to receive e-mails and safety reports.  

TUESDAY, OCT. 31 

FILM 

Alternative Visions “Experiments in Terror” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tell It On Tuesday Storytelling by Julia Jackson, Sandra Niman, Kikelomo Adedeji and Steve Budd at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $8-$12. www.juliamorgan.org 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Balkan Halloween Masquerade, songs from the Greek underworld and beyond at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10, $8 with costume. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Singers’ Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Dia De Los Muertos Celebration with Anthony Blea y su Charanga at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Come in costume. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 1 

THEATER 

Gate Theatre of Dublin “Waiting for Godot” Wed.-Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sun. at 3 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $65. 642-9121. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Karl Reichley “Harvest Works” Paintings and Sculpture at the Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremeont Ave. through Nov. 30. 848-1228. www.giorgigallery.com 

FILM 

“Morality, Politics and War” selected and introduced by film historian James Forsher at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Anthony Shadid, Washington Post correspondent, talks about his new book, “Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War” at 8 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Alexei Yurchak introduces “Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Hecho in Calfias Festival Madrinas and Padrinos of Hecho, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568.  

Eastern European Artists-in-Residence Artists Talk with Kalin Serapionov and Aleksandra Janik at 7 p.m. in the Kala Gallery, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. 

Peter Stone discusses “Heist: Superlobbyist Jack Abramoff...” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 415-559-9500.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with performances from the Graduate Composition Seminar at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Yefim Bronfman, piano, Gil Shaham, violin and Lynn Harrell, cello at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $30-$52. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

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

Chocolate O’Brian at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Whiskey Brothers Old Time and Bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Afrissippi, world boogie, African blues at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dreamdate, Scrabble, The Scattered Pages at 8 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Humbria, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa dance lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Casey Neill & Jim Page at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Kenny Rankin, in a solo show at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, NOV. 2 

THEATER 

Albany High School Theater Ensemble “Pretend-O-Cide” Thurs. at 7 p.m., Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd, Albany, through Nov. 11. Tickets are $5-$10. www.myspace.com/ahsuburoi 

Azeem’s “Rude Boy” opens and runs Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at The Marsh, 2120 Allston Way, through Nov. 25. Tickets are $15-$22. 415-826-5750.  

EXHIBITIONS 

Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle Guided tour at 12:15 p.m. in Gallery 2, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

FILM 

“Jean Renoir, The Boss” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Free first Thursday. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Architecture of Ratcliff” with Woodruff Minor, author, and Kiran Singh, photographer, at 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. 238-2200. 

Mal Sharpe talks about life as an “imposter” and his CD/DVD “These 2 Men Are Imposters” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Murray Silverstein, poet, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17. 

Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld talk about translating from ancient and contemporary Hebrew, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film” A multimedia presentation by music historian Richie Unterberger at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

St. Mark’s Choir Association performs Requiem by Jacob Clemens non Papa at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. 845-0888. 

University Chamber Chorus Music for All Soul’s Day at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Free.  

Dia de los Muertos Benefit Concert for the Zapatistas, featuring Fuga, Los Nadies, La Plebe at 7 p.m. at 2232 MLK, Oakland. Cost is $8 - $20 sliding scale. www.2232mlk.com 

Fikir Amlak, Red Meditation, Binghi Ghost, Luv Fyah, reggae, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

John Schott’s Dream Kitchen + 3, the music of Jelly Roll Morton with Suzy Thompson, Bob Mielke and Richard Hadlock at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Hecho in Calfias Festival From Folclorico to fusion at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

System 3, Burnt at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

That Man Fantastic, Music Lovers, French Disco at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Jazz Mine at 6:30 p.m. at King Tsin Chinese Restaurant, 1699 Solano Ave. 525-9890. 

Kenny Rankin, in a solo show at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Showtime @ 11 Hip Hop at 10 p.m. at the Golden Bull, 412 14th St. at Broadway, Oakland. 893-0803. 

FRIDAY, NOV. 3 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Hedda Gabler” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through Nov. 18 at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman. Tickets are $12. 525-1620. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Albany High School Theater Ensemble “Pretend-O-Cide” Thurs. at 7 p.m., Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd, Albany, through Nov. 11. Tickets are $5-$10. www.myspace.com/ahsuburoi 

Altarena Playhouse “Merrily We Roll Along” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St, Alameda, through Nov. 12. Cost is $15-$18. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Aurora Theatre “Ice Glen” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through Dec. 10. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Azeem’s “Rude Boy” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at The Marsh, 2120 Allston Way, through Nov. 25. Tickets are $15-$22. 415-826-5750. www.themarsh.org 

Berkeley Rep “Passing Strange” at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. through Dec. 3. Tickets are $45-$61. 645-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Central Works “Andromache” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. through Nov. 19. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1382. 

Gate Theatre of Dublin “Waiting for Godot” Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sun. at 3 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $65. 642-9121. 

Masquers Playhouse “Company” by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through Dec. 16.. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org  

Shotgun Players “Love is a Dream House in Lorin” by Marcus Gardley, inspired by true stories of Berkeley’s historic Lorin District, Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Nov. 12. Sliding scale $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

TheatreFirst “Criminal Genius” Thurs.-Fri. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Old Oakland Theatre, 481 Ninth St., at Broadway, Oakland, through Nov. 19. Tickets are $19-$25. 436-5085. www.theatrefirst.com 

UC Dept. of Theater “Suburban Motel” six plays by George Walker at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus, through Nov. 19. Tickets are $8-$14. For schedule see http://theater.berkeley.edu 

Youth Musical Theater Company “Guys & Dolls” Fri.-Sat. at 7:30 p.m. Sun. at 3 p.m. at Longfellow Middle School, 1500 Derby St. Tickets are $6-$15. 595-5514. www.ymtc.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Abstract Paintings by Sibylle Szaggers opening reception at 5:30 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., Oakland. Gallery hours are Wed.-Fri. noon to 7 p.m., and Sat. noon to 4 p.m. Exhibition runs to Nov. 30. 465-8928.  

“Terrorists, Aliens and Criminals” Graffiti Exhibit by Students from East Bay Schools, including Berkeley High School opens at 7 p.m. at Café Prism, 1918 Park Blvd., Oakland. Exhibit will remain on display until November 27. www.myspace. 

com/thebrownbuffaloproject 

“The Allure of Form” Works by Julie Alvarado, Scott Courtenay-Smith and Fernando Reyes. Opening reception at 5 p.m. at Esteban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St. at Telegraph., Oakland. Runs to Nov. 27. estebansabar.com 

“The Best of Boontling’s 2 Years” opening reception at 7 p.m. at Boontling Gallery, 4224 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Exhibition runs to Dec. 17. www.boontlinggallery.com 

Therese Brown: Photographs & Tarra Lyons: Paintings Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Mercury 20 Gallery, 25 Grand Ave. at Broadway, Oakland. Gallery hours are Thurs.-Fri. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sat. 1 to 5 p.m. mercurytwenty@gmail.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Chris Baty, author of “No Plot? No Problem!” kicks off National Novel Writing Month at 7 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Wes “Scoop” Nesker and Perry Garfinkel on “Buddha or Bust: In Search of Truth, Meaning, Happiness and the Man Who Found Them All” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Organists Ann Callaway and Richard Mix Recital of works by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven at 11:15 a.m. at Saint David of Wales Catholic Church, 5641 Esmond Ave. at Sonoma, Richmond. 

“Side by Side” Dance by Dandelion Dance Theatre, Nina Haft, Randee Paufve, Sonja Del Waide, Laura Renaud-Wilson and Dancers at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $12-$15. 925-798-1300.  

University of California Alumni Chorus will perform Mozart’s Mass in c minor at 8 p.m. in Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $6-$15. 642-3880. 

Skyflower Ensemble “Music from Germany: 1676-1720” at 8 p.m. at MusicSources, 1000 The Alameda. Donation $10. 528-1685. 

Snake Trio “New Directions in Jazz and Venezuelan Music” at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $15 at the door. 845-1350.  

Nathan Clevenger Quintet at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th St., Oakland. Donation $5-$15. sfjazzmusic@yahoo.com 

Hecho in Calfias Festival Ni de aqui, ni de alla. An evening of poetry, music and theater by and about immigrant communities at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Woman Sing the Dharma, Western musical setting of Buddhist teachings with Betsy Rose, Jennifer Berezan and Eve Decker at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley Ave. Suggested donation $18. 525-7082.  

The Moscow Circus at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“...and Words by Barry Warren,” a vocal jazz concert showcasing Barry’s lyrics to music by great jazz composers with Barry Warren and the Larry Dunlap Trio at 8 p.m. at Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. Tickets are $15. 843-2459. 

Eric Swinderman Group at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Orixa and Mucho Axe, Dia de los Muertos Festival, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Tickets are $10-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

John Reischman & the Jaybirds at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Shotwell 25 at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Zoe & Dave Ellis’ “Zadell” at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Shelly Doty, Green & Root, Carrie Katz at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Plum Crazy, 7th Direction at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Mad Youth, Sueco at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Flip the Switch, Issue 10, Dan Potthast at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Dia de los Muertos with Santero and guests at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $7. 548-1159.  

Sadao Watanabe with the Peter Erskine Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $25. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, NOV. 4 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Jerry Kennedy in a interactive sing along at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Contrasting Worlds” Three different perspectives on reality. Opening reception at 6:30 p.m. at The Stone Art Gallery, 600 50th Ave., Oakland. 536-5600. 

“Autumn: The Undertaker” featuring collected works from 5 local artists. Opening reception at 7:30 p.m. at Spasso Coffee House, 6021 College Ave. 428-1818. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Robert Greenfeld talks about “Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Katherine Min reads from her new novel “Secondhand World” at 3 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. www.ewbb.com 

Bay Area Poets Coalition Open Reading, at 3 p.m at Strawberry Creek Lodge, dining hall, 1320 Addison St. Park on the street, not in Lodge parking lot. Free. 527-9905. poetalk@aol.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Side by Side” Dance by Dandelion Dance Theatre, Nina Haft, Randee Paufve, Sonja Del Waide, Laura Renaud-Wilson and Dancers at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $12-$15. 925-798-1300.  

Trinity Chamber Concerts Howard Wiley's Angola Project exploring the roots and legacies of African American prison spirituals, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864.  

The Jason Moran Trio and the Vijay Iyer Quartet at 8 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are $32. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Four Seasons Concerts with Rene Heredia, flamenco guitarist at 7:30 p.m. at Regents Theater, Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $35-$40.  

Carol Alban, flute, the Fluteville Flute Choir, and vocalist Alvenson Moore at 7 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Benefit concert for In Defense of Animals. Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale donation. www.myspace.com/carolalban 

The Moscow Circus at 2 and 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Works in the Works Dance performance by Cherie Hill, Jeanne Disney, Linda Blair Dance Company and others at 7:30 p.m. at Eighth Street Studio, 2424 Eighth St. Tickets are $10 at the door. 527-5115. 

Hecho in Calfias Festival “We Got Issues” theater collective at 2 p.m. and “Mujeres de la frontera” at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Rene Heredia, Flamenco guitarist at 7:30 p.m. at Regents Theater, Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $35-$40. 601-7919. 

Stephanie Bruce & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Caribbean Allstars and Callaloo at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Sotaque Baiano, brazilian, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159. 

Stuart Rosh and Charlie Marvin at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Rachel Garlin, original folk, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Michelle Amador Duo at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Times 4 at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Pat Nevins & Ragged Glory in a tribute to Neil young at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Blind Duck, traditional Irish music with Steven Donaldson & group at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473.  

Ellen Seeling’s “Deuce” at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Rafael Manriquez at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $12. 558-0881. 

Resistant Culture, A.D.T., Eskapo, Flatbush at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 5 

THEATER 

Hecho in Calfias Festival “Migritude” Shaija Patel’s one-woman show at 5 and 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle Guided tour at 12:15 p.m. in Gallery 2, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

Eyewitness II Photography Exhibition and Auction Benefiting the Graduate School of Journalism, Center for Photography Preview at 11 am., Reception at 2 p.m., Auction at 3 p.m. at North Gate Hall, corner of Hearst and Euclid. Cost is $25. http://journalism.berkeley.edu/events/photoauction 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems with Will Alexander at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library, in the Doe Library, UC Campus. http://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu 

Gray Brechin and Richard Walker on “The Road to Serendip: A Scholar’s Discoveries in Urban Imperialism” at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum Theater, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

“California as Muse: The Art of Arthur & Lucia Mathews” A walk through the exhibition with curator Harvey L. Jones at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Seminar on Jade with Don Kay and Leore Mason at 2 p.m. at Christensen Heller gallery, 5829 College Ave., Oakland. 655-5952. 

Naomi Seidman talks about “Faithful Renderings: Jewish-Christian Difference and the Politics of Translation” at 6 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Angela Kraft-Cross, organist, at 3 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, Sanctuary, 2619 Broadway. Suggested donation $10. 444-3555. 

Volti “Baltic Traditions Now” at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $8-$20 415-771-3352. www.voltisf.org 

San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and dancers from The SF Ballet School Trainee Program at 2 p.m. at Berkeley High School’s Little Theater, 1980 Allston Way. 415-248-1640. www.sfchamberorchestra.org  

“Blessed Rhythms” honoring Jacqui Hairston, with music by the KTO Project, Khalil Shaheed’s Oaktown Jazz Workshop, and the Voices of Praise at 5 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison St., at 27th, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15, $5 for children under 12. 444-8511, ext. 15. www.artsfirstoakland.org 

Works in the Works Dance performance by Cameron Kelly, Rachel Leshaw, Liliana Sandoval and others at 7:30 p.m. at Eighth Street Studio, 2424 Eighth St. Tickets are $10 at the door. 527-5115. 

The Duo-Tones, surf music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

“Twang Cafe” with Three Mile Grade and Wee at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. All ages welcome. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Mariinsky Academy: Viktoria Yastrebova and Alexei Markov with pianist Larissa Gergieva at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

The Moscow Circus at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Jazzschool Advanced Jazz Workshop performs at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Piano Trio Summit at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

California Friends of Lousiana French Music with Mes Bon Amis at at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jason Armstrong & Joe Kenny at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

MONDAY, NOV. 6 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Actors Reaading Writers “A Literary Feast” works by M.F.K. Fisher, Alice B. Toklas and Monique Truong at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Free.  

Duncan McNaughton & Micah Ballard read at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Leonard Pitt reads from “A Small Moment of Great Illumination: In Search of Valentine Greatrakes, the Master Healer” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Last Word Poetry Series presents FrancEyE and Robert Lipton at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Bookstore, 2349 Shattuck Ave.  

Poetry Express featuring contributors to the East Bay lesbian anthology “What We Want From You” at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Freight Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Scott Ammendola & Wil Blades Duo at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

The photograph by Ted Streshinsky, “People’s Park Riots, National Guard and Protester” (1969), depicts the brutality of the power structure. A threatening mass of steel-helmeted soldiers with bayonets drawn advances on a defenseless young girl, with her hair in a headband and clutching a newspaper. Walt Whitman once defined the role of poetry in the modern world as the “vivification” of facts, a reflection which certainly applies to this image of force against innocence. 

Among the photographs in the People’s Park section in the current exhibition is also a picture by Kathryn Ann Bigelow, “James Rector Killed.” Rector was an innocent bystander who was watching the turmoil from a nearby roof when he was killed by gunshots fired by Governor Ronald Reagan’s National Guard. 

The current show, a reprise of the 2001 exhibition, which was also the occasion of a fine catalogue with 20 essays by distinguished writers. The Berkeley Art Center is to be commended for bringing it back as it is certainly relevant at this time, when even more horrific actions would call for strong and passionate opposition. 

Consisting of numerous photographs, the show is an eloquent visual document of the turmoil and agitation in the Bay Area at a time, when, it can be said, history was changed. The exhibition is organized in sections, addressing Civil Rights, Black Power and the Black Panthers, Berkeley and the Free Speech movement, the Peace Movement, the Feminist Revolution, the Rise of Latino Power, Cesar Chavez and La Huelga, Queer Defiance, Native American Activism and the beginning of the Environmental Movement. Among other things, it demonstrates the close relationship between apparent opposite activities: political action and the hippie counterculture. But the latter, with its slogan “Make love, not war” was also political in its stance against conforming to a corrupt system. It was all related to the war in Vietnam. 

The many photographs by some of the finest photo-journalists of the time, George Elfie Ballis, Jeffrey Blankfort, Nacia Jan Brown, Richard Misrach, Stephen Shames, Michelle Vignes as well as Streshinsky and Bigelow, are works which provoke the viewer to look and gain new insight into the actions of a turbulent time. 

It is true that the political and cultural disruptions of those years caused a reactionary backlash, as the former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey said, “To me all the problems begin in the ’60s.” But Mr. Armey and his friend the Hammer, Tom Delay, are gone and it does appear as if the rightward swing of the pendulum has just about run its course. 

Photograph: “People’s Park Riots, National Guard and Protester” (1969) by Ted Streshinsky, part of The Whole World’s Watching at the Berkeley Art Center. 

If you consider yourself a cinephile, you’ve probably encountered the distinctive logo of Janus Films, a two-headed icon that resembles a weathered coin from some ancient civilization. And if you’ve seen that image on more than one occasion, you’ve probably come to associate it with a certain feeling, the feeling that something good is on the way, something challenging, something different, something relevant, and, if we can indulge a bit of stuffiness, Something Important. For Janus Films, for 50 years now, has come to symbolize all that is best in arthouse cinema, bringing classic foreign films to American audiences. 

Pacific Film Archive is doing its part to help Janus celebrate its golden anniversary as the preeminent distributor of arthouse cinema with a six-week series of classic films from its catalog, from seminal works of the French New Wave to the austere metaphysical ruminations of Ingmar Bergman to the psychological probings of Carl Dreyer. The series starts at 7 p.m. Friday with Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows and will be followed in December by a series of seven samurai classics from the Janus collection. 

Named for the two-headed Roman god of gates, doorways and beginnings, Janus Films grew out of the arthouse film movement of the 1950s. Founders Bryant Haliday and Cyrus Harvey ran the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Mass., originally a legitimate theater. But financial difficulties led them to cease live performances in 1952. Inspired by Henri Langlois’ Cinematheque francaise in Paris, they converted the theater to a cinema and began showing foreign and classic American films to enthusiastic crowds. One of the more popular programs the duo ran was a series of Humphrey Bogart films which ran during finals week at Harvard, establishing the “Bogie Cult,” where moviegoers dressed in costume and recited dialogue during screenings. 

Eventually Haliday and Harvey expanded with a second theater in New York before founding Janus in 1956. The fledging company took a chance on a relatively unknown Italian director by the name of Federico Fellini, purchasing the American rights to two of his films, neither of which proved a great financial success for Janus. However, in 1958 the distributors landed the rights to Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, which elevated the company’s profile if not its profits, and followed with Bergman’s Wild Strawberries, a financial success. The success of Strawberries allowed them to re-release The Seventh Seal, showing both films concurrently to big crowds and excellent reviews, and Janus was finally up and running, following soon with films by Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Juan Antonio Bardem and Michelangelo Antonioni. 

In the mid-’60s, the company became something of a victim of its own success. Major studios had taken notice of the public’s interest in foreign fare and began offering considerable sums for the rights to distribute the work of critical favorites like Bergman and Truffaut, cutting deeply into Janus’ niche market. 

Haliday and Harvey sold the company to theater critic and financier William Becker and documentary producer and television pioneer Saul Turell. The pair greatly expanded the company’s catalog, creating a “Gold List” of the most important films in international film history, tracking the legal rights to each film and securing licensing deals for as many of them as possible. The duo managed to secure the rights to such seminal works as Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion, the European films of Orson Welles, as well as Citizen Kane, and Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, firmly re-establishing Janus’ reputation at a time when film courses were cropping up at universities across the country and placing the company at the heart of another wave of the arthouse movement.  

In the 1980s, Janus partnered with video companies to further expand its reach, and in 1999 joined with the Criterion Collection, releasing high-end DVDs of films from the Janus catalog in editions which include informative and analytical supplemental features, such as commentary tracks (the first company to do so), documentaries and essays by the world’s foremost film critics and scholars. 

Today, another generation is holding the reins. William Becker’s son Peter is now president of the Criterion Collection and Saul Turell’s son Jonathan seves as managing director of Janus Films and chief executive officer of Criterion.  

“The company has adapted well to video,” says Becker, but the job is ongoing. The two have carried on their respective family traditions by ensuring that the collection adapts and thrives in a market that continues to undergo significant transformations. Each new format and distribution model requires further innovation to ensure that the Janus collection continues to be preserved, seen and appreciated. “These films need to be preserved and presented to new audiences,” Becker says.  

To celebrate its anniversary, Janus has struck new 35-millimeter prints for more than 30 of its finest films and made them available for a series of retrospectives showing around the country. Susan Oxtoby, senior film curator at Pacific Film Archive, has selected 16 of them to screen here in Berkeley. Her selection encompasses a wide array of the collection, providing a cross-section of the best of foreign film, balancing the selection by style and geography with films from France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Poland and the U.S.S.R., and of course the Japanese samurai films coming in December. 

The series amounts to “a history of world cinema,” says Oxtoby, allowing viewers to “dip into certain styles.” 

Most of the films in the PFA series are as yet unavailable on DVD. But some of the biggest titles among them are available from the Criterion Collection. In fact, Criterion is also joining in the celebration with the release of an impressive box set of DVDs. Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films contains 50 of Janus’ greatest films in one album, along with a book with notes on each film, as well as an introduction by film critic and historian Peter Cowie covering the history and influence of the distributor. Thirty years ago you would have to travel the world to see all these films, and now they only take up about six inches of shelf space. The complete set retails for $650 and is available at www.criterionco.com. The book can also be purchased separately for $65. 

50 YEARS OF JANUS FILMS 

Friday, Nov. 3 

7 p.m.: The 400 Blows (France, 1959) 

Dir: Francois Truffaut 

9 p.m.: Jules and Jim (France, 1961) 

Dir: Francois Truffaut 

Sunday, Nov. 5: 

4 p.m. The Earrings of Madame de…  

(Italy, 1953) 

Dir: Max Ophuls 

Friday, Nov. 10 

7 p.m.: Knife in the Water (Poland, 1962) 

Dir: Roman Polanski 

9 p.m.: Death of a Cyclist (Spain, 1955) 

Dir: Juan Antonio Bardem 

Sunday, Nov. 12 

3 p.m.: Day of Wrath (Denmark, 1943) 

Dir: Carl Dreyer 

5 p.m.: The Seventh Seal (Sweden, 1957) 

Dir: Ingmar Bergman 

Sunday, Nov. 19 

3 p.m.: Cléo from 5 to 7 (Francie, 1961) 

Dir: Agnes Varda 

Friday, Nov. 24 

7 p.m.: The Cranes Are Flying (U.S.S.R., 1957) 

Dir: Mikhail Kalatozov 

9 p.m.: Monika (Sweden, 1953) 

Dir: Inmar Bergman 

Sunday, Nov. 26 

3 p.m.: Kwaidan (Japan, 1964) 

Dir: Masaki Kobayashi 

Friday, Dec. 1 

7 p.m.: The Rules of the Game (France, 1939) 

Dir: Jean Renoir 

Saturday, Dec. 2 

5 p.m.: Beauty and the Beast (France, 1946) 

Dir: Jean Cocteau 

Friday, Dec. 8 

6:30 p.m.: Il Posto (Italy, 1961) 

Dir: Ermanno Olmi 

Saturday, Dec. 9 

5 p.m.: La Strada (Italy, 1954) 

Dir: Federico Fellini 

Saturday, Dec. 16 

8:15: The Organizer (Italy/France, 1963) 

Dir: Mario Monicelli 

Pacific Film Archive 

2575 Bancroft Way. 642-5249. 

bampfa.berkeley.edu

Francois Truffaut was one of the critics for Cahiers du Cinéma, the seminal French film journal of the 1950s and ’60s, and one of the founders of the Nouvelle Vague (the New Wave), the inconoclastic film movement of the mid-’50s. The critics were dissatisfied with contemporary French cinema, accusing it of having lapsed into complacency. They sought a new cinema, a personal, auteurist cinema, one that depicted real life with urgency and verisimilitude.  

But these weren’t your average armchair critics. These were men with the talent to back up their arguments. And Truffaut did just that.  

His first film, The 400 Blows, was a revelation. Truffaut examined the life of Antoine Doinel, a 13-year-old boy on the cusp of adolescence and adulthood, played by Jean-Pierre Leaud. It is one of cinema’s greatest portrayals of childhood and adolescence, full of humor, wit, sadness and beauty.  

Truffaut uses his locales masterfully. When Antoine and a friend ditch school, they venture to an amusement park, one whose charms they are beginning to outgrow. One scene shows them taking in a Punch ‘n’ Judy show, where children aged 5 or 6 sit in rapt attention while the two older boys sit in the back, leaning against a wall, jaded but without taking much pleasure in their jadedness, instead seeming to long for the simplicity of childhood.  

Antoine then tries out one of the park’s rides, what is sometimes today called the Gravitron, a circular room that spins until the customers are pinned to the wall. The world begins to hurdle by in mad rush for Antoine, the chaos and confusion of adolescence made concrete and dizzying.  

But perhaps the most famous image from The 400 Blows is the final frame, an ambiguous but powerful conclusion wherein Antoine, seeking escape and refuge, runs away across landscapes and along winding roads, through bushes and trees and finally to the sea, whereupon the frame freezes as Antoine turns from the sea to face the camera. Is it a dead end? Has he learned that he can run away from everything but not himself? Has he essentially quit running and turned to confront his life and his problems? Is it despair or is it epiphany? Or both? Truffaut’s genius was in capturing the essence of the dilemma, all too aware that solutions are much harder to come by. 

Photograph: Jean-Pierre Leaud in Francois Truffaut’s New Wave classic The 400 Blows.

“Do you play jazz? Do you play blues?” 

“Do you live in a windmill? Do you wear wooden shoes?” 

The European adventures of a black rock musician (based on his own experiences by singer-guitarist, now playwright Stew) cut loose from family, friends and church in L.A., but still in thrall to his self-image and the images others have of him, are acted out by a brilliant cast, as Stew himself sings, strums and talks it through in rhyme, with a stellar quartet backing him up: such is Passing Strange, now playing at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage, on its way to New York’s Public Theater.  

Stew travels from an epiphany in church, where his mother drags him, but an epiphany about music; from joining the choir at the urging of a cute girl who’s heretofore ignored him, then being turned on and exhorted by the hip choirmaster to follow “St. Jimmy Baldwin” overseas; from a “one chord in unison” punk band, The Scare-O-Types, to writing his own songs, to a chorus of crackerbarrel incomprehension and gratuitous advice from his elder relations. 

The Youth (Daniel Breaker), Stew’s younger self, takes off to the Old World, finding himself a Black American curiosity in early ‘80s Amsterdam and Berlin, where he’s spontaneously put up, offered love and companionship, encouraged in his creativity and exposed to a new aesthetic and its verbiage, grilled about his politics. 

And he finds himself faking it, as all the while, The Mother (Berkeley native, sweet-voiced Eisa Davis) whose unconditional, but uncomprehending, love he brushed aside, waits for his return in an empty house. 

Interviewed by Rep dramaturg Madeleine Oldham, Stew denied the urge to write a play, much less a “rockin’ Broadway musical,” aspiring instead to stage “something that took the electricity of a rock show and merged it with the rock and roll potential that exists within theater.” 

There’s a rambling, wayward sense of that when the show opens, the electricity passing over from Stew and the band to the dynamic ensemble of players (de’Adre Aziza, Colman Domingo, Chad Goodridge and Rebecca Naomi Jones, as well as Breaker and Davis). Then the relentlessly linear, autobiographical plot begins to attain critical mass, over and over, as Stew deftly turns the tables, exposing The Youth’s self-absorption, as the caricatures he encounters turn out real folks, telling him, “I don’t want to be a song!”. And our young man abroad is caught clutching the bag of his own potential creativity, wanting recognition, but only on his own terms. 

It’s unusual for rock to be critical of youth (and youth culture), though there’s a kind of L.A. tradition that puts up the glitz and fractures it, from Frank Zappa and Randy Newman on ... and Stew acknowledges Gore Vidal, who’s scored “the self-pity of the young,” as icon (along with Bob Dylan, the later Coltrane, Bach, the Wagner of “The Ring,” Delta bluesman Charlie Patton, The Fall, Edward Albee and T. S. Eliot).  

But it’s a long show, though the cast puts over the unravelling string of routines nicely, with good staging by Annie Dorson, and choreography by Karole Armitage, as well as a set by David Korins that throbs with neon when in Europe, yet glimmers mutedly behind a dark, gauzy scrim in LA. 

Other rock ventures into narrative and drama have preserved the intensity while articulating a tale; The Who’s Qaudrophenia comes to mind, both “rock opera” and movie, thwarting the heaviness of autobio by projecting the story onto a disaffected fan who belonged to the defunct scene the group rocketed out of to success. Instead of an episodic odysssey, The Who focused on an episode, a vicarious daytrip and nervous breakdown, allowing for plenty of reflection and reminiscence, the backstory sliding into the intensity of the moment—rock’s hallmark. 

There’s good playing by the band (Jon Spurney, Marc Doten, Russ Kleiner and Heidi Rodewald, Stew’s collaborator since their band, The Negro Problem), and a few memorable songs, like “Come Down Now” and “Love Like That,” sounding a little like Joanie Mitchell or other songwriters coming out of Folk. Stew has a strong presence, thoughtfulness as well as glib wit, and more than one arrow in his quiver—or bowstring to his guitar. 

But the bulging grab-bag of concert, cabaret, comedy sketch and disparate other schtick, from Sammy Davis to Hip-Hop, tends to exhaust rather than refresh the material, leaving it to the excellence of the cast to sell it. That material too often approaches cliche, if only to burlesque it. More interesting might have been something from one of Stew’s interview reminiscences, like the blue collar friends of his father, who would “suddenly, after the third beer, recite Poe or Eliot, word for word.” 

A critic from one of the dailies remarked afterwards that Passing Strange was like that original modern play, Peer Gynt, at least in its message: the hero travels the world and experiences everything, only to find it’s the relationships he left back home that are real. Or maybe Henry James’ tale, “The Beast In The Jungle.” 

However well the problem of getting it across is or isn’t realized, Passing Strange is an attractive show that gains strength towards its bittersweet conclusion, leaving something like the hint of a melody out of unresolved chords. It’ll be interesting to see where Stew & co. take the notion of staging their music from here. 

Passing Strange 

at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage 

2025 Addison St. 

Through Dec. 3 

Tickets $45-$61 

645-2949 

The Cerrito Theater opens Wednesday for the first time in more than 40 years, operated by Speakeasy Theaters, the same folks who run Oakland’s Parkway Theater.  

Speakeasy is kicking things off with a signature blend of classic and contemporary screenings: Michael Curtiz’s 1942 classic Casablanca and Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 breakthrough Pulp Fiction.  

The theater was built in 1937 by the Blumenfeld family, owners of a chain of Bay Area movie theaters. They built the Oaks Theater on Solano Avenue and operated Berkeley’s Shattuck Cinemas, as well as a host of other theaters in Marin, Solano, Contra Costa and Alameda counties. The Cerrito was designed by architect William B. David. 

The drive to restore and reopen the Cerrito Theater began in 2001. The theater had shut down in the early ’60s and had, for most of the intervening 40 years, been used as a storage facility for Keifer’s furniture store. When the building finally went on the market and locals were allowed into the vacated building, they found the original art deco murals still intact. An advocacy group, Friends of the Cerrito Theater, was formed and the group then persuaded the city to purchase the building. Soon after, Speakeasy Theaters, operators of Oakland’s Parkway Theater near Lake Merritt, were enlisted to run the venue. And thus began a community-driven restoration process that has seen the interior details restored, a second theater added upstairs, and the installation of a brand new marquee, lit for the first time last week.  

Catherine and Kyle Fischer, co-founder of Speakeasy Theaters, were excited by the opportunity to not only open a new theater, but to be part of a community effort to revitalize a long-forgotten treasure. Fischer says the partnership is a good fit. “We’re known for building community,” she says. “And we’re a lot of fun!” 

Fischer says the Cerrito will feature many of the same popular hallmarks as the Parkway: food and beverages (including alcohol), couches, table seating as well as traditional theater seats, and over the next few months, Fischer says, the theater will roll out some of its popular programming features, such as the Baby Brigade, a night for parents with babies. The Parkway bases much of its programming on community input, and the Cerrito will do the same, taking feedback from their customers in shaping a schedule that will likely include a blend of new and classic films, family films, and festivals. 

The Cerrito opens Wednesday with Pulp Fiction at 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. and Casblanca at 6 and 9 p.m. The schedule will be repeated on Thursday. For more information, see www.picturepubpizza.com . For information on the restoration or to join the Friends of the Cerrito Theater, see www.cerritotheater.org. 

The Cerrito Theater opens its doors Wednesday. Photograph by Richard Brenneman.

Casablanca may seem like something of a cliché these days. Its reputation is so prevalent that for the viewer who rents a copy to take home, either for the first time or the thirty-first time, it may be a rather underwhelming experience. The film may seem dated and filled with overly familiar scenes, rendering the movie a sort of post-modern compendium of oft-quoted lines.  

But Casablanca on the big screen is an entirely different experience. To see the film projected larger than life in a room full of fellow moviegoers, and in an authentic theater from the era, which likely showed the film in its original run in 1942, is to set aside the decades of lionization and all the baggage containing the myths of its now legendary stars, and immerse oneself in one of the most compelling and satisfying products of Hollywood’s regimented studio system. 

It’s an unlikely classic. The movie is often used as an example to undermine the auteur theory, the notion put forward by the critics and filmmakers of the French New Wave, that a director is the sole author of a film. Casablanca is fascinating in that it was never meant to be a great film; in fact, many of those working on it at the time considered it something of a lemon, a contractual obligation they would be happy to put behind them.  

But what emerged was a film that embodied all that was best in the studio system, with excellent screenwriters reshaping the film until the last minute; a sure-handed director making the most of his sets and players; fine actors transforming two-dimensional characters with compelling performances. If you’ve only seen it on video, in the isolation of a private living room, Casablanca, like many great films of the past, can be underwhelming. There is something lost on the small screen, no matter how big that small screen may be. Movies of this era were meant to be seen on the big screen, not because they contained big action sequence or special effects, but because they contained big emotions. 

Humphrey Bogart’s talents are arguably better displayed in other films; he’s tougher and grittier in the Maltese Falcon; he’s darker and perhaps more compelling in his films opposite Lauren Bacall, or in the underrated In a Lonely Place. But Casablanca is where Bogart truly made the big time, stepping up to play a complex romantic leading man after only having played thugs and tough-talking detectives. And Ingrid Bergman delivers one of her finest performances, conveying deep undercurrents of longing and regret even without saying a word. And the direction of Michael Curtiz and the photography of Arthur Edeson lends an evocative sheen to the melodrama, with dark shadows and probing searchlights piercing through the obfuscations of characters embroiled in a forlorn mix of politics, war and love.

Sometimes, reinventing your own wheel works. Independent bookstores have long been battling the competition of chains and online retailers by mimicking tactics such as online selling and attractive websites. But increasingly, they are realizing that their ultimate trump is focusing on what has been theirs all along—a physical presence with strong community ties. 

“My salary is now fully devoted to event coordination,” said Lewis Klausner, who works at Black Oak Books in Berkeley. “We are definitely doing more events than we did two years ago.”  

Such events generate more foot traffic and build a relationship with the community.  

Other stores are forming more unlikely partnerships in an attempt to weave themselves into the neighborhood’s social fabric. 

Modern Times in San Francisco is a weekly drop off point for Eatwell Farm, a group that provides organic produce.  

“Eatwell gets a convenient location for drop off, and we get a source for our own food and the benefit of ... [their] members coming through our store,” the Modern Times website said. The store also donates books to prisoners through the Prisoners Literary Project, a venture pioneered by Bound Together Bookstore and Bay Area prison activists. 

Northern California has the nation’s second largest book buying market, according to The Northern California Independent Bookseller’s Association website.  

Hut Landon, executive director of the association, said that it has 240 member stores, a figure that has been steady over the last few years despite the business struggles bookstores have been facing. 

“We have had eight or nine stores close, but we’ve also had four or five new stores open,” he said. “The net change has been very little.” 

“A number of stores are also stocking college textbooks, selling at school fairs and at conferences,” Landon said. Modern Times, for example, orders course books for the New College of California and partners with them on events.  

Other bookstores around the country have also focused on using their physical presence as a plus.  

At Elliott Bay, Seattle’s most popular independent bookstore, staff member Tracy Taylor said the local community has always appreciated their knowledgeable staff. With 40 full-time staff members, the store is pushing its budget, but it is worth it.  

“Our payroll is a large percentage of our costs, but we believe that people who are here five days a week can be more focused and provide customers with service they want,” Taylor said. 

The Elliott Bay staff meets regularly to discuss books, and staff members update each other on books every day. “We are just trying to do more of what we have always done well,” she said.  

But despite the innovative tactics, some stores are struggling.  

Modern Times will celebrate its 35th Anniversary next month and acknowledged that this summer they were on the verge of shutting down. To remain open, they took an interest free loan from the Bay Area Worker’s Collective.  

The goal is to pay back the $20,000 they borrowed. So far, they have raised $10,000 through various fundraising efforts. On their anniversary, they will throw a party and host a fundraising dinner at the store.  

Customers can also “adopt a section of the store,” O’Sullivan said. ”Sort of like Adopt a Highway.” And, one of the store’s back rooms is rented as meeting space to the public.  

Stores have also realized the power of forming a community with each other. BookSense.com is a consortium of independent bookstores. The site provides independent bookstore bestseller lists, and offers free software that allows stores to sell books on their websites. 

But most successful is the Book Sense gift card. The card can be bought and used at hundreds of independent bookstores across the country. Black Oak Books, Modern Times and Cody’s Books all carry the card, as does Elliott Bay in Seattle. Sales of the card, which started in 2003, have exceeded $11 million.  

Landon also believes that more independent bookstores need to maximize what the Internet has to offer. “There is potential for a greater web presence and much more focused e-mail marketing, he said.  

Simply selling online is not enough. 

“We list and sell on Amazon,” Jon Wobber, owner of Shakespeare & Co. on Telegraph Avenue, said. Still, the tactic hasn’t moved him out of the red. 

Already this year he has had several unprofitable months. His average monthly sales amount to $20,000. Subtract $5,000 for rent, $5,000 for salaries, a few thousand to restock and pay other bills, and most months he’s left with little profit.  

Four weeks of coupon ads in The Daily Californian have failed to produce a single coupon-buying customer for Wobber. “I’ll probably try flyers next,” he said. 

Stores need to be more innovative, Landon said. “They can keep track of customer sales records, which is technologically easy now, create lists of customers for different genres and e-mail them when a new book is out,” he said. “Coupons can be e-mailed. Big stores have been doing all this for a long time.” 

Klausner said email marketing has been working at Black Oak. “We have been able to decrease the cost of advertising with the Internet,” he said. 

On the Black Oak Books website, customers can register to receive an e-mail calendar. The site also lists staff book reviews and has an online forum where customers can discuss books. 

At Modern Times in San Francisco, staff member Brenda O’Sullivan updates the store website regularly. She runs a blog, lists events, staff favorites and links to community resources. 

Powell’s Bookstore, a Portland-based independent bookstore, started their website in 1994, even before Amazon.com. In 2005, Forbes Magazine awarded them with a “Best of the Web” award for their user-friendly site and original content, which includes personal essays by authors.  

Most recently, Powell’s has been offering a free store shipping option. Customers can order a book online from any Powell’s location in Oregon and pick it up at the downtown Portland branch, Dave Weich, Director of Marketing and Development at Powell’s said. 

The key to the book business, Weich said, is to find ways to continually innovate and change with the times. “Whether it’s through partnerships with local business … or email newsletters, there are so many ways to go about it.“ 

One thing is for sure, he said, “I don’t think a bookstore, a flat out bookstore, can survive, and even if it can, I don’t think it can thrive.”  

MUSIC OF MEXICO, TEXAS AND BEYOND 

La Peña presents its seventh annual “Hecho en Califas Festival,” with music, poetry, theater and visual art, this Wednesday through Sunday. The lineup of more than 50 Latino artists includes performers from California, Mexico, Texas, and New York. All shows at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. For details, www.lapena.org or 849-2568. 

ROOTS MUSIC COMES ALIVE AT TWANG CAFE 

Three Mile Grade, a Bay Area roots band with a repertoire spanning three centuries of music from the 1800s to their own ruminations on contemporary life, will bring their down-home music to the Twang Cafe at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The Twang Cafe is a monthly Americana music series held the first Sunday of each month at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. www.twangcafe.com. 

DECORATIVE STYLE AT OAKLAND MUSEUM 

Harvey L. Jones, senior curator of art and curator of the Oakland Museum of California’s new exhibit “California as Muse: The Art of Arthur and Lucia Mathews,” will talk about the artists at an informal walk through the gallery at 2 p.m. Sunday. As masters of the California Decorative Style, the Mathews were pre-eminent in the artistic life of San Francisco at the turn of the century and their leadership was a major force in the rebuilding of the city after the 1906 earthquake and fire. This retrospective includes more than 150 works by them, including murals, paintings, drawings, graphic design and illustrations, and frames, furniture, and decorative objects from their collaborative designs for the Furniture Shop. The exhibit runs through March 25 at the Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. For details, www.museumca.org or 238-2200. 

One fair day in mid-October, near dusk, Joe and I were strolling the first mile of the Mitchell Canyon trail on the east side of Mount Diablo. The sun was low; the shadows, long; only the west-facing ridgetops were glowing in the red-gold sunset, and we’d just about decided to turn back, when Joe whispered: “Coyote!” 

Sure enough, barely discernible from the dry grasses and brush along the roadside, there was a coyote. We froze in place, then cautiously lifted our binocs. The coyote ignored us, trotting toward us in a zigzag walk, alert and stopping to attend to things stirring out of sight. When I realized that the wind was at out backs, clearly carrying our scent coyote-wards, I swapped my glasses for the camera and aimed and snapped a picture.  

Our camera has an hilariously authoritative fake shutter sound; sometimes, as then, I wish I’d turned that off. But the coyote never blinked, just kept making the rounds, sniffing for dinner. She made a nonchalant circle around us as we stood there and I snapped off shot after shot. Some few yards past us, she pounced at something, probably a vole, and fetched it out, dropped it once, picked it up and ate it: snap snap.  

As we followed, she stopped again, nosed at something brown on the road, and snapped up bits of that too. I assumed it was a horse turd until we got a closer look. It was a big shattered pine cone, with one or two nuts left under the scattered scales. Coyotes eat pignoli!  

Well of course they do. Coyotes are adventurous generalists, and pignoli are delicious and full of nice fats and protein. They’re tasty in Spanish and Italian main dishes, in salads, in candies—I like them raw or pan-toasted myself. Italian stone pine is the usual source of the classic European commercial nuts, but pines of all sorts can be persuaded to yield their tasty seeds, by birds’ beaks, squirrels’ incisors, or coyotes’ opportunistic noses and tongues and fangs.  

Or, if you’re human people, by boot heel, stone, mill, or fire. The First People here in California were connoisseurs of pine nuts, and a favorite along the Coast Range (were the fat brown-hulled nuts of Pinus sabiniana, currently called “gray pine.” That’s what our coyote acquaintance was eating. 

Thereby hangs a tale. 

Once upon a time, back when shoveler ducks were “Jew ducks” and Brazil nuts were “N****r toes” (Huh. My folks raised me right, all right. I can’t even type that word without choking.), this tree was known as “digger pine,” or, I suppose, “Digger pine.” This name was in dubious honor of the local indigenous tribes, who feasted from a plentiful land and practiced the kind of farming that uses controlled fire and smart cutting instead of plows. Europeans myopically or conveniently missed this subtlety, and called the land “pristine and untouched wilderness” and declared that the local people didn’t work for a living, but merely dug stuff out of the ground to eat.  

In the last couple of decades it dawned on a critical mass of people that the name was insulting. So the tree is now “gray pine,” for its graceful, sparse grayish foliage. Sometimes it’s “bull pine” because it tends to fork into a Y or pair of horns, or “ghost pine” for its less-than-solid appearance. 

It grows in scattered stands in open country or chaparral, its misty color standing out from summer dun and winter green, its height from its plant neighbors’.  

Its foliage makes only light shade, so it gives meager relief from heat. But that also lets one spot its big cones from a long distance: a great convenience for the wild-groceries shopper.  

One amusing habit of gray pine is its tendency to lean. In some places, like some of the stands along Mines Road east of Livermore, they lean in unison, seemingly caught in a ponderous if airy dance. In others, they tilt more randomly, “creating,” as Ronald Lanner said, “a suspicion of a drunken forest staggering as it ascends the oak-studded foothills.” (I recommend his book Conifers of California.)  

If you plant one in garden soil, it’ll grow denser foliage and smaller cones. I’d call it good company, but I personally prefer to see it in its graceful native shape on its lean, demanding native ground.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan.  

Sparse foliage give an airy, insubstantial look to a native landscape “ghost,” Pinus sabiniana.

TUESDAY, OCT. 31 

Tuesday is for the Birds An early morning walk for birders through Bay Area parklands. Bring water, sunscreen, binoculars and a snack. This week we will visit Keller Beach at Miller Knox. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

“Combatants for Peace” Bassam Aramin and Yonatan Shapira speak on stooping the cycle of violence in Israel-Palestine at 5 p.m. at 145 Dwinelle, UC Campus. aafek@berkeley.edu 

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

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 1 

“Democracy on Deadline” the Global Struggle for an Independent Press, a documentary, at 6:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Panel discussion following the film. 238-3514. www.itvs.org 

Debate on Proposition 89: Public Financing of Campaigns with Yes on 89 spokesperson Jan S. Rodolfo and No on 89 spokesperson Sandy Harrison, at 7 p.m. in Room 2050, Valley Life Sciences Bldg., UC Campus. The public is encouraged to participate. Submit questions to caldebateseries@gmail.com 

“Exploring Patagonia” A slide show and talk by Wayne Bernhardson, author of “Moon Handbooks: Patagonia” at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Healthy Eating Habits Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave. 465-2524. 

Breema Open House at 6 p.m. at 6201 Floria St., Oakland. 428-1234.  

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

American Red Cross Blood Services is holding a volunteer orientation from 10 a.m. to noon in Oakland. Registration required. 594-5165.  

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

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

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, NOV. 2 

“History of Western Ornithology” with Harry Fuller at 6:30 p.m. at Live Oak Recreation Center, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Sponsored by the Golden Gate Audubon Society. Cost is $15-$20. 843-2222. 

Mario Savio Memorial Lecture & Young Activist Award Ceremony with hip-hop journalist Jeff Chang, former State Senator and 60’s activist Tom Hayden, and spoken word artist Aya de Leon at 7:30 p.m. at Pauley Ballroom, Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union, UC Campus. Free. 415-559-9500. www.savio.org/the_lectures.html 

“The Long Walk to Freedom and Justice in South Africa” with Francis Wilson, Univ. of Cape Town at noon at 223 Moses Hall, UC Campus. 642-8338. 

Drivewell: Promoting Older Driver Safety, with Colleen Campbell, from Alameda County’s Public Health Department’s Senior Injury Prevention Project at 1:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720. 

“Day of the Dead Benefit for the Zapatistas” at 7 p.m. at 2232 MLK Way, near 19th Street BART, Oakland. Cost is $8-$20 sliding scale. 923-0676. www.chiapas-support.org 

“When God’s Friend Became God’s Problem The Punitive Elijah and the Loving God,” Distinguished Faculty Lecture by Dr. L. William Countryman at 7:30 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 649-2440. www.gtu.edu 

“Lives per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction” with Terry Tamminen at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 415-559-9500. 

Day of the Dead at Habitot Children’s Museum with activities from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

“Toxics and Children Don’t Mix” A workshop for parents and child care providers at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 658-7353. www.bananasinc.org 

“The Interplay of Buddhism and Law in the Pre-communist Mongolia” with Vesna Wallace, Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, at 5 p.m. at the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St. 643-6536. http://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu/events 

“What is Your Story?” an exploration of myth, storytelling and dream work connected to community building at 7:30 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

“Forward Forever, Environmental Justice & Hip Hop” film and community discussion at 5 p.m. in the Laney College Theater. Fundraiser for the Ghana Study Abroad Program. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

“Nutrition Bandits” Learn how to eat for health with Edward Bauman, at 5:30 p.m. at Pharmaca Interative Pharmacy, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

AnewAmerica Annual Gala “Weaving Our Common Threads” at 6 p.m. at the Holy Redeemer Conference Center, 8945 Golf Links Rd., Oakland. Tickets are $75. RSVP to 540-7785, ext. 314. www.anewamerica.org 

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

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info  

FRIDAY, NOV. 3 

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 

Zen and the Art of Mushroom Hunting at 7:30 p.m. at Live Oak Recreation Center, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Field trip on Sun. Nov. 5 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sponsored by the Golden Gate Audubon Society. Cost for lecture and trip is $30-$40. To register call 843-2222.  

Climate Change Fair featuring screenings of “An Inconvenient Truth” at 7 and 9:15 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. 415-559-9500.  

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Mary Breunig on “News from the Castle.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

“Resisting Militarism” with speakers Carlos Mauricio, torture survivor, and Elizabeth Stinson, draft resistance organizer at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison. Benefit for School of the Americas Watch. Suggested donation $15. 504-7522. 

Screening of “Iraq for Sale” A Robert Greenwald documentary at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Community Media, Studio A, 2239 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Free. 848-2288. 

Movies that Matter “Bowling for Columbine” at 6:30 p.m. at Neumayer Residence, 565 Bellevue St. at Perkins, Oakland. 451-3009.  

“Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism” at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Children’s Hospital Outpatient Center Basement, 747 52nd St., Oakland. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. 

SATURDAY, NOV. 4 

Animals on the Move A short walk for the entire family to learn the locomotion and migration patterns of Park residents at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Kid’s Garden Club for ages 7-12 to explore the world of gardening, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

“Bay-Friendly Gardening to Manage Pests Naturally” A workshop to learn about least-toxic methods for managing common garden pests, such as snails, slugs, aphids and yellow jackets, from 9 a.m. to noon at El Cerrito Community Center, 7007 Moeser, El Cerrito. 665-3546.  

“Natives Across the Americas” with performances by Medicine Warriors Dance Troupe, All Nations Singers and others, information and exhibits from noon to 5 p.m. in the West Auditorium, of the Oakland Public Library, at 125 14th St. 482-7844. www.oaklandlibrary.org 

“Solar Thermal and Electricity for Educators” A workshop on the global energy situation, the range of solar education projects, and how to address state curriculum standards with these projects. For teachers of grades 4-12. From 8:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at Rising Sun Energy Center , 2033 Center St. 665-1501 ext.13. www.risingsunenergy.org 

Sick Plant Clinic Dr. Robert Raabe, UC plant pathologist, and Dr. Nick Mills, UC entomologist will diagnose plant illnesses and recommend remedies. Bring a piece of the plant in a securely sealed container. From 9 a.m. to noon at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755. 

“Partnership Not Dominance” Workshop by international mediator and peace researcher Johan GALTUNG with Barbara Becnel from 1:30 to 6 p.m. at Neighborhood House of North Richmond 820 23rd St., Richmond. SUggested donation $10-$50. No one turned away for lack of funds. 232-4493. www.transcend.org  

Native American Heritage Month Celebration of culture featuring performances, Native American vendors and Indian tacos from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology, 103 Kroeber Hall , UC Campus. 643-7649.  

Doggy Tune Up A three session workshop to learn coming when called, walking without pulling, no jumping on people, and stay, Sat. from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Grace North Church, 2128 Cedar St. Registration required. 849-9323. www.companyofdogs.com 

Parent Voices’ a grassroots, parent led and parent run organization that advocates for more affordable and quality child care for working families. meets at 10 a.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Register by calling 658-7353. www.bananasinc.org 

“Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA’s War on a Family Farm” book signing with author Linda Faillace at 11 a.m. at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. at MLK Jr. Way. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org  

Bilingual Storytime Stories in English and Spanish for toddlers and preschoolers at 10:30 a.m. in the Edith Stone Room at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Writing Your Ethical Will A workshop to learn how to evaluate your life, harvest your wisdom and share your beliefs, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Donation $35. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Produce Stand at Spiral Gardens Food Security Project from 1 to 6 p.m. at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon St. 

Healing Power of Gratitude Workshop at 10 a.m. at Creating Harmony Institute, 828 San Pablo Ave., Suite 115C, Albany. Cost is $5. Registration required. 526-1559. 

Chi Kung, Guided Imagery from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m. at John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley Campus, 2956 San Pablo Ave., 2nd Floor. 649-0499. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

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

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

Yoga for Peace at 9:30 a.m. at Ohlone Park, MLK at Hearst. Bring a yoga mat, warm blanket, and peace sign.  

Spiritwalking: Aqua Chi(TM) at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Also Wed. at 3:30 p.m. Cost is $5.50, $3.50 seniors & disabled. Bring your own towels. 526-0312. 

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

SUNDAY, NOV. 5 

Purr-casso Art Sale and Gala Cat themed art sale featuring decorative, wearable, and functional art pieces celebrating our feline friends, from noon to 5 p.m. at Hollis Street Project, Grand Hallway, 5900 Hollis St, Emeryville. Benefit for the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society. 845-7735 ext. 13. www.berkeleyhumane.org  

Turtle Time Meet the turtles of the Tilden Nature Area, learn the difference between native and non-native and much more at 11a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Hike to Sindicich Hike under diverse oak woodlands to the Sindicich Lagoon to look for dragonflies, newts and nymphs. Bring lunch for this four-mile hike. Meet at the Bear Creek Staging Area of Briones at 11 am. 525-2233. 

Open Garden at the Little Farm Join the gardener for composting, planting, watering and harvesting at 2 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Rain cancels. 525-2233. 

African/African Diaspora Film Society presents “Aristide and the Endless Revolution” at 2 p.m. at Parkway Speakeasy Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $5. www.parkway-speakeasy.com 

Afghan Friends Network presentation on the history of Afghanistan, a discussion about women’s rights, and information about the programs of the Afghan Friends Network with Elsie De Laere and Humaira Ghilzai at 2 p.m. at the Albany Library. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

Autumn in Asia Garden Tour at 10 a.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $8-$12. Registration required. 643-2755, ext. 03 http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Yiddish Films: The Dybbuk at 3 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

IRV Peace Meet-up and Rally at 1:30 p.m. at Splashpad Park, LakeShore and Grand Ave., Oakland. 644-1303. 

Harmony Center Open House from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Oakland Veteran’s Hall, 200 Grand Ave. at Harrison St. 451-3009 http://joyfulharmony.org  

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 

Kickabout at Codornices Park Soccer for all, skill and talent not required. For more information contact cambour@hotmail.com  

Tibetan Buddhism with Erika Rosenberg on “Eastern Wisdom Meets Western Psychology” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, NOV. 6 

“Acting Locally Against Global Warming” with Tom Kelly of Kyoto USA on local efforts to lessen global climate change, at 7 p.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin. 848-9358. 

“Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine & Lebanon” Panel discussion with returning volunteers of the International Solidarity Movement at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Suggested donation $5-$10, no one turned away.  

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter meets at 6 p.m. at the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St. The speakers will be Ms. Sara Mostafavi and Ms. Christine Stouffer, both immigration lawyers practicing in Berkeley, on the particular immigration problems women face. 287-8948. 

“Beyond Conception: Men Having Babies” documentary about a gay male couple, an egg donor, and a lesbian surrogate building a modern family, at 6:30 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 658-7353. www.bananasinc.org 

East Bay Atheists will show the conclusion of Richard Dawkins’ video “Root of All Evil” at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., 3rd Flr. 222-7580. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from noon to 1 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people aged 60 and over meets at 9:45 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Donation $3. 524-9122. 

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

ONGOING 

Albany-Berkeley Girls Softball League Free Clinics Oct. 29- Nov. 6 in Berkeley, for girls in grades 1-9. For details see www.abgsl.org or call 869-4277. 

Volunteer at Emerson Elementary School Come anytime Mon.-Thurs. from 8:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. For details call 883-5247. 

Each One Teach One Mentoring Program of the Oakland Unified School District is curbing student absenteeism, decreasing suspensions and increasing student participation with the help of volunteer mentors like you. For more information call 495-4010, 495-4011.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Nov. 1, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5190.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed. Nov. 1, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

School Board meets Wed. Nov. 1, at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. 644-6320. 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400.  

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs. Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419.  

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 2, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406.  

FRIDAY, OCT. 27 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Hedda Gabler” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through Nov. 18 at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman. Tickets are $12. 525-1620.  

Altarena Playhouse “Merrily We Roll Along” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St, Alameda, through Nov. 12. Cost is $15-$18. 523-1553.  

Antenna Theater, “High School” An interactive theatrical walking tour of Berkeley High, 1980 Allston Way. Walk lasts about 45 minutes. Tickets are $20 adults, $8 students. Reservations required. Runs through Oct. 29. 415-332-9454. www.antenna-theater.org/highschool.htm 

Berkeley Rep “Passing Strange” at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. through Dec. 3. Tickets are $45-$61. 645-2949.  

Central Works “Andromache” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. through Nov. 19. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381. 

Fusion Theater “Beauty and the Beast” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $3-$10. 464-3544. 

Impact Theatre “Colorado” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. Runs through Oct. 28. 464-4468.  

Shotgun Players “Love is a Dream House in Lorin” by Marcus Gardley, inspired by true stories of Berkeley’s historic Lorin District, Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Nov. 12. Sliding scale $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

TheatreFirst “Criminal Genius” Thurs.-Fri. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Old Oakland Theatre, 481 Ninth St., at Broadway, Oakland, through Nov. 19. Tickets are $19-$25. 436-5085.  

UC Dept. of Theater “Suburban Motel” six plays by George Walker at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus, through Nov. 19. Tickets are $8-$14. For schedule see  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Body Language” Paintings and sculpture. Sidewalk reception at 6 p.m. at Addison Street Windows. 981-7533. 

“Fiber 2006” Featuring eight Bay Area artists at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. to Nov. 4. 843-2527. 

“United States of Decay” Recent photographs by Peter Grant Honig. Reception at 6 p.m. at the ASUC Art Studio Gallery, UC Campus. Exhibition runs to Nov. 16. 642-3065.  

FILM 

Claire Burch Film Festival with the filmmaker at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 528-5403. 

A Theater Near You “The Case of the Grinning Cat” at 7 p.m. and “Yang Ban Xi: The Eight Model Works” at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Isabel Stirling, biographer and Gary Snyder, poet, introduce “Zen Pioneer: The Life and Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Hiroko Shimbo demonstrates “The Sushi Experience” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pianist Sarah Cahill Concert for Berkeley Arts Festival: 8 pm Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St. Cost is $10-$20. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Country Joe McDonald, with Pat Nevins and friends in a 1960s-style show at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $10. 644-6893.  

Matt Renzi Trio, saxophone jazz at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley. Cost is $15. www.hillsideclub.org  

Bay Area Classical Harmonies “Sounds from the Underworld” in celebration of Halloween at 7:30 p.m. at Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 868-0695. www.bayareabach.org 

Lyon Opera Ballet at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$58. 642-9988.  

Gypsy Flamenco Stars at 5 and 9 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $65-$95, includes dinner. 287-8700. 

The Jazz Express at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Moodswing Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

The Mixers at 9 p.m. at The Pub at Baltic Square, aka The Baltic, at 135 Park Place, Pt. Richmond. Cost is $5. 237-4782.  

Reverend Billy C. Wirtz at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Gerald Beckett Trio with Eric Swinderman at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Meliaquis, Diegos Umbrella at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

Trainwreck Riders, Genghis Khan, Rum & Rebellion at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Aqualibrre, Los Pingous at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Cost is $10. 548-1159.  

Brazuca Brown at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

The Yellowjackets at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, OCT. 28 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Betsy Rose, Halloween songs and activities, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

A Harvest of Peace An alternative Halloween Concert for children and families at 10:30 a.m. at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Please bring a fruit or vegetable of the season for the harvest altar. Also bring pictures or remembrances of grandparents, favorite pets or those you consider ancestors. Cost is $3-$4. 849-2568. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“California as Muse” The Art of Arthur and Lucia Mathews opens at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Nine at Gaia: A Group Show” Works by Carol Brighton, Helen Chellin, Debra Jewell, Tessa Merrie, Hearne Pardee, Sylvia Sussman, Sandy Walker, Christine Walter, Gina Werfel. Opening reception at 7 p.m. at Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston Way. 653-3433. 

Randy & Jan McKeachie Johnston “New Work” Reception at 5 p.m. at Trax Gallery, 1815 Fifth St. Exhibition runs to Nov. 22. 540-8729. 

“Wheels” Works by Christopher Peterson, Harrod Blank, Philip Hall and Troy Paiva. Paintings and photographs of cars. Opening reception at 3 p.m. at Montclair Gallery, 1986 Mountain Blvd. 339-4286.  

FILM 

A Theater Near You “The Case of the Grinning Cat” at 7 p.m. and “The World” at 8 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Watershed Envoronmental Poetry Festival from noon to 6 p.m. at Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St. Opening Creek Walk, with poetry writing and reading led by Chris Olander, Meet at 10 a.m. on the UC Berkeley Campus, Oxford and Center Sts. 526-9105. www.poetryflash.org 

“At Thadeus Lake” Conversation with the artist Sherri Martin, winner of the 2006 Kala Board Prize at 2 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibition runs to Nov. 25. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

“Healing with Music” a lecture by Therese West at Berkeley Piano Club, sponsored by Four Seasons Concerts. Tickets are $25. 601-7919. 

“Positive Black Males in Literature” A six-hour reading presented by The Black Publishers Association in conjunction with the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Library, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Library, 5366 College Ave. 

“Braided Lives: A Collboration Between Artists and Poets” at 7:30 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Donation $5-$15. 843-2787. www.studiorasa.org 

Andrea Nguyen descrbes “The Vietnamese Kitchen: Ancient Foodways, Modern Flavors” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Douglas Kent discusses “Firescaping” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Harvest of Song with new compositions by Allen Shearer, Peter Joseff, Don Walker and others at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. Cost is $10. 644-6893. www.berkeleysrtcenter.org 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Fall Concert at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, Tickets are $12-$15. 849-9776. www.ypsomusic.net 

Kensington Symphony with Thomas Shoebotham, cello, performs Shostakovich, Lalo, Beethoven at 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Donation $10-$15, children free. 524-9912. 

Lyon Opera Ballet at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$58. 642-9988.  

Flamenco Halloween at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568.  

Hindustani Ragas by Teed Rockwell at 7:30 p.m. a Fourth Street Yoga, 1809 Fourth St., #C. Cost is $10. For reservations call 548-8779.  

Ellen Robinson & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ.  

Lost Coast and Dark Hollow, bluegrass, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054. 

Inspector Double Negative and the Equal Positives at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $10. 451-8100.  

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

Wake the Dead at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Radio Suicide, CD release, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886.  

Wil Blades and Brian Pardo at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Carl Nagin, flamenco, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Murder Ballads Bash at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082.  

Guru Garage at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Halloween Weekend Show with Minor Threat, Youth of Today, Negative Approach and others at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, OCT. 29 

CHILDREN 

Reading and Learning about Gardens for children at 1 and 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Muriel Johnson Storytelling at 2 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 658-7353. 

FILM 

A Theater Near You “Neighborhood Watch” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

“Desperate Hours” at 7:30 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. Donation $5. 848-0237. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Celebrating Decca” readings from the newly published letters of Jessica Mitford by friends, family and distinguished authors in a benefit for KPFA at 8 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Tickets are $15-$20. 848-6767, ext. 609. 

“The Furniture Shop and Its Legacy” The design and decoration of the furnishings of Arthur and Lucia Mathews at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200.  

Ghost Walk and Graveyard Tales with Bay Area mystery and crime writers Simon Wood, Hailey Lind, Camille Minichino at 7 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Oakland. 228-3207. 

Poetry Flash with Norman Fischer and Paul Naylor at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Representa! bilingual hip-hop and spoken word at 6 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568. 

“Laughing Bones/Weeping Hearts” Gallery talk with artists Joe Bastida Rodriguez and Deborah Rumer at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200.  

“Aili” by Matti Kurikka, dramatized reading in English of the 1887 Finnish feminist play at 2 p.m. at Kaleva Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. Donation $5. 849-0125.  

Kevin Coval reads from “Slingshots (A Hip-Hop Poetica)” at 5 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Harvest of Song with new compositions by Allen Shearer, Peter Joseff, Don Walker and others at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. Cost is $10. 644-6893.  

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

The English Concert at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $30-$42. 642-9988.  

University Wind Ensemble at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Janet Oliphant Rossman and Carol Dechaine, showtime favorites at 7 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda. Benefits the Let The Music Play Fund. 

Brazilian Soul at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $9. 841-JAZZ.  

Evelie Posch at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

Americana Unplugged: The Saddle Cats, western swing, at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Clockwork, a cappella jazz, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Susan Muscarello Trio, Halloween jazz, at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

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

The Yellowjackets at 7 and 9 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $22. 238-9200.  

MONDAY, OCT. 30 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Wangari Maathai, founder of the Greenbelt Movement at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way at Dana. Suggested donation $10. 559-9500. 

Art, Technology and Culture Colloquium at 7:30 p.m. at the Center for New Media, 160 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. www. ieor.berkeley.edu/~goldberg/lecs 

Poetry Express open mic theme night on “night poems” at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Khalil Shaheed, all ages jam, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

“An Evening of Improvised Music” at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. 

Denny Zeitlin Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, OCT. 31 

FILM 

Alternative Visions “Experiments in Terror” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tell It On Tuesday Storytelling by Julia Jackson, Sandra Niman, Kikelomo Adedeji and Steve Budd at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $8-$12. www.juliamorgan.org 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Balkan Halloween Masquerade, songs from the Greek underworld and beyond at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10, $8 with costume. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Singers’ Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Dia De Los Muertos Celebration with Anthony Blea y su Charanga at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Come in costume. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 1 

THEATER 

Gate Theatre of Dublin “Waiting for Godot” Wed.-Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sun. at 3 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $65. 642-9121. 

FILM 

“Morality, Politics and War” selected and introduced by film historian James Forsher at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Anthony Shadid, Washington Post correspondent, talks about his new book, “Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War” at 8 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Alexei Yurchak introduces “Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Hecho in Calfias Festival Madrinas and Padrinos of Hecho, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568.  

Eastern European Artists-in-Residence Artists Talk with Kalin Serapionov and Aleksandra Janik at 7 p.m. in the Kala Gallery, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. 

Peter Stone discusses “Heist: Superlobbyist Jack Abramoff...” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 415-559-9500.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with performances from the Graduate Composition Seminar at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Yefim Bronfman, piano, Gil Shaham, violin and Lynn Harrell, cello at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $30-$52. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

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

Whiskey Brothers Old Time and Bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Afrissippi, world boogie, African blues at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Humbria, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa dance lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Casey Neill & Jim Page at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Kenny Rankin, in a solo show at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, NOV. 2 

THEATER 

Albany High School Theater Ensemble “Pretend-O-Cide” Thurs. at 7 p.m., Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd, Albany, through Nov. 11. Tickets are $5-$10. www.myspace.com/ahsuburoi 

Azeem’s “Rude Boy” opens and runs Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at The Marsh, 2120 Allston Way, through Nov. 25. Tickets are $15-$22. 415-826-5750.  

EXHIBITIONS 

Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle Guided tour at 12:15 p.m. in Gallery 2, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

FILM 

“Jean Renoir, The Boss” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Free first Thursday. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Architecture of Ratcliff” with Woodruff Minor, author, and Kiran SIngh, photographer, at 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. 238-2200. 

Murray Silverstein, poet, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17. 

Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld talk about translating from ancient and contemporary Hebrew, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film” A multimedia presentation by music historian Richie Unterberger at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

St. Mark’s Choir Association performs Requiem by Jacob Clemens non Papa at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. 845-0888. 

University Chamber Chorus Music for All Soul’s Day at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Free.  

Dia de los Muertos Benefit Concert for the Zapatistas, featuring Fuga, Los Nadies, La Plebe at 7 p.m. at 2232 MLK, Oakland. Cost is $8 - $20 sliding scale. www.2232mlk.com 

Fikir Amlak, Red Meditation, Binghi Ghost, Luv Fyah, reggae, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

John Schott’s Dream Kitchen + 3, the music of Jelly Roll Morton with Suzy Thompson, Bob Mielke and Richard Hadlock at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Hecho in Calfias Festival From Folclorico to fusion at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

System 3, Burnt at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

Jazz Mine at 6:30 p.m. at King Tsin Chinese Restaurant, 1699 Solano Ave. 525-9890. 

Kenny Rankin, in a solo show at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Showtime @ 11 Hip Hop at 10 p.m. at the Golden Bull, 412 14th St. at Broadway, Oakland. 893-0803. 

“All you need to make a movie,” Godard once pronounced, “Is a girl and a gun.” 

In the loaded high drama of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, staged by Actors Ensemble at Live Oak Theater, the heroine, caught in a web of her own and others’ pretensions, isn’t just a girl—and the guns are a matched set of dueling pistols, which belonged to her late father, the general. 

The guns have become her playthings, and, as Chekhov said, “If you see a gun on the wall when the curtain goes up, you should expect it to be discharged by the end of the play.” 

Moving with a scathing yet tragic economy, Ibsen renders the scene: a bored young gentlewoman, with beauty and high spirits, just married to an academic completely preoccupied with his research; redoing the old villa they’ve moved into, but bridling at any suggestion of starting a family. Her ambition has been to inspire a man to greatness, and she learns that her original subject, her husband’s old academic rival, has returned, redeemed by the attentions of one of her old classmates who married an older businessman. Meanwhile, an old family friend looks on, using his influence to make arrangements for everyone, as well as himself. 

It’s the tale of three interpenetrating triangles, digging into the soil of the playwright’s native Scandinavia, and the European middle class in general, disclosing with irony the claustrophobic resentment and hypocrisy that made up the daily bread of society, which gathered up every romantic gesture of those wishing an escape, smothering it in sordid banality. 

The plot seems to turn on each phrase, each impulse carefully stifled or redirected: explosive—or implosive; spring-loaded, or boomeranging. 

Hedda Gabler, both the character and the play, were Ibsen’s answer to his fellow Scandinavian Strindberg’s aggressive charges that he coddled the overweening ambitions of his bluestocking heroines. Ibsen paid back in kind, appropriating something of the Swede’s dramatic manner, but in an objective mode, where the characters’ excesses are clearly shown in the context of a repressive situation. They seem to share something of that paradoxical fear of, yet impersonal hope for the future that marks Chekhov’s characters a generation later. There’s none of Strindberg’s “proto-Expressionism,” though there is a harsh poetry of the clear light of day shining on absurd, willful actions, dreamt up in some dark night of the soul. 

Wendy Welch’s Hedda is young, high-strung and florid; after the brittle exposition of the first act, the play gets going (literally with a bang) at the start of the second, when she “playfully” blasts away at unctious Judge Brack (Louis Schilling) as if an intruder in her garden. Their conversation is like the dialogue of two ham actors, each overly aware of their own comportment—and the other’s. 

The tense situation is volitilized by the return of wayward scholar Eilert Lovborg (Eric Carlson) with his new manuscript, who says he’s come just to ask how Hedda Gabler could’ve married Jurgen Tesman (Aaron Murphy), so much a straightman as to be a buffoon. Thea Elvsted (Thais Harris), unhappily married but serene in her role as Eilert’s muse, appears and reappears, confiding in her old schoolmate who used to twist her hair ... the clock is wound and will strike ... 

Stanley Spenger, who founded Subterranean Shakespeare and is now president of Actors Ensemble’s board (a good augury for their 50th season), has adapted the text well (Michael Meyer’s script for BBC and John Osbourne’s remarkable version are well worth reading) and, as director, gotten the most out of his actors (Marian Simpson plays maid and family retainer Berta and Maureen Coyne is Tesman’s self-sacrificing Aunt Juliana). 

The show moves swiftly, missing none of the complications or ironic exchanges, and will grow stronger in delivery and dynamics as it runs. Rose Anne Raphael’s fine set and Helen Slomowitz’s costume design do everything to place the action, abetted by Christine Dickson’s lighting. 

It’s a tough play in every sense, but this production has the right attitude, reflected in the director’s notes, which contemplate doing a masterpiece for its intrinsic value as well as for the sake of a spectator who, “like all of us at one time,” hasn’t seen the play--one that seems predicated on Judge Brack’s words at the end, though they seem to bookend the action: “People don’t do such things, even if they say them!” 

Hedda Gabler 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley 

Through Nov. 18 

Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m. 

Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave. 

Tickets $12 

525-1620, www.aeofberkeley.org 

San Francisco’s Shelton Theater, near Union Square, is a busy place. With at least six theater companies sharing four stages, the house’s logistics alone are almost a bedroom farce. So with farce in mind, I caught two of the resident comedy troupes last week. 

In comedy as in bedroom intrigues, timing can be everything. Not just for performers, but for audience members. The Un-Scripted Theater Company’s improvised Supertrain show is at its peak, but you have only until tomorrow to catch its last two performances (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.).  

Meanwhile, Richter Scale’s new Declaration of Codependence is an evening of comedy sketches still finding its stride as a unified show. But it’s promising, and will evolve as it runs for another month (Saturdays at 10 p.m. and Sundays at 8 p.m., through Nov. 26). 

Un-Scripted’s Supertrain is an evening-long improvisation built around audience suggestions, using one consistent frame: All the action takes place on a train. In the performance that I saw, the comedy never derailed and was often hilarious. 

The action rapidly took off on two surreal tracks—both “theme” cars randomly inspired by audience suggestions. In the “Fertility Car,” a gaggle of professionals tried to help a couple (Darlene Sorensen and Kurt Bodden) achieve parenthood and prepare for it—not necessarily in the expected order. 

In the “Screwball Gothic” car, a young man expecting a relaxing vacation (Alan Goy) was instead recruited to slay the train’s murderous stowaway, a werewolf-like “Beast.” 

If those premises don’t sound wacky enough, the results soon got even more unlikely. In the Fertility Car, a lounge singer (Derek Cochran) improvised flawlessly rhyming songs about various challenges of parenthood, as called out by audience members. 

Later, Sorensen and Bodden consulted an onboard counselor (Dave Dyson, an El Cerrito resident who’s also the show’s director—yes, improvisers have directors). At which point two “Inner Wrestlers” (Cochran again, and Mandy Khoshnevisan) suddenly emerged to fight out the couple’s unspoken hostilities. 

Amid a consistently strong cast, Bodden and Cochran—both credited as guest performers for the troupe’s 2006 season—were the two stand-outs. Bodden, a lanky comic who looks and moves uncannily like Jim Carrey, grabs you with affable understatement. 

Cochran, who’s NBA tall, effortlessly inhabited “big” roles like the wrestler and an evangelical preacher. But in a flash, he would shrink down to the wispy old oracle who tutored Goy about werewolf-slaying, using a vaguely British accent like James Mason’s. 

Un-Scripted spun off in 2002 from the region’s most established improv group, BATS. After Saturday, they’ll be on hiatus until mounting a Valentine’s Day fund-raiser. 

Richter Scale, an even newer sketch-comedy troupe, was the freshest act I saw at last July’s San Francisco Theater Festival. Their forte is material that’s simultaneously very political and very funny. Their new show reprises some of the best sketches that brought down the house in July. 

“Earth Elementary” brings the U.N. down to the scale of a classroom. There, an idealistic teacher (Berkeley native Tenaya Hurst) tries to keep an unruly kid named America from throwing lethal paper airplanes. You’ll have to see the show to find out how America manipulates classmates India, China, and England. 

“Dot-Com High” similarly portrays a virtual world, using kids who’ve graduated to socially competitive teenagers. In the inner circle, YouTube is on the phone to MySpace. But awkward Friendster is SO last year—she can’t find a friend. Other Internet icons also appear, in ways I won’t reveal. Digital humor can be a deadly oxymoron, and Richter Scale shows unusual skill in making this sketch genuinely funny. 

Also great is a post-global-warming tour of the former San Francisco. And there are well executed musical spoofs of everything from Handel’s Messiah to country music (the latter fronted by Brett Duggan). 

The new show is strung around a theme of dependency. As of opening weekend, some of the new material didn’t obviously fit. And some bits didn’t entirely take off—for example, a running gag in which a patient keeps ambushing his doctor in unlikely places to demand advertised prescription drugs. 

But others worked great. In one new sketch, a father can help his young son understand American history only by invoking brand names. In another, Paris Hilton (Holly Nugent) offers cave redecorating tips to Osama bin Laden. 

There are also revealing peeks “inside the Democratic Party think tank,” and some dueling political ads that get very personal—between the voiceover announcers. One of the longest and edgiest sketches, a “Fifth Annual September 11th Awards Show,” came off very  

strongly. 

By next weekend, Director Sammy Wegent told me, Declaration of Codependence will move to a different stage at the Shelton. And the sketches will be reshuffled into a very different order. 

This show should continue to firm up during its run. Richter Scale does risky stuff, and this is a chance to watch a talented sketch group shape something both trenchant and funny. 

SUPERTRAIN 

Presented by the Un-Scripted Theater Company at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 27-28. $15 general, $10 students and seniors. (415) 869-5384. www.Un-Scripted.com. 

DECLARATION OF CODEPENDENCE 

Presented by Richter Scale at 10 p.m. Saturdays and 8 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 26. $20. (615) 268-7893. www.richterscalesf.com. 

Both shows at the Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter St., San Francisco (between Powell and Mason).

Terry Gilliam’s Tideland is a stream of surreal images and literary references. Based on Mitch Cullin’s 2000 novel, the film is, in the director’s own words, something akin to Alice in Wonderland meets Psycho. The parallels to both are clear: A young protagonist uses her (hyper)active imagination to escape the brutalities of the reality she inhabits, at one point even falling into a rabbit hole; and the American Gothic quality of the film, along with a few gender-bending details and the disturbing drama surrounding a depraved family, readily call to mind Hitchcock’s 1960 psychodrama. 

But Tideland owes just as much to William Faulkner, whose short story “A Rose for Emily” captured much of the same quality Gilliam is going for here. The movie borrows from Faulkner’s tale the very specific details of necrophilic fixation as well as the tragi-comic perspective that Faulkner often employed in his fictional explorations of rural Southern life. 

Other influences are more subtle but no less significant. The film’s visual scheme, with its restless crane shots and views of a dilapidated farmhouse as seen from across a golden field, recall “Christina’s World,” the 1948 Andrew Wyeth painting that conveys a host of conflicting tensions and emotions. Gilliam has used the visual aspect of the painting as well as its emotional tone, creating a movie that keeps the viewer slightly off balance, much as Wyeth did with his painting’s low vantage point. 

Tideland in many ways covers the same ground as Victor Erice’s 1973 film The Spirit of the Beehive (reviewed in the Daily Planet Sept. 29). Both movies examine imaginary worlds created by children in response to household turmoil, and both take place on desolate plains, the outside world gaining entry only via railroad tracks that cut through vast golden fields. But whereas Erice constructed a minimalist film that relied on mood and suggestion and for the most part only hinted at the dreams and associations in the mind of his lead character, Gilliam has uncorked a rush of visual techniques, from conspicuously canted camera angles to surreal special effects sequences, in an effort to bring the child’s fantasies directly to the viewer. 

Gilliam’s style is an acquired taste, and one that I confess I have yet to acquire. There is little in his work that I find entertaining, and even less that I find artistically satisfying. But there is no doubting his talent, skill, imagination and uncompromising vision. Once again, despite the odds, he has made exactly the film he wanted to make, another entry in his canon of signature off-kilter projects, and one that will certainly satisfy his fan base. 

Tideland opens today (Friday) at Shattuck Cinemas in downtown  

Berkeley. 

TIDELAND 

Directed by Terry Gilliam. Starring Jodelle Ferland, Janet McTeer, Brendan Fletcher, Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Tilly. Playing at Shattuck Cinemas.120 minutes. Rated R.  

Jodelle Ferland plays Jeliza-Rose, a girl who seeks respite from her troubled home life through an active and wild imagination. Photograph Courtesy of ThinkFilm

If you’re looking for architecture inspired by precedent, there’s no better place to look than the University of California campus. Nowhere else in town is so much architectural variety concentrated within such a confined area. And the precedents are apparent in all manner of buildings, from the most prominent to the humblest. 

Anthony Hall (1957) 

Just a few paces east of Sather Gate, between Moses Hall and the hulking Barrows Hall, a charming pavilion shelters under oaks and redwoods on the south bank of Strawberry Creek. Most people would recognize it by the bronze pelican statue on the lawn. 

The building is strongly reminiscent of the First Church of Christ, Scientist: wide, sheltering roof eaves; unfinished redwood posts and beams; dragon-head beam ends; industrial steel-sash windows; rough stucco tinted a blotchy red; a colonnaded trellis; cast-concrete post capitals bearing pelican reliefs. They all cry out, “Maybeck!” 

But wait a minute! Those plain round concrete pillars supporting the trellis are modern. Maybeck never used those. How can this beguiling pavilion be so Maybeck and yet not be? 

The answer harks back to April 16, 1903. On that day, wealthy UC student Earle C. Anthony (1880–1961) founded the humor magazine California Pelican. Begun with a staff of ten, the Pelican was in operation until the 1980s and for many years ranked among the top college humor magazines in the nation. Along the decades, its contributors included the likes of Rube Goldberg, Jon Carroll, and the jazz singer Susannah McCorkle. 

Following graduation, the enterprising Anthony made his name in cars and broadcasting. From 1915 to 1958, he was the Packard distributor for all of California. It is said that one out of every seven Packards ever sold passed through his showrooms. In 1923, the Los Angeles Packard dealership’s neon signs were the first installed in the United States. 

With his father, Anthony invented the gas station, opening the first two in California. Their trademark was the chevron, which Anthony soon sold to Standard Oil. He was also a bus-line pioneer, founding the company that would become Greyhound. In the early 1920s, Anthony built the Los Angeles radio station KFI AM, to which he would add KECA AM, now KABC. 

The Packard showrooms in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles were designed in the 1920s by Bernard Maybeck, who was also responsible for Anthony’s Los Angeles mansion. Thus, when Anthony decided in 1954 to donate $90,000 for a Berkeley campus building to house the Pelican, it was Maybeck he turned to. 

The elderly architect, already in his nineties, declined the commission, referring it to Joseph Esherick (1914–1998). Esherick, a leading Bay Area modernist who taught at UC Berkeley for many years, would co-found the College of Environmental Design with William Wurster and Vernon DeMars. His best-known projects are Wurster Hall (with DeMars and Donald Olsen), Sea Ranch, the San Francisco Cannery, and the Monterey Aquarium. 

Anthony Hall is Esherick’s tribute to Maybeck. It’s been called “a unique overlap of First and Second Bay Traditions.” In their obituary for Esherick, Richard Peters and Jean-Pierre Protzen marveled, “Who would ever guess that the architect of the Pelican Building on the Berkeley campus is also the architect of Wurster Hall?” In 1992, the AIA California Council fittingly honored Esherick with the first Maybeck Award. 

And what of the Pelican? According to Bob Wieder, who edited the magazine in the ’60s, Anthony had funded the building “with the stipulation that it would forever house the Pelican and only the Pelican. It took the University years of legal weaseling to undo the terms of his will…Pelly was booted from the Pelican Building around 1973 and gradually withered away in Eshleman Hall.” 

Anthony Hall is now the home of the Graduate Student Assembly. 

Senior Hall (1906) 

If Anthony Hall is a traditional building by a modernist, Senior Hall is a vernacular building by an academician. 

“Perhaps the most famous and quintessential wood building is the log cabin,” notes architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson, who adds, ”by the mid 19th century, these simple buildings had captured the American imagination and have remained there ever since. Celebrated in politics and prose, and illustrated innumerably in paintings and prints, the log cabin came to represent the frontier spirit and earlier times.” 

Popularly associated with integrity and democratic values, the log cabin was a fitting venue for leaders of the Cal student body when they gathered to discuss problems and issues of common interest. These discussions were the main purpose and activity of the Order of the Golden Bear, founded in 1900. 

In 1905, when the Order of the Golden Bear received permission to build a student hall on campus, the university’s supervising architect was John Galen Howard, a product of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Having arrived at Cal in 1902, he already had a few campus buildings to his name, chief among them the Hearst Greek Theater the Hearst Memorial Mining Building (the latter still under construction), and California Hall, all with Classical antecedents. 

On the face of it, Howard was the person least likely to design a log cabin. Yet this New Englander was attuned to vernacular architecture, went on various sketching expeditions, and would design several brown-shingled buildings on campus and nearby. 

Steve Finacom, who compiled the history of the Order of the Golden Bear, wrote that Howard’s intent was to reflect “characteristic California Architecture.” Located behind the Faculty Club, Senior Hall was likened by Professor Henry Morse Stephens to the “heart” of the university, with the Faculty Club representing its “mind.” 

Sather Tower (1914) 

In John Galen Howard’s body of work, a log cabin was a decided aberration. Far more typical was the stately Campanile, which almost overnight turned into Berkeley’s most enduring icon. 

Howard wanted the bell tower to “rise with a slender stem, bursting into bloom at the summit.” No American precedent could fit the bill, and Howard reached over the Atlantic for his model. Anyone who has visited Venice or seen pictures of Piazza San Marco will recognize Sather Tower as a simplified version of the Campanile di San Marco. 

There are differences between the two towers. The shaft of the Venetian Campanile is built of red brick, whereas Sather Tower is a steel structure clad in granite. The Italian belfry features four arched openings on each side, while the California version has three. The original has a ribbed shaft with slit fenestrations along the sides; in the copy, the shaft is almost plain, and the slits run down the center. On the other hand, only Sather Tower is ornamented with corner obelisks topped by bronze finial flames symbolizing enlightenment. Yet there’s no mistaking its origin. 

The Campanile di San Marco is 323.5 feet tall (Berkeley’s reaches 303 feet). It was built between the 9th and 12th centuries. Having suffered earthquake damage in 1511, the tower was restored by the architects Giorgio Spavento and Bartolomeo Bon, assuming its present appearance in 1513. 

Several additional restorations took place over the intervening centuries, but on July 14, 1902 the Campanile di San Marco collapsed. Photos of the time show a hillock of rubble in Piazza San Marco that fortunately left the surrounding buildings unharmed. 

The Venetians wasted no time and rebuilt their Campanile dov’era e com’era (exactly where and as it had been). The reconstructed tower was inaugurated on St. Mark’s Day, April 25, 1912. The following year, construction began on Sather Tower in Berkeley. 

Photograph by Daniella Thompson. Built in 1957, Anthony Hall looks like a Maybeck building for a reason.  

One of the toughest parts of my job has always been finding the justification to support large expenditures on my client’s part. While it may be fun to spend someone else’s money, you won’t make much of a reputation telling everyone that they need a new foundation. You have to parse the good-enough from the doesn’t-cut-it and that’s often disconcerting (for me and for my client). 

On the other hand some calls are easy. Anything that’s somewhat life threatening and or life saving and involves the amount of money in the average person’s wallet is a clear and resounding ‘yea.’ Locks on windows that prevent escape can be removed without any cost if the client is amenable and possessing of a screwdriver. 

A double cylinder lock (locks from both sides) can prevent escape in a fire and can be replaced with a single cylinder type for about 20 bucks and the same screwdriver. The replacement has a thumb turn on the inside and can be opened almost unconsciously by a fleeing would-be victim. 

Old breakers can be replaced by able persons for about five bucks a-piece (don’t try this unless you have real experience and knowledge of high watts) and improve the fire safety of the building. 

These are just a few examples and there are many more. I love these trick or treat inspection gimmies and try to throw lots of them out in my daily work because a) they put smiles on faces and b) they can save lives when the dollars are shy. 

The one I love the most is particularly timely just now as the clocks are about to change and it is our new little friend the smoke-detector. I say new because the device isn’t even 40 years old (invented in 1969 by Kenneth House and Randolph Smith in the U.S.). Also, I mention the changing of the clocks because it’s time to change the batteries and certainly time to review the state of your smoke-detectors. 

If you’re a landlord (Ooooo, evil word in Berkeley. You must be keep slaves and worshiping Baal if you own an apartment) you should be particularly sensitive to the state of smoke-detectors. I’ve seen a lot of disabled smoke-detectors in tenant occupied spaces in my years in the biz and it behooves (you cloven heel, you) landlords to check and service smoke-detectors regularly since tenants tend to be less aware of these issues. 

It’s also common for the young immortals of our dear Alma Mater to remove batteries that are annoyingly chirping (in need of changing) or to steal the battery for more amusing uses (like that cool radio controlled monster truck). 

Many agencies and yours truly recommend changing smoke-detector batteries when you change the clocks, twice a year. I recommend buying 9V batteries, which are pricey, in large allotments when the sales are on at the drug store, at places like Costco or other discount stores. Check the sales and stock up on regular Alkaline 9V batteries (these are the rectangular ones with the two terminals on one end). I don’t recommend Lithium long-life batteries since they don’t tend to last nearly as long as reputed and they tend to make us forget about servicing the smoke detector. 

If you keep half a dozen or more in the house, you’re more likely to change them when they start to chirp and less likely to just back that battery off 1/8” as I so often see. Here’s a protocol I practice. Never back the battery off. Just take it out. That way you won’t think there’s a battery inside (nor will the next person). You have to look carefully to see the difference between a backed-off battery and a fully installed one. The other protocol is that I never leave the cover on a smoke-detector that is missing a battery. Leave it open as a reminder if you have to go get a battery and make the replacement a priority. In Berkeley we would call that “taking care of yourself” and that’s a GOOD thing. It’s also taking care of your family, your tenant and the neighbors, since all those people may be affected. Your fire, can quickly become a fire for others. If you live in an apartment or condo complex, your fire can ruin the day or life of many others so it’s vital that you keep good batteries in these things.  

It’s like voting. If you couldn’t vote (all too new to you women out there) you’d be terribly excited when it came along and you’d rush to the polls as those, new to free-elections, tend to do (ah if we could only turn out in numbers like that).  

We should treat smoke-detectors like that. They are life-saving miracles that cost less than a typical lunch out and the batteries cost about the same as a Grande Decaf at Starbucks. There is no reason in the world not to have plenty of them and to keep them fully charged and ready to scream. By the way, do test your smoke-detectors when you put the batteries in and, at least, seasonally. Do it when you clean the house (it also helps to vacuum the detectors itself). Keep a rod of some sort around to test them with so that you won’t need a ladder.  

Smoke-detectors don’t do a very good job when the smoke can’t reach them so here’s some general thinking on where to put them and roughly the number you will need. This also comes from the NFPA (National Fire Protection Agency) and most local fire departments. 

Smoke-detectors need to be on both sides of the door to your sleeping room (and everyone else’s sleeping room too). That means that you want one in the hall or the living room and that you want one in each of the bedrooms. You also want to have at least one on every level of the house. If you have a three-bedroom, split-level house, this means you’ll want to have five detectors. They’re easy to install and if you want to use some two-part Velcro to put them up, that’s just fine. 

Smoke rises (Because it’s hot and has a lower density than air) and this means that it heads for the ceiling first. If the smoke-detector is on the wall, it takes longer to go off and longer to wake you up. Put smoke-detectors on the ceiling and try to place them at least 4” away from the corner since smoke tends to curl past the corner and hits the ceiling a few inches in from the wall. Place detectors on the highest part of the room if there is a change in height (even though this will make battery replacement more difficult). You might want to get yourself a good ladder for installation and servicing of these. 

A few notes on smoke-detectors. There are different types and some are better than others but the primary safety, in my never-humble opinion, is in have plenty of them. Having 3 or more working smoke-detectors virtually assures that you’ll be awoken from your reverie in time to preempt this most terrible and unnecessary of deaths. 

Consider installing at least one “hard-wired” smoke-detector. This type wires into the 120 volt house current and only fails to function if the power is out (what’s the likelihood that both things will occur at the same time?). If you’re doing a mid-sized remodel on your home (such as a bath remodel), the city will likely force this gift-of-safety upon you. By the way, speaking of gifts, this, like the carbon-monoxide tester, makes a great gift and really does say I love you in a way that a bottle of wine just doesn’t. 

I inspected for an Oakland fireman a few years ago and we chatted quite a bit about fires, smoke-detectors and home escape. At one point I asked him a question about the removal of occupants from burning building and he sort of laughed and said ”Oh, we don’t do that much anymore. Since smoke-detectors started being used, the people are usually already outside and we just have to put out the blaze.”  

I think I’ll leave it right there.  

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor at mgcantor@pacbell.net.

The older and bumblinger I get—and believe me, I’m starting from an advanced baseline of bumblitude—the more I appreciate how forgiving a process gardening is. Composting is one of the more forgiving parts of it, and cheapest. It can stink if you do it wrong—but, if you do it wrong, it generally still works.  

The theory: Pile some greens and some browns in alternating layers, aerate, and in a little while you’ll have wonderful fertilizer instead of garbage. Sounds easy until you have a can of garbage and you start analyzing. 

“Greens” means wet stuff, high-nitrogen: vegetable garbage (meat scraps are strictly for industrial-size piles) or fresh leaves, grass clippings. “Browns” means dry stuff, high-carbon: straw, shavings, dried leaves, sawdust.  

What else is compostable? Paper towels! Dryer lint! Dust bunnies! The stuff from the vacuum cleaner! Torn newspaper! Love letters cut up into little bitty pieces! 

Got a paper shredder? The confidential shreds get obliterated at the bottom of the compost pile. Pile the coffee grounds right on top of your classified secrets. (Coffee grounds are high-nitrogen seed meal, after all.) Run eggshells through the blender with a cup of water and toss the result onto the pile.  

You’re supposed to do all this in layers, get it into a 70/30 ratio, keep it moist but not wet, turn it every so often to let air in, even take its temperature, fuss fuss fuss. You know what? All that speeds the process, but even if you do it haphazardly you’ll get compost. One thing: put your heap on the ground; if you must put it on pavement, add a few shovelfuls of dirt from the garden by way of starter. In fact, that’s a good idea anyway.  

Sometimes you even get pleasant surprises. A few years ago, we had something in the bin way out back that drew biggish black flies. They’d spend hours sunning on the white garage doors. It was spring, and we started hearing a familiar terweep! all day, and we discovered a family of black phoebes, a pair and two youngsters in residence. They took care of the flies most entertainingly, darting from their perches to catch them with an audible snap and treating the garage doors as a smorgasbord.  

It’s nice to have a process that works well even if you do it badly but rewards learning and skill too. (OK, another process.) A well-managed compost heap does have an advantage besides speed: it gets hot enough to kill off a lot of disease organisms. Local organizations and Alameda County’s Stopwaste/Bay-Friendly program can mail you more information, and it’s easy enough to find in the library.  

You can become a Master Composter and earn college credits for it through the county, too; applications for the weekly February-through-May 2007 class are being accepted now. The county will also sell you a Biostack composter for $39 and/or a Wriggly Wranch worm composter for $29, if you’re a resident.  

Call 444-SOIL (7645) or see www.stopwaste.org for more information and to order or sign up.

How’s Your Earthquake Knowledge? (Part 3) 

Rate yourself: Are the following statements true, or false? 

1. The latest seismic technology has made earthquake prediction possible, but is only accurate up to 30 minutes before a major rupture.  

2. We can tell where an earthquake has occurred because we can see where the ground on the surface that has moved. 

3. The most shaking in earthquakes occurs next to the epicenter. 

The answer to each of the above is “false.” 

1. We do not have the ability to accurately predict earthquakes. 

2. We can only view a fault on the surface if the rupture which generated the earthquake extends to the surface. Strong earthquakes can occur without the rupture extending to the surface. The rupture did not extend to the surface in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, nor the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. 

3. The epicenter is only the point on the surface above the location where the fault begins the slip which generates the earthquake. The epicenter is not synonymous with “ground zero.” 

Larry Guillot is the owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing and kit supply service. Contact him at 558-3299. Visit www.quakeprepare.com to receive e-mails and safety reports.  

FRIDAY, OCT. 27 

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 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Dr. Lisa Feuchtbaum on “Newborn Screening” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

“Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties” A documentary by Robert Greenwald at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 

An Evening of Claire Burch Films, in appreciation and memory of Allen Cohen at 6 p.m. at Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar St. 547-7602. 

FCC Hearing on Media Ownership starting at 5 p.m. at the Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway at 10th St. The public is encouraged to attend. Sponsored by the NAACP, Media Alliance, the Youth Media Council, and Free Press. For more information see www.media-alliance.org 

Haunted House at an historic English Tudor-style house, 2647 Durant Aven. Free to Berkeley and Oakland students from 4 to 6 p.m. 562-2506. 

UC Berkeley Asian Business Association’s Charity Fashion Show at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave: Cost is $10. jchea@berkeley.edu  

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 548-6310. 

SATURDAY, OCT. 28 

Parade of People for Impeachment and the Restoration of Our Rights from Oakland to Berkeley. Begins at 9:30 a.m. at Grand Lake, 11 a.m. at Piedmont clock tower, 12:30 p.m. at College & Ashby, 1:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART. oakland@bluebottle.com 

Native Plant Fair with Berkeley native plants, bulbs, seeds, books, art, and crafts for sale, talks by experts and fun activities for children, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sun. from noon to 3 p.m. at Native Here Nursery, 101 Golf Course Dr., Tilden Park. 496-6016. www.ebcnps.org  

Codornices Creek Watershed Tour Meet at 9 a.m. near the mouth of Codornices Creek at Albany Waterfront Trail, where Buchanan St. dead ends north of Golden Gate Fields, west of I-580. The tour will begin at the upstream end of the watershed and will consist of stops with different speakers along various points of the creek, ending at the mouth of the creek near the meeting point. 452-0901. 

Ohlone Dog Park Cleanup Day at 10 a.m. at Ohlone Dog Park, on Hearst between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Grant St. Sponsored by Ohlone Dog Park Association. ohlonedogpark.org 

The New School Halloween Bazaar, with face painting, children's games, rummage and book sales, haunted house, food and entertainment from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 606 Bonita Street, at Cedar. 548-9165. 

“Breaking the Silence” with former Israeli military commander Yehuda Shaul, founder of a group of ex-combatants who reveal how Israeli soldiers regularly violate the human rights of Palestinians while serving in the Occupied Territories, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Church Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Sliding scale donation $5-$20. 465-1777. 

Breast Cancer in Our Community with Lisa Bailey, MD, Medical Director of the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center at 11 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. Registration is required. 549-9200. 

Teens Touch the Earth learn how to protect the bay, wildlife and native plants, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Miller Knox. Community service credit available. Registration required. 636-1684. 

“Fall Blooming Perennials & Shrubs” at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Harvest Festival, with activities for children and entertainment for adults from noon to 4 p.m. at Bay Street, Emeryville. 655-4002. 

Neighborhood Anti-War Rally at 1:30 p.m. at the corner Acton and University. Sponsored by the Tenants Association of Strawberry Creek Lodge. 841-4143. 

How Berkeley Came To Be Bring photocopies of photos, postcards and other memorabilia of your family’s arrival in Berkeley to create a community scrapbook at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, South Branch. For information call 981-6147. 

“Dias de los Muertos” Feast of the Angelitos at 2 p.m. and Procession of the Day of the Dead at 6 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 228-3207. arodman@lifemarkgroup.com 

Haunted Caves A spooky adventure for ages 3 and up from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center. Cost is $3-$5. 525-2233. 

Talking Pumpkins, Birds and Trees with storytellers and an enchanted walk at 10 a.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Come in costume. Cost is $8-$10, $3 for each additional child. Registration required. 643-2755. 

O’Hallow’s Eve Fright Night from 1 to 8 p.m. at the Ashby Flea Market with music, games, dance contest, pie-eating contest, face painting and more.  

Halloween Face Painting for children Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Dog Training: Slow Down! Teach your dog to walk without pulling at 9:30 a.m. and “Come Spot Come” at 10:30 a.m. at Grace North Church, 2128 Cedar St. Cost is $35-$40. Registration required. 849-9323. www.companyofdogs.com 

Animal Communication, for healing, at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave. Cost is $25, for an appointment call 525-6155. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around Preservation Park to see Victorian architecture. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of Preservation Park at 13th St. and MLK, Jr. Way. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Berkeley Haunted House for all ages from 6:30 to 8:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Free, donations accepted. 845-6830, ext. 13. 

Monster Bash aboard the Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet Museum from 7:30 p.m. to midnight at 707 W Hornet Ave, Pier 3 in Alameda. Tickets are $10-$20. Proceeds will benefit the Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet Museum. 521-8448, ext. 282. www.hornetevents.com 

Bilingual Storytime Stories in English and Spanish for toddlers and preschoolers at 10:30 a.m. in the Edith Stone Room at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

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, OCT. 29 

Remember to Set Your Clocks Back One Hour at 2 a.m. 

UCC-Toberfest with wine and beer tasting, silent auction, live music and food, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Piedmont Veterans Community Hall, 401 Highland Ave. Piedmont. Cost is $25. Benefits the Urban Creeks Council. 540-6669. 

Street Scare Halloween Block Party with pumpkin carving, bean-bag-toss, fun photos, crafts and more, from noon to 5 p.m. at 23rd St. and Telegraph. Sponsored by Rock, Paper, Scissors Gallery. 278-9171.  

Open House and Costume Party from 1 to 6 p.m. at Expressions Art Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. 644-4930. 

Alameda Fall Festival with live music, cookout, children’s activities and more, from noon to 5 p.m. at Alameda Marketplace, Park St. parking lot, 1650 Park St. www.alamedamarketplace.com 

Haunted House at an historic English Tudor-style house at 2647 Durant Ave. Open to the public from 6 to 9 pm. Cost is $3, and benefits The Green Stampede Homework Club. 562-2506. 

“Celebrating Decca” readings from the newly published letters of Jessica Mitford by friends, family and distinguished authors in a benefit for KPFA at 8 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Tickets are $15-$20. 848-6767, ext. 609. 

El Cerrito Historical Society meets to discuss Historic Preservation at 2 p.m. at the El Cerrito Senior Center, located behind the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7507.  

Beauty of Briones A moderate 5 mile hike through a spectaular park, led by naturalist Tara Reinertson. Meet at 10 a.m. at Bear Creek Staging Area. Bring lunch, sunscreen, and water. 525-2233. 

Berkeley Cybersalon with Steven Levy on “The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness” at 5 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10. whoisylvia@aol.com 

Home Greywater Workshop Learn about and help create the first permitted residential greywater system from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Berkeley Ecohouse, 1305 Hopkins St. Cost is $15 sliding scale. 547-8715. 

IRV Peace Meet-up and Rally at 1:30 p.m. at Splashpad Park, LakeShore and Grand Ave., Oakland. 644-1303. 

Get Your Freak On at the Kensington Farmers’ Market, tatoo booth, fortune telling, and more from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 

“Voodoo: The Authentic Legacy of Marie Laveau in New Orleans” with Carol Carlisle at 9:30 a.m at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

“Healing with Mindfulmees Meditation” Four week workshop, Sun. at noon at 5272 Foothill Blvd. Cost is $10 each Sun. 533-5306.  

Tibetan Buddhism with Mark Henderson on “The Hidden Power of the Tibetan Prayer Wheel” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, OCT. 30 

Batopia Learn the truth about bats with Maggie Hooper and her flying friends at 7 p.m. at the Piedmont Ave. Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 160 41st St. 597-5011. 

“Race and Immigration: Dividing Asians, Blacks, and Latinos” with Bill Ong Hing, professor of law and Asian American studies, UC Davis, at 7 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people aged 60 and over meets at 9:45 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Donation $3. 524-9122. 

TUESDAY, OCT. 31 

Tuesday is for the Birds An early morning walk for birders through Bay Area parklands. Bring water, sunscreen, binoculars and a snack. This week we will visit Keller Beach at Miller Knox. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

“Combatants for Peace” Bassam Aramin and Yonatan Shapira speak on stooping the cycle of violence in Israel-Palestine at 5 p.m. at 145 Dwinelle, UC Campus. aafek@berkeley.edu 

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

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 1 

“Democracy on Deadline” the Global Struggle for an Independent Press, a documentary, at 6:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Panel discussion following the film. 238-3514. www.itvs.org 

Debate on Proposition 89: Public Financing of Campaigns with Yes on 89 spokesperson Jan S. Rodolfo and No on 89 spokesperson Sandy Harrison, at 7 p.m. in Room 2050, Valley Life Sciences Bldg., UC Campus. The public is encouraged to participate. Submit questions to caldebateseries@gmail.com 

“Exploring Patagonia” A slide show and talk by Wayne Bernhardson, author of “Moon Handbooks: Patagonia” at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Healthy Eating Habits Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave. 465-2524. 

Breema Open House at 6 p.m. at 6201 Floria St., Oakland. 428-1234.  

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

American Red Cross Blood Services is holding a volunteer orientation from 10 a.m. to noon in Oakland. Registration required. 594-5165.  

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

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

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, NOV. 2 

“History of Western Ornithology” with Harry Fuller at 6:30 p.m. at Live Oak Recreation Center, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Sponsored by the Golden Gate Audubon Society. Cost is $15-$20. 843-2222. 

Mario Savio Memorial Lecture & Young Activist Award Ceremony with hip-hop journalist Jeff Chang, former State Senator and 60’s activist Tom Hayden, and spoken word artist Aya de Leon at 7:30 p.m. at Pauley Ballroom, Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union, UC Campus. Free. 415-559-9500. www.savio.org/the_lectures.html 

“The Long Walk to Freedom and Justice in South Africa” with Francis Wilson, Univ. of Cape Town at noon at 223 Moses Hall, UC Campus. 642-8338. 

Drivewell: Promoting Older Driver Safety, with Colleen Campbell, from Alameda County’s Public Health Department’s Senior Injury Prevention Project at 1:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720. 

“Day of the Dead Benefit for the Zapatistas” at 7 p.m. at 2232 MLK Way, near 19th Street BART, Oakland. Cost is $8-$20 sliding scale. 923-0676. www.chiapas-support.org 

“When God’s Friend Became God’s Problem The Punitive Elijah and the Loving God,” Distinguished Faculty Lecture by Dr. L. William Countryman at 7:30 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 649-2440. www.gtu.edu 

“Lives per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction” with Terry Tamminen at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 415-559-9500. 

Day of the Dead at Habitot Children’s Museum with activities from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

“Toxics and Children Don’t Mix” A workshop for parents and child care providers at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 658-7353. www.bananasinc.org 

“The Interplay of Buddhism and Law in the Pre-communist Mongolia” with Vesna Wallace, Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, at 5 p.m. at the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St. 643-6536. http://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu/events 

“What is Your Story?” an exploration of myth, storytelling and dream work connected to community building at 7:30 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

“Forward Forever, Environmental Justice & Hip Hop” film and community discussion at 5 p.m. in the Laney College Theater. Fundraiser for the Ghana Study Abroad Program. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

“Nutrition Bandits” Learn how to eat for health with Edward Bauman, at 5:30 p.m. at Pharmaca Interative Pharmacy, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

AnewAmerica Annual Gala “Weaving Our Common Threads” at 6 p.m. at the Holy Redeemer Conference Center, 8945 Golf Links Rd., Oakland. Tickets are $75. RSVP to 540-7785, ext. 314. www.anewamerica.org 

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

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info  

ONGOING 

Albany-Berkeley Girls Softball League Free Clinics Oct. 29- Nov. 6 in Berkeley, for girls in grades 1-9. For details see www.abgsl.org or call 869-4277. 

Volunteer at Emerson Elementary School Come anytime Mon.-Thurs. from 8:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. For details call 883-5247. 

Each One Teach One Mentoring Program of the Oakland Unified School District is curbing student absenteeism, decreasing suspensions and increasing student participation with the help of volunteer mentors like you. For more information call 495-4010, 495-4011.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Nov. 1, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5190.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed. Nov. 1, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400.  

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs. Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419.  

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 2, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406.