Separate fires struck Berkeley Wednesday, one doing over $1 million in damage to a 98-year-old home on College Avenue 

Deputy Fire Chief said all of the city’s firefighters and equipment were involved in fighting the flames at the home at 2726 College Ave., joined by the crew from Lawrence Berkeley Nation-al Laboratory. 

Fire departments from Oakland and Albany stood watch over the city until the fire was finally quelled. 

The battle continued from the time of the first report at 9:14 a.m. until well into the pre-dawn hours, Orth said. 

Orth put no dollar value on the second fire, which was reported five hours earlier, because the building involved had been slated for demolition starting Monday morning. 

The abandoned warehouse is located on the site of the planned new Berkeley Bowl in West Berkeley between Ashby and Heinz avenues north of Eighth Street. 

Firefighters got the call at 4:24 p.m., well after the blaze had taken hold. Five engines, two trucks and about 30 firefighters battled the warehouse fire, which was controlled at about 5 p.m., Orth said. 

College Avenue fire 

The second, and far costlier blaze, did heavy damage to a 98-year-old three-story College Avenue home. 

Firefighters received the first call at 9:14, and the blaze went to three alarms before firefighters finally got the upper hand. 

Owner Anne Whyte had gone to Oakland for dinner when she received a call that the spacious building had caught fire. 

“I almost didn’t go,” she said. “If I  

hadn’t, I might’ve been asleep inside when the fire broke out.” 

The stucco-sided home was in the final stages of a major remodeling effort, Whyte said. 

“The house had been heavily damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake, and we rebuilt it really strong, so it was capable of handling a 9.5 earthquake,” she said. 

“Shirley Dean used to quip when she was Mayor that if there was an earthquake that shut down city hall, they’d exercise eminent domain and take the house for a new city hall,” Whyte said. 

The Whytes have owned the home for nearly a quarter-century. The building is divided into two apartments, one on each of the lower two floors, while the uppermost level was being used for storage. 

Tenants were due to arrive soon to take both of the lower floors. 

“If anyone has some wonderful housing, I have a marvelous professor of philosophy and her husband, who is a renowned authority on French art and their two children, a kindergartner and a fourth grader, who were due to leave Philadelphia for Berkeley today,” Whyte said. 

“They desperately need new housing,” she said. “I sent them an email last night, and I called them this morning.” 

Whyte was just completing extensive remodeling work, and it was one of the workers who called to tell her about the fire. “We were just finishing the walls,” she said. 

“I’d just paid $4,000 to replace the front windows,” she said. 

“I have invested 18 years in this house,” she said, her voice breaking. “My husband and I were married in the back yard,” which she said she looked forward to seeing her children enjoy in the years to come. 

While the house was largely empty at the time of the blaze, Whyte was using the third level to store personal possessions, including an upright piano and an antique English officer’s table she cherished. 

And though her insurance carrier didn’t pay off for the quake damage—the agent was later stripped of his license and his company assessed the largest fine in state history—Whyte said she has good insurance this time around. 

Surveying the damage late Thursday morning, Whyte was pleased that the wooden garden frames in the front yard had been spared. “At least I’ll still have my garden,” she said, managing a faint smile. 

Orth attributed the fire to accidental causes, withholding the specifics until the final examination had been completed. 

“When we arrived, the upper rear portion of the structure was fully involved,” he said. 

Firefighters had some difficulty finding their ways through the building, he said, and one sustained a twisted ankle when his foot broke through the fire-weakened floor. 

By the time the flames were out, both the second and third floors had sustained heavy damage, while the first floor had significant water damage as well as some damage from flames. 

“We were still chasing hot spots at 3 a.m.,” he said, and firefighters stayed on-scene through most of the night. 

Warehouse blaze  

The first fire, a two-alarm blaze, broke out about 4:30 p.m. in the vacant, corrugated steel-sided warehouse directly behind the Ashby Lofts, the new 55-unit affordable housing project nearing completion at 1001 Ashby Ave. 

The building, earmarked for demolition before construction commences on the new Berkeley Bowl, was heavily damaged. 

Crews were at work Thursday morning clearing out debris, and preparing the way for an earlier-than-planned demolition, said one worker at the site. 

Workers were surveying the damage at the site of the Ashby Avenue fire shortly before noon Thursday, preparing for the demolition of the metal-sided warehouse. 

Water from the firefighters’ efforts had formed a muddy swamp to the northeast of the shed, and a massive backhoe had already gathered up some of the twisted debris and was awaiting the final takedown. 

And while crews were paving the way for the leveling of one structure, a dozen feet to the south, crews were busily putting finishing touches on another—the Ashby Lofts. 

An Affordable Housing Associates project, the 55-unit project was designed by Kava Massih, the same West Berkeley architect who drafted the plans for the new Berkeley Bowl that will rise at the site of the scorched warehouse. 

The apartments feature live/work spaces, and the project has been promoted as a means of housing artists whose living spaces in West Berkeley have been falling prey to development pressures. 

“We didn’t set a value on the fire because the building was going to be demolished anyway,” said Orth.

Planning commissioners voted Wednesday night to designate downtown Berkeley and five thoroughfares as targets for state-funded high-density development: Telegraph, southern Shattuck, University and San Pablo avenues and Adeline Street. 

The 6-2 vote followed an earlier failure to win a commission majority for a proposal in which only the downtown and San Pablo Avenue had been mentioned. 

The additional avenues were included in a three-page recommendation from Mayor Tom Bates, which is scheduled to go to the City Council for a vote next Tuesday. 

Adeline Street has been a development target of the Mayor’s for more than a year, and was first introduced after public opposition stalled the city’s plans to seek state funds for a 300-unit-plus housing project at the Ashby BART parking lot. 

The proposal would designate the five corridors and the city center as Priority Development Areas (PDAs), a term Bates and city staff say is needed to make them eligible for the $2.9 billion in state bonds approved by California voters last November when they passed Measure 1C. 

But many questions remain, including the role of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and other regional governmental agencies in doling out the funds, as well as just how the funds will be spent. 

According to the Bates memo, funds could be used for housing development, development of parks and open space, creation of infrastructure improvements such as sewers, water and utilities, transportation improvement and traffic mitigation. 

The final decision rests with the City Council, but Marks had told the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) and planning commissioners that a pro-PDA vote is essential before the city can apply for millions in state bond money to concentrate high-density development in designated areas. 

If state legislators draft the required legislation, $2.9 billion in bond funds for low-income housing and development would become available for projects in designated PDAs along urban transit systems. 

City Councilmembers would have to vote their approval to meet the June 29 deadline set by ABAG for filing applications. 

The moneys would presumably be allocated locally by ABAG, a regional government agency which administers funds and programs for cities in nine Bay Area counties. 

Marks initially presented the proposals to the commission on May 23, when it failed on a 4-3-1 vote after the planning director had made a pitch notable for its lukewarm endorsement of a proposal he said could provoke controversy because it was being rushed through without an extensive public process. 

But a week later, he was standing before DAPAC, offering an enthusiastic account of the designations and their benefits, winning a hearty endorsement from the panel charged with formulating a new plan for the city center, one of two possible PDA designation sites Marks cited—the other being San Pablo Avenue. 

The only no vote at DAPAC came from Gene Poschman, who had also cast one of the dissenting votes at the original Planning Commission presentation. 

The two opposing votes Wednesday night came from Gene Poschman and Roia Ferrazares. Poschman had also cast the lone dissenting vote a week earlier with 16 members of DAPAC voted in favor of designating downtown as a PDA. Two other members abstained. 

Helen Burke, who had voted against the designations earlier, switched sides and joined the new majority. A new vote for designation came from David Tabb, who was filling in for Susan Wengraf, whose seat had been unfilled during the earlier vote. 

Rio Bauce, the Berkeley High School student and frequent Daily Planet contributor who had abstained during the first vote, was absent Wednesday night, his seat unfilled. 

The designations received a hearty endorsement from Will Travis, in his capacities both as chair of DAPAC and as executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), one of four sponsoring regional agencies of the PDA proposal. 

In addition to BCDC and ABAG, the other two sponsoring bodies are the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. 

As Poschman pointed out in discussions prior to the vote, there is still no legislation in place spelling out how the funds will be allocated—nor whether the four agencies will pay a role in the choice of projects and other funding decisions. 

Dan Marks, who had made the earlier pitches to the commissioners and DAPAC, didn’t attend Wednesday meeting, leaving the presentation to Principal Planner Allan Gatzke. 

“The structure has changed” since the original presentation, Gatzke said, adding that the PDA proposal had been brought back to the commission at the request of Chair James Samuels. 

“Three of us weren’t here last time,” said Samuels. 

Poschman had challenged the reconsideration in an email to Marks, who later replied that City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque had said another vote was appropriate because a commission majority hadn’t defeated the proposal. 

In response to Poschman’s contention that nothing in any of the proposed legislation called for the type of applications spelled out in the ABAG proposal, Marks had replied that “the legislation is fluid, to say the least.” 

Poschman said that ABAG’s intent in pushing through the PDA application process was to force the legislature to respond by including the system in whatever legislation is eventually adopted. 

“There is an Alice-in-Wonderland quality to this, but I’m realistic, and I can count votes,” said Poschman. 

David Stoloff moved for approval of the Mayor’s proposal, and Harry Pollack made the second. 

The proposal calls for concentrating developing on corridors with mass transit, a policy favored by all four regional agencies. During previous meetings of DAPAC and the Planning Commission, Marks had said that concentrating development downtown was probably the most feasible move in Berkeley, given the frequent neighborhood opposition to increased density elsewhere in the city. 

But existing plans call for density along the designated thoroughfares, and no changes in existing plans would be needed to comply with the ABAG requirements, Marks had told DAPAC. 

Earlier, during the public comment period, Steve Wollmer, a long-time critic of the so-called Trader Joe’s high density project at University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, had urged commissioners to reject the proposal. 

“No three words cause people in the flatlands more anxiety that ‘ABAG,’ ‘legislation’ and ‘City of Berkeley,’” he said, urging commissioners to hold off.  

The proposal goes to the City Council Tuesday.  

Other actions 

Commissioners also voted to approve—with modifications—comments prepared by a DAPAC subcommittee on the Environmental Impact Statement for AC Transit’s planned Bus Rapid Transit System. 

DAPAC chair Will Travis, joined by planner Matt Taecker, presented an update on DAPAC’s progress on preparing the basics of a new downtown plan. 

That group must finish its work by the end of the November, when it will pass on the job to the commission and, ultimately, to the city council for final action. 

The meeting’s one planned hearing, on a five-unit condominium project at 1552-1556 Milvia St., was canceled after the would-be developer withdrew the project because he couldn’t meet the cost of the affordable housing fee required in lieu of selling one of the units at a reduced cost.

Ridiculed as the “Public Commons for Everyone but the Homeless” initiative and lauded as a measure badly needed to rid shopping areas of people who act inappropriately and drive customers away, the City Council approved in concept Tuesday night Mayor Tom Bates’ Public Commons for Everyone Initiative, a laundry list of proposals that will be further refined into laws, and considered again in about six months. 

“The goal is to create a comprehensive package with new services, clarify laws and make them more enforceable,” Bates told the council. 

The measure has changed since Bates first introduced it. “I’m not recommending any new laws against sitting on the sidewalk,” Bates said. “Prolonged sitting” was prohibited in the original concept. The proposed laws will target lying on the sidewalk, public urination/defecation and enforcing “quality-of-life” laws already on the books, such as hitching dogs to fixed objects, littering, possessing a shopping cart and making loud noises. 

About a dozen opponents of the measure lined up to ask the council not to pass the proposals. Several members of the business community were present to support the measures. 

“This is the Public Commons for Everyone except those who need it most,” Phoebe Anne Sorgen said, arguing that lying on the sidewalk is a problem only when people are blocking someone’s way. 

Aaron Aarons said there are other laws on the books that truly need enforcement, such as “people who park their cars on the sidewalk and disabled people have to go around them,” and people who don’t stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. 

“You are criminalizing the homeless,” said Elizabeth Gill, who is homeless. 

Mark McLeod, president of the Downtown Berkeley Association, had another view. “The public commons for everyone is essential,” he said. Merchants sell goods, consumers purchase them, the city collects taxes on the goods and spends the tax money on services, which will help everyone, he said, adding, “That’s a local, living economy.”  

Approval of various aspects of the initiative took several votes.  

A number of items were passed unanimously in a single vote, including writing ordinances: 

• To prohibit smoking in commercial areas and to designate smoking areas. 

• To improve signage indicating where restrooms are and to expand hours for public restrooms. 

• To plan for public seating. 

• To direct donations away from panhandlers and to nonprofit agencies. 

• To expand supportive housing, linking mental health services with housing opportunities. 

The vote included soliciting feedback from a number of commissions which are expected to present their ideas at a fall council meeting. (To date, the Homeless, Mental Health and Human Welfare commissions have stated numerous concerns with the proposals.) 

The unanimous vote also included three items proposed by Councilmember Kriss Worthington: 

• Collecting data on quality-of-life citations issued, prosecuted and convicted in Berkeley and neighboring jurisdictions. 

• Delaying consideration of an ordinance that bans sitting on the sidewalk for a year, until the results of the other ordinances are seen. 

• Implementing community-involved policing features, including beat walking and use of a dedicated cell phone or pager when feasible. 

The council passed with a 7-1-1 vote the mayor’s proposal for making public urination/defecation an infraction rather than a misdemeanor. It was argued that police will be more likely to enforce the law if it is an infraction, similar to a traffic ticket. Those accused of infractions do not have the right to jury trials or public defenders. This proposal will be referred to the Police Review Commission. (Councilmember Dona Spring abstained and Worthington voted in opposition because he wanted the council to commit to installing an adequate number of public toilets before pursuing more arrests.) 

The council considered a plan to increase parking fees and the number of meters to fund these programs. This was approved 6-2-1, with Councilmembers Betty Olds and Dona Spring voting in opposition and Councilmember Max Anderson abstaining.  

“I will never vote to increase parking meter fees,” Olds said. “If people have to pay $1.50 an hour, they will not come.” 

The council voted 7-1-1, with Worthington voting in opposition and Spring abstaining to: 

• Hire a six-month planner to write the ordinances and get feedback from the commissions. 

• Enforce existing quality-of-life laws. 

• Modify the city’s lying-on-the-sidewalk law so that there would be no warnings or fewer warnings given; enforcing the lying law at night would be a low priority. This was referred to the Police Review Commission. 

While Olds voted in favor of most of the items, she seemed to question the idea behind the initiative because she favored programs that help people in need. “I like Options,” she said, referring to Options for Recovery, a drug and alcohol treatment program. “It’s better to spend our money there,” she said. 

Spring also voted in favor of a number of the proposals, but she said critical needs were not targeted. “There’s no detox available, there are no (new) services,” Spring said. “I see no place in this package to help people get out of poverty.”

The Berkeley City Council voted 4-3 on Tuesday in favor of holding a public hearing on the “Wright’s Garage” project proposed for 2629 Ashby Ave., but no such hearing is currently scheduled. 

In other decisions, the council passed measures to: streamline business permits on Telegraph Avenue, ensure equal opportunity for employment in Berkeley for people re-entering the work force after prison, oppose a reduction in transit funding in the governor’s budget, support the city’s sponsorship of the Solano Stroll, and more. 

Wright’s Garage 

Councilmembers Linda Maio, Dona Spring, Kriss Worthington and Max Anderson voted in favor of holding a public hearing on the Wright’s Garage project, which was approved by the Zoning Adjustment Board March 8. Councilmembers Darryl Moore, Betty Olds and Mayor Tom Bates supported the ZAB decision and opposed the public hearing.  

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak was required to recuse himself, having written in February on the Kitchen Democracy website: “I strongly support this project for various reasons.” (Councilmembers who vote on appeals are expected to have open minds on the projects.) Councilmember Laurie Capitelli owns a business within 500 feet of the project and thus was also required to recuse himself. 

Despite the two absences, the city attorney ruled that there had to be five votes in order to hold the public hearing: a majority of the full council, not just a majority of those voting. 

The project, hotly contested by both local merchants and residents, would transform the former Wright’s Garage into a large restaurant/bar and add a health club-dance studio and two to four retail spaces. The developer is John Gordon, one of the city’s primary commercial real estate brokers. 

The 6-3 ZAB approval included allowing the applicant “to exceed the full-service restaurant quota [for the Elmwood Commercial District] by allowing one restaurant for a total of nine restaurants in the district.”  

Speaking to the council for Gordon, Henry Pollack talked about Gordon’s long history of “reuse and restoration” of local properties. “The reuse of Wright’s Garage will be another fine re-use,” he said. 

But Elmwood Neighborhood Association representatives said the project would add vehicles to the already highly trafficked area. 

“ZAB accepted the idea that clients [of the new businesses] would be non-driving clients,” said Madeline Landau, underscoring the already-dangerous traffic situation in the area in which a pedestrian had been hit this year. 

Maio was among the councilmembers arguing in favor of setting a public hearing on the issue. “There are so many questions,” she said. “I’m concerned about traffic and parking and running over quotas, which I considered a respectful process.” 

But Olds countered that there have already been many meetings on the proposed development. “I don’t know how we’d benefit from a public hearing,” she said. 

Councilmembers supporting the public hearing realized they would not have the five votes needed, but Spring encouraged the neighborhood activists: “If you want to have a council that reflects your values, make a change at the ballot box,” she said.  

Streamlining Telegraph permits  

Getting permits to open a business on Telegraph got easier Tuesday night with the council voting 6-2 to streamline the permitting process. Councilmembers Linda Maio and Dona Spring voted in opposition, citing specific objections to the motion’s provisions. Councilmember Betty Olds had left the meeting by the time the vote was taken. 

A separate vote to oppose modifying the quota system lost 5-3, with Councilmembers Max Anderson, Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington voting in favor of maintaining the current more stringent quotas.  

“We need to loosen things up,” Councilmember Linda Maio admitted. The quota system “has a stranglehold on Telegraph,” she said. 

Making it easier to do business on Telegraph was part of a package of responses to a steady decline of revenue on the Avenue, particularly noted when Cody’s Books on Telegraph went out of business last summer. 

The new rules include: 

• Extending hours of operation of businesses on Telegraph. 

• Making permitting easier for various uses such as video stores, restaurants, banks and other kinds of businesses. 

• Making permitting easier when a business is changed from one use to another. 

• Making it easier to convert existing retail spaces to larger or smaller spaces. 

Still no sunshine 

While discussion of a Sunshine Ordinance was on the May 22 meeting agenda, the council adjourned before the item was addressed. However, the ordinance was not put back on the June 12 agenda, as skipped items usually are.

Graduation was a family affair at the Berkeley Adult School (BAS) Tuesday. 

Great aunts, cousins and grandmothers showed up with the rest of the clan to congratulate the newest member in the family to graduate from high school. 

2007 BAS graduate Marsha Griffin’s aunt Linda Shehee had rushed down from Oakland that afternoon. Aleijah, Aliyah and Jailen had waited with bated breath all day to watch their mom Britnee Love get her diploma. 

“You did it, mom,” five-year-old Jailen screamed, as Love scooped down to pick up Aleijah and Aliyah. 

In a perfect world, Love would have walked with the rest of her classmates at the Berkeley High School graduation Friday, but circumstances had led her to complete her degree from the adult high school instead. 

“There was too much to do, and too little time,” she said. “Bringing up three kids is a full-time job. On top of that I own a daycare in Hayward. It’s kind of hard providing food for your children and working to pass high school, but this place made it possible.” 

Love’s story was typical of most of the 67 graduates attending commencement that evening.  

In an enclave famous for being Berkeley’s ethnic gourmet ghetto, the Berkeley Adult School, with its sprawling campus at 1701 San Pablo Ave., has established itself as a local landmark. 

It is here that octogenarians earn high school diplomas, forty-somethings brush the dust off their old ukuleles and 20-year-old mothers fall in love with reading, painting and dancing all over again. 

“We make it possible for adults to live their dreams,” said BAS principal Margaret Kirkpatrick after the commencement ceremonies. 

“All you need to do is show up here and we take care of the rest.” 

Kirkpatrick, a 11-year-old veteran at the school, said that programs were also open to those living outside Berkeley. 

“A significant number of our students are not from Berkeley High School or B-Tech, but from Oakland, Richmond, San Leandro and Hayward,” she said.  

“We had about 150 graduates two years ago, but the numbers dwindled with the start of the California High School Exit Exam. The problem with the exit exam is not that it’s too hard for our students to crack, but that it’s only offered four times a year. Our students have families, they have kids and full-time jobs. All this makes it tough to find a time to study.” 

The school—which occupied the West Campus until 2004—is now located at the site of what formerly was Franklin Elementary School. 

“It’s clean, it’s safe, the lights work, the phone works, everything works,” Kirkpatrick said excitedly. “The district does a great job to support adult education. They put their money where their priorities are.” 

BAS is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., but classes are held all day. Students come from diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. 

“I get single parents, Section 8 tenants, delinquents, gang members and the homeless,” said high school counselor Betsy Hoyt. 

“It takes a lot for our student to stay on track. They dropped out of school for a reason and it’s difficult for them to come back.” 

Students can enroll for high school or independent study at any time of the year. 

“Normally we will have someone in their 70s graduating,” said Kirkpatrick. “But this year our oldest graduate is in his 40s. The youngest is 18. We don’t accept people below that.” 

John McKeown, who counseled high school students for more than a decade at BAS, said that his oldest student had been Masuyi Makishima, a Japanese immigrant who got her high school diploma at the grand old age of 83. 

“Graduating from high school is like a rite of passage in our culture. People want to do it, no matter how late,” he said smiling. 

Students are taught in a regular classroom environment. The school’s largest program is English as a Second Language, while programs for older adults, computer skills, genealogy, dance and poetry lessons are some of the other popular picks. 

“Our high school students have to satisfy the same requirements as those of Berkeley High,” Kirkpatrick said.  

“They really work in the confines of what an adult has to do plus go to school. In adult education we don’t call them ‘drop outs,’ we call them ‘stop outs.’ We teach them the meaning of hope.” 

Hope was written in Tareva Early’s teary eyes as she went up on the stage to receive her certificate from Kirkpatrick. It was written all over Clydie Williams’ face and in Sarah Kenny’s smile. 

Early and Williams, both in their late teens, had been unable to graduate from their original high schools in 2005.  

“I didn’t because I wasn’t focusing enough,” said a wiser Williams. “This place made me think about my future. It helped me accomplish my goals. Today, I want to have a career in nursing.” 

Sarah, who lives in Santa Rosa, had made the trip to Berkeley to accept an honorary diploma on behalf of her father Paul Kenny, who drowned in a boating accident in the Berkeley Marina in February. 

“I am proud to be standing here today,” Kevin C. Broucaret said in his graduation speech. 

“Although many of us were unable to take part in our original high school graduations, we never gave up. Many of us will go on to become doctors, lawyers or work in corporations. Up until this year, I have never taken education so seriously. I have realized how important it is to receive credentials beyond a high school diploma.” 

In a room scattered with super moms and super dads and bright young adults waiting to go out and conquer the world, there were also those who had helped them get there. 

Students thanked vice principal Tom Orput. They thanked Betsy Hoyt, high school GED clerk Luci Rodriguez and teachers Lucia Owens and Dam Reamon. 

“This is an incredible place,” said Orput, and talked at length about the school’s famed Bread Project, a nine-week training program which teaches adults professional baking skills. 

“We have our very own cafe. Students make pastries, biscottis, bundts and lots of other amazing stuff. Some even end up with successful careers in baking.” 

As the auditorium exploded in cheers when the first graduate walked up get her diploma, families took their seats excitedly. 

“I don’t know what Marsha is graduating in,” said Shehee as she walked into the auditorium, “but I am going to see her graduate. If she goes on to Harvard, we will be right behind.” 

Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee 

Aleijah, Aliyah and Jailen with their mom, Berkeley Adult School graduate Britnee Love.

On Sunday, June 3, the Berkeley High School Engineering Club (BHEC) designed, built, and successfully launched a trebuchet at the Albany Bulb. While BHEC may not strike a chord with most Berkeley residents, its presence is well known at the high school. 

“We had a great turnout,” said BHEC President John Stevick, 16. “We announced the event and got a lot of interested people to contribute to the cause.” 

The group launched a trebuchet, similar to a catapult, at the Albany Bulb, which runs along the water, making it an ideal location. The trebuchet was traditionally used as a medieval siege engine to smash masonry walls or throw projectiles over them. However, in this case, the trebuchet was built for educational purposes. 

The group spent a total of 10 hours aggressively building and launching their magnum opus. Their hard work started at the break of dawn in Albany and continued until the late afternoon. 

“We carried an actual ton of wood to the site, a half-mile from the parking lot,” said Stevick, describing their work. “When we arrived, everyone went straight to work and got the job done.” 

With the help of a local architect and a math professor, the BHEC has been holding meetings every Tuesday at their high school for the past academic year. They have been spending time planning and discussing ideas to construct an ideal trebuchet. After all this time, the group decided to test their masterpiece by an open shore. 

“We came, we saw, we conquered,” remarked BHEC Treasurer Connie Chan, 16. “I thought that the group planned it, prepared it, and executed it very well.” 

BHEC is a student-run organization, sponsored by Berkeley High School and the University of California’s Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honors society. The group is dedicated to the educational implementation of student engineering. In early 2006, Stevick brought together students interested in engineering and applied mathematics and founded the BHEC. The club is open to all interested students, regardless of previous engineering experience or skill.  

“We have a very large, diverse membership,” said Chan, 16. “Students from a variety of backgrounds came together in BHEC to concentrate their interests on a unifying topic: engineering.” 

Chan, described as a “natural” in engineering by others in the group, created a partnership between Berkeley High School and UC Berkeley. Her work has brought in donations from various groups, including Tau Beta Pi. 

“We’re very proud of the financial relationships we’ve been able to create,” said Stevick. “It wouldn’t be possible without the work of our treasurer, who works tirelessly to promote our club.” 

Many of the young engineers found that their successful launch of the trebuchet was a good first step, but that there is work yet to be done. 

“I thought that this was a good first project for all of us to learn and understand what we can accomplish as a team,” said Kyler Murlas, 17.” However, I hope that as a group, we continue to go above and beyond.” 

In the future, BHEC plans to host a variety of engineering events on their home turf in Berkeley. Interested contributors may send an e-mail to: john.stevick@gmail.com about possible donations. 

Photograph by Rio Bauce 

Members of the Berkeley High Engineering Club assemble a medieval trebuchet at the Albany Bulb on Sunday, June 3. This version of the engine was built in some 10 hours with a ton of wood and lots of planning and enthusiasm.

The Berkeley public schools could lose $60,000 in nutrition money in the new school year if the state legislature cuts funding from the California Fresh Start Program this month. 

Initiated in 2006 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fresh Start provides 10 cents for every school breakfast served that contains fresh fruits and vegetables. 

The program—which offers $18.2 million from the state general fund—aims at reducing obesity and diabetes among children. 

Although the governor approved $11.1 million in funds to take Fresh Start into the next school year, legislators are proposing to remove that amount to help cover a $366 million funding gap in the state budget. 

The proposal has perturbed parent groups, fresh food advocates and in particular Ann Cooper, Berkeley’s “Renegade Lunch Lady,” who has stepped up to the rescue. 

“There’s nothing the school district can do by itself,” Cooper, who heads Berkeley Unified’s school lunch program, told the Planet during a phone interview Wednesday, “but I am trying really hard to make the Legislature leave the money in the budget.” 

Cooper, a vociferous advocate of “eating fresh,” has been busy making calls to the Legislature and contacting the media to lobby against the budget cuts. 

Her biggest fear is that kids will be deprived of their fresh kiwis, strawberries and pears every morning if the cuts get approved. 

“We are expecting to hear something any time now, maybe even this week,” she said. 

“I am hoping for the best as I really don’t want to lose $60,000 worth of food,” she said. “That’s over 300,000 pieces of fruit.” 

School board vice president John Selawsky said that the school district was lobbying hard to keep the funding alive. 

“It’s horrible that the cuts have been proposed,” he told the Planet. “There’s nothing that gives you vitamins and minerals more than fresh fruit. We have spoken with our state assemblyperson and our state senator about this. People have also contacted the governor. This doesn’t just affect the school district, but also parents and providers of fresh fruit. The program is essential if we are going to have good nutritious food for our children. The governor has been touting fresh fruit and vegetables for students as one of his issues. And now they are going ahead and doing this. It’s like saying something and doing something completely different.” 

According to Cooper, the governor’s May 11 budget revision had a technical error which removed $366 million from education funding. 

“As a result, they are trying to balance the governor’s budget by doing this,” she said. 

Phyllis Bramson-Paul, director of nutrition services for the state Department of Education, told the Planet that it was possible that the program would be renewed. 

“It’s been a pilot program running for a year and preliminary evidence from Center for Weight and Health at the University of California, Berkeley has shown that it has met all its goals,” she said. 

“One of the goals was to promote fresh fruit and vegetables. Before the program, 26 percent of school breakfasts contained a serving of a fresh fruit or vegetable. After it was started, this saw an increase of 96 percent. Also, a huge portion of fruits purchased by the school districts were California grown. The program not only supports nutrition but also California agriculture.” 

Seventy-five percent of school breakfasts in the state make use of Fresh Start. This includes the Oakland Unified School District, the San Francisco Unified School District and the Alameda City Unified School District. 

Among California’s fifth, seventh and ninth graders, 28 percent were overweight in 2004. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified “eating additional servings of fresh fruits and vegetables as one of the four most effective obesity prevention strategies.” 

Selawsky said that he was hopeful that the legislature would figure out a way to reinstate the funds. 

“Until then, we will continue to lobby,” he said. “If they do go on to cut the funding entirely, then we would have to figure out our own source of funding our children’s fresh fruit and vegetables.”

The Alameda County Administrator’s office has issued a new county budget that closes a projected $52 million funding gap with no layoffs and no program cuts, but County Administrator Susan Muranishi warned reporters at a Wednesday briefing that the governor’s proposed “solution” to the state’s incarceration problem could throw her calculations out of whack. 

In addition, Muranishi said that the savings procedures used to balance this year’s budget may not be available if the county’s economic picture grows bleaker in coming years, and that in particular, steadily rising General Assistance costs may cause the county to come up with ways to curb its welfare program in the future.  

County general assistance cases per month are projected to jump 24 percent in the next two years (4,071 to 5,064), while SSI applications approved per year are expected to jump 79 percent in the same period (534 to 957). 

“Our case load is growing,” Muranishi said. “The supervisors are going to pull together a working group to address this problem. They won’t adopt any changes to general assistance when they adopt this year’s budget, but they will have to put something in place for next year.”  

County supervisors are scheduled to begin hearings on the proposed $2.36 Alameda County budget on June 26th. Muranishi called this year’s budget a “maintenance budget” that keeps services and programs intact, doing no more and no less. 

The county administrator’s guarded assessment puts Alameda County’s budget forecast decidedly ahead of the situation projected by the civil grand jury in neighboring Contra Costa County. In a report first highlighted on the East Bay Express 92510 Blog, the Contra Costa County Grand Jury is warning that county supervisors are courting financial disaster by failing to address the escalating cost of employee and retiree health benefits. 

Entitled “May Day, May Day, May Day! The County Drifts Ever Closer to the OPEB Rocks,” the Grand Jury report summary says that “Contra Costa County is facing a financial ‘perfect storm’ as the cost of medical and dental benefits granted to retirees are being driven upward by increases in the number of retirees, inflation, and costly advances in medical science. The County Board of Supervisors has not adequately addressed the financial obligations of the Other Post-Employment Benefits (‘OPEB’) facing the County and, as a result, is mortgaging the County’s future. Escalating retiree health care benefit costs are threatening the County’s financial condition, and with it the ability to deliver essential services.”  

In Alameda County, Muranishi believes that there are financial problems, but that the county is facing them. 

The administrator’s office estimated the $52 million shortfall last April, but closed that shortfall in the intervening two months with reductions across the board—$10 million apiece from general operations and the county Health Care Services Agency, $16 million apiece from public assistance and public protection. But only $6.4 million of those fund reduction strategies are ongoing and can be automatically used next year; the remaining $45.7 million in reductions are one-time strategies available for this year only. 

“There’s no guarantee that these savings can be replicated as our budgets get tighter,” Muranishi told reporters.  

In her letter to supervisors, Muranishi said that the lag in the state’s economy as well as state and federal budgetary problems paint a grim, though not catastrophic, picture for Alameda County’s budget. 

“The State’s economy continues to lag due to the downturn in the housing market,” she wrote. “Very slow economic growth is projected over the coming months, although the housing recession is not expected to spread into other business sectors. State’s Legislative Analyst predicts a multi-billion dollar State Budget operating deficit for FY 2007-08 that will continue into the next several fiscal years. At the same time, the President’s proposed Federal Fiscal Year 2008 Budget is not balanced and includes significant reductions in mandatory and discretionary spending for domestic programs in the upcoming and next several fiscal years. These trends, coupled with double digit increases in health and retirement benefit costs, have compounded the challenge of developing a balanced budget that preserves vital services.” 

Muranishi said that 25 percent of the county’s budget is non-restricted money that supervisors can use at their discretion. She added that with close to 60 percent of that money coming from property tax revenue, Alameda County is particularly vulnerable to downturns in the housing market. 

And a possible jump in the county’s incarcerated juvenile offenders also looms as a problem. 

Last December, as part of what he called a “comprehensive prison reform proposal,” Governor Arnold Schwarzen-egger proposed “placing some low-level and juvenile offenders in county facilities rather than state facilities to allow offenders who pose a minimal public safety risk to serve their sentences closer to their communities and families.” A press release by the governor’s office called this move “particularly important for juvenile offenders,” a position that was echoed by the Ella Baker Center, an Oakland-based progressive peace and justice advocacy organization, which said in a recent release that “for more than three years, we have been calling on Sacramento to close down California's abusive, expensive and woefully ineffective youth prison system. In his May revision to the state budget, Governor Schwarzenegger is looking to take us one step closer to that goal by permanently closing the DeWitt Nelson youth prison [in Stockton]. This is a major advance for our campaign. It’s becoming obvious to everyone, even the governor, that these prisons aren’t working and need to be closed entirely. A Department of Corrections spokesman said that they are already looking at closing the notorious [Heman G.] Stark [Youth Correctional Facility in Chino] next.” 

But Muranishi said the move to close state youth facilities and transfer some youth offenders back into the counties is a potential economic hit to Alameda County, with the size of the hit dependent upon the number of offenders transferred. 

“The governor is proposing to pay each county $94,000 per year, regardless of the county, for each youth inmate transferred to the county from a state youth facility under this program,” Muranishi said. “But our cost is $160,000 a year to house a juvenile offender. We will have to make up that shortfall.”

UC Berkeley’s plan to convert its historic six-acre Laguna Street Extension campus in San Francisco into a private rental-housing development moved a step forward when the San Francisco Planning Commission voted against recommending it as a local landmark last Thursday. 

First used as a city orphanage from 1854 until the San Francisco State Normal School was established in the 1920s to accommodate public school teachers, the campus has also served as the original home of San Francisco State University. 

Citing prohibitive maintenance costs to bring the campus up to current seismic and disability codes, the UC Regents closed the UC Extension building in 2004, and it has been sitting empty since then. 

The move by the university to hand it over to developers AF Evans for private use met with opposition from local preservationists as well as neighborhood groups who want to retain public zoning of the site. 

The SF Planning Department, the SF Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board and the State Historic Preservation Officer agreed the campus was eligible for Local Landmark Designation, but the planning commission voted 4-3 to not landmark it. 

Cynthia Servetnick, co-chair, American Institute of Certified Planners, told the Planet that the decision would most like be appealed to the Board of Supervisors. 

She added that the five-building campus qualifies for the National Register of Historic Places. The proposed plan calls for demolishing Middle Hall and the administrative wing of Richardson Hall. Fifteen percent of the proposed 450 residential rental units would be reserved for low-income tenants and would also include an 85-unit facility for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender seniors. 

Ruthy Bennett, vice president of AF Evans, informed the Planet in a letter last year that the project had met with a large amount of neighborhood support. 

New College of California has appealed the Market and Octavia Neighborhood environmental impact report (EIR)—which includes the six-acre public site as the largest developable parcel in the plan—because it failed to analyze the impacts of the proposed UC/AF Evans project on the plan and vice versa.  

The college has submitted an alternate plan in the project EIR that would preserve all the buildings and the current zoning.

This summer kids in Berkeley will be treated to free breakfast every day, courtesy of the Berkeley Unified School District. 

Four Berkeley public schools will serve Universal Breakfast from June to August to all children in the community.  

Martin Luther King and Willard middle schools—located on Rose and Stuart streets respectively—and Thousand Oaks and Cragmont elementary schools—on Colusa and Regal Road respectively—will open their doors every morning to any child who is hungry. 

“It’s open to any child who lives in the vicinity of these schools,” said Ann Cooper, who heads the school district’s lunch program. 

“We are already doing Universal Breakfast for our students, but this new program is going to be just great. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I am happy to see that something is being done to ensure that all kids get access to that.” 

Universal Breakfast was launched as a pilot program by Karen Candito, former food services director for the district, at LeConte Elementary School in 2005. It has caught on at other Berkeley public schools since then, the most recent of them being Berkeley Technology Academy (B-Tech). 

Funded through a federal grant and state reimbursements, the program aims to provide students with trans fat-free corn-syrup-free food in the morning. 

Cooper, who writes food menus for 10,000 students in Berkeley’s 16 public schools herself, has already made up a list of edibles she wants to serve at summer breakfast. Cereals, granola bars, fresh fruits and healthy muffins get top priority as do low-fat milk, yogurt and fruit juices.  

“I am not sure of the exact number, but I expect to feed a total of 300 children every day,” she said. “Cereal will be provided two days a week. On other days it may be a healthy muffin or a bagel.” 

School board vice president John Selawsky, who supported the program, called it a “great idea.” 

“There are many kids in the neighborhood who need access to a good breakfast in the morning,” he said. 

“We already have food available for kids attending summer school, so why not have it made available to all children? It’s going to start off as a pilot program. Hopefully, we will see it in all the schools in the future.” 

District spokesperson Mark Coplan said that the advent of the free breakfast program was vital information for families and neighborhoods in Berkeley. 

“It will be a seamless summer feeding program,” he said. “This means that all children in the neighborhood can eat breakfast at these sites for free, and they do not need to be enrolled in our program or our schools to participate. Like the Universal Breakfast that feeds Berkeley students during the school year, all children are served, and families do not have to qualify for the Free and Reduced program. The more participation, the more children that we serve, the better.”

Berkeley High School Vice Principal Pasquale Scuderi announced Thursday that the school had not met the benchmarks to receive an Annual Performance Index (API) score. The federal government requires a 95 percent participation rate in the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) tests. 

“I would say that the participation rate in the STAR testing was a little under 80 percent,” said Scuderi. 

Principal Jim Slemp reported that the state of California had previously allowed the adequate participation rate to be measured as 95 percent on the California High School Exit Exam and 85 percent on the STAR tests. However, that policy has changed.  

“It doesn’t look like they are going to allow us to do that this way again,” said Slemp. “Our students don’t just take a test because somebody says it’s a good idea. They make their own intelligent decisions and I don’t think that these tests are an accurate reflection of our school.” 

The state government allows students to opt-out of taking the STAR tests if they bring a note from their parent/guardian indicating their desires. Many students take advantage of that option, which brings down the API score. 

“I really don’t like taking the standardized tests,” said Delia Keller. “They don’t measure how smart you are and they’re really boring to sit through.” 

Slemp mentioned that according to a recent study in Newsweek magazine, Berkeley High ranked 284 nationally, above Bay Area schools such as Miramonte, Alcalanes, Palo Alto High, etc. 

Slemp said, “We are one of the best high schools in the country. It just shows the ridiculousness of this test. Under this standard, we are being categorized as underperforming and that’s just not true.” 

Scuderi concurred, “The idea of a common benchmark to measure student performance is a good impulse, but it needs considerable revision.”

Eighteen-year city employee Stephen Barton, asked to resign last Tuesday, was publicly pummeled in a memo by the Berkeley city attorney Wednesday, a six-page document addressed to the mayor and City Council and filled with attacks aimed primarily at Barton, but also at the city manager, deputy city manager and other city staff. 

“The memo raises in a public way what have been long-term cultural problems within the organization,” the former housing director told the Daily Planet in a two-and-a-half-hour interview Friday, in which Barton, 57, detailed the “untruths and distortions” he said he found in the memo. 

Barton says he wants to see the city order a peer review by other attorneys of City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque’s office, as well as an independent examination of the Berkeley Housing Authority.  

“Here we have a personal attack from the highest level [of city government] and a failure to have any impartial inquiry,” he said. “Just as there should be an impartial inquiry and review of what happened in the housing authority, there should also be an inquiry and review of the conduct of the city attorney’s office.”  

The city attorney has declined to discuss the memo, a copy of which can be found by clicking on the “City Attorney Memo” link at www.berkeleydailyplanet.com. 

Despite being asked to resign by the city manager, apparently on the basis of reports from Albuquerque, Barton said he was “honored” to have had the opportunity to serve a municipality whose values are his own. 

Barton said working on housing issues in Berkeley allowed him to promote the “equal dignity of all people, regardless of how much money they have and regardless of their personal background … An important part of that is that people have security in their homes and if they are homeless, that they have homes.” 

“It’s rare you get to do the work you truly believe in and get paid,” Barton said, before launching into the complexities of the housing department and confronting details of the attack against him.  

“Part of my beliefs is the Buddha teaches that wise speech is truthful, helpful, appropriate and kind—I’m going to have a lot of trouble with the kind part,” Barton said at one point in the interview. 

Barton’s tenure 

Barton, who received his doctorate in city and regional planning in 1985 from UC Berkeley, came to the city in 1989 as a housing planner and was named acting director of the Housing Department in 1999, a time at which the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA)—just one division of a four-division department—was in disarray. 

BHA oversees some 1,800 units of federally funded Section 8 housing in which vouchers are allocated to low-income people who pay about one-third of their income for housing. The federal government pays the balance. Rent levels are set at market rate. BHA also is responsible for 75 units of low-income housing that it owns. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds and regulates the housing authority. 

As a result of a host of economic, social and bureaucratic missteps leading to faulty data and other problems, HUD designated the agency as “troubled” in 2002. It has not been able to completely pull out of that status—except partially for a short time— despite efforts such as hiring a former HUD official as BHA manager for two years and working with a variety of consultants and outside auditors, many of them recommended by HUD and some of whom made the situation worse, Barton said. 

When evaluating the housing director’s work performance, Barton said one needs to look at the city’s unrealistic expectations. “I’ve been filling two jobs,” he said. 

The Housing Department includes four divisions: Housing Services that serves nonprofit housing development, including housing for seniors and disabled people and code enforcement. Recently, homeless services have been added to the mix. Until a couple of months ago, Barton headed that division, its manager having been removed as part of the cost-savings program put in place about four years ago. 

Another division oversees federal and city funded community agencies; a fourth division focuses on energy conservation and sustainable development. 

Barton cites among his accomplishments, designing ways to capture some of the housing market’s windfall profits for use of individuals without property, such as having developers pay “in lieu fees”—fees to replace the required 20 percent affordable housing and the condominium conversion program. “These efforts have been slow in getting going,” he said, “but will generate millions of dollars every year for the Housing Trust Fund,” money for low-income housing efforts. 

The Albuquerque memo  

Barton turned the sheets of the six-page memo, pointing to examples of what he called “untruths and distortions.”  

One, he said, is that the Albuquerque memo said Barton was often “at odds” with Ingram. “That is completely untrue,” said Barton, who recruited Ingram. “I supported Tia in efforts every step of the way.”  

While Albuquerque’s memo says Ingram was made assistant to the city manager because Barton was “dismissive” of her, Barton says it was a bureaucratic necessity imposed by HUD rules; Ingram had to be made a permanent employee quickly so that she could gain access to HUD data. Giving her the position of assistant to the city manager made that possible. 

But after a few months of this arrangement, Barton said Kamlarz wanted Ingram to report directly to him, to avoid confusion in reporting responsibilities. 

This, however, renders other Albuquerque’s allegations “a catch-22,” he said, since the memo holds him responsible for things happening at the housing authority during the time he was not supervising Ingram. For example, Albuquerque criticizes Barton’s supervision of a temporary BHA employee during the time he was not supervising the BHA manager. 

“I am being set up here,” he said.  

Barton said Albuquerque got another point entirely backwards. While she says he “repeatedly resisted” her advice to bring in the Alameda County Housing Authority to figure out what operational changes needed to take place, he says, “Actually, I had been in constant contact with Alameda County Housing Authority. I felt that was our backup.” 

Barton says that today, rather than going the very expensive route of hiring an outside consulting agency to run BHA—which is the city manager/city attorney’s plan—the Housing Authority of the County of Alameda should be invited to set up an office in Berkeley and run the agency. That would preserve the housing vouchers in Berkeley. 

Barton said he finds it “very offensive” that the city manager and city attorney made the decision to go the route of hiring the outside agency without consulting him—the BHA staff is being laid off and placed in jobs elsewhere in the city and a private agency is being hired to run BHA along with Ingram.  

“Even though it’s late in the day, I still strongly recommend that approach,” Barton said. 

Barton and HUD directives 

Among Albuquerque’s criticisms of Barton was that “Mr. Barton was … dismissive of HUD’s ability to provide assistance.”  

Barton responds: “If I were to pick out an error of mine, it was following the directions of HUD as long as I did.”  

Barton cites a number of instances in which he said HUD was responsible for creating problems rather than solving them.  

One example of confusion within HUD was around a loan. There were maintenance problems in the 75 public housing units, some dating back to when they were built. BHA needed $1.4 million for repairs and arranged to borrow it from HUD, based on Community Development Block Grant funds the city gets from HUD. (The manager at the time was a former HUD official.) 

“Rather to my amazement, the people in the regional HUD office complained that [the manager] had gotten the loan from the other part of the HUD without their authorization and at various times ordered us to stop work.” 

Another example of a HUD-created problem was that around 2003 HUD started cutting back administrative payments to the Housing Authority and its payments for public housing. BHA was cut from a staff of 19 to 13 people. 

“That was definitely a mistake,” Barton said. “I should have said no, we can’t cut staff.”  

Also, at one point, while the housing authority was dealing with line staff problems and with changing BHA management, “HUD was going through constant reorganizations and they were constantly sending out new people to review the housing authority and telling us to do different things.” 

At one point, HUD sent out a consultant team that decided that what was needed was to do “interim” recertifications of housing clients, which they attempted to do in a couple of weekends, Barton said. The result was “a massive diversion of staff time,” with incomplete results.  

“If HUD had been trying to actively sabotage the Housing Authority, they couldn’t have done better than what their help was,” he said. 

Call for investigation 

Barton reiterated his call for an independent inquiry into the office of the city attorney. 

“The memo is just an example of the “kind of casual attack—an unsubstantiated attack—which is an example of how city staff is treated day in and day out by the city attorney,” he said. “Privately, city staff and department directors talk about how unusual it is to be in a city where the attorney’s office treats staff as the enemy on a routine basis.”  

This has a fundamental impact on the work of city staff, Barton said. 

When the city attorney’s office is regularly “insulting, abrupt and dismissive,” that means staff avoids seeking needed advice, Barton said. “This only serves to enforce the view [of city attorney staff] that staff are incompetent and resistant to their advice, thus creating a vicious circle of noncooperation. 

“This internal situation in Berkeley has festered for years and nothing’s been done about it,” he said.

Twenty-three young men and women were sent out to conquer the real world on Friday. 

As faculty, staff and students gathered at St. John’s Presbyterian Church to celebrate the hopes and dreams of Berkeley Technology Academy’s (B-Tech) graduating class of 2007, students and teachers said there was no denying that the school had come a long way since its inception as a continuation school. 

“It’s been my most enjoyable year as an educator,” B-Tech principal Victor Diaz told the Planet. “Together we have accomplished great things. Our students are preparing for college much earlier and with a greater sense of commitment. Teachers and students are pushing the envelope in the classroom by mastering the standards and connecting them to larger social issues.” 

Diaz is not the only one to praise the school once labeled as a “dumping ground” for kids unable to fit in anywhere else. 

Twenty-three out of the school’s 30 seniors graduated this year, an increase from the past. Two students will have to re-take their California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) in order to graduate, and five will have to boost up their credits over the summer. 

Student attendance is up, and suspensions have plunged, Diaz said. 

More students passed the CAHSEE this year than ever before, a fact that makes Diaz ecstatic. 

“We focused a lot on the math part of the exit exam this time,” he said. “Prof. Christopher Knaus from the African American Studies department at UC Berkeley sent over some of his undergrads to work with us all summer. Our two main goals were CAHSEE prep and getting all our seniors signed up for Peralta Community College. Once we crossed that hurdle, students went on to bigger and better things like the SATs.” 

In November, 15 kids from B-Tech took a Black College Tour of African-American educational institutions in the South. 

The students produced B-Tech’s first yearbook this year. A 60-page color volume filled with poems, profiles and photographs, the book highlights top B-Tech talent and captures some of the school’s best moments. 

“The students worked really hard on this one,” said Joy Lee, who teaches English. An ethnic studies major from Stanford, Lee taught her students Adobe Photoshop and other pagemaking skills necessary to create a yearbook. 

“I tell them that it’s very important to apply themselves to every situation,” she said. “Sometimes they have problems with the reading session in the exit exam and the only way to overcome that is by practice.” 

Lucrecia Irvin, who topped the graduating class, said that she had managed to get all A’s by doing just that. 

“Things started looking up when Victor became principal in 2005,” she said. “Then they brought in more staff and since last year it’s been all good.” 

Irvin, who works part-time at Popeye’s in downtown Oakland, wants to pursue nursing at San Francisco State University. 

Turning her dreams into reality are teachers such as Rachel Bolden-Kramer, B-Tech’s youngest acquisition. 

This year, the B-Tech summer school—also a first—will help students prepare for their exit exam and give them a chance to make up their credits in order to graduate. 

“If the summer program had existed earlier, more students would have been able to graduate,” said Diaz. “We want to teach them deeper concepts and expose them to areas they haven’t come across before. For example statistics and geometry. Next year, more students will prepare for college by the normal deadlines. Instead of letting them play catch, we will make sure that their financial aid applications and SAT scores are turned in by November.” 

As students walked up to receive their diplomas, cheering echoed throughout the church. 

Some thanked their mother, some God, but the majority thanked “Vic.” 

Dwarfed by most of his students, Diaz perhaps bore the biggest smile during the ceremony Friday. It was easy to spot the bond he had created with his students, one that went beyond that of a teacher and a friend. 

As the seniors hugged him to death, school superintendent Michele Lawrence lauded Diaz’s commitment toward B-Tech. 

“He is simply amazing with the kids,” she told the Planet. “His incredible relationship with his students and the incredible hard work that B-Tech staff have put into the school is evident from its success today.”

The Berkeley City Council tonight (Tuesday) will take another look at the mayor’s controversial Public Commons for Everyone Initiative. At the last meeting, an exhausted council did not address the specifics in the measure intended to enhance shopping areas by removing persons whose behavior is unacceptable.  

Another controversial item is likely to be an appeal by Elmwood neighbors and merchants of a plan to transform the Wright’s Garage Building into a four-to-seven unit commercial building that would include a restaurant, exercise or dance studios and five retail spaces. 

Commenting on the 1,300-plus page agenda packet, Councilmember Betty Olds said the City Council is consistent in the way it handles business. “First they discuss it, then they send it to a committee, then they put up a sign about it,” she said. “If all else fails, we’ll talk it to death.”  

The first order of business will be a joint session with the new Berkeley Housing Authority board. Then the council will meet briefly as the Redevelopment Agency.  

The council meeting is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and in addition to the Public Commons Initiative and the Wright’s Garage appeal will include a budget discussion; the creation of a new city position for a Revenue Development Officer, with a salary range of $6,395-$7,730 per month; extending evening hours of operation for businesses where there is no sales or service of alcohol, ensuring equal opportunities for people re-entering the work force after prison, opposition to transit funding reduction in the governor’s budget and city sponsorship of the Solano Stroll. 

Public Commons 

At the May 22 meeting the council had voted to separate out the various component’s of the mayor’s evolving proposal to curb anti-social street behavior. It was about midnight and the worn-out council adjourned without going through the proposal. At this meeting, Councilmember Kriss Worthington has added his own recommendations. 

Bates proposal includes: 

• Generating income to fund the plan with increased parking meter fees and an increased number of meters. 

• Hiring a six-month planner to refine the plan. 

• Writing a no-smoking ordinance for commercial areas that would include designated smoking areas. 

• Improve signage and adding hours of access to public bathrooms. 

• Making public defecation and urination an infraction and referring the concept to the Police Review Commission. 

• Enforcing existing laws. 

• Developing more public seating. 

• Expanding supportive housing opportunities. 

• Soliciting feedback from key commissions. 

Worthington’s proposal includes: 

• Compiling information on quality-of-life citations issued and prosecuted in Berkeley and neighboring cities. 

• Compiling data estimating the cost of district attorney and public defender, court, and police time. 

• Delaying any ordinance considering a ban on sitting on the sidewalk for one year, until the results of the other ordinances are in. 

• Delaying the urination/defecation ordinance until the number of public toilets are increased. 

• Implementing community policing to include walking beats, communicating with businesses, residents and others and implementing a police officer’s use of a dedicated cell phone or pager. 

Other items 

In addition to the appeal of the zoning board’s decision to allow development at the Wright’s Garage location, there is an appeal of the Landmark’s Commission’s designation as a landmark of the Maybeck House at 1300 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.  

The council will review the 2008/2009 budget, including the council referrals. 

A number of information reports—not likely to be discussed—are available from the city clerk’s office or on the clerk’s web site. Among them are: a status report on instant runoff voting and installation of surveillance cameras. 

Berkeley police found the body of the year’s second murder, 46-year-old Terrence Marlow Broadnax, shortly after noon Friday in a fourth-floor apartment at University Avenue Homes. 

In a written statement, BPD Lt. Matt Morizono said officers found evidence of “significant blunt force trauma.” 

Officers were called to the 1040 University Ave. scene by a building employee who had discovered the body, Morizono said. 

The employee had gone to the apartment to check on Broadnax’s welfare because he hadn’t been seen for some time before his body was discovered. 

Located at the corner of University and San Pablo avenues, the 75-unit single-room-occupancy hotel opened in 1992 for area residents who lost their dwellings in the Loma Prieta earthquake. 

Remodeled with finances from the city and federal governments, the building was owned by the non-profit University Avenue Housing until 1999, when the building was purchased by Resources for Community Development (RCD). 

A non-profit, RCD owns multiple properties in the East Bay reserved solely for low-income tenants and is presently developing the six-story Oxford Plaza apartment complex at the corner of Fulton Street and Kittredge Way adjacent to the site of the planned David Brower Center. 

Broadnax’s killing comes one month and two days after the city’s first murder of 2007, also the result of a severe beating. 

The body of 19-year-old Augustine Silva of Antioch was discovered about 6:30 a.m. May 6 by an employee arriving for work at Second and Cedar streets. The body was on the ground, sprawled across an abandoned railroad spur. 

He had been slain by multiple blunt force blows, said BPD Sgt. Mary Kusmiss at the time. 

Berkeley police have announced a $15,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of Silva’s killer. 

Anyone with information on either crime is requested to call BPD’s Homicide Detail at 981-5741, or the department switchboard at 981-5900.

World Can’t Wait called on all Berkeley High School students Monday to sign a letter protesting the U.S. military’s requirement that Berkeley High give student information to military recruiters unless the students request the school not to. 

The Berkeley School Board last week voted to adopt a policy requiring juniors and seniors to sign an “opt-out” form if they don’t want their information released to the U.S. military. Previously, students who wished to be contacted by military recruiters had to sign an “opt-in” form. 

Berkeley High was the last school in the country to adopt the “opt-in” policy under threat of losing $10 million in federal funding, as part of the No Child Left Behind act. 

“Berkeley High was forced by the office of the Undersecretary of Defense in a complete action of extortion to undermine the privacy of BHS students by releasing students’ information to military recruiters,” said Daniel A. Sandoval of World Can’t Wait. “We are collecting signatures from Berkeley High School students to support the fact that majority of the students are against the war.” 

Sandoval told the Planet that close to 250 student signatures had been collected so far from Berkeley High. 

The petition says, in part: “We oppose this unjust war. We support the soldiers who resist fighting this unjust war. We refuse to serve in an unjust war. We want nothing to do with this unjust war. And we will set the example and call on all students across the nation to refuse to serve this unjust war. NO MORE!” 

Sandoval sad that the letter would be sent to the Robert Gates, U.S. Secretary of Defense, on Wednesday. 

“However, the names of the students will not be disclosed,” he said. 

Monday’s demonstration had been planned for inside the Berkeley High campus but was moved to the Martin Luther King Jr. park grounds. 

“They were not allowed to hold it inside the school because they don’t represent the school,” said BUSD public information officer Mark Coplan. “Only the district can hold a press conference inside the school.” 

Rio Bauce, a BHS senior who chairs the city’s Youth Commission and is a member of the Planning Commission, said that the change in policy was not worth protesting about. 

“The kids are just happy that they were able to opt out during assembly a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “The opt-out policy is legal. I think Berkeley High is doing the right thing by complying with the law.” 

Littering, downtown safety issues and plans for the warm water pool dominated the meeting held between representatives of the city and the Berkeley Unified School District Friday. 

Nancy Holland, aide to District 4 Councilmember Dona Spring, informed school and city officials about complaints from constituents regarding excessive trash near Berkeley High School (BHS). 

“You can see broken glass, dead rats, food wrappings and toxic electronic waste, especially toward the rear end of Berkeley High,” she said.  

School Board Vice President John Selawsky told the board that the corner of Milvia and Channing was used as a dumping site. 

“People dump mattresses, desks and other junk there,” he said. “Also, there aren’t adequate trash receptacles around Berkeley High School. I find kids looking for them and then dropping their trash on the streets as there’s nowhere to put them.” 

District Superintendent Michele Lawrence acknowledged that littering around Berkeley High has been an ongoing problem. 

“There was a mess on one side but it’s going to be cleaned up,” she said. 

“The reality is, people are just slobs,” said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. “And it’s not just the kids, it’s everyone. Today, I saw a young person spitting on the sidewalk and I said ‘you can’t do that.’” 

Holland stated that the city had reached its capacity with trash cans. “Why not do a joint effort [between the city and the school district] to teach people to respect our streets?” she asked. “What it needs is a structural change.” 

Warm water pool 

Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna told committee members about the Disability Commission’s recent meeting to gather information from the community about the possible relocation of the warm water pool. 

The school district’s South of Bancroft Master Plan proposes to demolish the gymnasium that houses the warm water pool, which is used by disabled local residents. 

Friends Protecting Berkeley’s Resources sued the district in February for what it said was an inadequate environmental impact report on the demolition of the gymnasium and the pool. 

Possible relocation options for the pool include the Berkeley High tennis courts at Milvia, which is now a parking lot. Caronna added that a small task force of disability coordinators is working on a design for the parking lot, which would include costs. 

“A couple of people have approached me about turning Berkeley Iceland into a possible relocation for the warm water pool,” Bates said. “I am concerned that we would have the same problems there as we would have at Milvia.” 

Selawsky said that a possible relocation of the pool to the West Campus also merits discussion. 

Curvy Derby  

Committee members discussed the use of the school district’s East Campus Field, which is the proposed site for a regulation-size baseball diamond. 

“At what point will it be usable and will the community be able to get inside its gates?” Bates asked. 

Selawsky said the field would be ready for use in September. 

Lawrence remarked that the field was intended to be used by Berkeley High students. 

“We intend to make it available to the public through the use permit process,” she said. “Whether the community can use it for free is up for debate at the board level. There are maintenance and safety issues that need to be discussed. Broken glass and dog stuff is not a problem when you [only] have formal games going on. We need to remember that it is a teaching station, not a recreation station.” 

Selawsky said that the field would also be used by Berkeley Technology Academy (B-Tech) students. 

Downtown safety 

Deborah Badhia, director of the Downtown Berkeley Association, told committee members that an estimated 80 percent of BHS students frequent Shattuck Avenue during lunch break. 

“That’s a significant number of students,” she said, and asked if Berkeley High could send out its security officers to patrol downtown regularly. 

“The students respond a lot better to school administration,” she added. 

“Having the high school staff there makes a huge difference,” Selawsky said. “But we need to have a meeting of all the important associations, such as the Berkeley Police Department, UC Berkeley Police Department, BART Police and the school security staff to coordinate efforts. There have been more incidents going on downtown. More than I would like to see.” 

Lawrence remarked that it was not possible for any one agency to accommodate 3,000 kids at one time. 

“It has to be bigger than putting pressure on Berkeley High staff,” she said. “We try and do as many sweeps as possible. I do see our security people downtown, but I can’t see how frequently they do their job as I am not there all the time.” 

The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) will once again hear the appeal of an administrative use permit for a residential addition to 2008 Virginia St. 

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Lorin Hill of Oakland, the project architect and applicant, had requested the permit to construct a 1,434-square-foot addition, raising the house approximately six feet to create habitable space on the ground level and expanding the footprint of the building to create a two-story west wing. 

A group of neighbors had appealed the permit, voicing concerns that the additional height would block air and light. On Jan. 25, ZAB members had asked the applicant to put up story poles at the site of the building so that ZAB and neighbors could get a better visual representation of the project. 

At the May 24 ZAB meeting, Hallie Frazer, appellant and resident of 1711B Milvia St., described the proposed project as being inconsistent with the neighborhood pattern of development. 

“The extension is too big for the neighborhood,” she argued. “Since our lots are of a substandard size, this open area has provided us with a bit of free space. It has invited community activism and helped us meet each other.” 

Rosemary Dady, another appellant who owns a duplex at 2004 and 2006 Virginia St., said that the proposed project would block the view from her upstairs window. 

“When a neighboring house is expanded, why should neighbors have to take all the detriment of the expansion?” she asked. “The applicant is thrusting six feet into the way of sunlight. The project will be looming over my property. In the end, their gain is our loss.” 

Josie Gallup, an appellant, informed board members that in addition to the loss of light, the project was too dense. 

“It’s twice as dense as the average size property in the neighborhood,” she said. “The open space in our backyard gives us a chance to enjoy the lush green garden feeling. We are concerned about the two-story addition intruding upon our privacy and our old fashioned country garden.” 

Bill Berland, the applicant’s lawyer, defended his client’s position and in a letter to ZAB said that the “neighbors were being unreasonable.” 

“The size of the shell of applicant’s building is well within the size and character of the neighborhood,” his letter stated. “I believe that there is a three- to four-story apartment building nearby, a three-story building to the south and some two to three story buildings on two lots behind the applicant’s property ... The neighbors insist on trying to force-feed applicants with an unacceptable and unappealing remodeling plan. It may suit the neighbors’ tastes and desires, but not those of the applicants.” 

Berland added that his clients Jacqueline Poitier and David Bunnell—who live in the house—were proposing the addition to create space to take care of their grandchildren. 

Majority of the board members were concerned about the significant visual and aesthetic impacts on the views and privacy of the neighbors that the addition would cause. 

“It’s out of scale with the neighborhood and the type of development that is allowed in the zoning district,” said board member Jesse Arreguin, who asked the applicant if he was willing to explore a compromise proposition put forward by the appellants. 

The applicant dismissed the compromise proposition to move the addition on the north side of the property instead of the backyard. 

Board member Michael Alvarez Cohen said that the proposed construction of the massive block would “change the character of the entire neighborhood.” 

Staff recommends denying the appeal and upholding the zoning officer's decision to approve the project with minor modifications. 

Other items 

• ZAB will hear a request for a use permit by Sunny Grewal of Studio G+S Architects, to remove an existing, detached garage, construct an attached garage and expand the floor area of an existing four-unit building at 1300 Monterey Ave. 

A group of neighbors have problems with the height, density, compatibility with neighborhood scale and character and parking space in the rear yard.  

Board members have decided to hold a public hearing to hear from the applicant as well as area residents. 

“It makes more sense to have the parties talk over it first,” said board vice president Rick Judd at the meeting. “You should try to work for an agreement you can live with rather than turn it over to us to work out.” 

Staff recommends approval. 

• Appellants Alan and Shelley Altura of Berkeley are scheduled to appeal the administrative use permit to construct a residential addition at 921 Ensenada Ave., by expanding the footprint of the building by 450 square feet, and by constructing a 1,084-square-foot partial second story, setback approximately 15 feet from the front of the house, with an average height of 24 feet. 

Staff recommends denying the appeal. 

• Shawn Smith, architect with Berkeley-based Fargo Farnesi, is scheduled to request a use permit to partially demolish a 1,369-square-foot duplex at 2746 Garber St. and consolidate it into a single unit, and reconstruct a two-story unit at the rear of the building. 

Staff recommends approval. 

• Rena Rickles of Oakland is scheduled to request a use permit to allow a carry-out food service in a new retail food market at 2312 Telegraph Ave. Staff recommends approval. 

The Housing Advisory Commission is asking the Berkeley City Council to have an independent investigation conducted into allegations made by City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque regarding former Housing Director Steve Barton’s alleged refusal to take her advice and similar allegations directed at City Manager Phil Kamlarz, Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna and other staff. 

The city manager asked Barton to resign the day before the memo came out, based on reports written by the city attorney accusing Barton of not following her advice and not completing various tasks. (See Barton’s response in accompanying story.) 

The Thursday evening HAC vote was 4-2-2, with Commissioners Frankie Fraser and Jane Coulter opposing and Commissioners Marie Bowman and new commissioner Beth Wachtel abstaining, according to Commissioner Jesse Arreguin, who had submitted a stronger resolution that failed. Arreguin’s proposal had called for Barton’s reinstatement until an inquiry was performed. 

The HAC resolution also recognized Barton’s contributions to the city, “specifically his work to help construct hundreds of new units of permanently affordable housing in Berkeley, his work in drafting amendments to the Condominium Conversion Ordinance, which protects tenants while providing opportunities for home ownership, his commitment to ensuring that working people can continue to live in our community and his support for Section 8 tenants and their right to affordable and habitable housing.” 

It is not known at this time when the council will consider the HAC resolution. 

The new Berkeley Housing Authority Board will meet in joint session with the City Council at 5 p.m. 

After public comment, the council will be asked to approve a transition plan written by the city manager.  

The new independent board then will be sworn in and asked to adopt the plan. They won’t have much leeway to turn it down, however, given that the city subsidy of $947,000 is conditioned on accepting the manager’s 120-day transition plan that includes: 

• Hiring Tia Ingram, who has managed the agency for nine months, as executive director; 

• Hiring independent legal counsel. 

• Contracting with consultants CGI, Inc. 

• Hiring temporary staff that has union protections, including an accountant, two housing specialists, one management analyst, one administrative assistant and two office assistants. Ingram and a deputy director will be permanent staff. 

• Developing an organizational plan within the 120 days. 

• Participating in a joint “two-by-two” committee with the City Council. 

• Conducting minimally 10 meetings per year. 

The city will continue to provide various services including: personnel, payroll, information technology, finance and public works janitorial services. The city clerk’s office will not service the BHA. 

The new board was appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council, except former City Manager Wise Allen, who will likely be named tonight to replace an appointee who dropped out. In a brief interview last week, Allen said he was recruited by Mayor Tom Bates for the post. He was not among the original group of applicants. 

Bates appointed Carole Selter Norris, vice president of ICF Consulting, to chair the board. Norris’ resume says she has 20 years experience in affordable housing.  

Two tenant members of the current BHA board will continue their service: Dorothy Hunt, a disabled Section 8 renter who holds a doctorate in education and family counseling services, and Adolph Moody, who, on his resume, calls himself “a citizen of this city and this planet.” 

Marjorie Cox, an attorney with the California Department of Justice, will serve on the board. 

Melissa Male, a recent Boalt Law School graduate, is employed as constituent services specialist for Assemblymember Loni Hancock, Mayor Tom Bates’ wife. 

Michael McBride is senior pastor at The Way Christian Center and directs student services at Berkeley Technical Academy, the city’s alternative high school. 

In a scene that invoked historical images of a lanky President Abraham Lincoln walking through the streets of a liberated Richmond shortly before the end of the Civil War, Ron Dellums took a 15-block walking tour of International Boulevard in the Fruitvale District Friday evening surrounded by a phalanx of city officials, local residents, staff, police and private security packed around him so dense that the tall Oakland mayor could only be viewed by his snow-haired head towering above the crowd. 

But while Lincoln listened to expressions of gratitude from throngs of newly freed African captives for a war that was all but over, for Dellums the war has not yet begun. The mayor heard sometimes-angry residents and activists tell of conditions of violent crime, drug use, and prostitution saturating the predominantly Latino neighborhood and business district, asking for help from City Hall. 

The walk began at the corner of 38th Avenue and International and ended with a two-hour community meeting at Bridges Academy at the old Melrose Elementary School on 53rd Avenue.  

Joining Dellums in the walk were City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, City Councilmember Jean Quan, and Oakland School Board Director Noel Gallo, all of whom represent portions of the area walked through. 

Print reporters and television cameras jostled each other to get close enough to see and hear as Dellums listened as residents pointed out hot spots or talked of particularly notorious incidents. The mayor stopped twice, once at a 24-Hour Children’s Center at 47th and International to talk with staff members, and again to go inside the Corazon Del Pueblo restaurant at 48th to talk to customers, staff, and owners. City staff members trailed behind taking notes, noting code violations and, in one instance, a homeless encampment on the narrow sidewalk on 46th Avenue just east of International. 

None of the Fruitvale’s infamous prostitutes were visible as the mayor and his entourage walked, however. A half an hour before the tour began, Oakland police did their own preliminary walk and drive-by, rousting people they thought might be undesirable. 

At points, the mayor’s walk took on the aspects of a grand spectacle, with some 15 television or digital cameras recording the event from all sides, two television news helicopters hovering overhead, a police patrol car driving alongside on International, and some residents coming out to gawk and ask what was going on. 

Midway through the walk, a small contingent from the red-bereted, red-jacketed Guardian Angels organization joined the rear, some of them peering into the windows of storefronts across International as if the mayor of Oakland might be threatened by sniper fire. Members of the group later stood at the rear of the meeting at Bridges Academy, arms folded, as if providing a security detail. 

But while at times the mayor’s walk through the Fruitvale down International took on aspects of either a carnival parade or an election campaign, the activity was all seriousness at the meeting in the Bridges Academy auditorium. With Dellums, De La Fuente, Quan, and Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker sitting behind a table onstage listening, a collection of community, business, and organization representatives gave short speeches and then asked for specific commitments from City Hall to solve several of the Fruitvale area’s problems. 

Some of the requests were simple; asking Dellums to commit to “eating in our restaurants once a month so people will know that the Melrose and the Fruitvale are places to come to eat and buy” or agreeing to meet once a month for six months with local organizations (“That one’s easy,” Dellums answered to the eating question. “I was born in Oakland. That’s not a question. Yes.” The mayor also agreed to the once a month meeting schedule). 

But others were more difficult. To requests for funding for anti-crime programs, particularly to deal with getting the area’s prostitutes off the street, Dellums said that Oakland’s $1.1 billion annual budget is “so restricted” that “after taking out for police and fire and other necessary services from the 45 percent that wasn’t restricted, I was down to $2.4 million to try to solve all of the problems of Oakland. In one way, this is madness.” 

But Dellums said “I make a pledge to you I will try to find money in the budget” to solve the Fruitvale’s prostitution problem, and said he would also look to federal, state, and private sources for financing. 

In answer to another request that the city step up street cleaning efforts, Dellums said he would bring to the Fruitvale a program he has already initiative “a couple of other communities” to work collaboratively with local merchants to hire youth to clean commercial district streets and building facades. 

Calling it “a green brigade,” Dellums said that the purpose of such an effort is three-fold, “it keeps the area clean, it employs young people, and these workers can become our eyes and ears for safety purposes.” 

Dellums also committed to asking the Alameda County Superior Court to establish a second misdemeanor court in the county to step up prosecution of so-called “quality of life” crimes, and also committed to help with job training and the establishment of more jobs for local residents. 

The most poignant moment of the meeting came when a woman talked about girls twelve to fourteen years old being beaten and forced into prostitution in the Fruitvale, acknowledged as Oakland’s center for underage sex workers. The woman recounted an incident of one young girl running, screaming down International Boulevard followed by “her pimp” who was trying to beat her. “We’ve got to stop our babies from being exploited,” the woman said, her voice rising. 

On the stage, De La Fuente sat studying the paper in front of him, never looking up while the woman talked, his face grim, his mouth set. De La Fuente’s son was recently convicted of raping and beating several Fruitvale-area prostitutes, one of them underage.  

Quan later said that since she has been on council, “we have doubled the arrests of prostitutes so we can get these girls off the streets and help them,” adding, the audience applause, that “for the first time, we are putting pimps in jail for 10 to 15 years.” 

A bit of mayor-council rivalry was on display, as well. 

De La Fuente, who ran unsuccessfully against Dellums for the mayor’s office last summer, praised his old rival and said they were working together, but then, after he started to say that Dellums understands Oakland’s challenges, caught himself and then pointedly revived one of his points in last year’s election campaign, saying that “maybe [Dellums] doesn’t understand the incredible challenges we have, but he will.” 

And after De La Fuente told gatherers that “the difference between the mayor and the City Council is that the mayor can act without having to go through anyone else,” Quan said that “the mayor has given you the dream. I’m going to give you the numbers.” Putting a grim face on Oakland’s budget picture, Quan said that “many of the things you’ve asked for tonight, Ignacio has been fighting for in budgets passed, but the money hasn’t been there.” 

Still, she said that she and De La Fuente were “working to fund the ambassador program for our youth to walk the streets,” and said that as chair of the Council Finance Committee, she would work to increase the number of high school and community college interns in Oakland, saying that she wanted to “make sure” a good number of city staff members “are made up of young people from Oakland.”  

The Oakland Police Department official in charge of Oakland’s sideshow enforcement activities may have seriously understated the number of vehicles towed in Oakland in connection with a state sideshow car towing law. 

State Senator Don Perata is seeking to reinstate a four-year-old law that allows police to tow cars and impound them for 30 days, solely on the police officer’s word that the cars were involved in sideshow activities. The sideshow provisions of the so-called “U’Kendra Johnson Memorial Act” expired in January of this year after Oakland officials failed to provide documentation for its renewal. 

SB67, the new legislation that seeks to reinstate the old SB1489, has passed the California State Senate on an urgency basis and is currently being considered in the Assembly Transportation Committee. 

Last March, OPD Captain David Kozicki, who oversaw Oakland’s sideshow crackdown for most of its years, told members of Senate Public Safety Committee during a hearing on that the renewal of the law was necessary as a deterrent. 

“The law hasn’t been used that much in Oakland,” Kozicki said. “Maybe 25 times since it was passed.” 

But documents recently provided to the Berkeley Daily Planet by the Oakland Police Department show that between August 2004 and December 2005 alone, OPD lists at least 22 cars towed and impounded for 30 days by Oakland police under the “reckless driving” offense that triggered the sideshow tow provisions. 

The records were in response to an April 3 request to OPD Chief Wayne Tucker for “Any and all public records in [Tucker’s] possession and/or control which refer to vehicles impounded by Oakland Police Department Officers under the authority of SB1489, the “U’Kendra Johnson Memorial Act, between Sep. 1, 2002 and the present date.”  

OPD officials have provided crime reports and stored/towed vehicle reports on 105 separate towing incidents between August 2004 and the end of 2006, when SB1489 sunsetted.  

Kozicki did not provide any documentation to State Senators last March of his car confiscation estimate. In addition, OPD officials have said the overdue response to the Public Records request—due within 10 days, by state statute—was caused by the department having to compile all of the records. In producing the records, OPD Acting Police Records Manager Deborah Fallehy said that up until now, OPD has not produced a report on cars towed under the SB1489 sideshow car tow ordinance. 

Because no towing reports were provided between September 2002, when SB1489 went into effect, and July 2004, during a period when OPD conducted a widely-reported “crackdown” on Oakland sideshow activity, the number of 30-day confiscations could be considerably higher than Kozicki reported to State Senators. In addition, because the Daily Planet only included in its number of 30-day confiscations only those reports which specifically stated such confiscations, the actual number of 30-day confiscations in the reports may actually be higher as well. 

In addition to the reports of the vehicles towed under SB1489, the Daily Planet asked for the amount of time each vehicle had been impounded under the statute. The Oakland Police Department is still compiling that information, and has estimated completion by the end of this week. 

Berkeley landmarks commissioners failed to reach a consensus on the old Berkeley High School Gymnasium Thursday, with a motion to declare the aging structure a landmark failing on a 4-3-1 vote. 

A minimum of five votes—the bare majority of the nine members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC)—is required for a legally binding decision. 

Four other would-be landmarks—and a proposed historic district that would’ve included three of them—went down to defeat during a meeting that lasted until midnight. 

The meeting also served as the occasion for a passionate statement from Commissioner Gary Parsons and as the inaugural session for the LPC’s newest member, Anne Wagley, arts and calendar editor for the Daily Planet. 

Wagley, appointed by City Councilmember Kriss Worthington after term limits forced the departure of Lesley Emmington, is a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the city’s settlement of its lawsuit against UC Berkeley that resulted in the current effort to draft a new downtown plan. 

The landmarks commission and the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee, which is helping draft the plan Wagley’s suit challenges, have a joint subcommittee which is working out a position paper on the role of historic buildings in the new downtown plan. 

Though Parsons, an architect, has generally sided with preservationists on the LPC in favor of several recent landmarking decisions, he used the opportunity of the gymnasium vote to air his concerns with his fellow commissioners. 

“[T]onight I am not going to seem like the most landmark-happy fellow,” he said, “but I must say that I am very excited about the larger issues that are raised by the applications that are before us, as I feel that these issues are essential to a process that can be respected by the city at large.” 

After declaring that the gym had lost whatever distinction it may have had originally during a subsequent seismic retrofit, Parsons said commissioners pondering a vote on “a building such as this ... must think long and hard about the integrity of the true landmarks in this city.” 

“In order to make this process and the buildings it honors have any meaning at all we must exercise discretion and elevate only truly worthy buildings to landmark status,” Parsons said. “Otherwise the LPO, the commission, and all of the city’s worthy landmarks stand to be devalued.” 

Parsons said neglect of the building by the Berkeley Unified School District had transformed the gym into “a health hazard and a toxic mess.” 

“There is no way that kids or anyone else should be using this building,” he said. “As an aside, I couldn’t help but notice that all but one of the kids using the building when I toured it were students of color. Whether the building is saved or not I think that the ghetto-ization of this part of the student population in this derelict building is completely unacceptable.” 

Parsons cast one of three votes against the designation, joined by Miriam Ng and Fran Packard. 

Carrie Olson—who with Wagley, Jill Korte and Steven Winkel voted for landmarking—cited some of the famous athletes who had trained at the gym, including fitness guru Jack LaLanne, baseball manager Billy Martin, tennis star Helen Wills-Moody, and former Green Bay Packer and current Berkeley Police Sgt. Steve Odom. 

While Korte agreed that the seismic retrofit had compromised the original design by architect Walter H. Ratcliff might be restored, and said she hoped that nothing in a landmarking decision would prevent restoring the original facade, the loss of which Parsons had called an act of vandalism. 

Olson argued that preservation of such a massive building was clearly a “greener” decision that demolition, and cited the example of the restoration of King Middle School, where preservationists won a battle to preserve and rehabilitate a building the district want to demolish. 

Wagley said neglect wasn’t a reason not to landmark a building, and said that in reaching a decisions, commissioners should consider “the many remarkable people whop got their start in that building.” 

With the deadlock apparent before the vote, Johnson announced he would abstain, meaning that no final decision was likely unless a commissioner underwent a change of heart. 

The school board plans to demolish the building, which currently houses the East bay’s only warm water pool, used by the disabled as a medium for exercises and activities otherwise difficult or impossible for them to perform. 

Berkeley voters passed a $3.25 million bond issue in to “reconstruct renovate, repair and improve the warm water pool facility at Berkeley High School,” but the work was never begun. 

School district officials have said a new pool could be built at the site, but the district won’t provide any funds. The district voted to approve demolition of the gym on Jan. 17, precipitating a lawsuit now working its way through the court system. 

Declaring the gym a landmark wouldn’t halt the district plans, because the school board is a separate governmental agency from the city, not bound by decisions of the commission. 

Summit Road homes 

Despite a plea from architect Jacob Robbins, who designed two of the three homes proposed as landmarks in the 1300 block of Summit Road, the commission voted both to deny the applications for the individual homes and also to deny a petition to include the dwellings in a new historic district. 

Robbins, a practitioner of modernist architecture, designed the two homes at 1365 and 1375 Summit 40 years ago both to compliment each other and to harmonize with the home at 1363, built in 1963 to plans by architect Germano Milano. 

While proponents said the homes deserved the designation as small-scale, ecologically friendly designs, neighbors charged the designations were sought as a ploy to halt the possible demolition of one of the houses, and as a continuation of a struggle to control a public access road through the area. 

The two attorneys most frequently used in Berkeley land use battles appeared on opposite sides, with Rena Rickles arguing in favor and John Gutierrez in against landmarking. 

Irwin Shapiro, who still lives in the house built for him at 1375 Summit, argued in favor, as did R.K. Janmeja Singh, the original owner of 1365. Singh said his former home had served as the hub of the Bay Area’s Sikh community for many years. 

But Helen Degenhardt, the architect for the current owner of 1365, said the home was both aging badly and hugely energy inefficient, lacking any insulation in the ceiling and walls, and had been significantly altered since construction. 

With renovation impractical, she said, a new home was the owner’s best option. 

Winkel and Parsons, the commission’s two architects, said they regretted that Robbins had been brought into the argument, and the decision was especially hard for Johnson, who had been inspired to enter his careers by the venerable designer. 

But in the end, no one voted for the designations. 

2474 San Pablo 

The fourth example of modernist architect on the commission’s agenda was 2474 San Pablo Ave., currently the site of a medical marijuana clinic. 

Developer David Mayeri plans a condominium project at the site, now occupied by a modernist, curved-front glass and concrete structure originally built as a car dealership. 

One of those on hand to praise the building Thursday night was Alan Hess, architect and architecture critic for the San Jose Mercury-News.  

Hess praised the building as a notable and presrvation-worthy example of the Googie style, the futuristic style popular in the 1950’s and geared to the car culture of the age. 

The author of a dozen books, Hess devote a volume to the style in his 1986 volume Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture. “I don’t know of a building that typifies this style and this era better,” he said. “It’s a part of our legitimate heritage, and this is a good example, rare in Berkeley.” 

The debate pitted preservationists like Laurie Bright, Daniela Thompson, Lesley Emmington and Julie Dickinson against the developer, his project manager, and a vocal cast of supporters. 

For the preservationists, it was about preserving a style that embodied an era, while many of the opponents said it was precisely that era’s dangerous celebration of the car that should mark the building out for demolition to make way for Berkeley’s first truly “green” housing project. 

“Welcome to the new Celia’s, poster child for the coming LPO referendum,” said Parsons, referring to the restaurant building that played a significant role in last year’s defeat of an initiative to save and bolster save the city’s current Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. 

In a decision later overturned by the city council, commissioners landmarked one of two buildings at the site of a planned block-square retail and housing development at 700 University Ave. 

That decision was used by opponents of the current landmarks ordinance in their successful effort to defeat Measure J. 

While Olson bridled at her colleagues disparaging of the Celia’s vote, she joined him and four other colleagues in opposing the designation, while Wagley abstained and Ng, a real estate broker and developer, recused herself because of a conflict of interest.

A joint subcommittee hammering out a proposal that would define the role of historic buildings in the center of downtown Berkeley will hold its final meeting Tuesday night. 

Members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee and the Landmarks Preservation Commission will present their work to a joint meeting of their parent bodies on June 20. 

While historic preservation was the theme of the city’s last downtown plan, adopted in 1990, the new plan stresses sustainabilty. 

Discussion of older buildings and their role in shaping the character of the city center have occurred repeatedly during discussion of the new plan DAPAC members must have ready by the end of November. 

The plan was mandated in the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan 2020. 

Both meetings are being held in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way.  

Berkeley residents will have another chance to weigh on with their visions of the future of downtown Berkeley during a Saturday workshop at the Berkeley Public Library. 

The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) has scheduled a session to hear the public’s views of planning and design options starting at 10 a.m. and running until 12:30 p.m. 

DAPAC must complete the new city center plan, mandated in the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging the legality of UC Berkeley’s latest Long Range Development Plan, by the end of November, when the Planning Commission will commence its review of the document. 

“We’ll begin with brief presentations from our subcommittees.” said Matt Taecker, the city planner hired to work on the new downtown plan. “We’ll highlight areas where there has been agreement” and explain where there hasn’t been. 

Following the presentations, members of the public can sit at their choice of tables dealing with specific planning issues, including Center Street, economic development, housing and social services, parking, sustainabilty and others. 

Following the discussions, Taecker will discuss land use issues that may figure in the plan, a subject DAPAC members will be addressing in greater detail in their upcoming meetings. 

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) tops the agendas of two city panels this week, the Planning Commission and a DAPAC subcommittee. 

The first meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday when the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee’s BRT Subcommittee gathers in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

With the possibility of new bus-only lanes along Bancroft Way, Oxford Street and downtown sections of University and Shattuck avenues, BRT could literally transform the face of the city center, as well as the travel habits of an untold number of commuters. 

The second BRT-related meeting comes in the same building at the same time the following night, when the Planning Commission grapples with issue. 

Both meetings will devote part of their schedules to discussions and comments aimed at the project’s draft environmental impact Report (DEIR), which was also discussed at a joint meeting of the full DAPAC and the city’s Transportation Commission a week earlier. 

The system would also result in major changes to the flow of traffic on Telegraph Avenue, with the most controversial of the alternatives calling for closure of the street to cars and the creation of a bus-only plaza on the stretch immediately south of the street’s terminus at the UC Berkeley campus. 

Plans also call for possible closure of the one-way north-bound stretch of Shattuck between Center Street and University Avenue, and possible restrictions of other vehicles traffic on Bancroft Way between Telegraph Avenue and the Fulton Street intersection. 

While proponents and some of the opponents to the specifics of the AC Transit proposals praise BRT as a tool for fighting global warming by encouraging commuters to abandon their cars for area commutes, many neighbors have said they worry about the impacts on their streets and homes. 

BRT has won strong support from proponents of the Smart Growth movement, which calls for concentrating development on mass transit corridors, while critics have portrayed it as a tool for developers at the expense of established neighborhoods. 

PDA reconsideration 

In addition to BRT, planning commissioners will also take a second look at the proposed designation of downtown Berkeley as a Priority Development Area. 

The proposal failed to win the absolute majority required for passage during the commission’s May 23 meeting, winning four votes for passage, two opposed and one abstention, with Commissioner Susan Wengraf—who usually votes with the four proponents—absent. 

DAPAC voted 16-1-2 in favor of the measure a week later, with Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman casting the lone vote against, after Planning and Development Director Dan Marks said the designation was entirely consistent with the city’s existing plans and zoning ordinances. 

The designation is a critical step if the city wants to apply for the $2.9 billion in affordable housing bonds approved by California voters last November when they adopted Measure IC. 

The funding programs for local cities and counties is being administered by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). 

While Berkeley struggles with drafting a legally mandated new plan for the city’s downtown, a committee of Richmond residents has been working toward a new plan for their city. 

Members of the Richmond City Council will meet with the Planning Commission tonight (Tuesday) to hash over the new plan’s handling of land use issues. 

As with the new Downtown Area Plan being drafted in Berkeley, the document prepared by the Richmond citizens is a draft, with the shape of the final document up to the appointed commission and ultimately to the elected council. 

More than 400 Richmond residents took part in a series of workshops held in March and April to develop ideas and policies for the document, which will replace the current plan, last revised 13 years ago. 

In an email to constituents Sunday morning, Councilmember Tom Butt urged the public to attend, noting that the session would reveal for the first time the positions of the two deciding bodies—and in a forum where the public can comment. 

The session is scheduled from 7 to 10 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 1401 Marina Way South. 

For more information of the plan and its preparation, the city website at www.cityofrichmondgeneralplan.org. 

Heralded as a clean break with an inglorious past, a new board took the reins Tuesday of the “troubled” Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) and began immediately to plan to govern the 1,800 federally-funded Section 8 apartments and 75 units of public housing.  

The new body will be semi-autonomous. The City Council plus two tenants, which made up the old board, rarely spent more than an hour per month—often much less—on BHA business and willingly relinquished its authority in the hope that changes would convince the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) not to put the agency into receivership. 

But some charge that other changes were made with a sledgehammer. The city manager and/or the city attorney determined, as written in a May 22 report signed by City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, that all of the BHA staff should be laid off because they were responsible for numerous errors, including renting to dead tenants.  

(Attorneys at the Community Law Center have since told the Planet they believe “dead tenant” cases can be explained as family members continuing to live in apartments where the deceased was the tenant of record. The Daily Planet is attempting to look into this issue independently, to determine whether misreporting was the fault of the landlord, the tenant or the BHA worker, but has been unable to obtain the relevant documentation because Albuquerque has denied the paper’s Public Records Act request.) 

The housing authority “has been butchered,” Section 8 tenant David Collins told the council/BHA board, during a public comment period. “It’s criminal what you have done,” he said, referring to the laid-off workers. 

Albuquerque’s critique did not spare management. In a scathing June 6 memo she faulted City Manager Phil Kamlarz, who served as BHA executive director, Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna, former Housing Director Steve Barton—forced to resign June 5—an unnamed acting housing manager, and nonprofit Affordable Housing Associates for the agency’s “troubled” status. 

New body linked to city 

The new body will maintain close links to the city government. The board was chosen by Mayor Tom Bates and includes the same two tenants who served on the former board. The plan to guide the transition from the council to the new board was written by City Manager Kamlarz. New Executive Director Tia Ingram is a former managerial employee with BHA and she has recently been on board for almost 11 months as acting BHA director/assistant to the city manager. Her monthly salary will range from $8,100 to $10,700 plus about 50 percent benefits. 

Kamlarz said he would continue to advise and support the agency, which will depend on some city services such as payroll and personnel. 

While Albuquerque sat with the new board and gave them counsel Tuesday, moving around the table to whisper into BHA manager Tia Ingram’s ear once or twice, Kamlarz said she would not be advising the new board after July 1. 

Neither will she be continuing the investigation into missteps at the housing authority, leaving that function to a HUD investigator, he said. 

“How is this board going to get accurate legal advice instantaneously?” asked Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the only councilmember to vote against the city manager/city attorney’s transition plan. Worthington said he did not support blanket staff layoffs or the forced resignation of the housing director. 

In a phone interview Wednesday, Kamlarz said the housing authority director for Monterey County, Jim Nakishima, who volunteered to help for a few days with reorganization efforts, has recommended an outside attorney.  

A council investigation into the agency will be formally proposed in the next few weeks by Councilmembers Gordon Wozniak and Worthington. Kamlarz said such investigation should take place only after the 120-day transition period has concluded. 

Now “we don’t want another group of people in there,” Kamlarz said Wednesday. “Our first priority is to get the housing authority on track.” Responding to a question, he said correcting any errors that may have been in preliminary reports would be “down the road.”  

Moving On 

After the City Council approved the transition plan, City Clerk Pamyla Means swore in the new board, which immediately began work, with Carole Norris, appointed by Bates as chair, nominating Melissa Male as vice chair. Norris has 20 years professional experience working in affordable housing and Male works for Bates’ wife, Assemblymember and former Berkeley mayor Loni Hancock, in constituent services.  

The most important item on the new board’s plate was approving the transition plan. Part of that plan was accepting an infusion of some $950,000 from the city. 

“Some of the items have conditionals attached,” said Adolph Moody, one of the tenant members of the board, referring to the fact that in order to get the $950,000 the board was required to accept conditions imposed by the city manager. 

Albuquerque counseled the board to adopt the plan. “The City Council in prior action extended the subsidy on the condition that you agree [with the transition plan],” she said. 

Accepting the funding was part of the plan; accepting the plan was conditioned on accepting the money. 

“If we don’t accept it, there’s no money,” said Michael McBride, a pastor and student services coordinator at the city’s alternative high school.  

“This was put together with a lot of thought,” Kamlarz said. 

Moody abstained and the six others, Norris, Male, McBride, former city manager Wise Allen, Department of Justice attorney Marjorie Cox and tenant representative Dorothy Hunt voted to approve it. 

At the beginning of the meeting, citizens had lined up to address the board and council, some making suggestions for the transition, others decrying the forced resignation last week of former Housing Director Stephen Barton. 

Public speaks out 

Speaking for BASTA, Berkeleyans Against Soaring Taxes, Marie Bowman called on the board to turn BHA over to Alameda County to save money on administration. 

The BHA administration is funded as part of the overall HUD grant, most of which goes to Section 8 landlords to subsidize market rents. Funds available for administration have declined over the years.  

Tenants told the board they fear the Housing Authority of Alameda County taking over the agency because they could be told to use their housing vouchers outside of Berkeley. 

Service Employees International Union 1021 Field Team Supervisor Andre Spearman is working to see that laid-off BHA employees, who will be offered vacant jobs in the city, are treated according to union rules. The problems with HUD go far beyond Berkeley, he said, adding, “We need to be talking to [Rep.] Barbara Lee.”  

Marcia Levenson, a former Section 8 tenant, called on the body to have the Housing Authority of Alameda County, rather than costly consultants, run the Berkeley agency. This would be different from the agency taking over BHA as BASTA had suggested.  

In this scenario, some county housing authority workers would be stationed in Berkeley. “That would preserve the current 1,800 vouchers of tenants we have in Berkeley,” she said. 

And Levenson called for “a full investigation of what led to the resignation of Steve Barton.” 

Housing Advisory Commissioner Steve Wollmer, speaking on his own behalf, said: “As a city we have lost a valuable advocate for affordable housing,” he said. “Steve [Barton] led not only with his mind, but with his heart.” 

“Steve Barton was an ethical public servant, a true partner in affordable housing projects,” added Susan Friedland, executive director of Affordable Housing Associates. Friedland strongly criticized the June 6 city attorney memo that disparaged the quality of AHA’s management of the public housing units.  

In a four-page letter to the City Council, Friedland said the attorney “conflates two distinct issues—maintenance and capital improvements” and quoted from the agreement her organization works under, which says: “Routine maintenance services do not include capital improvements.” 

AHA has detailed records of all the maintenance work performed for the housing authority, said Friedland, noting that “AHA has not once been contacted by the city attorney to give our input or answer questions regarding these complicated issues.” 

Photograph by Judith Scherr 

Housing Authority Board is sworn in: left to right Wise Allen, Michael McBride, Adolph Moody, Marjorie Cox, Dorothy Hunt and Melissa Male. The new Chair Carole Norris is not pictured.

There’s plenty of blame to go around in the Berkeley Housing Authority situation. A friend of a friend took a job there briefly a few years ago, after a successful career at similar agencies elsewhere, and left quickly after describing the organization to my friend as “sneaky, underhanded and dysfunctional.” An elderly tenant whose rent is supplemented with a Section 8 certificate says that her landlord successfully claimed that she hadn’t paid her rent when she actually had, and therefore he collected double rent for at least several months. Others complain that even though they had Section 8 certificates they were never able to get into Berkeley apartments because vacancies always went to friends of staff.  

Kriss Worthington has been complaining about injustices on behalf of tenant constituents for the whole 10 years he’s been in office, but could rarely get solutions. And such problems probably go back even farther than that.  

I myself tried to help a disabled friend find a place to live when he was being evicted perhaps six or seven years ago. My quest took me to the office of then City Manager Weldon Rucker, where the door was always open to citizens with grievances. When the Housing Authority came up, Weldon just shook his head. “I’m putting Steve Barton on it,” he said, “but if Steve can’t fix it, we’ll have to do something else.” Well. it turns out Barton is no Hercules—he hasn’t been able to clean up the mess at the Berkeley Housing Authority in the time he’s been there. The agency turns out to be even worse than the Augean Stables which the Greek hero tackled.  

That said, there’s absolutely no excuse for City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque’s bizarre memo last week attacking not only Barton and the agency staff (most of whom he inherited with the job) but also City Manager Phil Kamlarz and Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna, all for not always following her advice to the letter. It’s obvious that at the end of this process Barton dropped more than one ball as the agency spun out of his control, but any experienced manager will tell you that if your subordinate fails, it’s really partly your own failure for putting someone in a job they couldn’t do. In that sense no one on the city staff should be let completely off the hook, including Kamlarz and Rucker and, even more egregious, their predecessor James Keene. But the real culprits are any and all of the City Council members and all the mayors involved over at least the last 15 years: Tom Bates, Shirley Dean and Loni Hancock.  

And, of course, the city attorney for all that period, Manuela Albuquerque herself, who watched the City Council doing double duty sitting as the Housing Authority for all these years, with perfunctory monthly meetings, some lasting no more than 10 minutes, allowing serious irregularities to be repeatedly swept under the rug. In what is sometimes vulgarly referred to as a CYA memo, she said last week that “at many successive junctures, city management at every level failed to follow legal advice on how to identify and rectify the full scope of the serious and growing operational problems at the BHA. Had they taken the legal advice, it might have been possible to avoid the current crisis.” But the list of lapses she provided to support this accusation, some substantial but many minor, were clearly not disagreements with legal conclusions but demonstrations of what happens when management is in over its head.  

It’s never the lawyer’s job to substitute her own managerial judgment for that of the client. Albuquerque might sincerely feel that she could do a better job than the current managers—after all, she had applied for the job Caronna eventually got. But her own current job is to advise, not to castigate or execute. And it is absolutely never appropriate for anyone, manager or attorney, to go public with scathing accusations about specific employees, not even if they’re true: not about Kamlarz, Caronna or Barton, and most emphatically not about the easily identified people referred to as “interim director” and “temporary help” in Albuquerque’s flaming memo. There are lawsuits galore just waiting to happen over this.  

And almost every person in Berkeley who’s ever passed the California Bar (and there are a lot of us, practicing and non-practicing) can recount other instances where Albuquerque’s legal calls, usually made on behalf of powerful interests, were very shaky. Ask, for example, once-and-current attorney Anna de Leon, now in the process of suing the city of Berkeley because of special favors granted, with Albuquerque’s blessing, to Patrick Kennedy’s Panoramic Interests regarding the Gaia Building. Or the three Landmark Preservation Commissioners (I was one of them) who filed suit because they were bumped from LPC deliberations on Temple Beth El’s building project on specious legal grounds not invoked in any other case before or since. Or the ACLU, which was forced to take the city of Berkeley as represented by Albuquerque to court to prove a simple proposition that anyone who’s taken constitutional law ought to know: government can’t make laws which restrict the content of speech, even if the speaker is just a dirty panhandler. These are only a few instances from a very long list in a very long history of questionable legal advice dispensed during Albuquerque’s tenure, now more than 25 years, possibly longer than that of anyone she now blames for the city’s many problems. 

When Tom Bates was running for mayor, one of his top advisors, an excellent attorney, told me and others he was sure Albuquerque would be gone if Bates was elected. At least one council candidate, now a member of the mayor’s voting bloc, said the same thing. Didn’t happen—why?  

A roguish citizen suggested to me, only half in jest, that the city attorney might be Berkeley’s own J. Edgar Hoover, keeping files of discrediting details about everyone in city government both hired and elected, so that they are afraid to tangle with her. It will be interesting to see whether her current campaign to re-position herself as whistle-blower and manager-wannabe will succeed or fail. 

ROUGH LANGUAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I really enjoy your paper, but why don’t you respect your readers enough to not include letters to the editor using offensive language (“Wish It Were True,” June 12)? Give me a break! I think I and the rest of your readership can comprehend what someone is trying to say without the derogatory, filthy verbiage! 

Look up, not down! 

Ms. Lee Glover-Owens  

• 

IMMODEST PROPOSALS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have some immodest proposals that could work: 

Health care: We all want the same plan that members of congress enjoy. 

Waste, fuel: I’d like to see our biochemists work on turning the biomass we call “garbage” into biofuel. 

Visas for skilled workers: In addition, let’s grow our own techies, nurses, scientists and, yes, artists by teaching the bright eyed children now stuck in underfunded schools all they want and need to learn. That might help to reduce crime, also. Imagine gangs of computer kids! 

English as a Second Language on TV. Tired workers would not have to go out to a class or find a babysitter. Their children would benefit also. Other useful information could be included. 

Israel and Palestine: Junior year in Palestine for Israeli students and junior year in Israel for Palestinians. No more bombing. 

Those projects are expensive. Pay for them with peace. 

Ruth Bird 

• 

IMMIGRATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Legalization of immigrants is widely backed in America, and yet, day after day, month after month, the immigration debate has been pushed in newspapers, on talk radio and Fox News, by a fringe minority of law and order types and angry white folk. Writers who barely disguise their discrimination and contempt for Mexicans and Latinos behind phony excuses that border on pathetic. 

These hypocrites are all too ready to take advantage of the services provided by immigrant laborers while at the same time hiding behind their coffee shop ignorance and fake patriotism? 

Ron Lowe  

Grass Valley  

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Transit is a vital tool to fight global warming, petroleum dependence and sprawl. To entice people out of their cars, cities need a robust transit network that can get citizens where they need to go quickly and in comfort.  

AC Transit’s new transit proposal, the East Bay bus rapid transit (BRT) is generating much discussion. So what benefits can BRT offer the Bay Area? 

BRT can promote more sustainable transportation choices. In a survey of Los Angeles Orange Line riders, about 80 percent said they got to the station on foot, bike or transit, and 18 percent said they left their car at home to use the BRT. In Eugene, Oregon, the new EmX BRT has increased corridor ridership by 50 percent in just six months. 

By attracting more people to transit, BRT can help fight global warming.Transportation accounts for one-third of US greenhouse gas emissions, and private cars are responsible for over half of that amount. 

BRT costs less than other rapid transit options, which means you can build more of it and faster. In the case of the East Bay BRT, the most expensive option costs around $24 million per mile. Most new light rail systems cost at least $45 million per mile, and many cost much more. 

Of course, some challenges need to be overcome to achieve these benefits.  

First, some see BRT as taking space and priority away from cars. The key question is, what is your vision for your community? If you aspire to provide mobility mainly by car, any transit system will be seen as a bad investment. A well-designed transit service can reduce car trips, mitigating the impact of losing some road space or parking. 

Second, buses can carry a negative image, sometimes rightly so. Here in the United States, we have under-invested in buses, even though they provide the majority of our transit trips. We allow them to get mired in traffic, with shortly-spaced stops further slowing the ride, and give passengers little more than a sign post at the side of the road. BRT resolves these problems and puts transit investment where it should be. 

Where properly implemented, BRT has achieved tremendous success, providing premium transit service at a reasonable cost. 

Lisa Callaghan 

Breakthrough Technologies Institute, 

Washington, D.C.  

• 

IMPROVING  

PUBLIC COMMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Kudos to Mayor Bates for changing the format of public comment at City Council meetings in response to SuperBOLD’s 2006 threat of a lawsuit against choosing speakers by lottery. Members of the public are now afforded several opportunities to speak: on Consent Calendar items, on each Action item as it comes up and on non-agenda items. 

The latest edict on public comment titled “Welcome to Your Council Meeting” prepared by city attorney/city clerk indicates “the City Council is currently experimenting with its public comment procedures.” The mayor has been experimenting for almost a year now. Councilmember Kriss Worthington has submitted for Council consideration, Recommendation No. 5, to be on next Tuesday’s June 19 agenda, to revise existing Resolution No. 53, 575-N.S. which covers public comment in order to incorporate those exemplary procedures that the mayor has instituted. The recommendation will also remove those portions of the “Welcome…”, which, despite the prohibitions of the Brown Act, indicate the mayor may ask all persons in support of an item to stand (next, all those in opposition) and “the mayor will then entertain one speaker in opposition and follow the same process as for the speaker in support.” Allowing the mayor to select who will speak for or against an item is more egregious than selecting speakers at random by lottery and therefore certainly as illegal. 

The “Welcome…” also states the mayor retains the ability to limit the number of speakers speaking on a subject depending on the number of speakers and the number of items on the council agenda that night.” Worthington’s recommendation, rather than deny anyone the right to speak, instead, allows the Mayor to reduce the amount of time per speaker from two minutes to 1.5 minutes when there are six to nine speakers, and to one minute when there are 10 or more speakers. 

At the Tuesday June 12 meeting, throughout the evening, there were 29 speakers, each allowed two minutes, and despite considerable time spent on proclamations, awards and honorees at the beginning of the meeting, the council taking breaks totaling 20-plus minutes, and dealing with the contentious Public Commons Initiative, the meeting ended about 10:20 p.m. before the official max of 11 p.m. 

Worthington’s agenda recommendation No. 5 also places public comment on non-agenda items, required by the Brown Act, after public comment on the Consent Calendar. The “Welcome…” places it at the very end of the agenda. Not only has the mayor failed to call, without reminder, for such comment at the end of meetings, but most individuals, if not all, who have come to speak on non-agenda matters, with which they feel the city should be concerned, have left before the meeting’s end feeling most unwelcomed and unheard. 

If you support the Brown Act’s intent that all willing members of the public must be allowed to speak before the City Council, commissions, boards and task forces, please come to the Tuesday June 19 council meeting at 7 p.m. and express your support for Item No. 5. 

Gene Bernardi 

SuperBOLD  

(Berkeleyans Organizing  

for Library Defense) 

• 

TEACHING AND  

LEARNING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Teaching is an art and state credentialing has nothing to do with the outcome in learning. The students learn in a conducive environment. 

Every child or youth has a style to learn, if the classroom has a safe and positive environment where they are allowed to learn according to the way they are motivated and allowed to learn at their own speed. No forced curriculum of teaching science, math, or computer science can help them to focus in the class. It lies in the hand of a teacher to create the rich and learning environment for all children to learn. When interest is there, the learning takes place. The money or credentials or certificate is no proof of educating the young minds or youth in the classroom. It is the desire to learn some thing which will make them do any effort to inquire and expand their knowledge. 

The education department must think to select the teaching force to impart education along such lines. I think that the No Child Left Behind Act will not help to raise the standard of learners, nor will charter schools help. 

Romila Khanna 

Albany 

• 

THEM VS. US 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The new immigration reform bill is generating a category 5 news hurricane with winds that expose prejudice, that is, the perceived differences between Them and Us.  

Not since the House un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and the McCarthy era has the nation witnessed such virulent diatribes, such patriotic posturing, such self-serving intransigence.  

Every conceivable position is in the wind: Deport them. Fence them out. Arrest them. No amnesty. No medical care. No schooling and no citizenship for their children.  

Amend the constitution, if necessary. America for Americans! 

There’s no room today for those “huddled masses” that Emma Lazarus’ Statue of Liberty poem welcomed over a century ago. Today’s true blue Americans must purify the nation, dispose of illegal and unwanted foreigners, quickly and righteously. If immigration laws need reform, then let them echo the spirit of the Walter-McCarren Act that 55 years ago set quotas that favored whites and disfavored non-whites. 

Not since the Civil Rights Movement of 50 years ago has such widespread and intense hatred, anger, and meanness infected the body politic.  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

WARM POOL, ICELAND 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Two articles in the June 12 Daily Planet have prompted me to present a solution to a couple of problems which, in my opinion, would result in the Berkeley community having a long-term win by save two unique Berkeley institutions, the warm water pool and Berkeley Iceland. To be clear up front, I am one of the leaders of the nonprofit organization trying to purchase, restore, and expand Berkeley Iceland as a recreation facility centered on our unique ice rink. A combination of the therapeutic warm pool with the ice rink can save both up front construction costs and the ongoing utilities costs that would make the combined facility strong enough to be self sustaining. 

The Landmark Commission’s decision not to grant landmark status to the old Berkeley High gymnasium means that it is much less likely the current pool will survive BUSDs plans to replace the building. Alternative locations, such as the old Milvia street tennis courts or West Campus are likely to involve significantly greater costs than restoring the current site. 

As Mayor Bates is quoted in the article on BUSD and city discussions that he has been approached about “...turning Berkeley Iceland possible relocation for the warm water pool...” In an earlier interview on KFOG morning radio show, Mayor Bates was even more positive on the energy benefits of combining the pool with the ice rink in a creative solution that helps preserve both.  

Generating ice creates a lot of heat which can be used to warm the water for a pool. This results in lower costs for both sides. Combine this with a solar panel covered roof and it would result in a self-sustaining site which benefits the entire community.  

Save Berkeley Iceland (SBI) has made an aggressive proposal to purchase Berkeley Iceland. Our plans have always been public and clear: update the ice rink, improve the facilities, expand the use to include broader community interests, and partner with the City, BUSD, and other community groups in what could be a new athletic district when combined with the BUSD plans for the new baseball field. While not part of our core plans, we have always hoped that the warm pool could find a home within the new “Berkeley Iceland Recreation Center.” If SBI is successful in it’s efforts to acquire Berkeley Iceland—and lack of confidence in our funding by the current owners is holding this back—we hope to have serious discussions with the city and those concerned about the long term home for the warm pool.  

We believe that combining our institutions will strengthen them both to the benefit of the entire community. 

Tom Killilea 

Executive Director,  

Save Berkeley Iceland 

www.SaveBerkeleyIceland.org 

• 

STRAWBERRY CANYON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

To the biking community of Berkeley, care of the Daily Planet: The once luscious undergrowth of the beautiful redwood grove in Strawberry Canyon, called the Woodbridge-Metcalf Grove, where I’ve been hiking for 40 years, has been devastated by mountain bikes. The grove is part of what is called the “Ecological Study Area” of the university, where bicycles are prohibited. Bikers, however, ignore the sign and the campus police department doesn’t have enough resources to patrol the trails, particularly the one that leads through the grove. Hence, the undergrowth, that was once full of ferns, is now rutted and worn smooth by tires. I was told that other parts of the canyon around Grizzly Peak have also been ruined by cyclists. 

Those of you who are concerned about the environment would do well to pay attention to your own backyard and do what you can to not only educate those among you who are so reckless, but to prevent them from causing further damage.  

Pete Najarian 

• 

RESPONSE TO STEWART 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A response to Robert Stewart’s June 8 commentary, “Blacks Excluded from Yoshi’s and the Jazz School? No!”: 

On balance, I concur with your sentiments (though your tone flirted too much with the hyperbolic and overly strident; even so, your passion was admirable). That said, I have a not-so-small quibble—everyone’s a critic—I thought worthy of quick address. It’s this one sentence: 

“I’m quite tired of Blacks COMPLAINING, MARCHING, CRYING, and BEGGING to be where they are not wanted; This is DISGUSTING and PATHETIC, to say the least.” 

In truth, I believe you mixed apples and oranges. Distinctions between words and phrases are important, especially when offered for public consumption. In my view, our people “complaining and marching” in no way should be linked, in the minds of non-blacks (and blacks for that matter), with the notion of our collective “crying and begging.” A common similar mistake is made when people lazily link complaints about there being too much “sex and violence” on TV, in the movies, etc. Explicit sexuality is one thing; depiction of graphic violence is another. Each birth very different socio-political babies which, in turn, spawn equally divergent public debate. Same applies with your unfortunate linkage above. Our “complaining and marching,” called by its other more appropriate affiliations, is also known as making our grievances known—“goin’ public,” and “fightin’ the good fight”—taking action (though, admittedly, in this particular case, I can’t sanction all the proposed actions expressed in this controversy, some of which you noted well). God forbid our collective calls for examination be tragically linked with ideas of “crying and begging” to be where we weren’t/aren’t wanted, and us being “disgusting and pathetic” in the process. No, no... please, let us clearly separate such concepts of our attempted socio-politcal redresses—past, present and future—the same way we separate apples from oranges, church from state, and the sacred from the profane. I hope you’ll agree our people have earned better than that. 

Continued success with your music. 

Mac DeFlorimonte 

Jazz enthusiast 

• 

SOLAR PLAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As parents at Washington Elementary School we strongly support the KyotoUSA/Helios solar electric proposal for the roof of Washington. We urge the School Board to move ahead with the project at the June 20 meeting. 

KyotoUSA’s proposal is not perfect. The group introduced their proposal to the school board in May 2006 but not to the Washington community until this April. There are many in our community who have dedicated their careers to renewable energy and green building and could have offered much to this process.  

Comprehensive district-wide conservation and efficiency measures, while not as photogenic as solar, are critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the district. We must not fall into the trap of putting a solar electric system on the roof of one school, patting ourselves on the back, and feeling that we’re “doing our part.” Our part is much larger, for the climate crisis is dire and our solutions must be multi-faceted. 

Approving this solar electric system is a positive first step for the district. A reliable and complete energy efficiency audit, reviewed by all stakeholders, must follow immediately, and its findings must be integrated into the sizing and design of the system. The proposal has already sparked energetic discussions at our school about additional ways to reduce greenhouse gas generation, and involve children and families in the process. We are excited about the prospect of undertaking this challenge.  

We also urge the district to integrate the lessons of clean, renewable energy into Berkeley’s classrooms, taking advantage of this opportunity to support the city’s Measure G. 

KyotoUSA has made clear that, if rejected by the board at this juncture, they will reluctantly approach another district. They have also gone to great lengths to minimize fiduciary risk. That risk is outweighed by the good that can come from the project. This good includes, most importantly, it’s potential to help us empower and inspire a generation of students to do something about the intractable problems of climate change. 

Time is running out in our race against human induced climate change. If we say no to this opportunity, when will another one come our way? 

Geoffrey Holton 

Eli Cochran 

Nabih Tahan 

Abigail Surasky 

Linda Curry 

Stuart Fox 

When I was invited to join the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) last January, I thought, “What a cool name.” I thought it was pronounced dah pak, sort of hip hop sounding. And then I imagined 21 guys and gals with tattoos, bare midrifts, low slung pants, nose rings and rap songs in the background. Well, no such luck. This group of 21 takes its charge from the City Council dead seriously, and that charge is to create a new downtown plan by November of this year. They have been working for 18 months and now, having less than five months to complete their work, they are in crunch time.  

This group is much different from the group that created the 1990 plan. Then, there were some downtown merchants and property owners included: real stakeholders. Today, not one of these is represented on DAPAC. Most members of today’s group live in the lowlands. They include city commissioners, two architects, three lawyers, several environmental consultants and two former councilwomen. This membership is indicative of who uses the downtown, who cares for its future and what having a downtown is all about in a university town.  

Group dynamics are also different. There is a sincere attempt to find unanimity and a common voice. There is less posturing on political positions and a genuine affection and appreciation across the room for those representing diverse views. The few spats that I’ve witnessed felt more like those between family members. They quickly come, extinguish themselves with an outburst by each person, and then we move on. The support staff has prepared and presented a phenomenal amount of good information laying groundwork for the many issues. As they are intent in having us complete our work by November, they run some meetings like circus animal trainers cracking their whips; think, speak, vote!  

There are several good reasons for a new plan only 17 years after the 1990 plan. The first big reason for all this effort is the University of California’s sizable land holdings in the downtown. The university will soon formally expand beyond its historic west boundary of Oxford Street with its acquisition of the Department of Public Health building (DPH). Another reason is that there are already projects being planned which exceed the height limitations of the 1990 plan. The Gaia Building was actually completed to about eight stories in real building height, despite the limits in the 1990. Now in the planning stages, the Arpeggio complex will be nine stories and the university hotel complex 19 stories. Why have a plan that doesn’t match what developers are proposing?  

So here are the giant, blow-out, divisive issues with which these 21 people have been grappling and must resolve within five months: 

How do we continue 1990 Downtown Plan’s strong emphasis on historical preservation?  

The 1990 plan established that the foundation of downtown planning was to be historic preservation. This was based on its citizens’ strong appreciation of the downtown’s collection of buildings. One proposal under consideration is to create an historic district of the Shattuck Avenue frontage properties from Berkeley Way to Durant Avenue. This “Main Street” has retained its basic character as established during the 20th century’s early decades. Preservation of these blocks will develop the Downtown’s cultural tourism by celebrating its historical character, and conserving older buildings is very “green.” 

How much new growth do we desire to accommodate without threatening our history or overwhelming it? 

The 1990 plan moved away from having a 100-foot height limit throughout the downtown from University to Durant, and from King to Oxford streets. That plan curtailed heights and defined a core area surrounded by buffer areas. However, beyond this core, tall buildings now stand next to short buildings, creating an archipelago of urban shapes. It is this variation that is unique to Berkeley and defines its urban character.  

For growth, there are three height options being considered: 1) Leave the existing height regulations in place: a seven-story core and five-story buffers. 2) Allow mid-rise buildings of eight or more stories in an expanded core area. 3) Allow buildings of a height and shape similar to the 13-story Wells Fargo Building in a broader area and only on properties large enough. 

How much housing do we allow and what types do we want? 

The issue of providing housing stems from an assessment prepared by the Association of Bay Area Governments. Their report leads staff to project that the downtown should develop about 1,230 units in the next seven years and another 1,000 by the year 2035. For this amount, we would need sites for 16 projects of the size of the Stadium Place development at Durant and Fulton, which has 74 units on approximately 20,000 square feet of land. While most express the desire for family housing and want the downtown to be a residential neighborhood. the market has dictated student housing. Most units created in the last few years have been two-bedroom, student housing of 650 to 770 square feet. Family units are best at three bedrooms and about 1,000 square feet. 

How can improvements to the public transportation help to reduce car use? Specifically, will the benefits of the bus rapid transit (BRT) do the job and will its benefits outweigh its detriments to the downtown’s pedestrian environment? 

The bus rapid transit (BRT) has the potential of being a contentious issue. Its proponents champion it as the silver bullet to reduce car use and hence emissions. Those who desire a greening of the downtown look with horror at the enormous amount of trees and greenery that will be removed to implement the plan as idealized by AC Transit. There is a DAPAC sub-committee studying how to merge the BRT with the city’s environmental and aesthetic goals.  

What should Center Street become: a public square, a slow street or an opened, re-channeled Strawberry Creek Park?  

There is strong consensus that a public space, devoid of cars, should happen in the heart of the downtown on Center between Shattuck and Oxford. This space could be used for musical events that are now crammed onto the narrow and uncomfortable BART Plaza. A “Center Square” could also be used for political gatherings, educational events, fairs, carnivals, etc. There is a consensus for half the street becoming a public square and half becoming a green space.  

How do we define the university’s expansion west of Oxford Street, with a sub-text: where do we park UC’s 900 to 1,300 stalls and place 800,000 square feet of building area in the downtown?  

In the near future, UC will acquire the Department of Public Health (DPH) site, a block of land bounded by Hearst, Shattuck, Berkeley Way and Oxford which contains an eight story building of 120,000 square feet. It will also relocate and recreate the University Art Museum and the Pacific Film Archive at the top of Center Street. This westward expansion could be compared to when the university in the 1920s and 1930s expanded southwards across Strawberry Creek. It ultimately created great benefits to both the city and campus. Specifically, Zellerbach Hall and Theatre, Haas Pavilion, Edwards Sports Field, Berkeley Art Museum, Pacific Film Archive, Kroeber Hall and Sproul Plaza are facilities that have contributed greatly to campus as well as community life. In a similar way, DAPAC looks to the university to do likewise on its land development west of Oxford. The DAPAC has requested that one overall guiding development policy for the university to follow for its properties is that these developments contain public-serving functions at the street level. These could include the Eye Clinic, the Haas Business Center, other museums, visitors’ center, a commute store, administrative offices, faculty and student housing or a multi-cultural center. 

DAPAC desires the university to bring the natural features of the campus into the downtown along with its buildings. One greening idea is to continue the city’s desire for green pathways by extending the Ohlone Parkway along or through the center of the DPH site between Shattuck and Oxford, and thereby create a block-long natural feature integrated with building development. In the other direction, it is desired that Walnut Street be continued across the DPH site as a mid-block pedestrian walkway and continued from University Avenue to the proposed Center Street Square along the west side of UC development sites.  

So there you have it, a limited and individual view of some of the issues to be discussed and questioned at Saturday’s workshop on downtown planning. Bring your ideas and energies for a lively presentation by DAPAC members on the future of life at the core of our city. 

DOWNTOWN: PROGRESS AND OPTIONS 

10 a.m. to noon Saturday, June 16 at the Berkeley High School Library. 987-7487. 

Jim Novosel is an architect and a member of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). 

Peter Allen’s assertion in these pages that “The bus rapid transit proposal is an expensive compromise...” is inaccurate. 

In discussing the Orange Line, a bus rapid transit (BRT) line which opened on Oct. 29 of last year in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley, L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky pointed out: 

“This project (14 miles long) cost us $330 million. That is what it would cost to build about one mile of subway. And for every mile of light rail, we could build about 2.5 miles of busway, including the acquisition costs if we don’t already own the right of way.” (Metro Investment Report, October 2006.) 

“Opened just last November, the North Hollywood-to-Warner Center line became an unexpected hit.” (L.A. Daily News, Aug. 14, 2006.) 

Furthermore, according to the Oct. 24, 2006 L.A. Daily News: “The line (Orange Line), which debuted on Oct. 29, 2005, has averaged about 21,000 riders each weekday—more than the MTA’s Gold Line, a light-rail system that cost more than triple that of the $330 million, 14-mile-long busway.” 

In regards to the lack of discussion of greenhouse gas emissions in the environmental impact report, it should be pointed out that neither the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) nor the federal government’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires that AC Transit discuss carbon dioxide emissions, and in fact, AC Transit cannot discuss these emissions in order to comply with these laws. As anyone following the global warming issue will understand, environmental laws with regard to reporting and regulating greenhouse gas emissions are in a state of flux, and the automobile and fossil fuel lobbies are fighting desperately to avoid regulating these gases. 

However, according to the American Public Transportation Association, if you travel to your destination using public transit instead of by car, you will on average produce half as much carbon dioxide in getting there. With auto use being the biggest contributor to GHG’s in our region, leaving our cars at home and taking a faster BRT that is convenient and reliable is the biggest, most immediate and most effective step Berkeley residents can take in reducing GHG’s. 

Len Conly is co-chair of Friends of BRT.

In his attack on bus rapid transit (Daily Planet, June 8), Peter Allen says that AC Transit should reduce fares and run more buses instead of implementing BRT. 

This is an impractical response to the real problems faced by bus riders and by AC Transit. In recent decades, as traffic has increased in Berkeley and the East Bay, bus travel time has gotten worse. Currently buses along the planned BRT route average only 10.9 miles per hour at peak periods. 

Because buses take longer to get from point A to point B, AC Transit’s costs have been rising and AC Transit has been struggling to maintain service. In fact, AC Transit has had to cut service and increase fares in recent years. They don’t have the money to hire more drivers and they can’t use the capital funds available for BRT for that purpose. 

Buses are slow and unreliable on many major routes because they operate in mixed-flow traffic lanes with cars. BRT addresses this problem head-on by providing buses with dedicated lanes, which will reduce travel time and increase reliability. Buses will be more able to stay on schedule. 

A survey of commuters conducted a few years ago found that the top reason given for not taking transit to work was that it “takes too much time.” BRT will attract more riders to transit by reducing travel time. Peak period travel speeds along the route are expected to increase by 28-55 percent compared to existing conditions. 

Also in the top five reasons for not riding transit is concern about transit’s reliability, which BRT also addresses. 

More and more, cities around the world are providing separate lanes or busways for buses on important routes. For example, as part of the “Mobilien” program, Paris has, since 2000, added bus lanes to routes on its principle bus network. Reducing travel time by 20 percent is one of the goals. Bike lanes and trees are also being added in space once dedicated to cars. A survey done last year found that Parisiens support the changes and want them to continue. 

While Europe is way ahead of us when it comes to improving transit and addressing global climate change, some American cities are also taking action. Los Angeles opened its BRT Orange line service in the San Fernando Valley in 2005. It’s been so successful in attracting new riders to transit that officials are thinking about extending the route. 

At the beginning of this year, BRT service began on a bus route that runs from Eugene to Springfield in Oregon. Ridership is already up 47 percent compared to previous bus service after just a few months of operation. 

BRT is planned for both Geary Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco and several other American cities also have BRT routes in the works. 

Critics of BRT, like Mr. Allen, tend to downplay the benefits of BRT, while exaggerating the impacts on traffic and parking. 

One clear benefit is that the East Bay’s long-suffering bus riders will benefit from faster, more frequent and more reliable bus service. They won’t have to spend so much time waiting at bus stops, or stuck on a bus in the middle of traffic. 

And, BRT will reduce the volume of automobile traffic on Telegraph and along the rest of its route by attracting new riders with its improved service. The environmental impact report (EIR) estimates that automobile vehicle miles traveled will be reduced by as much as 20,700 each weekday and that as many as 9,300 people will switch to transit.  

These figures use as a baseline the expected ridership after AC implements preliminary service enhancements; the improvement over current service conditions will be even greater. And every time someone boards a bus instead of climbing behind the wheel of a car, that reduces greenhouse gas emissions in the East Bay. 

As for impacts, BRT will require removal of some on-street parking spaces but AC Transit plans to replace parking where needed. 

Some BRT opponents have made irresponsible statements about BRT’s alleged traffic impacts. Last year, City Council candidate George Beier claimed in a campaign mailer that BRT’s dedicated lanes would cause “gridlock on Telegraph.” The EIR’s traffic analysis does not offer any support for this contention. Traffic will continue to flow at all Telegraph intersections. 

While traffic overall will clearly be reduced, some modest localized increases in traffic are projected for streets like Shattuck, Adeline and College as some motorists using Telegraph now may search out parallel routes. The EIR’s traffic analysis found only one intersection in Berkeley where BRT will cause significant, difficult-to-mitigate congestion problems, Bancroft and Fulton. But this problem can be avoided if one proposed alignment option for Bancroft is chosen. 

While citing parking and traffic impacts as reasons to oppose BRT, Mr. Allen also expresses support for light rail, which is interesting because light rail would require removal of 400 more parking spaces than BRT. Like BRT, light rail would also require dedicated lanes and stations and would have similar traffic impacts as a result. 

While transit ridership would have increased somewhat more with light rail, it was projected to cost more than 2 1/2 times more than BRT. So AC Transit chose BRT. Maybe if our Republican president and governor are replaced by more enlightened leaders, we might see an increase in funds available for public transit and AC Transit can consider upgrading BRT to light rail as well as improving service on other routes in Berkeley. 

While the need for and benefits of BRT are obvious, many important issues about how to implement BRT remain to be resolved. 

Should buses run both ways on all of Telegraph and on Bancroft and Shattuck? Or should buses use couplets of streets: Telegraph/Dana (north of Dwight); Bancroft/Durant; and Shattuck/Oxford? 

Where should replacement parking be located? What’s the best BRT station design(s) to enhance the areas where BRT stations will be located? 

I hope that Berkeley residents will take advantage of the numerous opportunities they will have to give their input on these and other BRT-related issues. 

Rob Wrenn is a member of the Transportation Commission and the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee. He lives in the LeConte neighborhood, one of the neighborhoods that will be served by the BRT line. 

Bus rapid transit (BRT) in Berkeley has become a clash of ideologies. Prophecies of doom from global warming contend with the passionate assertions of a citizen’s right to drive, and to have a parking space. The BRT was proposed originally to be an attractive alternative to driving. Finally, a large number of people who work at UC and in downtown Berkeley will be able to commute faster and more conveniently in a bus than they have been while driving their car. But to hear some people talk, BRT will just take away parking and cause more congestion. These folks can’t see themselves riding a bus, and think that none of their fellow car drivers will use the bus either. Their view is framed by the belief that traffic after BRT will be just the same as it is now, with the added annoyance of big buses taking up bus-only lanes. Other ideologues include some Telegraph merchants, who see any reduction in parking causing a decline in business. Their view is framed by the belief that all their customers will come by car. 

A related ideology is framed by the belief of some residents that public transit is only a service for the lower classes: buses are a social necessity, but are not for the middle class. Some neighborhood activists smell diesel fumes and blame it all on the buses, despite the fact that more trucks are on the road, and nearly all AC Transit buses have “clean diesel” engines (unlike many trucks). I’m a regular bus rider now, and will definitely ride Rapid Bus and eventually BRT. I dislike driving in traffic and especially don’t enjoy hunting for a parking space. When I get off my bus downtown, I am free to go about my business, while ers anxiously seek a parking space. I’m not “anti-car.” Every couple months, I use a car for hauling heavy stuff or for going on an extended trip. I belong to City Car Share, and for longer trips, use one of the car rental companies. For the vast majority of my trips around the Bay Area, I have developed a well-honed skill for riding public transit. I can quickly tell you how to get anywhere in Berkeley on a bus. So I suppose I’m yet another ideologue, framed by my belief that a transit-oriented lifestyle is good. I think the benefits of BRT include a reduction in congestion and road rage, a reduced need for downtown parking, and a reduction in emission of pollution and greenhouse gases. I think the world after BRT deployment will be happier, cleaner, and not so wasteful of non-renewable resources.  

I tend to regard loss of parking spaces as a good thing—a motivator for more people to ride BRT. The BRT on its own won’t bring about a better world. It’s just one of the things, like solar power technology, which provide an opportunity to adopt a better lifestyle. The benefits come only after a good many people actually change their lifestyle. Right now, 80 percent of the cars on the Berkeley streets carry only the driver. One BRT-load could remove 60 such cars, with everyone getting a seat on the bus. There’s a lot of carbon dioxide coming from car engines. The typical car emits its own weight in CO2 every year. Berkeley’s pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions won’t be very meaningful if we don’t do something about our cars. Here’s how I frame the BRT in Berkeley: Most people use it during rush hour. The regular riders carry a monthly pass. All UC staff and students have a pass. Most downtown businesses provide their employees with a pass. Most other riders buy a day pass covering all trips for that day. The pass stays in a pocket. When the BRT arrives at a station, everyone gets on through any door—just like on BART—and takes a seat.  

I think BRT will have some of the ambiance of the BART. It won’t feel so much like a bus. More middle class people ride BART now because of this ambiance. I expect fare inspectors to present themselves once every few days, at random stations. An inspector waiting outside each door politely inspects each rider’s pass, day-pass or whatever. The occasional violator is taken aside for a lecture and a citation. I expect to have to walk to the BRT station at Dwight; there won’t be one at Parker. I’ll ride BRT to Whole Foods. When I go to the symphony, I’ll ride BRT to MacArthur BART. I don’t think I’ll ever ride BRT from Berkeley to San Leandro. The BART will be a better option for that long a trip. But for many people, the BRT will nicely augment BART on much of its route, providing service between the BART stations, with most of the speed and ambiance of BART.  

When the Berkeley ferry comes, I hope the BRT will be extended down University and have a station at the ferry terminal. When I go to San Francisco, I might prefer the sea breeze and sunlight to riding in the rumbling darkness of the transbay tube. I recently looked at a video of a BRT in Hangjou, China. Buses were rolling rapidly both ways along the curbside bus-only lanes of a major thoroughfare. At the stations, people quickly exited and entered through all the doors. Berkeley’s BRT should run like this. We need to use proof of payment for rapid boarding, but we don’t need the bus-only lanes everywhere. We need just enough of them to be sure the BRT will beat the car traffic. Probably we don’t need a bus-only lane on Telegraph between Dwight and Bancroft, but we should have one on Bancroft, and on Telegraph south of Dwight. Personally, I don’t care about a lot of the details. As a robust senior bus rider, I can deal with whatever lane and station arrangements make other people happy, but we should make very sure that the BRT can beat the cars. 

The Wikipedia article on BRT lists 26 BRT and rapid bus systems in the United States, 11 in Canada, two in Mexico, 13 in South America (including in Mr. Penalosa’s Bogota). Europe has five in France, nine in Britain, three in the Netherlands and one in Belgium (home of the Van Hool). There are seven BRTs in China, with several more on the way. We really should get BRT on the way in Berkeley, and not be frustrated by the framing of our anti-transit ideologues. 

Steve Geller is a Berkeley resident..

HOUSING DIRECTOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was saddened to learn that Berkeley Housing Director Steve Barton has resigned from his job. I am a single mother of wonderful twin daughters and we would not be living in our Berkeley condominium today if not for the efforts of Steve Barton. 

About 15 years ago, the former building owner tried doubling the rent on each of the eleven units in our building. The Rent Board prevented the rents from skyrocketing but the owner then threatened to evict everyone and go out of business. The tenants got together and wanted to end the harassment by buying the building. The problem was that most of the tenants were working but of limited means. With Dr. Barton’s guidance, we were able to structure the financing so the sitting tenants could purchase the eleven units if they desired. 

Rent control kept the tenants in our building from being pushed out of Berkeley and Steve Barton’s efforts and advice allowed us to purchase our units and become homeowners. 

Without the assistance of Steve Barton and the Rent Board, my family probably would not be in Berkeley today. I try showing my gratitude to the city by volunteering in many ways including as a PTA officer, youth soccer coach and a middle school cheerleading coach. The other members of our building association contribute to the City in countless other ways. None of this would have been possible without Steve Barton. 

Thanks Steve. 

Hillary Kitka and the  

Russell Street Homeowners Association 

• 

STEVE BARTON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Steve Barton was an asset to the City of Berkeley, a conscientious and extremely knowledgeable housing director, and I am appalled that he was forced out of his position. 

His detractors make the ridiculous complaint that he promoted affordable housing as a political agenda. These detractors will see anyone who promotes affordable housing as having a political agenda, but they are wrong. 

Affordable housing is a policy of the City of Berkeley, and the region, and it is what the housing director is hired to promote. 

The ultimate responsibility for the demise of the Berkeley Housing Authority lies with the City Council in their role as the board of the Housing Authority. It is they who have the fiduciary obligations to monitor the use of Housing Authority funds, as well as its provision of Section 8 housing. If anyone should be fired in what is looking like a scandal of incompetence, it is the City Council. Passing the buck to a new Housing Authority Board on July 1 will not cure their shirking of responsibility for the past decade or so. 

Instead, one of the city’s most competent employees is forced out. A sad commentary on the state of the city.  

Anne Wagley 

Former chair,  

Housing Advisory Commission 

• 

THROWN UNDER A BUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a former BHA employee I know first hand the meaning of the term “thrown under the bus.” The BHA has been in a constant state of disrepair, dysfunction and the victim of City Council, city manager and, just as importantly, city attorney, disinterest since the 1980s. How else to explain the ten minute attention span given Housing Authority matters right before the much more sexy City Council meetings? Put another way, the Berkeley Housing Authority never mattered; to council or to the city manager or city attorney sitting on high at the fifth floor.  

It is interesting, if not tragic, to note that the recently fired housing director has probably done more to preserve Section 8 units in Berkeley than any predecessor with the decision to allow property owners to raise rents just as state-wide vacancy decontrol was coming down the pike. Probably an additional 600-800 low-income tenants have been able to stay in Berkeley due to the foresight of Mr. Barton. Of course, this is of no concern to the brickthrowers at 2180 Milvia St. seeking scapegoats for a mess that they themselves created or have conveniently ignored for over two decades.  

How ironic that with a “new” Housing Authority in place the city has agreed to subsidize the agency with substantial monies from the General Fund; something never approved of during the tenure of Mr. Barton. Dollars to doughnuts that without this taxpayer subsidy, the BHA would easily continue its downward spiral since the core problem of rotating directors, lack of staff to do even the most essential functions such as filing, and an overburdened caseload for its reps would simply fester and grow.  

My guess is that three years from now, after the money has run out, and staff has been cut again to its sub-competent level, the Housing Authority will be right back where it is now. 

It seems that the “fiduciary responsibility” or “contract oversight” so often harped on by the city attorney in her most recent diatribes extends only as far as she can throw a dedicated Housing Director out the window.  

Former BHA employee 

Named withheld upon request  

• 

HELL HATH NO FURY  

LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

One has to wonder what was the purpose of the city attorney giving the council an “I told you so” letter pointing the finger at City Manager Kamlarz and Deputy City Manager Caronna regarding the recent melt down of Berkeley’s Housing Authority. I don’t recall any news article or council member laying the blame for the problems of BHA at the foot of the city attorney. 

The citizens of Berkeley would be hard pressed to find a more competent, more knowledgeable and harder working city manager than Phil Kamlarz. And Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna isn’t too far behind. I say this from almost 30 years of intimately working with various governmental managers in numerous cities, which includes Weldon Rucker, Jim Keene, Hal Cronkite, Mike Brown and Elijah Rogers- who all held the city manager job prior to Phil. 

Every manager, not just in government, receives advice about what “should” be done from a variety of sources and has to make a decision about the correct course of action. No manager gets it right 100 percent of the time. The council itself has already acknowledged that no small part of the BHA problem is a result of their failure. 

So why should the city attorney, a member of the city’s management team, single out Phil Kamlarz and Lisa Caronna? Because they are ultimately responsible for everything that goes wrong with any of the 1,600 people who work for the City of Berkeley? 

Steve Barton, who has worked for the city for almost two decades, was chosen by Weldon Rucker in 1999 to manage the Berkeley Housing Authority. A number of councilpersons and others are saying they are sorry to see him go. So he couldn’t have been so obviously bad that it should have been evident to the city manager that he was incompetent. As a city manager overseeing a $300 million dollar budget, you don’t really have the time to micro manage your department heads. You have to rely on them to generally make the right choice. And after all the Berkeley City Council was responsible for overseeing Steve Barton’s BHA. 

And where was the city’s attorney prior to her “I told you so” letter? Did she meet with council, the people who really are responsible for reviewing the decisions being made at BHA, and indicate to them that she felt the city manager and his staff and/or Steve Barton were not following good legal advice. Isn’t that HER job? And if she did her job, why isn’t she complaining about how the council also ignored her advice? Or more likely when the city manager made, in her opinion, poor choices did she just sit by silently without bringing up her concerns to the council? Is the city attorney unable to have a managerial sit down with the city manager, herself and a few council persons to work through some issues? 

Nobody’s advice, and that includes the Berkeley city attorney, is correct 100 percent of the time. And if not following advice 100 percent of the time is cause for public castigation, it makes the city attorney yet another dysfunctional City of Berkeley employee. 

Doug Fielding 

• 

OUTRAGE AND SHAME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Does anyone else out there feel outraged and a little ashamed to see our scapegoating the poor and disabled homeless while at the same time they have allowed our Housing Authority to collapse into a cesspool of incompetence and corruption? Is no one outraged when the disabled are cast into the streets and our mayor and City Council make laws to jail them to keep their own mistakes and inaction out of sight? 

Do you feel OK about people referring to our most vulnerable community members as (and I quote John McDougall in the Daily Planet) “human waste”? 

Please join us as we let our mayor and City Council know that while we all want a safe and happy Berkeley, it is not appropriate to criminalize our poorest and most vulnerable. 

At 6:30 p.m. on the steps of City Hall, the Inappropriate Street Behavior Players will be putting on a performance for all who wish to attend. There will be food and music and a good time had by all. If you would like to join our troupe or help with script writing and props I would love to have you. 

Dan McMullan 

Disabled People Outside Project 

P.S. Does anyone else find it odd that while the Housing Authority comes under the microscope, Patrick Kennedy, Berkeley’s biggest builder of low-income housing (and someone who has for years been accused of all kinds of hanky panky over there), decides to sell all those big, shiny buildings he loves so much and hightail it out of town? Stay tuned, for heads are about to roll. 

• 

HOUSING AUTHORITY MORASS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Manuela Albuquerque’s recent memos listing management and staffing failures at the Berkeley Housing Authority proclaim that, she, as city attorney, is mandated by the charter to supervise all contracts involving the BHA. 

On May 22, the city manager stood up and acknowledged his failure by not solving the Housing Authority morass. The mayor, City Council members and housing director properly each did the same that evening. Housing Director Barton later resigned his position. Having served on the Housing Advisory Commission for eight years I know that Barton worked extensively to make housing for those with limited resources possible in Berkeley. 

The Housing Authority has been a dumping ground and troubled agency since the early 1980s. Tenants, owners and even bureaucrats have complained about the service for years. Some, blame staff incompetence or lack of caring. Others claim the root causes are under funding and shifting Federal rules. Whatever the reason, the Berkeley Housing Authority has not functioned optimally for 25 years.  

Ms. Albuquerque has been city attorney since 1985—almost the entire span of this failure. Why is she just now coming forward to fulfill her obligations under the city charter?  

Jumping on the bandwagon and issuing scathing memos after others have already made the decisions to replace the Housing Authority Board and all the employees at the BHA is disingenuous and self-serving. Albuquerque’s unchallenged reports are not solving any problems, only adding salacious and unsubstantiated details.  

I find it troubling that the only person who has remained silent in acknowledging any failure is Ms. Albuquerque. Ironically, she is the one person that has had the unbroken authority to do something since the mid 1980s. Why she would chose to wait to issue her reports and illuminate us about the crisis until after the decisions to rectify the situation were made and the housing director resigned, remains an unanswered but intriguing question. 

It would be refreshing if the city attorney would stop pointing fingers at others for a moment and display the decency to admit that she too is culpable as part of this failed team effort. Given that she has had the authority under the charter to address the situation for 22 years (three times longer than Barton held his post), she may feel compelled to follow Barton’s path. 

Eugene Turitz 

• 

WRIGHT’S GARAGE PROJECT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Wright’s garage project in the Elmwood shopping district has created more neighborhood discussion than can be remembered in years and the commentary in the June 8 Daily Planet has caused confusion about the Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association.  

CENA (Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association) is not associated with the Elmwood Neighborhood Association. CENA is one of Berkeley’s oldest and largest neighborhood associations, is incorporated in the State of California, and abides by a legally registered set of by-laws. The CENA neighborhood and our board of directors have not taken sides on this issue. 

Dean Metzger 

President, CENA 

• 

JOE MAGRUDER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The June 8 article on AC Transit June 24 “service changes” was somewhat less than accurate. The service changes include discontinuance of the heavily used Line 52 which runs between the UC Campus and Albany Village by way of Cedar Street. While a new line 19 will run on Cedar Street, it will be of no use to those of us who live along Cedar and now use Line 52 to go to and from the UC Campus. 

Joe Magruder 

• 

YASSIR CHADLY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you Berkeley Daily Planet. Thank you City of Berkeley powers that be. Thanks to all Yassir’s appreciative fans. The world’s a better place because of our being able to express our voices. 

Joan Trenholm Herbertson 

• 

SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ll be joining seniors, California doctors, the California Nurses Association, Michael Moore and many others in Sacramento this next Tuesday because single-payer is on the line—for real. SB840, Sheila Kuhl’s single-payer bill, is going to pass the Legislature again, but at least one other competing bill, with support from Democrats in two cases and Republicans in another, is also going to be sent to the governor’s desk. Even Loni Hancock, one of the co-sponsors of the single-payer bill, has voted for another bill (as well as single-payer) on the grounds that Arnold will veto the Kuhl single-payer bill again and something is better than nothing. Hancock is right on single-payer, but wrong on that other bill. As a doctor, a patient, a senior and a member of Physicians for a National Health Program, I know that only kicking out the health • 

THROWN UNDER A BUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a former BHA employee I know first hand the meaning of the term “thrown under the bus.” The BHA has been in a constant state of disrepair, dysfunction and the victim of City Council, city manager and, just as importantly, city attorney, disinterest since the 1980s. How else to explain the 10-minute attention span given Housing Authority matters right before the much more sexy City Council meetings? Put another way, the Berkeley Housing Authority never mattered; to council or to the city manager or city attorney sitting on high on the fifth floor.  

It is interesting, if not tragic, to note that the recently fired housing director has probably done more to preserve Section 8 units in Berkeley than any predecessor with the decision to allow property owners to raise rents just as state-wide vacancy decontrol was coming down the pike. Probably an additional 600-800 low-income tenants have been able to stay in Berkeley due to the foresight of Mr. Barton. Of course, this is of no concern to the brickthrowers at 2180 Milvia St. seeking scapegoats for a mess that they themselves created or have conveniently ignored for over two decades.  

How ironic that with a “new” Housing Authority in place the city has agreed to subsidize the agency with substantial monies from the General Fund; something never approved of during the tenure of Mr. Barton. Dollars to doughnuts that without this taxpayer subsidy, the BHA would easily continue its downward spiral since the core problem of rotating directors, lack of staff to do even the most essential functions such as filing, and an overburdened caseload for its reps would simply fester and grow.  

My guess is that three years from now, after the money has run out, and staff has been cut again to its sub-competent level, the Housing Authority will be right back where it is now. 

It seems that the “fiduciary responsibility” or “contract oversight” so often harped on by the city attorney in her most recent diatribes extends only as far as she can throw a dedicated housing director out the window.  

Former BHA employee 

Named withheld upon request  

• 

HELL HATH NO FURY  

LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

One has to wonder what was the purpose of the city attorney giving the council an “I told you so” letter pointing the finger at City Manager Kamlarz and Deputy City Manager Caronna regarding the recent melt down of Berkeley’s Housing Authority. I don’t recall any news article or council member laying the blame for the problems of BHA at the foot of the city attorney. 

The citizens of Berkeley would be hard pressed to find a more competent, more knowledgeable and harder working city manager than Phil Kamlarz. And Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna isn’t too far behind. I say this from almost 30 years of intimately working with various governmental managers in numerous cities, which includes Weldon Rucker, Jim Keene, Hal Cronkite, Mike Brown and Elijah Rogers—who all held the city manager job prior to Phil. 

Every manager, not just in government, receives advice about what “should” be done from a variety of sources and has to make a decision about the correct course of action. No manager gets it right 100 percent of the time. The council itself has already acknowledged that no small part of the BHA problem is a result of their failure. 

So why should the city attorney, a member of the city’s management team, single out Phil Kamlarz and Lisa Caronna? Because they are ultimately responsible for everything that goes wrong with any of the 1,600 people who work for the City of Berkeley? 

Steve Barton, who has worked for the city for almost two decades, was chosen by Weldon Rucker in 1999 to manage the Berkeley Housing Authority. A number of councilpersons and others are saying they are sorry to see him go. So he couldn’t have been so obviously bad that it should have been evident to the city manager that he was incompetent. As a city manager overseeing a $300 million dollar budget, you don’t really have the time to micro manage your department heads. You have to rely on them to generally make the right choice. And after all, the Berkeley City Council was responsible for overseeing Steve Barton’s BHA. 

And where was the city’s attorney prior to her “I told you so” letter? Did she meet with council, the people who really are responsible for reviewing the decisions being made at BHA, and indicate to them that she felt the city manager and his staff and/or Steve Barton were not following good legal advice? Isn’t that her job? And if she did her job, why isn’t she complaining about how the council also ignored her advice? Or more likely when the city manager made, in her opinion, poor choices did she just sit by silently without bringing up her concerns to the council? Is the city attorney unable to have a managerial sit down with the city manager, herself and a few council persons to work through some issues? 

Nobody’s advice, and that includes the Berkeley city attorney, is correct 100 percent of the time. And if not following advice 100 percent of the time is cause for public castigation, it makes the city attorney yet another dysfunctional City of Berkeley employee. 

Doug Fielding 

• 

OUTRAGE AND SHAME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Does anyone else out there feel outraged and a little ashamed to see our scapegoating the poor and disabled homeless while at the same time they have allowed our Housing Authority to collapse into a cesspool of incompetence and corruption? Is no one outraged when the disabled are cast into the streets and our mayor and City Council make laws to jail them to keep their own mistakes and inaction out of sight? 

Do you feel OK about people referring to our most vulnerable community members as (and I quote John McDougall in the Daily Planet) “human waste”? 

Please join us as we let our mayor and City Council know that while we all want a safe and happy Berkeley, it is not appropriate to criminalize our poorest and most vulnerable. 

At 6:30 p.m. on the steps of City Hall, the Inappropriate Street Behavior Players will be putting on a performance for all who wish to attend. There will be food and music and a good time had by all. If you would like to join our troupe or help with script writing and props, I would love to have you. 

Dan McMullan 

Disabled People Outside Project 

P.S.: Does anyone else find it odd that while the Housing Authority comes under the microscope, Patrick Kennedy, Berkeley’s biggest builder of low-income housing (and someone who has for years been accused of all kinds of hanky panky over there), decides to sell all those big, shiny buildings he loves so much and hightail it out of town? Stay tuned, for heads are about to roll. 

• 

HOUSING AUTHORITY MORASS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Manuela Albuquerque’s recent memos listing management and staffing failures at the Berkeley Housing Authority proclaim that, she, as city attorney, is mandated by the charter to supervise all contracts involving the BHA. 

On May 22, the city manager stood up and acknowledged his failure by not solving the Housing Authority morass. The mayor, City Council members and housing director properly each did the same that evening. Housing Director Barton later resigned his position. Having served on the Housing Advisory Commission for eight years, I know that Barton worked extensively to make housing for those with limited resources possible in Berkeley. 

The Housing Authority has been a dumping ground and troubled agency since the early 1980s. Tenants, owners and even bureaucrats have complained about the service for years. Some blame staff incompetence or lack of caring. Others claim the root causes are under funding and shifting federal rules. Whatever the reason, the Berkeley Housing Authority has not functioned optimally for 25 years.  

Ms. Albuquerque has been city attorney since 1985—almost the entire span of this failure. Why is she just now coming forward to fulfill her obligations under the city charter?  

Jumping on the bandwagon and issuing scathing memos after others have already made the decisions to replace the Housing Authority Board and all the employees at the BHA are disingenuous and self-serving. Albuquerque’s unchallenged reports are not solving any problems, only adding salacious and unsubstantiated details.  

I find it troubling that the only person who has remained silent in acknowledging any failure is Ms. Albuquerque. Ironically, she is the one person that has had the unbroken authority to do something since the mid-1980s. Why she would choose to wait to issue her reports and illuminate us about the crisis until after the decisions to rectify the situation were made and the housing director resigned remain unanswered but intriguing questions. 

It would be refreshing if the city attorney would stop pointing fingers at others for a moment and display the decency to admit that she too is culpable as part of this failed team effort. Given that she has had the authority under the charter to address the situation for 22 years (three times longer than Barton held his post), she may feel compelled to follow Barton’s path. 

Eugene Turitz 

• 

WRIGHT’S GARAGE PROJECT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Wright’s garage project in the Elmwood shopping district has created more neighborhood discussion than can be remembered in years, and the commentary in the June 8 Daily Planet has caused confusion about the Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association.  

CENA (Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association) is not associated with the Elmwood Neighborhood Association. CENA is one of Berkeley’s oldest and largest neighborhood associations, is incorporated in the State of California, and abides by a legally registered set of by-laws. The CENA neighborhood and our board of directors have not taken sides on this issue. 

Dean Metzger 

President, CENA 

• 

JOE MAGRUDER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The June 8 article on AC Transit’s June 24 “service changes” was somewhat less than accurate. The service changes include discontinuance of the heavily used Line 52, which runs between the UC Campus and Albany Village by way of Cedar Street. While a new line 19 will run on Cedar Street, it will be of no use to those of us who live along Cedar and now use Line 52 to go to and from the UC Campus. 

Joe Magruder 

• 

YASSIR CHADLY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you Berkeley Daily Planet. Thank you City of Berkeley powers that be. Thanks to all Yassir’s appreciative fans. The world’s a better place because of our being able to express our voices. 

Joan Trenholm Herbertson 

• 

SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ll be joining seniors, California doctors, the California Nurses Association, Michael Moore and many others in Sacramento this next Tuesday because single-payer is on the line—for real. SB840, Sheila Kuhl’s single-payer bill, is going to pass the Legislature again, but at least one other competing bill, with support from Democrats in two cases and Republicans in another, is also going to be sent to the governor’s desk. Even Loni Hancock, one of the co-sponsors of the single-payer bill, has voted for another bill (as well as single-payer) on the grounds that Arnold will veto the Kuhl single-payer bill again and something is better than nothing. Hancock is right on single-payer, but wrong on that other bill. As a doctor, a patient, a senior and a member of Physicians for a National Health Program, I know that only kicking out the health insurance companies can solve the out-of-control health care crisis. We need to make it clear that there is huge public support for full, equal, quality comprehensive universal health care for everyone in California now. Please set aside your other important life affairs and join in this push to show they cannot pull the wool over the public’s eyes again. Put Arnold on the hot seat and make sure he knows his veto will be seen as a glaring attack upon the public’s rights and interests. Call California Alliance for Retired Americans to reserve a seat on the bus, leaving Ashby BART at 9:50 a.m.: 663-4086. 

Marc Sapir MD, MPH 

• 

THE NEW EAST BAY EXPRESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for your interest in the new arrangement at the East Bay Express. I am happy to attempt to answer your questions. 

1) I am currently living in Oakland near Lake Merritt with my wife and chocolate Labrador. Our six children are in college and beyond and spread over the country and Europe. 

2) Stephen Buel and I are managing the paper: he oversees the editorial side and I am in charge of business. Although I don’t own either a majority or plurality of the stock I do carry the title of president of the LLC that owns the paper. 

3) Jody Colley, formerly sales and marketing director at the San Francisco Bay Guardian, a long-time resident of the East Bay, and a former employee of mine at the Pitch in Kansas City, has been hired as our publisher and given an equity stake in the new corporation. 

4) Other than Bradley Zeve, the founder of the Monterey County Weekly, and Kelly Vance, our film reviewer, the outside investors consist of friends who have no connection to the publishing world and are not now nor have they ever been involved in any way, business or otherwise, with either New Times or Village Voice Media. 

5) When it makes sense for one sales rep to handle a client who wants to advertise in both our paper and the SF Weekly, we have created a mechanism that will allow that. This is a common practice with alt-weeklies in close proximity, particularly in the Bay Area and California. Whenever similar partnerships are proposed, we will be open to discussion. As a new, independently owned paper we set our own rate structure and are not privy to the details regarding the lawsuit involving the previous owners and the Bay Guardian. 

Tim Redmond, the Bay Guardian editor, mentioned in his first report regarding this change of ownership, how rare it is that a chain-owned media outlet has returned to independent control. It’s understandable that corporate media aren’t rushing to report on the benefits that papers like yours, the Bay Guardian, and now again the East Bay Express offer their communities. So feel free to add your thoughts to this list: 

1) Locally owned and operated newspapers are invested, accessible and participate in their communities. 

2) Our shareholders consider the profit motive secondary to offering an alternative voice and are supportive to other perspectives. 

3) Our vision includes a desire to heavily support local arts and non-profit entities, increase our reach within the East Bay core area, offer primarily local content and use the Internet as well as other new media options to ensure we stay available and interactive. 

Finally, it is our intention to not take ourselves too seriously and have some fun. I agree that introducing each of our investors and their backgrounds could only enhance the overwhelmingly positive response the change has received. Please keep your eye on our blog, 92510, at Blogs.EastBayExpress.com, where the full story will be posted. And thanks again. 

Hal Brody 

Independent Owner/Operator 

East Bay Express 

• 

WISH IT WERE TRUE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his latest column about my latest column, Jesse Douglas Allen-Taylor proffers the following suggestions: That I made up quotes and attributed them to anonymous sources; and that the new owners of the East Bay Express only printed my final story to illustrate the sort of crap they won’t be publishing in the future. 

How I wish it were true. It’s long been my dream to go out as a disgraced liar. Fortunately, I’ve taken a new job at the Village Voice, so I still have plenty of time to fuck up. Where there’s life, there’s hope. 

Chris Thompson 

• 

DELLUMS ADMINISTRATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your columnist, J. Douglas Allen-Taylor, defends Mayor Dellums from media criticism by pleading that we hold off judgment: “So is Mr. Dellums leaning too much toward corporations to help solve Oakland’s problems, or is he not leaning that way enough? Mr. Gammon, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Riles, and the good folks at ORPN are free to draw whatever conclusions they want, of course, but the truth is, perhaps it is simply too soon to tell.” (Berkeley Daily Planet, June 8.) 

When the mayor’s chief of staff, Dan Boggan Jr., simultaneously receives both $200,000 a year as a Clorox director and $97,000 a year for 25 hours a week at City Hall, the conflict of interest is apparent on the face of it. The interests of Clorox shareholders do not coincide with the interests of Oakland residents. Furthermore, anyone who feels he needs to hold two such posts as well as two additional corporate directorships for a total income of more than $500,000 a year certainly appears most interested in his personal fortune. 

To give just one example of what emerges from such conflict of interest, Mayor Dellums announced he will seek an increase next year in the Landscape and Lighting Assessment tax, despite voters’ rejection of the same increase last year. Clorox has an interest in imposing a regressive property tax rather than, for example, a graduated levy based on business revenues. For the year ended June 30, 2006, Clorox made a profit of $444 million on sales of $4.6 billion. 

Seems as though we better rush to judgment because Clorox and its official at the top of the Dellums administration are certainly rushing to the bank. 

Charles Pine 

• 

RUTH MENIKETTI 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

How tragic—yet another fatality in my neighborhood, the second in two weeks, this time an acquaintance, Ruth Meniketti. When I moved to Albany in 1973 she was a familiar attendee at City Council meetings, at Ashkenaz doing folk dancing, often at the library, strolling along Solano. She was constantly going to a meetings at the senior center about Albany’s history and always with a smile on her face and a willingness to help Albany in so many ways. Another tragedy for the elderly, albeit active, pedestrian who is simply trying to cross the street. 

My late husband Bert and I met Ruth while we were all volunteering with Dario Menkietti and her on the free Albany Community News. She contributed articles, worked on editing and even delivered the weekly. 

The electronic movable police flashboards, which indicate digitally our speed, are helpful, even with the recent traffic slowing one lane down Marin Avenue. Hopefully the city councils of Albany and Berkeley can come up witDario Menkietti and her on the free Albany Community News. She contributed articles, worked on editing and even delivered the weekly. 

The electronic movable police flashboards, which indicate digitally our speed, are helpful, even with the recent traffic slowing one lane down Marin Avenue. Hopefully the city councils of Albany and Berkeley can come up with creative ideas and solutions not only to deal with folks who continue to drive “under-the-influence” but also seem to be unaware that they too at times are pedestrians who deserve to cross busy streets safely. 

Sylvia Scherzer 

Albany 

• 

REMEMBERING RUTH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for your article on Albany resident Ruth Meniketti, who was struck by a car and killed while crossing Marin Avenue. I write in sadness at her sudden death and in deep appreciation for her life and contributions to the community. I have known Ruth only a few years, so I am sure others in the community can speak more eloquently than I about her lifetime of service to the city of Albany, including her tenure as the longest-serving Parks and Recreation Commissioner. I write to honor her consistent commitment to protecting and caring for the environment, her steady presence and participation in community life, and her willingness to show up and work for what she believed was right. Ruth was a lovely woman who generously contributed her time and energy to her community. I will miss her as I know many others in Albany—and beyond—will too. 

Nan Wishner 

Albany 

• 

RECUSAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Elmwood Neighborhood Association requests that Berkeley City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak recuse himself from any and all council deliberations and decision-making on the issue of the Wright’s Garage conversion proposed by Mr. John Gordon. 

The grounds for requesting this recusal are compelling: 

1. Councilmember Wozniak has stated publicly and repeatedly that he favors approval of the Gordon project. For example, on the Kitchen Democracy.org website, he has stated “I strongly support this project for various reasons.” And most recently he has stated on the same website: “For several reasons, I support the conversion of Wright’s Garage from the non-conforming auto repair use to various retail uses and a full-service restaurant.” 

2. Councilmember Wozniak’s Kitchen Democracy article on Wright’s Garage was biased; it didn’t disclose the plans for a bar and lounge, nor did it discuss the three-year traffic task force on Benvenue and its conclusions. Even after a constituent called to inform him about the task force, he withheld the information from the subsequent updates sent to Kitchen Democracy voters. Additionally, voters were never informed about the number of people who might occupy the building.  

3. Councilmember Wozniak is actively mobilizing a selected portion of the community in favor of the city’s approval of the proposal. On June 7 (after the council received the week’s packet with its many letters opposing the Wright’s Garage project), Councilmember Wozniak e-mailed Kitchen Democracy members and asked them to send letters about the project to the City Council in time to make the supplemental packet. Kitchen Democracy members who voted on this issue constitute a population that favors approval. Councilmember Wozniak did not solicit e-mails from his district as a whole, only this select population. It might be considered odd that Councilmember Wozniak solicited letters from a population of people described by Kitchen Democracy as “too busy for City Hall,” unless it is understood in the context of finding people who would write letters with the opinion he wanted. 

Recusal is legally required and in keeping with historical precedent. In the past, the city attorney has required councilmembers and commission members who have expressed opinions about an application—whether pro or con—to recuse themselves when the item comes before the body on which they serve. Ruling on project applications is a quasi-judicial act. Judges are supposed to come to cases with an open mind (and not pre-judge the situation). Regarding the Gordon project for Wright’s Garage, Councilmember Wozniak has stated in no uncertain terms that he has already made up his mind. Therefore, he is obligated to recuse himself when the measure comes before the City Council.  

Recusal entails, we note, that Councilmember Wozniak must leave the council chamber while the item is under consideration. 

Elmwood Neighborhood Association 

• 

BERKELEY AS CALCUTTA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Who made the closed-door decision to suddenly turn Berkeley into a street version of Calcutta? Those who rent or have a business in Berkeley can now expect a holocaust of homelessness that City Manager Phil Kamlarz and his underlings have set up.  

Don’t know about it? Most people don’t. It was largely done in meetings that the public wasn’t informed of. Everyone in Berkeley can be affected by the upwards of 1,000 or more Berkeley citizens who may be ripped from their homes by the $60 a month rent raise for one-bedrooms and $50 a month rent jackup for studios.  

Who are the first group of people to be affected? Don’t bullies usually start with the perceived weakest? The elderly and disabled are being targeted and could lose 750 of their Berkeley homes to start with. These people are being overcharged against the law on Section 8, but what makes us think that any of us are safe? In the rush to give Berkeley property and funds to huge, badly managed developers’ properties, it’s becoming clear that perhaps none of us is exempt. Oh, they couldn’t do that to us; it’s against the law, right? Berkeley’s mostly rubber-stamp City Council (with a few brave exceptions) is suddenly trying to back off from the coming Section 8 evictions by a staff shell game shakeup. Instead of stopping the evictions this second, they’re busy trying to point fingers at each other. 

The coming Housing and Urban Development Inspector General investigation will probably end up stating the obvious: Berkeley (like Oakland and L.A.) is breaking the law by possibly mismanaging HUD and other Berkeley housing funds. It is discriminating by age and disability (including veterans) by not allowing these HUD tenants the same rights as any other Berkeley citizen. If there is a budget shortfall, shouldn’t everyone shoulder it equally ,or none? Why are tenants whose landlords have jacked their rent way above HUD fair market rents be the ones to suffer?  

These are just some of Berkeley’s questionable practices. And the laws Berkeley is currently breaking? 1990 Berkeley Human Rights Ordinance; U.S. Constitution, Article 6, Clause 2; Berkeley Rent Stabilization Ordinance, 13.T6.030—this could be remedied by including Section 8 protections in an amendment; 1977 Housing Element of the Berkeley Master Plan; 1992 U.S.-ratified International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 26; U.N. Charter, Article 55 U.S.-ratified as the supreme law of the land, Americans with Disabilities Act; Civil Rights laws of “disparate impact”; Veterans Housing Acts; Fair housing Act; U.S.-ratified Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Article 161 or 16.1; U.S.-ratified treaty Convention to Eliminate Racial Discrimination, Article 5(e)iii; HUD’s original purpose and rules; 1974 Housing Assistance Payments Program—just to begin with.  

Philip Ardsley Smith 

Berkeley Citizens for Fair Housing 

Endorsed by the Berkeley Gray Panthers 

• 

BLACKS, JAZZ GO WAY BACK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a black woman who is a contributing producer to the jazz program hosted by Doug Edwards at KPFA, I would like to share a little bit from personal history. 

My father, a former Berkeley resident of 50-plus years, originally from Louisiana, exposed me to the music first. I then began humming the jazz standards from the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s made popular by blacks and whites alike to both my children before and after they were born. I continue to expose my daughters to the music and they carry it around with them just as I do.  

My 12-year-old daughter Naima (named for the Coltrane song) can sing a few jazz standards from memory beautifully though she has been to only a couple of concerts.  

My 9-year-old daughter Naomi has been playing blues and jazz on the harmonica and accordion since age 3 (she sometimes plays them simultaneously). She enjoyed Mark Hammel’s (who teaches at the Berkeley Jazz School) annual blues harmonica blowout at Yoshi’s; I made sure we went. We were the only blacks there which made me ponder the absence, but I realize that many black parents are not making this a priority. Yoshi’s gets credit form having matinees so that this can be done. For those black families who do not attend, I think it has more to do with who has the disposable income. Further, these folk instruments are no longer taught in schools and few radio stations even play jazz.  

To make sure they continue their relationship with their musical heritage, we have been listening to Wynton Marsalis’ newest CD because it masterfully merges jazz and rap, a good compromise for me who struggles with time and finances. It is a fresh interpretation of both art forms and my sixth-grade students at Longfellow Middle School also love it! 

Two things that has come out of this continued dialog is the fact that blacks who invented jazz need to pool economic resources and musical talents for future generations and accept the fact that jazz is so loved by the world, we are all in this together.  

Gabrielle Wilson 

• 

REPLY TO A RACIST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If a white person had written an opinion piece titled, “Why I’m a Racist,” as Madeline Smith Moore did (June 8), this newspaper would have had a major riot on its hands. 

Ms. Moore is very good at describing the racism that she and other blacks have experienced, but she somehow never gets around to asking what might prompt some whites, including liberals, to discriminate in the way they do. Could it be that most of the high-crime areas in big cities are predominantly black? Could it be that to this day, a black parent who makes sure his or her child puts homework first, is still a rarity? Could it be that, despite billions of dollars spent trying to motivate and help black students, a black student who studies hard and does his or her homework, runs a real chance of getting beaten up by other black students for “acting white”?  

Ms. Moore also somehow doesn’t get around to mentioning the extraordinary financial rewards that whites, racist and not, are perfectly willing to bestow on blacks who demonstrate extraordinary ability. (So far, this has been primarily in sports and entertainment.) 

A white racist couldn’t hope for anything better than to have blacks continue to think, “If I’m not succeeding, it’s someone else’s fault,” because that will keep blacks on the bottom far more effectively, and with far less effort, than any overt discrimination.  

The outstanding black leaders of the future will begin virtually every speech with, “Racism exists. It’s never going away. Now what?” Will Ms. Moore seriously ask us to believe that if the average black student was as capable as the average Jewish or Asian student, nothing would change for blacks in this country? 

Peter Schorer 

• 

MAKING THE POPULATION CONNECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Population growth affects everyone everywhere. People change the environment, As of now, we have altered more than one third of Earth’s ice-free surface and threatened the existence of many plant and animal species. These changes also pose threats to our well-being (Population Bulletin 2003). From the global warming that shortens skiing season to the water pollution that prohibits surfers from enjoying the ocean, environmental degradation, furthered by increasing population pressure, does and will continue to affect all of our lives. So how do we protect our well-being?  

Many people look towards conservation as the solution to this environmental problem. In the past couple of days, articles sighting positive steps toward sustainability have appeared in the paper; Berkeley is adopting a composting plan and funding a Bio-fuel project! These are commendable movements in the right direction, but I am afraid a critical piece of the puzzle is missing-the population question.  

No matter how much we conserve, increasing population will increase pressure on our environment. We need to highlight the correlation between population pressure and environmental degradation, and increase awareness about the importance of stabilizing population growth.  

Please support this seemingly obvious but much overlooked piece of the sustainability puzzle through increasing awareness. Talk to your family and friends-emphasize that a fundamental way of securing our well-being in the future is through addressing population growth right now.  

Georgia Gann 

Berkeley Field Organizer 

Population Connection 

www.popconnect.org 

The UC infatuation with the BP con game grant goes on despite many comments, letters and op-ed articles in papers and magazines pointing out that fermentation of biofuel crops releases much carbon dioxide needlessly before getting the fuel and leaves much unused biomass in cellulose and lignin. This money would be much better used to find how to get solar energy combined with a catalyst to split water getting hydrogen, the clean fuel. Also the money could be doing much more in maximizing a pyrolysis process to make charcoal from our already harvested biofuel crops, our organic wastes. Their disposal costs many billions a year, while allowing, especially in composting, the recycling of trapped carbon back to the environment as carbon dioxide. Now in Naples, Italy, a major problem of no more disposal space for wastes is making a major ugly mess, which other cities may soon be snarled in, if we do not recognize those wastes can be utilized to get energy and some carbon removal. 

The pyrolysis process such as used by Kingsford can be set up to distill out a fuel mixture for refining as well as charcoal, which comes out very hot to pass through a heat exchanger to generate steam for power as it cools. The charcoal would buried in old mines doing what nature did eons ago with dead biota getting converted to the coal that we now burn, or the charcoal could be spread as a soil amendment. Besides the carbon dioxide problem of burning coal, its mining costs many lives a year and leaves environmental messes of mining wastes covering hundreds of square miles. Some of the charcoal and fuel might be burned to heat the pyrolysis, but research efforts should be put into getting hydrogen or solar furnace heat to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Another way to heat the process could be electricity generated by windmills, such as the new setup reported recently as being put into operation in the Rio Vista area. If a major expansion of windmill power can be achieved, we would be converting to useable power some of the energy overload causing nastier, windier weather created by our fossil fuelishness. With a lot of extra windmill electricity available, it could be used to generate hydrogen by electrolysis of water. 

If we are going to beat global warming, we have to 1) get hydrogen while forgetting bioethanol, we have to 2) get fuel and energy from our out-of-control organic waste mess and we have to 3) get up windmills to collect the free clean energy from the increasing winds caused by our fossil fuelishness. I urge your readers to get these gets going with their elected officials. Tell Gov. Schwarzenegger that the emission programs and other “actions” the state is proposing still keep some of that gas adding to its already poisoning excess to aggravate the symptoms of global warming. To relieve those symptoms and to cut the size of our carbon footprint. We have to actually remove carbon from circulation, which is what the pyrolysis process can do. The BP grant has no concern for such removal. 

Fremont resident James A. Singmaster is a retired environmental toxicologist. 

I am writing to comment on some of the issues raised by the so-called Public Commons for Everyone Initiative on the City Council agenda for Tuesday evening. Without my belaboring the ironic and Orwellian implications of using the term “commons,” what concerns me most is the disproportionate emphasis on coming up with new laws rather than bringing community and city resources to bear directly on the issue of problematic street behavior. Has anyone analyzed how many taxpayer dollars would go to pay for the staff time of members of the city attorney and city manager’s offices to come up with new laws? We could be spending those funds on pragmatic solutions, such as instituting true community policing, funding peer counselors to work on the streets, and increasing services to address the real mental health and substance abuse issues that cause most of the problems.  

I find it unconscionable for the city to spend staff time crafting an ordinance about public urination/defecation without the City Council first making sure that there are adequate and safe locations at all times of the day for people to use a restroom. What about those French self-cleaning toilets that pay for themselves with advertising, which other cities have installed? Providing adequate restroom facilities might well solve the problem without a need for additional legislation.  

I also object to the possible sitting/lying ordinance the council will be discussing as part of the package. As someone who walks with my housemate and our dogs to a variety of nearby business areas, including the Elmwood, Domingo Street, and Telegraph Avenue, I often end up sitting on the sidewalk with the dogs while my housemate goes in to wait in weekend lines to purchase something. But I highly doubt that I’ll be among those targeted if the council were to pass a divisive ordinance, which in the end only ends up criminalizing the homeless. Even if the city attorney’s office can come up with something that passes constitutional muster, is this really what we want Berkeley to be standing for—seeing just how far we can push the Constitution? Sitting and lying in and of themselves are harmless behaviors; since we know from the git-go that such a law will be enforced disproportionately and will not be practical for our local D.A. to follow through on, why don’t we look instead at more creative ways of addressing the underlying issues? Instituting true community policing, first on Telegraph and then extending it to the downtown and other business districts, would be a good first step, but it takes funding and ongoing commitment. A program of peer counselors who spend time on the street getting to know everyone there, directing people toward appropriate resources, and helping model appropriate behavior from and to all would also be deserving of funding.  

Is what we really need new laws? The experience in my neighborhood suggests otherwise. In recent weeks and over the past decade and a half, as a neighborhood leader I have been on the front lines dealing with the issues that confront our neighborhood park (Halcyon Commons) and the surrounding neighborhood, including recent vandalism and an upswing in drug dealing, so I in no way discount the immensity of the problem when we live in an urban area beset by issues the larger society has not dealt with adequately, including poverty, homelessness, drug abuse, and crime. But in all that time I’ve never had a sense that new laws were needed.  

What we need is the will to bring resources to bear that will truly address the underlying problems, ranging from greater enforcement of existing laws to funding services to direct those who engage in problematic behaviors in productive directions, including services for the homeless and those with addictions. Our goal needs to be bringing the community together in a kind of civic barn-raising, rather than pushing for laws that divide us.  

Nancy Carleton is co-founder of Halcyon Commons Park in South Berkeley.

Thank you, Daily Planet, for publishing Madeline Smith Moore’s June 8 testimonial, “Why I’m a Racist.” I appreciate her honesty and accuracy. The article also deserved to be published in a paper that all too often (whether intentionally or subconsciously) reinforces the sensibilities of many of its privileged white liberal readers. Perhaps ironically, as one of those readers, I not only agree with the vast majority of Moore’s sentiments, but also hope to prevent the story’s content from being distorted, diluted, or forgotten. I am, unfortunately, socialized to be white (that makes me a racist). Yet I support the message that racism is real, all-pervasive, and experiences of it need to be heard, respected and acted on. I also apologize for, and in the future should avoid, needing a person of color to start and participate in this antiracist conversation.  

Of course, I don’t pretend to understand racism entirely, to know what it is like to perpetually experience its manifestations or to have the solutions to it; but I know I perform it constantly and I have a responsibility to resist my complicity in this phenomenon that harms every one of us. I fear that Moore’s particular questions (and the entire concept) of racism will likely be addressed in the following ways: requesting racism 101, individualizing, co-opting, denying, quibbling, ignoring, and dismissing. To avoid these unproductive non-starters, I suggest that any folks interested in deflecting away from the heart of Moore’s conversation, please do some homework instead; why not begin with a read of White Like Me and other quality antiracist publications? I consider one of the most insidious aspects of racist behavior to be the (possibly subconscious) attempt to shut down effective antiracist conversation. Why are people of color’s antiracist conversations so often marginalized unless white people become involved?  

I ask to continue, but not co-opt, the conversation and oppose racism on the individual, communal, institutional and national level. Thank goodness Moore was willing to strengthen the conversation in this paper. There are millions of incidents every day; why are most (except for “gang stories” and suchlike that catalyze racism) so rarely publicized in a competent way in the mainstream white news? More importantly, why is the antiracist behavior so rarely advertised? (No, I don’t mean publicity stunts and token feel-good “success stories,” I mean everyday people consistently organizing antiracist acts of resistance.)  

To show what I mean, here’s a discussion of both racism and antiracism to contribute slightly to this newspaper’s analysis of racism. Just a few days ago a fellow white teacher and I were discussing a student. My colleague mentioned that the student’s clothing was inappropriate (implying that the student’s aesthetic, upbringing and identity were too non-white). Instead of confronting my colleague, I went along. Of course, at some level I knew better than to play along with discussion about disciplining the dress, behavior, and identities of young women of color. I was just afraid of losing my membership in the white privilege club. It’s so easy to go along to get along. But I finally spoke; I asked about respect for generational and cultural differences. It wasn’t a superlative antiracist action, but one duo of white people momentarily stopped contemplating a young woman of color as the object of our racist BS. Now I am not, nor do I condone, taking up space with “confessions”; rather I am citing the need to change white hearts and minds. As Moore recommends, “identify that you are racist and…check yourselves.” While I’m at it, feel free to critique how insufficient this example has been; how could I better address institutionalized inequality in education, neighborhood, occupation, wealth, and freedom from oppression? Let’s be certain to continue with an informed and personalized conversation. Let’s consider which folks are most complicit and resistant in the contemporary crises arising from a history of colonization, including the nationwide prison industrial “plantation”; the essentialist, “colorblind,” and relativist incarnations of racism; and reparations.  

There’s much more to be said, but I’m done taking up space reciting some ideas about racism in this newspaper; hopefully the rest of the space is available to people who have been silenced and need space to be heard. And in case you’re considering the possibility, my words are not dismissible as the nonsense of a unique racist hypocrite; they constitute a widely experienced truth about being addicted to (and perpetually in recovery from) the corrupting, racist power I get from my social group’s whiteness. A final note to antiracism veterans: yes, this writing mostly puts out fires; sorry to delay the progress of the conversation.  

David Schroeder is a 25-year resident of West Berkeley. 

Five months into his mayoral administration, is Ron Dellums Oakland’s major problem? 

Given the vehemence with which the new mayor is being attacked in certain Oakland circles, one would certainly think so. 

Last week, Mr. Dellums took a stroll in the Fruitvale to talk to residents and activists about problems they are facing, and then to meet at the Bridges Academy to listen to and answer specific policy suggestions. Granted, the trip got a little over the top at times, with cameras and reporters and city staff and security all crowding the street along International Boulevard, but maybe that was the point of it. Mr. Dellums brought attention to a section of Oakland that, perhaps, does not get enough of it. 

After reporter Angela Woodall wrote an article on the event in the Oakland Tribune (“Officials Get Earful At Fruitvale March,” June 9), you would think that most readers who disagreed with Mr. Dellums’ policies would use the online comment section to advance some policies of their own. Instead, most took the opportunity to attack Mr. Dellums for, well, being Mr. Dellums. 

Some examples: 

From someone named “Anonymous”: “Dellums is all talk and no action. Just a bunch of ‘Believe’ garbage. Well Dellums, I believe you will run Oakland into the toilet with your do nothing attitude. Months into your administration and you still don't have a solid plan.” 

From someone named “Action”: “Dellum [sic] sucks. He is all rhetoric like his campaign slogans. He has not done a thing since he has been in office. We can all be mayor doing what he is doing. At least ex-mayor Brown brought development into the area. There is absolutely nothing new or exciting happening in Oakland since Dellum [sic] has been in office. The guy is too old and is use [sic] to being bogged down by bureaucracy like when he was in Washington. He has a committee for everything but no solution whatsoever.” 

And from someone signed “Didn’t Vote For Dellums”: ”Dellums doesn't want to work 24/7, he needs bodyguards, he needs more staff and he wants to spend 1 million dollars to upgrade his office...Yeah, that is the way to fix Oakland's problems.” 

There was more, much more, but I think you get the point. 

Part of this criticism stems from ignorance, and by that I use the original “not knowing” meaning of the word, rather than the “dumb” or “stupid” way it has come to be used. The Dellums administration has, in fact, been doing quite a bit in its first five months. In the area of development, the Community and Economic Development Agency (CEDA) has done two specific things at Mr. Dellums’ instruction: (1) begun the conformation of the city’s Zoning Code to the General Plan which was halted under Jerry Brown, and (2) put a moratorium on conversion of Oakland’s dwindling industrial-zoned parcels to mixed-use. Neither of these is “new and exciting,” of course, unless you are the type of person who understands the construction and development process enough to know that the foundation work is always necessary in order for the building(s) to eventually go up. A few well-connected developers came out big-time under Mr. Brown’s virtually unregulated zoning policies, true. But most developers, and neighborhood residents as well, like the idea that they will soon have a clear idea of what kinds of developments can be put where in Oakland, with no nasty surprises as they have now. And the moratorium on industrial land conversion to housing was absolutely necessary for those interested in bringing more jobs to Oakland for Oakland residents. If you don’t believe me, just ask Councilmember Nancy Nadel, who has been fighting for this for years, and in whose West Oakland district most of the city’s industrial-zoned land resides. 

Meanwhile, there are certainly legitimate policy concerns to talk about involving the Dellums Administration. So let’s talk about them. One of them is the issue of crime and police protection, which dominated so much of the concern and discussion during Mr. Dellums’ recent visit to the Fruitvale. 

The hiring of Wayne Tucker as chief of police was one of the best decisions of the Brown administration, and keeping Mr. Tucker in his job was one of the most sensible actions of the new Dellums administration. Mr. Tucker has brought a blend of professionalism, leadership, and maturity to the job that was lacking under his predecessor, Richard Word, a nice man, a good man, but a man over his head in the Oakland chief’s job. Still, change in Oakland Police Department policies has been slow in coming under Mr. Tucker. 

One of OPD’s worst policies in the old Brown/Word days was treating the flatlands of the DEO (Deep East Oakland, from High Street to the San Leandro border) almost like occupied territory, and those policies have, unfortunately, largely continued under the administration of Dellums/Tucker. 

An example? While you’re reading about the incident below, think about how many times in a week you see a police vehicle stop in the City of Oakland in the course of a week. Once? Twice? Never? More? Depends on where you drive and live. 

I live not far from Allen Temple Baptist Church, just off of International, and in the middle of a quiet Sunday afternoon earlier this month, I was clearing out weeds in my front yard while a series of rolling police vehicle stops took place within a four block area in front of my house. 

As I came out, police officers in two patrol cars had stopped a vehicle with a young African-American driver about a half a block away. They took the driver out of his car, put him in handcuffs, put him in one of the patrol cars, and then preceded to search his car. 

As I stood there watching, a green-colored Oakland police car—presumably, by the color, one of the park police who sometimes come down in our neighborhood to do street patrol duty—pulled over a second car about a block away in the other direction. 

Two traffic stops simultaneously within two blocks in a residential neighborhood? Not unusual for the DEO. 

Don’t know why the first car was stopped and searched, or the driver handcuffed, but the officers searching the first car apparently found nothing of interest, because they took the driver out of the patrol car, took off his handcuffs, and let him go. 

As he was driving away, a van went past the two patrol cars—with no license plate on the back—and one of the officers got in his patrol car pulled it over directly in front of my house. 

While that was happening another police car—perhaps the other of the two that made the first stop, though I’m not sure because I was busy watching the stop in front of my house—came down the street past my house and pulled over a fourth car just past the car stopped by the green police car. 

Four car stops, within 15 minutes, within a four block stretch of a residential neighborhood. Not long afterwards, the officers let all of the remaining cars drive away. This was not “sideshow” activity. Nobody was doing donuts, and there apparently wasn’t the type of reckless driving violation (California Vehicle Code 23103) to warrant arrests or auto tows. Within a few minutes, all of the vehicles, and the officers, were gone.  

Why, then, is this important enough to write about? 

Because such saturated traffic enforcement is a way of life out here in Deep East Oakland, a method of ongoing law enforcement that is not practiced in many of Oakland’s other neighborhoods. 

This is not accidental. You can go for hours out here not seeing a single patrol car and then, suddenly, you will see them in packs, cruising up and down International Boulevard. OPD black-and-whites and green-and-whites, Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies, California Highway Patrols.  

They do not appear to be targeting the area’s open-air drug markets—some of which have been operating in the same location for decades—or going after other serious crimes. Instead, from casual observation, they appear to be traffic patrol. It is not unusual during these traffic patrol saturation periods to see two or more traffic stops as you drive the 60 blocks along International between High Street and the San Leandro border. Sometimes, so sure police officials are that many of these stops are going to result in auto tows, you see tow trucks parked at strategic locations along International during these times, ready to go into action. 

Does this type of traffic patrol saturation happen in other parts of Oakland? I don’t know. But the saturation patrols began following the heyday of Operation Impact a few years ago, the city program that put scores of officers from several agencies into Oakland’s “sideshow zone,” the DEO, with the specific tactic of making saturated traffic stops. 

What is the purpose of these saturated traffic patrols? Is it getting dangerous drivers off the street? Is it stopping “sideshows”? Are the stops being made in the hope that something seriously illegal might actually turn up because of them—a gun or a bag of dope visible on the front seat, maybe, or a bench warrant on one of the passengers? Is it a self fulfilling program, meaning that if you put enough patrols cars out in the street and tell them to look for traffic violations, they will generally find a certain number of traffic violations, the program justifying itself? I don’t have an answer to these questions. 

What bothers me most is that in the Deep East Oakland, at least, the drivers being stopped are young Latinos and African-Americans, with the predictable result that the policy of traffic patrol saturation is creating a new generation that resents the police and believes they are being harassed and profiled simply because of their race. This is the same pool from which the Oakland Police Department is currently seeking to draw recruits in order to create a new OPD that reflects more reflects the race, ethnicity, and sensibilities of the city it is patrolling. 

And what worries me is when Mr. Dellums announces at the Bridges Academy meeting that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has agreed to send more California Highway Patrol officers into Oakland streets to do routine traffic patrol so that OPD officers can be freed to do work on more serious crime.  

It is policy issues like this, it would seem, that we should be talking about. Calling Mr. Dellums a do-nothing mayor at this stage seems silly. He appears to be doing a lot, some of which I like, some of which I don’t.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third part in an ongoing series on Berkeley captains’ houses and the families that inhabited them. 

In 1894, when Captain John Slater built his house at 1335 Shattuck Ave., he was joining two other master mariners who had settled on the same block a decade earlier. They were Jefferson Maury and William B. Seabury, both high-ranking captains of the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company who ended their careers in succession as commodores of the PMSS fleet. While Captain Slater commanded square-rigged ships, Captains Maury and Seabury were at the forefront of the mechanized age. 

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded in 1848 by William Henry Aspinwall (1807–1875) of the New York merchant firm Howland & Aspinwall, which specialized in trade with the Caribbean. PMSS was incorporated to execute a Congress-authorized contract to carry mail from the Isthmus of Panama to the West Coast. 

Aspinwall (who also founded the Panama Railway Company) ordered three new steamships to inaugurate the trade. The S.S. California, first steamer on the West Coast, entered San Francisco Bay on Feb. 28, 1849 and was soon joined by the Panama and the Oregon. The California Gold Rush assured the company’s success. PMSS was well established by the time Captains Maury and Seabury came on board. 

Jefferson Maury (1826–1895) was born in Virginia and may have been descended from Rev. James Maury, teacher of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe and grandfather of Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, known as the father of modern oceanography and naval meteorology. 

Maury entered the U.S. Navy at the age of 15 and received his warrant as a Passed Midshipman in 1847. The following year found him in the Gulf Squadron, participating in the Mexican-American War. In 1854 he was stationed in San Francisco and a year later left the service. 

It is not known when Maury joined PMSS, but shipping records indicate that in 1862 he commanded the company’s S.S. Northern Light, a wooden-hulled steamer with side paddle wheels and three masts on a sailing between Aspinwall (Colón), Panama and New York. The next year he was captain of the S.S. America, followed by the S.S. Atlantic, both plying the same route. From 1866 until 1870, Maury was master of the S.S. Arizona, which his future neighbor, Captain Seabury, would take over in 1874. 

Jefferson Maury’s character received a glowing testament from George William Curtis, editor of Harper’s Monthly, in November 1872. In his column The Easy Chair, Curtis wrote: “[…] there is a Legion of Honor which wears no sign, yet is the most honorable at all. And whoever read of the burning of the steamer Bienville on her way to Aspinwall, in August of this year, will agree that Jefferson Maury, her commander, merits the grand cross of that legion.” 

Curtis went on to describe at length Captain Maury’s steadiness and quiet confidence, which kept the passengers calm and the crew efficiently busy at their tasks. When the ship could not be saved, all aboard were evacuated to boats. The majority reached safety at Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas, about 130 miles from the point where they had left the ship. Maury went to extraordinary lengths to search for the missing over the next week. Curtis concluded, “[…] the nerve of the captain paralyzed disaster and made safety possible. He knew what to do, and how and when to do it, and his moral mastery alone prevented a frightful catastrophe. His name is Jefferson Maury. There has been no name lately mentioned deserving of more sincere respect. Those who are going to sea will sleep in their berths more soundly if they know that Captain Maury commands the ship.” 

Maury married Adelaide Weeden (1840–1916), daughter of John Hull Weeden, a Rhode Island lawyer, assemblyman, and tax collector. In the 1860s and ’70s, the Maurys lived in New York, but the 1880 U.S. census found them boarding on New Montgomery Street in San Francisco. Five years later, the Maurys built a rambling one-story residence at 1317 Shattuck Ave. The main wing looked out to the west and was surrounded by a three-sided porch. A smaller square wing at the rear of the southern end featured a brick chimney and an obliquely placed square bay. 

Captain Maury died suddenly at midnight on Jan. 1, 1895. The Berkeley Advocate reported that he had suffered from heart disease. Adelaide Maury continued living in the house until her death in 1916. She was given to good works and for many years was active in the Ladies’ Protective and Relief Society, an organization dedicated to the support of destitute children and indigent women. 

The Maurys were childless. Following Adelaide’s death, the house was sold to Harold McCarthy, a title company employee, and his wife Anne. The McCarthys brought three sons to the house and would soon produce two more. With the birth of their fourth son, quarters must have become inadequate, and in 1922 the McCarthys engaged architect John Hudson Thomas to expand and modernize the house. Keeping the original footprint more or less intact, Thomas added a second story, transforming the house into a double-peaked, shingled English country cottage. 

While Captain Maury was building his house at 1317 Shattuck Ave., Captain Seabury was erecting his own at 1322 Shattuck. According to Lewis & Dryden’s Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (1895), “Capt. William B. Seabury was born in New Bedford, Mass., in 1840, and commenced his marine service at Philadelphia while a boy on a vessel in the Brazil sugar trade. He was employed on sailing vessels out of New York until 1864, his last ship being the Gertrude, of which he was first officer. 

“He then joined the steamship Ocean Queen of Commodore Vanderbilt’s line as quarter-master and then as second and first mate. In 1865 he occupied the former position on the steamship Baltic, running to the Isthmus in December 1873, subsequently joining the Grenada as first officer. Soon after her arrival in San Francisco in March 1874, he was promoted to the captaincy of the steamship Arizona. 

“In March 1875, he was given command of the City of Panama, running north with her for four years, except for a few trips when she was relieved by the Constitution and Alaska, which he also handled, and was in command of the former when she was burned. 

“While in the employ of the Pacific Mail he had charge of all the large steamers owned by that company and superintended the building of the steamer China, nearly every detail of her construction being left to his judgment. He took command of her as soon as she was completed and has run her since between San Francisco and China.” 

Seabury married Maria Kelsey Almy (1848–1940), daughter of a prosperous New England cooper. Before moving to Berkeley, the couple lived in Pacific Heights, San Francisco and brought to the world two sons, Benjamin and Almy. 

The Seabury house was a substantial two-story Queen Anne whose asymmetrical roofline sheltered a second-floor balcony above the entrance porch. An unusual feature was the long corner window in the stairwell. The house was set in a triple lot and commanded open vistas in all directions. The Seabury family lived here until 1898, when they exchanged houses with the Parkhurst family. 

Daniel Webster Parkhurst (1839–1899), a Massachusetts-born Southern Pacific agent and capitalist, acquired lands in Fresno County, where he operated vineyards and orchards. He and his wife Marietta moved from San Francisco to Berkeley in 1892 because their eldest son had reached college age and the younger two were not far behind. The Parkhursts settled in an imposing Southside residence at 2401 Channing Way and Dana Street. Designed and built by the fashionable architect A.W. Pattiani of Alameda, the house was one of the earliest shingled structures in Berkeley. 

Parkhurst and Seabury probably knew each other via the Southern Pacific-PMSS connection (SP owned PMSS from 1893 to 1912). Why the two families exchanged houses is a mystery remaining to be solved. On Channing Way, the Seaburys shared their immense new home with widowed brother-in-law Joseph H. Matthews, a supervising ship’s engineer, and his teenaged son and daughter, as well as with an Irish man servant and a Chinese cook. 

The Parkhursts’ residence at 1322 Shattuck Ave. was short-lived. Daniel Parkhurst died within a year, and the house passed back to Seabury, who let it to tenants while continuing to live on Channing Way. Future Berkeley mayor Samuel C. Irving would purchase 1322 Shattuck in 1906, just months before the death of Captain Seabury. 

In December 1906 Seabury, who had been commanding the liner S.S. Korea, was close to completing a six-month vacation from his duties as commodore in the PMSS fleet. The family was rusticating at its country house in Guerneville when the captain received orders to take charge of the 27,000-ton S.S. Mongolia on its next trip to the Orient. He decided to spend a few days with his friend S.B. McNear (a member of San Francisco’s Committee of Fifty at the time of the earthquake and fire) in Ross Valley. While taking a postprandial walk on December 18, the captain slipped from a stone wall and fell into an excavation, suffering a paralyzing spinal injury. He was taken to the Cottage Hospital in San Rafael for surgery but died before the operation had begun. 

Maria K. Seabury continued living at 2401 Channing Way while her younger son Almy was studying civil engineering at the University of California (the elder son, Benjamin, was a metal manufacturer in Tacoma, WA). In 1909 they relocated to 2511 Virginia St., but in 1911 Maria turned to John Hudson Thomas, who designed for her a modern 8-room house at 2710 Claremont Blvd. 

Heavily buttressed, the house boasts three parapet gables with dormer windows; square and semicircular bays on the ground floor; an arched entrance porch; and foursquare motifs on the gables and chimney. Curiously, this up-to-the-minute house echoed the asymmetrical roofline of the Seaburys’ old-fashioned Victorian. 

Almy Seabury (1884–1953) worked as a draftsman at the California Highway Commission before taking a job in marine insurance at his cousin’s San Francisco firm, Matthews & Livingston. For three decades he lived with his family in a Craftsman bungalow at 6442 Colby St. Almy’s son, William Brownell Seabury (1917–1994), was a landscape architect and engineer with the California State Park System when he married Eleanor Jean Maddox (1924–2006), daughter of Brigadier General Louis W. Maddox and the first female field geologist to be hired by Standard Oil. 

The Parkhurst-Seabury home at 2401 Channing Way was turned into a fraternity house. It was torn down before 1950, when such buildings were considered passé. Ida Sproul Hall of UC’s Unit 3 dorms has occupied the site since the 1960s. 

Daniella Thompson publishes berkeleyheritage.com for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). 

Photograph by Daniella Thompson 

In 1911, John Hudson Thomas designed the above house at 2710 Claremont Blvd. for Captain Seabury’s widow. The Parkhurst-Seabury house (left) at 2401 Channing Way was one of Berkeley’s earliest shingled houses, designed and built by A.W. Pattiani in 1892.  

Just on impulse and because I spotted a parking space, I dropped into Green Jeans Garden Supply in Mill Valley the other day. I was looking for something else entirely, but there was a four-inch seedling in the Edibles rack that I didn’t recognize. The label called it “agretti” and I didn’t recognize that either. “Italian specialty green—eat raw or sautéed with garlic and olive oil.” 

So of course I had to buy it, never mind that the label also says “full sun” and I have approximately none of that in our shade-beset and crowded yard.  

The guy behind the counter asked if I liked agretti, and I admitted I’d never heard of it, let alone grown it. “Neither have I,” he said, ”So I took some home to see what happens. I mean, it’s Italian. It ought to be good.” 

Clearly a kindred spirit, and one of these days I’ll have to go there when business is slow, and swap tales with him. I am applying a sort of rhetorical discount to the label’s suggestion, though: there’s very little that doesn’t taste good sauteed with garlic and olive oil.  

The little plant itself looks a bit like the “moss rose” portulaca’s foliage, but longer: succulent green shoelace bits in a disorderly tangle, originating from a half-dozen reddish stem bases. Not your basic leafy green vegetable. 

We have a few books about odd garden plants, foodstuffs, and dietary habits. Agretti didn’t turn up in any of them. Intriguing!  

Joe went on-line and found the stuff. A Santa Barbara site says it’s available at the local farmers’ market, and is also called “roscano” and “barba di frate” and, better yet, had the Linnean binomial: Salsola maritimum. 

It’s a halophyte—tolerant of salty soils—and grows at the edges of marshes. It tastes a bit salty. In other words, it’s a lot like pickleweed. 

You can buy pickleweed at the Berkeley Bowl sometimes. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of paying over five bucks a pound for it when it’s so plentiful where I spend a lot of time chasing birds—until I start thinking about what’s likely to be seeping into the saltmarshes around Emeryville and Albany. Then I hope that the Bowl knows its pickleweed suppliers at least as well as it knows its wild-mushroom suppliers.  

Agretti supposedly tastes saline even when grown in normal garden soil; I snapped off a bit of leaf and it did taste just a tad salty as well as slightly tart.  

Looking at my single seedling next to the farmers’ market bunches pictured on the site, I began to wish I’d bought more. Maybe it should be grown from seed, to get more than a dainty sample. 

More googling around yielded a source for seed, hard to get because it doesn’t keep well. I know I’ve seen Bavicchi brand seeds in local shops like the big Long’s Drugs store at 52nd and Broadway. Maybe they could be encouraged to add agretti to their list. 

Meanwhile, shop online and try the stuff. If you manage to grow it in shade, let me know.  

www.italianseedandtool.com/index.html 

www.edhat.com/index.cfm

The kitchens of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s had terrific old stoves. They were simple, heavy, and used lots more gas because they lacked insulation. They had built-in lamps, clocks and spring timers, but other than that they were technologically very simple. Nothing fancy. That means that, if you are lucky enough to own one, they’re repairable, and if you are of a mind to, they can be disassembled, cleaned and repaired without a lot of technical skill. The pilots for both oven and top burner have a small screw that can be adjusted to elevate or reduce the flame, but many ovens did not have pilots (except for the one that ran during operation). They needed to be lit with a match.  

A professional can install a pilot for you on that old stove and this is a very worthwhile modification, because many a housewife has had her eyelashes singed by delaying the application of the match to the burner. This is really quite dangerous and the upgrade is a darned good idea. Also, some early stoves had gas heaters in them. These are, for the most part, unvented in any practical way and are, therefore, quite dangerous as well. The best thing to do with these is to disconnect the gas to the heater inside. But if you simply resolve to never use these heaters you’ll still be better off. 

The burners in nearly all older stoves can be removed with very little effort. Most of them simply lift up a bit and then slide off the nipple of the burner near the front face. They can then be soaked in a degreaser such as Simple Green (I like those orange peel degreasers). After a day or two, you can brush them out with bottle brushes (I like to get several sizes including a big one that will go all the way through), let them dry and slide them back in place. One thing you’ll want to do at the same time is to take a tiny rod (a paperclip works pretty well) and clear the petite vent holes located near the pilot tube. If you start taking things apart, you’ll quickly find one or two pilots that have several small aluminum tubes mounted around them on wires that carry the flame to the burners. Where each one meets the big cast-iron burner assembly, there is a tiny tile (or several). These often become quite clogged with grease and this is one of the main causes of burners that don’t ignite. By cleaning the tiny orifice on the burner, you’ll allow the flame to be captured by the burner. While you’re at it, check these aluminum tubes and make sure they’re all sitting in their little seats and hanging properly. When you remove burners, you’ll have to unhook them and then reseat them. It’s not complex. Just take a minute and you’ll see where they go. 

Spraying down the inside of the entire burner cavity with a degreaser and cleaning this area (with the burners and flames off, of course) is a great thing to do for both hygiene and fire safety. Eventually, the whole enclosure becomes quite flammable. There may be little trays that run below the burners that you can slide out for cleaning. These are the main repositories for grease and dead matches and they should be cleaned often. 

Many of these stoves have tube-shaped bulbs hiding up under the back cover that have simply died and can be revived with nothing more than a new bulb. If a switch or cord needs replacement, it’s a simple job for someone handy. 

You may have a stove with a cover that folds up to become a shelf. Many folks have never played with these to see that by pushing a button on either side, you can fold the legs up or down. Sadly, many of these have died and won’t do their business any longer. Also, the matching salt and pepper shakers are frequently missing, but take heart, mighty homeowner. There’s always eBay and a potentially successful season-long search for the right ones (they’ll only be 75 bucks!).  

There are a few websites out there on which you can salivate over the $5,000 red Wedgewood. Many offer replacement valves, thermostats and other parts for reviving Grandma O’Keefe. 

If you have a stove that’s old enough, you may have a “kindler.” These are easily distinguished at first by the set of nested iron plates on top of one side of the stove that may remind you of an early Franklin stove. If you lift one of the plates, you’ll see a firebox suitable for building a wooden fire (how do you spell carbon monoxide poisoning?) and at the bottom of it, a triangular reticulated bar for dropping ash while keeping the fire rolling. By turning a detachable crank, ash drops into a metal drawer in the bottom of the stove. Open the front, pull the drawer and you may get lucky and find the crank for the kindler and a little handle for picking up the hot metal cooking plates on top. I see them all the time. While these should not be used, they are antiques that we get to live with and remind us daily of a time when gas was distrusted and the utility company might be closed for the weekend. I like to imagine Grandma coming to visit the young marrieds and refusing to use that newfangled fuel gas. Perhaps this was Spark or Wedgewood’s solution to the technical generation gap of 1925. 

These stoves, like their Franklin predecessors, had stove pipes (that bluish metal piping is for these...and not for your water heater). These would attach to the back or top of the oven flue built into the unit and were intended to attach to a stove pipe in the house. Many of the houses of the East Bay still have either a Patent Flue (a huge ceramic lined, steel jacketed flue that takes up a foot-and-a-half square space in the wall next to the stove) or a brick flue (about the same size and location). The stove was intended to pipe into this to take away the grease and smoke from the all-day baking that characterized women’s lives in the early 20th century. Today, the need for oven ventilation is decreased by the design of equipment but most folks still don’t use a stove vent on their antique. I think venting for an old stove is a good idea but in its absence be sure you have plenty of window ventilation. 

There’s more evidence of the all-day bake that took place in this most important room in the house and that’s in the cabinetry. Many of the kitchens of this era will feature three (or sometimes only two) Baker’s drawers. See if you have three identical squarish drawers with metal liners. The liners slope the corners making it easier to scoop out and, of course, these were for flour, sugar and (if you have three) salt (or baking powder). This architectural institutionalization of women’s work tell us much of life in these days. If you were a worthy wife, you would bake bread (none of that store bought cardboard), cakes and cookies as well as roasts, potatoes and casseroles all day long (during which you washed, ironed and swept). 

Here are a few other kitchen features to look for in your early kitchen. The California Cooler was a vented cabinet that had a top and bottom vent through which air would “convect” or flow as a function of natural heating. Refrigeration didn’t become common until around 1930 and even those early fridges were very small and too cold for veggies (no salad crispers yet) so the cooler was used for root veggies and lot of other things that just needed a little change of air and a slightly cooler space (perfect for a cooking pie). 

Note the counters that are about four inches narrower than today. No Cuisinarts or all those other things to demand wider counters. They also had nice tiled borders and sloped, built-in dish drainers (that’s right, the counter was meant to slope like that). Some had double sinks with a drainer that covered the deep soaker sink that doubled up for clothes washing. Be sure and keep an “eye” “peeled” for the potato-bin found in many old kitchen cabinets. It was quite deep and tipped out for easy loading from the big sack. 

Life is very different today. In many ways much better and certainly more egalitarian (at least between the sexes) but there is something sweet and homey and romantic about this room full of wonderful smells, diapered children, crayons and cakes. Occasionally, while I’m probing the cabinets looking for leaks I can get just a small sense of the love and comfort that once filled these old kitchens. 

Don’t Be Frozen By Fear! 

In a recent QuakeTip, I reminded our readers that the difference between a 3.0 quakelet and a 7.0 major quake was huge. One reader chastised me for scaring her. 

Believe it or not, my purpose is not to scare you, but to wake you up. It’s no secret that the SF Bay area is sound asleep when it comes to earthquake preparation. A few fairly simple steps can go a long way in protecting you, your family, and your home. 

The wake-up call goes like this: have your retrofit checked, get an automatic gas shut-off valve installed, secure your heavy furniture, and assemble emergency kits for home, car, and office.  

Don’t let fear or anxiety keep you frozen – just make a check list of things to do and then do them, one by one.  

Wishing you a safe home and peace of mind. 

Larry Guillot is the owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and gas shut-off valve installation service. Contact him at 558-3299 or visit QuakePrepare.com to receive semi-monthly quake safety reports. Quake Tip appears weekly in Easty Bay Home & Real Estate.

Hillary Clinton remains the favorite to be the Democratic presidential nominee at their August 2008 convention in Denver. However, while most Dems view her positively, she’s unpopular with Independents and Republicans. This is called “the Hillary problem,” but it’s really “the Bill problem.” 

The other night my wife and I went out to dinner and had a conversation with a British couple at the next table. When talk turned to politics, the English woman ranted at length about Hillary Clinton: made it clear that she thought Hillary would make a terrible president. We weren’t surprised; almost every time we have an extended conversation with Brits, we find that they have negative feelings about the junior senator from New York. 

Unfortunately for Sen. Clinton, a lot of Americans don’t care for her either. The latest CBS News/New York Times poll indicates that 42 percent of respondents have a “not favorable” opinion of Ms. Clinton, versus only 38 percent who have a “favorable” rating. Since Hillary announced her candidacy for president, her “unfavorable” percentage has consistently topped her “favorable” rating. This accounts for the perception that Hillary Clinton is a polarizing figure. It’s the reason that many Democratic Party insiders are backing other candidates such as Barack Obama and John Edwards. 

Despite her divisive reputation, it’s widely acknowledged that Sen. Clinton is very smart and has been extremely effective in the Senate. So there’s a huge discrepancy between public perception and her actual performance. Judging from our dinner conversation the other night—and similar chats we’ve had with Hillary bashers—the senator’s unfavorable ratings have little to do with her record of accomplishment over the last six years: it’s emotional.  

The strong negative feelings about Sen. Clinton focus on her role as Bill’s wife: they date back to the Clinton relationship during the Monica Lewinsky imbroglio. Those who dislike Hillary don’t approve of the way she responded to Bill’s priapic escapades. As a result, they don’t trust her. Our dinner companion asserted that Hillary should have divorced Bill; her logic was if she couldn’t control her husband, she wouldn’t be able to control the country. 

This faulty reasoning—Hillary was an imperfect wife and therefore would be a bad president—seems a particularly insidious form of sexism. It applies standards to Hillary that haven’t been applied to our previous presidents: we’ve had a number of White House occupants—John Kennedy, for one—who weren’t “perfect” husbands. Nonetheless, there’s a certain cultural logic in this thinking. 

Because Bill and Hillary Clinton are very public figures, there’s been a lot of media speculation about their relationship: rumors that Hillary is a lesbian and that she and Bill have a secret deal to go their separate ways sexually but to support each other politically. But, of course, there’s another, simpler explanation as to why they stay together: Hillary loves Bill and she’s committed to the relationship despite his misadventures. Having met Bill and Hillary, it’s easy to imagine why she sticks with the former President: he’s a charmer. 

While it’s possible to overstate the impact of the Clinton’s relationship on Hillary’s favorability ratings, there seem to be three separate things going on that affect public perception of the senator: first, the Clinton’s have brought this on by deciding that both of them will be politicians. It’s a relatively unique situation: the only comparable, current American political couple is Bob and Elizabeth “Liddy” Dole. Laura Bush’s favorability ratings far outshine those of her husband; but she’s not a politician, rather a high-profile wife in what appears to be a strange traditional marriage. 

However, Bill and Hillary don’t have a traditional marriage. While Hillary has gone out of her way to emphasize her role as Chelsea’s mother and Bill’s wife, she fits the conservative stereotype of the liberated woman and that’s a flashpoint for many Americans. As much as those of us on the left coast support the idea of the “modern” marriage—where both spouses work and share family responsibilities—the reality is that most Americans idealize the traditional marriage, where dad “brings home the bacon” and mom is a homemaker. 

Nonetheless, the basic problem with Hillary Clinton’s popularity is not her modern marriage but her spouse. Bill’s favorability ratings consistently top those of his wife. It’s easy to understand why: both Clintons are smart and gracious, but he has charisma. The former president has that ineffable quality that makes you believe he wants you to be his special friend. He’s a charmer, while Hillary is not. As a result, many folks who adore Bill find Hillary cold by comparison. Behind this lurks the reality that a lot of Americans who are captivated by the former president are deeply troubled by his ethical imperfections. However, they have trouble holding him accountable; so they blame Hillary. Their adoration follows a peculiar sexist logic: they conclude that Bill is much too nice to be fully responsible for his peccadilloes; therefore, Hillary must have driven him to them. That’s the formula that affects Ms. Clinton’s poll ratings: good Bill, bad Hillary. 

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

On Friday I came home from my substitute teaching job at 4 p.m. I was in bed by 5:15. I slept for 14 hours and awoke refreshed and happy. School is out. Yeah!  

Seven weeks ago, when I took over a classroom of 24 kindergarteners, I never dreamed I would be so physically and mentally challenged, so exhausted, befuddled and betwixt. I’ve had many jobs, but none as difficult as this.  

At the age of 15, I ran a hot dog stand on the tenth hole of a private country club. Almost no one stopped by. I spent my days bored and frankfurter-laden. It was lonely out there in the rough. There was nothing to do but eat.  

When I was 16, I worked as a chambermaid at the Jersey shore. I could barely clean my own bedroom but that didn’t stop me from making bad hospital corners, and snooping around the private property of guests at the Polaris Motel. I wasn’t good at dusting, but I possessed the one quality my employers needed: I showed up for work everyday.  

The following summer I bussed tables and learned how to groom poodles. While in college I waitressed and worked at fast-food joints and bookstores. After graduation I taught school in southwestern Virginia. On the first day a father came into my classroom and asked where I was from. When I said New Jersey, he studied my face for a few seconds and then stated, “Once a damn Yankee, always a damn Yankee.” He left before I could point out to him that the Civil War had ended approximately one hundred years earlier. A few minutes later the room erupted in its own form of civil war, and I spent the next four semesters fighting battles I rarely won. But after that I got things under control. For the following eight years I taught reading, writing, and arithmetic with ease, and except for the school janitor shoving me into a utility closet and feeling me up, I had relatively few problems.  

In 1983 I moved to California to work for an adventure travel company. I led bicycle tours to exotic locations around the world. It, too, was challenging, but in a different way. I ushered well-heeled guests to and from hotels and restaurants. I changed flat tires. I delivered luggage and prepared fancy picnic lunches. I drank martinis at dinnertime with people I often did not have much in common with.  

There were other occupations as well: data processor, life guard, swimming instructor, camp counselor, climbing gym desk clerk, gofer at a law firm. None of these jobs was as important as my recent stint shepherding kindergarteners through the ABC’s and the numbers one to 20.  

When I arrived, they were on letter S and number 10. I pushed and prodded, warned and threatened, lost patience and self-control. It was not my finest performance, but there is one thing I did accomplish. Before my arrival, no one had taken the kids to the play structure in months. Many of them could not swing, slide, or climb. By the last day of school, I had all of them hanging from the monkey bars. It was my greatest achievement. Not exactly profound, but it gave me, and them, much pleasure. When one child, who had never been on top of the play structure before, looked out from her high perch at the surrounding chain link fence and announced, “Wow, look at me! I want to stay here forever!” I knew I had taken my students to a place they’d never been. We had accomplished together something concrete, valuable, and joyful.  

When no one was looking, I threw out the nine naked Barbie dolls. It was a great way to end the school year.

It may be a drab little brown bird, but the song sparrow has attracted a lot of scholarly attention. The song sparrows of San Francisco Bay alone support a kind of cottage industry. We have four distinct subspecies here, three confined to tidal marshes, the fourth to neighboring uplands. The marsh sparrows, generally smaller and grayer than the upland birds, have adapted to their environment by evolving a higher tolerance for salt water (although their insect prey appears to meet most of their water needs). 

The foundational song sparrow studies were done by Margaret Morse Nice. After her academic career was derailed by marriage and motherhood, she spent most of the Great Depression tracking the lives and fortunes of a song sparrow population along the Olentangy River in Columbus, Ohio. She also found time to collaborate with Konrad Lorenz. According to another pioneering behaviorist, Niko Tinbergen, this “American housewife was the greatest scholar of them all.” 

Along with every other aspect of sparrow behavior, Nice paid close attention to their songs. It became clear that there was no such thing as a stereotyped song sparrow song. “The songs of each male are entirely distinct,” she wrote; “as a rule they sound pleasant and ‘cheerful’ to human ears, yet a few are disagreeable, while still others are of great beauty.” Each adult male, she found, had his own repertoire of six to nine song types. And song patterns changed as a bird matured, with a period of improvisation before the repertoire crystallized. 

She was curious as to whether songs were inherited or learned, or a mixture of both. After listening to several generations of sparrows, Nice concluded: “I found no case of a male having the song of his father or grandfather on either side.” On the other hand, she heard young territory-holding males imitating their neighbors and sometimes incorporating those songs into their budding repertoires.  

She also experimented with captive-reared birds, exposing them to recordings of species they would never have heard in the wild—nightingales, European song thrushes—and noting the odd-sounding songs they developed. 

So what was going on? As research expanded to other species, it became clear that many of the true songbirds—the oscine passerines, to be technical—learn most if not all of their vocal repertoire. That’s also true of a few other groups, notably hummingbirds (or the few hummingbirds that can be said to sing). 

The process seems to require exposure to a model or “tutor” at the right developmental phase. But were the tutors parents or neighbors? 

The evidence on that score is mixed. Male song sparrows reared by canaries copied their foster fathers in one study but not in another.  

Luis Baptista, the late curator of birds at the California Academy of Sciences, found a couple of song sparrows in the wild that had somehow acquired the songs of white-crowned sparrows. Juvenile males in Washington state appeared to have learned their songs from holders of neighboring territories. But in a sparsely populated British Columbia habitat, young males retained their fathers’ songs. 

Experimental research by John Burt and Adrian O’Loghlen at the University of Washington suggests young birds acquire their songs by eavesdropping on neighbors. From the age of 15 days, fledglings were housed with a rotation of singing adult males. That exposure ended after a month and a half. At eight months, each young bird was paired up with an adult tutor. The youngster was then moved to a separate chamber where he could hear a second tutor interacting with another young bird. 

The young males’ songs were analyzed when they were about a year old. Fifty-one percent of their repertoires came from the tutor next door they had overheard. Another 19 percent came from tutors with which they had shared a cage, and the remaining 30 percent from the adult birds they had heard as infants. 

Getting your songs right is crucial to attracting a mate. One study showed a female preference for the local song dialect. Repertoire size may also influence mate choice, according to a lab study, although field work did not confirm this. (In any case, song sparrows are pikers compared with western marsh wrens, which may have up to 210 distinct song types.) 

As far as I know, no one has studied song acquisition among the Bay’s salt-marsh song sparrows, which occupy small territories year-round in tightly packed habitats. The lucky yearlings that could shoehorn themselves in would be surrounded by potential song models. A likely project for some contemporary Margaret Nice. Bring your waders.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan. A song sparrow at home in the marshes of San Pablo Bay.

FRIDAY, JUNE 15 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Bosoms and Neglect” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., SUn. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through July 22. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “Oliver Twist” at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. through June 24. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Rep “Great Men of Genius” with Mike Daisey in four different monologues at 2025 Addison St. through June 30. Tickets are $30-$75. 647-2949.  

California Shakespeare Theater “Richard III” at the Bruns Ampitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, through June 24. Tickets are $15-$60. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

“Colorstruck” Donald Lacey’s one-man show at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$20. 663-5683. www.colorstruck.net 

Impact Theatre “Impact Briefs 8: Sinfully Delicious” Thurs.-Sat. through July 21 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “Ring Round the Moon” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through July 14. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

“Pagbabalik” (Return) A multidisciplinary theater production by Aimee Suzara Sat. and Sun. at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 849-2568, ext. 20. 

Shotgun Players “The Cryptogram” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through June 17. Tickets are $17-$25. For reservations call 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

TheatreFirst “365 Days/365 Plays” at 8 p.m. at Temescal Arts, 48th and Telegraph. Free, reservations requested. 436-5085. www.theatrefirst.com 

Virago Theatre Comapny “The Death of Ayn Rand” and “A Bed of My Own” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave., Alameda to July 7. Tickets are $10-$17. 865-6237. www.ViragoTheatre.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Andrew Keen discusses “The Cult of the Amateur: How the Democratization of the Digital World is Assaulting Our Ecnomy, Our Culture, and Our Values” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. 559-9500. 

Roger Rapoport reads from “Citizen Moore: The Life and Times of an American Iconoclast” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

”Great Moments in American History” Oakland Opera and Oakland East Bay Symphony at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $24. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

“The Original Family Stone” at 8 p.m. at Historic Sweet’s Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $25-$35. 925-952-4585 www.ambassadorsofamericanculture.com 

Lisa Mezzacappa at Free-Jazz Fridays at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th Street Performance Space, 1510 8th St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$15. 

Vidya “Redefining Jazz through Raga and Rhythm” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373.  

Trio Paradiso at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ.  

Razorblade and Sister I-Live, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

Dani Torres and Omar Makhtari Latin/flamenco at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Freight 39th Anniversary Revue with Phil Marsh and Hank Bradley at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50-$16.50. 548-1761.  

Jared Karol and Eliza Manoff at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

The Porch Flies, Glenn Earl Brown, Crooked Roads at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

Aggression, Shattered Faith, Soul Control at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $8. 525-9926. 

The Ghost, CD release party, at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

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

The Girlfriend Experience, The Catholic Comb, The Hundred Days at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $6. 451-8100.  

Terence Blanchard at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JUNE 16 

CHILDREN  

Celebrate African & African American Heritage with Diane Ferlatte at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, at 699 Bellvue Ave., Oakland. 452-2259. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“A Question of Belief” A group show of paintings, photography and sculpture featuring, Cherie Raciti, Nina Glaser and Marianne Hale. Artist reception at 6 p.m. at Float Gallery, 1091 Calcot Place, Unit # 116 , located in a store front loft of the historic cotton mill studios, Oakland. www.thefloatcenter.com 

“hitmewithaflower” Works by Walter Logue. Opening reception at 7 p.m. at The Gallery Of Urban Art, 1746 13th St. at Wood, Oakland. 910-1833. 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “A Dream Play” Sat. and Sun. at 3 p.m. on the lawn in front of Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Wlnut St. at Berryman, through July 1. 841-5580.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bloomsday at Moe’s Books A day-long reading from 10 a.m. at 2476 Telegraph Ave. If you would like to read call 849-2087. 

Carol Pogash describes “Seduced by Madness: The True Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Celebrate Bloomsday with Thomas Lynch reading from Joyce’s “Ulysses” at 11 a.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Mary Ann Mason describes “Mothers on the Fast Track:” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Company C Contemporary Ballet at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. www.companycballet.org 

Cecelia and The Hats, a capella, at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar. 704-9378. 

Ed Reed with Peck Allmond Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Crooked Roads Band and Pushtunwali at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

FiddleKids Faculty FiddleFest at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Kellye Gray Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Nicole McRory at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Mario Desio & Dave Gans at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Wire Graffiti, Charm School Dropouts, Vincent’s Ear at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Joshi Marshall Project at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Chris Murray, Soul Captives, Golfcart Rebillion at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

DJ Heartbeat Night at 8 p.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. Tickets are $10 at the door. 496-6047. 

Terence Blanchard at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$22. 238-9200.  

SUNDAY, JUNE 17 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Women of Lockerbie” by Deborah Brevort, a staged reading at 7 p.m. at 469 9th St. Oakland. www.theatrefirst.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

”Great Moments in American History” Oakland Opera and Oakland East Bay Symphony at 2 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $24. 763-1146.  

Hal Stein Quartet at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Cost is $10. 228-3218. 

5 Second Rule, 1,2,3...Not It!, The Skinny String Gals, Brescia Bloodbeard at 5 p.m. at Ashkenaz, in a benefit for CopWatch. Cost is $5. berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com 

Fathers’ Day Concert with Faye Carol at 6 p.m. at Black Repertory, 3201 Adeline St. Cost is $15 for fathers, $20 for others. keepersoftheculture@yahoo.com 

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

Pappa Gianni and the North Beach Band at 2 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Jamie Fox Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Americana Unplugged: The Saddlecats at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 

Dick Conte Quartet at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373.  

Markus James and Wassonrai, African, at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. Cost is $5. 525-5054. 

Jacques Ibula at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Soulbop Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$24. 238-9200.  

MONDAY, JUNE 18 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Stephen Ratcliff reads at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Julia Serano reads from “Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

“The Clearing” by Helen Edmundson, a staged reading at 7:30 p.m. at 469 9th St. Oakland. www.theatrefirst.com 

Poetry Express with Jesse Beagle at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Hot Frittatas at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100.  

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

Blue Monday Jam at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

West Coast Songwriter’s Showcase at 7 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $5. 548-1761.  

Will Bernard at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$12. 238-9200. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 19 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Barry Gifford reads from “Memories from a Sinking Ship” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

CZ and the Bon Vivants at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Singers’ Open Mic with Kelly Park at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Kaspar/Sherman Jazz Quartet at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Waco, The Altarboys, United Defiance at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7. 451-8100.  

New Monsoon at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20 

EXHIBITIONS 

“First Exposures: Bay Area Youth Photography” opens at the Mills College Art Museum, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., and runs to Aug. 5. www.sfcamerawork.org 

THEATER 

Queer Cabaret featuring Big City Improv, Jessica Fisher, and Shaunna Bella & Claire Elizabeth, at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $15-$20. All proceeds will go to Shotgun Players Solar Campaign. 841-6500. 

FILM 

International Latino Film Festival “Un Franco, 14 Pesetas” at 7 p.m. at Richmond Public Library, 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. 620-6555. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Anne Fadiman reads from “At Large and at Small: Familiar Essays” at noon at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

David Rains Wallace describes “Neptune’s Ark: From Ichthyosaurs to Orcas” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Dina Rasor describes “Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. 559-9500. 

Cafe Poetry with Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $22-$24. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Denise Fraga & Kristan Lynch at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Whiskey Brothers Old Time and Bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Le Jazz Hot at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Jim Page at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Frankye Kelly at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Mikie Lee and Amber at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

THURSDAY, JUNE 21 

THEATER 

“Tea N' Crisp” with Quentin Crisp in tribute to national gay pride week at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave.Tickets are $25, reservations advised. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Works by Robert Bilensky” Reception at 7 p.m. at Artbeat Salon and Gallery, 1887 Solano Ave. Exhibition runs to Sept. 6. 527-3100. 

“A Photographic Celebration of Culture in the Heart of Oakland” Evening viewing with photographers at 5 p.m. at the Craft & Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Bldg. Atrium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland. 622-8190. 

“Constructions” Works by Jenny Honnert Abell, Marya Krogstad and Thomas Morphis at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park, through July 1. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Bridal Fantasies: The Fashion of Dreams” at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St., through August 4. Open Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. 843-7178.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Art of Sierra Biodiversity” with author and illustrator Jack Miur Laws at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of Califonia, 1000 Oak St. and 10th, Oakland. 238-2200.  

Rebecca Camhi Fromer reads from her new book of poems “Out of Silence into Being” at 6:30 p.m. at the Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. 549-6950. 

Poetry Flash with Lyn Hejinian and Cathy Park Hong at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. 525-5476. www.poetryflash.org 

John Perkins describes “The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jacklas, and the Truth About Global Corruption” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble with Merita Halili and Raif Hyseni at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. 444-0323.  

Solstice Celebration with Caroline Casey and Amikayla Gaston at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $25. 525-5054.  

Solstice Concert with Terry Riley, Paul Dresher, Ellen Fullman, Todd Renolds and others at 5 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. www.gardenofmemory.com 

Cliff Eberhardt at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Pickpocket Ensemble, international cafe music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Fancy Dan, Nick Marcott, Nick Z at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082  

The Brothers Lekas at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Marcus Miller at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24-$26. 238-9200.  

The Dying Californian, Winfred E. Eye, Odessa Chen at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7. 451-8100.  

TEA ’N’ CRISP 

The precocious Quentin Crisp lived a life without shame, reservation or compromise. Shotgun Player member Richard Louis James pays tribute to this international gay icon by bringing him back to life in an original solo piece. Tea ’n’ Crisp is based on Crisp’s writing and public appearances, and will be performed during national gay pride week in celebration of flamboyant autonomy. 8 p.m. Thursday, June 21; Friday, June 22; and Saturday, June 23. Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. $25. Reservations advised. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org. 

BLOOMSDAY JOURNEYS 

We may not be in Dublin but that doesn’t mean we can’t traverse its many winding paths, coursing through imaginary seas. In fact, better it be all in the mind. Saturday is Bloomsday, the 24 hours during which Leopold Bloom wandered Dublin—and the characters serially spoke their innermost thoughts—in James Joyce’s sprawling Ulysses. Moe’s Books on Telegraph is hosting an all-day marathon reading from the groundbreaking novel, beginning as the store opens at 10 a.m. and intoning on until closing time at 11 p.m. To chime in as a reader, call Owen Hill or David Brazil at 528-8191, or just show up with your own copy, or buy one from Moe’s. “To my surprise,” said Owen Hill, “one email seemed to gather a head of steam, and I’ve been getting replies for a week. Mark Singer, who writes for McSweeney’s, one of the Joyce scholars we went to for advice, warned us about crowd control, a crush of tipsy people, and we all laughed. But it seems a culture’s grown up around it, like St. Patrick’s Day or Cinco de Mayo, and it can get like a pub crawl.” Moe’s offers a little Irish music around 2, and Joyce’s Gorgonzola, “but unfortunately, due to insurance restrictions, no red wine.” Nonalcoholic refreshments instead. (None of the author’s beloved lamb kidneys, either!) Everybody gets 15 minutes at the mic, and, according to Hill, “It’s loosely structured, no serious study of the novel—lighter than that ... maybe some attempted Irish brogues? It’s adding up to be a party.” 

Feeling like listening only? Thomas Lynch reads from our favorite Irish Odyssey beginning at 11 a.m. Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222.

Guy Maddin’s latest film is another avant garde piece, a pseudo-silent film that employs striking imagery, dubbed sound effects, intertitles and spoken narration in the creation of a unique and fascinating experience. Brand Upon the Brain! is a strange film that seems to exist in no particular era or idiom. It is both timeless and out of time, a film and a story that seemingly could have occurred anytime and anyplace, yet in no particular time or place that ever existed. 

Maddin uses some of the effects of the silent era, but filters them through memory, through the ravages of time. While films of the silent era were generally of excellent photographic quality, easily on a par with much of today’s imagery, they have been most often seen by succeeding generations only in degraded, shabby prints, with soft images, blurry text, and unseemly jumps where frames have been misplaced or simply disintegrated. Maddin takes this approach to his film, deliberately infusing his images with a shadowy, high-contrast glow and jump cuts that suggest the movie was found in a long-forgotten vault rather than produced in modern times. The effect is that Brand Upon the Brain! harkens back not so much to the golden-era silents of the 1920s but to the German Expressionist films of the late 1910s, such as Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.  

Even the intertitles and chapter headings flash quickly in blurry letters, and repeat themselves as though the negative fell in pieces to the cutting room floor and was hastily stitched back together by an errant hand.  

The story starts simply and progresses to absurdity, embracing the melodramatic aesthetic of the German Expressionist classics, yet with a decidedly 21st century attitude. The protagonist, Guy Maddin (played in his youth by Sullivan Brown and in adulthood by Erik Steffen Maahs), returns to his childhood home, an orphanage run by his parents on a remote, fog-shrouded island. He is there to grant his mother’s last wish, that he return to the island and give the lighthouse and orphanage a couple of fresh coats of paint. The walls are dirty and scarred with the troubled memories of his youth, and no amount of paint can cover the pain of those remembrances as they come flooding back in a mad rush. And thus begins a strange tale told in flashback of Maddin and his sister (San Francisco native Maya Lawson) and their mad, mad parents.  

The film is not a true silent. There are plenty of sound effects, which grant the proceedings an eerie and evocative atmosphere. The sounds are stylized however, not realistic; they are isolated sounds that suggest the dream-like reveries of memory, in which only the most necessary sounds are supplied while ambient noise recedes and disappears. An excellent score by Jason Staczek brings a strong atmosphere to the film as well, lending it a classical air. 

But most effective of all the elements Maddin throws into this eclectic mix may very be the spoken narration provided by Isabella Rossellini, in which the actress sometimes repeats the intertitles but more often complements the onscreen words with fuller description, emphasis and affect. This technique comes from another quadrant of silent film history, from a Japanese tradition in which an actor, known as a benshi, would accompany the film with live narration and dialogue, acting out the roles of each character on the screen and relating the action to the audience. 

Taken together, these disparate ingredients form a highly original whole, one that deserves a far greater audience than it is likely to reach. 

BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! 

Directed by Guy Maddin. Photographed by Benjamin Kasulke. Edited by John Gurdebeke. Starring Erik Steffen Maahs, Sullivan Brown, Maya Lawson, Gretchen Krich, Katherine E. Scharhon, Andrew Loviska. 96 minutes.  

Not rated. Playing at Shattuck Cinemas. 

Photograph: Maya Lawson and Sullivan Brown in Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon the Brain!

Oakland Opera Theater will present two staged scenes from operas in progress by Mary Watkins—Dark River—and Clark Suprynowicz—The Panthers—this weekend, Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at The Oakland Metro Operahouse, 201 Broadway, near Jack London Square. 

“Oakland Opera had planned to re-mount last year’s production of Anthony Davis’ ‘X,’ about Malcolm X,” said Berkeley resident Clark Suprynowicz. “There were complications, and they weren’t able to do it, so they found out about our projects, which I think are well-matched. Mary’s opera is about the Civil Rights Movement, and ends as mine, on the Black Panthers, begins.”  

Suprynowicz’s opera, commissioned by the Oakland East Bay Symphony for their 2009 season, begins in 1967, “with the inception, here in Oakland, of the movement. The characters we’ve all heard of are characters in the opera: Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver ... but it’s important to remember that 98 percent of the Panthers were the rank and file, young black men excited to see people trying to make things right in America, volunteering for the school breakfast program, the sickle cell anemia outreach--which got picked up by the state, the donated shoes project, free ambulances, the good works ...” 

Suprynowicz continued: “Meanwhile, there are other factors, other forces, like a three-legged stool, all in conflict: all the revolutionary rhetoric being spouted, like ‘If America doesn’t give us what we ask for, we’re going to burn it down’—and the FBI, and the secret COINTELPRO project, active since the Red Scare, cannily reflecting that rhetoric as crazy, the Panthers as thugs. In 1968, J. Edgar Hoover announced his number one goal was to destroy the militant black movement in America. With everything else that was going on! Yet if you put aside outrage, and think of it as a power struggle, you can feel the dismay of the powerful: what if the black groups did come together? And they were always smaller than the media was portraying them, and torn by factional battles ...” 

For Suprynowicz, this is “where it becomes interesting theatrically, where you can’t psaint it black and white. It becomes a more human story. When we talked with David Hilliard of the Panthers, he was quite frank—one of the two founders had a drug problem. And there’s the sudden celebrity issue: could any of them imagine being interviewed by Playboy, being on the cover of Time? The whole weight was put on personality, like kids becoming rock stars.” 

“What people think about the Panthers is quite fluid,” Suprynowicz went on. “Their ideological bent will dictate what they say. The more I get into the story, the more Rashoman-like it gets. So we present the different perceptions, not the most sensational aspect, through the chain of the story.”  

Asked about the music, Suprynowicz said, with surprise, that he felt the project was in unexplored territory. “Frederica Newton, Huey’s widow, said that it’s kind of amazing that nobody’s ever done this before, to make this into singing theater, put it onstage this way. Talking to veterans of the Panthers, I asked what they listened to, and they said, Marvin Gaye, Sly and the Family Stone ...” 

Suprynowicz recalled his own background. “I played in bands, remember the aural sense of the late 60s, the funk and Motown sounds. And I’ve been a professional jazz bassist. My challenge has been to do more than draw on that vocabulary for orchestral music, to write songs that would have been credible in that day, then orchestrate ... and I don’t see that connection, surprisingly, having been made before. It’s not that much of a stretch to listen to Stravinsky, “The Firebird Suite,” and hear it as exciting syncopated music, not so far from James Brown, or Grand Central Station and the invention of slap bass. All you have to do is squint a little and see the connections.” 

“When I first thought about the characters,” Suprynowicz concluded, “I tried to see, say, Huey as an operatic tenor. But it’s in the situation of drug abuse, of the violence—real, that they were accused of, that was directed at them—that you find the places you can get at the pathos, and it’s heartrending. And best presented by an orchestra rather than a six-piece rock combo. This way, it has the best of both worlds.” 

GREAT MOMENTS IN  

AMERICAN HISTORY 

Works by Mary Watkins and Clark Suprynowicz, 8 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway.  

$24. 763-1146.  

Photograph by Stephen Shames 

Panthers stand just offstage at a Free Huey Rally in DeFremery Park. Cleve Brooks (at center, with arms folded) founded the San Quentin Prison chapter of the party. Oakland, 1968.

Ed Reed, the remarkable jazz singer who launched his first CD at Anna’s Jazz Island just a few months back, returns to the downtown club Saturday night at 8 and 10, with a stellar band, to display the warmth, range and interpretive style of his voice, making his album title, Ed Reed Sings Love Songs, a natural. 

Appearing with Reed are Peck Allmond, the Berkeley-raised, New York-based reeds and trumpet virtuoso who coproduced Reed’s CD; Jamie Fox on guitar; Rob Fisher on bass, and noted Bay Area band leader (for Peck Allmond and many others) Eddie Marshall on drums. 

Since the CD release party at Anna’s, Reed has continued his standing Tuesday evening gig at The Cheeseboard on Shattuck, but has begun to play bigger venues and festivals. He’s garnered some enthusiastic reviews: one from James Isaacs on Boston’s WBUR, one in the current issue of Jazz Is and others. KQED just shot footage to feature Reed in a local program. This fall he’ll sing in Boston on a bill headlined by George Benson. Reed will perform at the Jazzschool in November, and there are negotiations going on to have him sing locally with one of his own favorite vocalists, the masterful Bill Henderson. 

“It never occurred to me it would take off like this,” said Reed. “I never saw it coming. I was just doing my thing, and all of a sudden ...” 

He credits much of the new interest and recognition to Terri Hinte, the publicist formerly associated with Fantasy Records, who introduced herself to Reed at the CD party, and has been working with him since. “She knows everybody,” Reed said. “And she’s become a friend.” 

But Reed’s moment has come after a life of singing, at first onstage around LA with many of the musical greats he grew up with in Watts, and later featured in a popular radio show in Bakersfield. A career as a singer was thwarted many times, by years of drug use and prison terms. Ironically, Reed met well-known players in prison who were old friends, and performed with them there in shows and sessions that were never recorded. 

The break finally came when Reed met Peck Allmond (an alumnus of Berkeley High’s famous jazz program) who was teaching at a music camp, and Allmond joined forces with Budd Spangler to produce the CD, released just after Reed’s 78th birthday. 

Now—and for decades—a successful, self-employed group leader and speaker for approaches to living for ex-addicts and their families, which Reed once referred to as “how to get along with yourself,” the Richmond resident expressed his gratitude for the show of interest in his artistry. But he still was a little incredulous: “People figure, ‘I want to be known’ ... but I never dreamed ... I don’t know how to plan my days, so much is going on!” 

ED REED AND PECK ALLMOND QUARTET 

8 p.m. Saturday at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.annasjazzisland.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third part in an ongoing series on Berkeley captains’ houses and the families that inhabited them. 

In 1894, when Captain John Slater built his house at 1335 Shattuck Ave., he was joining two other master mariners who had settled on the same block a decade earlier. They were Jefferson Maury and William B. Seabury, both high-ranking captains of the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company who ended their careers in succession as commodores of the PMSS fleet. While Captain Slater commanded square-rigged ships, Captains Maury and Seabury were at the forefront of the mechanized age. 

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded in 1848 by William Henry Aspinwall (1807–1875) of the New York merchant firm Howland & Aspinwall, which specialized in trade with the Caribbean. PMSS was incorporated to execute a Congress-authorized contract to carry mail from the Isthmus of Panama to the West Coast. 

Aspinwall (who also founded the Panama Railway Company) ordered three new steamships to inaugurate the trade. The S.S. California, first steamer on the West Coast, entered San Francisco Bay on Feb. 28, 1849 and was soon joined by the Panama and the Oregon. The California Gold Rush assured the company’s success. PMSS was well established by the time Captains Maury and Seabury came on board. 

Jefferson Maury (1826–1895) was born in Virginia and may have been descended from Rev. James Maury, teacher of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe and grandfather of Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, known as the father of modern oceanography and naval meteorology. 

Maury entered the U.S. Navy at the age of 15 and received his warrant as a Passed Midshipman in 1847. The following year found him in the Gulf Squadron, participating in the Mexican-American War. In 1854 he was stationed in San Francisco and a year later left the service. 

It is not known when Maury joined PMSS, but shipping records indicate that in 1862 he commanded the company’s S.S. Northern Light, a wooden-hulled steamer with side paddle wheels and three masts on a sailing between Aspinwall (Colón), Panama and New York. The next year he was captain of the S.S. America, followed by the S.S. Atlantic, both plying the same route. From 1866 until 1870, Maury was master of the S.S. Arizona, which his future neighbor, Captain Seabury, would take over in 1874. 

Jefferson Maury’s character received a glowing testament from George William Curtis, editor of Harper’s Monthly, in November 1872. In his column The Easy Chair, Curtis wrote: “[…] there is a Legion of Honor which wears no sign, yet is the most honorable at all. And whoever read of the burning of the steamer Bienville on her way to Aspinwall, in August of this year, will agree that Jefferson Maury, her commander, merits the grand cross of that legion.” 

Curtis went on to describe at length Captain Maury’s steadiness and quiet confidence, which kept the passengers calm and the crew efficiently busy at their tasks. When the ship could not be saved, all aboard were evacuated to boats. The majority reached safety at Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas, about 130 miles from the point where they had left the ship. Maury went to extraordinary lengths to search for the missing over the next week. Curtis concluded, “[…] the nerve of the captain paralyzed disaster and made safety possible. He knew what to do, and how and when to do it, and his moral mastery alone prevented a frightful catastrophe. His name is Jefferson Maury. There has been no name lately mentioned deserving of more sincere respect. Those who are going to sea will sleep in their berths more soundly if they know that Captain Maury commands the ship.” 

Maury married Adelaide Weeden (1840–1916), daughter of John Hull Weeden, a Rhode Island lawyer, assemblyman, and tax collector. In the 1860s and ’70s, the Maurys lived in New York, but the 1880 U.S. census found them boarding on New Montgomery Street in San Francisco. Five years later, the Maurys built a rambling one-story residence at 1317 Shattuck Ave. The main wing looked out to the west and was surrounded by a three-sided porch. A smaller square wing at the rear of the southern end featured a brick chimney and an obliquely placed square bay. 

Captain Maury died suddenly at midnight on Jan. 1, 1895. The Berkeley Advocate reported that he had suffered from heart disease. Adelaide Maury continued living in the house until her death in 1916. She was given to good works and for many years was active in the Ladies’ Protective and Relief Society, an organization dedicated to the support of destitute children and indigent women. 

The Maurys were childless. Following Adelaide’s death, the house was sold to Harold McCarthy, a title company employee, and his wife Anne. The McCarthys brought three sons to the house and would soon produce two more. With the birth of their fourth son, quarters must have become inadequate, and in 1922 the McCarthys engaged architect John Hudson Thomas to expand and modernize the house. Keeping the original footprint more or less intact, Thomas added a second story, transforming the house into a double-peaked, shingled English country cottage. 

While Captain Maury was building his house at 1317 Shattuck Ave., Captain Seabury was erecting his own at 1322 Shattuck. According to Lewis & Dryden’s Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (1895), “Capt. William B. Seabury was born in New Bedford, Mass., in 1840, and commenced his marine service at Philadelphia while a boy on a vessel in the Brazil sugar trade. He was employed on sailing vessels out of New York until 1864, his last ship being the Gertrude, of which he was first officer. 

“He then joined the steamship Ocean Queen of Commodore Vanderbilt’s line as quarter-master and then as second and first mate. In 1865 he occupied the former position on the steamship Baltic, running to the Isthmus in December 1873, subsequently joining the Grenada as first officer. Soon after her arrival in San Francisco in March 1874, he was promoted to the captaincy of the steamship Arizona. 

“In March 1875, he was given command of the City of Panama, running north with her for four years, except for a few trips when she was relieved by the Constitution and Alaska, which he also handled, and was in command of the former when she was burned. 

“While in the employ of the Pacific Mail he had charge of all the large steamers owned by that company and superintended the building of the steamer China, nearly every detail of her construction being left to his judgment. He took command of her as soon as she was completed and has run her since between San Francisco and China.” 

Seabury married Maria Kelsey Almy (1848–1940), daughter of a prosperous New England cooper. Before moving to Berkeley, the couple lived in Pacific Heights, San Francisco and brought to the world two sons, Benjamin and Almy. 

The Seabury house was a substantial two-story Queen Anne whose asymmetrical roofline sheltered a second-floor balcony above the entrance porch. An unusual feature was the long corner window in the stairwell. The house was set in a triple lot and commanded open vistas in all directions. The Seabury family lived here until 1898, when they exchanged houses with the Parkhurst family. 

Daniel Webster Parkhurst (1839–1899), a Massachusetts-born Southern Pacific agent and capitalist, acquired lands in Fresno County, where he operated vineyards and orchards. He and his wife Marietta moved from San Francisco to Berkeley in 1892 because their eldest son had reached college age and the younger two were not far behind. The Parkhursts settled in an imposing Southside residence at 2401 Channing Way and Dana Street. Designed and built by the fashionable architect A.W. Pattiani of Alameda, the house was one of the earliest shingled structures in Berkeley. 

Parkhurst and Seabury probably knew each other via the Southern Pacific-PMSS connection (SP owned PMSS from 1893 to 1912). Why the two families exchanged houses is a mystery remaining to be solved. On Channing Way, the Seaburys shared their immense new home with widowed brother-in-law Joseph H. Matthews, a supervising ship’s engineer, and his teenaged son and daughter, as well as with an Irish man servant and a Chinese cook. 

The Parkhursts’ residence at 1322 Shattuck Ave. was short-lived. Daniel Parkhurst died within a year, and the house passed back to Seabury, who let it to tenants while continuing to live on Channing Way. Future Berkeley mayor Samuel C. Irving would purchase 1322 Shattuck in 1906, just months before the death of Captain Seabury. 

In December 1906 Seabury, who had been commanding the liner S.S. Korea, was close to completing a six-month vacation from his duties as commodore in the PMSS fleet. The family was rusticating at its country house in Guerneville when the captain received orders to take charge of the 27,000-ton S.S. Mongolia on its next trip to the Orient. He decided to spend a few days with his friend S.B. McNear (a member of San Francisco’s Committee of Fifty at the time of the earthquake and fire) in Ross Valley. While taking a postprandial walk on December 18, the captain slipped from a stone wall and fell into an excavation, suffering a paralyzing spinal injury. He was taken to the Cottage Hospital in San Rafael for surgery but died before the operation had begun. 

Maria K. Seabury continued living at 2401 Channing Way while her younger son Almy was studying civil engineering at the University of California (the elder son, Benjamin, was a metal manufacturer in Tacoma, WA). In 1909 they relocated to 2511 Virginia St., but in 1911 Maria turned to John Hudson Thomas, who designed for her a modern 8-room house at 2710 Claremont Blvd. 

Heavily buttressed, the house boasts three parapet gables with dormer windows; square and semicircular bays on the ground floor; an arched entrance porch; and foursquare motifs on the gables and chimney. Curiously, this up-to-the-minute house echoed the asymmetrical roofline of the Seaburys’ old-fashioned Victorian. 

Almy Seabury (1884–1953) worked as a draftsman at the California Highway Commission before taking a job in marine insurance at his cousin’s San Francisco firm, Matthews & Livingston. For three decades he lived with his family in a Craftsman bungalow at 6442 Colby St. Almy’s son, William Brownell Seabury (1917–1994), was a landscape architect and engineer with the California State Park System when he married Eleanor Jean Maddox (1924–2006), daughter of Brigadier General Louis W. Maddox and the first female field geologist to be hired by Standard Oil. 

The Parkhurst-Seabury home at 2401 Channing Way was turned into a fraternity house. It was torn down before 1950, when such buildings were considered passé. Ida Sproul Hall of UC’s Unit 3 dorms has occupied the site since the 1960s. 

Daniella Thompson publishes berkeleyheritage.com for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). 

Photograph by Daniella Thompson 

In 1911, John Hudson Thomas designed the above house at 2710 Claremont Blvd. for Captain Seabury’s widow. The Parkhurst-Seabury house (left) at 2401 Channing Way was one of Berkeley’s earliest shingled houses, designed and built by A.W. Pattiani in 1892.  

Just on impulse and because I spotted a parking space, I dropped into Green Jeans Garden Supply in Mill Valley the other day. I was looking for something else entirely, but there was a four-inch seedling in the Edibles rack that I didn’t recognize. The label called it “agretti” and I didn’t recognize that either. “Italian specialty green—eat raw or sautéed with garlic and olive oil.” 

So of course I had to buy it, never mind that the label also says “full sun” and I have approximately none of that in our shade-beset and crowded yard.  

The guy behind the counter asked if I liked agretti, and I admitted I’d never heard of it, let alone grown it. “Neither have I,” he said, ”So I took some home to see what happens. I mean, it’s Italian. It ought to be good.” 

Clearly a kindred spirit, and one of these days I’ll have to go there when business is slow, and swap tales with him. I am applying a sort of rhetorical discount to the label’s suggestion, though: there’s very little that doesn’t taste good sauteed with garlic and olive oil.  

The little plant itself looks a bit like the “moss rose” portulaca’s foliage, but longer: succulent green shoelace bits in a disorderly tangle, originating from a half-dozen reddish stem bases. Not your basic leafy green vegetable. 

We have a few books about odd garden plants, foodstuffs, and dietary habits. Agretti didn’t turn up in any of them. Intriguing!  

Joe went on-line and found the stuff. A Santa Barbara site says it’s available at the local farmers’ market, and is also called “roscano” and “barba di frate” and, better yet, had the Linnean binomial: Salsola maritimum. 

It’s a halophyte—tolerant of salty soils—and grows at the edges of marshes. It tastes a bit salty. In other words, it’s a lot like pickleweed. 

You can buy pickleweed at the Berkeley Bowl sometimes. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of paying over five bucks a pound for it when it’s so plentiful where I spend a lot of time chasing birds—until I start thinking about what’s likely to be seeping into the saltmarshes around Emeryville and Albany. Then I hope that the Bowl knows its pickleweed suppliers at least as well as it knows its wild-mushroom suppliers.  

Agretti supposedly tastes saline even when grown in normal garden soil; I snapped off a bit of leaf and it did taste just a tad salty as well as slightly tart.  

Looking at my single seedling next to the farmers’ market bunches pictured on the site, I began to wish I’d bought more. Maybe it should be grown from seed, to get more than a dainty sample. 

More googling around yielded a source for seed, hard to get because it doesn’t keep well. I know I’ve seen Bavicchi brand seeds in local shops like the big Long’s Drugs store at 52nd and Broadway. Maybe they could be encouraged to add agretti to their list. 

Meanwhile, shop online and try the stuff. If you manage to grow it in shade, let me know.  

www.italianseedandtool.com/index.html 

www.edhat.com/index.cfm

The kitchens of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s had terrific old stoves. They were simple, heavy, and used lots more gas because they lacked insulation. They had built-in lamps, clocks and spring timers, but other than that they were technologically very simple. Nothing fancy. That means that, if you are lucky enough to own one, they’re repairable, and if you are of a mind to, they can be disassembled, cleaned and repaired without a lot of technical skill. The pilots for both oven and top burner have a small screw that can be adjusted to elevate or reduce the flame, but many ovens did not have pilots (except for the one that ran during operation). They needed to be lit with a match.  

A professional can install a pilot for you on that old stove and this is a very worthwhile modification, because many a housewife has had her eyelashes singed by delaying the application of the match to the burner. This is really quite dangerous and the upgrade is a darned good idea. Also, some early stoves had gas heaters in them. These are, for the most part, unvented in any practical way and are, therefore, quite dangerous as well. The best thing to do with these is to disconnect the gas to the heater inside. But if you simply resolve to never use these heaters you’ll still be better off. 

The burners in nearly all older stoves can be removed with very little effort. Most of them simply lift up a bit and then slide off the nipple of the burner near the front face. They can then be soaked in a degreaser such as Simple Green (I like those orange peel degreasers). After a day or two, you can brush them out with bottle brushes (I like to get several sizes including a big one that will go all the way through), let them dry and slide them back in place. One thing you’ll want to do at the same time is to take a tiny rod (a paperclip works pretty well) and clear the petite vent holes located near the pilot tube. If you start taking things apart, you’ll quickly find one or two pilots that have several small aluminum tubes mounted around them on wires that carry the flame to the burners. Where each one meets the big cast-iron burner assembly, there is a tiny tile (or several). These often become quite clogged with grease and this is one of the main causes of burners that don’t ignite. By cleaning the tiny orifice on the burner, you’ll allow the flame to be captured by the burner. While you’re at it, check these aluminum tubes and make sure they’re all sitting in their little seats and hanging properly. When you remove burners, you’ll have to unhook them and then reseat them. It’s not complex. Just take a minute and you’ll see where they go. 

Spraying down the inside of the entire burner cavity with a degreaser and cleaning this area (with the burners and flames off, of course) is a great thing to do for both hygiene and fire safety. Eventually, the whole enclosure becomes quite flammable. There may be little trays that run below the burners that you can slide out for cleaning. These are the main repositories for grease and dead matches and they should be cleaned often. 

Many of these stoves have tube-shaped bulbs hiding up under the back cover that have simply died and can be revived with nothing more than a new bulb. If a switch or cord needs replacement, it’s a simple job for someone handy. 

You may have a stove with a cover that folds up to become a shelf. Many folks have never played with these to see that by pushing a button on either side, you can fold the legs up or down. Sadly, many of these have died and won’t do their business any longer. Also, the matching salt and pepper shakers are frequently missing, but take heart, mighty homeowner. There’s always eBay and a potentially successful season-long search for the right ones (they’ll only be 75 bucks!).  

There are a few websites out there on which you can salivate over the $5,000 red Wedgewood. Many offer replacement valves, thermostats and other parts for reviving Grandma O’Keefe. 

If you have a stove that’s old enough, you may have a “kindler.” These are easily distinguished at first by the set of nested iron plates on top of one side of the stove that may remind you of an early Franklin stove. If you lift one of the plates, you’ll see a firebox suitable for building a wooden fire (how do you spell carbon monoxide poisoning?) and at the bottom of it, a triangular reticulated bar for dropping ash while keeping the fire rolling. By turning a detachable crank, ash drops into a metal drawer in the bottom of the stove. Open the front, pull the drawer and you may get lucky and find the crank for the kindler and a little handle for picking up the hot metal cooking plates on top. I see them all the time. While these should not be used, they are antiques that we get to live with and remind us daily of a time when gas was distrusted and the utility company might be closed for the weekend. I like to imagine Grandma coming to visit the young marrieds and refusing to use that newfangled fuel gas. Perhaps this was Spark or Wedgewood’s solution to the technical generation gap of 1925. 

These stoves, like their Franklin predecessors, had stove pipes (that bluish metal piping is for these...and not for your water heater). These would attach to the back or top of the oven flue built into the unit and were intended to attach to a stove pipe in the house. Many of the houses of the East Bay still have either a Patent Flue (a huge ceramic lined, steel jacketed flue that takes up a foot-and-a-half square space in the wall next to the stove) or a brick flue (about the same size and location). The stove was intended to pipe into this to take away the grease and smoke from the all-day baking that characterized women’s lives in the early 20th century. Today, the need for oven ventilation is decreased by the design of equipment but most folks still don’t use a stove vent on their antique. I think venting for an old stove is a good idea but in its absence be sure you have plenty of window ventilation. 

There’s more evidence of the all-day bake that took place in this most important room in the house and that’s in the cabinetry. Many of the kitchens of this era will feature three (or sometimes only two) Baker’s drawers. See if you have three identical squarish drawers with metal liners. The liners slope the corners making it easier to scoop out and, of course, these were for flour, sugar and (if you have three) salt (or baking powder). This architectural institutionalization of women’s work tell us much of life in these days. If you were a worthy wife, you would bake bread (none of that store bought cardboard), cakes and cookies as well as roasts, potatoes and casseroles all day long (during which you washed, ironed and swept). 

Here are a few other kitchen features to look for in your early kitchen. The California Cooler was a vented cabinet that had a top and bottom vent through which air would “convect” or flow as a function of natural heating. Refrigeration didn’t become common until around 1930 and even those early fridges were very small and too cold for veggies (no salad crispers yet) so the cooler was used for root veggies and lot of other things that just needed a little change of air and a slightly cooler space (perfect for a cooking pie). 

Note the counters that are about four inches narrower than today. No Cuisinarts or all those other things to demand wider counters. They also had nice tiled borders and sloped, built-in dish drainers (that’s right, the counter was meant to slope like that). Some had double sinks with a drainer that covered the deep soaker sink that doubled up for clothes washing. Be sure and keep an “eye” “peeled” for the potato-bin found in many old kitchen cabinets. It was quite deep and tipped out for easy loading from the big sack. 

Life is very different today. In many ways much better and certainly more egalitarian (at least between the sexes) but there is something sweet and homey and romantic about this room full of wonderful smells, diapered children, crayons and cakes. Occasionally, while I’m probing the cabinets looking for leaks I can get just a small sense of the love and comfort that once filled these old kitchens. 

Don’t Be Frozen By Fear! 

In a recent QuakeTip, I reminded our readers that the difference between a 3.0 quakelet and a 7.0 major quake was huge. One reader chastised me for scaring her. 

Believe it or not, my purpose is not to scare you, but to wake you up. It’s no secret that the SF Bay area is sound asleep when it comes to earthquake preparation. A few fairly simple steps can go a long way in protecting you, your family, and your home. 

The wake-up call goes like this: have your retrofit checked, get an automatic gas shut-off valve installed, secure your heavy furniture, and assemble emergency kits for home, car, and office.  

Don’t let fear or anxiety keep you frozen – just make a check list of things to do and then do them, one by one.  

Wishing you a safe home and peace of mind. 

Larry Guillot is the owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and gas shut-off valve installation service. Contact him at 558-3299 or visit QuakePrepare.com to receive semi-monthly quake safety reports. Quake Tip appears weekly in Easty Bay Home & Real Estate.

FRIDAY, JUNE 15 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Robert Birgeneau on “Green Energy at UC Berkeley” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

Conscientious Projector Film Series “An Inconvenient Truth” at 7 p.m., followed by discussion, at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar St. 841-4824. 

“An Inconvenient Truth” will be screened at 2 p.m. at the YWCA Berkeley. 2600 Bancroft Way. Free. 848-6370. 

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at West Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, Bancroft and Telegraph. to schedule an appointment see http://www.beadonor.com Code: UCB. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253.  

SATURDAY, JUNE 16 

“Downtown: Progress and Options” A public workshop sponsored by the Downtown Area Plan Committee from 10 a.m. to noon at Berkeley High School Library, Allston and Milvia. 981-7487.  

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (BANA) meets at 9:30 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 2407 Dana St., Church Lounge, first floor. 

“No Child Left Behind? What is the Consevative, Corporate Agenda for Destroying Our Public Schools?” at 7 p.m. at 1300 Grand St., Alameda. Sponsored by the Alameda Public Affairs Forum. www.alamedaforum.org 

“Summer Time at the Little Farm” A puppet show about life on the farm and the mishaps of a farmer, at 10:45 and 11:30 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Preschool Storytime for 3 to 5-year-olds at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext. 17. 

Basic Organic Vegetable Gardening Learn to start growing foods and culinary herbs for your kitchen. We will cover the basics of starting a garden, including selecting and starting your seeds, building good soil, watering plants, and managing bugs and blights. Class is sponsored by the Alameda County Cleanwater Program. Cost is $10-$15. Preregistration required. Call for details and location. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Vegeterian Cooking Class: Mexican and Southwestern Cuisine from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $45, plus $5 materials fee. To register call 531-2665.  

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

Natural History Field Sketching with Tara Reinertson at 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

ADD & Autism: Drug- free Treatment Options for your Child with Thauna Abrin, Naturopathic Doctor at 10 a.m. at Pharmaca, 1744 Solano Ave. at Ensenada. 

“Leaning into the Great Mystery” A workshop on Christian-Buddhist meditation from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Cuthbert’s Episcopal Church, 7900 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $30, includes lunch. To register call 635-4949.  

Produce Stand at Spiral Gardens Food Security Project from 1 to 6 p.m. at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon St. 

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

Hopalong Animal Rescue Come meet your furry new best cat friend from noon to 3 p.m. at 2940 College Ave. 267-1915, ext. 500.  

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

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 17 

Working with Wool Watch how the spinning wheel turns wool into yarn, try a drop spindle or a felting project. from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby and Stuart. Wheelchair accessible. 526-7377. 

Fathers’ Day Pancake Breakfast from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. aboard the Red Oak Victory Ship moored in Richmond Harbor at 1337 Canal Blvd. Take Hwy 580 and exit at Canal Blvd. Cost is $6. 327-2933. 

Father’s Day Campfire Bring hot dogs, buns, marshmallows and long sticks to the campfire at 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Accomodation for visitors with disabilities upon advanced request. 525-2233. 

“Climate Change: Nuclear Power in Today’s World” with Karen Street at 1 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Meeting, 2151 Vine. 653-2803. 

Bike Tour of Alameda Explore Alameda on a leisurely 5-mile ride. Meet at 10 a.m. at the 10th St. entrance to the Oakland Museum of California. Reservations required. 238-3514. www.museumca.org 

Free Sailboat Rides from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club, Berkeley Marina. Wear warm, waterproof clothing and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. www.cal-sailing.org 

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at First Covenant Church, Recreation Rm., 3883 Aliso Ave., Oakland. Call to schedule an appointment. 531-5244. 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to repair flats, from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Social Action Forum with a program on Delancy Street at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Univresalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

Berkeley East Bay Atheists with a multi-media presentation on Carl Sagan by Marc Levenson at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Comunity Meeting Room, 2090 Kitttredge St. 222-7580. eastbayatheists.org  

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

Tibetan Buddhism with Joleen Vries on “Guarding the Mind” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JUNE 18 

“Mystery in the Big City” A summer reading game for adults runs June 18 to Aug 18 at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. For information call 526-3720 ext. 16.  

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

Drop in Knitting Class at the Albany Library Work on your own project or make pet blankets and children’s hats to be donated to charity organizations. At 3:30 p.m. at 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 19 

Gay Day with entertainment by Gwen Avery, Happy Hyder, Land-a-Lakes and her Queens, and The Cheerleaders, food and door prizes from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

Information for Senior Homeowners, including loan document review at 10 a.m. at the West Oakland Multipurpose Senior Center, 1724 Adeline St. Sponsored by AARP and Acorn Housing. RSVP required. 271-8843. 

Berkeley Library Board of Trustees Information Night for prospective trustees at 6:30 p.m. at the West Branch, 1125 University Ave. For more information call 981-6195. 

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang Hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness, and fun are invited to join us on a series of monthly excursions exploring our Regional Parks. Meet at 10 a.m. at Point Pinole. For information and to register call 525-2233.  

“Low Carbon Diet” Ideas from the Green Team Project on how to live sustainably at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo Ave. 558-0821. susans@acterra.org 

“Religion and Environment” with Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr at 8 p.m. at 433 Madison St., Oakland. Sponsored by The Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California. Cost is $5-$10. iccnc.org. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Downtown Oakland Senior Center, 200 Grand Ave. 981-5332. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 6 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registraion required. 594-5165. 

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 1247 Marin Ave. 524-9122.  

Family Storytime for preschoolers and up 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. 

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

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 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. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20 

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

oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War” with investigative journalist Dian Rasor, at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. 559-9500. 

Reading in Common Berkeley Public Library’s community summer reading program will distribute copies of “The Kite Runner” at Senior Centers at 11:30 a.m. and at Library branches at 1 p.m. Related programs throughout the summer. 981-6257. 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Volunteer Orientation Night at 7 p.m. at 2530 San Pablo Ave., Suite G. 843-2222. 

“Ecological Design: Inventing the Future” A documentary on the emergence of ecological design, beginning with Buckminster Fuller, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Telegraph and Broadway, Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Ernesto Che Guevara, The Bolivian Diary” a documentary at 7 p.m. at the Gray Panther Office, 1403 Addison, in the parking lot behind the university Ave. Andronico’s. 548-9696. 

New to DVD Screening and Discussion at 7 p.m. at JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Discussion follows. 848-0237. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 9 a.m. to noon at Healthy Oakland, 2580 San Pablo Ave. 981-5332. 

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

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 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, JUNE 21 

“The Art of Sierra Biodiversity” with author and illustrator Jack Miur Laws at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of Califonia, 1000 Oak St. and 10th, Oakland. 238-2200.  

“Ripe for Change” A documentary film by Emiko Omori and Jed Riffe on the intersection of food and politics in California over the past 30 years at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar at Arch. Filmmakers will be present for discussion. Cost is $5. 843-8724. 

LeConte Neighborhood Association meets at 7:30 p.m. in the LeConte School cafeteria, entrance on Russell St. karlreeh@aol.com 

Urban Luau for Entrepreneurs at 6 p.m. at Everett and Jones, 126 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $35, $60 for a couple. 655-1304. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. namaste@ 

avatar.freetoasthost.info

TUESDAY, JUNE 12 

CHILDREN 

“The Adventures of Spider and Fly” a puppet show by P & T Puppet Theater for ages 3 and up at 6:30 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. Free. 524-3043. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Rising Sun: A Bridge to Japan” American art influenced and inspired by Japan and its arts at Alta Bates Medical Center Gallery, 2450 Ashby Ave., through Aug. 23. 204-4444. 

“Poetics of Space” Intaglio prints by Seiko Tachibana opens at the Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 1809-D Fourth St. and runs through July 1. 549-1018. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Shannon Hale reads from “Austenland” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Gator Beat at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Singers’ Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $6. 841-JAZZ.  

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

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

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

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tony Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet, reads from “Unlikely Destinations” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

Nomadic Rambles, storytelling at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

BandWorks Concert at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Flux at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

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

THURSDAY, JUNE 14 

THEATER 

“Colorstruck” Donald Lacey’s one-man show Thurs. and Fri. at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$20. 663-5683.  

“Pagbabalik” (Return) A multidisciplinary theater production by Aimee Suzara at 7:30 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 849-2568, ext. 20. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Residency Projects, Part I” Kala Fellowship Artists Talk with Freddy Chandra and Su-Chen Hung at 7 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibition runs to June 30. 549-2977.  

“Painting to Live: Art from Okinawa’s Nishimui Artist Society: 1948-1950” Opening reception at 4 p.m. at the IEAS Conference Room, 6th flr, 2223 Fulton St. 642-2809. 

“A Buddhist Pilgrimage to China” Photographs by Zohra Kalinkowitz. Conversation with the artist at 7 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St., Studio 38. 843-2787. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Ondaatje reads from “Divasadero” in a benefit for Poetry Flash at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. donation $10. 559-9500. 

Clifford Chase reads from “Winkie” at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. 

Heidi Swanson describes “Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways to Incorporate Whole & Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

The Very Hot Club at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $9. 841-JAZZ.  

Misner and Smith at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Kally Price Combo, Myles Boisen’s Past-Present-Future, Kim Vermillion at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

Terence Blanchard at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Unholy, Apiary, Year of Desolation, heavy metal at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is 10-$12. 451-8100.  

Selector: Karmacoda at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 15 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Bosoms and Neglect” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., SUn. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through July 22. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “Oliver Twist” at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. through June 24. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Rep “Great Men of Genius” with Mike Daisey in four different monologues at 2025 Addison St. through June 30. Tickets are $30-$75. 647-2949.  

California Shakespeare Theater “Richard III” at the Bruns Ampitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, through June 24. Tickets are $15-$60. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

“Colorstruck” Donald Lacey’s one-man show at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$20. 663-5683. www.colorstruck.net 

Impact Theatre “Impact Briefs 8: Sinfully Delicious” Thurs.-Sat. through July 21 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “Ring Round the Moon” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through July 14. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

“Pagbabalik” (Return) A multidisciplinary theater production by Aimee Suzara Sat. and Sun. at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 849-2568, ext. 20. 

Shotgun Players “The Cryptogram” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through June 17. Tickets are $17-$25. For reservations call 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

TheatreFirst “365 Days/365 Plays” at 8 p.m. at Temescal Arts, 48th and Telegraph. Free, reservations requested. 436-5085. www.theatrefirst.com 

Virago Theatre Comapny “The Death of Ayn Rand” and “A Bed of My Own” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave., Alameda to July 7. Tickets are $10-$17. 865-6237. www.ViragoTheatre.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Andrew Keen discusses “The Cult of the Amateur: How the Democratization of the Digital World is Assaulting Our Ecnomy, Our Culture, and Our Values” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. 559-9500. 

Roger Rapoport reads from “Citizen Moore: The Life and Times of an American Iconoclast” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

”Great Moments in American History” Oakland Opera and Oakland East Bay Symphony at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $24. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

“The Original Family Stone” at 8 p.m. at Historic Sweet’s Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $25-$35. 925-952-4585 www.ambassadorsofamericanculture.com 

Lisa Mezzacappa at Free-Jazz Fridays at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th Street Performance Space, 1510 8th St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$15. 

Vidya “Redefining Jazz through Raga and Rhythm” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373.  

Trio Paradiso at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ.  

Razorblade and Sister I-Live, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

Dani Torres and Omar Makhtari Latin/flamenco at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Freight 39th Anniversary Revue with Phil Marsh and Hank Bradley at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50-$16.50. 548-1761.  

Jared Karol and Eliza Manoff at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

The Porch Flies, Glenn Earl Brown, Crooked Roads at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

Aggression, Shattered Faith, Soul Control at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $8. 525-9926. 

The Ghost, CD release party, at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

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

The Girlfriend Experience, The Catholic Comb, The Hundred Days at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $6. 451-8100.  

Terence Blanchard at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JUNE 16 

CHILDREN  

Celebrate African & African American Heritage with Diane Ferlatte at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, at 699 Bellvue Ave., Oakland. 452-2259. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“A Question of Belief” A group show of paintings, photography and sculpture featuring, Cherie Raciti, Nina Glaser and Marianne Hale. Artist reception at 6 p.m. at Float Gallery, 1091 Calcot Place, Unit # 116 , located in a store front loft of the historic cotton mill studios, Oakland. www.thefloatcenter.com 

“hitmewithaflower” Works by Walter Logue. Opening reception at 7 p.m. at The Gallery Of Urban Art, 1746 13th St. at Wood, Oakland. 910-1833. 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “A Dream Play” Sat. and Sun. at 3 p.m. on the lawn in front of Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Wlnut St. at Berryman, through July 1. 841-5580.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bloomsday at Moe’s Books A day-long reading from 10 a.m. at 2476 Telegraph Ave. If you would like to read call 849-2087. 

Carol Pogash describes “Seduced by Madness: The True Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Celebrate Bloomsday with Thomas Lynch reading from Joyce’s “Ulysses” at 11 a.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Mary Ann Mason describes “Mothers on the Fast Track:” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Company C Contemporary Ballet at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. www.companycballet.org 

Cecelia and The Hats, a capella, at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

Ed Reed with Peck Allmond Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Crooked Roads Band and Pushtunwali at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

FiddleKids Faculty FiddleFest at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Kellye Gray Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Nicole McRory at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Mario Desio & Dave Gans at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Wire Graffiti, Charm School Dropouts, Vincent’s Ear at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Joshi Marshall Project at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Chris Murray, Soul Captives, Golfcart Rebillion at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

DJ Heartbeat Night at 8 p.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. Tickets are $10 at the door. 496-6047. 

Terence Blanchard at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$22. 238-9200.  

SUNDAY, JUNE 17 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Women of Lockerbie” by Deborah Brevort, a staged reading at 7 p.m. at 469 9th St. Oakland. www.theatrefirst.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

”Great Moments in American History” Oakland Opera and Oakland East Bay Symphony at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $24. 763-1146.  

Hal Stein Quartet at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Cost is $10. 228-3218. 

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

Pappa Gianni and the North Beach Band at 2 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Jamie Fox Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Americana Unplugged: The Saddlecats at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 

Dick Conte Quartet at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373.  

Markus James and Wassonrai, African, at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. Cost is $5. 525-5054. 

Jacques Ibula at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Soulbop Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$24. 238-9200.  

MONDAY, JUNE 18 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Stephen Ratcliff reads at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Julia Serano reads from “Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

“The Clearing” by Helen Edmundson, a staged reading at 7:30 p.m. at 469 9th St. Oakland. www.theatrefirst.com 

Poetry Express with Jesse Beagle at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Hot Frittatas at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100.  

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

Blue Monday Jam at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

West Coast Songwriter’s Showcase at 7 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $5. 548-1761.  

Will Bernard at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$12. 238-9200. 

TheatreFIRST, Oakland’s only resident theater company—and now bereft of their latest home in Old Oakland, will perform Week 31 of Suzan-Lori Parks’ year-long, nationwide 365 Days/Plays project 8 p.m. this Friday night, June 15, at the Temescal Arts Center at 48th and Telegraph in Oakland. 

This will be followed by two staged readings for plays under consideration for full staging, The Women of Lockerbie by Deborah Brevoort, concerning the response of the town beneath the infamous Pan Am flight disaster, 7 p.m. Sunday, June 17, and The Clearing by Helen Edmundson, about Oliver Cromwell’s harsh rule in Ireland, 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 18—both at 469 Ninth St. (between Broadway and Washington), Oakland. 

“We’re out but not down!” is how artistic director Clive Chafer refers to the status of the game little group after commercial pressures in the neighborhood found them moving out on June 1 from their former home of the Oakland Metro on Ninth Street. 

Chafer, who meets later this week with City of Oakland representatives, is “looking hopefully in all the right places” to house the 13-year-old company in a permanent residence and announce its next annual program from a location “that works for the kind of theater we do, and which theatergoers can identify with us.” 

Their version of the seven 365 Days/Plays from Parks’ project of writing a play a day for a year will be staged “in response to Parks’ challenge of herself, and in like manner,” by having the actors, “mostly Equity actors, most familiar to theatergoers” come in cold at 6 p.m. to rehearse plays they’ve never seen that will go up at 8 p.m. and then invite the audience to suggest new combinations of actors and new ways of doing the plays just seen. 

“We have 65 seats,” said Chafer. “We’ll have up to 65 directors in that second round.” 

Ideas will be elicited from audience members, and the company will quickly rebound them, bringing a different dimension of spontaneity to the short plays which Parks “wrote in response to impulses every day, not to a sequential sense of meaning,” according to Chafer, who went on to say, “I think this gave her the opportunity to write less political plays than those she’s known for [Parks is a recipient of both the Pulitzer Prize and the MacArthur “Genius” Award]. They’re whimsical, slightly skewed, surrealistic visions of the world. Maybe one of our seven is naturalistic. In order to reflect her own consistent yet eclectic vision, we let our production be as scattershot as her approach was—and not just as much as we, TheatreFIRST, can make them, but in as many different ways as possible.” 

365 DAYS / 365 PLAYS 

All performances are free, with donations requested. Info at: 436-5085 or theatrefirst.com.

Composer-pianist William Bolcom and mezzo-soprano Joan Morris will make a rare Bay Area appearance 8 p.m. this Thursday (June 14) to present a “Red, White and Blue” Flag Day celebratory version of their popular recitals of American song of the past two centuries, at Piedmont Piano’s San Francisco store at 660 Third St. For information and reservations: (415) 543-9988 or www.piedmontpiano.com. 

Bolcom, who won the Pulitzer Prize and has set William Blake’s and Garcia Lorca’s poems to music, is also known for his operas, as Morris is famed as (per the title of her forthcoming memoir) “An Actress Who Sings.” But the two are probably best known for the decades of extensive research and performances of the results of their quest to discover how American popular songs have actually been sung—and what the tradition is, and chances are, for a distinctively American art song and cabaret. 

Along the way, in the course of meeting those elder statesmen of the music and theater who introduced new material, or gave old tunes their definitive form, Bolcom and Morris have also participated in new creations, and made interventions, including an involvement in the return of Ragtime composer Eubie Blake, who lived to 100, to the concert stage, where he held forth on a whole century of formative experience in “syncopated musics.” 

Last here in the winter and spring of 2005, in residence at UC Berkeley for their extraordinary recital presentations of the Ernest Bloch Lectures in Music series, Bolcom then recounted for The Planet the philosophy behind their search for “how American songs should be sung with authenticity, not as an example of Italian opera technique.” 

“At the foundation of every culture,” Bolcom inveighed, “is how words and music marry. It’s our patrimony. It’s ours—it’s what makes us.” And about their lifelong search: “I couldn’t talk to a troubadour, but I could talk to Irving Berlin ... about what’s not on the page.” 

Bolcom, who originally hails from Seattle, studied at Mills College with Darius Milhaud and won the Pulitzer in 1988 for his “12 Etudes for Piano.” Morris is originally from Portland, Oregon, and is known for her spirited versions of songs from the whole fabric of American musical theater and cabaret, to obscure historical numbers, as well as Bolcom’s tongue-in-cheek ode to ‘The Women Who Lunch,’ “Lime Jell-o Marshmellow Cottage Cheese Surprise,” best performed in ultra-Easter bonnet headgear.The couple now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  

It may be a drab little brown bird, but the song sparrow has attracted a lot of scholarly attention. The song sparrows of San Francisco Bay alone support a kind of cottage industry. We have four distinct subspecies here, three confined to tidal marshes, the fourth to neighboring uplands. The marsh sparrows, generally smaller and grayer than the upland birds, have adapted to their environment by evolving a higher tolerance for salt water (although their insect prey appears to meet most of their water needs). 

The foundational song sparrow studies were done by Margaret Morse Nice. After her academic career was derailed by marriage and motherhood, she spent most of the Great Depression tracking the lives and fortunes of a song sparrow population along the Olentangy River in Columbus, Ohio. She also found time to collaborate with Konrad Lorenz. According to another pioneering behaviorist, Niko Tinbergen, this “American housewife was the greatest scholar of them all.” 

Along with every other aspect of sparrow behavior, Nice paid close attention to their songs. It became clear that there was no such thing as a stereotyped song sparrow song. “The songs of each male are entirely distinct,” she wrote; “as a rule they sound pleasant and ‘cheerful’ to human ears, yet a few are disagreeable, while still others are of great beauty.” Each adult male, she found, had his own repertoire of six to nine song types. And song patterns changed as a bird matured, with a period of improvisation before the repertoire crystallized. 

She was curious as to whether songs were inherited or learned, or a mixture of both. After listening to several generations of sparrows, Nice concluded: “I found no case of a male having the song of his father or grandfather on either side.” On the other hand, she heard young territory-holding males imitating their neighbors and sometimes incorporating those songs into their budding repertoires.  

She also experimented with captive-reared birds, exposing them to recordings of species they would never have heard in the wild—nightingales, European song thrushes—and noting the odd-sounding songs they developed. 

So what was going on? As research expanded to other species, it became clear that many of the true songbirds—the oscine passerines, to be technical—learn most if not all of their vocal repertoire. That’s also true of a few other groups, notably hummingbirds (or the few hummingbirds that can be said to sing). 

The process seems to require exposure to a model or “tutor” at the right developmental phase. But were the tutors parents or neighbors? 

The evidence on that score is mixed. Male song sparrows reared by canaries copied their foster fathers in one study but not in another.  

Luis Baptista, the late curator of birds at the California Academy of Sciences, found a couple of song sparrows in the wild that had somehow acquired the songs of white-crowned sparrows. Juvenile males in Washington state appeared to have learned their songs from holders of neighboring territories. But in a sparsely populated British Columbia habitat, young males retained their fathers’ songs. 

Experimental research by John Burt and Adrian O’Loghlen at the University of Washington suggests young birds acquire their songs by eavesdropping on neighbors. From the age of 15 days, fledglings were housed with a rotation of singing adult males. That exposure ended after a month and a half. At eight months, each young bird was paired up with an adult tutor. The youngster was then moved to a separate chamber where he could hear a second tutor interacting with another young bird. 

The young males’ songs were analyzed when they were about a year old. Fifty-one percent of their repertoires came from the tutor next door they had overheard. Another 19 percent came from tutors with which they had shared a cage, and the remaining 30 percent from the adult birds they had heard as infants. 

Getting your songs right is crucial to attracting a mate. One study showed a female preference for the local song dialect. Repertoire size may also influence mate choice, according to a lab study, although field work did not confirm this. (In any case, song sparrows are pikers compared with western marsh wrens, which may have up to 210 distinct song types.) 

As far as I know, no one has studied song acquisition among the Bay’s salt-marsh song sparrows, which occupy small territories year-round in tightly packed habitats. The lucky yearlings that could shoehorn themselves in would be surrounded by potential song models. A likely project for some contemporary Margaret Nice. Bring your waders.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan. A song sparrow at home in the marshes of San Pablo Bay.

TUESDAY, JUNE 12 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit Tilden’s Inspiration Point. Call for meeting place. 525-2233. 

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. 

New to DVD Screening and Discussion at 7 p.m. at JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Discussion follows. 848-0237. 

“The Basics of Buying Your First Home” A free workshop with Jonathan Cole, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Consultant at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. 848-1704.  

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 1247 Marin Ave.. 524-9122.  

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. Monthly field trips. 548-3991.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13 

Monitor Native Oysters in the Bay Help monitor oyster populations and set up equipment for our Native Oyster Monitoring Study at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley Marina, 201 University Ave. 452-9261, ext. 119. www.savesfbay.org/oysters  

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

“The Next Industrial Revolution” a documentary about the transformation to an environmentally sustainable society at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Telegraph and Broadway, Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Underground” A documentary about the Weather Underground at 8 p.m. at Long Haul Infoship, 3124 Shattuck Ave. www.thelonghaul.org 

“Braving Borders, Building Bridges: A Journey for Human Rights” An African American Tour of the U.S.-Mexico Border A forum and report back at 6 p.m. at Laney College Forum, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. 849-9940. 

“Human Factors for Technical Communicators” Monthly meeting of the Berkeley Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication at 7:30 p.m., dinner at 6:30 p.m. at Highlands Country Club, 110 Hiller Dr., Oakland. Cost is $15-$24. for reservations see www.stc-berkeley.org  

Berkeley East Bay Track Club for ages 4-16 starts at 5:30 p.m. at Rosa Parks Elementary School, Ninth St. and Allston Way. Free. 512-9475. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Latina Center, 3919 Roosevelt Ave., Richmond. 981-5332. 

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

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. at the downtown berkeley BART www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, JUNE 14 

AC Transit Public Hearing on the Bus Rapid Transit Environmental Impact Study/Report at 5:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 

“Rehab it Right!” with Jane Powell, restoration consultant at 7:30 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. E-mail a few photos of an interior and/or kitchen project to nj2oakland@yahoo.com for expert tips. Cost is $8-$10. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Quit Smoking Class from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., with optional accupuncture at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 981-5330. 

East Bay Macintosh Users Group will discuss Apple TV at 6 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound St., Emeryville. http://ebmug.org 

FRIDAY, JUNE 15 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Robert Birgeneau on “Green Energy at UC Berkeley” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

Conscientious Projector Film Series “An Inconvenient Truth” at 7 p.m., followed by discussion, at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar St. 841-4824. 

“An Inconvenient Truth” will be screened at 2 p.m. at the YWCA Berkeley. 2600 Bancroft Way. Free. 848-6370. 

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at West Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, Bancroft and Telegraph. to schedule an appointment see http://www.beadonor.com Code: UCB. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253.  

SATURDAY, JUNE 16 

“Downtown: Progress and Options” A public workshop sponsored by the Downtown Area Plan Committee from 10 a.m. to noon at Berkeley High School Library, Allston and Milvia. For more information call 981-7487. www.cityofberkeley.info/dap 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (BANA) meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Sproul Room, 2727 College Ave. All welcome.  

“No Child Left Behind? What is the Consevative, Corporate Agenda for Destroying Our Public Schools?” at 7 p.m. at 1300 Grand St., Alameda. Sponsored by the Alameda Public Affairs Forum. www.alamedaforum.org 

“Summer Time at the Little Farm” A puppet show about life on the farm and the mishaps of a farmer, at 10:45 and 11:30 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Basic Organic Vegetable Gardening Learn to start growing foods and culinary herbs for your kitchen. We will cover the basics of starting a garden, including selecting and starting your seeds, building good soil, watering plants, and managing bugs and blights. Class is sponsored by the Alameda County Cleanwater Program. Cost is $10-$15. Preregistration required. Call for details and location. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Vegeterian Cooking Class: Mexican and Southwestern Cuisine from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $45, plus $5 materials fee. To register call 531-2665.  

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

Natural History Field Sketching with Tara Reinertson at 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

ADD & Autism: Drug- free Treatment Options for your Child with Thauna Abrin, Naturopathic Doctor at 10 a.m. at Pharmaca, 1744 Solano Ave. at Ensenada. 

“Leaning into the Great Mystery” A workshop on Christian-Buddhist meditation from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Cuthbert’s Episcopal Church, 7900 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $30, includes lunch. To register call 635-4949.  

Produce Stand at Spiral Gardens Food Security Project from 1 to 6 p.m. at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon St. 

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

Hopalong Animal Rescue Come meet your furry new best cat friend from noon to 3 p.m. at 2940 College Ave. 267-1915, ext. 500.  

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

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 17 

Working with Wool Watch how the spinning wheel turns wool into yarn, try a drop spindle or a felting project. from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby and Stuart. Wheelchair accessible. 526-7377. 

Fathers’ Day Pancake Breakfast from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. aboard the Red Oak Victory Ship moored in Richmond Harbor at 1337 Canal Blvd. Take Hwy 580 and exit at Canal Blvd. Cost is $6. 327-2933. 

Father’s Day Campfire Bring hot dogs, buns, marshmallows and long sticks to the campfire at 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Accomodation for visitors with disabilities upon advanced request. 525-2233. 

“Climate Change: Nuclear Power in Today’s World” with Karen Street at 1 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Meeting, 2151 Vine. 653-2803. 

Bike Tour of Alameda Explore Alameda on a leisurely 5-mile ride. Meet at 10 a.m. at the 10th St. entrance to the Oakland Museum of California. Reservations required. 238-3514. www.museumca.org 

Free Sailboat Rides from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club, Berkeley Marina. Wear warm, waterproof clothing and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. www.cal-sailing.org 

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at First Covenant Church, Recreation Rm., 3883 Aliso Ave., Oakland. Call to schedule an appointment. 531-5244. 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to repair flats, from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Social Action Forum with a program on Delancy Street at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Univresalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

Berkeley East Bay Atheists with a multi-media presentation on Carl Sagan by Marc Levenson at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Comunity Meeting Room, 2090 Kitttredge St. 222-7580. eastbayatheists.org  

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

Tibetan Buddhism with Joleen Vries on “Guarding the Mind” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JUNE 18 

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

Drop in Knitting Class at the Albany Library Work on your own project or make pet blankets and children’s hats to be donated to charity organizations. At 3:30 p.m. at 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., June 12, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Homeless Commission meets Wed., June 13, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5426.  

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed., June 13, at 7 p.m. at the South Branch Library. 981-6195.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., June 13, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484.  

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., June 13, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. 981-6740.  

Community Health Commission meets Thurs., June 14, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5356.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., June 14, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410.

Healthy Living 

As part of an ongoing effort to print stories by East Bay residents, The Daily Planet invites readers to write about their experiences and perspectives on living healthy. Please email your essays, no more than 800 words, to firstperson@berkeleydailyplanet.com. We will publish the best essays in upcoming issues. 

East Bay Guide 

The Daily Planet invites readers to contribute to a guide for newcomers to the area. Please email your essays, no more than 800 words, describing a favorite or little known aspect of East Bay life, to firstperson@berkeleydailyplanet.com. We will publish the best essays in upcoming issues.