While the voting tally isn’t final and her opponent won’t concede, Gayle McLaughlin is confident she’ll be the new mayor of Richmond. 

And with the latest election results posted late Thursday afternoon, she has good reason to be confident. 

While returns posted the day after the election gave McLaugh-lin a 189 vote lead with 6,243 votes to incumbent Irma Ander-son’s 6,051, Thursday’s returns increased her lead to 279 votes, or 7,080 to 6,801. Gary Bell remains in third place, with his total increased from 4,382 to 4,834. 

Eight months of precinct walking, a small war chest and an enthusiastic crew of supporters helped the outspoken progressive and Green Party member score a significant upset over better-bankrolled opponents with strong name recognition. 

While McLaughlin refused corporate contributions, Anderson and Bell didn’t—but their massive outpouring of cash wasn’t enough to stave off the upset. 

While Anderson’s campaign and her industrial supporters spent about $200,000 and third place finisher Gary Bell, a former councilmember, spent about $80,000, McLaughlin spent less than $28,000. 

It wasn’t the first time she’d won against the big bucks. Two years earlier she’d been elected as the City Council’s first Green. 

While McLaughlin’s two largest donations this year of $2,500 each came from two divisions of the Service Employees International Union, ChevronTexaco—the city’s largest and most controversial employer—channelled $48,000 into support for Anderson and approximately the same sum bankrolling attacks against McLaughlin. 

Major recipients of Chevron largesse were the Committee for Quality Government and the Committee to Oppose Measure T. Both groups gave to the Coalition to Save Jobs, a creature of the Chevron-backed Council of Industries. 

The coalition spent $63,000 opposing McLaughlin. 

The Committee for Quality Government also gave $33,000 to the Black American Political Action Committee (BAPAC), which in turn gave exactly the same amount to Anderson’s support. Pacific Gas & Electric gave BAPAC another $10,000. 

PG&E also gave $4,000 directly to Anderson in three separate donations. 

Another Anderson donor was sometime Chevron lobbyist and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who gave $2,500. 

And that’s not counting the big bucks that poured into Anderson’s coffers from Democrats and developers—that new amalgam that played such a central role in Berkeley’s election. 

The Richmond Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee RichPAC also weighed in on Anderson’s behalf. 

Corporate concern 

Why such big money to target one candidate? 

Perhaps this statement holds the answer: 

“One of the special things about the job is that it comes with the ability and the responsibility to set a tone for the city,” McLaughlin said. “I can set a tone for important issues where the needs of the people rather than the needs of corporations come first, and I can use the position to really hone in on the needs and interests of the people.” 

And unlike Berkeley, where the mayor is merely first among equals and each councilmember appoints members to city commissions and committees, Richmond’s chief executive has the sole nomination power, though her choices must be ratified by the council. 

“The progressive movement has had a real problem in the past because we have not been able to get people on the commissions,” she said. 

And while Anderson wasn’t conceding in the days after the election, McLaughlin’s deep pocket foes were quick to adapt to the changed reality. 

“I’ve already had calls from the Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Industries saying they want to work with me,” McLaughlin said. 

Longtime activist 

McLaughlin’s been a political activist since her teens. A Chicago native, she was one of five daughters born to a union carpenter and his wife. 

In the 1980s, her progressive politics brought her into CISPES, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador—an organization targeted by the Reagan Administration as subversive.  

The future mayor-elect came west after finishing her psychology degree and doing graduate work. Settling initially in Vallejo, she moved to Richmond to be with her future husband. 

“I decided teaching wasn’t really my niche, so I went back into politics—I go through periods of trying something else, then back to politics,” she said. 

Peter Camejo’s run as the Green Party’s California gubernatorial candidate in 2002 provided the inspiration for her involvement in Richmond politics. 

“I got involved with the Greens and I jumped into things with both feet,” she said. “I opposed the PATRIOT Act, and the more I learned about the community, the more I became concerned about Chevron’s lack of pollution controls and their responsibility to pay a fair share of taxes to the city,” she said.  

She co-founded the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), which is an umbrella organization to bring together Greens, progressive Democrats, libertarians, Peace and Freedom Party members and others who are concerned about Richmond community affairs. 

“We came together in 2004 to say that we need to focus attention on local issues,” she said. 

Two RPA stalwarts ran for city council that November, McLaughlin and Andres Soto. McLaughlin won. 

RPA members took on a variety of local issues, including casinos and the proposed development of a housing project on a toxic waste site at Campus Bay. 

McLaughlin worked closely with activists like Sherry Padgett and Claudia Carr of Bay Area Residents for Responsible Development, and she introduced a resolution as a newly elected councilmember urging the state Environmental Protection Agency to transfer site jurisdiction to the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). 

Major goals 

In a racially divided city with a troubled economy and serious crime problems, McLaughlin said her creation of a Richmond Youth Corps will offer jobs and education. 

“My goal by the end of my term is to have 1,000 part-time jobs year-round,” she said. “It’s a real challenge and it will take a collective effort. We need to pull in people in the community who have an interest and then we have to explore funding. 

“But to tackle the problem of violence, we really need to think outside the box. The goal is to have 10 hours of work a week plus five hours of education and training. It won’t work unless we can really engage the kids, and for that we need mentors.” 

Another goal for her term is to continue her service on the Community Advisory Group (CAG) created by the DTSC to provide community input on the Campus Bay cleanup. In the time since the CAG was formed, the group has expanded its oversight to other sites in southern Richmond, including UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station—a move strongly resisted by UC Berkeley officials—along with Marina Bay and the Biorad plant. 

“Renewable energy is another important goal,” she said. 

McLaughlin already won City Council endorsement of Solar Richmond, a grass roots organization which hopes to generate five megawatts of power through rooftop solar panels on homes and business in the city by 2010 while also pushing for clean jobs. 

While Measure T failed—a ballot measure she endorsed which would have raised business taxes 10 percent and included a new raw materials fee on manufacturing business—she said she remains committed to seeing that industries pay their fair share of taxes to the city. 

Voters rejected the measure, which Chevron-funded hit pieces dubbed “Gayle’s Terrible T,” by a margin of 10,794 to 7,921.  

“While I didn’t propose the measure, I voted with five other members of the council to support it, and a few years back that wouldn’t have been expected,” she said. 

“I also want to partner with the city manager and the police chief, who is steering the city toward a less confrontational form of law enforcement,” she said. 

“I want to protect our hills and shoreline, and I will continue to oppose casinos because we don’t need the added crime and addiction they bring. They’re not healthy for our community, and they’re not long-term solutions to our needs,” she said. 

It’s an ambitious agenda, but it also comes from a skilled activist who’s proved that she can overcome well-financed opposition.

Builders of the hotel planned for the heart of downtown Berkeley want to build a 19-story building that at 205 feet would tower above the current reigning monarchs of the urban skyline, the Power Bar and Wells Fargo buildings. 

The structure would house 210 hotel rooms, 50 two- and three-bedroom condominiums and 200 underground parking spaces. Two public floors would house a bank, a pair of restaurants, a jazz club, a ballroom and meeting rooms. 

The building would stand on the northeast corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, directly across the avenue from the two older towers. 

Architectural sketches and massing studies were unveiled Wednesday night to the Down-town Area Plan Advisory Com-mittee (DAPAC), which is preparing a new downtown plan that could pave the way for construction of the high-rise. 

“We will incorporate it into the Downtown Area Plan to the degree that you allow,” Planning Director Dan Marks told DAPAC members. 

If its features are written into the plan, then the developers wouldn’t need a zoning variance or possibly even a use permit, said Marks. 

The impetus for both the new plan and the hotel complex came from UC Berkeley—the former as the result of a city lawsuit and the latter as the result of a recruiting effort to create a center that could accommodate university-related guests and meetings. 

The plans were presented by Peter Diana, vice president and general counsel for hotelier Carpenter & Co., architect Gary C. Johnson of Cambridge Seven Associates and UC Berkeley Professor of Architecture Donlyn Lyndon, who is also working on the design. 

While the Power Bar building, on the southwest corner of Center Street and Shattuck Avenue, houses 13 stories in its 180 feet, the proposed structure across the street could accommodate six more floors with just 25 feet more in height because hotel rooms typically have lower ceilings than do offices, Diana said. 

The design consists of two central elements, a 70-foot-high structure that would house the hotel, banks, conference facilities, restaurants and jazz club, topped by a smaller, recessed tower that would house the condos and take the building to its full height. 

The lower structure would be close in scale to existing buildings along Shattuck Avenue, while its rooftop terrace—tentatively planned to house plantings, solar cells and solar water heating facilities in addition to public space—would match the height of the landmarked F.D. Chase Building immediately to the north on Shattuck. 

Cars and taxis would enter the hotel through a driveway off Shattuck adjacent to the Chase Building, and would either use a roundabout to turn around or drive into the ramp to reach the underground lot. 

While plans call for 200 parking spaces, Diana said the eventual number depends on the outcome of geotechnical studies which have just begun. With the exception of spaces for condo owners, other spaces would probably be available to the public on a first-come, first-served basis, he said. 

With access to BART and other public transit immediately available, “we are hoping to get fewer car trips than other hotels,” Johnson said. Diana said transit accessibility would be stressed on the hotel’s Internet site. 

The hotel, currently dubbed The Berkeley Charles Hotel after Carpenter’s signature hotel in Cambridge, Mass., will be the country’s greenest, said Diana. 

“I’m concerned about the green elements and that if you go over budget, they’ll be the first to go,” said DAPAC member Jim Samuels. 

“The good thing about green elements is that they will save us money in the long run,” said Diana. “The project isn’t going to happen unless it pencils out, and we are committed to green because it saves money.” 

Juliet Lamont said she was concerned that the project designs presented a hard edge to the street, without any greenery—a trait shared with the hotel in Cambridge. “We are about greenery and trees and ecology and the environment,” she said. 

“We are just beginning an intensive effort,” Diana said, and engineers and green consultants will be weighing in on what additional elements can be incorporated into the plans. 

Jesse Arreguin and Rob Wrenn said they were concerned about traffic, and Marks said traffic studies for the hotel would be included in the environmental impact report prepared for the new downtown plan. 

That plan was mandated in the settlement of the city lawsuit filed early last year challenging the university Long Range Development Plan 2020, which includes more than a million square feet of additional university uses downtown. 

While developers and city officials are insistent the hotel should not be referred to as “the UC hotel,” the project arose out of a request for qualifications from the university and protracted negotiations between the university and their chosen developer. 

The city task force formed by the City Council at the request of the Planning Commission was called the UC Hotel Task Force. 

The university will have no ownership interest in the structure, although it will own part of the site, which Carpenter & Co. will lease. 

UC Berkeley is planning a new museum complex immediately east of the hotel site, and recently selected Japanese architect Toyo Ito to design the complex, which will take up a larger land area than the hotel. 

Bank of America agreed to sell the site only if the developer agreed to grant them a banking facility on the corner. While the bank initially demanded 13,000 square feet of ground floor space, Diana said that after tough negotiations, the bank agreed to allow half the space to be located in the underground parking area.

The Richmond City Council voted Nov. 14 to drop its membership in the Richmond Chamber of Commerce “to avoid potential civil or criminal penalties for using public resources to pay for memberships in organizations that participate in local political activities,” according to an e-mail from Richmond City Council-member Tom Butt. 

A letter to Richmond City Attorney John Eastman from consulting attorney Jayne Wil-liams of Meyers, Nave, Riback, Silver & Wilson, cites the case of Stanson v. Mott, from which she concludes that “such a membership paid for from the city’s treasury would undermine established jurisprudence and public policy that the public’s time, money or other resources may not be used to promote or oppose ballot measures or for other political campaign purposes….” 

Williams further cites Califor-nia state government code Sec-tion 54964(a) which says: “An officer, employee, or consultant of a local agency may not expend or authorize the expenditure of any of the funds of the local agency, to support or oppose the approval or rejection of a ballot measure or the election or defeat of a candidate, by the voters.” 

In Berkeley, the City Manager’s Office pays $245 membership dues annually to the Berkeley chamber as does the Fire Depart-ment, according to budget manager Tracy Vesely. (The Police Department is listed as a Cham-ber member, but payment of dues has not been verified.) 

This year the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce endorsed candidates for mayor and City Council and for and against ballot measures, as it has in previous elections.  

The Daily Planet asked Deputy City Attorney Kristy van Herick, who is secretary to the Fair Political Campaign Practices Commission, whether Berkeley could be similarly in violation in belonging to an organization that supports and opposes political candidates and measures. Van Herick, however, said that since the question does not fall within the purview of Berkeley’s local election law, she is unable to respond. 

Berkeley City Manager Phil Kamlarz did not return calls before deadline.

Despite promised lawsuits by the City of Berkeley and project neighbors, UC Regents voted Tuesday to approve a massive athletic training center along the western wall of Memorial Stadium. 

But the Regents withheld one key approval needed before the project can move forward—certification of the environmental impact report (EIR). 

City Councilmembers voted unanimously in closed session Tuesday night to sue the Regents under the California Environmental Quality Act if the project’s current environmental impact report is approved. Kriss Worthington was absent. 

The EIR which would trigger litigation includes the Student Athlete High Performance Center, major stadium renovations, a nearby 912-car underground parking lot, an even larger new building joining functions of the UC Berkeley law and business schools and streetscape changes for Piedmont Avenue/Gayley Road. 

Any suit challenging the EIR and the project it covers must be filed within 30 days after regents adopt the document, a move which could happen as early as the first week in December in a telephone conference of the Board of Regents’ Committee on Grounds and Building. 

The committee voted unanimously to approve the project, simultaneously urging UC Berkeley officials to see if a compromise on EIR issues isn’t possible—though officials said approval of an EIR in time to allow for bidding to begin in January so excavation at the building site could be completed before the start of the fall football season was deemed an essential feature to avoid a year’s delay in construction. 

The other would-be plaintiff is the Panoramic Hill Association (PNA), which is comprised of residents who live on hillside homes to the east of the stadium. 

PNA member Michael Kelly told the Regents Tuesday, “The only road left to us is legal action.” He said the association has been advised that “there are elements of the current proposal which have serious flaws.” 

But the regents approved the $112 million project budget, with $12 million in potential standby financing if needed during fund-raising and plans for the 142,000-square-foot training and office facility. All funds are to come from corporations, organizations and individual donors 

Four stories tall in places, the training center would fit beneath the base level of the landmark stadium building. 

When it came time for a City Council vote Tuesday, Betty Olds said, “The trees are enough to make me vote for it,” referring to the 40 Oaks that were among the trees slated for destruction if the project goes through.  

The new parking lot added to her determination. “Nine hundred cars to too much to put on Gayley Road,” Olds said. Gayley is the two-lane nationally landmarked roadway that leads to the Stadium. 

The city retained Harriet Steiner of Sacramento-based McDonough 

Holland & Allen to work on the lawsuit, which will be filed within one 

month, Olds said. 

Fault issues 

One objection cited by the city and neighbors is the contention that the projects embraced by the EIR include structures on or near the Hayward Fault, and thus are susceptible to provisions of the Alquist-Priolo act, a law governing buildings on or adjacent to active earthquake faults. 

While acknowledging the Hayward Fault runs under Memorial Stadium itself, UC Berkeley’s Vice Chancellor Ed Denton and Associate Vice Chancellor for Project Manager Rob Gayle insisted the training center is exempt from the law because it is not on or sufficiently near the fault. 

UC Berkeley officials who addressed the regents dismissed claims of neighbors and the city that the project would impair emergency response times for the surrounding city neighborhoods. 

But Kelly said he was encouraged by the comments of Regent Leslie Tang Schilling, who questioned the wisdom of building an athletic training center next to a stadium which was facing legal challenge. 

Both PNA and the city said they plan to use the Alquist-Priolo Act in their challenges, a law the university concedes does apply to the stadium itself—while arguing the training center is exempt. 

The PNA, which has retained Alameda environmental lawyer Michael Lozeau, contends the university is barred from massive renovations of the stadium under Alquist-Priolo, which restricts upgrade work to 50 percent of the value of the structure. 

An assessment obtained by PNA valued the structure at between $27 million and $110 million, but the Denton told the regents that the stadium should be valued at what they say is a replacement value of $600 million. 

The university’s planned stadium renovations would be barred if the PNA figures are held to be accurate, and permitted under their own estimate. 

Kelly said one solution for the university would be to split the EIR into two documents, one for the projects west of Gayley Road and one for those east of the roadway. 

“That way they could approve one set of projects and go ahead with them,” Kelley said. 

He presented the suggestion in a letter he hand-delivered to the regents Tuesday. 

Regent Odessa Johnson, who described herself as “a great Bears fan” and a frequent attender of their games at the stadium, said that while it was important to attract top athletes and provide the facilities to support them, “it’s important to maintain good town/gown relations ... we need to work out some sort of consolation.” 

While she supported going further with the projects, Johnson said, “I would be happy to put off” adoption of the EIR. 

Committee Chair Joanne Kozberg said that while she supported the projects, the documentation had arrived at the committee so late that she felt she need time to reflect on the massive EIR. 

“We need to do our due diligence,” she said. 

Minutes later the committee voted unanimously to approve the key elements of the training center project, while delaying the essential vote on the EIR which is essential for the project to move forward.

With the failure of Berkeley’s Measure I in this month’s general election, the East Bay battleground over the hotly-contested issue of condominium conversions shifts across the border into Oakland, and the attempt by a coalition of three councilmembers to change some of the provisions of that city’s condo law. 

Originally written by District 6 Councilmember Desley Brooks and now co-sponsored by Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and At-Large Councilmember Henry Chang, the proposed “Conversion To Homeowner Condominiums” proposes to increase home ownership by current Oakland tenants both by easing some of the current impediments to condo conversion and by providing discounts and assistance to tenants seeking to purchase their converted homes. 

The proposed ordinance is opposed by tenants’ advocates and their allies, who have charged that the implementation of the ordinance would lead to mass evictions and drive many current rental tenants out of Oakland.  

On Wednesday, after hearing 70 speakers divided evenly on both sides of the debate, the Oakland City Council’s Community & Economic Development (CEDA) committee voted 3-0-1 (Councilmembers Ignacio De La Fuente, Henry Chang, and Larry Reid voting yes, Jane Brunner voting no) to pass on the proposal to the full council for its Dec. 5 regular meeting. 

Both opponents and proponents of the proposed measure say they want the same thing: a comprehensive study of Oakland’s demographics, housing laws, and possible proposed changes in order to increase the ability of current Oakland residents to stay in their homes. 

“It’s the wrong way to do it right now,” said Eddie Ytuarte, of the Oakland Tenants Union in a telephone interview. “There’s been no staff analysis produced on the impacts of the proposal, and you would think that the City Council would want an analysis before they make any changes. There’s been no projection as to how many current housing tenants would be able to afford to buy their units, or else would have to be evicted, for the number of new conversions that would take place.” 

And in a memorandum sent to the Oakland City Council earlier this week, a coalition of Oakland organizations (including such groups as ACORN, the California Affordable Housing Law Project, the East Bay Community Law Center, the East Bay Housing Organizations, Just Cause Oakland, and the Oakland Tenants Union) said that they “strongly contend that the Oakland City Council should comprehensively study the impacts of any proposed changes to Oakland’s condominium conversion laws on vulnerable populations, community health, and the physical environment.” 

The groups added that “the proposed timeline of adopting significant changes by Dec. 19 would not enable adequate study or public participation to occur,” and that “city review of the proposed changes MUST await the legal analyses currently being conducted by the Oakland City Attorney regarding whether an Environmental Impact Review is legally required…” 

And Councilmember Brunner, who also opposed the measure and has been a longtime proponent of affordable housing, said that “home ownership is good, but it should be studied along with redevelopment and inclusionary zoning to see how we can help best renters. It’s a contradiction to say that we shouldn’t pass an inclusionary zoning ordinance until more study is done, but then try to rush condominium conversion through without a study.” 

But Brooks blames tenant advocates for not studying her own proposal, which she originally began working on in 2002. 

“They’ve had a knee-jerk reaction against it,” Brooks said by telephone. “But instead of being opposed to any change to the condo conversion ordinance, why don’t they look at the proposal and see what needs to be altered?” 

Brooks added that while “condo conversion by itself will make it more affordable than it is now for Oakland renters to purchase homes, conversion is not the end-all and the be-all. It’s just one piece of the puzzle. What we need to think about is a comprehensive way to free up more housing in Oakland for lower-income people.” 

The city staff analysis of the proposed ordinance change, signed by City Administrator Deborah Edgerly, noted that “the proposed changes to the condominium conversion ordinance are well founded and build on the comments and concerns previously raised about the existing ordinance. In particular, the desire to revise the procedures and account for changed circumstances in law and market conditions since the original ordinance was enacted in 1981.” 

But even Edgerly appeared to call for more study, adding that “these proposed changes are not without consequence. There needs to be careful review of the change in policy direction and a review of protections to avoid or minimize problems in project/program administration. This proposal represents a major shift in approach and purpose from protection of rental housing to encouraging home ownership.” 

If the four votes (De La Fuente, Chang, Reid, and Brooks) all hold firm through the scheduled Dec. 5 council consideration, there is some possibility that the measure could tie 4-4 in the eight-member council, with outgoing Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown being called in for the second time in a little more than a month to break the tie. That last happened in late October, when Brown supported Brooks’ proposal to delay passage of an inclusionary zoning ordinance in Oakland until more study is done on its implications. 

Ironically, Brooks and Brown have often been at odds during their terms as councilmember and mayor. And Brooks, who has also often feuded with De La Fuente, has now formed an alliance with the Council President on two recent issues: slowing down inclusionary zoning (where De La Fuente provided the swing vote that brought about the tie), and now condo conversion. 

Brown, who has been decidedly pro-development during his two four-year tenure in Oakland City Hall, has not taken a public position on the proposed condo conversion ordinance. 

Another unknown in the mix is the position of incoming mayor Ron Dellums, who has not yet spoken out on the condo conversion issue. While Dellums has said that he believes there should be a strict distinction between the roles of City Council and the mayor’s office in Oakland—with the Council setting policy and the mayor’s office deciding on how it should be implemented—it is widely believed that the new mayor will want to have some say in setting Oakland’s direction for the next four years. 

Both Councilmember Brunner and tenants union representative Ytuarte believe that the condo conversion proposal is being “rushed through,” in their words, in the hopes that Brown would step in to break a possible tie in favor of the new ordinance. 

But Brunner said that although Brown has not made a public statement on the issue, “when we talked about it, he made a comment to the effect that he has not been involved in bringing this issue forward to the Council.” 

For her part, Brooks said she does not know what Dellums might do if the council vote is delayed and the issue is his to decide after he takes office in January. 

“Ron hasn’t said anything on this issue,” she said. “I haven’t gotten a call from him about it.” 

Brooks supported Dellums over De La Fuente in last June’s mayoral election, and she is widely considered to be one of his main allies on the council. 

But Brooks said she is rejecting suggestions from some tenant advocates that the issue should wait until Dellums takes office in January. 

“We can’t stop governing until the new mayor comes in,” Brooks said. She said that while “some things should stop” until January, “such as the appointment process, it’s the City Council’s job to set policy, and that should continue forward.” 

Berkeley’s 30-year-old public police complaint process hung in the balance Tuesday as the city squared off against its police union in an Oakland courtroom.  

Judge Winifred Smith presided over a hearing in which Alison Berry Wilkinson of Pleasant Hill-based Rains, Lucia & Wilkinson argued for the Berkeley Police Association that a police officer’s right to privacy is violated when the officer is “forced” to respond publicly to a civilian complaint. 

The judge has taken the matter under submission and must respond within three months, although she is expected to rule sooner. 

Berkeley’s Police Review Commission Boards of Inquiry—where an individual’s complaint against a police officer is reviewed publicly in the presence of the officer and the complainant—were suspended mid-September in response to a California Supreme Court decision, Copley Press vs. San Diego County, that said a police officer’s discipline records cannot be made public.  

All police review boards in California—about a dozen—suspended public complaint hearings after the court decision. If Smith rules in Berkeley’s favor, open hearings will resume, even if the BPA appeals the ruling, according to City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque. 

The Berkeley Police Association took aim at the public complaint hearings four years ago, with a lawsuit claiming that the process violated a police officer’s right to privacy in regards to discipline records, as established by state law in the Police Officers’ Bill of Rights.  

But the suit was put on hold in 2004 as Copley made its way through the courts. The BPA complaint now incorporates the Copley decision. 

Albuquerque argued in court Tuesday that Berkeley’s process does not violate an officer’s right to privacy in disciplinary matters, because the city’s Police Review Commission hearings air an individual’s complaint against the police, but the PRC is not charged with discipline. 

“The city manager hires, fires and disciplines police officers,” Albuquerque said. “Only the city manager has a right to see personnel records.” 

Wilkinson did not dispute that, but noted that when a complaint is lodged with the PRC the Berkeley Police Bureau of Internal Affairs begins a parallel investigation.  

“The [PRC] investigation finds facts, comes to conclusions,” either sustaining or not sustaining the complaint, Wilkinson said. Both processes end with the city manager and the police chief. 

“The police chief and the city manager can consider anything in the public record. That includes the PRC findings, whether they have chosen to do it [in the past] or not,” Wilkinson said. 

Judge Smith interjected that the “personnel file of the officer is not given to the Commission.” 

And Albuquerque argued that “anyone can use anything in the public domain,” that the PRC hearings would not lead to discipline any more than a newspaper article or police report. 

Allison argued further that the complaint process includes criticism of the officer, which is in itself a form of discipline.  

“Is it the act of criticism that is discipline?” Judge Smith asked. 

“Yes it is,” Allison answered. 

Observers at the court hearing included members of the Police Review Commission, Berkeley Copwatch, Oakland-based Bay Area Police Watch, Oakland’s Citizens’ Police Review Board, and the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of the city. 

“Without public hearings, we risk becoming a police state,” Jake Gelender, UC Berkeley student and Copwatch member said outside the courtroom. “The Berkeley Police Association attacks our right to know what’s going on. Falling on the heels of the [Sergeant Cary] Kent scandal, they should be trying to rebuild public trust.” 

Kent is the former Berkeley officer convicted of stealing drugs from the evidence vault of which he was in charge. 

Also speaking outside the hearing room, Wilkinson told the Daily Planet that as things currently stand, the law regards an officer’s privacy as more important than the public’s right to know and to change that “will be an issue for the legislature to resolve.”

Four finalists have been named for the position of Berkeley’s director of Library Services, according to a Berkeley Public Library press statement. 

The finalists are Gerry Garzón, deputy director at the Oakland Public Library; Donna Corbeil, deputy director at the Solano County Library; Valerie G. Gross, director of the Howard County Library, Maryland; and Rivkah K. Sass, director of the Omaha Public Library, Nebraska 

Closed-session interviews by the Board of Library Trustees, library staff and community leaders began Thursday and continue today (Tuesday) and Wednesday. 

A public forum will be held Saturday, Nov. 18, 11 a.m. in the Story Room, 4th floor, Central Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge Street. The finalists will each address the community meeting for 45 minutes. The audience will have an opportunity to engage the candidates in discussion. Forms will be available for library staff and the public to comment on their interactions with the candidates.  

Community members and users of People’s Park are organizing a meeting on Sunday to plan how to defend the bulldozing of the berms, or mounds, on both ends of the Community Garden in the park. 

In an effort to help the police to see through the park without getting out of their cars, UC Berkeley recently laid out a plan to bulldoze the berms.  

Both chiefs from the UC Berkeley police departments explained the need to thin the vegetation for better visibility through the park at the People’s Park Community Advisory Board meeting on Monday. 

In meeting with UC officials and the advisory board in July, park users had made it clear that any attempt to cut down trees and trim shrubbery in an effort to clean the university-owned park should be done with community input. 

Board members said they were not convinced at the July meeting that clearing trees was the only way to check the crime and drug problem in the park. The board will be deciding on what advice it would give about bulldozing the berms at their next meeting on Dec. 4 at the Trinity Methodist Church in Berkeley. 

Planning meeting in the Park: Sunday Nov. 19, 4 p.m., Council Grove (northwest corner of the park.) 

People’s Park Community Advisory Board meeting: Monday Dec. 4, 7 p.m., Trinity Methodist Church, 2362 Bancroft Way.

Late Tuesday night, after two years of contentious meetings in which environmentalists often clashed with property owners, the Berkeley City Council approved revisions to the Creeks Ordinance, 6-2-1, aimed at safeguarding the city’s many open and culverted waterways. 

Councilmembers Betty Olds and Gordon Wozniak voted in opposition; Councilmember Laurie Capitelli abstained. 

Following this vote, the council also approved, 6-1-2, a zoning ordinance amendment, giving property owners the right to rebuild a structure of up to four units that was “involuntarily” destroyed, such as by flood or fire, with an easily obtained across-the-counter permit. Councilmember Betty Olds voted in opposition, with Councilmembers Gordon Wozniak and Laurie Capitelli abstaining. 

Among the most controversial requirements of the revised Creeks Ordinance is one that imposes severe limitations on new construction within 30 feet of the center of an open creek (all ordinance measurements reference the creek center) and on expansion of an existing structure within 25 feet of the creek. Such construction will require a variance, generally needed when zoning laws prohibit a proposed project; a hearing before the zoning board is required to obtain a variance. 

Applauding the proposed requirement for a variance, rather than a more easily obtained use permit, Joshua Bradt, who serves on the 15-member Creeks Task Force (CTF) responsible for revising the ordinance, spoke at the public hearing before the vote that drew some 70 people. 

“If you build too close to the creek, there will be erosion,” he said. “A variance is more protective.” 

But Neighbors on Urban Creeks member Mischa Lorraine, among the five members of the CTF who authored a minority report in opposition to the proposed ordinance, said the requirements create “unacceptable pressure on property owners.” 

Among the issues outlined in the minority report is the question of the one-size-fits-all permit required in the area 30 feet from a creek. 

“We support a case-by-case analysis of the appropriate setback from the creeks,” the dissenters wrote, arguing that the staff should “develop flexible standards which consider, among other matters, the varying depth and water flow of creeks in Berkeley.” 

“The interests I represent have been ignored by the Creeks Task Force majority,” Lorraine told the council. 

The revised ordinance will allow: 

• vertical expansion (building up and down) within 30 feet of an open creek, and horizontal expansion of an existing structure between 25 and 30 feet from an open creek, with an administrative creek permit, based on a report showing the construction would have no adverse impact on the creek;  

• building within 15 feet of a culverted creek with an administrative culverted creek permit, based on a structural engineer’s report demonstrating culvert stability, access and water quality protection. 

A number of speakers called on the council to take the culverted waterways out of the Creeks Ordinance. 

“We need to recognize culverts as part of the city’s storm-drain system,” said Barbara Allen, of Neighbors on Urban Creeks, a group formed to support property owners with creeks on their lots.  

Applauding the final ordinance as a “basic compromise between homeowners and environmentalists,” Helen Burke, planning commissioner who chairs the Creeks Task Force called for a holistic approach to manage Berkeley’s water resources, something agreed on by people representing homeowner interests and by those speaking to environmental concerns. 

“We need a half-time watershed manager,” Burke said. “We want a watershed management plan.”

On Thursday night Councilmember Laurie Capitelli sent a letter to the Planet regarding the just-passed Creeks ordinance which came too late to be added to this issue in full.  

It charged that “because of a rush to approve the CTF recommendations without amendments, several of us on the Council were not given the opportunity to fully comment, ask questions and explore the possibilities of unintended consequences. It certainly appears the decision to pass the ordinance was made before the public hearing, exhibiting a disregard to those who testified, those from the Planning Commission and Public Works Commission who provided alternative reports, and to the three members on the Council unwilling to proceed without further consideration of the draft ordinance.” 

He asked the council to set aside an hour at their Nov. 28 meeting to continue consideration of the ordinance. 

Text of letter: 

Dear Council Colleagues,  

Tuesday night, we were privileged to hear the long awaited report and proposed ordinance from the Creeks Task Force. I commend the staff and the task force for their diligence, tenacity and focus on this issue.  

Unfortunately, because of a rush to approve the CTF recommendations without amendments, several of us on the Council were not given the opportunity to fully comment, ask questions and explore the possibilities of unintended consequences. It certainly appears the decision to pass the ordinance was made before the public hearing, exhibiting a disregard to those who testified, those from the Planning Commission and Public Works Commission who provided alternative reports, and to the three members on the Council unwilling to proceed without further consideration of the draft ordinance.  

This was a major piece of legislation that deserved very careful review. We did not honor the two-year work of the task force by so quickly and cavalierly approving their recommendations. We did not honor the work of the Planning and Public Works Commissions whose perspectives were dismissed.  

The Council's long-held policy of postponing votes after a public hearing to the subsequent Council meeting would have served us all well in this case. I was reassured by some colleagues that this was their understanding on Tuesday night, and that there would be adequate time for further questions and discussion. But this policy was not even acknowledged much less considered when raised by Councilmember Olds.  

I understand completely that the CTF wanted validation for their work and closure to the process. That is only natural. My hope was to support their work, not merely abstain because of flawed process.  

So, I respectfully request that at the November 28, 2006 City Council meeting, that we unanimously pull the first reading of this ordinance, set it for action, and set aside one hour to discuss with staff present various issues raised in the public record. Among the topics to discuss are:  

1. Treatment of culverts. Whether culverts are regulated in the Creeks Ordinance or through the Public Works Department is mostly a question of symbolism. How they are regulated is not. Culvert repair and replacement in the flatlands will be exponentially more expensive because they are older, significantly larger and will need attention sooner. Culvert replacement in the hills will be incrementally less. (One needs only imagine replacement of a 6" culvert in the hills versus a 6' culvert in the flatlands.) Also, we need to identify the location of these culverts - an expense that should be borne by the city because it would be more efficient and, therefore, less costly to do this as a community rather than one property at a time.  

2. The right to rebuild. What will be the exact process and potential limitations imposed by the ordinance regarding the right to rebuild? Why does there need to be a differentiation between 'voluntary' and 'involuntary'? There seems to be an issue around the definition of demolition, but do we really want to go down the path of arguing whether or not something was voluntary unless there is a substantive reason to do so?  

3. List of effected properties. The ordinance indicates that the city should maintain a list of effected properties. Is it fair to have properties that are regulated differently ("open" or "culverted" creeks) on the same list? And being on or off this list has enormous implications for property owners, particularly those on a 'culvert' list because of the unknown liability for culvert maintenance, repair, or replacement. (This will have especially heavy impacts on property owners in Districts 1,2 and 3 because of the potentially larger costs for to larger culverts.)  

4. Minor encroachments that do not increase square footage. We could save a lot of grief for individual property owners who want to make minor changes to their homes with new language inserted in the ordinance. For instance: currently, if a property owner wants to replace a flat roof with a pitched roof that includes a new three-foot eve, and that eve would project into the 25 foot creek setback, it would not be allowed. Suggested language to add to the ordinance might be: Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, eaves, cornices, bay windows, and awnings that do not increase the floor area of an existing building or encroach within 10' feet of the centerline of an open creek are not subject to the provisions of this section. Add to section 17.08.050  

There were several other concerns raised by testimony during the public hearing or submitted in the public record. At a minimum, these concerns deserve a respectful hearing and response.  

Sincerely,  

Laurie Capitelli  

Berkeley City Council, District 5  

The city’s short-term fiscal health—with about $800,000 more in anticipated annual revenue than forecast—and a possible long-term structural deficit were highlighted at a City Council workshop Tuesday. 

At its regular meeting, the council considered the question of cultural uses at the Gaia building, financing difficulties at the Brower Center-Oxford Plaza project and referred the use of surveillance cameras to catch criminals to the city manager’s office. 

Budget report 

The good fiscal news was that anticipated annual hotel tax revenue is about $300,000 more than expected, parking fine revenue is forecast at $500,000 over the anticipated level and interest income is up almost as much. 

On the downside—for city coffers—home prices decreased from an average of $792,000 to $775,000 over one year and the volume of home sales decreased from 438 to 324 over a year causing transfer tax revenue to slip by about $1 million. 

Property taxes remain the city’s greatest revenue generator at an estimated $32 million, as had been anticipated. 

While the city’s sales tax revenues and business license tax revenues are expected to remain as forecast—about $14 million and $11 million respectively—economic development staff said city retail should be performing better, especially because of the large number of daytime non-residents who work or study in Berkeley.  

“People are spending money outside Berkeley or on the Internet,” said Dave Fogarty, economic development manager. “The per capita income has risen higher than the Alameda County average. We’re not realizing the potential sales tax.”  

Michael Caplan, recently appointed head of the economic development division, said a program to attract and retain business has to start with data collection. 

“We do not know the shifts in retail trends,” he told the council. 

The anticipated structural deficit (expenses built into the budget) includes cost of living increases for city staff (the amount will be determined through labor negotiations), increases in staff health care costs, the downturn in the housing market and the higher cost of construction materials, which impacts city projects  

Responding to the anticipated deficit, the staff said it would wait until February to make budget decisions on the level of Fire Department staffing and whether to continue funding the Telegraph Avenue Improvement Plan, which includes funding social service workers and police. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, whose district includes the Telegraph Avenue area, called for a “special focus on Telegraph at the next quarterly budget update” in February. 

In a phone interview Thursday, Worthington said that bicycle police and social service outreach on Telegraph should not be paid for with one-time funding. “This is an ongoing need,” he said, contending the city should return to community policing. 

Gaia Building 

At the council meeting, the question of cultural uses at the Gaia building—developer Patrick Kennedy was allowed to build two residential stories higher than normally permitted in exchange for the promise of cultural use on the first two floors—was again on the agenda. 

Gaia tenant Anna de Leon, who owns Anna’s Jazz Island, argued that the building’s use permit called for 100 percent cultural activities on the two floors.  

“It was intended to benefit the community—that’s why he got the bonus,” de Leon said. 

Kennedy contended that the first two floors of the building were never supposed to be 100 percent cultural use, given that the original use of the space was to be for the Gaia Bookstore that went out of business. The store was a for-profit business that also provided cultural activities.  

Councilmember Dona Spring said that to resolve the situation councilmembers should examine contracts Kennedy has with the management group, which also provides catering for private events, and other users of the space.  

“That’s confidential,” Kennedy said, to which Councilmember Dona Spring replied: “This is a public matter.” 

City staff said at some point they would call a closed-session meeting on the question: both parties have talked about suing the city to resolve the issue. 

The council voted 7-0-2 to hear the question again on Dec. 12, with Councilmembers Betty Olds and Gordon Wozniak abstaining. 

Oxford Plaza-Brower Center 

The $68 million Oxford Plaza-Brower Center has hit some snags, which the council discussed after midnight on Wednesday. The project is supposed to locate offices for non-profit environmental groups in the Brower Center, with retail on the ground floor. Oxford Plaza would house low-income families, also with retail on the ground floor, and would include a parking structure that would belong to the city.  

“We need a sense of the council to move forward,” Housing Director Steve Barton told a weary council, which, at around 1 a.m., voted 7-2 for staff to continue working on the project. Councilmembers Betty Olds and Gordon Wozniak voted in opposition. 

A major retailer, Patagonia, had signed a letter of intent to occupy retail space on the Oxford Plaza ground floor, but pulled out of the project. The presence of Patagonia would have ensured repayment of a $1 million HUD loan. Without a retailer in this space, the city may become liable for the $1 million in the eighth year of the loan. 

Also, construction costs are up 24 percent, which, in a worst-case scenario, could reach $7 million; the city could become responsible for $4 million of that. When the council discusses the project in December, it will have to decide whether to approve a soft close on the deal, that is, turning ownership of the Brower Center and Oxford Plaza over to developers conditionally, so that the land would revert to the city if the project does not work out.

When Jannat Muhammad’s 7-year-old grandniece developed asthma back in 2000, Muhammad was pained but not surprised. After all, many of the child’s schoolmates at Verde Elementary in North Richmond were succumbing to the disease with numbing regulatory. 

“There’s a tremendous amount of asthma among children in Verde,” said Muhammad, who works with the Costa Contra County Health Services’ West County Asthma Coalition. 

A study released today indicates that children living along truck routes in California have high rates of asthma and low lung capacity. Verde Elementary is in the proximity of the Chevron oil refineries, long blamed for some of the health woes of West Contra Costa County’s residents, and a thoroughfare for trucks between Highway 80 and the Richmond Parkway. 

Asthma, the most common chronic disease among children in the United States, causes wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. Airborne particles such as dust, soot and smoke less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter are small enough to lodge themselves deep in the lungs, causing a host of respiratory problems and even nonfatal heart attacks, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. A significant portion of these fine particles are produced by diesel engine emissions. 

The landscape of West Contra Costa County and the Alameda county communities of West San Leandro and West Oakland is dotted with waste-transfer stations, ports, rail yards and departmental stores that provide good business to the trucking industry. The Port of Oakland, for instance, boasts more than 10,000 truck trips a day, according to Bill Aboudi, operations manager of AB Trucking, whose fleet of trucks hauls goods out of the port. Aboudi says that because of “limited space” at the port terminals, “there is always a long line of trucks inching along,” generating diesel emissions. 

It’s not just children who are affected by the emissions. “So many truckers have asthma,” Aboudi says. 

Studies have shown that there is a strong link between diesel pollution and respiratory problems, says Swati Prakash, program director with the Pacific Institute, an Oakland-based nonprofit. “There is also no question that diesel pollution causes cancer. In fact, the state estimates that 70 percent of cancer risk from air pollution is from diesel.” 

In West Contra Costa County, where racial and ethnic minorities make up more than 35 percent of the population, diesel pollution is 40 times higher per square mile than in the rest of California, according to Meena Palaniappan, Pacific Institute’s senior research associate. 

“Children in West Oakland are seven times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than children living the rest of California,” says Palaniappan, whose nonprofit collaborated with more than a dozen environmental justice and health organizations in conducting the year-long study, titled “Paying With Our Health: The Real Cost of Freight Transport in California.” And children living in North Richmond, home to largely low-income African-American and Latino residents, are visiting emergency rooms three times more frequently than those living in the town of Lafayette, a few miles to the southeast. 

For years, neighborhood groups from these San Francisco Bay Area cities have been protesting the unchecked pollution caused by freight transport running through their cities, which is estimated to cost California residents $200 billion over the next 15 years in health costs, most of which is borne by low-income communities of color living near freight transport hubs. 

“Diesel is the number one air polluter in California,” notes Palaniappan. “Poor communities are subsidizing cheap goods for the rest of California with their health.” 

At least 80 percent of tax revenues in San Leandro is generated from businesses in the western part of the city, says Wafaa Aborashed, executive director of the Healthy San Leandro Collaborative and a West San Leandro resident. “People are sacrificed here, but the city is in denial about it.” 

Those outside these neighborhoods are also picking up the tab. According to the California Air Resources Board, freight transport each year causes around 2,400 people to die prematurely; 2,380 people to be admitted to the hospital; 360,000 missed workdays and 1,100,000 missed days of school, the study reports. 

Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Safeway and the neighborhood grocery store are among scores of companies that transport their freight using big rig trucks that spew out toxic particulates from burnt diesel fuel. 

“These companies make a lot of money, while I spend money on medicine and miss work, and my daughter misses school,” complains Oti Nungaray, who has been living close to the Long Beach port in Southern California for the last 10 years, the nation’s largest port complex. 

“Because we are a community of color and low-income, everyone wants to dump on us,” asserted Lee Jones, a community advocate who lives in North Richmond after he retired from the University of California in San Francisco in 1998 because “this was the only affordable place for me.” 

In 1998, the Golden Gate Environmental Law and Justice Clinic took the Port of Oakland to court on behalf of West Oakland residents. Palaniappan says that a good chunk of the $9 million settlement the port set aside for air quality improvement has still not been used. 

“It’s just been a constant, constant fight,” she says. 

Port of Oakland officials assert that their emission reduction project is a “multi-year program.” 

“The Port of Oakland is in the early development stages of an air quality regional master plan,” contends Marilyn Sandifur, the port’s media and public relations specialist. “We’re trying to pool our resources with other public agencies,” she says, in order to have a bigger impact. 

Environmental justice advocates hope that the data from the new study will give them enough ammunition to demand statewide legislation requiring polluters to mitigate their toxic effects by such measures as imposing container fees that can be used for environmental cleanup and community health programs. 

Viji Sundaram is health editor for New America Media.

Beating bandit sought 

Berkeley police want the public’s help in capturing a young robber who brutally assaulted a clerk at J & L Laundry & Cleaning on Oct. 23. 

According to spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan, the man entered the 2520 Shattuck Ave. store about 3 p.m. A woman was working in the front counter area, when the robber leapt over the counter, demanded cash and began beating her with his fists. 

The attack ended only when a customer walked in the door, prompting the attacker to flee south on Shattuck aboard a red bicycle. 

The woman was rushed to a local emergency room and hospitalized for the treatment of severe facial injuries. She has since been released, he said. 

Galvan also released a composite drawing of the suspect, who is described as an African American man between the ages of 19 and 22 who stands about 5’11” to 6’ tall and weighs about 250 pounds. 

His front teeth, both upper and lower, were silver colored, and he was wearing dark jeans and a green and white striped shirt. 

Officer Galvan asked anyone with information about the attack to call BPD Homicide investigators at 981-5741. 

Steals on wheels 

A teenage bandit on a mountain bike who ripped off purses and cellphones in the South Berkeley area over the course of several days may have ended his spree when a spunky victim resisted. 

The bandit, a youth between the ages of 13 and 15 who sports a shaved head and usually wore a white T-shirt, would ride up to victims on his red mountain bike and land a punch or a threat before making off with his loot. 

A bandit of that description stole a large purse from a 26-year-old San Francisco woman who was walking along Ashby Avenue near the Ellis Street intersection just before 7:30 p.m. on the day after the election. 

At 6:30 the following day, a cycle-mounted clouter rode up to a Berkeley woman walking along Shattuck Avenue near the corner of Parker Street, then punched her face before making off with her cell phone. 

The crime spree apparently came to end after the bicycling bandit encountered a Berkeley woman as she walked along Dwight Way near the corner of Ellsworth Street at midnight Saturday. 

“He rode up on his bike and tried to take her cell phone, but she grabbed it back and he rode off,” said Officer Galvan. 

But the fellow followed the woman to the next traffic light, where he was spotted by his would-be victim. 

“You tried to take my phone,” she said. 

“Don’t you know you’re supposed to give it to me,” he said. 

She didn’t, and with that he sped off. He hasn’t been heard from since, said Officer Galvan. 

Busted bandit 

Police arrested a 16-year-old Berkeley youth after he lingered too long following his strong-arm robbery of a 22 year old man in the 2200 block of San Pablo Avenue just before noon Nov. 7.  

Repeat offender 

Another serial heister, this one wearing a green hoodie and packing a silver colored pistol, didn’t fare as well as the bicycling bandit. 

His first reported robbery took place shortly before 12:30 a.m. on the 8th. He robbed a woman in her 60s of her cell phone as she was walking near the corner of Domingo and Oakvale avenues, said Officer Galvan. 

His caper complete, he hopped into a nearby car and sped off. 

His next and final caper followed at 2 o’clock the next morning when he robbed two UC Berkeley students of their backpacks and valuables near the corner of Channing Way and Bowditch Street. 

An alert university employee spotted the fellow near Top Dog and alerted police, who stopped to question him. Backtracking, officers found the missing backpacks, along with some clothing he’d discarded along the way. 

Police booked the 25-year-old suspect, a Berkeley man, on suspicion of multiple counts of armed robbery. 

Between the biking bandit and the busted pistolero, the city had experienced a spike in robberies, said Officer Galvan. 

“Things have calmed down since,” he said. 

iJacked 

A pair of teenage bandits, one wearing a peacoat, robbed a 15-year-old of his iPod and cash after they confronted him just before 5 p.m. Nov. 9 as he walked along Ninth Street near the corner of Bancroft Way. 

Framed 

Police took a Berkeley teen into custody on suspicion of assault after her brother made a citizen’s arrest shortly before 9 p.m. on the 9th, said Officer Galvan. 

The young man was cut by broken glass after his sibling bashed him over the head with a picture frame. 

Pipe assault 

Police arrested a 27-year-old Oakland man on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after he and a companion attacked a 20-year-old woman with a metal pipe near the corner of Haste Street and Telegraph Avenue at 11 p.m. on the 9th, said Officer Galvan. 

After the attack, the two men fled toward People’s Park, and patrol officers were able to apprehend one of the suspects moments later. 

Shot, silent 

An alert citizen called police called police about 7:15 p.m. on the 9th to report that he’d just seen someone in a car who looked like he’d been shot. 

Officers called surrounding jurisdictions to see if they’d turned up anyone with a gunshot, but came up dry. Eventually they found the fellow in the 1900 block of Harrison Street, with a jacket wrapped around the bleeding wound in his leg. 

At first the 40-year-old victim refused to talk, asking only for help from paramedics. He later allowed that he’d been shot by a fellow wearing a white hoodie, though just where he was at the time he wasn’t quite sure. 

“He thinks it was in Oakland,” said Officer Galvan. 

Hapless heister 

A 20-year-old Berkeley woman used her cell phone to call police at 5:30 Sunday afternoon to report that a young fellow had just attempted to swipe the device as she was walking along the 2400 block of Ellsworth Street. 

Unfortunately for the would-be bandit, the call was quick enough to summon officers to the scene in time to find him nearby. The 17-year-old was given a ride to Juvenile Hall, where he was successful in copping another kind of cell.

Students, parents, educators and city officials gathered at Old City Hall Wednesday to bid farewell to School Board President Terry Doran, who is retiring after eight years on the board. 

Doran, who has been in public education for the last six decades, said that his retirement did not spell the end of his public service. Land use, he said, was the issue he wanted to serve the community in next. 

“I am really not ready to run away,” he said. “Some people go to retirement homes, others go on long vacations. But I am not there just yet. Land use is one of the most exciting and contentious areas of concern in the city and it’s the direction I would like to go in.” 

As school board president, Doran had been involved in the school district’s Construction Advisory Oversight Committee and had worked with the mayor and City Council on the warm water pool and South Campus. 

Councilmember Darryl Moore told the Planet that Doran would make a great addition to the Zoning Adjustment Board. Moore’s current ZAB appointee Raudel Wilson ran against District 4 councilmember Dona Spring in the recent elections. 

“I would love to see [Doran] more involved in city politics. I think he would be an asset,” Moore said. 

When asked about why he had decided not to continue after his second term on the school board, Doran said he wanted to honor tradition.  

“For the last 40 years the informal term limit to serve on the school board has been eight years,” he said. “I made the commitment when I ran that it would be at the most for two terms. It’s time for new people, a fresh pair of eyes.” 

Also, according to tradition, the director with the most votes in the school board elections is nominated for president. 

School board vice president Joaquin Rivera, who won the most votes in the last school board election, would be nominated for president. Director John Selawsky, who received the second highest number of votes, would become vice-president. 

“Nothing has been decided yet but I am definitely excited about the possibility of serving as president,” Rivera said. 

A decision could be announced as early as Dec. 6, the day the new and re-elected school board directors would be sworn in. 

Speaking about the areas that still needed work in the school district, Doran focused on unequal achievement levels in the schools.  

“The school district’s funds need to be used more wisely to meet the needs of all our children,” he said. “We need to focus on closing the achievement gap when it comes to children of color. I am afraid we haven’t been as successful as we’d like to be in that direction.” 

Doran added that Berkeley High School would be best served if it was broken down into smaller schools.  

“That was my goal when I first joined the board,” he said. “I envisioned small schools that would have 500 students or less where each child would get the benefit of a small learning environment.” 

Doran was successful in getting the very first federal grant available for planning small schools when he joined the board in 1998 after serving the school district since 1966. 

Friends and colleagues who had spent time with Doran in the school district described him as a father, a teacher and an administrator. 

“His humanity came across at every school board meeting public hearing,” said district superintendent Michele Lawrence. “Since I have been on the board, Terry’s strong advocacy for equality in classrooms and humanity has helped guide my decisions.” 

Doran was given a proclamation by the Berkeley Unified School District, which noted his efforts at passing the school parcel taxes Measures BB in 2000, Measure B in 2004 and Measure A in 2006, the improvement of the food quality in the Berkeley public schools, his defense of the Student Assignment Plan and his commitment and affection towards students. 

Doran also received the Alameda County Board of Education Public Education Award and a proclamation by the City of Berkeley. 

Many also praised Doran for his contributions to the operation of the Berkeley High newspaper—The Yellow Jacket. 

“In my first year as advisor to the Jacket, the newspaper got its first computer,” Doran said. “Desktop publishing had just started and the earlier advisors were having a tough time meeting deadlines. I promised the students that I would show them how to bring out a newspaper in two weeks time and worked hard to make that happen. It never missed a deadline since then.” 

Photograph by Mark Coplan 

County schools supervisor Shelia Jordan hugs Terry Doran at his retirement ceremony from the Berkeley school board Wednesday.

The Berkeley Unified School District thanked parents, teachers, students and community members for supporting Measure A at the School Board meeting on Wednesday. 

“It would not have been possible without all of you,” said BUSD superintendent Michele Lawrence in her address to the audience. 

School board director Nancy Riddle called the passing of Measure A “a victory for honesty and integrity” and “a victory against deception and misinformation.” 

“We had an amazing list of supporters, a great steering committee and a great treasurer, Larry Gordon, who kept the campaign truly transparent,” she said. “It was a campaign that was honest, genuine and open to the whole public.” 

Board president Terry Doran—who retired after the meeting—congratulated the new and re-elected board members and pointed out that there would be a female majority on the board for the first time in ten years.  

“I don’t think the public has to worry that I am stepping away,” he said. “I am confident board member Karen Hemphill will more than fill my seat.” 

The board unanimously voted to approve four additional counseling positions in grades 7-12 with new targeted state grants. 

The state has funded a new Supplemental School Counseling Program to provide extra counseling services to pupils. This program sets minimum requirements for service to all secondary students but focuses particularly on those students who are at risk of not graduating with the rest of their class. 

The board needed to approve accepting funding provided by the state for the program. The passage of Measure A assures additional funding for counseling services for middle schools, a plan for which will be presented to the board at a later date.

The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive received a $300,000 National Leadership grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) on Tuesday, which will help connect high school and college students to CineFiles, BAM/PFA's online database with thousands of historical documents related to film. 

The grant will enable BAM/PFA to embark on a three-year project which will focus on expanding access to CineFiles to secondary and postsecondary educators in the humanities and social sciences. 

Chris Fox, audience development coordinator for BAM/PFA, said the funding would benefit Berkeley High students by allowing their teachers to make use of the CineFiles Collection. 

“A major goal of the project is to develop ways to put high school and college teachers in touch with the documents in the PFA Library and Film Study Center’s extensive collection and then to give those teachers tools for using those documents in their classrooms,” Fox said. “For instance, a U.S. history teacher might use historical publicity documents to visually enrich a discussion of early Hollywood films and their influence on American culture.” 

The project will not be limited to students from Berkeley schools. 

“The grant will allow us to create tools for teachers to integrate film into their classrooms, ultimately enhancing the educational experience of their students,” said Lucinda Barnes, deputy director of programs and collections at BAM/PFA. 

The funds will add 15,000 items to CineFiles that are of particular relevance to educators and their students. This will enhance the CineFiles interface and help develop tutorials and workshops for teachers who want to use film and related materials in their classrooms but have no formal training in film history, Fox said.

Partisan politics is standing in the way of progress in California, according to new research released this week on the heels of startling Census numbers showing a deepening racial divide. 

Data released Nov. 14 by the U.S. Census Bureau documents a persistent and deepening racial divide nationwide and in California. White households had incomes that were two-thirds higher than Blacks and 40 percent higher than Hispanics last year. Whites are also more likely to attend college and less likely to live in poverty. 

“The new census data shows that race matters in California and throughout the nation. As our population grows, we need a plan for addressing the changing needs of our diverse state,” said Menachem Krajcer, senior policy analyst at the Applied Research Center. “Bitter partisan politics and budget restraints are crippling long overdue reforms in health and education.” 

Evaluated in this context, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature have done little to provide solutions for disparities in health, education, income and other key indicators of racial inequity, according to Krajcer, who authored the report “Facing Race: California Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity 2006.” 

The legislature scored a “C-” and Schwarzenegger a “D” in the report card evaluation. 

As evidence of California’s crippling partisanship, Kracjer points out that only two Republicans received passing grades on racial equity in California while in Illinois, where a similar study was conducted, only three Republican legislators failed. 

This year, Illinois also passed universal health care for children, a bill which died in California. 

Schwarzenegger vetoed a total of nine bills that would have benefited low-income people of color and immigrants, including legislation providing statewide single-payer healthcare, fair practices in standardized testing for English learners, and wage protections for domestic workers such as live-in nannies and homecare providers. 

Of the 20 bills addressing racial equity that actually passed in California, 12 originated in the assembly. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez received an A for 100 percent support, while Senate Pro Tem Don Perata received a C for 70 percent support, for failure to vote on six racial equity bills. 

The higher the racial diversity of a legislative district, the higher the support for racial equity. Average scores for districts with 75 percent or more people of color were 99 percent in the assembly and 95 percent in the senate. On average, districts with white majorities voted for racial equity 44 percent of the time in the assembly and 43 percent of the time in the senate. 

According to the report, the limited success of the legislature was overshadowed by striking missed opportunities; key legislation to address structural racism stalled in the legislature or was vetoed by the governor. 

“While racial disparities are pervasive in California, they need not be permanent. California must begin facing race,” said Tammy Johnson, policy director at the Applied Research Center, which also released reports on racial equity in Minnesota and Illinois. 

“Strategies to advance racial equity, like providing healthcare for our kids and increasing access to college, already exist. Our elected leaders must overcome partisan squabbles and build the political will necessary to make them real.” 

As Democrats recaptured control of the House and Senate last week, Black Democrats won more than half of the 13 statewide offices they competed for while Black Republicans won none, debunking what the GOP had billed as “the year of the Black Republican.” 

The Black Democratic wins yielded one governor, two lieutenant governors, one attorney general, one secretary of state, one state treasurer and one commissioner of labor. Black Republicans ran for governor in Ohio and Pennsylvania and for the U. S. Senate in Maryland. 

“It was a great year for Democrats,” says David Bositis, senior analyst for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, referring to both Black and White party members. Only 11 percent of Blacks voted for Republican congressional candidates, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for the Associated Press and television networks. That percentage is consistent with shares won by Republicans in the 2004 presidential race. 

Terone B. Green, a Black Republican operative in Virginia widely known for his outspokenness and activism, says the Black Republican losses were fueled by more than just opposition to extended U.S. presence the Iraq. 

“People are going to say it’s the war, but Republicans just don’t have a solid strategy to prevail in the Black community,” he explained. 

“You can run a Black Republican all you want to, but it’s clearly evident that Black folks don’t believe in them because Black Republicans do not prop up African-Americans in any significant way. Black people just don’t trust Republicans. That’s the bottom line.” 

Much of that distrust comes from the failure of Republicans to support issues favored by African-Americans. On the last NAACP Report Card, 98 percent of all Republicans in Congress received Fs, compared to only 2 percent of Democrats. 

In recent years, only two Black Republicans have won U. S. House seats. They are former Connecticut Rep. Gary Franks (1992-1997) and Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts (1994-2003). They were the only Blacks elected to the House since 1932 and both won in districts that were at least 90 percent White districts. The only Black Republican elected to the Senate since Reconstruction was Sen. Ed Brooke who served from 1967 to 1979. 

Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman, who had boasted that this would be the “year of the Black Republican,” now says he will leave the chairmanship by January after this year proved to be the year of neither the Black nor White Republican. 

“Give us a chance, and we’ll give you a choice,” he told the annual conference of the Conservative Political Action Committee in Washington, D.C. in February. Blacks rejected that choice, according to exit surveys. 

Green says, “They just don’t get it. They want people that they feel comfortable with. But they need to find Black candidates that can really identify with the Black community.” 

So far, that has been an uphill struggle. 

All three of the statewide Black Republican candidates failed to get more than 25 percent of the Black vote. 

They were: Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, who lost his gubernatorial bid with 20 percent of the Black vote; former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Lynn Swann, who lost his Pennsylvania gubernatorial bid with 13 percent of the Black vote; and Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who lost his senatorial bid received 25 percent of the Black vote. No Black Republicans ran for lower statewide offices. 

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Tara Wall argued that this election represented progress. 

“That’s historic for any Republican to get 25 percent of the Black vote. We have definitely made strides,” she says. You can compare that with the last Republican that ran for that seat in ‘88…I think we’ve made great strides.” 

That candidate was conservative Republican activist Allen Keyes, who got 14 percent of the Black vote in that campaign, losing to incumbent Democrat Paul Sarbanes. 

“So, I think you see that there is an increase of the number of African-Americans who are voting for Republicans,” says Wall. 

“This is just the beginning. This is not the end. These three folks have very bright futures in this party.” 

Of 13 Democrats who ran in the Nov. 7 elections, seven won: Deval Patrick Massachusetts’ governor-elect; David Patterson, New York Lt. Gov.-elect; Anthony Brown, Maryland Lt.Gov.-elect; and three who were re-elected, Thurbert Baker, Georgia attorney general; Jesse White, Illinois secretary of state; Denise Napier, Connecticut treasurer and Michael Thurmund, Georgia commissioner of labor. 

The six losing Democrats were: U. S. Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.), candidate for U. S. Senate; Mississippi senatorial candidate Erik Fleming; Georgia state superintendent of education candidate Denise Majette, a former congresswoman; South Carolina secretary of state candidate Cheryl Footman; Ohio state auditor candidate Barbara Sykes; and Ohio Supreme Court candidate Ben Espy. 

Bositis says the problems of the three statewide Black Republican candidates extended beyond their race. 

“Blackwell made big enemies of everybody else in the Republican Party and so they really wanted him to lose,” Bositis explains. 

Largely credited with Bush’s controversial win in the 2004 presidential race, Blackwell has been beleaguered with legal problems afterward, including a suit that found that Ohio election officials had, in violation of state law, informed former felons that they could not vote. He also directed his office to only accept voter-registration forms printed on paper of at least 80-pound weight, a decision that he later reversed under pressure from voting rights groups.This year, Blackwell issued an advisory that said voter identification cards must have their current addresses, a requirement that was contrary to state law. 

Bositis continued, “Lynn Swann wasn’t going to win. The Republicans were desperate when they picked him. I mean, he’s a football player, what do you want? And Michael Steele, you know, Maryland is a Democratic state, that’s why he lost.” 

Democratic wins in Congress are ultimately expected to amount to a 232-203 majority in the House and a 51-49 majority in the Senate. That majority will probably be expanded with support coming from independent Bernie Saunders, a socialist; and Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent. Both have said they will caucus with Democrats. 

Democratic governors are also celebrating a majority they have not had in 12 years. They now have a 28-22 edge in statehouses. Ohio, Colorado and Arkansas are among states that returned to Democratic hands after eight years or more of Republican occupation. 

“Lost in all this talk about the House and the Senate is the governorships,” says Daniella Gibbs Leger, a spokeswoman for the Center for American Progress. 

“Often you have a lot of governors complaining that they are shouldering the burden of a lot of domestic issues because they can’t get the help that they need from Congress.” 

States look to the federal government for help on many issues impacting low income communities, such as money for educational shortfalls, after school programs, Head Start and community development block grants. 

“The 109th Congress has been the do-nothing Congress,” says Leger. 

“And I think that with a new progressive Congress in power, they will understand the struggles that the states are going through and they won’t leave the states out there to hang, basically, and try to fulfill all of these duties without help from the federal government.” 

And candidates running for president might benefit from that shift as well. If presidential voting mirrors the votes for governors, 295 electoral votes could go to a Democratic candidate president, 169 more than they had. The presidency is won with 270 electoral votes. 

Even with early speculations that the presidential race is shaping up to possibly include Black Republican Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Green says he is tiring of trying to change the party from within. 

“The ones they do prop up, like your Colin Powell’s, he carried the water for Bush and now that he’s out of there he’s beginning to tell how he really felt,” Green says. 

“He should have had the courage to tell how he felt while he was sitting there with that power…I’m not there because I believe in what they say. I’m there because somebody’s got to be there to tell them that they are wrong.”

After two years of meetings and hearings in which property owners often clashed with environmentalists, the Berkeley City Council approved a revised Creeks Ordinance (6-2-1) late Tuesday night aimed at safeguarding the city’s many open and culverted waterways. 

Councilmembers Betty Olds and Gordon Wozniak voted in opposition, while Councilmember Laurie Capitelli abstained. 

The ordinance, whose second reading will take place at the Nov. 28 council meeting, would severely limit any new construction within 30 feet of the center of an open creek or expansion of a building within 25 feet of the creek. Such construction would require a variance, generally needed when zoning laws prohibit a proposed project and requires a hearing before the zoning board. 

The new ordinance allows: 

• vertical expansion (building up and down) within 30 feet of an open creek and horizontal expansion of an existing structure between 25 and 30 feet of an open creek with an administrative creek permit, based on a report showing the construction would have no adverse impact on the creek; and 

• building within 15 feet of a culverted creek with an administrative culverted creek permit, based on a structural engineer’s report that would demonstrate culvert stability, access and protected water quality. 

Despite promised lawsuits by the City of Berkeley and project neighbors, UC Regents voted Tuesday to approve a massive athletic training center along the western wall of Memorial Stadium. 

Berkeley City Councilmembers voted unanimously in closed session Tuesday night to sue if the project is approved, with only Kriss Worthington absent from the meeting. 

But the regents withheld one key approval needed before the project can move forward—certification of the environmental impact report (EIR) that includes the Student Athlete High Performance Center, major stadium renovations, a nearby 912-car underground parking lot, an even larger new building joining functions of the UCB law and business schools as well as streetscape changes for Piedmont Avenue/Gayley Road. 

Any suit challenging the EIR and the project it covers must be filed within 30 days after regents adopt the document, a move which could happen as early as the first week in December in a telephone conference among the Board of Regents’ Committee on Grounds and Building. 

The committee voted unanimously to approve the project, simultaneously urging UC Berkeley officials are to see if a compromise on EIR issues isn’t possible—though officials said approval of an EIR in time to allow for bidding to begin in January so excavation at the building site could be completed before the start of the fall football season was deemed an essential feature to avoid a year’s delay in construction. 

The other would-be plaintiff is the Panoramic Hill Association (PNA), which is comprised of residents who live on hillside homes to the east of the stadium. 

PNA member Michael Kelly told the Regents Tuesday “the only road left to us is legal action,” and said the association has been advised that “there are elements of the current proposal which have serious flaws” 

But the regents approved the $112 million project budget, all to come from corporations, organizations and individual donors, $12 million in potential standby financing if needed during fund-raising and plans for the 142,000-square-foot training and office facility. 

Four stories tall in places, the building would fit beneath the base level of the landmark stadium building. 

When it came time for a City Council vote Tuesday, Councilmember Betty Old said, “The trees are enough to make me vote for it,” referring to the 40 Oaks that were among the trees slated for destruction if the project goes through.  

The new parking lot added to her determination. “Nine hundred cars to too much to put on Gayley Road,” Olds said. Gayley is the two-lane nationally landmarked roadway that leads to the Stadium. 

The city has hired Harriet Steiner of Sacramento-based McDonough 

Holland & Allen to work on the lawsuit, which will be filed within one 

month, according to Olds. 

Fault issues 

One objection cited by the city and neighbors is contention that the projects embraced by the EIR include structure on or near the Hayward Fault, and thus are susceptible to provisions of the Alquist-Priolo act, a law governing buildings on or adjacent to active earth faults. 

While acknowledging the Hayward Fault runs under Memorial Stadium itself, UC Berkeley’s Vice Chancellor Ed Denton and Associate Vice Chancellor for Project Manager Rob Gayle insisted the training center is exempt from the law because it is not or sufficiently near the fault. 

UC Berkeley officials who addressed the regents dismissed claims of neighbors and the city that the project would impair emergency response times for the surrounding city neighborhoods. 

Gas masks, air filters and angry posters marked the Pacific Steel Casting protest rally on Saturday, which drew more than 250 protesters. 

Environmental activists, West Berkeley residents, parents and children turned up to send a message to the West Berkeley-based steel foundry protesting its emissions. 

Children carried posters asking Pacific Steel Casting (PSC) to stop polluting their soccer fields while parents donned dust masks to show how harmful the fumes from the foundry could be. 

“The rally was one in a series of protests which will continue to take place until PSC agrees to clean up its act,” said Bradley Angel, director of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice. “The turnout exceeded our expectations and the diverse representation symbolized the community’s mounting concern over this problem. This was definitely a family protest.” 

West Berkeley has been fighting PSC’s emissions over the last 30 years. Neighbors have complained about its noxious odors, saying they have resulted in headaches, nausea and chest tightness for many over the years. 

“We are putting PSC on notice,” Angel said. “Now it’s up to them to clean the air and save the neighborhood from environmental degradation.” 

The demonstrators challenged PSC, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), the City of Berkeley and Alameda County to address the problem immediately. Councilmember Linda Maio, in whose district the steel plant is located, attended the rally along with Alameda County supervisor Keith Carson. 

“It was moving to see parents of children suffering from asthma in West Berkeley speak at the rally,” said Steve Ingraham, a member of the PSC protest committee. “There are so many kids who play in the soccer field or attend day care near the steel plant. PSC has to stop this before the problem escalates any further.”  

During the rally, about a dozen workers from the foundry came outside and listened to the speakers at the rally. The organizers called upon them to work with the community to help clean up the air. 

“We will keep rallying until there is complete transparency from PSC about its operations,” said Janet Schroder of the West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs. Schroder moved into West Berkeley in 1979 and started having symptoms of nausea and chest tightness which she associated with a burning odor coming from the steel plant. 

“The odor got less frequent at one point in time, but it became really strong from 2000 onwards,” Schroder said. “We hope to carry out swipe tests in the future that will help pinpoint harmful chemicals emitted from the plant.” 

Anuja Mendiratta, a Berkeley resident who attended the protest on Saturday, said that she notices the noxious odors everytime she runs on the Olhone Trail in West Berkeley. 

“There are so many young moms and children smelling those noxious odors when they are out there everyday,” she said. “It’s just outrageous. Pacific Steel should know that we will not tolerate this any more.” 

UC Regents are scheduled to decide this morning (Tuesday) whether or not to approve the $112 million Student Athlete High Performance Center, a 142,000-square-foot building along the western wall of UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium. 

The controversial structure, which would cost $597 a square foot, would be funded by gifts—though regents are being asked to approve up to $12 million in standby funding. 

Construction would commence in January, with a completion date of September 2009—provided a threatened lawsuit by the city doesn’t toss a wrench into the university’s plans. 

The controversial structure, which would be attached to an antiquated structure directly over the Bay Area’s most earthquake-prone fault, would be used by athletes from across the campus. 

The regents’ Committee on Buildings and Grounds is scheduled to take up the issue during an 11:35 a.m. session at the UCLA campus, along with 15 other building projects at other UC campuses. 

The committee is also being asked to certify an environmental impact report (EIR) that includes not only the training facility but renovations to the stadium itself, construction of an underground parking structure northwest of the stadium, a new building joining offices and programs of the university’s law and business schools and changes to the landmark Piedmont Avenue/Gayley Road streetscape. 

Together, the projects—which add up to more than a quarter-billion dollars—are called the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects (SCIP.) 

The Berkeley City Council sent a letter to the regents asking them to hold off on certifying the SCIP EIR until city officials have had time to review and comment on the massive document. 

“We haven’t had any response,” said City Manager Phil Kamlarz Monday afternoon. “We’re disappointed with the EIR because it didn’t address our issues, which include the high performance center, the parking structure and the stadium renovation. We have an impasse on this project.” 

City Planning Director Dan Marks addressed the concerns with an earlier EIR draft in a 54-page letter in July, and Kamlarz said the university had failed to adequately address the issues raised in that document—at least from what officials have been able to glean from the final draft. 

“They gave us two weeks to review over a thousand pages, and it’s impossible to give the document a rational review in that short amount of time,” Kamlarz said. 

Still, Kamlarz said he wasn’t surprised at the university’s lack of response. 

In a Nov. 2 letter, the city asked the regents to delay certifying the EIR until the regents meet in January at UC San Francisco. The report had been issued too late not only for the city to provide an adequate review, but for the regents as well, declared the letter. 

There had been no response by Monday afternoon. 

Center details 

The document submitted to the regents along with the agenda for this week’s meeting—which runs today through Thursday—gave a first look at some of the specifics of the training center. 

Preliminary plans and drawings cost $5.6 million, and the project is being designed under the executive architect, the Los Angeles office of the Kansas City architectural firm Howard Needles Tammen & Bergendorff (HNTB), which was selected by the office of UC President Robert Dynes in September. 

HNTB’s director of business development is well acquainted with stadiums and training centers. He is former Kansas City Chiefs kicker and Pro Football Hall of Famer Jan Stenerud.  

According to the report to the regents, the proposed center’s first goal is to remove student athletes to enable a seismic retrofit for the stadium, a project which has yet to be approved. 

Other goals include: 

• Rectifying deficiencies in existing training programs and facilities to make UC Berkeley’s program equivalent with other “top tier NCAA Division 1 programs. 

• “Integrate the stadium and its site and the campus in order to improve access to the stadium and enhance game-day experience for visitors.” 

• “Improve the stadium environs, which is currently characterized by high cyclone fencing and surface parking lots. 

• “Provide spaces for daily public use, while preserving some of the wooded landscape west of the stadium.” 

The largest tenant of the new facility will be ºthe Cal Bears football team, occupying 50,850 square feet, with all other sports relegated to a total of 25,800 square feet. Combined training and sports medicine facilities will add another 32,300 square feet. 

The first stage of construction will involve shoring up the stadium’s west wall with new underpinnings and soil cement walls. 

The report states that the facility “will be designed to resist near-fault ground motion forces and displacement.” 

The city and project critics charge that the project violates the Alquist-Priolo Act, which governs buildings constructed on or adjacent to fault zones, a charge the university has dismissed. 

Compliance with the law has been cited by city officials as one possible basis for the suit; another includes failure to mitigate demands on city traffic and other infrastructure. 

Another project 

While the regents are also scheduled to hear a report on safety improvements at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), there’s nothing on the agenda about a new building planned for the site, which is a facility of the federal Department of Energy currently operated by the university system. 

Jeff Philliber, the lab’s environmental planning coordinator, notified the city on Nov. 6 that the lab is preparing an environmental review of a project that calls for demolition of Building 10 at the site and its replacement with a 30,000-square-foot, three-story structure that would house offices, labs, meeting spaces. 

The structure it replaces is a 15,575 sheet-metal and wood structure built in 1944. If the plans are approved, demolition would begin in March 2007 and be completed within four months, followed by construction that would begin in January 2008 and continue for 18 months. 

LBNL has issued an initial study and proposed mitigated negative declaration on the project, which are available online at www.lbl.gov/Community/index.html.

With the lion’s share of votes counted, Kriss Worthington has slightly widened his lead in the squeaker Berkeley City Council District 7 race, according to the Alameda County registrar of voters. In fact, all the winners increased their winning margins. 

Damaged absentee votes and provisional ballots (those, generally, cast by voters at polling places other than where they are registered or by voters whose names do not appear on the polling place list), which have yet to be counted, make up a much smaller number than those counted over the weekend, according to Guy Ashley, spokesperson for the Alameda County Registrar of Voters. 

The votes counted over the weekend were absentee ballots people hand-delivered to the polls on election day or that were received in the registrar’s office on election day. The number of uncounted Berkeley ballots is still unknown, Ashley said.  

In District 7, at about 1 p.m. on Monday, Worthington had picked up 429 additional votes for a total of 1,893 votes, or 52.73 percent, and Beier had picked up 346 votes for a total of 1,679, or 47.42 percent. 

With the additional 775 votes counted, Worthington increased his lead from 131 to 214 votes. 

On Monday afternoon, the councilmember, while optimistic, said he wouldn’t declare victory until the last provisional ballot was counted. 

“It’s nice to be ahead by 6 percent,” he said.  

But the nasty race was still on his mind.  

“I’m still upset by the lies. I feel, personally, so offended,” Worthington said, referring especially to the distortions of his record by the Beier campaign and the Chamber of Commerce PAC, particularly regarding Worthington’s support for adding police on Telegraph Avenue.  

“I’m happy that voters here were able to see through the lies,” he said. 

Beier was out of town and unavailable for comment. 

In the mayor’s race, incumbent Mayor Tom Bates slightly increased his lead from 62.65 percent of the votes to 62.72 percent. Zelda Bronstein also increased her percentage from 30.94 percent to 31.09 percent, with Zachary Running Wolf and Christian Pecaut losing percentage points.  

Bates’ total vote was 23,093 and Bronstein’s was 11,447. Running Wolf had 1,665, or 4.52 percent, of the vote and Pecaut had 457, or 1.24 percent. 

In Berkeley’s District 1 Linda Maio picked up 750 votes, bringing her total to 3,386, or 76.33 percent. Challenger Merrilie Mitchell picked up 258 votes, leaving her with 23.46 percent of the total. 

In District 4, Councilmember Dona Spring also kept her strong lead, picking up 634 votes, slightly increasing her lead from 70.76 percent to 70.85 percent. Challenger Raudel Wilson received an additional 137 votes, leaving him with 28.43 percent of the vote. 

In District 8 Councilmember Gordon Wozniak also increased his lead, picking up 557 votes for a total of 2,492 votes, or 64.01 percent. Challenger Jason Overman’s share of the vote fell, even with an increase of 289 votes to a total of 1,387, or 35.63 percent.

The question for Alameda County election officials in the next few months is like a paraphrase of the old O’Jays song: “Now that we’ve got IRV, what are we gonna’ do with it?” 

The IRV, in this instance, is instant runoff voting, or ranked-choice voting. A voting system that eliminates runoff elections by allowing voters to rank candidates on the ballot in order of preference, IRV has been approved for use in municipal elections in San Leandro, Berkeley, and, most recently, in Oakland, where voters passed the IRV-implementing Measure O in last Tuesday’s election. 

The Sequoia voting machines currently used in Alameda County elections do not have IRV capability. But a clause in the county’s contract with Sequoia requires that the company put in place the hardware and software capable of handling ranked-choice voting by November of next year. 

But just what form, or forms, that system will take has not yet been determined. 

IRV operates in races of three or more candidates by having voters cast only one ballot, but having “rounds” of vote counting to choose the eventual winner. During each round of counting, the candidates with the lowest “first choice” vote totals are eliminated. 

The second choice on the ballots of those voters who voted for the eliminated candidates will then be added to the totals of the remaining candidates, eventually ending up in a final round of vote-counting in which there are only two candidates remaining, one of whom will be ensured a majority of the final vote tally. 

But different forms of IRV have different methods of elimination that can have widely varying effects on the eventual winner. Oakland’s recently passed Measure O, for example, allows for the elimination of more than one candidate in each round, under certain circumstances. That is different from other systems, which only allow for the elimination of one candidate in each round. It is possible for a different candidate to win an election under the use of these two different elimination methods, even if voters rank their choices in the identical way. 

There are also differences in how ballots should be handled when a voter fails to make the proper number of ranked choices. 

Neither ballot measure authorizing IRV, in San Leandro in 2000 or Berkeley in 2004, specified the exact type of form the IRV election system would take in those cities. 

Officials from the Alameda County registrar’s office, Sequoia Voting Systems, the League of Women Voters, the three cities with IRV authorization in place, and the county’s remaining cities are expected to meet throughout the year before the November 2007 implementation deadline to work out the differences. 

A sales representative for Sequoia Voting Systems said during an interview on election night last week that “Sequoia would prefer having one method of IRV implemented throughout the county.” 

But the representative said that the Oakland-based company had the capability of writing software to support more than one system, “and we will work to accommodate what the county and the cities eventually authorize.” 

Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington said he had not yet had the chance to look at Oakland’s IRV ballot authorization—noting that “I’ve been busy this fall with some other activities”—and said that he did not know if Oakland’s measure would be acceptable to Berkeley.  

“It would be nice if we would have a one-size-fits-all system,” Worthington said. “These details are going to have to be hashed out.” 

Worthington said he believed that work to coordinate the IRV implementation is going to go slowly until a permanent county registrar of voters is chosen. Dave Macdonald, who coordinated the November election in the county, currently serves as acting registrar. 

Berkeley City Councilmember Linda Maio said that she would prefer not to have several versions of IRV in the county, noting that “we would like to make it compatible.”  

But Maio said that minor disagreements on the exact form should not be allowed to hold up implementation of the new system.  

“Let’s just say that [the various implementing cities] don’t quite agree, but we come to something that’s close,” she said. “It would be better to put it in place for a couple of cycles to see how it works in practice, and then work out the details.” 

An alternative, Maio said, might be to offer “a couple of ways for cities to implement IRV in their jurisdictions.”  

In either event, Maio said that it’s not possible to anticipate all of the problems that might occur with implementation.  

“It’s a wholly new thing for us,” she said. “We’re not sure of all the implications yet.”  

Supporters and opponents of the proposed 148-unit Trader Joe’s Building on 1885 University Ave. turned out in full force at the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) meeting on Thursday. 

The modified project had been returned to the ZAB after being approved by the Design Review Commission. 

Berkeley-based developers Evan McDonald and Chris Hudson asked the board to give preliminary consideration to a modified design that will allow construction of a mixed-use development with 14,390 square feet of retail, and 157 parking spaces in a two-level parking garage. 

ZAB asked city staff to come back with a detailed report on Nov. 27 outlining density bonus options and a traffic analysis as well as provide conditions for approval of the project.  

Residents opposed to the project asked how the city would apply the state’s affordable housing density bonus statute to the project and address issues related to traffic and building size.  

Neighbors have maintained that the building would stick out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood and create a parking nightmare in an already congested residential block. 

Developer Chris Hudson told the board that the revised project would provide 123,924 square feet of residential floor area and 14,390 square feet of commercial floor area and include 148 residential units and 22 Below Market Rate (BMR) units. 

Hudson added that with 22 affordable housing units the modified project with Trader Joe’s would provide the same proportion of affordable housing as the earlier-proposed 186-unit project. 

“This proportion is the same proportion required of all density bonus projects in the City of Berkeley,” Hudson said. “The staff and city attorney support this level of affordable housing as equitable and lawful and have confirmed that the density bonus required for a project with 22 affordable housing units is appropriate.”  

Steve Wollmer, who spoke on behalf of Neighbors for a Livable Berkeley Way, said that the 148-unit project was 7,000 square feet larger than the 186-unit project for which it was supposed to substitute. 

The principal question, Wollmer said, “is whether a city had the discretion to not only allow a substitute project, but a substitute that is significantly larger.” 

Board member Dave Blake called the staff’s declaration of the number of base units of the new project “fictitious.” Staff said that they’d rather not have the word “fictitious” used in describing the base units. 

Supporters of the project said that the project would result in a handsome building on a highly visible intersection which was blighted and reduce the number of daily car trips by a large margin. 

Tim Southwick, who has owned Toyota of Berkeley for the last 33 years, called the project a great opportunity to turn University Avenue into a street more like Solano Avenue because the development with a Trader Joe’s on the ground floor would help attract pedestrian traffic.  

“Don’t let Trader Joe’s disappear,” he said. 

Hudson also told the board that Peter Hillier, Berkeley’s assistant traffic engineer, had concluded that the traffic analyses on the project had been properly conducted and that the project, because of traffic signal upgrades, would not increase congestion.  

In a letter to ZAB, Regan Richardson, a resident of Berkeley Way, said that the 148-unit apartment building would “tower menacingly” over the other buildings in the neighborhood. 

“Are you all so dazzled by the prospect of food and liquor that you can’t make a rational decision to save Berkeley’s neighborhoods for future generations?” he asked. “This project is an elephant dressed up in a Trader Joe’s T-shirt uniform. And as everyone knows, an elephant sits wherever and destroys whatever it wants.” 

Despite neighbors’ insistence that the proposed entrance to Trader Joe’s be moved to the University Avenue side of the building, Hudson told the board that the driveway could only be located on Berkeley Way. According to Hillier, any other location for the entrance would increase traffic congestion. 

Berkeley resident Tom Hunt urged the board to keep the project within zoning limits and to enforce all the setbacks that were required. 

“We should adjust the projects according to zoning laws and not the zoning laws according to the projects,” he said. 

According to the project proposal, the driveway was on a portion of Berkeley Way zoned for commercial use. 

Hudson told board members that the project would not have any significant environmental impacts.  

“I would like to know whether there are other alternatives, and if it takes another month or two to do so, so be it,” said ZAB member Rick Judd.  

ZAB member Dean Metzger requested fuller details of the project, including areas of commercial space and usable open space. 

Berkeley resident Eric Dynamic said that he was opposed to bringing in a chain into the neighborhood that would further hamper revenue for local grocery stores.  

“Trader Joe’s is not interested in the future of Berkeley,” he said. 

Connie Hicks, CFO of KPFA Radio, located across Martin Luther King Jr. Way from the project, said parking would be a problem for the 60-plus employees and people who visited the radio station. 

“People are going to be irritated and this problem is going to be talked about on air all over the country,” he said. 

Councilmember Dona Spring quotes from an old Joni Mitchell song: 

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.  

They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum.  

And they charged all the people 

A dollar and a half just to see 'em.  

Spring says the UC Berkeley must change its tune. At tonight’s (Tuesday) council meeting, Spring and Councilmember Betty Olds will ask the council to support a resolution calling on UC to protect the Coast Live Oaks near Memorial Stadium slated for destruction. 

In other council business, the council will discuss cultural uses at the Gaia Building, allowing electric-vehicle dealerships to open businesses on South Shattuck Avenue, the status of the Solano Avenue Business Improvement District and more. 

Coast Live Oaks threatened 

As part of its southeast building project the university is planning to cut down 40 Coast Live Oaks between 40 and 300 years old to construct a 912-space parking lot and athletic training facility adjacent to a rebuilt Memorial Stadium. 

These trees are part of the city’s watershed system, Spring said. If they are destroyed, there will be erosion of the hillside and flooding, she said. 

While Coast Live Oaks are protected by the city’s “Coast Live Oak Moratorium,” UC is exempt from local laws. Organizations opposing the tree removal include the California Native Plant Society and the Sierra Club. 

Councilmember Betty Olds said she thinks community outrage will cause the university to re-think its plans. 

“The university doesn’t want to have a black mark against it. They want the citizens of Berkeley to like them,” she said.  

When asked for the university’s response, Jennifer Ward, spokesperson for the UC Office of the President, told the Daily Planet: “No comment.” 

Cultural use at Gaia 

When Patrick Kennedy developed the Gaia building at 2116 Allston Way, the city allowed him two additional residential stories in exchange for providing cultural uses on the first two floors. But the definition of “cultural uses” and the extent to which the space must be used for culture remains in dispute. 

The council will be asked tonight to approve the staff’s interpretation of an agreement made between Kennedy and former Planning Director Carol D. Barrett. 

That interpretation says that the Gaia Building should devote 30 percent of the days of the year to performances defined as live theatrical productions, literature readings, non-commercial film showings and educational uses related to culture. (Rehearsal time and set-up are not to be included in the 30 percent.)  

Cultural uses should have priority, the report says, but non-cultural uses are otherwise permitted.  

But Anna de Leon, who owns Anna’s Jazz Island located in the Gaia building, says staff has distorted the meaning of the agreement. The 30 percent use of the first two floors for performances means that live performances must be 30 percent of the cultural uses, but cultural uses must be 100 percent of the total use. 

“The use permit mandates exclusive cultural use,” De Leon said by phone on Monday. 

Solano Avenue Business Improvement District 

The City Council is being asked to approve a business improvement district (BID), which is usually routine, but two businesses are protesting the operation of the Solano Avenue BID. 

Businesses that belong to a BID contribute to it in order to receive benefits, but Susan Powning of By Hand says the BID has not been effective in street cleaning or advertising, and James Slaten of Jim’s Sewing Machine Service writes that the sidewalks are dirty and that the BID has not helped him increase business. 

Zoning for small-scale electric vehicle dealerships 

A resolution by Councilmember Dona Spring calls on the zoning board to change its rules so that small-scale electric vehicle dealerships can operate on south Shattuck Avenue. While there are automobile dealerships there, current zoning prohibits new automobile dealerships in the area. 

Overruns at the Oxford Plaza/Brower Center development are also on the council agenda. 

At 5 p.m. the council will hold a workshop on updating the status of the city budget. 

Housing Authority 

The Housing Authority will meet at 6:20 p.m. to rescind allocation of Section 8 vouchers for Prince Hall Arms at 3132 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Hillegass Apartments at 2500 Hillegass Ave. and Allston House at 2121 Seventh St. HUD disqualified all three projects, which means that these projects will have to find alternative sources of funding, according to a staff report released Monday. 

The Housing Authority will also discuss alternatives to the present structure in which the City Council sits as the authority. 

Community members will have one more chance to weigh in at a public hearing tonight (Tuesday) on a proposed city law some praise for protecting creeks but one that others say would be costly to homeowners and restrict the use of their property.  

At the same public hearing, Berkeley residents will be able to address a zoning law amendment that allows people to rebuild residences of four or fewer units at the original height and bulk with an easily obtained across-the-counter permit if the structure was destroyed by a disaster, such as a fire or earthquake. 

The City Council meeting starts at 7 p.m. at Old City Hall 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way; the public hearing time is not predetermined.  

The proposed amendment to the existing Creeks Ordinance would regulate building or remodeling on or near creeks and culverts. The proposed ordinance differs in how it regulates creeks and culverts—streams that run through pipes. 

In a phone interview Monday, former mayor Shirley Dean, with the Neighbors on Urban Creeks, said the proposed Creeks Ordinance revision, while continuing to lack certain components, goes a long way to satisfying the needs of property owners. Neighbors on Urban Creeks was founded to ensure the rights of property owners. 

The city-appointed Creeks Task Force has been working on a revised Creeks Ordinance for almost two years. 

The most important element of the revised law, according to Dean, is that “daylighting a culverted creek will be voluntary.” Daylighting a creek means opening a creek enclosed in a pipe and restoring it to a more natural state. 

But a problem with the proposed law, according to Dean, is that when an individual wants to build on vacant property or expand an existing residence within 25 feet of a culvert identified by the city, the property owner must pay a professional to establish exactly where the culvert is. Dean says that should be the city’s responsibility. 

“The city doesn’t have a clue where the culverts are,” she said. 

The proposed law would: 

• allow building within 15 feet of a culverted creek with an administrative Culverted Creek Permit issued based on a structural engineer’s report demonstrating culvert stability, access, and protected water quality; and 

• allow both vertical expansion (building up or down) within 30 feet of an open creek, and expansion of an existing structure between 25 and 30 feet of an open creek, with an Administrative Creek Permit based on a report showing the project would not have an adverse impact on the creek. 

A key question the council will have to answer when it considers the ordinance will be the type of city permit a homeowner would have to obtain to build on vacant land within 30 feet of the centerline of an open creek: should the homeowner be required to get a variance—generally needed when a proposed building project does not comply with zoning laws and is issued by vote of the zoning board—or should the homeowner be allowed to build after obtaining a use permit? The zoning board would issue the use permit “with strict criteria and findings that alternatives have been considered and have been determined infeasible and that the creek is protected against adverse environmental effects,” according a Nov. 14 planning staff report. 

The Creeks Task Force supports a variance, while the Planning Commission supports the use permit option.  

Calling the proposed ordinance “a finely crafted compromise that respects the homeowners as well as the environment,” Helen Burke, who chairs the Creeks Task Force, called for requiring the variance option in order to build within a 30-foot setback of an open creek to avoid degradation of the creek environment. 

In her Nov. 14 report to the council, Deputy Planning Director Wendy Cosin said the Planning Commission, on the other hand, “stated that a use permit is more appropriate because it is nearly impossible for a variance to be approved.”  

Dean and others have addressed concerns about the cost to homeowners for repairing culverts on their properties. This is not addressed in the ordinance revisions, because the city is in litigation with property owners over the issue of responsibility for culvert repairs. 

According to Burke, the City Council will address that question only after the lawsuit has been resolved. 

The Peralta Community College District will spend Measure A bond money on any of the broad range of projects that appeared on last June’s ballot, not just on the line item “Measure A Capital Projects” list, which currently appears on the district’s Department of General Services website. 

That is the assessment of Peralta Chief Financial Officer Tom Smith in a telephone interview this week. 

It’s not the specified lin- item list on the district’s website that is “legally binding,” Smith said. Measure A projects must only “relate to projects that were listed on the ballot measure itself.” 

Smith also took issue with the assertions that Peralta does not have a plan for spending the Measure A money. 

“A lot has been going around about we don’t have a plan,” Smith said. “We do have a plan.” 

Aside from the list of Measure A projects appearing on Peralta’s website, Smith said that the district is currently undertaking intensive long-range strategic and facilities planning. 

The issue of two Measure A bond project lists came to light during the recent Peralta Area Seven trustee race when challenger, and now trustee-elect, Abel Guillen raised charges that Peralta “doesn’t have a plan for the spending of [the Measure A] bond money, just a laundry list of projects.” 

That echoed complaints made by Peralta trustee Nicky Gonzalez Yuen both recently and when the bond measure language was first approved by trustees last February.  

A subsequent investigation by the Daily Planet showed that two separate lists of proposed bond projects—one of them a generalized list, the second an itemized, budgeted list—were circulated by the Peralta administration on the night last February that Peralta trustees voted to authorize the bond measure. 

The more generalized list was placed before voters on the June ballot, but at least one trustee, Cy Gulassa, believed that trustees were voting during that February meeting on the itemized, budgeted list. 

California Proposition 39, under which the Peralta bonds were passed in June, requires that a list of bond projects be included or referenced in the ballot measure, but state law does not lay out how specific the bond list must be. 

Peralta CFO Smith said that the line-item list was produced first, coming out of a “detailed needs assessment report from the colleges and the district office. We then put together what we thought our facilities needs were for the next 15 years, at a cost of approximately $400 million to $600 million.”  

The line-item budget document produced, Smith said, “was used as the basis to write the ballot language.” 

Trustee Cy Gulassa’s memory of the genesis of the two lists is different. Gulassa told the Daily Planet last week that the generalized list came first, and that when he and other trustees complained that the list was not specific enough, the itemized line item budgeted list was then produced. 

The difference in the two lists is striking. The itemized project list gives specific project descriptions with estimated costs included, listing, for example, “Complete Modernization and Facility Renovation of Landscape Horticulture. Project will Include: Horticulture Retaining Wall Replacement; Rebuild Horticulture and Access to the Area—$3,094,085.” 

For the same building, the generalized list for Merritt College included with the Measure A ballot says simply “expansion of the horticulture library and additional office space.” 

CFO Smith said this week that when the more generalized list was produced for inclusion on the ballot, “we tried to make it flexible enough so that when our needs expand, we will have the flexibility to do the projects needed with the bond money.” 

Last June, area voters approved the Peralta Measure A ballot measure, approving the issuance of $390 million in bonds to finance facilities projects in the district. The district is currently putting together the legally mandated citizen oversight committee to monitor the spending of the Measure A bonds. 

Loni Hancock came to Richmond Thursday night to visit the citizen panel she helped to create. 

The East Bay Democratic assemblymember addressed the Community Advisory Group (CAG) established to advise the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) on the cleanup of hazardous waste sites in southern Richmond. 

Listening closely to her words were two CAG members who have played a critical role in bringing the contamination issues into the public eye, Sherry Padgett and Gayle McLaughlin. 

“My office is going to be here, and we want to work in partnership with you and DTSC,” Hancock told CAG members. “If there’s anything I can do to get you additional resources, then let me know.” 

Hancock said the CAG “can be a model for the entire state, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for stepping up to the plate.” 

The CAG was created after intense political pressure first raised by Padgett and members of Bay Area Residents for Responsible Development (BARRD) brought the issue to the attention of another future CAG member, Contra Costa County Public Health Director Dr. Wendel Brunner, who in turn contacted Hancock. 

“Dr. Brunner said he was alarmed about the things he had learned from Sherry about the safety of the cleanup,” said Hancock, referring to work down at the site of the former Stauffer/Zeneca chemical manufacturing complex west of the Bayview Avenue exit off Interstate 580. 

Heavy dust raised during excavation of the site and the subsequent burial of contaminated soil on the property worried Padgett, who worked in an office close to the site. Padgett and other activists formed BARRD, which in turn attracted the support of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, of which McLaughlin was a veteran member. 

McLaughlin joined BAARD members for protests at the Zeneca site, and won for a City Council seat in 2004 as a member of the Green Party. Two years later she challenged incumbent Mayor Irma Anderson for the position of Richmond’s chief executive. 

With an estimated 2,000 absentee ballots yet to be counted, McLaughlin holds a slim 192-vote lead over Anderson, who has yet to concede. Hancock, a Democrat, had endorsed fellow Democrat Anderson. 

CAG members who questioned Hancock included two former residents of Seaport Village, a housing complex that stood immediately east of the chemical complex from 1946 to 1957. 

Ethel Dotson told Hancock she had just learned that she has about a year to live because of cancer she attributes to exposure during childhood, and JoAnne Tilmon said 11 of her family members have died, and another—an aunt—is suffering from cancer. 

Both have said they are less than trusting of regulatory agencies. 

“I’m very skeptical of DTSC,” said Tilmon. “I want to make sure we’re doing the best for the community.”  

“I understand why people are skeptical of government agencies at this point,” said Hancock. “But DTSC has the most expertise and the most commitment to helping people.” 

Dotson and Tilmon are both concerned that while plant employees have been granted an extension on the statutory provisions for filing health claims, no such extension has been granted to Seaport residents. 

Hancock urged them to visit her office to discuss their concerns. 

The chemical plant cleanup—and the remediation of the site immediately to the west that houses the UC Berkeley Richmond Field Station—had originally been under the aegis of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. 

In part because the water boards have no toxicology experts on staff and no provisions for regular public input, Padgett, McLaughlin and Hancock had pushed for the takeover by DTSC. 

The Berkeley lawmaker held a state legislative hearing at the Field Station in November 2004, which led to the decision by state officials to hand over jurisdiction of both sites to DTSC. 

Uranium worries 

While most of the concerns have focused on a witch’s brew of toxic chemicals contaminating the soil, another ongoing concern is the possibility of radioactive contamination. 

A search is still underway for barrels possibly containing radioactive waste that CAG member Rock Alcaraz said he helped dump in the waters off the Field Station decades earlier. The source, he said, was apparently the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). 

A preliminary search at one location came up empty, but Barbara Cook, the DTSC’s chief of Northern California coastal cleanups, said an additional search will be conducted at a site identified by Alcaraz. 

Another former LBNL employee, radiation biologist Dr. Michael Esposito, said he is concerned about anomalous findings of radium at the former Seaport Village site. 

Because a phosphate plant was once located at the Zeneca site, Esposito said increased uranium could be expected in the area because the element is found in phosphate ores. 

While the totals of radioactive elements are small and below federal guidelines, Esposito said that an imbalance between levels of uranium and radium indicate that some uranium contamination had occurred. 

Both elements are typically found at the same levels, because of the age of the earth and the rate at which uranium decays into radium, and, ultimately, into lead. But at the Seaport Village site now occupied by the so-called downwind business, uranium particles outnumber lead by a factor of two to one. 

Findings for nearby Booker T. Anderson Park, selected as a control site, showed the expected nearly one-to-one ratio of the radioactive elements. 

“While the values are small, we have to factor them in with the dangers to exposure to other risk, to all carcinogens found at the site,” he said. 

One of the problems CAG members have discovered is that while statistical risks of cancer and other ailments can be found for individual chemicals found at the sites, no such estimates exist for the chemicals in combination with each other—and state and federal cleanup standards have no way to estimate the combinatorial risks. 

Yet chemicals often produce synergistic effects in combination, results not predictable by simple addition of the risks. Padgett and other CAG members have said they’re especially concerned because of the wide range of deadly compounds found at the sites. 

Esposito also said that the tests were performed “by a quick and dirty method” that doesn’t offer accurate findings. “The levels of inaccuracy are so high that the footnotes in the report have more information than the data,” he said, likening the report to “a dance of the seven veils.” 

Other concerns 

Why isn’t the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) posting warning signs and building fences to keep people—especially children—out of contaminated soils? 

CAG member Eric Blum asked Cook why the BCDC hadn’t responded to repeated requests from the CAG and DTSC to post signs warning of dangers of toxic exposure to mercury, arsenic and PCBs to Bay Trail users and residents of Marina Bay. 

The dangerous substances are found in Meeker Slough, which separates the Marina Bay housing tract from the UCB Field Station. Currently, part of the area lacks a fence and signs warning of the danger. 

Blum said he drafted a letter the CAG sent to BCDC “just asking that we get signs that make it clear there is danger there,” and to “get fencing to keep children from stepping and playing in things that are fairly toxic. It’s right there in the soil.” 

Cook said she had been unable to get a definitive response from the agency, which must approve all such signs and fences along the shore area. 

BCDC’s Executive Director is Will Travis, who is also chair of Berkeley Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee. 

Waskar Ari Chachaki is an ill-fated victim of the War on Terror. Born in the remote Andean highlands of Bolivia, by age 42 he had earned a Ph.D. from prestigious Georgetown University. Ari, the first member of the pre-Incan Aymara tribe with a doctorate in history from the United States, also helped establish eight indigenous organizations in Bolivia and Peru. He’s an expert in indigenous history, culture and political movements.  

But American students may never benefit from his singular perspective.  

“I’m exiled in my own country,” Ari says from La Paz, where he now resides after eight years living in the United States.  

For the past one-and-a-half years, the U.S. government has refused to grant Ari a visa to teach at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.  

Attorney Michael Maggio says the case is another instance of ideological exclusion—a practice that has grown exponentially since 9/11. Before, these cases “weren’t very common” and “usually involved someone of prominent stature, such as [former Chilean president] Salvador Allende’s widow,” says Maggio, who has fought such cases for more than 20 years and is representing Ari for free.  

Ari first moved to the United States in 1996 on a student visa. He studied, taught, and traveled in and out of the country for eight years with no problems, then returned to Bolivia in late May 2005, for what he expected to be a short stay.  

The University of Nebraska petitioned the government for a professional, H1-B visa for Ari on June 13, 2005.  

They’re still waiting.  

In July, the U.S. Embassy in La Paz called Ari. When he turned up for his appointment, a U.S. representative stamped “cancelled” on all the American visas in his passport, apparently at the request of the State Department.  

Since then, “the world has turned upside down,” Ari said.  

Jones says of the university’s decision to hire him, “he’s a top-notch teacher and scholar. But he also brings his experience as an indigenous person, and that’s unique and rare in academia.... We’re continuing to hold his position.”  

The government will neither officially explain why it’s held up his H1-B visa for so long nor when—if ever—it expects to make a decision.  

“We’re in this speculation chamber,” Jones said. “We’re sympathetic to security issues, but we deserve resolution.... The lack of information and the lack of movement [on Ari’s visa] raise bigger questions: Is this a legitimate process, or is it political?”  

Maggio said that “highly reliable sources” in government told him, off the record, that the matter is “in the hands of the FBI.”  

Earlier this year, the State Department told the Chronicle of Higher Education that Ari’s old visa had been cancelled “under a terrorism-related section of U.S. legislation.”  

A spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), the government branch that processes visa applications, said it won’t give out information on specific cases.  

Ari suspects ideological detractors in Bolivia fingered him as a threat. “If someone wants to ruin a person, they just say they have terrorist connections,” he said, adding that “the election of [Evo Morales,] the first indigenous president in five centuries, has provoked racial confrontation in Bolivia. Some say all those who advocate indigenous rights need to be reigned in.”  

Although Ari is a staunch supporter of indigenous rights, he insists he’s not a separatist. He claims that he’s widely perceived as a moderate in Bolivia—a position supported by many prominent individuals and professional associations that have appealed to the Bush administration on his behalf, including the American Historical Association, the American Association of University Professors, and the Georgetown University Faculty Senate.  

Nonetheless, Charles Hale, president of the Latin American Studies Association, isn’t surprised by Ari’s treatment. “There seems to be an ideological litmus test that’s being selectively applied, particularly to Latin American intellectuals from countries with left-leaning governments,” says Hale, an anthropology professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Ideological exclusion has become such a problem, he says, that LASA is relocating its next international congress from the United States to Canada for the first time in its history.  

Which law the government is relying on to hold up Ari’s visa remains unclear. The Patriot Act includes a clause that allows authorities to deny entry to those who “endorse or espouse terrorist activity” or persuade others to do so. But attorney Maggio says the practice of barring ideological undesireables from entering the United States is nothing new.  

“What’s new since Sept. 11,” he says, “is the number of people caught in the ideological exclusion sweep, which has expanded dramatically.” Definitions of terrorism have been broadened, standards of proof weakened, secrecy increased, and visas are being denied based on preposterous allegations, according to Maggio.  

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in January challenging the Patriot Act’s ideological exclusion provision as unconstitutionally depriving Americans from hearing perspectives protected as free speech under the First Amendment. Swiss citizen Tariq Ramadan, regarded as one of the world’s top scholars on Islam, was among the plaintiffs. The U.S. government temporarily revoked Ramadan’s visa to teach at the University of Notre Dame in 2004. Last June, a federal court agreed that the government cannot exclude someone based purely on the person’s politics, and ordered CIS to make a final decision on Ramadan’s visa within 90 days. Ramadan was formally denied a visa in September under a separate clause. The reason cited was donations he’d made to Swiss and French charities providing humanitarian support to Palestinians.  

If you sue, Maggio said, you might get answers as to why you’re ostensibly being denied entry into the country. But “you don’t get the visa” and “no one gets into trouble for calling someone a terrorist.”  

In the meantime, Professor Jones worries about the effects on Ari. “This has taken a toll on him,” he says. “He’s in limbo. It’s his job, his career.”  

Call her Madam. Madam Speaker, that is. 

Nancy Pelosi was one of the big winners in this week’s dramatic midterm elections, as the five-term San Francisco Congresswoman is set to become the next Speaker of the House come January, the first woman in U.S. history to assume the post. 

That makes her one of the most important politicians in the world. But San Franciscans that know her best still think of her mostly as a dedicated mother, friend and champion of the Jewish community. 

Naomi Lauter is the national community consultant for AIPAC, the Israel lobby based in Washington, D.C., and was the organization’s first regional director here. She’s worked with AIPAC for 25 years, but she’s known Nancy Pelosi even longer. 

“We were neighbors in Presidio Terrace in 1970,” remembers Lauter. “We were moms together. Our kids played together, and we sat and watched them. The Pelosis would come to our house for Passover and we would go to theirs for Christmas.” 

It was clear to Lauter early on that this daughter of Baltimore mayor and congressman Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. was born for the political arena. “You couldn’t be with her and not recognize how intelligent and politically astute she was,” says Lauter, “and how much feeling she had for people. That was obvious.” 

In the early 1980s, when Lauter worked for the Jewish Community Relations Council, she remembers Pelosi serving on the committee to build San Francisco’s Holocaust Memorial. “That old saying, ‘Some of my best friends are Jewish’ — some of Nancy’s best friends are Jewish,” Lauter says. 

Sam Lauter, a pro-Israel activist in San Francisco and Naomi Lauter’s son, has known Pelosi for nearly 40 years. He was 5 years old when the Pelosis moved into his San Francisco neighborhood. 

“She’s one of the classiest,” most “straightforward people you could ever meet,” Lauter says. “As far as the Jewish community is concerned, she feels our issues in her soul.” 

To illustrate his point, Lauter tells a Pelosi story that has become almost legendary in the Jewish community. 

At an AIPAC members’ luncheon in San Francisco right after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Pelosi was speaking when an alarm sounded. 

“Everybody started getting nervous, scrambling toward the door,” Lauter recalls. One person, though, was reading the words of Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, above the din. It was Pelosi. 

“It actually calmed the crowd. You could see people smiling, saying ‘Wow.’ This wasn’t something done purposefully to show everyone that Nancy Pelosi supports the Jewish community. It actually came from inside her.” 

Amy Friedkin, past president of AIPAC and a member of its board of directors, is a longtime friend. “I’ve known Nancy Pelosi for 25 years,” she says. “I’ve heard her say numerous times that the single greatest achievement of the 20th century was the founding of the state of Israel. She has been a great friend of the U.S.-Israel relationship during her time in Congress and is deeply committed to strengthening that relationship.” 

Friedkin also noted that there is even a soccer field in Haifa, Israel, named for Pelosi’s family (the D’Alesandros). 

Philanthropist and Jewish community leader Richard Goldman has worked with Pelosi for decades, and though he is a registered Republican, he has great respect for the incoming speaker. 

“We’re just very good friends,” he says. “I feel as close to her as anyone in politics. She knows what she’s getting into; she’s a very wise political person.” 

In 2003 Pelosi was a guest at the Goldman Environmental Prize ceremony in San Francisco, delivering the keynote address. The prize is a major project of the Goldman Fund. 

Rabbi Doug Kahn, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco, has known Pelosi since she started representing his district in 1987. Kahn says his group has always had an excellent relationship with her, and he praises her passion for issues that relate to equal opportunity, social justice and peace. 

Kahn says that Pelosi, coming from a city with a liberal political reputation, will face challenges from the liberal segments of the Democratic Party that have criticized Israeli policies. But he is confident that she will be effective in persuading people of the importance of maintaining bipartisan support for Israel. 

Community leader Roselyne Swig counts Pelosi among her closest friends, and believes she’s a natural for her new job. “She’s done a wonderful job of being sensitive to a very diverse population in San Francisco,” she says. “She’s garnered tremendous respect from her peers and built loyalties with people who have worked with her over the years. She’ll bring unity.” 

Tom Dine is another local Jewish leader who knows Pelosi well. The former AIPAC executive director and current CEO of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, Dine has nothing but praise for his friend. 

“When I would see her in D.C. about the pro-Israel agenda,” he recalls, “her first question was, ‘Tell me how I can help you.’ She considers herself kin.” 

Not every San Francisco Jew is so sanguine about Pelosi’s rise. Norman Epstein of the Northern California chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition saw the election as a referendum on Iraq, but he doubts Pelosi will improve the situation. 

“I’m tremendously concerned about her policies,” says Epstein, “given that she and her fellow Democrat leaders have no clue about the nature of the Islamo-fascist enemy. They want to wipe out the free world and Israel. My hope is that as an Israel supporter, she will support John Bolton as U.N. ambassador. He’s been steadfast in supporting the USA and especially Israel. That’s one step we can all agree on.” 

Another thing most observers agree on: Pelosi’s new job will not be a walk in the park. 

“She’s has to lead a party of varied predilections and policies,” says Dine, who understands well the ways of Washington. “She’s going to be the No. 1 Democrat. All eyes will be on her and how she gives direction to the party, and for 2008.” 

Says Lauter: “She’ll be fantastic because she understands where the country is politically. She’s a person who brings people together.” 

Lauter admits that at moments she’s still amazed that her old friend and neighbor is now one of the most powerful women in America. 

“I would look in the window sometimes passing by,” recalls Lauter, “and there she had fed, bathed and put to bed the five kids and then made dinner for her husband. I don’t think people understand what a traditional person she is. Her husband, kids and grandkids are the most important thing to her. She believes in making the world better for her grandchildren.” 

Jennifer Jacobson of JTA contributed to this story.  

Editor’s note: This article was published in the Nov. 10 issue, but did not run in its entirety. This is the complete article with updated vote totals. 

Incumbents Nancy Riddle, Shirley Issel and challenger Karen Hemphill have won the three open seats on the five-member Berkeley Board of Education. 

Leading the pack was school board director Nancy Riddle, who captured 20,798 votes, or 29.77 percent, according to the registrar of voters as of Monday afternoon. 

Karen Hemphill came in second place with 19,778 votes, or 28.31 percent of the total. School board director Shirley Issel finished third with 17,185 votes, or 24.60 percent. 

Riddle, CFO of Monster Cable Products, is currently finishing her first term with the school board. A strong supporter of Measure A—the school parcel tax which won by a landslide in Tuesday’s election—Riddle has been involved in rewriting it since 2003. 

She pledged to work on removing barriers in education and to encourage a transparent and open budget process that reflects the values of the Berkeley community. 

Hemphill’s victory has made her Berkeley’s first African-American school board director in 8 years. An assistant to the city manager in Emeryville, Hemphill has previously been a member of the Berkeley’s Civic Arts Commission and the Commission on the Status of Women. 

Hemphill, who has served on the steering committee for Measure A, thanked Berkeley voters for passing Measure A. 

“We have a lot of work to do,” she said. “With ten years of funding from the school tax measure we can focus on student achievement. We need to get the middle-school kids ready for high school, improve Berkeley High and B-Tech and improve reading comprehension. The board also needs to be a lot more open, and healing needs to take place between the School Board and the Berkeley Federation of Teachers.” 

Barry Fike, president of the teachers’ union, said that teachers were pleased with the election results. 

“The teachers really campaigned hard,” he said. “We endorsed Karen Hemphill and we think she is someone who is going to add a lot to the school board. She is interested in listening to the voice of the teachers as well as the community.” 

Issel, a clinical social worker, has served on the school board for eight years. She said she will continue to use her skills as a professional social worker and educational reformer to improve teaching and learning in the district.  

“It is very important for me to continue in the partnership with the Berkeley Integrated Resource Initiative (BIRI), which is an initiative with the Berkeley Alliance,” Issel said. 

“BIRI is like an umbrella under which BUSD, the city of Berkeley and local community organizations work collectively to identify and weave their relative resources to effectively address barriers to learning and to promote healthy development for all Berkeley children. We are now ready to enter the next phase where we hope to focus on kindergartners, which is a key aspect of the achievement gap,” she said. 

First-time candidates David Baggins and Norma Harrison came in fourth and fifth. Baggins won 7,633, or 10.93 percent, and Harrison received 4,287 votes, or 6.14 percent. 

Baggins, a professor of political science at California State University, East Bay, had made school registration one of the main issues of his campaign. 

“This was an opportunity to demonstrate to the district how to run a valid registration system. They say that they have done that which is great. I am sure all the board members who were elected this year will take their job very seriously,” he said. 

Harrison, 71, a realtor and former public school teacher, had never run for public office before. During her campaign, Harrison had emphasized the need for discussions about helping students in Berkeley enjoy school. 

Victory for Measure A 

Measure A, the school parcel tax which renews two existing school measures—Berkeley School Excellence Project (BSEP) and Measure B—won a decisive victory with 29,868 or 79.48 percent of the total votes, as of Monday. 

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

With Measure A passing, the current budget level will now continue.  

Ninety percent of Measure A will fund class size reduction, the school library, music and art, and site enrichment programs which have been authorized and reaffirmed by Berkeley voters since 1986. 

If Measure A had failed, the schools would have lost 25 percent of their budget, which would have resulted in the elimination of 30 percent of the teachers, libraries, the music program and a lot more. 

BUSD Superintendent Michele Lawrence told the Planet that she was relieved with the results. 

“I am ecstatic that our community once again gives this endorsement for our public schools. I look forward to working with our confident and cohesive board on improving the school district,” she said.  

School Board candidate Harrison said that she was not enthusiastic about Measure A because it did not support the kind of programs her campaign had endorsed. 

“If it goes on funding the same institutions again and again instead of experimenting with new ideas, such as creating forums for discussion and allowing students of all age groups to work together, then it will not help our children to enjoy what they learn,” she said. 

Although Measure A had been supported by every major organization, elected official and candidate for office in Berkeley, with the exception of Harrison, it was opposed by various groups such as the Council of Neighborhood Associations, the Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations, Berkeleyans Against Soaring Taxes and Berkeleyans for School Management Access Accountability Responsiveness and Transparency.

Berkeley School Board president Terry Doran will be retiring at the end of the BUSD meeting on Wednesday evening. 

Doran will be honored by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers and given a proclamation by Mayor Tom Bates at a special gathering in the Council Chambers between 6 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday. 

Doran has been with the school district since 1966. He served as a teacher and department head at Berkeley High School until his retirement from teaching in 1998. He has been department chair for the Art Department, and helped develop it into the Visual and Performing Arts Department.  

He then ran successfully for the Board of Education, where he has sat for the past eight years.  

Doran has also served in the Berkeley Federation of Teachers where he has held every office except president. He has also been advisor to the BHS Yellow Jacket newspaper for five years. 

It’s back to the vision thing Wednesday night for the citizens panel helping formulate a new plan for downtown Berkeley. 

The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee will meet at 7 p.m. to hear what visions members have formulated to serve as guideposts for planning in the recently expanded downtown area. 

Committee members broke off a discussion of detailed planning concepts two weeks ago because they said they felt they hadn’t given enough attention to formulating an overall vision for the future of the city center.  

Planning staff under Matt Taecker, the consultant hired to formulate the plan, will present a synthesis of the essays that members drafted after the earlier session. 

The plan and the larger guidelines resulted from a city lawsuit challenging university plans that include the addition of a million square feet of UC Berkeley within the downtown area. 

In addition to describing their visions for the downtown, committee members will hear an update on the plans by the university and a Boston hotelier to build a high-rise hotel and conference center at the northeast corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street. 

Carpenter & Company is developing plans for a complex at the site that now houses a Bank of America branch. Condominiums will also included in the project, which will become the tallest building constructed in downtown Berkeley in recent decades. 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. on the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

The cities of Berkeley and Oakland teamed up Monday to host a one-stop service fair called Project Homeless Connect. 

Targeted at the transient adult homeless population, the event coincided with the opening of the Berkeley-Oakland-Alameda County 100-bed winter shelter at the Oakland Army Base. 

With rain falling, 500 homeless people turned up at the Howie Harp Center in Oakland for hot meals, haircuts, laundry services and other forms of assistance. 

Philip Mangano, executive director of the Federal United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, and Oakland City Councilmember Nancy Nadel praised the Bay Area for taking the lead in collaborating among cities, counties and the federal government on projects. 

Modeled on a similar project in San Francisco, Homeless Connect brought together 42 human service providers who provided medical and dental services, sign-ups for General Assistance, Medi-Cal and food stamps, jobs and job training, referrals to shelters, transitional housing and drug and alcohol programs and informational legal services among others. 

“Since most of the homeless population is transient between Berkeley and Oakland, the City of Berkeley proposed to the City of Oakland that we collaborate on this together,” said Julie Sinai, senior aide to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, who worked on the project with Jane Metcalfe and Andrew Wicker of Berkeley’s Homeless Commission. 

“We worked closely with Oakland to bring together city and county government, UC Berkeley, social, mental, educational and health services under one roof,” Sinai said. “Service providers and mobile homeless outreach vans helped tremendously to connect the homeless with this program.” 

Dana Perez St. Denis, spokesperson for the Oakland Department of Human Services, said, “Five hundred men and women got access to eye-glasses, foot-care, massages, showers, drug and alcohol counseling and many other services. We signed sixty people up for lifelong medical. We also gave out warm coats, sleeping bags, tents and hygiene kits which will help people to stay warm. The hot items of the day were the meals and the clothes but it was the massages which made them feel really cared for.” 

The Oakland Army base building is being prepared for use and will be opened as a winter shelter for the homeless on Nov. 20. People staying at the winter shelter will be treated to a sit-down Thanksgiving Dinner at the Marriott Convention Center. 

St. Denis added that the project provided opportunities for the homeless to get into transitional housing which laid the foundation for either returning home or finding permanent placements.  

Oakland conducted two similar projects in the past which helped more than 500 homeless people. 

Berkeley held its first Youth Connect program in April which attracted over 50 of the city’s transient homeless youth. The city will be hosting its second Youth Connect program on Dec. 4 in collaboration with the Youth Emergency Assistance Hostel (YEAH!) situated in the premises of the Lutheran Church on 1744 University Ave. 

YEAH!’s doors will be opening to the homeless youth for winter shelter on Nov. 20.  

Metcalfe told the Planet that young people often avoided adult shelters. 

Started by four Berkeley women in the fall of 2002, YEAH! provides seasonal shelter to Berkeley’s homeless youth, along with hot showers, peanut butter sandwiches, and cough syrups.  

SAN ELIZARIO, Texas—Residents of this hardscrabble town on the Mexican border are feeling jumpy and under siege. Since 9/11, border immigration enforcement and drug interdiction have been swept into the war on terror, with chilling effects. 

One recent night an armed skybox with a night-vision camera loomed over backyards, manned by a soldier returned from Iraq near the Kuwait border. His partner packed a Beretta, with a couple of ropes of extra ammunition around his neck. They are among 6,000 National Guard soldiers sent to the border in President Bush’s Operation Jump Start. 

At Ray Carrillo’s welding yard, neighbors talk about the Guard. They also talk about citizen militias like the Minutemen—a local one is called the Border Regulators—which have appeared. And they talk about the sheriff, who detained more than 800 undocumented persons at roadblocks earlier this year, and turned them over to the Border Patrol. Deputies even asked U.S. citizens who looked Mexican to present papers, according to residents who say they were asked. 

Border resident 

One day during the sheriff’s roadblocks, Carrillo, a U.S. Navy veteran, stood amid machinery and tankers under repair and barking dogs. He pulled out his cell phone and called the Spanish-language TV station in El Paso as neighbors and workmen were being picked off. It was a cry for help or at least for some attention from the wider world. 

“I’ve lived here 24 years, and there’s been nothing like this before,” says Carrillo, a 36-year-old father of two. 

This part of San Elizario began as a rough colonia, unimproved lots where families have seen water come to houses only in the last few years. Progress in making colonias a decent place to live has come hard, but now people are scared. Households have always been a mix of citizens, legal residents and undocumented relatives. In other colonias east of El Paso—with names like Agua Dulce, Sparks, Horizon, Montana Vista—residents say during the months of the sheriff’s traffic stops they brought food and diapers to houses where fathers had been taken by authorities and mothers didn’t dare go into the streets. Priests reported churches vacant. A clinic usually bursting with the uninsured stood empty of families, the sick unattended. 

Today those who are undocumented, and relatives, remain uneasy. Around San Elizario the occasional La-Z-Boy or old sofa in a yard sits empty. “People used to walk around more, used to walk down along the edge of the cotton field over there along the river for exercise, late in the day,” says mechanic Jessie Rubio, 46, a friend of Carrillo’s. Rubio’s 11-year-old son, Jose Luis, tinkered with a car engine, and a lone, white egret was the only other creature visible in the expanse to the line that marks the border. 

“What if a Minuteman mistakes me and shoots me?” Rubio asked. Then there’s the Guard. “They can make a mistake with somebody taking a stroll, because now there’s too many guns and too many people. Somebody will say, ‘I’m an American, you can’t tell me what to do,’ and there’ll be trouble. Sometimes you get mad when you get asked so much for papers. You feel racism starting to climb. You can feel the tension.” 

National Guard and Border Patrol spokesmen reiterate that soldiers have authority only to call in the Border Patrol, not to arrest suspicious persons. Yet on the ground, fear of running into a soldier and being challenged is greater than running into a Border Patrol agent. Partly this is because agents are familiar, but the soldiers are not. Partly it’s because residents see soldiers at war on TV every day, pictured amid explosions and in combat, then, disconcertingly, see them behind their back yards. 

Residents say they are concerned that soldiers who are trained for war, or recently returned from war, may have a mind-set that doesn’t belong in the neighborhood. Veterans Affairs Secretary R. James Nicholson told The Washington Post in October 2005 that 12 percent of returning troops from Iraq and Afghanistan seen at Veterans Administration facilities suffered from some degree of post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Suzanne Dennis, who served in Baghdad as a public affairs specialist with the Texas National Guard, dismisses anxiety about stressed-out soldiers on the line. “They just switch gears. If you can’t switch, you don’t belong there.” 

Nevertheless, for those in houses near the line, living in the zone now brings a sensation of the ground shifting under their feet. “It just clicked,” says Carrillo about the moment when the roadblocks were in full swing and the Guard was beginning to arrive. “It’s illegal to ask somebody for papers without suspicion of a crime. It’s not right for people to be afraid to come out of their houses.” His wife wants to move, but Carrillo is deciding to stick around, staying in touch with rights groups, monitoring, listening, “protecting my rights, my kids, my neighbors.” 

Neighbor Jessie Rubio votes, and says he is pleased when the Border Patrol busts drug runners, who, he says, “could hurt my son.” But Rubio feels less ownership of his neighborhood now, questions why it’s feeling like a front line and senses danger. “In a war situation you’re looking at people and asking, ‘Friend or foe?’” 

Locals sometimes speak of an incident that happened almost a decade ago, but whose memory remains fresh. 

In 1997 Marines in an anti-drug joint task force supporting the Border Patrol shot and killed an 18-year-old American named Esequiel Hernandez as he tended family goats in rural Redford, Texas. The Marines were never charged. 

“You’re getting people coming in from different parts, the Guard and Minutemen, and here we all look the same,” worried Rubio. “In a war zone they don’t know who is who.” 

New American Media Contributing Editor Mary Jo McConahay reports on the border for The Texas Observer. This is part two of two; the Planet published part one on Oct. 13.

We’ve gotten communications from a couple of supporters of winning candidates in the recent election who claim to be shocked at the decision of the Planet’s publishers to print extra copies of our record 44-page pre-election issue and distribute them door-to-door instead of just placing them in boxes for reader pickup. Both letter writers seemed to be charging that this distribution was part of a management plot to enhance the fortunes of particular candidates. There are a number of responses which should be made to such assertions—we’ll take them in no particular order.  

First, as unattractive as it is to be a sore loser, it’s even more unattractive to be a sore winner. You won, guys, so now it’s time for the gracious speech welcoming your opponent back to the common table where political discussions take place among consenting adults. 

Second, the decision to print extra copies and contract with a door-to-door distribution agency was a marketing decision made by the advertising department. It was a big, solid paper, and they wanted to show it off. They’ve done this several times in the past in various locations: with the launch of our real estate pages, when we did special holiday issues and on other occasions. It’s true that this pre-election issue contained the paper’s editorial endorsements, as had previous issues, but it also ran a long and absolutely free campaign statement by the complainers’ candidate, Mayor Bates, whom we did not endorse. Our pre-election issues contained many exhortations about Measure A, which we supported, and no one complained about those getting around town the weekend before election day. And of course our regular commercial advertisers didn’t complain about the extra exposure. 

Third, and we won’t belabor this point excessively, the complaint about home delivery of the Planet from the chief apologist for the candidate who stole the endorsement issue of the Daily Cal out of their distribution boxes in 2002 looks a bit lame, doesn’t it? We could claim proactive self-defense, but we won’t. 

These are the minor points. More important is the apparent belief of the writers that there’s something illegitimate about independent newspapers taking editorial positions on elections. The Nov. 27 issue of The Nation contains an excellent column by Eric Alterman on this very topic. We hope to get permission to reprint it, but you can find it on the internet at www.thenation.com/ doc/20061127/alterman. 

Alterman notes that “while reporters and editors would like to believe that their readers are fully aware of the split between the news and editorial desks, in fact the distinction matters only to the minuscule minority who read the paper the way journalism professors would wish.” He claims, and based on our reading of recent letters we agree, that “most news consumers do not know or care enough to make such distinctions.”  

But careful readers of the pre-election issues of the Planet should have noticed that the most excitement among our news staff was not about the relative virtues of the candidates, but about the role played by the Chamber of Commerce’s Political Action Committee, which raised a lot of money from developer sources which it spent in largely unreported ways. That was the big election story, and it’s still going on. Many facts have yet to be uncovered. Our news staff deserves major props for tracking down the PAC’s early donor list in the Alameda County offices when the PAC neglected to file it in Berkeley. And they were appropriately careful not to let their personal opinions of candidates or ballot measures (and certainly not the opinion of the Planet’s management) color their reporting.  

Reporting on the PAC scandal seems not to have made much difference to the average Berkeley voter anyhow. As usual, name recognition and incumbency trumped almost all other factors in voter decision-making.  

Alterman dismisses the apparent potency of editorial endorsements: “Of course, editorial writers would argue that their authority rests not on any inherent influence, but on the power of their prose to persuade. But if so, why not sign your name to your argument? Lord knows, nobody reads committee-written and vetted editorials for their scintillating prose. Too often, the stentorian voice of the collective editorial acts as a condom against effective communication—a prophylactic against the accidental conception of wit or irony.” 

We had reached the same conclusion when we re-started this paper. That’s why we opted against the turgid collective editorial in favor of just having a column signed by the executive editor.  

For those of you who haven’t broken the code, if I say “we” in this space, it usually means that I’ve at least discussed the topic with the publisher over breakfast, and perhaps as well with the cynics in the newsroom, though I still reserve the right to make the final call. When I use “I” it’s usually my personal opinion. Others on the paper’s staff might or might not disagree.  

As some perceptive readers have noticed, the editorial cartoonist’s unflattering depiction of one of the mayoral candidates in the recent election was not calculated to echo my endorsement of her. Her supporters griped, but that’s the way it works. He draws the cartoons, we just print them. And just to make it even more confusing, the cartoonist is also the associate editor who works with me on the opinion pages, and together we managed to get almost all pre-election submissions into the paper eventually, whether we agreed with them (or each other) or not. 

Which brings us to Alterman’s final suggestion, again one the Planet’s gone part way to implementing already: 

“Wouldn’t most papers be immediately improved by dropping their editorial page and increasing the ideological range and informational expertise of their contributing columnists? I’ll go even further. Why not heed the examples of Britain’s universally admired (liberal) Guardian and (conservative) Economist and drop the frequently phony distinction between “fact” and “opinion”? Why not just let reporters tell us what they know to be true and how and why they know it? Such a solution would borrow what’s most engaging from the blogosphere without sacrificing the crucial function of newspapers in a democratic society.” 

Exactly. That’s why the Planet has so many columnists, including the Public Eye columnists who are unashamed participants in the political process. That’s why we devote such an ungodly number of column inches to the opinions of our readers.  

We still do require our staff news reporters to adhere to conventional American notions of objectivity in the news section, to attempt to get “all the facts” and a variety of voices into news stories. However, one of our news reporters also writes a column in which he expresses his personal opinions, which a conventional paper would never allow.  

Is this the best way to perform “the crucial function of newspapers in a democratic society”? Let’s hear from readers: Tell us what you think about this important topic. But of course we don’t promise to agree with you, or to follow your advice. 

The Zoning Adjustments Board denied the expansion of the South Berkeley Police Substation for employee lockers and vehicle storage on Thursday. 

The proposed expansion on 3192 Adeline St.—which had first been heard by ZAB on August 10, 2006—had been the subject of a long battle between the neighbors and the Berkeley Police Department. 

Some residents on the Adeline Corridor protested the project and wanted the property to be put to commercial use. 

Police Chief Doug Hambleton told the board that the BPD had met with neighbors on several occasions and had been able to come to an agreement on the facade design. 

“Although we met with opposition from certain neighbors, we need to have an increased space for the betterment of the city,” he said. “Our long-term goal is to stay in the neighborhood. If we don’t get the space, we will be required to look for another place.” 

Property owner Huck Rorick told the board that it was not feasible to put the space to commercial use at the moment. 

“If the police department is not able to extend into the space, then we are looking at an extended vacancy,” he said.  

ZAB member Bob Allen said that neighbors had expressed a lack of faith in the Police Department and had complained about the absence of police presence in the area despite the substation. 

“This use has not been a good neighbor,” he said. 

“We don’t have an officer in the building for the purpose of serving someone who walks into the front door,” Humbleton said. “That would be good but not cost-effective.” 

Board member Dean Metzger said that if the substation could not make police presence visible in the area, then it would not be of any help to neighbors.  

Sam Dyke, owner of People’s Bazaar on Adeline Street, said that the project would not add economic viability to the area. 

“Granted we need the BPD, but not in that location,” he said. “This is the main corridor, the gateway to South Berkeley. We need businesses there that will attract foot traffic.” 

Board member Jesse Anthony commented that the substation did not contribute in any way to the community and was instead a place to store junk. 

Board member Jesse Arreguin said that he would have been more compelled to support the project if there had been beat officers stationed there.  

“From what I hear, it doesn’t really address the safety issues,” he said. “The Adeline Corridor needs help. Economic development is what we need to focus on.” 

Board member Allen made the motion to deny the use permit, which was seconded by board member Anthony. The denial could be appealed to the City Council. 

Hummingbird Cafe 

ZAB continued the hearing for a carry-out food service store (no seating) in an existing commercial space at 1842 Euclid Ave. with no off-street parking to Nov. 27. 

The board asked staff to come back with more information to consider the use permit for the Hummingbird Cafe. 

Opponents of the cafe asked the board to deny the permit citing oversaturation of restaurants on Euclid Avenue. Jamal Fares, the applicant and owner of Hummingbird Cafe, said that competition was healthy and that his business was in demand. 

Rena Rickles, attorney for Fares, told the board that the cafe would not take customer orders and it would be limited to carry-out only. 

“All the food served there would be cold,” she said. “Some of it may be prepared in the backroom. Customers will be able to make their own smoothies, but the main purpose is to make it a quick-service store.” 

BIASED COVERAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your biased election coverage was way over the top. “Daily Planet” is a great name for a newspaper as it is associated with Superman, fairness and justice. It would be more truthful to re-name your paper the Environmental Daily, or the Slow Growth Gazette, or some other title that announces the context and tone of your news stories. As long as you refuse to limit the expression of your views to the editorial pages you should relinquish the proud name, and valiant memory you dishonor. 

Ronald Tauber 

• 

HEROES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Where was crime-fighting Superhero George Beier when the Chamber of Commerce PAC was disseminating lies about Kriss Worthington, Dona Spring, and Measure J? Except for a brief remark about finding it distasteful, Beier was uncharacteristically silent. Could it be that white-collar misdeeds are like Kryptonite to our hero? Yes, although Super George wanted to be a community leader, he was tragically powerless to act against the influence of his friends in the Chamber of Commerce PAC and their arsenal of lies. 

Fortunately, a mild-mannered public servant, who cannot be bought, continues to protect the people of District 7 from the PAC’s greed, and a great metropolitan newspaper in Berkeley fights for truth, justice, and the American way. The heroes walk among us, even if we don’t notice them. 

Jordan Elliot 

• 

LESS THAN TACTFUL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I felt that the less-than-flattering cartoon featuring George Beier in last Friday’s issue was also less than tactful. During the course of the campaign, I worked vigorously to re-elect Kriss Worthington so that his positive vision of District 7 and Berkeley can be propelled into motion for four more years. But the campaign is now over. While I understand and don’t dispute the financial inequity of the races in District 7, I hope that we can give credit to both candidates for the hard work they have invested into the election and into presenting their options to their constituents. Recently I have had the opportunity to run a race for an ASUC executive seat against a much better endowed candidate and lose by 219 votes, and am therefore intimately familiar with the pathology of just barely coming short. Adding insult to injury is utterly unnecessary. I hope that Berkeley is a place where we will be able to each across our barriers and work together—regardless of election outcome or difference in message—for the betterment of all. I hope Berkeley is not a place where a narrow win margin is prominently ridiculed.  

Igor Tregub 

Member, Berkeley Commission on Labor 

• 

POMPOUS AND ARROGANT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to Becky O’Malley’s wrap-up of election in the Nov. 10 issue: very interesting. Why such a condescending commentary on Raudel Wilson? “Wilson is a nice enough guy, though he’ll soon be forgotten...” 

I believe Mr. Wilson pretty courageous to challenge the Berkeley establishment knowing his chances of winning this election were slim. Did he say he is leaving politics? 

This latest comment goes hand in hand with the pompous and arrogant attitude found in most of her writings. 

Tri Ying 

• 

WARM POOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It has been 15 long months since I have dipped my body into a pool. This day, I lower myself slowly into the old swimming pool at Berkeley High which is heated to 95 degrees for the convenience of senior citizens and others who suffer from one disability or another. I am very aware, however, that this is not a pool for people who are suffering. As I look around the almost Olympic-sized pool, I see a mother tenderly holding her young daughter with Downs Syndrome so she can enjoy the pleasure of the warm water. I see a man being lowered into the pool on a mechanical chair by an aide because he obviously couldn’t get in otherwise. I see a woman with limited visual capabilities swimming with her young son. And there are others whose physical impediments are not apparent until they get out and sit in their wheelchairs. Here, also, are some of my friends with bad back ailments and structural problems to get relief from their perpetual pain. I have gone through the rigorous (the current word is “aggressive”) treatment for pancreas cancer. I have spent nine-months on a feeding tube which precluded me from swimming for fear of infecting my intravenous line. But, here I am in the water again, and the dry period I had crossed, like a desert with no oasis, is behind me. All I can feel, other than the extreme delight of being back swimming, is the good will of everybody present. As they bob up and down or swim laps, or simply stand in the shallow end with their eyes closed in meditative contentment, it seems that all their disabilities have apparently melted away, and I feel like I’m dipping my entire being into some special energy. It is not only the warmth, the lightness of my body, and the ability to move and exercise limbs that have lain stagnant in bed for months, it is also the quiet friendliness of everyone in the water—as if their generosity of spirit and wisdom that comes from suffering, and their focus on healing is surrounding me, buoying me up. Right here, in the center of old Berkeley, is a mystical healing pool – recognized by the wise for what it is, by those, whether young or old, who flock to it four or more times a week. Our senses, our hearts, and our minds cry out in sadness and indignation, because this old pool, a value beyond price, has been slated for demolition. We recognize the old pool and its healing powers as a vestige from a time, not too far past, when appearances and profit-making were not the only principles governing community life. My tears become one with the warm, salty water in which I float. I wonder why the city fathers and mothers have abandoned us all. I wonders what magic could happen for them to recognize what they are about to do before it is too late! 

Aspasia Nea 

• 

SELECTIVE ENFORCEMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Rob Browning’s arrest reminded me of a time a couple of years ago when, on a grey rainy day when I went to an ATM near the Public Safety Building and saw a car parked with both right wheels up on the sidewalk effectively blocking wheelchair access. When a uniformed officer came along, I was sure the miscreant would be issued a ticket but no, the officer simply joined the line and began bantering with the customer at the ATM window who turned out to be the Watch Commander of the Day and who, after completing his transaction, got in the offending vehicle and drove away. 

Joanne Kowalski 

• 

PACIFIC STEEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Pacific Steel Casting came first, soccer fields came second. Our organization built and is responsible for managing the soccer fields around Fifth and Harrison streets. When we lobbied to expand the number of soccer fields in this area we were well aware that the land was located in an industrial area and that a “burning pot handle” smell came from Pacific Steel Casting. 

The local youth and adult sports organizations (including the Albany Berkeley Soccer Club, Alameda Contra Costa Youth Soccer, Albany Berkeley Girl’s Softball League, East Bay Men’s Senior Soccer, etc.) understood that this West Berkeley industrial area had smells, sounds, and traffic that was not always 100 percent compatible with recreational uses. Despite this we agreed, based on our long history of operating playing fields in the area, that both uses could co-exist. In fact, people registering to play for the local youth soccer club are required to sign a document acknowledging the above. 

While we obviously cannot control what individuals may do, I was distressed to read that people are trying to leverage the soccer fields as a reason why Pacific Steel Casting should be required to clean up it’s emissions. In general, the soccer fields and West Berkeley industrial community have been good neighbors for many years. 

Pacific Steel Casting and all businesses should do what they can to minimize environmental pollution, however, the users of the fields (and the skatepark) were well aware of the situation when they lobbied to build the facility. We all acknowledged and accepted the neighborhood environmental issues that affected the site at the time it was converted from vacant industrial land to playing fields. It was a central issue in the city’s decision to purchase the property for recreational uses. Interestingly enough, the polluter that most affected the fields was the City of Berkeley’s own transfer station. 

As for concerned parents they are certainly able to exclude their child from any game played in this area (although they will find that a rather large number of playing fields are located alongside highways or in industrial areas) and request that their child not be assigned a team that practices at these fields. 

Doug Fielding 

Chairperson, Association of Sports Field Users 

• 

WHAT TO DO  

WITH A BROKEN POT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The political landscape is quivering with anticipation. Voices of portent emanate from federal legislators and the loudest, or at least those given accommodation in print and electronic media, come from leaders of the party that attained majority in the last election. Alas, regarding what to do about the mess in Iraq these veteran legislators are not in harmony; some say leave, others say leave bit by bit, others say leave but first stop the civil war, others say divide Iraq and leave, others want to win, to send more troops and blah, blah, blah. This sad cacophony does not depress me nearly as much as the underlying unacknowledged arrogance, paternalism and Pilate-like washing of hands. 

Forget why we invaded Iraq. We did it; in Colin Powell’s simile, we broke the pot. Most of what’s being said now amounts to picking up the pieces gluing the pot back together, one way or another, even if the pieces don’t fit which means by force if necessary. 

If I entered a home without being invited and broke a pot because I misjudged the conditions in the home, what would my mother expect from me? “Marvin” she’d say “apologize, make restitution and get out of there!” 

Oh, how I wish for a legislator to demand that the 110th Congress behave as my mother would want me to. 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

ANTI-SEMITIC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I can’t imagine why the author of the anti-Semitic “You Can’t Visit Any Other Country Haikus” didn’t bother to sign his or her name. 

Renata Polt 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The name of the author was mistakenly omitted. His name is Arnold Passman. 

• 

KPFA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Today I had the pleasure of voting for a candidate I support. Aaron Aarons critiques “our” radio from the left, as opposed to the middling go-along-ism of the other candidacies—wanting to improve relations of people directly involved, reportage/coverage of the area, response to the community especially to provide programming that serves more of us, recognizing the constantly reducing allegiance of the faithful and the income, thereby. 

The discussions in the Planet have done little to clear up the mysteries of the difficulties the network has. The difficulty is really the approach, which is complaisant by comparison to what it needs to be. Once a healthy left direction would be defined it’d serve to get the programming to advance our causes, our interests, and our educations and enjoyment. Absent a clear commitment to other than the Lou Hill pacifisms and such there is no helpful program such as Aarons is proposing. 

Norma J F Harrison 

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SUBSCRIBE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The good burghers are up in arms. The mayor's money man Mal Burnstein screams “Illegal!” “Violation of trust!” and “You owe the city an apology!” and downtown developer spokesperson Mim Hawley carries on interminably about the “unabashed adulation of the Planet's favored candidates and its unrestrained attacks on their rivals” (Letters, Nov. 14). It's a no-holds-barred fight between established power and a give-’em-hell local publisher, just like the old days when freedom of the press actually meant something in this country. 

I subscribe to KQED and KPFA, but so far there’s no Pacifica for newspapers. Until that happens, I'm so happy to see this outbreak of a free press in the midst of the nation-wide corporate media takeover that I don't see how I can afford not to shell out 20 bucks a month to subscribe. Here's my credit card number and expiration date (um, please don’t print that part) and no, I don’t need you to actually deliver me a private copy, I can pick it up on the corner. 

Bonnie Hughes 

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OAKPAC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Sadly, I fear Paul Rockwell doth protest too much in his Commentary, which stated that OakPAC’s challenge to Oakland’s campaign reform law has left us in a state where “we have no way of knowing who would have won a legal, fair election in District 2.” 

The winner of the November election in District 2 was Pat Kernighan. She was also the top vote getter in the June primary and was the top vote getter in the 2005 Special Election. Aimee Allison failed to get enough votes to top Kernighan three times in the past year and a half. Mr. Rockwell’s implication that the November election was somehow extraordinary and that it would be intellectually dishonest to believe Pat the victor smacks of sour grapes more than a quest for truth, for Mr. Rockwell was a strong advocate in print for Ms Allison and was very supportive of her campaign.  

We should get clear facts: the OakPAC action, while indeed unfortunate, was not illegal. Indeed, anyone is permitted to petition the court, and OakPAC’s ability to convince a judge to stay Oakland’s law was, again, not illegal.c OakPAC spent money on one mailer before Mr. Dellums came forward and admirably brokered a fair agreement. 

One must also note that Allison’s independent expenditures, one funded generously by a San Francisco attorney, came after the public announcement of the Dellums deal. By the end of the campaign, pro-Allison independent expenditures surpassed those made on behalf of Kernighan. I also do not believe that Mr. Rockwell actually knows whether pro-Allison expenditures were made to “match” what OakPAC did, or whether they were made in the same spirit of campaign opportunism originally embraced by the Chamber. The fact that these expenditures did nothing to advance Allison’s chances of victory may lead Mr. Rockwell to reconsider the entire thesis of his Commentary. 

Before one accuses the Chamber of “destroying” an election, one may also want to examine the whole story, which includes the hours and hours of work put in by volunteers on both sides. Since Mr. Rockwell is a writer, perhaps he overvalues the impact of the written word in shiny mailers. The fact remains that Pat won for the third time because more voters appreciated her solid record of actual accomplishment in District 2, over the mere words, promises and ideas, albeit energetically delivered, of Aimee Allison. 

Jerome Peters 

Oakland 

• 

HISTORY LESSON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ted Vincent needs to learn his history when he paraphrases: “Berkeley was one of the few cities of any size in the state to remain solidly in the Republican ranks in yesterday’s election” ran the lead in the Nov. 9, 1932 Berkeley Gazette report on the Franklin D. Roosevelt defeat of Herbert Hoover.”  

It is not funny to learn how so many people have a skewed vision of the history of political parties in this country. Until Roosevelt’s election, most blacks in the United States were Republicans. Why? because they are the party of Lincoln, the ones who freed the slaves, and who stood for civil rights during and after reconstruction. It would have been completely understandable that the liberals of that day were the Republicans. For what were the alternatives? The Democrats? The American Socialist Party? True libs then were the party that stood up most resoundingly for civil rights. It was the New Deal that took blacks and social liberals to Roosevelt. Certainly, Mr. Vincent could have mentioned that many Democrats, until the 1960s, were southern, white segregationists. The complete flip-flop in our country on moral values is one of the reasons for the current make-up of our political parties. Although I am not a Republican, it should be noted the first black to serve in the U.S. Congress was a Republican: Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi.  

John Parman 

CONGRATULATIONS 

Dear Democrats, 

I’m writing to congratulate you on the success of your party to win both the Senate and the House. I could not be more pleased for you. 

My analysis of your victory seems not to be the standard analysis in the news and I would like to ask you to consider my thinking. I think you have been selected by the American people to return democracy to this country and get us out of Iraq. There is no other explanation for the victory of your party. Many Republicans switched sides, most Independents switched sides, and only their fear of the destruction of the economy due to the War and the fear of Government intrusion into their private lives could have made that happen. There are many ways to play on this, but none I have heard so far will answer the desire of most Americans for freedom and justice. May I suggest that your party re-read the Constitution of the United States and re-visit the Oath of Office they have all taken. The reason I suggest this is I believe all of the mischief that has been done over the last six years has been the results of gaming the Constitution by men and women who have lost their idealism and have behaved as if their election was more important than doing their primary duty to defend the Constitution. 

The war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, torture, and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 could only be considered Constitutional by people whose powers of rationalization far exceed the normal citizen and that is why the national political landscape has temporarily changed. Please, please, please make defending the Constitution and getting us out of Iraq your party’s primary goals. To that end I suggest you do not let Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and George Bush return to their private lives without paying a big price of trying to change this country by destroying its Constitution. If they do not face censure or worse, our Constitution will permanently be a target for power hungry citizens with the means to become part of the government. You have been blessed with the power to become a savior of our democracy or just a power. Please use your position for preserving democracy. 

Harry Wiener

Will operation of the Berkeley Public Library (BPL) be outsourced to a private, for-profit agency? Will the next library director be another pro-RFID autocrat with little respect for staff and the public? The signs for a good outcome look cloudy, because the Board of Library Trustees (BOLT) search for a new director is using a bad process, the wrong people, and a search firm whose principals are active advocates of outsourcing library operations from top to bottom. 

Bad process 

BOLT has set up a process that has made most decisions without effective public input, including creation of three committees with no clearly-defined decision-making powers, and selection of a search firm, Dubberly and Garcia. BOLT president Susan Kupfer appears to be making most of the decisions on her own, without the library trustees’ participation.  

The names and resumes of the reported four final candidates were not released as of Tuesday, Nov. 14—even though they are to be presented to the public on Saturday, Nov. 18. The timetable for replacing the librarian who left in early June is much too fast for the necessary considered evaluation and discussion—and is a set-up for minimal public input. What’s the hurry? We have an interim director. 

Flash: We learned on Nov. 15 the names of the final four candidates—far too late for considered review and discussion. We understand from a reliable source that all are from RFID libraries, except the candidate from Oakland, where RFID is being removed from one trial branch.  

Wrong people 

The primary group advising BOLT on the selection of a new library director is a seven-member advisory committee of librarians from other jurisdictions, a majority of whom have either advocated use of privacy-threatening RFID or are associated with libraries that have installed it. What chance is there that the librarians’ committee would approve a candidate who understands the downsides of RFID and who would consider removing it from BPL’s books? 

Committee member Susan Hildreth, currently state librarian and, until June 30, 2004, head of San Francisco Public Library (SFPL), and Luis Herrera, SFPL’s current head, sought RFID funding in 2004 and 2005 that the San Francisco Board of supervisors did not approve.  

Additional members include Susan Hardy of Alameda Public Library, which recently installed the technology, and Carmen Gutierrez of Oakland Public Library, which installed RFID at one branch.  

Hildreth and Herrera have a reputation of being hostile to public openness. For example, under Hildreth, SFPL had more complaints filed with the city’s official open government watchdog, the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force (SOTF)—and was found in violation—more often than any other city department. The SOTF referred one of the violations – failure to provide information, related to the library’s RFID advocacy, about staff repetitive stress injuries—to the district attorney and Ethics Commission for enforcement in October, 2004.  

Outsourcing advocacy 

Dubberly and Garcia have been engaged as the search firm—but this did not come to BOLT for formal action, and the public record does not reveal the cost or who is paying. 

Who are these folks? Ron Dubberly and his business partner, June Garcia, are two of the current five members on the Advisory Council of LSSI (Library Systems and Services, Inc.), a Germantown, MD company known for helping libraries outsource.  

Dubberly wrote an article, “Why Outsourcing is Our Friend,” published in the January, 1998 edition of American Libraries magazine. The article praises a 1997 contract between LSSI and Riverside County, Calif., to manage and operate the county’s Riverside County Library System (RCLS). Dubberly wrote that the county librarian is “the only remaining library staffer employed by local authorities. Everyone else who now works at [RCLS] serves at the discretion of Library Systems and Services.” Further, he wrote, “a private-sector company is better positioned to serve the public more easily and efficiently without the bureaucracy.” 

Norman Oder provides a different view in his Library Journal (LJ) article, “When LSSI Comes to Town: Public libraries, private company: the outsourcing compromise,” (Oct. 1, 2004, pp. 36-40).Oder suggests that there are questions about funding and service quality. He references an American Library Association (ALA) report that said future hires received lower pay and there are ”vague indications of increasing workloads…”  

Other revelations in the LJ article: LSSI prefers having all library employees work for the company. “We have much more control. We can incent them,” says [LSSI CEO Frank] Pezzanite. “If an employee does a good job, we like to give them a $5 gift certificate to Borders Books or Mrs. Fields.”  

The article states, “The loss of civil service rights and pension vesting has alarmed unions and library groups.” Additionally, “LSSI’s record suggests tensions between a profit-seeking company and a public agency. Savings may go to the profits instead of services,” and “the library may be less publicly accountable.” 

Dubberly has not merely advised LSSI, the LJ article says. LSSI actually hired members of its own Advisory Council, including Ron Dubberly and others, “to help LSSI clients on projects.” 

Hype and secrecy 

The 2004 LJ article states, “Some LSSI marketing claims are, at best, imprecise.” As an example, it reports, “a flyer distributed at the New Jersey Conference of Mayors last April said ‘LSSI is currently managing libraries for these communities’; the 20 communities listed represented seven contracts, two of which had expired by that time.”  

In a section headed “Compromising Transparency,” the article indicates “Former employees say LSSI has required them to sign a nondisclosure agreement.” One contract requires Linden, NJ, to portray the early ending of its LSSI contract in the “most positive manner possible.” Another reported example: “Because of a contract clause preventing current Jersey City Public Library (JCPL) top managers from discussing LSSI, it’s hard to evaluate fully LSSI’s performance at JCPL, where it operated from 1999 to 2001.” 

Conclusion 

Bad process, including a hasty timetable and secrecy; the wrong people on the advisory committee, and a search firm with connections to a secretive outsourcing company -- these are unlikely to produce a good result for Berkeley.  

Peter Warfield is executive director of the Library Users Association (libraryusers2004@yahoo.com). Gene Bernardi and Warfield are SuperBOLD members.  

The four library director finalists are scheduled to make presentations to the public in the Story Room, fourth floor, main library, on Saturday Nov. 18 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. A trustees meeting with public comment is to follow. 

The library’s Nov. 15 press release announcement says the four finalists for director of Library Services are Donna Corbeil, deputy director at the Solano County Library; Gerry Garzon, deputy director at Oakland Public Library; Valerie G. Gross, director of the Howard County, Library, Maryland; and Rivkah K. Sass, library director of the Omaha Public Library, Nebraska. 

Pleased as I am with Ms. Pelosi’s accession to power and gratified as I am by her warm ties to the Jewish community, as reported recently in your newspaper, I am less encouraged by her obeisance to the Israel-right-or-wrong stance of AIPAC. 

It is generally acknowledged that the turmoil in the Middle East is today the greatest threat facing world peace, and that the Israel-Palestine conflict is at the heart of this turmoil. Successive administrations have made token gestures toward resolving this problem, all of them defeated by the absolute refusal of Israel to relinquish conquered territory and by the bad faith of the American side, which purports to be an honest broker but which in fact—thanks in large measure to AIPAC—is in fact Israel’s chief advocate (as well as financier and arms supplier).  

What is most tragic is the fact that the Israel-Palestine conflict could be ended virtually overnight by an Israeli withdrawal to its 1967 borders and compliance with innumerable UN resolutions demanding that Israel bow to international law on the treatment of refugees. The situation is no longer what it was twenty or ten or even five years ago. Realities have sunk in. Every surrounding Arab nation, including Lebanon and Syria, would today recognize Israel’s existence and exchange ambassadors; Hamas would abandon its absolutist bargaining point; Iran would grudgingly accept the reality of the situation, even if it continued to fulminate. The old Israeli argument of the “existential threat” is simply obsolete. Equally obsolete is its claim on Palestinian (or Syrian) territory for military defense purposes: rockets have long since obviated the significance of “high ground” for artillery emplacements. 

We are left with the picture of a country that simply cannot bring itself, regardless of cost, to give up tiny patches of territory once seen as the seeds of a Greater Israel extending from the Mediterranean to the precious water of the Jordan River. That dream has been definitively abandoned. Yet these remaining tiny patches of land are—aside from the cold fact that they belong to Palestine—an absolute impediment to the formation of a coherent Palestinian state. We now see in Israel a country that has—perhaps deliberately—painted itself into a corner by settling hundreds of thousands of colonists on Palestinian land: What Israeli politician could have the courage to bring them home? Who, if not the United States, would pay the billions of dollars needed for their resettlement? These ugly facts of internal Israeli politics—and not an “existential threat” from the outside—are the stumbling-blocks to peace in the Middle East. 

And this is where we return to the role of the United States, to Nancy Pelosi. and to my pessimistic view of the future. As long as our government is populated by AIPAC sycophants, as long as we carry water for every corrupt administration in Tel Aviv, as long as we supply cluster bombs to the Israeli air force, as long as we “regret” massacres of women and children in Gaza, as long as we strangle democratically-elected Palestinian governments that refuse to toe Israel’s line, in short: as long as we complacently foster the bloody and tragic status quo in Palestine, nothing will change. The Israelis are patient: forty years have gone by, Israel is prospering thanks to an endless influx of charity from its American friend, perhaps in another five or ten or forty years the Palestinians will have been ground down into compliance. Does Israel’s recalcitrance have worldwide ramifications? Let the Americans take care of them, just as they took care of Iraq and, with a bit of nudging, will hopefully soon take care of Iran! 

Nancy Pelosi and a new Democratic congress could exert some influence toward a sane and even-handed American policy for Palestine. The United States alone is in a position to hold Israel’s nose to the grindstone. Sadly, your recent article about her would seem to indicate that nothing is going to change. 

George Aid is a Berkeley resident.

“The past is prologue,” wrote William Shakespeare. 

When a courageous candidate loses a fair and free election, there is a natural desire to lick wounds and forget. But unfair elections should never be forgotten. Our future depends on setting the record straight, rectifying wrongs. 

In the last week of the election in District 2 in Oakland, a series of misleading and hostile articles appeared in both the Oakland Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle. The anti-Aimee Allison columns by Heather MacDonald (Tribune) and Chip Johnson (the Chronicle) include two erroneous claims: that Allison sent out “hit pieces,” a negative mailer against Kernighan; that Allison organized a “push-poll,” a phone bank that spread negative information. Both writers, one a columnist, one a reporter, whitewash the role of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, which defied the will of Oakland’s voters by overturning a measure establishing campaign limits. And both writers—in contradiction to the actual record—portray Kernighan as an upright, positive campaigner, while they transform Allison into the villain of dirty politics. 

The Chip Johnson column is directed against the so-called “Allison flyer.” According to Johnson, a new, little-known group called “Oaklanders for New Leadership” published a negative mailer. Johnson calls it a hit piece. Then comes the sleight of hand. In the next sentence, Johnson refers to the “Allison flyer.” Suddenly, Allison is linked to a group over which she has no control, a group completely independent from Allison’s campaign. Johnson continues to link Allison to outside groups the way McCarthyites used to link Democrats to Communists. Once the link is established, he calls Allison “the aggressor,” and charges her with dirty campaign tactics. 

In response to Allison’s denial of the charges, Johnson sneers “Uh-huh.” It’s a sleazy way of making unsubstantiated charges—that Allison is a liar, that she broke the law (it is illegal for candidates to collaborate with independent groups)—without bearing responsibility for his claims. Talk about hit-pieces! 

There are no “uh-huhs” following Kernighan’s many claims about her faithfulness to campaign ethics. The press has two different yardsticks: one for Kernighan, another for the African-American candidate.  

Johnson’s column includes a second, wild accusation, that “her campaign has run push polls, the kind made famous by Presidential advisor Karl Rove.”  

What are the facts? Allison never conducted a push poll. Such tactics contradict not only the spirit, but the actual record of her two-year campaign. The image of Allison as a negative campaigner, a hit-piece candidate, was manufactured by hostile and unethical columnists in the last days of the campaign.  

The press attacks are not only misleading, they are defamatory and can only be seen as an attempt to undermine Allison’s career and dash the hopes of young Oaklanders who became involved in civic life for the first time. 

MacDonald charges 

The same kind of charges and innuendoes appear in Heather MacDonald’s Oakland Tribune articles. Without investigating the facts, MacDonald—in the last moments of the election, when Allison is helpless to respond—associates Allison with push polls and negative literature. 

Reporters have a responsibility to check facts and demand evidence. Yet in three successive articles, one day after another, MacDonald parrots the vindictive claims by OakPAC chair Michael Colbruno and Kernighan.  

History 

Not only are the major claims about Allison unsubstantiated, they are false, contrary to evidence that was available to both writers. Neither MacDonald or Johnson took time to look over the record of either candidate, to compare the literature. 

If we review Allison’s literature as far back as 2005, her campaign is positive, sometimes inspirational. Her pamphlets include concrete proposals for change, and the strong critique of Kernighan policy failures is reasonable and fair. In view of the homicide rate in Oakland and the failure of the City Council to deal with crime effectively; in view of Kernighan’s claim that she is a successful crime-fighter, Allison’s criticism of Kernighan’s failure of policy is reasonable, and actually long overdue.  

Contrary to both Johnson and MacDonald, it is Kernighan, not Allison, that has a documented record of dirty campaigns. Did MacDonald even review her own newspaper’s archives?  

On April 30, 2005, in the midst of Kernighan’s first campaign, the popular, respected writer Peggy Stinnett published an article entitled: “Council Candidate Takes Campaign to the Gutter.” Pretty strong language from a popular, moderate editor. The subhead reads: “Kernighan Takes the Low Road with political hit piece.” 

There were four victims of Kernighan attacks. Aimee Allison was one of them. “Kernighan’s piece disparages four of them in an outright attack.” Stinnett, unlike so many reporters who avoid the issue, comments on the racist implications of Kernighan’s literature. She wrote, “The flier tried to smear her opponents as unqualified to hold office.” 

Stinnett’s commentary on Kernighan was based on the actual literature produced by Kernighan. The columns of MacDonald and Johnson are based on wild accusations contrary to the historical record.  

Both writers also misrepresent the role and views of Mayor-elect Ron Dellums. Their articles, through a misuse of context, give the impression that Dellums’ known aversion to negative campaigning is directed at Allison. Johnson obscures the issue by blending and confusing separate issues. The reference to Dellums’ general view about campaigning in the context of Johnson’s false charges against Allison is an attempt to mislead readers into thinking that Dellums blames Allison for the breakdown of ethics under the impact of money!  

I called Dellums’ office to get the full story. According to both Deborah Ford and Mike Healey, Dellums never charged Allison with negative campaigning. He was, of course, upset that independent groups, who were not party to his negotiated truce with the Chamber, spent money beyond the limits. But Johnson puts Dellums’ views in an anti-Allison context, and the net result is that Dellums is misrepresented. 

It is not a minor error. The press in the U.S. has a long history of fomenting suspicion, pitting black leaders against each other. The Tribune and Chronicle columns smack of what Malcolm X once called “white-press journalism.” 

There is an old story, a joke about Lyndon Johnson, a crafty politician who was known for hardball politics in Texas. As the story goes, Johnson came up to his campaign manager and said, “I want you to get our reporters to put out a story that my opponent has sex with farm animals.” 

“What?!” the manager exclaimed. “The charge is false.” 

“I know that. I just want to hear him deny it.” 

The story captures the essence of the anti-Allison campaign. Allison was forced to defend herself against outrageous charges in the last two days of the contest. Her detractors in the media just wanted to hear her deny them.  

What galls me most of all about both MacDonald and Johnson is their holier-than-thou attitude. They pretend to be neutral interpreters of events, trying to clean up dirty politics. But their own hit-pieces, presented as “reporting,” are more damaging than any campaign literature.  

MacDonald and Johnson do not tell their readers that the corporations for which they write are members of the Chamber of Commerce, the organization which played the primary role bringing dirty money into the contest. Both the Tribune and the Chronicle opposed the Clean Money Initiative. Is it any wonder that Tribune and Chronicle employees whitewashed the OakPAC and the Chamber? 

Is it possible, in the present climate, to reach higher ground? Dellums’ call for a “new day in Oakland” is a great challenge for all of us. But there can be no real peace and harmony, mutual respect, until the falsehoods about Allison are retracted. Healing begins with respect for the truth. 

Paul Rockwell is an Oakland writer.

The university recently unveiled its plan to bulldoze the berms (mounds) on either side of the Community Garden in People’s Park. In an effort to allow police to see through the park without getting out of their cars, they want to sacrifice the natural boundary that separates the park from traffic and city bustle. People’s Park, already much less green space than we need in such a populated area, is an important refuge for our collective psyches to reconnect with nature.  

At the People’s Park Community Advisory Board meeting on Monday, the chiefs of police from both UC and Berkeley police departments showed up with practically matching letters, written at the request of the university, explaining that they need sight lines clear of “vegetation” to police from the streets. While that may help in patrolling prison yards, our parks and neighborhoods are not prisons and should not be treated as such. We reap much social benefit from common meeting spaces, quiet meditation nooks, romantic benches for new loves, and opportunities for chance meetings with hummingbirds or blossoms. We mustn’t turn our places of beauty and freedom into desolations because of fear. 

People’s Park is not a dangerous place. I’ve gardened there most every week for years. It’s got a bad reputation. Everyone talks about all the drug dealing there which I’m convinced is the advertising that actually creates it. I don’t like drug dealing in the park, it should be legalized and sold elsewhere. In the mean time though, it is kept down by the presence of people and by police on foot and bikes that actually enter the park. And even still drugs are victimless crimes and don’t threaten you. 

But in People’s Park you may encounter people different from yourself. Real people with real problems that really exist in our society may be present. This is an opportunity. People’s Park is our social experiment in sharing, in tending common land, in integrating races and classes and philosophies.  

The Park can surely be improved. We welcome efforts in the future, like those of the past, that create and add to the park. Events, gardening, picnics, art projects, fix it up days, etc. all improve our neighborhood. And the berms themselves can be recreated. The “berms” are the piles of asphalt torn up from the parking lot and put on the edges of the garden. They now miraculously host a variety of plants and trees including mature oaks, plums, maple, apple, agave, roses, manzanitas, and many small plants. They are a lesson in how to transform our urban concrete cancer back into productive living land. Imagine students of Permaculture Gardening recreating the berms retaining their ecological, historical and social value. 

I’d like to believe that our human consciousness is finally awakening to our innate connection and need for nature. Berkeley’s schools have all started gardens. Our own Joanna Macy talks of “The Great Turning” as the “essential adventure of our time: the shift from the Industrial Growth Society to a life sustaining civilization.” People’s Park was a step in that awakening to the importance of the environment and remains a living urban oasis.  

It is all wrong for the university to think they can bulldoze this relevant and large portion of the park. Time and again we are called upon to stick up for our history, our volunteer creations, our right to land and community. How things are done in People’s Park is very important. If the university comes in some morning with bulldozers, no public process and destroys the trees, history and calm in the park, it will create a disaster like the 1991 volleyball court debacle that cost two million dollars and threw our neighborhood into a crisis. 

Stop the bulldozers. Speak up at the next meeting of the Community Advisory Board, Monday Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. at the Trinity Methodist Church, 2362 Bancroft Ave. (below Dana). Defend People’s Park. Planning meeting in the park Sun Nov. 19, 4 p.m., Council Grove (northwest corner of the park). 

Terri Compost is a Berkeley resident.

“We need to wait until after election time to see if we can get any changes to the law, meanwhile, we will do what we can under existing conditions.”  

—Deborah Badhia, Downtown Berkeley Association, For the Berkeley Business District Network, Oct. 5, 2006 

Dear Chief Hambleton, Oct. 5, 2006 

The BBDN (Berkeley Business District Network) appreciates your taking time to meet with us yesterday. We remain very concerned about street behavior problems throughout the City. Telegraph and the downtown district continue to be heavily impacted by inappropriate behavior. There is a very large number of people with mental health problems who are shifting between our districts… 

In our meeting, it was helpful to review the content of 13.36.015, one of the current laws related to the enforcement of street behavior. As action items, we committed to the following: 

The districts will update and distribute our Crime Watch brochure. We will publicize the use of 981-9900 as the call in for all non-emergency reports such as sleepers…”* 

While the rest of the nation dealt a resounding blow to political business as usual, the citizens of Berkeley not only gave a resounding endorsement to the status quo, they are all tucked in for another winter of hounding the homeless. 

The same business interests that originated the anti-poor, anti-homeless legislation and street sweeps of the last two decades are poised to strike again with both the usual tactics; chasing people from one end of town to the other, arresting people under current laws, and familiar calls for new, more powerful legislative “tools” to help criminalize the poor and mentally ill. 

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates’ administration began with 240 shelter beds, and dedicates itself to “maintaining” those shelter beds. Translation? No more shelter beds in Berkeley. Despite an enormous low-cost housing deficit growing in tandem with the destruction of single room occupancy housing and its replacement with high-end condos, which often function as weekday bedrooms for people who work in the city but whose family digs are in Concord, Berkeley has no plans for the people it has huddled in doorways except to have a huddle of its own with the business interests, the police, and the city council, and produce some new, creative legislation to put them away for good. 

Long-time Berkeley residents recognize that crackdowns on Berkeley’s poor come with the holidays as sure as Salvation Army bell-ringers and plastic Santas. But the post-election holiday season, if Deborah Badhia’s letter is any indication, has the poor and homeless right in its cross-hairs. 

* Letter from Deborah Badhia of the Downtown Berkeley Association to the Berkeley Business District Network, Phil Kamlarz, City Manager of the City of Berkeley, and Berkeley Chief of Police Doug Hambleton. 

Carol Denney is a musician and activist. 

On Monday, Nov. 6, I witnessed an encounter between a Berkeley policeman and two women that culminated in what I considered unnecessary and brutal violence. This encounter demonstrated very rapidly how the thin veneer of civilized behavior that we are all so dependent on can disappear so quickly, that we are left with a sense of helplessness and impotence. 

I was parking my car on Addison, at the corner with Martin Luther King, when I saw two women crossing Martin Luther King using the crosswalk. I noticed them because one of them, the younger one, was obviously concerned with her safety and at one point made a motion with her hands as if asking a car to stop before running them over. Suddenly a police car appeared and a police officer stopped the two women, asked for their identification and started writing them a ticket. As I did not see them do anything illegal, I was intrigued by this and stayed in my car observing the interaction. The younger woman very quickly became agitated. In a loud voice and using somewhat vulgar language, she asked several times why she was getting a ticket for just crossing the street. The other woman attempted to calm her down several times and also talked to the officer. I could not hear what she and the officer talked about. I did notice that the younger woman became more and more agitated as the cop continued writing the tickets. Suddenly, the younger woman screamed that she needed her ID back as she needed to go. The police officer approached her, threw her to the ground face down, slammed his knee on her back or neck and appeared to be out of control, yelling at the other woman to stay away as he jammed the younger woman forcefully on the cement. I would not be surprised if the young woman suffered some serious injury as a consequence of being treated so roughly. I will never forget this scene. Fortunately, shortly after, about five or six other police officers came running out of the station, took over the situation, and took the women away. Had they not appeared, I am afraid the woman would have continued being treated very roughly. Why did this policeman wait to call for assistance until after he completely lost his temper? 

I wonder what happened to these two women. Were they arrested? How much time did they spend in jail? Will the police report charge the woman with assault when all she did was become agitated and run off the mouth? Was her companion, who was trying to calm the situation, also charged? Will the police officer be charged with assault? 

A woman who was across the street yelled at the policeman saying that this was “totally unnecessary.” I did not know what to do so I stood there for a while and left with the feeling that I had seen a nightmare in real life. None of the policemen approached any of the potential witness to ask us what we had seen. I was afraid to approach them fearing for my own safety. Do policemen only talk to each other when one of them is involved in a violent situation? 

The next day I sent an e-mail to the police department describing what I had seen. No one has responded to me. I called the Berkeley Police Review Commission, and was told that because I had not been a victim of police action, I could not file a complaint or report the incident. They would not even take my name as a potential witness in case the women approached them with a complaint. They told me the women would contact me if they needed a witness. When I explained that neither of the women would even know I had witnessed the incident, they did not have any other suggestions. So I am writing to you hoping that if necessary, someone will contact me. 

Jaime Reyes is a Berkeley resident.

Those of us who live on Southside of the UC campus see what being homeless is at first hand, every day. We may walk by and look elsewhere; sometimes we become involved. Always we know that official and private poses of indifference are symptoms of something terribly wrong with our society. 

Last week I dropped down to Telegraph for a late night coffee break at the Cafe Med. Passing People’s Park I saw police cars driving fast with lights and sirens on. Oddly enough, the lights and sirens were shut off and the speed reduced after the cars passed the parkl. The overall impression was that of danger. Tension filled the air, and once I became used to the relative darkness, seemed to infect the sad and anxious faces of people with no place to sleep. People who are now advised that the park extends “from curb to curb", as one Berkeley cop told a group of people on the sidewalk at the upper end of the parkl. 

When they were told they could no longer sleep in the park, law-abiding people with nowhere to go moved their cardboard beds to the sidewalk adjacent to the curb and slept there. In response, the City of Berkeley has declared the curb a “park". (Ain’t semantics grand?) Now these people move their beds and possessions half a block down Hillegass or Benvenue and sleep there. Does anyone involved in this charade of public policy seriously call this progress? 

To shake off the willies from the lights and sirens I decided to see for myself just how “bad” the night-time environment around the park actually is. I took my coffee to go, and sat on the steps of the Baptist Seminary on Dwight Way just East of Hillegass and watched the scene unfold. Several times UC and Berkeley police cars came barreling toward me on Bowditch (my position was right in front of them), with lights flashing, and once two UC cars put sirens on. Twice a Berkeley black-and-white cruised by me v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y, as if to indicate that I was the object of their attention. A UC police car headed West on Haste suddenly accelerated, then dropped back to normal speed at Telegraph.  

It looked like heavy-handed intimidation to me. In the time that I sat there I did not see a single private citizen do anything to warrant so much police activity. 

On my way to the Med, and subsequently to the Baptist Seminary steps, I recognized a woman whom I had met previously in the dumpster at my apartment building. She was literally in the dumpster, looking for food or clothing. On the night of my vigil she was looking very scattered and frantic, traipsing along the park perimeter, asking out loud where her boyfriend might be. She seemed to be either losing it, or on the verge. 

When we spoke at the dumpster I had asked her if she would like to vacuum hallways for some money and she was excited by the idea. Feeling a bond with her, it became intolerable to watch her distress, so I approached and said hello. She registered my presence, but seemed unsure of how to respond. I continued to stand nearby and reminded her about our previous conversation, which she did remember. 

That night her condition was not the same. She said several times that she was thirsty. Really, really thirsty—not for alcohol, for water. (If you live on the street you can’t go to the kitchen for a glass of water.) She kept bending down and rummaging through a collection of bags and boxes that held her clothing and other possessions. She was flinging things around with such abandon that it was hard to tell what she meant to do, and I recalled that dehydration causes mental confusion. But I think that fatigue, dehydration, and anxiety were all influencing her behavior. 

Her clothes and bedding were filthy. I knew at that time—just after midnight—there was little risk of outrage if I let her wash her clothes in the communal laundry room, so I asked her if she would like to do that. I thought she might also want to grab a shower, and figured I could throw together a meal. Eyeing her collection, it was obvious that washing bedding was as necessary as the rest, a big enough chore to made me feel skittery about having started this conversation. But it felt craven to offer assistance and then walk away. Good intentions notwithstanding, the tone of this project was not genteel. She tended to shout when she spoke and moved in the oddest way. It seemed unlikely that her decorum in the building would meet Emily Post standards. But the raw reality of this person that I knew, even slightly, lost, broke, dirty, in despair, and ignored by all, temporarily overrode my fine sensibilities. 

The first thing to do was move her possessions out of the parkl. It was now half-past midnight and cops were everywhere. After daybreak she could put them back, but now they had to be moved. The young woman spasmodically tried to segregate items to be washed and began to drag the cardboard, sleeping bag and blankets a legal distance from the parkl. I rolled up the bedding and put it in the box with the clothes. It made a real mountain. The bottom of the box had something gooey on it, but in the interest of time I decided to ignore it. The lady was all over the place, fiddling with bags, throwing a collection of shoes around, and complaining that she hadn’t seen her boyfriend all day. Looking like two ragged gypsies, we crossed Dwight and gradually headed South on Hillegass. The cardboard she was carrying fell by the wayside as I struggled to hold together the massive box of clothes and bedding. She finally settled on the sidewalk in front of an apartment building to make a bed between two driveways. I was surprised she didn’t go for concealment, but then it struck me: if she has to do this every day, then fuck it—the fewer steps the better 

While she stooped and flung things around I walked up the block to retrieve the cardboard and several dropped items. When I returned I suggested that it was time to think about getting her clothes into the washer. My prodding made her bristle. She said I could go on, but she could not be rushed. I felt an impulse to walk away, then reflected that dealing with people takes patience in the best of circumstances, and how little I seemed to have. Standing by while she attacked the pile of cardboard and bedding from every angle, I realized that in her present state she was incapable of an organized effort to vacuum hallways: her sheer dogged persistence to keep moving was impressive in its own right. 

The laundry never got done. She was feeling abandoned and alone on this dark night on the street and wanted her boyfriend. She asked another homeless woman who was walking up and down Hillegass if she had a cell phone so she could call him (at that time he carried their phone) so I offered mine, which she eagerly accepted and used. It turned out that her man had taken a fall from a skateboard (these people are in their early twenties) and was being attended to by an EMT somewhere on Bancroft. She was going to him. All else could wait. 

Walking slowly home to space, light, heat, water and food, I reflected that none of the six or eight people I talked to that night was in a position to change their circumstances. One man asked me if he could do some work—he overheard me talking to the woman—and I put him off. But I will have to find him again and get to know him to decide if I can work with him.  

By the way, workers comp insurers make it near-impossible for a business to pay for temporary casual labor. To hire the homeless you have to write up a receipt for, say, second-hand plumbing parts, and pay in cash. Such a transaction is technically illegal. And yes, the State of California and the IRS would insist that it not take place at all. Thus, the official machinery prevents citizens from helping the homeless by making such efforts unfeasible, even while it denies them its own intervention in their fate. 

The sing-song “spare change?” rhetoric of the easy-going days is gone. Today people on the street look you right in the eye and say in all seriousness: “If you can give me some money, I really need it.” The ones I have met lately are not pushy or obnoxious; they state a hard and obvious fact that should not be ignored. 

Glen Kohler lives in Berkeley’s South Campus area. 

APOLOGY OWED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Now that the election is over perhaps you will reflect on your role in the campaign. Story after story, allegedly news, was laden with digs and attacks on Mayor Bates, usually quite gratuitous. It was all capped off by your (in my opinion) illegal in kind-contributions to those candidates you endorsed by your (to put it mildly) unusual home delivery on Nov. 4. in an excess of partisanship I think you violated your trust as a newspaper and I believe you owe Berkeley an apology.  

Mal Burnstein 

• 

“REVITALIZATION” 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Revitalize Telegraph” it said on the marquee. “Vote George Beier.” That would be the marquee of the Fine Arts Cinema. The name plastered on the hideous building constructed on the ruins of Berkeley’s best local independent arts cinema. The cinema that was promised to have their theater rebuilt in the huge development. The cinema that instead became a casualty of this development. If that is what George Beier and his developer buddies think revitalization is, Berkeley was just spared.  

Jon Jackson 

• 

PROPAGANDA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Recently you wondered whether Planet readers might be willing to pay for a subscription to your paper. My response is: “no,” for quite a few reasons: 

• Paying for the Planet would be like making a political contribution with none of the rules and regulations that govern money in politics. There would be no public accounting and no accountability. 

• It would mean giving free rein for the use of my subscription dollars to an editorial staff that evidently regards slanted, incomplete, and misleading articles to be OK in the service of their causes. 

• And it would mean that funds from subscriptions could be used for tactics such as the recent free door-to-door deliveries of the paper in neighborhoods that were evidently judged to be receptive to the unabashed adulation of the Planet’s favored candidates and its unrestrained attacks on their rivals.  

The election results show that the paper’s tactics were not successful. The candidates and causes most heavily touted by the Planet lost, and an incumbent who received hearts-and-flowers treatment in articles and editorials for months before the election came perilously close to losing. Now we hear whining from the Planet that the results are all due to the inability of their favored campaigns to raise funds in the amounts spent by their opponents. But think about it: the value of twice-weekly political promotions by the Planet must have been worth tens of thousands of dollars. No political campaign could possibly raise enough money to counter the free advocacy provided by the Planet.  

Without question, the Planet has only been exercising its free speech right to political advocacy. But its editorial and reporting judgment would be more widely respected, and readers might even consider a subscription, if the editors demonstrated responsibility and even, at times, restraint. Winning the hearts and minds of smart Berkeley voters requires more than propaganda. 

Mim Hawley 

• 

UC STADIUM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Fear the stadium attacking our neighborhood. This should have been the main issue in the City Council race! If you are concerned about noise, trees, traffic, health or safety in our neighborhood you’d better speak out now! Contact Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau at 642-7464 or chancellor@berkeley.edu. 

Check out www.saveoaks.com to contact neighbors and students organizing against the destruction of the grove of hundreds of years old oaks. 

Cyndi Johnson 

• 

CHAMBER OF  

COMMERCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Although the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce PAC may be different entities, they seem to share the same office. Filings of campaign expenses show no record that the Chamber of Commerce PAC paid any rent to the Chamber of Commerce for that space. So, the Chamber of Commerce may have given more than its good name to the Chamber of Commerce PAC; it may also have contributed the use of expensive commercial office space with all of its amenities. 

Because of this, the unethical behavior of the PAC reflects on the entire membership of the Chamber of Commerce. If Chamber of Commerce members really want their good names back, they should do more than try to distance themselves from the PAC; they should denounce the PAC for lying to further its own agenda. Anything short of that suggests approval, not to mention complicity. 

Gus Lee 

• 

JUVENILE POLITICAL 

PLAYBOOK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

You might be interested to know that I voted against Measure J and for George Beier even though I didn’t read one single piece of campaign literature and wasn’t swayed one way or another by the amount of money spent on the recent election. I find it extremely insulting that you would discount my vote and that of the majority of voters (in the case of Measure J) because these campaigns apparently raised and spent more money than their opponents. The article by Richard Brenneman, “Meaure J Defeated, Supporters Vow Fight,” is nothing but a compilation of sour grapes from a pathetic gang of anti-democratic leftover hippy leftists whose self-righteous totalitarian attitudes have led to making Berkeley one of the most anti-business, anti-property owner communities in the entire world. Mao Zedong smiles down upon you! But even more ridiculous was Becky O’Malley’s trashing of George Beier along with the complaint about the Chamber of Commerce using a “non-union Carlsbad mailing house” to print some of their brochures which no one reads anyway. The Planet’s juvenile political playbook seems to say “cry foul” when you lose and “kick your opponent in the groin” when you win.  

David Bunnell 

• 

KPFA ELECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Berkeley Daily Planet article essentially offered a fair, if pedestrian, assessment of the terrain in the current KPFA board elections (“KPFA Listeners Race for Station Board Spots,” Nov. 3). While controversy in governance is fairly common in both corporate and non-profit organizations, there is a tendency to act as though KPFA’s travails are anomalous or peculiar. What is of paramount importance in my view is to not allow the acrimony to be used as an excuse to justify any reversal or co-option of the democratic structures currently in place. KQED listeners recently relinquished their right to participate in that station’s governance. Apparently there is a school of thought that radio listeners should be passive supplicants and not have role in framing the discourse that informs them. Hopefully, this will not also prove to be the case at KPFA. As it happens, among the many excellent candidates running for the KPFA board is Sasha Futran, a veteran of the long struggle by many progressives, including Michael Parenti, Maria Gilardin and Norman Solomon to gain a foothold on the KQED board. I hope that at the very least this election serves as an affirmation of KPFA listeners’ belief in the idea of participatory governance, and I ask KPFA listeners to please vote and stay involved. Many readers are doubtless aware of Henry Kissinger’s statement (“the issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves”) about the right of the Chilean people to elect a government of their choosing, With respect to KPFA, and democratic participation in general, the issues are clearly too important to be left to the few to decide. 

Joe Wanzala 

Listener Representative 

KPFA Local Station Board 

• 

CREEKS ORDINANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Nov. 14, I urge the mayor and City Council to vote to adopt the Berkeley Creeks Ordinance as it is currently drafted. Our city does not need more crumbling homes and concrete-lined creeks—it needs forward-thinking legislation that inspires residents to think about their natural areas as more than space to be paved over or built on. Berkeley needs to retain the little green space it has—and its laws should reflect the views and desires of its overwhelmingly progressive and environmentally conscious populace.  

Those who attack the Creeks Ordinance for being “anti-homeowner” do not understand the purpose of the ordinance, and do not have the best interest of their neighbors and Berkeley’s natural areas at heart. The current stipulations for rebuilding and for expanding or remodeling existing homes are perfectly adequate for a city so short on space as Berkeley.  

Our waterways have had enough of concrete, riprap and other forms of mistreatment; creekside homes are already crumbling because there were not adequate creek setbacks when they were built. We do not need to put current and future property owners at risk of flooding, erosion and their associated repair costs by enabling uninhibited expansion into our riparian corridors. I urge the council to adopt the Creeks Ordinance in full and protect homes by requiring a variance for development within 25 feet of the creek centerline.  

I thank the mayor and council for protecting our riparian areas and the people of Berkeley. 

Kristen Quay 

• 

PROBLEMS AT THE POLLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ve worked the half a dozen elections since 2002 as a poll worker, most of them in my home precinct in North Berkeley (I’ve only missed the November 2004 election since I was a candidate in that election). I haven’t moved, re-registered, gotten a replacement drivers license, or taken any other action which would affect my voter registration information. Yet when I took time out of my lunch break Tuesday to vote at my polling place, I found that I had disappeared from the voter rolls. My wife appeared, as did my neighbors. I had just voted in June’s primary with no problem. We searched the absentee list, the “late registration” list, the “infrequent voter” list, but no dice. I was not registered to vote in my precinct.  

What did I do? I followed the proper procedure and cast a provisional ballot. As part of the provisional ballot process, I am automatically re-registered to vote—I hope. I don’t know if my vote will count, which is extremely disturbing. Since I didn’t take any action to remove myself from the list, how did this happen? 

I was not the only one who had screwy experiences with the voter rolls this election. My experience in this precinct over the past regular and primary elections (thanks to the recall election and last year’s special election, we’ve had at least 1 general election every year since 2002) showed that there’s always a number of provisional ballots cast. Usually they’re cast by an absentee voter who didn’t turn in their absentee ballot when they came to the polls or by a voter who doesn’t trust whichever electronic voting machine is being used in that election. This time, about half of the 28 provisional ballots in our precinct were caused by voter roll irregularities. Multiple people were registered as absentee voters even though they claimed to never have requested to switch to absentee status. Others had been switched from the regular list to the ‘infrequent voter’ list, even though they, like me, hadn’t missed a primary or general election in years. While I understand that a lot of times new registrations take a couple of applications to show up, these problems affected voters who did not take any action to change their voting status or their address.  

What’s going on? Is this merely an Alameda County problem or does this reach up to the Republican secretary of state in charge of our elections? Was there a half-assed purge of voters? A computer glitch? As a poll worker, I’m really sympathetic to the incredibly complex work that the Registrar’s Office does, but these questions need to be answered and this problem needs to be resolved quickly before we become the Florida or Ohio of the 2008 presidential election. 

Jesse Townley 

• 

DISTRICT 7 COUNCIL RACE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thankfully District 7 will continue to be honestly represented by our hard working Kriss Worthington. I was upset by not only the huge amount of money George Beier poured into his city council bid, but by the absurd issue of Weapons of Mass Needles that he campaigned on. People’s Park has been steadily improving since Kriss took office. The riots have ended, the dirt has been transformed into grass and plants, picnic tables and murals have been installed by volunteers. It’s actually a very nice place.  

Except for its reputation.  

George Beier added gas to that fire with the absurd claim that 1,000 needles were found there. This negative propaganda scares away students, families and neighbors who would otherwise enjoy the park and add to its safety. False and exaggerated charges are counter productive to the hard work of volunteers who improve the park and encourage its use. Claims are made, often by people who don’t in fact go to the park themselves, that there is massive crime, or drug dealing, or “its just gross” or best yet has been the 1,000 Points of Needles of Mass Destruction. Please, don’t believe the hype. 

Go to the park, bring friends, enjoy the facilities, participate, make the park what you want. Its true that one may encounter all kinds of people there, including some less fortunate or socially groomed. But you may be able to help or learn something from these real members of our community who will still exist even if some just see them as problems rather than neighbors with problems. People’s Park has an amazing history and is a special opportunity for community creation. Whining to authorities or asking the University to redesign the park are the completely wrong approach. It will only create conflict in our neighborhood. George should know better than to spread false negative propaganda and propose putting buildings on the park. 

Doug Fost 

• 

BERKELEY POLITICS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

“Berkeley was one of the few cities of any size in the state to remain solidly in the Republican ranks in yesterday’s election” ran the lead in the Nov. 9, 1932 “Berkeley Gazette” report on the Franklin D. Roosevelt defeat of Herbert Hoover.  

Had our alleged Athens of the West thrown enlightenment aside to vote for retrenched reaction? Actually, the city voted for Hoover in 1928, too. While we had a socialist mayor back around World War I, there have been periods, such as the Hoover years, when it could be said that the town was run by stuffy alumni, aloof professors, and the social crowd that the doorman allowed into the Berkeley Women’s City Club—i.e., holier than thou snobs. To a degree, it can be conjectured that a nose in the air posture is a persistent Berkeley trait. It is expressed in our superiority complex vis a vis Oakland. A united shout of joy fills the city over the thumping Bush took in our recent election, yet at the same time factions who believe they have all the answers push their elitist policies. 

These days, we have nature-radicals who demand a park out by the Marina that is so very very natural that humans aren’t allowed in. Our warriors against traffic congestion forego comprehensive plans and throw up barricades called traffic islands. Rather than join the cities across the nation that are installing public wi-fi to democratize Internet access, our militants declare wi-fi towers radiation hazards. 

While we may not be Republicans (capital R), we are not always democratic (small d). 

Ted Vincent 

• 

SCHOOL ISSUES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Considering the content of my campaign, it seems there’s strong interest among a few people in the issues it raised. I’d like to facilitate further investigation of those with some thought as to how we can develop them to serve our local community—and then, beyond. 

School obviously is no way ours, good—on the overall, able to do what it says it would do—for most of the community it commands; nor do we want it to do what it does do—maintain the status quo, serve capitalism, serve competition and the universal brutality of millennia-old imperia. 

I hope people contact me www.normaharrisonforschoolboard.com, normaha@pacbell.net to see about carrying the campaign forward. 

Norma J F Harrison 

• 

SEA SCOUTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding Rio Bauce’s complaint in the Planet about the Sea Scouts being denied free access to free berthing at the Marina because of discrimination against atheist and gay kids, there are solutions. He admits the Sea Scouts “are serving two masters: the city government and the management structure of the Boy Scouts---an impossible situation.” So why not disaffiliate from the bureaucratic bigots of the BSA top hierarchy and operate independently or under a more fair-minded organizational umbrella? Then Berkeley Sea Scouts could also freely bring along their atheist and gay buddies to enjoy the benefits of their boating interests, and in keeping with our Berkeley values. 

Harry Siitonen 

• 

MAYOR’S VISION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thankfully, San Francisco is not New York City, and Berkeley is not the Jersey Shore. Not yet, at least. 

I have read Mayor Tom Bates’ Nov. 3 commentary in the Daily Planet carefully and respectfully. 

I agree with some of his points and certainly acknowledge the benefits of affordable housing, but the combination of a university with an insatiable desire for more land to build upon, a mayor generally enthusiastic about development, and persons in city governance with a financial stake in development is a troika pulling us toward a tipping point regarding density that we should be apprehensive about.  

Does anyone notice how many residential non-arterial streets in Berkeley are jam-packed with parked cars 24/7? 

Phyllis Henry-Jordan 

• 

BHS LANDMARKING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The landmarking of Berkeley High School’s gymnasium was a page-one story in your Tuesday paper. The expert (structural) analysis I trust the most seems to say that the two big pool rooms easily could be saved, but that the rest of the complex could not be saved except at extravagant expense (maybe the facade of the gym facing Milvia could be incorporated into the design of new classroom building or other useful function at its prominent current location). 

The two pool rooms are worth millions; this must be taken into consideration by the school district before any decision is made regarding their future, including function and remodeling. Just look at the current estimates to replace the warm pool: $7-9 million. Demolition would be an act of criminal negligence. 

The district has been misguided in the past by so-called experts (outsiders and insiders) and must avoid making decisions that hurt the city or itself. Time must be given to listen to users of the warm pool. The district is at risk of acting in a panic, desperate about budgetary matters, and forgetful about the community in which it lives, if it destroys the old pools. 

Terry Cochrell 

• 

GOP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Was it the war in Iraq that caused voters to turn against the GOP; was it the lies, scandals and corruption that Republicans subjected Americans to for six years or was it that the GOP had become the party of religion in the political arena? 

Could it be that voters rejected Republicans because they are no longer Republicans? The GOP has been taken over by religionists and evangelical activists. The White House, Congress and U.S. government had become a vehicle for the fundamentalist right, and anti-abortionists. No problem now! 

Don’t think for a second we have seen the last of these religious zealots and their stealthy infiltration into all facets of society. They would rather die in their self-induced Armageddon than give up their ingrained hypocritical and intolerant views. 

Ron Lowe 

Grass Valley 

• 

THANKSGIVING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Nov. 23 is the day when many people will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day with families and friends. They feel that it is a holiday where people can be thankful. However, many people still don’t know about the first Thanksgiving in which it wasn’t pleasant. Many people feel that the first Thanksgiving was about harmony between American Indians and white settlers who landed in this country several centuries ago. 

The truth was when the settlers arrived, they were hungry and suffering from illnesses from which many of them had died. American Indians such as the Tisquantums and Samosets taught them how to survive. The Massasoits also taught the settlers how to plant corn in the fields. 

What reward did the white settlers offer to these American Indians who were generous toward them? The settlers colonized and massacred them and took their land, and it has been going on for centuries, including now. So when people think about Thanksgiving, they should think about the first Thanksgiving in which it wasn’t pleasant. 

Billy Trice, Jr. 

Oakland 

On Sept. 6 I boarded the No. 51 AC Transit bus in Alameda and, after putting in money, was told that the transfer machine was not working. The driver subsequently gave me an expired transfer card on which he’d written that the transfer machine was broken and signed his employee number. He instructed me to give this to the next driver.  

When I boarded the No. 43 bus (bus 1071) heading towards Telegraph at 9:55 a.m., I silently held out the transfer slip to the driver, as instructed. The driver indicated with a gesture for me to put it in the transfer machine. I told her that it was expired and that my previous driver—here she cut me off by snapping “Then throw it away.” I was taken aback by her tone and I thought she might have meant to throw away the expired transfer slip and pay the fare of $1.75, so I tried again to say that the other machine was broken and the driver told me to give this to—I was interrupted by her barking at me, in a carrying, rude voice to “Put it in the trash! Put it in the trash!” I still had no idea what her intention was and I was very shaken by her manner of speaking to me. I dropped the slip in the trash and headed to the back of the bus. (I muttered “Good morning to you, too”) half expecting her to call me back and force me to pay. She didn’t. 

I was just a woman on my way to work. I ride AC Transit every day, and always get on the bus with a “good morning” or “good evening” to the drivers, about half of whom respond. This woman spoke to me as though I were some sort of delinquent inciting trouble, rather than a regular paying customer. I was embarrassed and shaken and I determined at that time to call AC Transit’s Customer Relations line—I later realized that the title, customer “relations” as opposed to customer “service,” was significant. 

The woman who answered the customer relations line listened while I told her what bus I was then on and what had happened. She didn’t see the problem—the driver had let me on, hadn’t she? I inquired whether it was their policy that, so long as they allowed you to ride, AC Transit drivers could speak to riders however they liked. She said no, she was willing to take down the complaint, but that the drivers were on a deadline that I was taking up time (words to this effect) and I explained, again, that I did as my first driver told me to do. I reiterated that I did not understand what she meant by yelling at me to throw away the ticket—that it wasn’t as though the driver had responded like a rational person and said “Okay, just throw it away and take a seat.” That would have saved time and confusion. The customer relations rep said that she didn’t mean to stick up for the driver but they didn’t have time for me to stand there and ... it became clear that she saw nothing wrong with the incident, and that if she did, I was the one in fault. Beyond frustrated by this time, I told her I would find someone else at AC Transit to speak to, that I would just go over her head, and hung up. That’s when it hit me: there was no one at AC Transit that I could contact who would give a damn.  

Consider just two examples of this I have from past experience: 

1. A few years ago while on Bay Farm Island (Alameda) waiting for my regular bus home I saw the bus approaching on McCartney. While I waved at the driver in disbelief he turned onto Island and drove off towards “main” Alameda, instead of crossing Island to pick me up. It was the last bus heading my way; I was stranded. Eventually another bus (not the same number as the one I took) came along and the driver took me as far as Broadway, where I walked a quarter of a mile in the dark to get to another bus stop. When I called AC Transit’s Customer Relations line the next day I was told that the route had changed. But when I took the bus to work it was the same—had the route changed during the day? No, but it is a different route now in the evening. But the sign is still there, I pointed out—were they going to remove the sign, or post an explanation on it? The rep did not know, nor did they seem to care. For weeks that sign stayed there, same as it always did. Every so often in the evening, on my way home, I would see another AC Transit rider frantically waving their arms at the bus I was on went by. 

2. A couple of years ago when I arrived at the 40/43 bus stop across from Oakland City Center there was a large amount of human feces next to the bench. Sickened, I called the Transit hotline to report it. “Oh, that has nothing to do with us. You need to call Public Safety,” I was told. I explained that I was on my cell phone on my way to work and did not have the Public Safety number, that I was calling because it was their bus stop, with their phone number posted next to it, and maybe they could call Public Safety. No, I was told. It had nothing to do with them. Perhaps I could call Public Safety after I got to work. Uh-huh. Customer Relations. 

So yesterday, after I had been yelled at by a Transit driver who hadn’t learned how to “use her words” (my 3-year-old granddaughter could give her lessons) and dismissed by another AC Transit employee whose job it was to take my complaint, I had no real hope of having this issue addressed. They have figured out that most people take the bus out of necessity, not convenience, and they don’t really have to work for our business. It is like they are the last store on Earth. 

And the sad thing is, most of the drivers that I encounter are courteous, if not friendly, and take pride in their jobs. Having employees like this one, and others like her, reflects badly on the majority. 

So maybe this letter to the editor, which I have also sent to the Board of Directors from the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District, will result in my being contacted by AC Transit and assured that they do care about customers, and that verbally attacking AC Transit customers will not be tolerated. 

But I doubt it. 

Earlita Chenault is an Alameda resident. 

I am a student of violence. There is, to consider, the actual explosion of rage, when flesh collides with flesh. I have been at the wrong end of two encounters, I have seen it happen to another, and have heard, sometimes within minutes, of many others. But I am even more interested in the moments before the eruption—the thickening of the voice, the ape-like bulking of the shoulders, the trembling of the cheekbones, the reek of flammable testosterone. I’m crackingly alert to the warning signs that scream: MOVE! What is my line of work? Parking enforcement for the City of Berkeley. 

Some years ago, I read an account of domestic abuse, of a woman married to a usually benign but unpredictably, randomly abusive husband. There would be long stretches of normalcy inevitably interrupted by a constant fear of what inflection of voice, what choice of subject, what facial expression would trigger her spouse’s wrath and the sudden laying of the hand. I feel, especially whenever there is a recurrence of violence in our work, that parking officers are in a situation somewhat similar to that of the woman in an abusive relationship. On the one hand, we are, as it were bound, not only by the routine regulations of employment but also by the particular requirements of law enforcement work. On the other, we are, like unarmed London bobbies, in a position of weakness. Considering the public we come in contact with as a whole, I regard it as mostly amiable and mostly reasonable, but capable of lightning-fast changes in mood, not entirely trustworthy, and sometimes dangerous. Knowing people, and knowing, among other things, when people turn violent, is in the interest of self-preservation. 

Recently, one of my colleagues had an experience that, if nothing else, proves that despite my many years in the job I haven’t seen everything yet. Put as plainly as possible, what happened is this: The vehicle of a male Berkeley citizen was cited for a parking violation. The citizen approached the female parking enforcement officer who had issued the citation and demanded that she take back the ticket. The officer declined. The citizen reached for her, grabbed her jacket, and pulled the officer toward him. He then brushed her shoulder-length hair aside, and pushing her shoulder in the same motion, inserted the citation inside a jacket loop above her shoulder. Finally, he slammed his hand down on the shoulder, the loop, and the crumpled citation, and walked away. In the next half-hour, the citizen would be apprehended and arrested for battery by Berkeley police officers. The citizen’s behavior was brutish, yes, but not that uncommon. What sets this incident beyond the pale is that he, self-identified as Rob Browning, wrote a letter about the incident to a local publication, that this letter was defiant rather than contrite, that this letter was in fact published as a “commentary” by the Berkeley Daily Planet (in the Nov. 7 edition), and that he is the husband of Berkeley City Councilmember Linda Maio. 

The commentary, headlined “My Jail Term,” in which he refers to Thoreau and Gandhi and intimates an acquaintance with the noblest principles, puts the strutting rooster back into cockiness. At best a simulacrum of apology, in which he calls the officer stupid and unfair, the letter is at worse something much more worrisome: a provocation to further violence. Mr. Browning describes, with palpable glee, a cellmate who upon hearing of the incident approved of “my achievement.” While in the letter he downplays the details of the incident—the whole of it: “I stuck the crumpled citation under the epaulet of her jacket”—I wonder how honest he was with the cellmate. Did he even, for macho effect, exaggerate? Perhaps, since the incident, he has had or will have conversations, barren of any mention of art museums, writers, or acquaintance with the noblest principles, in which he will snicker and say, “I gave her what she deserved.” 

By necessity, I am a student of violence. And in my estimation, Rob Browning has made my situation and that of my colleagues more precarious. 

Kirk Rivera is a Berkeley resident.

I can’t say I was surprised when I awoke early on Nov. 8 to find Pat Kernighan the declared winner of Oakland’s competitive District 2 City Council race.  

Sitting with Allison supporters at Maxwell’s restaurant at 13th and Webster streets last night, one devoted volunteer, Vanessa J. Moses, age 29, looked at the numbers she’d written in blue ink on her palm. Allison had defeated Kernighan by only 30 votes in the San Antonio precinct that Moses had manned on Election Day. In a neighborhood east of Lake Merritt populated by some of the city’s poorest families, Moses said Allison should have won by a much higher margin because this is where she focused the bulk of her campaign: hitting the pavement to engage voters who have often felt estranged from the political process.  

But on election night Kernighan’s 55 percent edged out Allison’s 45 percent, with just 800 votes separating the candidates.  

Earlier that evening at the Communication Workers building on Park Boulevard and E. 18th Street—get-out-the-vote headquarters for the Allison camp—Yvonne A. Smith was still keeping the faith. She told me a story about a 22-year-old Laney College student named Tony who needed a ride to and from the polls in order to vote for the first time in his life. With Tony translating for his Cantonese-speaking mother, Smith and her fellow volunteers assured her they would bring him back safely, which they did.  

Sixty-eight-year-old Smith, who has lived in Oakland for 50 years, said she’s never seen so many Oaklanders energized about a City Council race. Indeed, over one-third of volunteers for Allison’s campaign came from voters outside of District 2, according to Naina Khanna, age 29, who was field director of the Allison campaign.  

Smith, a longtime West Oakland resident, and Moses, a Temescal resident, exemplify this telling trend in the campaign. Indeed, if these and the many other non-district 2 Allison supporters could have voted, the 36-year old candidate would have easily won. But this factor set aside, the reality is that more of Kernighan’s supporters voted and not enough of Allison’s supporters did. 

Ultimately, the Allison campaign was less about Allison the candidate as it was about what Allison represents: a progressive who, on the heels of a Dellums mayoral victory, had the potential to swing City Council towards more progressive political action.  

Beyondchon.org columnist Ben Wyskida said it well in an Oct. 24 editorial: 

“There are eight seats on the Oakland City Council, and as it stands today, three votes are reliably progressive and the other five are reliably pro-developer. To win, you need four plus the mayor. Five votes = real progressive power.” 

Many progressive activists like Wyskida say this “five votes” factor is especially important because Dellums will move to implement plans for a “model city” in the new year, including critical decisions about housing and development projects.  

But the significance of this factor didn’t replace one key fact: Allison put forth more political rhetoric, albeit progressive political rhetoric, than she did concrete, clear ideas about how to implement the progressive changes her supporters around the city were so excited about.  

Pat Kernighan too failed to express concrete answers to the city’s problems, but unlike Allison, she could point to her record in city council and her relationships in various neighborhoods like Chinatown and her own hood Trestle Glen as proof to undecided voters that she was the safe bet candidate.  

In addition, Allison did well to bring attention to the fact that she did not take political contributions from developers or corporations, forcing Kernighan to try distancing herself from big business and developers. Public campaign finance records show Kernighan accepted individual political contributions from developers like Phil Tagami, and James Falachi, and also from officials at the Port of Oakland, the independent city agency that plays a key role in the huge Oak to Ninth downtown development project.  

But let’s be clear. The energy and momentum generated by the Allison campaign still matters. New voters have participated in the electoral process, and a very diverse group of supporters have come together across neighborhood, racial, ethnic, class, and age boundaries, building a network that Allison and other progressive candidates can draw upon in future elections.  

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that we witnessed a real grassroots, clean-money campaign where a progressive candidate new to electoral politics actually had a real shot at taking the post from a well-funded incumbent. Allison actually believed she could win, and this says a lot in a political climate where young progressives are often ridiculed for being naïve and out of touch with the majority populace.  

Maybe to longtime residents of the Bay Area’s political twilight zone this doesn’t seem extraordinary, but in August I moved to the East Bay from Philadelphia where a green party candidate as liberal as Allison would be hard pressed to garner almost half of the vote in a district.  

As a registered Berkeley voter, I could not vote for Allison in yesterday’s election. But if I could have, I would have. In an interview with the East Bay blog NovoMetro.com Allison said: “Democracy, at its healthiest, encourages people from all kinds of backgrounds…It will never be our turn until we assert ourselves.” 

In political campaigns and in life, Allison’s words ring true. It will never be our turn until we assert ourselves. Sometimes you have to do what you feel called to do, even if it’s not certain things will turn out the way you expect. And even if the result is not what you wanted, you’ve lost nothing. You have only gained the experience of the growth born from taking risks.  

I look forward to the Allison campaign for 2011. 

Beandrea Davis is a resident of Oakland and student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.  

It’s convenient, of course—and not entirely wrong—to blame the 57-43 defeat of Measure J on greedy developers, conservative businesspeople and negative campaign mailers. But Measure J proponents also need to look in the mirror. Not only were they weakened by others, they contributed to losing the race all on their own. 

As an active centrist opponent of Measure J—one whose name was appropriated for the PAC mailers without permission—I can’t claim to be entirely objective, or to be happy with either extreme camp. But I can analyze the campaign in traditional political terms.  

Judging by endorsements, Measure J simply failed to move beyond its natural preservationist base among neighborhood associations. With the arguable exception of the local Green Party, no major mainstream civic or political group endorsed Measure J. Those groups, who reached their decisions well before the negative mailers dropped, simply were not convinced by the proponents’ argument that Measure J was a better alternative than the City Council’s community-compromise version. To accept the Measure J conspiracy theories, we’d have to believe that the entire Democratic Party establishment—including the moderate Berkeley Democratic Club, the Alameda County Central Committee and our ultraleft Rep. Barbara Lee—are all under the control of a few Berkeley developers and businesspeople.  

As a speaker against J at some of the endorsement meetings, I learned that even citizens in favor of J could see some procedural and structural flaws. Procedurally, a very visible problem was that the proponents wrote the measure entirely within their hyper-preservationist orbit, and never held a single public meeting to receive feedback or suggestions for improvements. This left them looking like a narrow special-interest group uninterested in Berkeley-style participatory democracy—rather like those behind unpopular Measure I.  

Structurally, the proponents had faced an unfortunate calendar. They had to circulate and submit their petition before the LPC and City Council finalized their markup ordinance. However, some of the worst preservationist fears in May and June—such as the potential weakening of structure of merit, or a developer-friendly loophole in the Request for Determination (RFD) procedure—were eliminated by the council before approving a compromise ordinance in July. Final City Council action meant that the original Measure J campaign slogan, “save structure of merit,” simply died on its feet. By late July there was much less left in the bill to fear, making motivating pro-J voters even more difficult. 

To its credit, the Measure J campaign moved from mostly-negative to mostly-positive as the election approached. The final mailer—an upbeat piece on the virtues of preservation—told the truth about why we have a strong LPO today. But it failed to tell the whole truth. It never mentioned that the City Council version of the ordinance was waiting to be enacted, and it did not specifically list the improvements Measure J would bring (by design, those improvements were unremarkable). To voters who had learned there was an alternative, the mailer seemed oddly disconnected from reality. It read as if the election were a referendum on preservation, not a choice between alternative revisions. And that diminished the credibility of the campaign. 

The negative PAC mailers were certainly unfortunate, and definitely misguided. Written by outside hired guns, they were just as disconnected from the actual choice on the ballot as the last pro-J mailer was. Perhaps reflecting the prejudices of their backers, the PAC mailers tried to discredit the entire LPO and its landmarking process—even though none of the possible outcomes would change the standards by which historic resources are designated. Many Berkeley voters knew better than that. 

So we experienced a campaign that, in its final days, had both extremes arguing about issues Measure J would not affect at all, win or lose. Neither side should be proud of that, because what we lost was a reasonable discussion of actual preservation alternatives and possibilities. 

The group of passionate preservationists behind Measure J now faces two alternatives—one anti-democratic and one pro-democratic. 

The first alternative is to file a referendum to overturn the new law the council will enact later this month. This divisive tactic would suspend the law for another two years, until in 2008 Berkeley voters no doubt repudiate their views once again. Doing this would poison their own political agenda for at least that long: nothing they favor will get any attention from an LPC and council they just insulted, more designations might fail on appeal for political reasons, and public sympathy would further dwindle. Taking this obstructionist path would be a shame—new ideas for improving our preservation process, such as neighborhood conservation districts, are ready for public discussion. 

The second and more democratic alternative is “wait and see”—give the new LPO a chance to run and document any problems or negative outcomes. If the council fails to remedy those, then another initiative campaign in 2008 could propose to do so with a better chance to win majority support (it could focus on real problems instead of on imagined enemies).  

In stark terms, here is the Measure J proponents’ choice: Do they really believe in cooperatively advancing preservation efforts in Berkeley, or would they rather be treated for the next two years like North Korea—left to live with their paranoid delusions in total political isolation until their referendum is voted down? I hope can they finally show some willingness to work with the rest of us in carrying forward a sensible preservationist agenda the whole city can support. 

Alan Tobey worked for the passage of the original LPO in 1974 and has supported it ever since.

It would be easy for Democrats to become a bit heady what with the newly won House and Senate seats and all. But before getting too carried away, I would suggest that the “Blue” party take stock and ask themselves some serious questions, namely; who are we and what are we doing here?  

As I write this column, the media has just announced that our new Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has already experienced her first defeat. Pelosi had publically backed her longtime ally Rep. John Murtha to become the House majority leader over her previous competitor, Rep. Steny Hoyer. Fellow Democrats rallied around Hoyer to defeat Murtha 149-86. “It was a stunning victory for him,” declared Pelosi, looking quite stunned.  

What was Pelosi thinking? Most reports so far—and we can be sure this outcome will be the leading news story on all of the networks for days to come—harp on Pelosi’s extreme loyalty to those who have supported her career. Murtha not only managed her 2000 campaign against Hoyer to become the Democratic whip, his opposition to the Iraq war has made him a semi-celebrity, despite his questionable ethics. (I hestitate to even bring up Murtha’s ties to the 1980 Abscam sting—he was only “almost caught” whereas I believe that most politicians engage in unscrupulous backroom dealing—it’s the nature of the beast.)  

In fact, Hoyer, who is pro-choice and supports gun control and the protection of the environment (unlike Murtha), more closely represents Pelosi’s constituents. So, Pelosi did not select Murtha to benefit us. She chose him for personal reasons. Big mistake. She hasn’t even had a chance to warm up her seat yet and she’s already kow-towing to conservatives. Where’s your power, Nancy? Don’t give it away so soon. 

Democrats have given away a lot over the past few decades. Their claim to certain words, for example. Words and phrases like “family values,” “pro-life,” “concerned citizens” and “morally correct.” I recently heard a gay activist on the radio who referred to his opponents more than 10 times during 60 seconds as “values voters,” giving credence and free advertising to those on the right who claim to be the only ones with “values.” How dumb is that? (By the way, I miss rainbows standing for nothing but rainbows.)  

Meanwhile, Dems run away from words they should embrace, like “liberal” and “affirmative action.” To be a liberal and support affirmative action is essentially to acknowledge that many Americans are treated unfairly and need our help. (Note to Christian voters: Jesus was a liberal. They say he even had a bleeding heart.)  

If there’s one thing I hope Democrats have finally learned after this mid-year election, it’s that they are sorely in need of a brand manager. There are Democrats who oppose abortion and gun control while they support the war. There are Democrats, like Bill Clinton, who prefer that gays and lesbians stay in the closet and who believe in dismantling welfare but only as it applies to the poor. There are Democrats like John Kerry who will make a “botched joke,” then ignore it for a few days and then try to take it back. (Talk about your “cut and run.”) Worse are the other Dems who distanced themselves from Kerry when they should have either explained and defended his “joke” or stated the underlying truth; that many young people serving in our armed forces are poorly educated and have few other options. 

Most Dems are not liberal in my book. It is not “liberal” to fight for an increase in the minimum wage from a paltry $5.15 an hour all the way up to a measly $7.25. What would be liberal—meaning morally correct and might I say, Christian—would be to fight for a living wage; to value working families’ efforts to feed their children and keep the lights on over excessive corporate profit. 

Republicans have many Americans thinking that they are the only “true” or “real” Americans because they adhere to certain self-proscribed “values.” In a country such as ours, based on consumerism and run by ad agencies, I find it not only puzzling but alarming that Democrats have yet to figure out how to manipulate the media in order to acquire votes, as their bretheren have done so expertly for so long.  

As the old saying goes; “If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.”  

Democrats: Figure out who the hell you are and then stand up for it. These recent victories are mere battles. It is time for Democrats to redefine themselves and prepare to engage in the real war, that of competing ideologies. Take back your power; turn the word “liberal” into a word full of empathy for our fellow human beings and for our planet. Make it “Christian” to care more about people than profit. Declare that red, black, brown and yellow people are at the top of the list of “real” Americans and that there is room for everyone. Make it a “family value” to think it so. Hire an ad agency and get moving.

Three years ago, when the United States invaded Iraq, I put up a map of that country on my wall—as the old-timers used to do in other wars—so I could follow the course of the battles. I also bought two or three Middle Eastern history books, so that I might have a better knowledge of that part of the world, and a better understanding of the ancient racial, ethnic, and religious conflicts that we—America—had now thrust ourselves into. 

Though the map is still there, I haven’t looked at it more than once or twice since the President’s infamous “mission accomplished” speech on the aircraft carrier, and the Iraq conflict turned from a battle over cities and river crossings to a battle of shadows, where control of territory is fleeting, and has little or no meaning. And while I finally came to understand—I think—what originally drove Shi’a against Sunni and the nervousness of Arab nations about Turkey, that was little help in following the complex, bewildering, and all-but-overwhelming interplay between the new Iraqi government and all Iraq’s peoples—including the Kurds—the militias, the religious organizations, and the various surrounding nations. 

Instead, like so many Americans who identify themselves by the broad category of “progressives,” I long ago came to the broad conclusion that “we” should not be “there,” and the sooner out, the better. So long as our Republican friends were in power, both in Congress and in the White House, that was an easy position to take, since no thoughtful dialogue seemed possible with the Rumsfelds of the world, and it appeared that events—rather than reasoned argument—would be the determining factor. 

And so, events have. The balance of American opinion tipped against the Bush Administration’s Iraq policy, driving the Republicans out of the majority in both houses of the national congress, putting the Democrats back into national legislative power. Despite the Bush administration’s stubborn insistences to the contrary, American policy in the Iraq war is going to change. But in which direction? And how much? And to what end? That has yet to be determined and, in the determining, the future of both our country and our world will be determined. We are at that sort of pivotal, historic point. The decisions this country is about to make need both our close attention, and our studious and determined participation. 

We have not won the political battle over American foreign policy, in other words, so much as we have gained entrance to the battleground as participants. 

The famous line from Irish poet William Butler Yeats’ “The Second Coming” poem—“things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”—is too often quoted to apply to too many things, but in this instance, at least, it seems appropriate. 

The center, in this instance, is the current Bush policy in Iraq—whatever that policy may happen to be—keeping roughly the same number of troops on the ground with roughly the same strategies and tactics. If the history of the last three years has taught us anything, it is that this policy is a halfway measure that retains the worst of both worlds—draining the blood and treasure and moral authority and international good will of the United States on the one hand, while it fails to either diminish the violence in Iraq or advance appreciably towards a democratic Iraq run by the Iraqis themselves. 

That leaves the country with two alternatives, advocacy of which combined together to make up the national disaffection that led to the overthrow of Republican Congressional power in this month’s general elections. 

The first alternative—now articulated by U.S. Senator John McCain—is to overwhelm the opposition in Iraq—whoever they are—by escalation, increasing the number of U.S. troops in the country. 

The second alternative—embraced by the Democrats—involves a reduction in the active U.S. military participation in the Iraq wars. But how fast a reduction? And how much? And to where would the troops be sent? To barracks in Baghdad? Back into Afghanistan to reinvigorate the war against Al Queda and the Taliban? To permanent, Middle East bases as a strike force rather than an occupying army? To Tehran or Pyongyang, to take out the nuclear reactors? Or back home? Those destinations were left deliberately, and appropriately, vague by Democrats during the fall election cycle. But the election is over, and the time has come for concrete planning and implementation, in which vagueness is no longer permissible. 

What are the Democrats to do? 

What should progressives—whoever they are—advocate? 

One of the central questions in this discussion will be our national policy towards “terrorists” and “terrorism.” 

There ought to be a general consensus among progressives that the indiscriminate violent targeting of innocents—one of the central definitions of what we call “terrorism”—is wrong, abhorrent, and cannot be supported. 

But one of the major reasons progressives cringe and fail to take that fatal step forward to join the current American anti-terrorist drumline is that the Bush Administration and too many of our brothers and sisters in the conservative camp have defined the terms “terrorist” and “terrorism” too broadly when it comes to people they don’t like—allowing them to harass and jail nonviolent anti-war demonstrators, for example, or keep Congolese or Cuban folkloric dancers out of the country—while simultaneously applying the terms too narrowly when it comes to people they support. This has led to the type of skewed thinking that somehow America has the right to bring foreign nationals to this country—by kidnap, if necessary—for trial for crimes against American citizens that did not take place on American soil, but that somehow, this doesn’t then automatically confer that right on other nations—Germany, for example, in the case of the war crimes accusations against outgoing Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld. It has also allowed the turning of a blind eye to people like Ann Coulter, who have for years been tossing out phrases that extol violence against American citizens who disagree with their political or social positions. The Coulters of the world are excused by saying that this is, after all, merely free speech and lively rhetoric. But when does this cross the line into the encouragement of violence, and, therefore, terrorism? When some young man listens long enough, takes it seriously enough, and decides to mail threats and fake anthrax to progressive and liberal figures?  

But with Democrats coming back into power, progressives can no longer avoid a public discussion on terrorism—how it should be defined, how it should be addressed, how it should be stopped—since much of what will drive the new Democratic Congress’ agenda is what is suggested and promoted by the left. 

A good place to start, for progressives, is a discussion of what we think should be done with and to Al Queda and the organization’s leader—Osama bin Laden—and, in a broader question, what we advocate to do to prevent the growth of terrorism and terrorists in the world. This should not a device to convince the middle that the left is serious about national security. It should be a means of plumbing into our own souls and consciences, to delve into what we actually feel and stand for, and what we are willing to do to protect the people we love. 

While I have my own thoughts on the matter, I am purposely not advocating a particular outcome of this discussion, only that a discussion is needed. Get out of Iraq. Get out of Iraq! GET OUT OF IRAQ! In order to be heard over the deliberate obfuscation and national bedlam, we have had to continue a single-minded chant-and-shout over these past three years. 

But the time for shouting has ended, friends, at least for the present, and we have come into a brief, breathless moment in which we can have a quiet talk among ourselves about what we now want to do, and who we want to be. 

Let us not waste it. 

Editor’s note: This article appeared on openDemocracy.net prior to Thursday’s vote in the House for majority leader 

The world will long wonder what took the American people so long to realize that George W. Bush, the swaggering, macho, faux rancher from Texas, was an incompetent and dangerous man who threatened the democratic foundations and moral credibility of the United States.  

The answer, I believe, can be summed up in one word: fear.  

After Sept. 11, 2001, Bush successfully employed a politics of fear which resulted in widespread indifference to his domestic and foreign-policy agenda. Urged to be terrified by terrorism, Americans became blinded by fear. If a policy was part of the “war against  

terror,” most Americans figured it was probably worthwhile. As a result, they ignored the administration’s “tax relief” to the wealthy, its lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, its zealous campaign to promote the religious right’s vision of a Christian nation, and its determination to privatize anything and everything, including security in Iraq.  

As long as they thought they had a strong masculine president who would protect them, Americans seemed willing to give up all kinds of constitutional liberties and rights. As long as they felt comforted by the illusion of safety, Americans also seemed willing to tolerate Bush’s arrogant attitude toward the rest of the world.  

But such hubris almost always ends in tragedy. Eventually, people began to notice that the emperor wore no clothes. When hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans, Bush’s incompetence and lack of compassion could no longer be hidden behind a strutting swagger. As people drowned, he dined. As people died, he ignored their plight. Widespread corruption and sexual scandals among conservative Republicans further undermined the illusion that Bush—the man who believed God wanted him to be president—had anyone righteous on his side.  

Finally, the daily news reports of death and devastation in Iraq made Bush’s daily mantra of “staying the course” seem more pathetic than protective. “Is this man capable of safeguarding my family?” Americans asked themselves. At the polls, they cast their votes and decisively answered “no”. 

As New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd put it: “This will be known as the year macho politics failed—mainly because it was macho politics by marshmallow men. Voters were sick of phony swaggering, blustering and bellicosity, absent competency and accountability.”  

And so they turned to the Mommy party. Victories by 50 Democratic women in the House of Representatives helped their party gain control of both houses of Congress and catapulted Nancy Pelosi, a feminist liberal from San Francisco, to assume leadership as the first female speaker of the House of Representatives, second in line to the presidency.  

Not everyone turned to the Mommy party, of course. But women gave Democrats an important edge; 55 percent of them voted for Democrats, but only 43 percent voted for Republicans. Exit polls reveal that both white men and women split their votes fairly evenly between the two parties. The female vote that really made a difference came from women who were young, poor, and from ethnic and racial minority populations. Democrats also enjoyed even larger margins from both men and women among the young, between 18 and 29 years of age (22 percent); low-income workers who earn less than $15,000 (37 percent); African Americans (79 percent); Latinos (39 percent) and the highly educated (17 percent).  

The real “family values” 

Although she won’t become speaker of the House until January 2007, Nancy Pelosi has hit the ground running. During her first 100 hours as speaker, she has promised to introduce legislation that raises the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour, requires all cargo shipped into the United States to be screened, cuts student-loan interest rates in half, allows the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients, and broadens the types of stem-cell research allowed with federal funds.  

Pelosi has also demonstrated bold leadership by backing John Murtha in the race for majority leader in the House. One year ago, Murtha—a hawkish Democrat from Pennsylvania, and a decorated Vietnam veteran—stunned colleagues when he called for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Defying the president, Murtha argued that many troops were demoralized and poorly equipped and that after more than two years of war, they were impeding Iraq’s progress toward stability and self-governance.  

On Nov. 13 2006, Pelosi wrote to all elected representatives, saluting Murtha’s outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq and endorsing him as Democratic majority leader. At a time when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton still hasn’t opposed the war, Pelosi has staked out a strong anti-war position by promoting Murtha to such a position of leadership.  

Liberal women have been celebrating this election for many reasons, including the potential return of the nation’s attention to actual “family values”. Throughout the election, Pelosi, a self-described “mother of five children and grandmother of five,” emphasized the necessity of health care, education, energy independence, and a dignified retirement.  

Pelosi’s promises have already raised expectations among women’s rights advocates. Just days after the election, author Judith Warner argued in a widely-discussed New York Times op-ed that Pelosi should expand her agenda and do even more to support America’s working mothers and their families: “The American family,” she wrote, “needs quality after-school programs, national standards for childcare, voucher programs and tax subsidies to help pay for that care, universal, voluntary public preschool, paid family leave and incentives for businesses to make part-time and flex-time work financially viable.” 

Not all these things will necessarily happen, but still (as a friend of mine recently commented) at the very least we now have politicians who will discuss these vital matters.  

For those who have feared the end of legal abortion in the United States, the election means that the Democrats won’t have to watch helplessly as the Bush administration packs the Supreme Court with rightwing conservatives. As a result, legal abortion seems protected—for now. Even in the conservative state of South Dakota, voters defeated an initiative that would have banned all abortion, except to save the life of a pregnant woman. In California and Oregon, they also beat back initiatives that would have limited women’s reproductive choices.  

As the National Family Planning  

and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) notes: “the change in House leadership can only bring good things for reproductive health advocates...” In particular, the organization expects “a marked decline in anti-choice, anti-family planning legislative attacks, including the freestanding anti-choice bills that have been a centerpiece of the social conservative agenda.”  

The election has raised hopes, but they will almost certainly be dampened by political reality. Still, there is a palpable sense of possibility in the air, a glimpse of a brighter future, a growing confidence that the constitution will not be eviscerated, that a theocracy won’t govern this nation, and that Americans just might remember, as the Declaration of Independence proclaims, that Americans should pay “A decent respect to the opinions of mankind ...”  

One day after the election, my stepson—a properly cynical, but sensibly progressive young man with whom I’ve shared these years of bleakness and gloom—called me and said: “Today, I’m proud to be an American. We still live in a democracy.” I couldn’t remember the last time I heard anyone I respected utter those sweet and moving words.  

Ruth Rosen is a historian and journalist who formerly wrote a column for the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. She now teaches at UC Berkeley and is a senior fellow at the Longview Institute. A new edition of her book The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America (Penguin, 2001) will be republished in 2007 with an updated chronology and epilogue.

The Church of the Good Shepherd, situated on the corner of Ninth Street and Hearst Avenue, was one of the first nine structures designated City of Berkeley Landmarks on Dec. 15, 1975. It is the oldest church building standing in Berkeley, as well as the oldest in continuous use by its founding congregation in the entire East Bay. 

In its earlier years, the congregation included such prominent figures as Anna Head (1857–1932), founder of the famous preparatory school for girls; H.N. Marquand, publisher and proprietor of the Berkeley Advocate; and Zimri Brewer Heywood (1803–1879), Berkeley pioneer and owner of the Heywood lumber yard. 

The building originated with a women’s sewing society, which began collecting funds in 1877 to build an Episcopal church in West Berkeley. 

It was constructed in 1878, the year in which the City of Berkeley was incorporated. The architect, Charles L. Bugbee, modeled it after the Gothic Revival Mendocino Presbyterian Church designed a decade earlier by his father’s firm, S.C. Bugbee & Sons of San Francisco. 

In 1869, S.C. Bugbee & Sons was responsible for designing the California Theatre at 430 Bush St., between Kearny and Grant in San Francisco (California State Historic Landmark 86). It cost $150,000 and was for many years the city’s leading theatre. 

Also in 1869, S.C. Bugbee & Sons designed Mills Hall for Mills Seminary (now Mills College) in Oakland. That building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

An earlier version of Oakland City Hall reputedly was one of the firm’s commissions. In 1875, Sumner Bugbee was the architect of record for Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin’s Baldwin Theatre at the corner of Market and Powell Streets, to which a hotel was added in 1877 or ’78. 

Among the palatial Nob Hill residences designed by the firm was David Colton’s neoclassical mansion (1871–72) at the top of California Street, which later passed into the hands of Collis P. Huntington, and which architect Willis Polk in the 1890s would call “the most artistic [...] dwelling in the [...] city.” 

Next came Leland Stanford’s mansion (1875–76), which the San Francisco Chronicle described at the time as “the largest private residence in the state.” It was followed by Charles Crocker’s rococo mansion (1885), situated next door to the Colton residence. 

All three mansions burned in the 1906 fire. The Crocker and Colton palaces have been replaced with Grace Cathedral and Huntington Park, respectively, while the Stanford Court Hotel now stands on the site of Leland Stanford’s Mansion. 

Sumner Bugbee’s own house at 146 Lake St. in Oakland was far more modest. In its Victorian Stick style one can detect some of the same elements that appear on the Church of the Good Shepherd. 

Reflecting its Episcopalian denomination, the Church of the Good Shepherd is considerably more ornate and playful than its severe Presbyterian model in Mendocino. Here we find Victorian ornamentation on the façade walls and decorative shingle patterns on the spire roof. 

The building appears more earth-bound and less vertical than the Mendocino church, owing not only to the wider tower but also to the shape of the windows and the treatment of the belfry. 

This small church boasts no fewer than ten stained-glass windows—two large and eight small ones. The pseudo-Gothic buttresses “supporting” the tower and the chapel are hollow wooden boxes. The eighty-foot tower contains a thousand-pound Blymer bell. 

Until 1894, the latter fulfilled the double function of church bell and fire alarm. 

The building was renovated in 1978 with a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

While the exterior remains virtually unchanged, a few minor alterations were made to the interior. A Guild Hall was built in 1917, and a pastor’s house shortly thereafter. These were consolidated into a Parish Hall in 1959. 

The Church of the Good Shepherd was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. On Aug. 10, 2003 it celebrated its 125th anniversary. 

On that occasion the building was renovated again, with $70,000 raised by means of a capital campaign. In addition to receiving a structural upgrade, the church was painted in a handsome color scheme that emphasizes its Victorian style. 

Ornamentation in the neo-Gothic style abounds on the Church of the Good Shepherd exterior. Photograph by Daniella Thompson

I thrashed myself but good last weekend, just doing a little lightweight gardening. 

I was just cutting back some cabbage and weeding out a lot of nastygrass and blackberry, but it did rain just a bit before that, and much of the bed we were working in is in shade.  

So I’m whacking away merrily and what the heck? 

Where’d the air go? And I’m turning blue and wheezing like a punctured accordion and coughing like a whole TB ward and never mind the more unpleasant specifics: I realized I’d got nose-deep in some allergen and it’s a nasty surprise indeed.  

That allergen was almost certainly a mildew growing on the leaves of some hapless plant. There are a slew of mildews that affect garden plants, generally a particular mildew species (or more!) for each plant species. They find happy homes here because we have damp and fog so consistently in the warm growing seasons and, being mildew, they thrive in moisture and find lots of tender sweet cells to feed on then.  

Mildews don’t feed only on those live cells, as we know. They show up indoors in our north-facing rooms, on dampish walls and windowframes, on books and clothing. 

I lost my favorite pair of boots a couple of decades ago—knee-high purple suede with fringe around the tops, and my mother, of all people, had picked them out for me—to some evil-smelling white mildew, though I’d hung them from the closet ceiling for ventilation. Sometimes this California indoor/outdoor living thing goes too far.  

Mildews aren’t plants themselves. Some of them are fungi, members of a whole different kingdom. They have cell walls like plants, but composed of chitin, like shrimp shells. Mushrooms are fungi, of course, and so are lots of less tasty and more annoying things like athlete’s foot. Strange to think of eating something related to athlete’s foot. In fact, let’s stop thinking about it right now. 

Powdery mildews are fungi; they turn up on roses, grapes, apples, oh, lots of plants. 

They don’t need moisture to grow, but they need it to reproduce, and often spread their spores via water splashes or droplets from garden “debris”—which in happier circumstances is nice nutritious mulch from last year’s fallen leaves.  

Downy mildews (or water molds) are not fungi. They’re oomycetes, as are the Phytophthora that cause sudden oak death and potato blight, and the Pythium types that cause damping-off of plant seedlings. They have cell walls too, but composed of cellulose like plants. They’re “primitive” single-celled protists.  

Downy mildews show up on grapes too—poor grapes; it’s a wonder we still have wine—and other plants, and also use water to get their young distributed, though their sexual cells are more survivalist-oriented, tough enough to stand heat and drying. 

Some downy mildews make their living from fungi and from other oomycetes. It’s a dog-eat-dog world even if you’re not a dog.  

All these kingdoms picking on me in one garden foray! So much for being the crown of creation.  

Before I ever look for a single foundation bolt there are a always a few other questions I always have about the building I’m looking at. Of course, I’m talking about earthquake readiness or seismic stability or whatever term-du-jour we’re currently using. 

Houses are not all alike in their inherent earthquake vulnerability and I’d like to bring up just a handful of special conditions that might be present in your home. Hopefully, this will get you thinking about what might have been missed (or could get missed) in the retrofitting of your house, resulting in a really big difference when the earth does the Watusi. 

Line-Wire Stucco: This is a generic term that I’m really not too fond of because it focuses on one aspect of a set of conditions that actually extend far beyond the use of line-wires. Back in the 1940’s some clever but not very smart contractors began installing stucco directly over framing without the use of any sort of backing. Building paper (usually called felt) was installed over the framing but the only other thing behind the stucco was a network of wires that were strung across the studs and stapled in place to provide a semi-rigid backing for the paper so that the wet stucco would have something to push against and wouldn’t just tear through the paper. It was minimalism (and capitalism) at it’s most profound. Prior to this period, stucco had been installed over horizontally installed boards (usually something like a 1 by 10) that would get nailed to the studs. The felt was then stapled over this, along with a metal mesh such as chicken wire to reinforce & hold the stucco in place (that last part, the chicken wire, is also used in line-wire too). 

In an earthquake, even these simple horizontal boards would provide a fair amount of shear resistance (the force that resists tearing and the resulting collapse of walls). This means that when the stucco cracked and detached, the boards would help keep the walls upright. If you take those boards away and you have a skeleton of uprights, they can easily get pushed over during an earthquake (helped enormously by whatever weight is resting upon them, such as the main floor, second story or roof). 

If you happened to have diagonal boards behind your stucco, you really lucked-out because they provide a much higher level of shear strength. You can usually see these diagonal or horizontal boards from the garage or crawl space and occasionally in an attic along one of the gable (triangular) ends. Today we almost always install stucco over plywood or a similar structural panel such as oriented strand board (OSB). OSB is made up of small pieces of wood, lots of glue and a very clever assembly that creates great strength. 

Once again, if you take the boards away and install stucco with no attachment except for a small number of nails, you may be in for lots more damage. Engineers seem always to disagree on the severity of one thing or another but there seems to be a consensus that this is far less serious in a one-story house but may be quite serious with additional stories, especially when combined with large openings such as sliding glass doors, large (or many) windows or garage openings. 

Another very similar condition involves the substitution of line-wires with soft wooden panels that have just enough rigidity to throw the wet stucco against without breakage. Celotex made most of the material I’ve seen and it’s so soft that you can push a pencil through without much effort. This looks like you’ve got some bracing but, in fact, it’s really about the same as the wires alone. It did provide a little insulation but may increase flammability due to its soft pithy makeup. 

If you have a house like this (either line-wire or soft backing panels), it’s best to talk to an engineer. You may want to add some extra bracing. 

Another common condition that I occasionally see is the all-glass house of the 50’s. Glass is not a structural material and if you have a lot of glass around the exterior of your house, you don’t have much shear resistance and that’s a bad thing. While there are numerous solutions to this vulnerability, it’s important to retrofit these houses. I fear that some of our “architect designed” beauties of the 50’s and 60’s will end up either fully collapsed or at best, so badly damaged that escape may be impossible. A house like this can be retrofitted by a clever engineer so it’s important to look into it. 

Eichlers fall into this category too. They’re the very modular looking homes from the 1950’s through the 70’s that have lots of floor-to-ceiling glass, stone fireplaces and simple wood panels. Though a popular “retro” style, these houses are likely to be seriously damaged in a moderate to large local earthquake. 

Wooden houses tend to perform really well in earthquakes if they’re effectively connected to their foundations but the more you remove the wooden walls, the weaker they get. 

Any house that has a lot of holes punched through the exterior walls (windows, doors, garages) tends to get pretty floppy. Since earthquake shear forces are greatest at the bottom of the structure, where the ground is trying to shake the house free (imagine a dog shaking off a flea), any big holes near the base become places for the walls to tear and begin the deformation that eventually can lead to a collapse (partial or complete). 

Imagine you’re sitting on a nice new thick cardboard box. You can sort of shift around and it stays pretty solid. Now cut some holes for windows. When you shift around you’ll start tears at corners of your windows and pretty soon, you’re beautiful house is suffering from an identity crisis. If you cut holes near the very bottom, this happens faster and collapse occurs quicker. 

Step outside your home and consider it as if it were the cardboard box. Consider every door, window, garage opening or other medium to large penetration as a big hole cut in the box. Chimneys are included (in addition to the fact that they’re the first things to come down) because they are often installed over framing without the benefit of wood planking or structural panels behind them. If you can visualize well, you may also note that one or more sides are weaker than the rest.  

One such case that I often see is a building with garage openings all across one side (usually the front). These are, of course at the base and constitute one of the most serious earthquake weakness we see. This is called a soft-story and means that there is almost no resistance to tearing or collapse on that side. Many multi-unit buildings feature this unfortunate element and, once again, an engineer really ought to be consulted since a) it can mean a very nasty event and b) it’s avoidable with the proper alterations.  

I remember so clearly that in 1989, when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Marina district in San Francisco, one of the primary images that poured over TV screens again and again was that of multi-story apartment buildings that had collapsed over their front garages. 

There are more special conditions that merit attention including steep hillsides (which change the dynamics of movement in the house), brick walls (as well as other masonry building materials), the soil type you’re resting upon and the weight of your roof. The list really gets sort of ridiculous. I don’t mean to make this unduly complex but it’s actually … complex. 

Nonetheless, the basic principle does work. If your house has a lot of “holes” (windows, doors or garages) or if your house lacks inherent bracing (as in the case of line-wire stucco), it’s more likely to get wanked out of shape when our big one hits. So what do you do? Get professional help, sleep later on Saturday and eat more ice cream. That’s about as helpful as I can get. 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor at mgcantor@pacbell.net.

As the dust settles from the tumultuous 2006 mid-term elections, let’s consider the big political winners and losers: 

Winners: The two biggest winners were Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama. Pelosi not only because she’s going to be the first woman to ever hold the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives, but also because of the fine job she did leading the Dems out of the wilderness. Opponents often dismiss her as “too liberal.”  

By stereotyping the new Speaker, they overlook her toughness and inexhaustible energy. In the 2006 Congressional campaigns, Pelosi tirelessly toured the country: rallying both Democrats and Independents, and raising millions of dollars for Democratic candidates. She’s succeeded at organizing Congressional Dems—a job often described as herding cats—because she possesses a rare political quality: she’s a leader. 

Barack Obama was the Democrats’ “go to” guy in 2006. Whenever a Democratic candidate needed a boost, either of money or energy, they called in Obama. Like Pelosi, he traveled across the country: mobilizing the faithful. During this process, Obama hit two important political milestones: First, he gained universal credibility as a presidential candidate; everyone who saw Obama, came away impressed with his poise and intelligence. And, somewhere during this period, Obama ceased being “the Black Senator from Illinois” and became, instead, “the remarkable new leader of the Democratic Party.” 

Two other winners were Harry Reid and Howard Dean. Reid because he somewhat unexpectedly became Senate Majority Leader. It can’t help but be the case that his “give ‘em hell, Harry” persona will prove more telegenic than former Majority Leader Bill Frist’s “empty suit” demeanor. 

Despite the objections of Democratic leaders such as Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer, Howard Dean pushed his “fifty state strategy” at the DNC: he made sure that each state had on-the-ground operatives in the areas of field organizing, communications, technology and finance. As a result, Democrats made surprising gains in states such as Indiana and Kansas. 

Losers: While most in our “losers” category are Republicans, two Democrats stand out. Senator John Kerry was a big loser. His gaffe, several days before the election, forced him into an awkward apology. This probably didn’t affect the election results, but it did remind voters of Kerry’s unfortunate propensity for screw-ups. And, ended his long-shot chance as a presidential candidate in 2008. 

It’s difficult to characterize someone who won reelection with 67 percent of the vote as a loser. Nonetheless, it’s hard to see how Hillary Clinton strengthened her presidential chances. Outside New York, the Clinton that voters heard about was Bill. And, when the going got tough, the Democrats called upon Barrack Obama, not Hillary. She may have the money, but Obama’s got the buzz.  

Several Republicans suffered from the election results. The career of Virginia Senator George Allen went down the toilet. He took a double-digit lead and frittered it away in an epic series of campaign missteps. He’s finished as Senator from Virginia and as a GOP Presidential candidate. 

Tennessee Senator Bill Frist resigned his seat in order to launch a 2008 presidential bid. Yet, Frist had no impact on the close race in Tennessee. Indeed, during the entire 2006 Republican campaign Frist was a cipher. 

Even though he wasn’t running for any elected office, another big loser was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. A few days after telling reporters that he had no plans to replace Secretary Rumsfeld, Bush announced he’d accepted Rumsfeld’s resignation and acknowledged need for a “fresh perspective.” Bush attempted to lay all the blame for the Iraq fiasco on Rumsfeld. It was classic George Bush: rather than take responsibility for leading America into this quagmire, he opted to let Rumsfeld take the fall. 

Of course, the big loser in the midterm election was the president. Exit polls confirmed that many voters were casting their ballots against Bush. Nonetheless, the biggest loser on Nov. 7 was the man who stands behind Dubya: Republican political guru Karl Rove. It was Rove who masterminded Bush’s rise to the presidency and predicted a new conservative hegemony. And, it was also Rove who advised the President that beating drums for an invasion of Iraq would be a winning theme in the 2002 mid-term elections; who advised Bush to play the national security card in the 2004 Presidential elections. 

In 2006, Rove felt that he could continue to rely upon the theme of national security: “vote Republican or the terrorists will get you.” But it didn’t work: voters were more concerned about corruption than they were about Iraq and terrorism. And, most voters felt the war in Iraq was actually hurting the war on terror. Rove started up the GOP ocean liner, and set its initial course, but when it came time for a course correction, he couldn’t do it. Now Democrats have taken the initiative. Can Rove make a come back? Of course. But his miscalculations presented the Democrats with the opportunity to take back the Congress. And a golden opportunity to win the Presidency in 2008. 

Bottom line: the big winners in the 2006 mid-term elections were Democrats and the American people. And, everyone who treasures Democracy. 

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

I lost my husband and acquired a teenager. It’s not much of a deal. I still have to clean and shop, and carry out the trash. I still have to water the plants, pay the bills, and turn down the volume on the television.  

I no longer have to help someone get in and out of a wheelchair, or dress and assist him with eating, but now there’s a new set of responsibilities. I have to make sure my friend Jernae gets out of bed in the morning and off to school on time. I have to ascertain that she returns safely to my home by 5 p.m. I thought I would need to nag her about homework, but, surprisingly, she doesn’t have any. (A meeting with a counselor revealed that there is no homework at this continuing education high school. As I understand it, Jernae gets extra credits just for showing up.)  

I signed an agreement with Jernae and her mother and grandmother that I would make certain she is not on her cell phone after 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends. It’s not easy. Cellphones are small and can be set on vibrate mode. Teenagers are sneaky, and know how to whisper.  

I promised Jernae that I would spend one hour per day with her reading, writing and discussing what we have read and written, but this has proven to be difficult. She only reads and writes rap lyrics and MySpace entries, and she’s not much into sharing these with an adult. She has begged me to combine reading and writing with dinner, but that wasn’t in the original agreement. We are often silent while we eat. Sometimes I’m the only one who consumes food. More lonesome than eating alone is sitting across the table from a drama princess who is simultaneously sighing, watching the minute hand on the clock, and tapping her knife against a plate of cold, untouched mashed potatoes, meatloaf, and broccoli.  

Our reading and writing period has morphed into a high stakes Scrabble marathon that includes questionable spellings and commonly used street words not always found in the Scrabble dictionary. I have learned new slang, but these are not words I can use in normal, everyday adult conversation. Recently, I discovered a new definition for the word “boy,” and a disturbing way in which to use the word “daft.” There was an argument over how to spell quote/quoate, and another over the use of the letter S. Bitter silence ensued for the next 55 minutes.  

But it’s not all bad. I could be in the house for long periods of time unaccompanied, playing Scrabble with myself. I could be in a seedy bar drinking heavily with strangers, jockeying for a parking place at Trader Joe’s, or fighting for lane space at Temescal Pool. I could be dealing with any number of the thorny situations in which parents and teenagers often find themselves. Fortunately, Jernae doesn’t drive. She doesn’t drink or do drugs and (except in cyberspace and cell phone airspace), she doesn’t chase after boys. Right now my biggest concerns involve food consumed while surfing the net, candles lit while watching television, bathroom doors locked for unbearably long periods of time, and the obsessive-compulsive use of the telephone.  

Here’s the trade-off. One of the reasons Jernae likes staying at my house is because it’s quiet and besides me, she’s the only one there. My motivations are just the opposite. Sometimes, while she is talking on the phone or watching television, I can hear her laughter from the other side of the bedroom wall.

Down a tree-canopied lane bordered by lush fields of lettuce, corn and pumpkin. Through a filigreed iron gate and white picket fence. Past goldenrod Arden Station where Tucker waits to pull a visitor-laden rail car to Deer Park Station. Drop out of the frenzied pace of modern life. Get lost in the country estate of a wealthy 20th century farmer, a place caught in time. Visit Ardenwood Farm. 

At the historic home of George Washington Patterson the clock appears to have stopped 100-years ago, when simple pursuits occupied one’s day. Watching clear water burst forth from a bright red pump, tasting cookies baked in an outdoor wood-burning stove, changing straw in the stalls of draft horses, milk cows and woolly sheep, harvesting, shucking and grinding corn and making dolls from the husks, forging horseshoes from black iron. Though life has moved on, activities such as these make for a relaxing day “down on the farm.” 

In 1849, gold fever enticed George Washington Patterson west to San Francisco and California’s gold fields. After eighteen months, sick and out of funds, Patterson turned to his area of expertise, farming, using his wages to acquire land, one piece at a time. By 1877, the time of his marriage to Clara Hawley, his 6,000-acres made him one of the area’s richest and most respected men. Today, 205-acres remain, as if preserved in amber, functioning as a working farm. From the handsome butter-yellow mansion trimmed in brown and landscaped with a Victorian garden and lawn-side gazebo, to a massive hay barn, tank house, blacksmith shop, animal pens, orchard and fields of crops, Ardenwood Historic Farm captivates the imagination and tantalizes collective memories of a simpler life. 

On a beautiful fall weekday I toured Ardenwood, map in hand, surrounded by groups of delighted school children. Amid chattering voices sprinkled with bird song I headed first to the Farmyard, the heart of a working farm. At the imposing grey and white Hay Barn I ambled past a wheeled version of the farm’s history. Here all manner of vehicles reside, from a vintage wooden buggy suitable for Sunday drives, to a more recent John Deere tractor. 

In the Corn Room, windows open to the breeze, I watched the corn shucker and grinder reduce dried ears to cornmeal. Outside, a stately black draft horse basked in youthful admiration while contented cows drowsed in the shade on thick beds of clean straw. The Blacksmith was kept busy with orders of personalized horseshoes from an enthusiastic group; numbers steadily increased from six to eight to ten. As he wrote down names and collected payment his assistant shaped iron in the heat of glowing coals. 

Towering above hundred-year-old trees, the weathered windmill-topped Tank House is now under restoration by volunteers, as a future water museum. At the Country Kitchen stood a cream colored Monarch wood burning stove, protected from the elements beneath a sturdy wood overhang. Here pots bubbled and bread baked, aromas wafting through the yard. Nearby, the Laundry occupied center stage in an expanse of green. A big cast iron pot rested above a ring of smooth river stones with a corrugated metal and wood washboard at the ready. 

Something fresh from the oven lured me to the Farmyard Café. I passed up nachos and hot dogs in favor of a warm pumpkin nut muffin and coffee. At an oilcloth-covered picnic table beneath spreading oaks I lingered, enjoying my repast and the life of the farm. Around me squirrels scurried, their cheeks bulging with walnuts plucked from the orchard nearby; peahens and peacocks foraged for orts around the picnic area; kids took turns flexing their muscles at the farmyard pump giggling amid the splashes; the alternating pounding and tapping of the blacksmith mingled with the smell of burning coal. Ardenwood is no ‘model’ farm; everything here is life size and substantial, seemingly rooted in the ground and in history. 

Sated, I was ready to tour the house and gardens, home to three generations of Pattersons. Passing through the Kitchen Garden I admired shiny green bell and jalapeno peppers, royal-purple eggplants, plump heirloom tomatoes and massive heads of parsley, all organically grown. In the Flower Garden wooden posts and white ropes separated beds of colorful cosmos in shades of pink and magenta, golden marigolds and vivid dahlias. 

Surrounding the mansion, the Victorian Gardens are an eclectic mixture of long-standing flora—redwoods, palms, maples, eucalyptus, sycamore and three red-hued sassafras trees bordering the house. Across the lawn, within an encircling hedge and sheltered by light-filtering foliage, sits the white-trimmed Gazebo with open lattice, turned posts and a peaked, domed roof, ready to hear whispered gossip and squeals of childish delight. 

Volunteers are critical to Ardenwood’s operation and appeal. My house tour was lead by Joann, a docent for 20 years, in part because she loves to dress up. In her attractive black-and-white blouse and skirt and black hat, she enthusiastically talked her way through rooms and family history. My group was regaled with the Pattersons’ stories and a glimpse into their era. In his fifties, George Patterson wed a young woman of twenty; his gift the Queen Anne addition to the old farmhouse. From the Romanesque arches and Queen Anne corner sporting curved glass windows to the rare sycamore wood used within, the Patterson home spoke of wealth and prestige. 

Lovingly restored, with almost all original furnishings, the mansion is a cornucopia of a busy family. Behind massive doors opened only for guests, the front parlor shines with parquet floors and stained glass windows. The guest bedroom occupies the premier location and the Queen Anne corner. In the master bedroom, an Italian blue tile fireplace and a mattress stiffly stuffed with horsehair, collected from the farm. On the wall, behind glass, human hair keepsakes, woven into intricate patterns and braided into bracelets and necklaces. A young gentleman’s bedroom furnished with fishing gear, tennis racket and a Stanford football photo from 1904. Another photo testament to the dances once held in the attic. Hidden below the dining room carpet, a buzzer used to summon the cook for more biscuits, freshly made. 

Still buzzing with echoes from the past, I headed to Deer Park Station to board the railcar pulled along the tracks by Tucker, a Herculean Belgian draft horse capable of towing three laden cars—90,000 pounds. Through a Monarch butterfly-festooned eucalyptus grove, we meandered back to Arden Station, leaving behind the simple life but anxious to return again at a new season, when the rhythm of life on the farm changes but continues. 

Getting there: Take Hwy 880 south to Fremont. Exit 880 on Hwy 84 toward the Dumbarton Bridge. Exit 84 at Ardenwood/Newark Blvd. Go north on Ardenwood Blvd to the park entrance. Distance 30 miles.  

Ardenwood Historic Farm: 34600 Ardenwood Blvd., Fremont, 796-0663, www.ebparks.org/parks/arden. Open year-round Tues.-Sun. 10-4 p.m. Entrance fees vary by day of the week. Adults $2-$5, seniors $2-$4, children 4-17 years $1-$3.50. 

Photograph by Marta Yamamoto 

The fully furnished Patterson Mansion artfully combines a country farmhouse with an elegant Queen Anne addition, a wedding gift from George Patterson to his bride.

Before it got drafted to be an allegedly “heathier” substitute for chocolate, carob was a dietary staple of poor folks and a treat even for the wealthy. Ceratonia siliqua is a handsome, tough, warm-climate tree that grows long, thick, flat brown pods to cradle its seeds.  

These pods are sweet, nutritious (at least as tree pods go) and contain gummy stuff that gets used in all sorts of non-food things like glue and ink and leather and fabric sizing, as well as for “stabilizers” in foods as disparate as ice cream, mustard, and salami. Look for “locust gum” in the ingredients list.  

(May I insert here a short rant about the misuse, fast becoming normal, of the word “healthy” when what’s meant is “healthful” or “nutritious”? By the time most of us, especially humans, actually eat an item, chances are it’s far from healthy. In fact, vis-à-vis human food, one hopes it’s actually dead.) 

Speaking of salami or anyway of Salome: One of the vernacular names for carob is “St. John’s bread,” because it’s thought to be the locust part of the “locusts and honey” diet that John the Baptist lived on in the desert. 

Any tree with pinnately divided leaves and long seedpods might get called “locust”—the Robinia and Gleditsia locust trees are relatives but not siblings—but carob is evidently the first owner of the name.  

Different sources transmit different theories about whether the New Testament means the tree pod or the grasshopper, and evidently the Greek is as ambiguous as the English versions. Carob-dipped grasshoppers? Perhaps we could be ecumenical about it and have chocolate-covered ants instead. 

I myself would dance the hoochie-koochie for the avenger who would bring me the head (platter optional) of the malefactor who so badly abused the tree in the photo. 

If someone actually paid for that vandalism, someone get royally ripped off and they’ve set themselves up for damage and lawsuits in the future when the tree becomes a hazard.  

I’d heap more even shame upon the ingrates because carob’s such a good tree for urban spots here. It’s drought-tolerant and stands up to the sort of intense heat it gets in parking lots and other paved areas. It’s not deciduous, but keeps its green, clean, cheerful look even at summer’s end, when everything else is all dusty and exhausted.  

You can see streetside rows of good-sized mature carobs along a couple of the main drags in Livermore and in the South Bay. There’s a newish planting of them in the financial district in San Francisco, and I do wonder how they’ll fare in the shade of those tall buildings around them. They’d likely get a noontime furnace blast of sun in some seasons at least, and they’re better suited to endure that than many trees are.  

I’ve heard that carob is invasive in southern California, especially on disturbed ground and along watercourses, so I’d advise against planting it here if your site is near wildlands.  

If you have a carob or know someone who’ll let you pick its fruit, have at it. People chew on the pods just as they are—think of it as sweet vegetable jerky—and in Lebanon they press the pods for sweet dibess kharroob, which looks rather like molasses and is good on its own, in tahini, or for dipping pita.  

It would take serious grinding equipment, I’d think, to get carob flour from the pods. If you manage it—or just go buy some—it’s good with regular flour for bread or pancakes; I’ve never tried this but I bet it would combine well with buckwheat flour. Europeans have used the roasted, ground seeds in and instead of coffee: breakfast! Just add eggs, but don’t feed carob to your chickens—I don’t know why, but it’s supposed to be bad for them though it’s good for other livestock.  

It’s a handy tree to have; certainly we should think about planting some on the streets in advance of the apocalypse of your choice, so we can feed ourselves when the freeways and railroads have all gone to rubble. I’d still prefer to like it on its own merits, and not as a fake Hershey bar.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan.  

A very badly pruned carob tree behind a Telegraph Avenue burger place. 

FRIDAY, NOV. 17 

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 

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. 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “And Then There Were None” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Sun. at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave., at Moeser, El Cerrito, through Dec. 9. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Impact Theater “Jukebox Stories” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Dec. 10. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

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  

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 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Living Dreams in a Dying Village” A documentary exhibit about children affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in central China. Receptions at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley High School, Building C, 2nd Flr. 486-1221. 

FILM 

“Dog Day Afternoon” Shot-by shot analysis with screenwriter Frank Pierson at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Poeta del Guaran” at 6:30 p.m. and “La Sagrada Familia” at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $6-$8 for each film. 849-2568.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Panel Discussion on Adoption with authors Micky Duxbury, and Susan Ito at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

University Chorus performs “Elijah” by Mendelssohn at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-9988. http://music.berkeley.edu 

San Francisco City Chorus performs Mendelssohn’s St. Paul Oratorio at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $15-$20. 415-701-SONG. www.sfcitychorus.org 

The Jack Gates Trio, jazz, Brazilian and popular music at 7:30 p.m. at A Cheerfull Noyse, 1228 Solano Ave., Albany. Donations accepted. 524-0411. 

V Neck, Ross Hammond on guitar and Tom Monson on drums, at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th St., Oakland. Donation $5-$15. sfjazzmusic@yahoo.com 

Lua Hadar & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Reggae Angels at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

John Gorka, songcrafter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Bill Bell Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

The Freys at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Everest, The Parties, Praba & the Substitutes at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Jason Webley, Jherek & Alex Sprouts, The Pastries, Shakey Bones at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Ashkon, hip hop, urban at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

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

Partyline, Dinky Bits at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Hubert Laws at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, NOV. 18 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Orange Sherbert at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Asheba, calypso music and stroytelling, at 11 a.m. at Studio Grow, 1235 10th St. at Gilman Cost is $6, children under 1 free. 526-9888.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Harvest Works” Karl Reichley’s paintings and sculptures. Reception at 6 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Exhibit runs to Nov. 30. 848-1228. 

“Miniatures, Works of Limited Size” opens with a reception at 7 p.m. at Fourth Street Studios, 1717D Fourth St., and runs through Dec. 24. 527-0600. 

FILM 

“Cool Hand Luke” with screenwriter Frank Pierson in person at 6:30 p.m. and “Cat Ballou” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lee Tanner on “Masters of Jazz Photography” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Flauti Diversi “Classical Rhapsody” Quartets by CPE Bach and Mozart, at 8 p.m. at Music Sources, 1000 The Alameda, at Marin. Reservations recommended. Tickets are $15-$18. 527-9840. 

Chora Nova “Treasures of Michale Haydn” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $15-$20. www.choranova.org 

Trinity Chamber Concerts Music of Aaron Blumenfeld with Pamela Hicks, soprano and John D. Frederick, baritone, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Berkeley Broadway Singers “Music from the Movies” at 8 p.m. at St. Ambrose Church, 1145 Gilman St. 604-5732. www.berkeleybroadwaysingers.org 

San Francisco Taiko Dojo at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“The Music Party” Song, dance and poetry at 7 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Cost is $15-$20. 525-0302. 

Works in the Works Dance performance by St. Mary’s College Dance Company, Davalos Dance Company at 7:30 p.m. at Eighth Street Studio, 2424 Eighth St. Tickets are $10 at the door. 527-5115. 

Kirtan: Jagadambe at 8 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Cost is $16-$18. 843-2787. 

Linda Tillery & The Cultural Heritage Choir at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Robin Gregory & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Haitian Vertieres Day Celebration with Kalbasskreyol and Rasine Bambou at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Kompa dance lesson at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $12-15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Crooked Roads and Zac Cahn at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

John Gorka, songcrafter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Maya Kronfeld Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Mark Lemaire with Elaine Kreston at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Matthew Hansen Band, The Trenchermen, The Inversions at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. All ages show. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Living Remix at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Sarah Manning Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Babyland, Replicator 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. 19 

EXHIBITIONS 

The Photography of Matt Heron Artist talk by the civil rights photojournalist on his work covering the struggle for voting rights in the South, at 2 p.m. in the Community Meeting Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

Berkeley Arts Center Annual Members’ Showcase opens at 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park, and runs through Dec. 21. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Wild About Birds” mixed media paintings Rita Sklar. Reception at 4 p.m. in the Foyer Gallery of the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany. Exhibition runs to Feb. 16. 524-9283. www.ritasklar.com 

Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle Guided tour at 2 p.m. in Gallery 2, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

THEATER 

Wilde Irish Productions “Beckett Centennial Celebration” with staged readings of his work at 2 p.m. at Berkeley City Club Library, 2315 Durant Ave. Free, but reservations suggested. 644-9940. www.wildeirish.org 

FILM 

Yiddish Films “Letter to Mother” at 3 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

“King of Gypsies” with director Frank Pierson in person at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Riches, Rivals and Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America” A talk and film screening with Marjorie Schwarzer at 2 p.m. at the Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. 549-6950. 

Poetry Flash presents a reading for 26 Magazine with Kit Robinson, Sarah Rosenthal and Todd Melicker at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

St. Mark’s Choir Association, Music of Arvo Part: Berliner Messe, at 10 a.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. 845-0888. 

Prometheus Symphony Orchestra at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 116 Montecito, Oakland. Admission free, donations requested. www.prometheussymphony.org  

Contra Costa Chorale and Octangle Wind Octet at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. Tickets are $12.50-$15. 527-2026. 

“The Bringer of Light” Early Scandinavian Yuletide Music and Nordic Folk Music at 7:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Tickets at the door are $12-$15. 486-2803. 

“Jazz at the Chimes” with vocalist Kenny Washington at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $10, children under 12 free. 228-3218.  

Paul Arnoldi, folk and western, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Feminina & Cerro Negro/Brasil at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

“Thangs Taken” Rethinking Thanksgiving, A People’s Holiday event with poetry, music, visual art and hip hop at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Works in the Works Dance performance by St. Mary’s College Dance Company, Davalos Dance Company at 7:30 p.m. at Eighth Street Studio, 2424 Eighth St. Tickets are $10 at the door. 527-5115. 

New Life Band, African drum beats, at 7:30 p.m. with community potluck at 5 p.m. at Lutheran Church of the Cross, 1744 University Ave. 848-1424. 

Gabriela Frank, music of the Americas, at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Flamenco Open Stage at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Montara Mountain Boys at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Demonstrations, The Slits, Tussle at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $15. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

MONDAY, NOV. 20 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Journeys East: Patterns of Collecting” Art and artifacts from North Africa, India and the former Ottoman Empire on display at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St., through May 7, 2007. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

“Through the Eye of the Needle: Fabric Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz” opens at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St., through Feb. 11, 2007. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

PlayGround Six emerging playwrights debut new works at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $18. 415-704-3177. www.PlayGround-sf.org 

Thomas Pynchon’s “Against the Day” Countdown to the release from 9:30 p.m. to midnight at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express with Lucy Lang Day and Chas from Los Angeles at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-9988. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Broadway Singers “Music from the Movies” at 4 p.m. at St. Augustine’s Church, 400 Alcatraz Ave. 604-5732. www.berkeleybroadwaysingers.org 

Blue Monday Blues Jam at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

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 

Ben Goldberg Group at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com  

TUESDAY, NOV. 21 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Basil De Pinto and Kevin Kelly will read selections from the works of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish and Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai at 7:30 p.m. at the Gibson Center, Corpus Christi Church, 322 St. James Dr. at Park Blvd., Piedmont. 530-4343. 

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 

Motordude Zydeco, Gerard Landry & the Lariats and Andrew Carriere & the Cajun All Stars in a benefit for RC Carrier at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

PhilipsMarine Duo at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Head Royce School Jazz Bands at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 22 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Valerie Troutt & Ya Jazz Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $TBA. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Bio-Bluegrass with Three Mile Grade and Barefoot Nellies in a benefit for the Sierra Club at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15-$25. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Orquestra La Verdad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Blue & Tan, with bassist Vicky Grossi at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Tracy Grammer, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jacqui Naylor at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, NOV. 23 

THANKSGIVING

PHOTOGRAPHING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT 

Civil rights photojournalist Matt Heron will discuss his work covering the struggle for voting rights in the South at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Community Meeting Room of the Berkeley Public Library at 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

100 YEARS OF  

SAMUEL BECKETT  

Wilde Irish Productions will host the Beckett Centennial Celebration, an afternoon of staged readings from the writer’s works at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Berkeley City Club Library, 2315 Durant Ave. Admission is free, but reservations are strongly suggested. 644-9940. www.wildeirish.org. 

CLOSELY WATCHED FILMS AT PFA 

Screenwriter Frank Pierson will lead a shot-by-shot analysis and discussion of Dog Day Afternoon (Sidyney Lumiere, 1975) at 7 p.m. Friday at Pacific Film Archive. The discussion is part of PFA’s “Closely Watched Films” series in which Pierson will discuss several of his works, including Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg, 1967) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Cat Ballou (Elliot Silverstein, 1965) at 9:15 p.m. Saturday, and The King of the Gypsies (1978), which Pierson directed himself, at 5:30 p.m. Sunday. 2575 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

NEEDLEPOINT ARTWORK AT MAGNES MUSEUM 

“Through the Eye of the Needle: Fabric Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz” opens Monday and runs through Feb. 11 at the Judah L. Magnes Museum at 2911 Russell St.549-6950. www.magnes.org.

The San Francisco Symphony is taking a lighter turn for the Thanksgiving holiday, presenting guest conductor David Robertson leading the orchestra in a performance of Charlie Chaplin’s score to his 1931 film City Lights.  

Robertson has a reputation for eclecticism, bringing a diverse range of interests to his position as conductor of the St. Louis Symphony. His talent and varied interests have been credited for the revitalization of the orchestra after a troubled few years that featured a brush with bankruptcy and dissolution, the untimely death of conductor Hans Von and a labor dispute that resulted in a work stoppage in 2005.  

Robertson, a relatively young conductor at the age 47, is proving to be something of a hot commodity, a much sought-after guest conductor who has brought his expansive repertoire—from the great international masters to the lowly slapstick comedians of early Hollywood—to a series of concerts around the country. 

Charlie Chaplin is not often thought of as a music man, but Robertson has long been a champion of the comedian’s musical talents, conducting the St. Louis Symphony in presentations of several of Chaplin’s scores, including The Idle Class, City Lights and The Kid. As in the case of the San Francisco concerts, the scores are usually performed as accompaniment to the films themselves. In St. Louis, they’ve even sold popcorn in the lobby.  

Chaplin’s City Lights is perhaps his best feature film, with one of the most moving and poignant closing shots ever filmed. But what gets lost in the haze of hagiography is that City Lights was a daring and controversial project. The movies had begun to talk, quickly banishing the silent filmmakers to the ash heap of cultural irrelevance. Many filmmakers made the shift to sound willingly, eager to explore the possibilities of what was essentially a new art form. Others, like Chaplin, went begrudgingly. 

But his was a unique case. As an independent producer, he had no studio bosses to force the change upon him. And as one of the most successful and beloved of screen icons, he had the clout and the means to stand his ground and produce whatever sort of picture he wanted. So he opted to remain silent.  

This was not simply a case of stubbornness however, nor of vanity, though Chaplin possessed no shortage of either. Rather, this was a case of retaining the integrity of the character he had nurtured for more than 15 years, the beloved Tramp who had made him famous the world over. For the Tramp was an inherently silent character, and one that had international appeal; to give him a voice—and, perhaps most damaging, a particular language—would limit his archetypal quality.  

“A good silent picture had universal appeal both to the intellectual and the rank and file,” Chaplin wrote in his autobiography. “Now it was all to be lost.” 

So Chaplin set out to prove that silence was an art form rather than an outdated commodity, and he succeeded beyond all expectations. But still there is more to the story, more to the range and depth of Chaplin’s accomplishment. The advent of sound meant that for the first time Chaplin could have absolute control over the scoring of his film. In the silent era, films were often sent to theaters along with complete scores, or at least cue sheets so that each theater’s house musicians could accompany the film with appropriate music. Chaplin had always been involved in compiling these cue sheets, but the nature of the operation limited his influence. The new technology allowed Chaplin to compose his own score and oversee its recording, thus filling the only remaining gap in his auteurist resume. 

The music, however, may not be quite what you’d expect from silent comedy. It has none of the clichéd bumps and whistles that pedestrian musicians so often use to accompany visual comedy. Again from Chaplin’s autobiography: 

I tried to compose elegant and romantic music to frame my comedies in contrast to the tramp character, for elegant music gave my comedies an emotional dimension. Musical arrangers rarely understood this. They wanted the music to be funny. But I would explain that I wanted no competition, I wanted the music to be a counterpoint of grace and charm, to express sentiment, without which, as Hazlitt says, a work of art is incomplete. 

Chaplin scored all of his future films as well, and even went back and composed and recorded scores for many of his earlier films. And, as per his estate, the films must be screened with those scores. Thus modern audiences who wish to see Chaplin on the big screen are often cheated of one of the essential pleasures of silent film: live musical accompaniment.  

David Robertson and the San Francisco Symphony however are correcting that flaw and providing just such an opportunity. 

CITY LIGHTS 

Guest conductor David Robertson will lead the San Francisco Symphony in a performance of Charlie Chaplin’s score for his 1931 classic City Lights at 8 p.m. Nov. 22, 24 and 25. The performance will accompany a screening of the film. The concert will be preceded by an onstage conversation between Robertson and San Francisco Silent Film Festival Artistic Director Stephen Salmons at 7 p.m. Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., 

San Francisco. (415) 864-6000. 

www.sfsymphony.org.

In Ice Glen, Joan Ackerman’s play in its West Coast premiere at Aurora Theatre, the eccentric inhabitants of a country estate in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, circa 1919, are disturbed in the pursuit of their various autumnal tasks by the unannounced visit of a Boston editor, seeking to publish the poems of one of the denizens—who doesn’t want her poems published, or even memorized, by a stranger. 

Anyone familiar with today’s poetry scene might be jolted by this unlikely response, but the bucolic housemates take it in stride, more unsettled by the surprise visit and its immediate consequences. Meanwhile, the poet brusquely turns away from welcoming the visitor and returns to her seclusion in nature, where she’s already been mauled (or at least jostled) by a bear, whose unseen presence haunts the play, a spirit of place, or maybe a simile for another unseen presence: the ursine and profligate late master of the domain. 

The insistent editor stays over, at the pressing invitation of the late master’s young widow, visiting the sites—the Ice Glen of the title, for instance—he would like to help the poet immortalize, treating the poet herself as some kind of monument. But an impulsive response to his hostess’s welcoming confidences, followed by departure and silence, muddies the waters, implying a triangle to the others, overlaying another, older triangle. 

Ackermann has a talent for repetition that develops into inference, and an ability to offhandedly disclose the backstory in her glib dialogue. The fine cast, with Barbara Oliver’s direction, is more than a match for the virtues in the dialogue and whatever’s intriguing in the situation, with fine performances by Lauren Grace as the widow, girlish Dulce who endeavors to act the proper lady, and Julian Lopez-Morillas as taciturn manservant Grayson, whose repeated questionings of the editor as to why he wants to publish the poems gradually reveals less incredulity than intuition as to motive. 

These two are by far the most interesting characters. Jessica Powell has a field day with housekeeper Mrs. Roswell, that sanguine fount of gloom, soliloquizing (when she isn’t gossiping) over the sad onset of winter; Marvin C. Greene represents insoucient editor Peter Woodburn very well as he shifts his gears, rediscovering himself under the professional glaze. But these are types—rustic comedienne and repressed city slicker—as are the other two roles, even more so: Zehra Berkman as self-occulting nature poet Sarah Harding and Douglas B. Giorgis as inquisitive but “slow” orphan Denby both get the most out of parts that are limited in conception, stereotypes that are sometimes overly decorated with colorful language—their own, or the epithets of others. 

There’s local color tipped in—Greylock, the peak that figures in Melville’s Piazza Tales—and a fair amount of period name-dropping: Edith Wharton has sent Sara’s poems to Woodburn at the Atlantic Monthly, unbeknownst to the poet. And Woodburn tries to gain Sara’s confidence, or impress her, by offering to get Wallace Stevens or T. S. Eliot to read her poems—not too enticing an offer in 1919, when Stevens’ Harmonium hadn’t yet come out, and Eliot had only a very few poems out in little magazines. A fashionable editor might have mentioned Amy Lowell to a talented, eccentric young woman writer. 

Ice Glen brings up issues of art, communication, loss and sociality, as well as that old chestnut of city-versus-country. But it treats its novelistic themes in a precious and tidy way, despite a few leading ideas, much like Masterpiece Theatre or Hallmark Hall of Fame would, adapting books by second-rate imitators of Wharton or Henry James, sentimentalizing the great authors’ concerns with the dearth or control of communication in a provincial society. 

The fine efforts of director, cast and designers (John Iacovelli’s set and Anna Oliver’s costumes especially) help skirt kitsch, but the overriding sense is of a feel-good reversal of another trip by a Boston editor, years before, to visit a recluse, whose poems he felt were too unusual for print. That editor found Emily Dickinson unbearably intense as a person as well as poet. Such is the tragedy of art in America in its ongoing phases. In Ice Glen, the poetry is finally just another pretext for therapy, self-expression and, one way or another, recognition. 

ICE GLEN 

8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays and at 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 10. $38. Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org.

Steve Anderson’s new documentary Fuck takes a thorough look at the most multi-faceted of expletives—at its murky, myth-laden origins, its many conjugations, its cathartic, emotive power as well as its power to offend.  

While the film contains clips from controversial performances by comedians Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, as well as animations by Bill Plympton and excerpts from dozens of Hollywood films, it is essentially a talking-head documentary, a string of interviews examining the word from all sides. 

But what a collection of talking heads. From sociologists and linguists to comedians and porn stars, Fuck runs the gamut, for who can’t claim some level of expertise with the word and at least one of its myriad meanings? It’s one of the most democratic words in the English language. Television writer/producer Steven Bochco relates tales of clashes with censors over “NYPD Blue”; 1950s wholesome heartthrob Pat Boone shares his G-rated alternative expletive (“Boone!”), while Ice T consequently ridicules it; moralists like Judith “Miss Manners” Martin and radio talk show hosts Alan Keyes and Dennis Prager rail against the prevalence of the word in popular culture, while Bill Maher decries the hypocrisy of the Christian right as he and other comedians and performers defend their right to use it; and Hunter S. Thompson … well, I’m not sure what the hell Thompson was mumbling about between swigs of whiskey and the compulsive adjusting of his transparent blue “Las Vegas” visor, but I’m sure it was fascinating.  

The movie is fun but ultimately it has little insight. Indeed there is more to learn about profanity, self-expression, censorship and the First Amendment by spending more time with the performances the film excerpts, namely those of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin. Bruce of course is the iconic image most associated with topic, having been arrested onstage nine times for his use of profanity and convicted twice, events which hastened the downward spiral which resulted in his death by drug overdose. If you want a better, more moving and insightful glimpse into the topic, check out Bruce’s recordings, or perhaps Dustin Hoffman’s performance as Bruce in Lenny and you’ll get a more compelling portrait of the power of language.  

Or try one of Carlin’s performances, either on video or on one of his old records. Occupation: Foole, his 1973 album, is excerpted in the documentary and it’s a good place to start, for not only do you get Carlin’s riff on the seven infamous words, you also get his comedic take specifically on the word fuck—its drama, its passion and its hurtfulness.  

Fuck provides an interesting and entertaining overview of the word but ultimately the film is far less insightful than its director probably hoped it to be. 

FUCK 

Directed by Steve Anderson. 93 minutes.  

Not rated. Playing at Shattuck Cinemas. 

Image: An array of experts weigh in: Musician Evan Seinfeld and adult film star Tera Patrick, singer Pat Boone, rapper Chuck D, newsman Sam Donaldson, radio talk show host Dennis Prager, late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, comedian Bill Maher, comedian Drew Carey and talk show host and political candidate Alan Keyes.

The films of Agnes Varda and her husband Jacques Demy could not be more different.  

Demy, best known for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, was both part of and apart from the French New Wave. Enamored with Hollywood’s golden age musicals, he is sometimes referred to as France’s answer to Busby Berkeley: sweet but trite stories, artfully decorated but too slight for the tastes of his contemporaries. 

Varda, on the other hand, is New Wave through and through. There are no gunfights, no car crashes, no dramatic chages of heart. Varda made small, insightful films about complex young characters. She represents the feminine side of the New Wave, a movement largely dominated by male directors. And while the male directors for the most part did a fair job of portraying women, Varda’s female characters have a depth and profundity unmatched in the work of her male counterparts. 

Cleo From 5 to 7 details essentially two hours in the life of its heroine in real time, though the timing is not exact and may not be quite realistic; it’s an action-packed two hours of supposedly everyday life. In that short span, the young pop singer protagonist manages a shopping trip, a rehearsal, a visit with a friend and an encounter with a stranger, not to mention bus and taxi trips all over Paris.  

But this is hardly the point. What we’re watching is the psychological processes Cleo undergoes as she awaits the results of a medical test that will tell her just how serious her condition is. She has cancer; we don’t know what kind, we don’t know how serious. We only know that this beautiful, spoiled princess of a woman is suddenly dealing with something she is not accustomed to: hardship and pain.  

How she deals with it tells us almost as much about her as the trappings of her privileged life—her furs, her hats, the adulation of her acquaintances. She approaches her illness with as much self-absorbed intensity as she presumably approached her pre-illness life; she draws people to her, collects them as small testaments to her beauty. But this is not portrayed with condescension; we do not feel contempt for her. Rather we are witnessing the sudden, painful expansion of a young woman’s consciousness as she learns that she is not the center of the world, a notion beautifully expressed in a scene where she plays her latest hit on a cafe jukebox and realizes that no one is paying attention. And, in an encounter with a young soldier about to return to battle in Algeria, she finally gives something of herself to another, offering companionship and conversation to a kindred spirit who also carries a burden. 

The conclusion is typical of the New Wave; there is no big Hollywood–style conclusion, no tearful dramatic close or trite, happy finale, but rather just a small revelation, the flicker of heightened consciousness across Cleo’s face. It is not a big change, not a life-altering change, and in fact the change may prove to be fleeting. But the drama in Cleo From 5 to 7 is not in the action, it is in the mind of its heroine. Such drama is difficult to express as an actor and difficult to photograph for a director, but Varde and her star make it as evident as any Hollywood car crash. 

The film is showing at Pacific Film Archive as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of Janus Films and is available on DVD as part of the Criterion Collection’s 50 Years of Essential Arthouse box set. 

CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 

(France, 1961) 

Directed by Agnes Varda. Starring Corinne Marchand and featuring the music of Michel Legrand. 3 p.m. Sunday at Pacific Film Archive. 2575 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

www.criterionco.com.

The Church of the Good Shepherd, situated on the corner of Ninth Street and Hearst Avenue, was one of the first nine structures designated City of Berkeley Landmarks on Dec. 15, 1975. It is the oldest church building standing in Berkeley, as well as the oldest in continuous use by its founding congregation in the entire East Bay. 

In its earlier years, the congregation included such prominent figures as Anna Head (1857–1932), founder of the famous preparatory school for girls; H.N. Marquand, publisher and proprietor of the Berkeley Advocate; and Zimri Brewer Heywood (1803–1879), Berkeley pioneer and owner of the Heywood lumber yard. 

The building originated with a women’s sewing society, which began collecting funds in 1877 to build an Episcopal church in West Berkeley. 

It was constructed in 1878, the year in which the City of Berkeley was incorporated. The architect, Charles L. Bugbee, modeled it after the Gothic Revival Mendocino Presbyterian Church designed a decade earlier by his father’s firm, S.C. Bugbee & Sons of San Francisco. 

In 1869, S.C. Bugbee & Sons was responsible for designing the California Theatre at 430 Bush St., between Kearny and Grant in San Francisco (California State Historic Landmark 86). It cost $150,000 and was for many years the city’s leading theatre. 

Also in 1869, S.C. Bugbee & Sons designed Mills Hall for Mills Seminary (now Mills College) in Oakland. That building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

An earlier version of Oakland City Hall reputedly was one of the firm’s commissions. In 1875, Sumner Bugbee was the architect of record for Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin’s Baldwin Theatre at the corner of Market and Powell Streets, to which a hotel was added in 1877 or ’78. 

Among the palatial Nob Hill residences designed by the firm was David Colton’s neoclassical mansion (1871–72) at the top of California Street, which later passed into the hands of Collis P. Huntington, and which architect Willis Polk in the 1890s would call “the most artistic [...] dwelling in the [...] city.” 

Next came Leland Stanford’s mansion (1875–76), which the San Francisco Chronicle described at the time as “the largest private residence in the state.” It was followed by Charles Crocker’s rococo mansion (1885), situated next door to the Colton residence. 

All three mansions burned in the 1906 fire. The Crocker and Colton palaces have been replaced with Grace Cathedral and Huntington Park, respectively, while the Stanford Court Hotel now stands on the site of Leland Stanford’s Mansion. 

Sumner Bugbee’s own house at 146 Lake St. in Oakland was far more modest. In its Victorian Stick style one can detect some of the same elements that appear on the Church of the Good Shepherd. 

Reflecting its Episcopalian denomination, the Church of the Good Shepherd is considerably more ornate and playful than its severe Presbyterian model in Mendocino. Here we find Victorian ornamentation on the façade walls and decorative shingle patterns on the spire roof. 

The building appears more earth-bound and less vertical than the Mendocino church, owing not only to the wider tower but also to the shape of the windows and the treatment of the belfry. 

This small church boasts no fewer than ten stained-glass windows—two large and eight small ones. The pseudo-Gothic buttresses “supporting” the tower and the chapel are hollow wooden boxes. The eighty-foot tower contains a thousand-pound Blymer bell. 

Until 1894, the latter fulfilled the double function of church bell and fire alarm. 

The building was renovated in 1978 with a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

While the exterior remains virtually unchanged, a few minor alterations were made to the interior. A Guild Hall was built in 1917, and a pastor’s house shortly thereafter. These were consolidated into a Parish Hall in 1959. 

The Church of the Good Shepherd was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. On Aug. 10, 2003 it celebrated its 125th anniversary. 

On that occasion the building was renovated again, with $70,000 raised by means of a capital campaign. In addition to receiving a structural upgrade, the church was painted in a handsome color scheme that emphasizes its Victorian style. 

Ornamentation in the neo-Gothic style abounds on the Church of the Good Shepherd exterior. Photograph by Daniella Thompson

I thrashed myself but good last weekend, just doing a little lightweight gardening. 

I was just cutting back some cabbage and weeding out a lot of nastygrass and blackberry, but it did rain just a bit before that, and much of the bed we were working in is in shade.  

So I’m whacking away merrily and what the heck? 

Where’d the air go? And I’m turning blue and wheezing like a punctured accordion and coughing like a whole TB ward and never mind the more unpleasant specifics: I realized I’d got nose-deep in some allergen and it’s a nasty surprise indeed.  

That allergen was almost certainly a mildew growing on the leaves of some hapless plant. There are a slew of mildews that affect garden plants, generally a particular mildew species (or more!) for each plant species. They find happy homes here because we have damp and fog so consistently in the warm growing seasons and, being mildew, they thrive in moisture and find lots of tender sweet cells to feed on then.  

Mildews don’t feed only on those live cells, as we know. They show up indoors in our north-facing rooms, on dampish walls and windowframes, on books and clothing. 

I lost my favorite pair of boots a couple of decades ago—knee-high purple suede with fringe around the tops, and my mother, of all people, had picked them out for me—to some evil-smelling white mildew, though I’d hung them from the closet ceiling for ventilation. Sometimes this California indoor/outdoor living thing goes too far.  

Mildews aren’t plants themselves. Some of them are fungi, members of a whole different kingdom. They have cell walls like plants, but composed of chitin, like shrimp shells. Mushrooms are fungi, of course, and so are lots of less tasty and more annoying things like athlete’s foot. Strange to think of eating something related to athlete’s foot. In fact, let’s stop thinking about it right now. 

Powdery mildews are fungi; they turn up on roses, grapes, apples, oh, lots of plants. 

They don’t need moisture to grow, but they need it to reproduce, and often spread their spores via water splashes or droplets from garden “debris”—which in happier circumstances is nice nutritious mulch from last year’s fallen leaves.  

Downy mildews (or water molds) are not fungi. They’re oomycetes, as are the Phytophthora that cause sudden oak death and potato blight, and the Pythium types that cause damping-off of plant seedlings. They have cell walls too, but composed of cellulose like plants. They’re “primitive” single-celled protists.  

Downy mildews show up on grapes too—poor grapes; it’s a wonder we still have wine—and other plants, and also use water to get their young distributed, though their sexual cells are more survivalist-oriented, tough enough to stand heat and drying. 

Some downy mildews make their living from fungi and from other oomycetes. It’s a dog-eat-dog world even if you’re not a dog.  

All these kingdoms picking on me in one garden foray! So much for being the crown of creation.  

Before I ever look for a single foundation bolt there are a always a few other questions I always have about the building I’m looking at. Of course, I’m talking about earthquake readiness or seismic stability or whatever term-du-jour we’re currently using. 

Houses are not all alike in their inherent earthquake vulnerability and I’d like to bring up just a handful of special conditions that might be present in your home. Hopefully, this will get you thinking about what might have been missed (or could get missed) in the retrofitting of your house, resulting in a really big difference when the earth does the Watusi. 

Line-Wire Stucco: This is a generic term that I’m really not too fond of because it focuses on one aspect of a set of conditions that actually extend far beyond the use of line-wires. Back in the 1940’s some clever but not very smart contractors began installing stucco directly over framing without the use of any sort of backing. Building paper (usually called felt) was installed over the framing but the only other thing behind the stucco was a network of wires that were strung across the studs and stapled in place to provide a semi-rigid backing for the paper so that the wet stucco would have something to push against and wouldn’t just tear through the paper. It was minimalism (and capitalism) at it’s most profound. Prior to this period, stucco had been installed over horizontally installed boards (usually something like a 1 by 10) that would get nailed to the studs. The felt was then stapled over this, along with a metal mesh such as chicken wire to reinforce & hold the stucco in place (that last part, the chicken wire, is also used in line-wire too). 

In an earthquake, even these simple horizontal boards would provide a fair amount of shear resistance (the force that resists tearing and the resulting collapse of walls). This means that when the stucco cracked and detached, the boards would help keep the walls upright. If you take those boards away and you have a skeleton of uprights, they can easily get pushed over during an earthquake (helped enormously by whatever weight is resting upon them, such as the main floor, second story or roof). 

If you happened to have diagonal boards behind your stucco, you really lucked-out because they provide a much higher level of shear strength. You can usually see these diagonal or horizontal boards from the garage or crawl space and occasionally in an attic along one of the gable (triangular) ends. Today we almost always install stucco over plywood or a similar structural panel such as oriented strand board (OSB). OSB is made up of small pieces of wood, lots of glue and a very clever assembly that creates great strength. 

Once again, if you take the boards away and install stucco with no attachment except for a small number of nails, you may be in for lots more damage. Engineers seem always to disagree on the severity of one thing or another but there seems to be a consensus that this is far less serious in a one-story house but may be quite serious with additional stories, especially when combined with large openings such as sliding glass doors, large (or many) windows or garage openings. 

Another very similar condition involves the substitution of line-wires with soft wooden panels that have just enough rigidity to throw the wet stucco against without breakage. Celotex made most of the material I’ve seen and it’s so soft that you can push a pencil through without much effort. This looks like you’ve got some bracing but, in fact, it’s really about the same as the wires alone. It did provide a little insulation but may increase flammability due to its soft pithy makeup. 

If you have a house like this (either line-wire or soft backing panels), it’s best to talk to an engineer. You may want to add some extra bracing. 

Another common condition that I occasionally see is the all-glass house of the 50’s. Glass is not a structural material and if you have a lot of glass around the exterior of your house, you don’t have much shear resistance and that’s a bad thing. While there are numerous solutions to this vulnerability, it’s important to retrofit these houses. I fear that some of our “architect designed” beauties of the 50’s and 60’s will end up either fully collapsed or at best, so badly damaged that escape may be impossible. A house like this can be retrofitted by a clever engineer so it’s important to look into it. 

Eichlers fall into this category too. They’re the very modular looking homes from the 1950’s through the 70’s that have lots of floor-to-ceiling glass, stone fireplaces and simple wood panels. Though a popular “retro” style, these houses are likely to be seriously damaged in a moderate to large local earthquake. 

Wooden houses tend to perform really well in earthquakes if they’re effectively connected to their foundations but the more you remove the wooden walls, the weaker they get. 

Any house that has a lot of holes punched through the exterior walls (windows, doors, garages) tends to get pretty floppy. Since earthquake shear forces are greatest at the bottom of the structure, where the ground is trying to shake the house free (imagine a dog shaking off a flea), any big holes near the base become places for the walls to tear and begin the deformation that eventually can lead to a collapse (partial or complete). 

Imagine you’re sitting on a nice new thick cardboard box. You can sort of shift around and it stays pretty solid. Now cut some holes for windows. When you shift around you’ll start tears at corners of your windows and pretty soon, you’re beautiful house is suffering from an identity crisis. If you cut holes near the very bottom, this happens faster and collapse occurs quicker. 

Step outside your home and consider it as if it were the cardboard box. Consider every door, window, garage opening or other medium to large penetration as a big hole cut in the box. Chimneys are included (in addition to the fact that they’re the first things to come down) because they are often installed over framing without the benefit of wood planking or structural panels behind them. If you can visualize well, you may also note that one or more sides are weaker than the rest.  

One such case that I often see is a building with garage openings all across one side (usually the front). These are, of course at the base and constitute one of the most serious earthquake weakness we see. This is called a soft-story and means that there is almost no resistance to tearing or collapse on that side. Many multi-unit buildings feature this unfortunate element and, once again, an engineer really ought to be consulted since a) it can mean a very nasty event and b) it’s avoidable with the proper alterations.  

I remember so clearly that in 1989, when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Marina district in San Francisco, one of the primary images that poured over TV screens again and again was that of multi-story apartment buildings that had collapsed over their front garages. 

There are more special conditions that merit attention including steep hillsides (which change the dynamics of movement in the house), brick walls (as well as other masonry building materials), the soil type you’re resting upon and the weight of your roof. The list really gets sort of ridiculous. I don’t mean to make this unduly complex but it’s actually … complex. 

Nonetheless, the basic principle does work. If your house has a lot of “holes” (windows, doors or garages) or if your house lacks inherent bracing (as in the case of line-wire stucco), it’s more likely to get wanked out of shape when our big one hits. So what do you do? Get professional help, sleep later on Saturday and eat more ice cream. That’s about as helpful as I can get. 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor at mgcantor@pacbell.net.

FRIDAY, NOV. 17 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Professor Emeritus Didier de Fontaine on “Cosmology.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

“The State Vs. Reed” A documentary on a death row inmate’s case, followed by discussion at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donations requested. 528-5403.  

“Mission Against Terror” A documentary about five Cuban men in prison in the U.S. at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

Movies that Matter “The Secret” at 6:30 p.m. at Neumayer Residence, 565 Bellevue St. at Perkins, Oakland. 451-3009. http://joyfulharmony.org 

Share Berkeley History The Berkeley Historical Society is looking for photographs, stories and other memorabilia of Berkeley history. Drop by the North Berkeley Senior Center from 1 to 3 p.m. with your stories and photographs so that Berkeley Historical Society embers can archive them. 848-0181. 

Panel Discussion on Adoption with authors Micky Duxbury and Susan Ito at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

“Go to Your Library and Make Art” A craft program for children in grades 4-12 at 3 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. http://ccclib.org  

SATURDAY, NOV. 18 

Finalists for the Position of Library Director will give presentations from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Story Room, 4th floor, Central Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. at Shattuck. 981-6195.  

Dig In To Fall Planting Season Volunteers need to help with the ongoing restoration of West Stede Marsh from 9 a.m. to noon at The Watershed Project, 1327 South 46th St., Richmond. To register call 665-3689. www.thewatershedproject.org 

Conference on Racism and Katrina from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Connie Barbour Room (not wheelchair accessible) at 1606 Bonita, enter through education building. 

Chiapas Caravan Sendoff A potluck dinner and update on Mexico and Oaxaca at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Donation $5-$20. 415-924-3227. 

Solo Sierrans Sunset Walk in Emeryville Meet at 3:30 p.m. behind Chevy’s Restaurant small parking lot for an hour’s walk through the Marina. Paved trail, wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 234-8949. 

Origami Ornaments at 10:30 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

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

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. 

“No Safe Haven” with Leena Khandwala, Appellate Advocacy Fellow with the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies on the exploitation of women and girls, at 2 p.m. in the basement auditorium at Berkeley City College. 

Music Business Seminar from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Cost is $30-$65. Sponsored by California Lawyers for the Arts. 415-775-7200, ext. 107. 

“Video Games Review” with Gen Katz of games4girls, and Lou Katz of Family Media Literacy, at 1:30 p.m. at the Oakland Public Library, Rockridge Branch, 5366 College Ave., Oakland. Sponsored by American Assn. of University Women. 

“Positively No Filipinos Allowed” Building communities and discourse, a panel discussion with Antonio Tiongson, Rick Bonus and Dylan Rodriguez at 2 p.m. at Heller Lounge, 2nd flr., Student Union building, UC Campus. 548-2350. 

Arts and Crafts Faire, with activities for children, from 9 to 5 p.m. at Cottage in the Woods Preschool, 3917 Lyman Rd., Oakland. 531-3121. 

California Writers Club meets to discuss Writers’ Dilemmas: Markets, Mania and Melancholy at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. 272-0120. 

Friends of the Albany Library Book Sale begins at 9 a.m. in the Edith Stone Room of the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. For more information or to volunteer to help call 526-3720, ext. 5. 

ProArts Benefit Auction “Box Art” at 6 p.m. at 550 Second St., Oakland. 763-9425. 

Kol Hadash Non-Theistic Thanksgiving Shabbat at 10 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Please bring finger dessert to share, and non-perishable food for the needy. 428-1492. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 19 

Turkey Tales Meet Tilden’s tom turkey and learn all about him at 10 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 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. 

Clouds and You Join us on a short hike to learn about cloud names and cloud families. Meet at 3 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby & Stuart. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 526-7377.  

Candlelight Vigil for community members at the School of the Americas Watch protest of torture at 5 p.m. at on the steps of St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 845-4740. 

“Learn How To Build A Living Roof Garden” Learn how to convert a flat roof into a planted garden with Steph Lind. This is a hands-on workshop, converting the Ecohouse tool shed roof into a living garden and add a duck pond and planted drainage swale. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Berkeley Eco-House, 1305 Hopkins St. Cost is $15 sliding scale, no one turned away. 548-2220 ext. 242.  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “UC in 1931: An Era of Change” led by Steve Finacom at 10 a.m. Cost is $8-$10. To register and learn meeting place call 848-0181.  

Mayan Weaving with Celia Santiz Ruiz Learn about her experience as a weaver and a member of the Jolom Mayaetik weavers’ fair trade cooperative at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Live Oak Park. 644-6893. 

Play Reading Group meets to read Tom Stoppard’s “Travesties” at 2 p.m. in the community room of 1471 Addison St., corner of Sacramento, rear of the 1473 building. Donation $5. 655-7962. 

Yiddish Films “Letter to Mother” at 3 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek on “Cultivating the Mind of Compassion” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, NOV. 20 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente Dining Conference Room, 1950 Franklin St. To schedule an appointment, call Rachelle at 625-6188. 

CodePINK Monthly Eat and Greet at 6 p.m. at 1248 Solano Ave. Donation $20. 524-2776.  

First Person Superhero A memoir writing workshop at 7 p.m. at Epic Arts Studio, 1923 Ashby Ave. Registration required. 266-2069. 

TUESDAY, NOV. 21 

Tuesday is for the Birds An early morning walk for birders through Martin Luther King-Arrowhead Marsh. Bring water, sunscreen, binoculars and a snack. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds, at 3:15 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Berkeley Garden Club with Ann Leyhe of Mrs. Dalloways Bookstore speaking on “Great Garden Books and Resources” at 2 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 845-4482. 

“Winessing Palestine” a report back by Katie Mirand and Jonas Moffat on their work with the Tel Rumeida Circus for Detained Palestinians at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowhip Hall, 1924 Cedar St. 415-503-7630. 

“Natural Solutions to Eliminate Pain” with Dr. Jay Sordean, LAc at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. in the East & West Pauley Ballrooms, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com (code: UCB) 

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. 

Discussion Salon on End of Life Compassion at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Handbuilding Ceramics Class from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Free, except for materials and firing charges. For information call 525-5497. 

Albany Library Homework Center is open from 3 to 5 p.m., Tues. and Thurs. for students in third through fifth grades. Emphasis is placed on math and writing skills. No registration is required. 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 22  

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

Music in the Community Fundraiser from 6 to 10 p.m. at Kimball’s Carnival, 522 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. 444-6979. 

Myers-Briggs for Mothers A workshop to understand your child’s temperment, at 7 p.m. at Epic Arts Studio, 1923 Ashby Ave. Registration required. 266-2069. 

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. 23 

Annual Food Not Bombs Dinner from 2 to 5 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Free. Please bring a vegetarian dish and a thank you to share. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

ONGOING 

All Net Youth Basketball for ages 9-11 begins Nov. 21 at Berkeley Youth Alternatives, 1255 Allston Way. For information call 845-9066. 

UN Association’s UNICEF & Fair Trade Gift Center Closing Sale, Tues.-Sat. noon to 5 p.m. to Dec. 16, 1403 Addison St., 849-1752. 

Holiday Food Drive Sponsor a Food Drive at your business, school, place of worship or community center. Help the Food Bank reach its goal of collecting 700,000 pounds of nutritious, non-perishable food for families in need during the holiday season. 635-3663, ext. 318. www.accfb.org  

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon. Nov. 20, Nov. 27, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon. Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113.  

TUESDAY, NOV. 14 

CHILDREN 

P&T Puppets “Just So Stories” in celebration of children’s book week at 6:30 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

FILM 

“Generations of Women” with filmmaker Gunvor Nelson in person at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Susan Dunlap reads from her newest Darcy Lott mystery “A Single Eye” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poet M.K. Chavez reads at Works in Progress Women’s Open Mic at 7:30 p.m. at the Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 276-0379. 

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 

Stone-Zimmerman Duo, violin and piano, performs works by Brahms, Enescu, Rohde and Critten at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $20. 525-5211. www.berkeleychamberperfrom.org 

Bandworks, band recitals, at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Frank Jackson at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15 

EXHIBITIONS 

“At Thadeus Lake” by Sherri Martin, winner of the 2006 Kala Board Prize at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibition runs to Nov. 25. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

“Full-Plate Tintypes: Painted Puzzles” at The Ames Gallery, 2661 Cedar St., through Jan. 10, Mon.-Fri. 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 845-4949. www.amesgallery.com 

FILM 

“Lottery of the Sea” with filmmaker Allan Sekula in person at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bettina F. Apthekar reads from “Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech, and Became a Feminist Rebel” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with music from the graduate seminar in jazz improvisation at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Diana D. Zamba and Aaron Sage, jazz at 1 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. Free. 981-5190. 

Danceworx Showcase at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $5-$8. 925-798-1300. 

Whiskey Brothers Old Time and Bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

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

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

Orquestra Candela at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Kids and Hearts, soul, punk, jazz at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Liz Caroll & John Doyle, Irish fiddle and guitar, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Tito y su Son de Cuba at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$15. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, NOV. 16 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Process and Sustainability” Works of Robert Becker Reception at 5:30 p.m. at AIA East Bay Chapter, 450 Clay St., Oakland. 464-3600. www.aiaeb.org 

Winter Dreams Reception at 5 p.m. at Transmission Gallery, 1177 San Pablo Ave. 558-4084. 

Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle Guided tour at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. in Gallery 2, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

“Drawings” by Amy Sollins opens at North Berkeley Frame and Gallery, 1744 Shattuck Ave. and runs through Jan. 13. 549-0428. 

FILM 

“Dog Day Afternoon” with screenwriter Frank Pierson in person at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Guerrilla Radio: The Hip-Hop Struggle Under Castro” at 6:30 p.m. and “Las Comnatientes” at 8:15 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $6-$8 for each film. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Barbara Sjoholm reads from “Incognito Street: How Travel Made Me a Writer” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Heriberto Yepez, Mexican poet, at 6:30 p.m. in the Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. holloway.english.berkeley.edu 

“The Politics of Music” A panel discussion wth Mat Callahan, Golnar Nikpour and Joel Schalit at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674 A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

Judy Yung will give a slide talk of historical photographs from her new book “San Francisco’s Chinatown” at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512. 

Joseph McBride, in conversation with Jim Kitses on “What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? A Portrait of An Independent Career” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Blue Roots, New Orleans blues, jazz, gospel, and soul, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Gidon Kremer, violin with Andrei Pushkarev, percussion and Andrius Zlabys, piano, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $36-$68. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Girlyman, contemporary folk, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Linda Zulaica & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Paufve Dance “8 x 8 x 8” at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

Jazz Mine at 6:30 p.m. at King Tsin Chinese Restaurant, 1699 Solano Ave. 525-9890. 

Hubert Laws at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

The Trucks, electroclash from Seattle, at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

FRIDAY, NOV. 17 

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 

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. 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “And Then There Were None” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Sun. at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave., at Moeser, El Cerrito, through Dec. 9. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Impact Theater “Jukebox Stories” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Dec. 10. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

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  

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 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Living Dreams in a Dying Village” A documentary exhibit about children affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in central China. Receptions at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley High School, Building C, 2nd Flr. 486-1221. 

FILM 

“Dog Day Afternoon” Shot-by shot analysis with screenwriter Frank Pierson at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Poeta del Guaran” at 6:30 p.m. and “La Sagrada Familia” at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $6-$8 for each film. 849-2568.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Panel Discussion on Adoption with authors Micky Duxbury, and Susan Ito at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

University Chorus performs “Elijah” by Mendelssohn at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-9988. http://music.berkeley.edu 

San Francisco City Chorus performs Mendelssohn’s St. Paul Oratorio at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $15-$20. 415-701-SONG. www.sfcitychorus.org 

The Jack Gates Trio, jazz, Brazilian and popular music at 7:30 p.m. at A Cheerfull Noyse, 1228 Solano Ave., Albany. Donations accepted. 524-0411. 

V Neck, Ross Hammond on guitar and Tom Monson on drums, at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th St., Oakland. Donation $5-$15. sfjazzmusic@yahoo.com 

Lua Hadar & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Reggae Angels at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

John Gorka, songcrafter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Bill Bell Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

The Freys at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Everest, The Parties, Praba & the Substitutes at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Jason Webley, Jherek & Alex Sprouts, The Pastries, Shakey Bones at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Ashkon, hip hop, urban at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

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

Partyline, Dinky Bits at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Hubert Laws at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, NOV. 18 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Orange Sherbert at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Asheba, calypso music and stroytelling, at 11 a.m. at Studio Grow, 1235 10th St. at Gilman Cost is $6, children under 1 free. 526-9888.  

FILM 

“Cool Hand Luke” with screenwriter Frank Pierson in person at 6:30 p.m. and “Cat Ballou” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lee Tanner on “Masters of Jazz Photography” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Flauti Diversi “Classical Rhapsody” Quartets by CPE Bach and Mozart, at 8 p.m. at Music Sources, 1000 The Alameda, at Marin. Reservations recommended. Tickets are $15-$18. 527-9840. 

Chora Nova “Treasures of Michale Haydn” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $15-$20. www.choranova.org 

Trinity Chamber Concerts Music of Aaron Blumenfeld with Pamela Hicks, soprano and John D. Frederick, baritone, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

San Francisco Taiko Dojo at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“The Music Party” Song, dance and poetry at 7 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Cost is $15-$20. 525-0302. 

Works in the Works Dance performance by St. Mary’s College Dance Company, Davalos Dance Company at 7:30 p.m. at Eighth Street Studio, 2424 Eighth St. Tickets are $10 at the door. 527-5115. 

Kirtan: Jagadambe at 8 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Cost is $16-$18. 843-2787. 

Linda Tillery & The Cultural Heritage Choir at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Robin Gregory & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Haitian Vertieres Day Celebration with Kalbasskreyol and Rasine Bambou at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Kompa dance lesson at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $12-15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Crooked Roads and Zac Cahn at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

John Gorka, songcrafter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Maya Kronfeld Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Mark Lemaire with Elaine Kreston at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Matthew Hansen Band, The Trenchermen, The Inversions at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. All ages show. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Living Remix at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Sarah Manning Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Babyland, Replicator 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. 19 

EXHIBITIONS 

The Photography of Matt Heron Artist talk by the civil rights photojournalist on his work covering the struggle for voting rights in the South, at 2 p.m. in the Community Meeting Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

Berkeley Arts Center Annual Members’ Showcase opens at 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park, and runs through Dec. 21. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Wild About Birds” mixed media paintings Rita Sklar. Reception at 4 p.m. in the Foyer Gallery of the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany. Exhibition runs to Feb. 16. 524-9283. www.ritasklar.com 

Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle Guided tour at 2 p.m. in Gallery 2, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

THEATER 

Wilde Irish Productions “Beckett Centennial Celebration” with staged readings of his work at 2 p.m. at Berkeley City Club Library, 2315 Durant Ave. Free, but reservations suggested. 644-9940. www.wildeirish.org 

FILM 

Yiddish Films “Letter to Mother” at 3 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

“King of Gypsies” with director Frank Pierson in person at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Riches, Rivals and Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America” A talk and film screening with Marjorie Schwarzer at 2 p.m. at the Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. 549-6950. 

Poetry Flash presents a reading for 26 Magazine with Kit Robinson, Sarah Rosenthal and Todd Melicker at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

St. Mark’s Choir Association, Music of Arvo Part: Berliner Messe, at 10 a.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. 845-0888. 

Prometheus Symphony Orchestra at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 116 Montecito, Oakland. Admission free, donations requested. www.prometheussymphony.org  

Contra Costa Chorale and Octangle Wind Octet at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. Tickets are $12.50-$15. 527-2026. 

“The Bringer of Light” Early Scandinavian Yuletide Music and Nordic Folk Music at 7:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Tickets at the door are $12-$15. 486-2803. 

“Jazz at the Chimes” with vocalist Kenny Washington at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland Tickets are $10, children under 12 free. 228-3218.  

Paul Arnoldi, folk and western, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Feminina & Cerro Negro/Brasil at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

“Thangs Taken” Rethinking Thanksgiving, A People’s Holiday event with poetry, music, visual art and hip hop at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Works in the Works Dance performance by St. Mary’s College Dance Company, Davalos Dance Company at 7:30 p.m. at Eighth Street Studio, 2424 Eighth St. Tickets are $10 at the door. 527-5115. 

Gabriela Frank, music of the Americas, at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Flamenco Open Stage at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Montara Mountain Boys at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Demonstrations, The Slits, Tussle at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $15. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

MONDAY, NOV. 20 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Journeys East: Patterns of Collecting” Art and artifacts fromNorth Africa, India and the former Ottoman Empire on display at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St., through May 7, 2007. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

“Through the Eye of the Needle: Fabric Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz” opens at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St., through Feb. 11, 2007. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

PlayGround Six emerging playwrights debut new works at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $18. 415-704-3177. www.PlayGround-sf.org 

Thomas Pynchon’s “Against the Day” Countdown to the release from 9:30 p.m. to midnight at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express with Lucy Lang Day and Chas from Los Angeles at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-9988. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Blue Monday Blues Jam at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

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 

Ben Goldberg Group at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com  

THE MAGIC OF ANIMATION 

Pixar Animation Studios Software Engineer Sarah Shen will provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the studio’s techniques with a lecture entitled “The Making of Today’s Magic: Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars,” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the South Berkeley Community Church, 180. $10. Proceeds go to the restoration fund. Kids under 16 free. For additional information, call Leona Martin at 652-1040. 

THE RAVAGES OF AIDS 

Opening receptions will be held at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Friday on the second floor of Berkeley High School’s Building C for a documentary exhibit about children affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in central China 486-1221. 

NOMADIC MUSIC 

Saturday is singer-songwriter night at Oakland’s Nomad Cafe. This week features the Crooked Roads Band who describe themselves as a cross between Hank Williams and The Beatles, and Portland, Ore. musican Zac Cahn. 6500 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net.  

GUILTY PLEASURES AT MIDNIGHT 

Downtown Berkeley’s UA Theater will conclude its series of midnight screenings of guilty pleasures from the 1980s with a Thursday night showing of The Goonies. 2274 Shattuck Ave.

The visitor from New York, who wandered into the Gaia Building lobby by mistake, caught a glimpse of the program for Azeem’s solo show at The Marsh, and said as he left, “I get enough ‘Rude Boy’ at home!” 

But as Azeem performs it in a string of black-out vignettes, it’s not so much in your face as an anatomy of a rough-hewn man (who shows various faces, one Jamaican) getting caught up in the wrong side of the Stateside system. 

Sung, declaimed, rapped, gestured out at the audience, Rude Boy is a sad, loosely episodic tale enacted—or acted out—with humor and high spirits, an attempt to see things from the other side of the social mirror. 

Taking the stage, which is covered with janitorial gear, after sweeping up in the pit, Azeem starts in: “Listen, man, I’m not complaining or nothing,” moving by degrees into the turmoil of surviving street life, mirrored by an inner turmoil and humor—and into a character, Tommy Burke, based on two of Azeem’s late cousins—through tough situations that just seem to erupt, and the institutionalizations that follow.  

Azeem’s like a channel for “hearing voices, not like a murderer hears, but a psychic”—with the disclaimer, “except I’m not psychic.” He uses his expressiveness to slip in and out of character, besides narrating or commenting on what’s happening in a variety of styles. 

The show’s a bunch of vignettes, broken up, but not abruptly, with blackouts. It plays like a series of sketches, and still reads like a work in progress; maybe the rough edges reinforce the rudeness of the characters, its real material. 

The sketches go from the rhymed tirade on identity Azeem delivers, looking down from the desk of a social worker, who has him committed, to the visions of a fellow inmate (“Don’t think you watching TV—TV is watching us”) who only speaks in acronyms and numbers; a dissertation on Anger and his stepsister Sadness, and about Rage and those twins, Reason and Logic; Johnny Burke’s predicaments, which land him in The Hole, the prayer he learned from his cellmate (“a muslim dude—that’s Arab. You learn a lot when you get locked up”); a letter to “The President, Santa Claus, Governor or Mayor—Dear Sir;” and songs, raps and assorted ramblings that form the interlocking soliloquies that blossom into fantasy (“Space is, like, God’s Rolex!”) or burst out in tart anger (“Do the police a favor; I’ll kick my own black ass.”). 

Azeem appeals directly to the audience, and he is an appealing presence. You want to hear what he’s got to say. And maybe to see him in a more rigorous show, too, responding to others, not just the characters in his head, something more intensive, not just bursts of intensity that transfix Azeem’s geniality. 

AZEEM’S RUDE BOY 

8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 25 at The Marsh Berkeley, The Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston Way.  

Contributed photo  

Azeem’s appealing presence makes you want to hear what he has to say.

Down a tree-canopied lane bordered by lush fields of lettuce, corn and pumpkin. Through a filigreed iron gate and white picket fence. Past goldenrod Arden Station where Tucker waits to pull a visitor-laden rail car to Deer Park Station. Drop out of the frenzied pace of modern life. Get lost in the country estate of a wealthy 20th century farmer, a place caught in time. Visit Ardenwood Farm. 

At the historic home of George Washington Patterson the clock appears to have stopped 100-years ago, when simple pursuits occupied one’s day. Watching clear water burst forth from a bright red pump, tasting cookies baked in an outdoor wood-burning stove, changing straw in the stalls of draft horses, milk cows and woolly sheep, harvesting, shucking and grinding corn and making dolls from the husks, forging horseshoes from black iron. Though life has moved on, activities such as these make for a relaxing day “down on the farm.” 

In 1849, gold fever enticed George Washington Patterson west to San Francisco and California’s gold fields. After eighteen months, sick and out of funds, Patterson turned to his area of expertise, farming, using his wages to acquire land, one piece at a time. By 1877, the time of his marriage to Clara Hawley, his 6,000-acres made him one of the area’s richest and most respected men. Today, 205-acres remain, as if preserved in amber, functioning as a working farm. From the handsome butter-yellow mansion trimmed in brown and landscaped with a Victorian garden and lawn-side gazebo, to a massive hay barn, tank house, blacksmith shop, animal pens, orchard and fields of crops, Ardenwood Historic Farm captivates the imagination and tantalizes collective memories of a simpler life. 

On a beautiful fall weekday I toured Ardenwood, map in hand, surrounded by groups of delighted school children. Amid chattering voices sprinkled with bird song I headed first to the Farmyard, the heart of a working farm. At the imposing grey and white Hay Barn I ambled past a wheeled version of the farm’s history. Here all manner of vehicles reside, from a vintage wooden buggy suitable for Sunday drives, to a more recent John Deere tractor. 

In the Corn Room, windows open to the breeze, I watched the corn shucker and grinder reduce dried ears to cornmeal. Outside, a stately black draft horse basked in youthful admiration while contented cows drowsed in the shade on thick beds of clean straw. The Blacksmith was kept busy with orders of personalized horseshoes from an enthusiastic group; numbers steadily increased from six to eight to ten. As he wrote down names and collected payment his assistant shaped iron in the heat of glowing coals. 

Towering above hundred-year-old trees, the weathered windmill-topped Tank House is now under restoration by volunteers, as a future water museum. At the Country Kitchen stood a cream colored Monarch wood burning stove, protected from the elements beneath a sturdy wood overhang. Here pots bubbled and bread baked, aromas wafting through the yard. Nearby, the Laundry occupied center stage in an expanse of green. A big cast iron pot rested above a ring of smooth river stones with a corrugated metal and wood washboard at the ready. 

Something fresh from the oven lured me to the Farmyard Café. I passed up nachos and hot dogs in favor of a warm pumpkin nut muffin and coffee. At an oilcloth-covered picnic table beneath spreading oaks I lingered, enjoying my repast and the life of the farm. Around me squirrels scurried, their cheeks bulging with walnuts plucked from the orchard nearby; peahens and peacocks foraged for orts around the picnic area; kids took turns flexing their muscles at the farmyard pump giggling amid the splashes; the alternating pounding and tapping of the blacksmith mingled with the smell of burning coal. Ardenwood is no ‘model’ farm; everything here is life size and substantial, seemingly rooted in the ground and in history. 

Sated, I was ready to tour the house and gardens, home to three generations of Pattersons. Passing through the Kitchen Garden I admired shiny green bell and jalapeno peppers, royal-purple eggplants, plump heirloom tomatoes and massive heads of parsley, all organically grown. In the Flower Garden wooden posts and white ropes separated beds of colorful cosmos in shades of pink and magenta, golden marigolds and vivid dahlias. 

Surrounding the mansion, the Victorian Gardens are an eclectic mixture of long-standing flora—redwoods, palms, maples, eucalyptus, sycamore and three red-hued sassafras trees bordering the house. Across the lawn, within an encircling hedge and sheltered by light-filtering foliage, sits the white-trimmed Gazebo with open lattice, turned posts and a peaked, domed roof, ready to hear whispered gossip and squeals of childish delight. 

Volunteers are critical to Ardenwood’s operation and appeal. My house tour was lead by Joann, a docent for 20 years, in part because she loves to dress up. In her attractive black-and-white blouse and skirt and black hat, she enthusiastically talked her way through rooms and family history. My group was regaled with the Pattersons’ stories and a glimpse into their era. In his fifties, George Patterson wed a young woman of twenty; his gift the Queen Anne addition to the old farmhouse. From the Romanesque arches and Queen Anne corner sporting curved glass windows to the rare sycamore wood used within, the Patterson home spoke of wealth and prestige. 

Lovingly restored, with almost all original furnishings, the mansion is a cornucopia of a busy family. Behind massive doors opened only for guests, the front parlor shines with parquet floors and stained glass windows. The guest bedroom occupies the premier location and the Queen Anne corner. In the master bedroom, an Italian blue tile fireplace and a mattress stiffly stuffed with horsehair, collected from the farm. On the wall, behind glass, human hair keepsakes, woven into intricate patterns and braided into bracelets and necklaces. A young gentleman’s bedroom furnished with fishing gear, tennis racket and a Stanford football photo from 1904. Another photo testament to the dances once held in the attic. Hidden below the dining room carpet, a buzzer used to summon the cook for more biscuits, freshly made. 

Still buzzing with echoes from the past, I headed to Deer Park Station to board the railcar pulled along the tracks by Tucker, a Herculean Belgian draft horse capable of towing three laden cars—90,000 pounds. Through a Monarch butterfly-festooned eucalyptus grove, we meandered back to Arden Station, leaving behind the simple life but anxious to return again at a new season, when the rhythm of life on the farm changes but continues. 

Getting there: Take Hwy 880 south to Fremont. Exit 880 on Hwy 84 toward the Dumbarton Bridge. Exit 84 at Ardenwood/Newark Blvd. Go north on Ardenwood Blvd to the park entrance. Distance 30 miles.  

Ardenwood Historic Farm: 34600 Ardenwood Blvd., Fremont, 796-0663, www.ebparks.org/parks/arden. Open year-round Tues.-Sun. 10-4 p.m. Entrance fees vary by day of the week. Adults $2-$5, seniors $2-$4, children 4-17 years $1-$3.50. 

Photograph by Marta Yamamoto 

The fully furnished Patterson Mansion artfully combines a country farmhouse with an elegant Queen Anne addition, a wedding gift from George Patterson to his bride.

Before it got drafted to be an allegedly “heathier” substitute for chocolate, carob was a dietary staple of poor folks and a treat even for the wealthy. Ceratonia siliqua is a handsome, tough, warm-climate tree that grows long, thick, flat brown pods to cradle its seeds.  

These pods are sweet, nutritious (at least as tree pods go) and contain gummy stuff that gets used in all sorts of non-food things like glue and ink and leather and fabric sizing, as well as for “stabilizers” in foods as disparate as ice cream, mustard, and salami. Look for “locust gum” in the ingredients list.  

(May I insert here a short rant about the misuse, fast becoming normal, of the word “healthy” when what’s meant is “healthful” or “nutritious”? By the time most of us, especially humans, actually eat an item, chances are it’s far from healthy. In fact, vis-à-vis human food, one hopes it’s actually dead.) 

Speaking of salami or anyway of Salome: One of the vernacular names for carob is “St. John’s bread,” because it’s thought to be the locust part of the “locusts and honey” diet that John the Baptist lived on in the desert. 

Any tree with pinnately divided leaves and long seedpods might get called “locust”—the Robinia and Gleditsia locust trees are relatives but not siblings—but carob is evidently the first owner of the name.  

Different sources transmit different theories about whether the New Testament means the tree pod or the grasshopper, and evidently the Greek is as ambiguous as the English versions. Carob-dipped grasshoppers? Perhaps we could be ecumenical about it and have chocolate-covered ants instead. 

I myself would dance the hoochie-koochie for the avenger who would bring me the head (platter optional) of the malefactor who so badly abused the tree in the photo. 

If someone actually paid for that vandalism, someone get royally ripped off and they’ve set themselves up for damage and lawsuits in the future when the tree becomes a hazard.  

I’d heap more even shame upon the ingrates because carob’s such a good tree for urban spots here. It’s drought-tolerant and stands up to the sort of intense heat it gets in parking lots and other paved areas. It’s not deciduous, but keeps its green, clean, cheerful look even at summer’s end, when everything else is all dusty and exhausted.  

You can see streetside rows of good-sized mature carobs along a couple of the main drags in Livermore and in the South Bay. There’s a newish planting of them in the financial district in San Francisco, and I do wonder how they’ll fare in the shade of those tall buildings around them. They’d likely get a noontime furnace blast of sun in some seasons at least, and they’re better suited to endure that than many trees are.  

I’ve heard that carob is invasive in southern California, especially on disturbed ground and along watercourses, so I’d advise against planting it here if your site is near wildlands.  

If you have a carob or know someone who’ll let you pick its fruit, have at it. People chew on the pods just as they are—think of it as sweet vegetable jerky—and in Lebanon they press the pods for sweet dibess kharroob, which looks rather like molasses and is good on its own, in tahini, or for dipping pita.  

It would take serious grinding equipment, I’d think, to get carob flour from the pods. If you manage it—or just go buy some—it’s good with regular flour for bread or pancakes; I’ve never tried this but I bet it would combine well with buckwheat flour. Europeans have used the roasted, ground seeds in and instead of coffee: breakfast! Just add eggs, but don’t feed carob to your chickens—I don’t know why, but it’s supposed to be bad for them though it’s good for other livestock.  

It’s a handy tree to have; certainly we should think about planting some on the streets in advance of the apocalypse of your choice, so we can feed ourselves when the freeways and railroads have all gone to rubble. I’d still prefer to like it on its own merits, and not as a fake Hershey bar.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan.  

A very badly pruned carob tree behind a Telegraph Avenue burger place. 

TUESDAY, NOV. 14 

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 Sobrante Ridge. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

“The Way To Win: Taking the White House in 2008” with ABC News political director Mark Halperin and Washington Post editor and author John Harris at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

“GMOs and the Law: One Farmer’s Battle with Monsanto” with Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser at 7 p.m. 121 North Gate Hall, UC Campus. 643-3840.  

Berkeley High School Governance Council meets at 4:15 p.m. in the Berkeley Community Theater Lobby. Topics will include Attendance Policy, Homework Inequity, CAHSEE Funding, Student Placement Demographics, Late Start Schedule. 644-4803. 

Haymarket Commemoration with Barry Pateman speaking on the history and legacy of the Haymarket Martyrs, and live music by the Devin Hoff Platform at 7 p.m. at the AK Press Warehouse, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. Suggested donation $5-$10, no one turned away for lack of funds. 208-1700. 

American Red Cross Blood Services volunteer orientation at 6 p.m. at the Oakland office. Advanced sign-up is required. 594-5165.  

Choosing Infant Care A workshop for parents at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 658-7353.  

Choosing a Pre-School for Your Child at 6 p.m. at Habitot Children’s Museum. Registration required. 647-1111, ext. 14. 

“Population Policy in Senegal and Nigeria: Framing the Future Through Health and Progress” with Rachel Sullivan, doctoral student, at 4 p.m. at 652 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 642-8338. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Free Prostate Cancer Screening for men age 40-70 at Alta Bates Herrick Campus. To schedule an appointment call 869-8833. 

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

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15 

Silent Walking Vigil to Save the Oaks Join students and community members at 11:45 a.m. at Telegraph and Bancroft for a one-hour walk through the UC campus to mark the day the Regents will be voting on UC’s plan to cut down the oak trees at Memorial Stadium. Co-sponsored by Save the Oaks at the Stadium and the Student Coalition to Save the Oaks. 845-6441. 

“A Glimpse of South Berkeley” with Sarah Shen on “Pixar in the Neighborhood” at 7:30 p.m. at South Berkeley Community Church, 1802 Fairview St. at Ellis. Tickets are $10 and benefit the church’s restoration efforts. 652-1040. 

“These Streets Are Watching” documentary on police misconduct and what to do and say when stopped by police, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Donation $5-$20. Benefit for Copwatch. 415-810-4665. 

“Voices of Courage” Family Violence Law Center Annual Dinner at 6 p.m. at Scott’s Seafood Restaurant, Jack London Square. Cost is $90. 208-0220, ext. 18. 

New to DVD “Word Play” at 7 p.m. at the JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Drugs, Oil & War” by Peter Dale Scott at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito. 433-2911. 

Open House at Revolution Books from 7 to 9 p.m. at 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. 

Natural Solutions for Holiday Stress at 7 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

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

THURSDAY, NOV. 16 

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

“Anatomy of an Oakland Redevelopment Project” The History and Politics of West Oakland’s Central Station Project at 7:30 p.m. at the Piedmont Gardens Residential Center, 110 41st St., Oakland. Sponsored by the Metropolitan Greater Oakland Democratic Club. www.mgoclub.org 

“How Museums Represent Native People” with Amy Lonetree of Portland State Univ, and a member of the Ho-Chunk Tribe at 7 p.m. at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum, UC Campus. 643-7649. 

Diversity Film Series “Waging a Living” at 7 p.m. followed by discussion, at Frank Havens Elementary School Auditorium, 325 Highland Ave., Piedmont. 835-9227.  

“Invisible Children” A documentary on the war in Nrothern Uganda and the impact on children recruited to fight at 8:30 p.m. in 2050 Valley Life Sciences Bldg., UC Campus. 209-648-2578. 

NorCal High School Mountain Bike League presents “Cobbles, Baby!” Scott Coady’s Paris-Roubaix Adventure at 8 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $12. 452-3556.  

WriterCoach Connection seeks volunteers to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Training session from noon to 3 p.m. For information call 524-2319.  

“Natural Solutions to Manage Arthritis” with Dr. Jay Sordean, LAc, OMD., at 1 p.m. at The South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5174. 

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board of Directors meets at 6:30 p.m. at 1744A University Ave. 845-5513.  

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. Spud's Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz.  

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at East Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. 

FRIDAY, NOV. 17 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Professor Emeritus Didier de Fontaine on “Cosmology.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

“The State Vs. Reed” A documentary on a death row inmate’s case, followed by discussion at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donations requested. 528-5403.  

“Mission Against Terror” A documentary about five Cuban men in prison in the U.S. at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

Movies that Matter “The Secret” at 6:30 p.m. at Neumayer Residence, 565 Bellevue St. at Perkins, Oakland. 451-3009. http://joyfulharmony.org 

Share Berkeley History The Berkeley Historical Society is looking for photographs, stories and other memorabilia of Berkeley history. Drop by the North Berkeley Senior Center from 1 to 3 p.m. with your stories and photographs so that Berkeley Historical Society embers can archive them. 848-0181. 

Panel Discussion on Adoption with authors Micky Duxbury and Susan Ito at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

“Go to Your Library and Make Art” A craft program for children in grades 4-12 at 3 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. http://ccclib.org  

SATURDAY, NOV. 18 

Finalists for the Position of Library Director will give presentations from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Story Room, 4th floor, Central Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. at Shattuck. 981-6195.  

Dig In To Fall Planting Season Volunteers need to help with the ongoing restoration of West Stede Marsh from 9 a.m. to noon at The Watershed Project, 1327 South 46th St., Richmond. To register call 665-3689. www.thewatershedproject.org 

Solo Sierrans Sunset Walk in Emeryville Meet at 3:30 p.m. behind Chevy’s Restaurant small parking lot for an hour’s walk through the Marina. Paved trail, wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 234-8949. 

Origami Ornaments at 10:30 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

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

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. 

Arts and Crafts Faire, with activities for children, from 9 to 5 p.m. at Cottage in the Woods Preschool, 3917 Lyman Rd., Oakland. 531-3121. 

“No Safe Haven” with Leena Khandwala, Appellate Advocacy Fellow with the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies on the exploitation of women and girls, at 2 p.m. in the basement auditorium at Berkeley City College. 

Music Business Seminar from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Cost is $30-$65. Sponsored by California Lawyers for the Arts. 415-775-7200, ext. 107. 

“Video Games Review” with Gen Katz of games4girls, and Lou Katz of Family Media Literacy, at 1:30 p.m. at the Oakland Public Library, Rockridge Branch, 5366 College Ave., Oakland. Sponsored by American Assn. of University Women. 

“Positively No Filipinos Allowed” Building communities and discourse, a panel discussion with Antonio Tiongson, Rick Bonus and Dylan Rodriguez at 2 p.m. at Heller Lounge, 2nd flr., Student Union building, UC Campus. 548-2350. 

California Writers Club meets to discuss Writers’ Dilemmas: Markets, Mania and Melancholy at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. 272-0120. 

Friends of the Albany Library Book Sale begins at 9 a.m. in the Edith Stone Room of the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. For more information or to volunteer to help call 526-3720, ext. 5. 

ProArts Benefit Auction “Box Art” at 6 p.m. at 550 Second St., Oakland. 763-9425. 

Kol Hadash Non-Theistic Thanksgiving Shabbat at 10 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Please bring finger dessert to share, and non-perishable food for the needy. 428-1492. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 19 

Turkey Tales Meet Tilden’s tom turkey and learn all about him at 10 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 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. 

Clouds and You Join us on a short hike to learn about cloud names and cloud families. Meet at 3 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby & Stuart. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 526-7377.  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “UC in 1931: An Era of Change” led by Steve Finacom at 10 a.m. Cost is $8-$10. To register and learn meeting place call 848-0181.  

Mayan Weaving with Celia Santiz Ruiz Learn about her experience as a weaver and a member of the Jolom Mayaetik weavers’ fair trade cooperative at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Live Oak Park. 644-6893. 

“Learn How To Build A Living Roof Garden” Learn how to convert a flat roof into a planted garden with Steph Lind. This is a hands-on workshop, converting the Ecohouse tool shed roof into a living garden and add a duck pond and planted drainage swale. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Berkeley Eco-House, 1305 Hopkins St. Cost is $15 sliding scale, no one turned away. 548-2220 ext. 242. ecohouse@ecologycenter.org 

Play Reading Group meets to read Tom Stoppard’s “Travesties” at 2 p.m. in the community room of 1471 Addison St., corner of Sacramento, rear of the 1473 building. Donation $5. 655-7962. 

Yiddish Films “Letter to Mother” at 3 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek on “Cultivating the Mind of Compassion” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, NOV. 20 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente Dining Conference Room, 1950 Franklin St. To schedule an appointment, call Rachelle at 625-6188. 

CodePINK Monthly Eat and Greet at 6 p.m. at 1248 Solano Ave. Donation $20. 524-2776. www.bayareacodepink.org 

ONGOING 

All Net Youth Basketball for ages 9-11 begins Nov. 21 at Berkeley Youth Alternatives, 1255 Allston Way. For information call 845-9066. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Nov. 14, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. 

Berkeley School Board meets Wed. Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Nov. 15, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6601.  

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Nov. 15, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7533.  

Commission on Aging meets Wed., Nov. 15, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5344.  

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Nov. 15 at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7550.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed. Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Nov. 16, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415.  

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 16, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6950. 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 16, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7010.